Kool DJ Herc
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Kool Herc<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3"> </td></tr> | ||
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| Background information <tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Clive Campbell</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">April 16, 1955</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Kingston, Jamaica, The Bronx, New York City, New York</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Hip hop</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1969–present</td></tr> |
DJ Kool Herc (born Clive Campbell on April 16, 1955) in Kingston Jamaica. While growing up in Kingston he saw and heard the sound systems firsthand at neighborhood parties called dancehalls (Chang 2005). He moved to the Bronx, New York at the age of 12 and began to throw free neighborhood parties.
Herc is now known as a musician, producer, and is generally credited as a pioneer of hip hop during the 1970s. In an 1989 interview with Davey D, Herc said, "Hip Hop, the whole chemistry of that came from Nigeria, Africa".
He was the originator of break-beat deejaying, where the breaks of funk songs—being the most danceable part, often featuring percussion—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties (AMG). Later DJs such as Grandmaster Flash refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting.
He is also well known for his massive, high-quality, high-volume sound system, against which even superior DJs could not compete (Toop, 1991). Herc first used reggae records and was toasting to the music like Jamaican artists U-Roy and I-Roy. But he started using funk records due to popular demand.
Kool Herc and his MC crew The Herculords "started a movement which recycled the creativity of black American jive jocks back into the USA" (Toop 39). The relationship between hip hop and reggae became more important again with reggae artists and rappers collaborating with each other, from Yellowman and Afrika Bambaataa to KRS-One and Shabba Ranks. Hip hop and reggae still influence each other in both directions.
During the later part of the decade, Herc was stabbed at one of his own parties, sidelining him during most of the 1980s as hip hop spread throughout the country. During the 1990s, he made several appearances, gave interviews, and appeared on The Godfathers of Threat by Terminator X (a DJ with Public Enemy). He still DJs around the world.
Herc is featured in Jin's music video, Top 5 (Dead or Alive)
Herc was not known for production, but as the man who INVENTED the hip hop culture in general.
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Further reading
- Toop, David (1991). Rap Attack 2: African Rap To Global Hip Hop. New York. New York: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1-85242-243-2.
- Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-30143-X.
- Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton (2000). Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3688-5.
See also
External links
- A brief biography of Kool DJ Herc at AllMusic.com
- A biography of Kool DJ Herc at OldSchoolHipHop.com
- An interview with DJ Kool Herc from NPR
- Interview with DJ Kool Herc from Davey D
Categories
Cleanup from November 2006 | 1955 births | Hip hop DJs | Living people | Jamaican Americans