August

Happy Birthday Hip Hop   August 11th, 2009

It was 36 years ago to this very day that a young Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc and a handful of kids in a small, sweltering rec room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on August 11, 1973 started a music and cultural revolution that changed the world forever!

It began from humble beginnings in The Bronx. Cindy Campbell (Herc’s kid sister) decided to throw an end of summer, back to school party. Her big brother, DJ Kool Herc, extended the break beats and mesmerized the jam packed crowd. DJ Kool Herc performed the ground breaking art form of the Merry-Go-Round, playing the same 2 records, isolating the funkiest percussion sections, extending those 5 second break beats into 5 minutes of dance fury. He tapped his Jamaican roots where Island DJ’s at yard party’s would toast individuals…Herc used the Mic to move the original Bronx house party crowd with shout-outs over the records, which began the element of Emceeing. 

Herc’s parties featured a new style of dance where people would up-rock or hit the ground to go off, he named these dancers “b-boys”. Soon DJ Kool Herc had to move the party outside from 1520 Sedgwick Avenue to Cedar Park. He hot wired the base of a street lamp to juice up his Herculord speakers. Three thousand people showed up in complete darkness that summer night. Hip Hop would never be contained in-side again.

Happy Birthday Hip Hop and God bless DJ Kool Herc and his young sister Cindy who started it all that hot summer’s night. To learn more about August 11, 1973 visit Sedgwick & Cedar click here.