djkoolherc@usa.net 

Scott Neufville on Kool Herc

         
Forgotten and Remembered
Kool Herc by Scott Neufville

     As far back as I can remember, my brother would not allow me to forget who the sole creator of Hip-Hop was, "a black kid from the Bronx!"

     This fact made my brother and I proud, being Bronx-natives ourselves, but my older sibling could have struck closer home with an even harder fact.

     Rivalling the primarily African-American music form 'Hip-Hop' worldwide is Jamaican 'dancehall' and 'reggae,' so wouldn’t it be remarkable if the creator of Hip-Hop was himself an African-Jamaican?  I’ve heard rumors.

     "Did you know, is' a Jamaican who create Hip Hop?" Asked my uncle Al, a Portland, Jamaican native.

     I already knew a DJ Kool Herc was the undisputed godfather of Hip-Hop.  But could the legendary Herc have been this reputed latest of Jamaican pioneers?

     Since the 1960s, it was uniquely 'Jamaican' to hold out-door block parties hosted by egotistical DJs who ranted over reggae and calypso beats blaring out of large, often, portable speakers.  Such a practice did not emerge out of the United States until the mid 1970s when the first rap artist, 'Coke La Rock,' coined the phrase, “Ya rock and ya don’t stop.”

     Since Coke La Rock is not a Jamaican, it is only fair to still wonder what exactly on earth that little island had to do with this.  In other words, where is the exact connection between Jamaica and Hip Hop?  And who is Kool Herc?   

     Here is the missing link, where Jamaica and this legendary DJ Kool Herc comes in.

     In 1967, a twelve-year old named Clive Campbell migrated with his family from Kingston, Jamaica and settled into a housing project in the Bronx, NY.  While in Alfred E. Smith High School, the young Campbell managed to earn the nickname “Hercules,” compliments of his athleticism, height, and rigorous exploits in the School’s weight room.

      One day, when a DJ scheduled to perform at Clive’s sister’s birthday party failed to appear, they let “Hercules” take his place.  The inexperienced Campbell improvised. 

     With two record players and two identical records, Campbell decided (by momentarily reversing the spin on each record) to extend the portion of a disco or soul song where the singing stopped and the melodious beat continued, the break section or 'break beat' of the song. 

     Party goers suddenly went crazy.

     All that Campbell had had was his memory of DJ culture back in Jamaica, yet at that moment in 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, he made Hip Hop history... by creating it.  Clive's nickname, "Hercules" was shortened to "Herc."  He soon became known on the streets of the Bronx as DJ Kool Herc.   

     The next thing you knew, Herc (Campbell) was DJing at block parties all over the Bronx... Remembering the DJs back in Jamaica, he realized he needed an MC.  Herc signed on an MC nicknamed 'Coke La Rock' who would impress Kool Herc with catchy phrases like, "To the beat y'all." 

     Now Herc and Rock were blasting their own portable speakers while touring all over New York City's neigborhoods, housing projects, and other locations like the Twilight Zone, the Tunnel, and Executive Playhouse.  Herc's crew soon expanded with Pebelee-Poo, Sweet N' Sour, Timmy Tim, Tony D, Imperial Jay Cee, the original Clark Kent, and Smiley, the first lady MC ever. 

     Herc was the major figure in Hip Hop during the mid 1970s and his possee (the Herculoids) would even perform in my old neigborhood in the Valley section of the Bronx which even my brother recalls but unfortunetly, I was too young to remember.

     "Brothas from all over Brooklyn, Queens, and Mount Vernon would go to the Bronx to see Herc back in the 70s."  Said Al Taylor, former member of the rap group, 'Many Phases.' 

     "But not everybody was a B boy back then, now everybody's into Hip Hop."

     Growing competition from the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and  'Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five' contributed Herc's fade away during the mid 1980s, around the time he made a brief appearance in the early Hip Hop film, 'Beat Street.'   Like the 'Herculoids,' Herc's other creation flourished and spread, but this time without him.  Some 'Hip Hoppers' don't even remember the name "DJ Kool Herc." 

     Hip Hop culture has become a phenomenon that is now global, but it's humble beginings in the 'Boogie Down' Bronx will always hit close to home for natives of the infamous borough.  But it's sole creation at the hands of a Jamaican is a hard fact that Jamaican's with pride should never allow their brethren like my uncle Al and I to forget, the way so many so-called fans of Hip Hop have forgotten the Kingston, Jamaican native Clive Campbell, a.k.a DJ Kool Herc.