The Birth of Hip Hop
1973.
Admission for the Back to School Jam was 25 cents for ladies, 50 cents for fellas. It was August 11th, and still a sticky 80 degrees fahrenheit at 9:00 PM in the Bronx, but that didn’t stop people from filling up the Rec Room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, because, like the flyer said in 3-D bubbly block lettering across the top:
This was A DJ Kool Herc Party.
Clive Campbell was a Jamaican-American DJ who thought he was just spinning records at a party for his sister Cindy, who was trying to earn some cash for back to school clothes. But by 4:00 AM, when the last kids would leave the dance floor, their sweaty clothes clinging to their energized bodies, a cultural shift would take place that would not only change the life of Kool Herc, but would alter forever the course of history in New York, across the country, and the entire world.
It would raise children, birth billion dollar businesses, win Pulitzer prizes, and go on to seep into the lives of nearly every person on the planet.
I’m Devin Dabney.
I’m Kris Hampton.
And this is How Hip Hop Taught Me Everything.
One song at a time.
Coming soon.
