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4. lUlalring a Name How DJ Kool Herc lost His Accenl and Slarted Hip-Hop... the logic is on exlension...

4. lUlalring a Name How DJ Kool Herc lost His Accenl and Slarted Hip-Hop... the logic is on exlension rqlher lhon o negotion. Alios, o.k.o; lhe nomes describe o process of /oops. From A to B ond bock ogoin. Poul D. Miller It hos become mylh, o creotion myth, this Wesl Bronx porty ot the end of the summer in 1973. Not for its guests-o hundred kids ond kin from qround the woy, nor for the seiting-o modest recreolion room in o new oportmenl complex; not even for ils locolion-lwo miles norih o[ Yonkee Stodium, neor where the Cross.Bronx Expresswoy spills into Monhollon. Time remembers it lor the night DJ Kool Herc mode his nome. The plon wos simple enough, occording to the porty's hosl, Cindy Compbell "l wos soving my money, becouse whot you wont to do for bock to school is go down to Deloncey Skeet insteod of going to Fordhom Rood. becouse you con get the newest things lhoi o lot o[ people don't hove. And when you go bock to school, you wont to go with things thot nobody hos so you could look nice ond fresh," she soys. "At the time my Neighborhood Youth Corps poycheck wos like fortyJive dollors o week-ho!--ond they would poy you every fwo weeks. So how om I gonno turn over my money? I meon, ihis is not enough moneyl" Cindy colculoted it would cosl o little more thon holI her poycheck to rent the rei room in their oportmenl br.rilding ot 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Her broiher, whom she knew os Clive but everyone else knew os Kool Herc, wos on ospir- ing DJ with occess to o powerful sound system. All she hod to do wos bulk-buy some Olde English 800 molt liquor, Colt 45 beer, ond sodo, ond odvertise the The Fothet, porty. Photo O Morlon Aiomu Myrlr She, Clive ond her friends hond-wrote the onnouncemenls on index cords, 67 Gan't Slop Won't Stop Making a l[amE ploy scribbling the info below o song title like "Get on ihe Good Foot" or "Fence- Clive's folher wos now their soundmon, ond the bond wonted somebody lo wolk." lf she filled the room, she could chorge o quorter for the girls, two {or the guys, ond moke bock ihe overheod on the room. And with the profit-presto, in- stont wqrdrobe Clive hod been DJing house porties for three yeors. Growing up in Kingston, Jomoico, he hod seen the sound syslems [irsthond. The locol sound wos colled Somerset Lone, ond the selector's nome wos King George. Clive soys, "l wos tooyoungtogoin All we could do is sneok oui o nd see the preporotion of the donce throughout the doy The guys would come with o big old hondcort with the boxes in it. And ihen in the night time, l'm o little itchy heoded, loving the vi- powerful, but no one could seem ily in the some brotions on the zinc top'couse them sound systems ore powerful. tuilding hod the some system ond ce out o[ it' but "We just stoy outside like everybody else, you know, pointing ot the gong- they wouldn't let Keilh or Clive se lo put o lot of slers os they come up, oll the fomous people. And ot the time they hod the little wires to distroct me from chosing the wires," he soys molorcycles, Triumphs ond Hondos. Rudeboys used to hove those souped up. One ofternoon, fiddling oround on the system behind his lother's bock, Clive ond They used to come up four ond five six deep, with them irkk/e rotchet knife," figured it o'Jt. "Whot I did wos I took ihe speoker wire, pr-rt o iock onto it Clive soys He still remembers the crowd's buzz when Cloudie Mossop orrived iocked il into one o[ the chonnels, ond I hod exko power ond reserve power' ol o locol donce one night. He wonled to be ot the center of thot kind of excite- Now I could conkol it from the preomp. I got two Bogort omps, lwo Girord turnrobles, ond then I iust used the chonnel knobs os my mixer' No heodphones ment, to be o King George The system could loke eight mics l hod on echo chomber in one, ond o regulor Cindy ond Clive's fother, Keifh Compbell, wos o devoted record collector, mic lo onother. So lcould tolk ploin ond, ot the some time, lcould woit holfwoy buying not only reggoe, but Americon jozz, gospel, ond counfry. They heord Nino Simone ond Louis Armstrong ond Not King Cole, even Noshville country lor the echo lo come out. croonerlim Reeves "l remember listen;ng to Jim Reeves oll the time," Clive soys. "My fother come home ond ii wos so loud he snuck up behind me"' he re he' "l wos singing these songs ond emuloting them to the fullest. Thot reolly helped members. Clive's guilt wos written oll over his foce But his fother cor-rldn't me out, chonging my occenl, is singing to the records " lieve it. ln the Bronx, hls mother, Netlie, would ,oke him to house porties, which hod Keith yelled, "Where the noise come lrom?" the some ombrosiol eflect on hlm thot the sound systems hod. "l see the different "This is the sYsteml" guys doncing, guys ropping to girls, l'm wondering whol the guy is whisperin' in Keith soid, "Whotl Weh Yor-' did?" the girl's eors oboul. l'm green, but l'm checking out lhe scene," he recolls. "And "This is whot ldid,"'Clive recolls ielling his fother, reveoling the hookup' I noticed o lot oI the girls wos comploining, 'Why they not ploying thot record?' "And he soid, 'Roos ciool mon! We'ove soundlll 'How come they don'i hove thot record?' 'Why did they toke it off right there?'" "So now the tobles turned Now these other guys wos kying to copy whot I He begon buying his own 45s, woiting for the doy he could hove his own sound syslem As luck would hove it, Keith Compbell become o sponsor for o locol rhythm ond blues bond, investing in o brond new Shure P.A. system for ihe group. ES 6A Ean'l Slop l,llon'l Slop Making a IllamE cords soying 'Fother ond Son' And thot's how it storted, monl Thot's when O-Woll. Clive soys, "l remember police riding oround in big old kr-,cks, tonks. Cindy osked me to do o bock+o-school porty. Now people would come to this And some people who were brothers or friends would turn on eoch olher. lt wos porty ond see these big oss boxes they never seen before " like q civil wor." It wos the lost week in August of 1973. CJive ond his friends brought the By then, the Compbells no longer lived in Trenchiown neor the frontlines. equipment down from their second floor oporlment ond set r-rp in the room odio- They hod moved eosl ocross the city to o house in Fronklyn Town, o quieter ur- cent to the rec room. "My system wos on the donce floor, ond I wos in o little bon neighborhood o[ strivers below Worieko Hill ond the upper-closs neighbor- room wotching, peeking out the door seeing how the porty wos going," he soys. hood colled Beverly Hills. lt wos o modest but lush property neor the fomor-rs It didn't stort so well. Clive ployed some donceholl tunes, ones guoronteed to Alpho Boys School. rock ony yord donce. Like ony proud Dl, he wonted lo stomp his personolity "We hod like seven different fruits growing in our yord. We hod different onto his ploylist. But this wos the Bronx. They wonted the breoks. So, like ony types o[ peppers, flowers, you know, it wos tightl" Clive recolls. "We wosn't loo good DJ, he gove ihe people whot they wonted, ond dropped some soul ond for owoy from the beoch So, os o moiter o[ [oct, it wos o iroditionol thing with funk bombs Now they were pocking the room. There wos o new energy. DJ us [or my folher ]o toke us to the beoch on Sundoy. Every Sundoy we'd look for- Kool Herc took the mic ond corried the crowd higher. word lo go or-rt to lhe beoch ofier church " "All people would heor is his voice coming out from the speokers," Cindy The Compbells were oble to offord o housekeeper. Their grondfother, ounts soys. "And we didn'l hove no money for o skobe light. So whot we hod wos this ond older cousins oll pitched in to roise the children, o foct thot would become guy nomed Mike. When Herc would soy,'Okoy, Mikel Mike with the lightsl', significont when Nettie decided to supplement the fomily income by working Mike flicked the light switch He got poid for thot." ond studying in the United Stotes. Mony other Jomoicqns were olreody leoving By this point in the night, they probobly didn't need the otmospherics The lor Miomi, london, Toronto ond New York City to escope ihe instobility ond porty people were moving to the shouts ofJomes Brown, turning the ploce into o seek their forlune. During the eorly I960s, Nettie hod deported for Monhotton sweotbox They we re bu sy sho king off history, hoving the best n ig ht o[ their gen- lo work os o dentol lechnicion ond io sludy for o nursing degree. She soved erotion's lives money to send home ond returned with o degree, convinced thot the United Loter, os Clive ond Cindy counted their money, they were giddy. This porhy Stotes offered o better future for the fomily. could be the siort of something big, they surmised. They just couldn't know how Cindy soys, "She sow the opporlunities. The public schools were free, be- big couse in lomoico we went to privote schools. So she told my lother thot when she finished with school thot whot she wonted wos for the fomily to live here. Sacrilices And he didn't wont to come." Clive Compbell wos born the first of six children to Keith ond Nettie Compbell Bui Keith could see Nettie's reosoning. Even his own friends ond relotives Nettie hod moved io the city from Port Morio on lhe northern coost. Keith, o city were leoving the counfry. Before Nettie relurned to New York City in 1966, notive, worked os the heod foremon ot the Kingston Whorf goroge, o working- they ogreed lo move to Americo. Clive would be the first to ioin her, then the rest closs job with stolus. of the fomily would follow. Cindy soys, "A lot o[ immigronts hove to do lhot. You Keith wos something o[ o community leoder, he held the kind of iob title ihot hove to moke socrifices. lt breoks up the lomily lor o smoll omount o[ time bul drew the oitention of politicions But he chose not to toke sides when the JLP ond eventuolly the fomily gets bock together." PNP begon their violent iockeying for position. The yeor before Clive le[t for the Clive ond Cindy ogree thot Keith remoined o Jomoicon ot heort. "He just United Stotes, Edword Seogo hod unleoshed the West Kingston Wor in Bock- soid, 'Americo wos o ploce for you to excel ond do better for yor-rr kids.' Br-rt o[- to n Can'l Slop Won't Slop lylaking a luame ter o while you go bock home, you go bock to your country. And he believed in ioined when he first moved to the Bronx o few yeors before. lt wosn,t much of on thot. He loved his country," Cindy soys. Yeors lobr, ofter roising his children experience. The Cofon Cois spenl one long oflernoon gefling chosed out oI tit, with Neltie in New York City ond becoming on Americon citizen, he relurned lo tle ltoly by the Golden Guineos. his beloved islond for o visit. While swimming in strong currenls off Bull Boy, he hod o heort oitock. The Compbells buried him in lomoico. Becomlng AmefiEan From Kingston to the Bronx. Stones thot ihe builders refused. Clive Compbell come to New York City on o cold November nighl in 1967. A fresh snowfoll loy on the ground, something the twelve-yeorold hod never seen before. He took o bus from Kennedy Airport inlo the groy, unwelcoming city This wosn't the Americo he hod seen on his neighbor's television, or imog- ined from his fother's records. He hod no ideo how to begin ogoin, he soys, "All I could do wos just look out the window." Clive tuned into rock ond sor-,| disc jockeys like Cousin Brucie ond Wolfmon H is molher's oportmenl wo s ot 6 I I Eo st I 78th Avenue, between the Bronx's Jock os il he hod cor-rght religion, listening to these smooth men rop heir silver Little ltoly ond Crotono Pork, in whot hod been lhe Cross-Bronx Expresswoy's tongued rop. He begon going to "First Fridoys,,youth donces ot o locol Cothohc mosl contested mile. "Now l'm living in o lenement building There's no yord. school ond ot Murphy Projects. His mother took him to house porties, where he oll boxed ond closed in," Clive recolls. His mother feored Clive would foll This is heord music he hod never heord on WBIS or WWRL. The Temptotions, Aretho prey to the heroin plogue. She told Clive, "Don't let onybody tell you they're Fronklin, Smokey Robinson, ond, most importont, Jomes Brown become his tu- gonno slick something in your orm. Don'l let them kick you by colling you tors; lhey were teoching Clive how to lose his occent chicken." "l wos more oround Americons. And I wos lired of heoring them soy ,Whot Clive looked ond spoke ond felt like o country boy. "Here I om oll hicked out, did you soy?' My occent reolly slorled to chonge,,, he recolls. By the fime Clive gol o corduroy cooi on, with the snow hot with the flipup-ond-comeoveFyour- begon ottending Alfred E. Smirh High School, some of his Jomoicon friends did- eors. I hod thot on with these cowboy boots," Herc recolls. "And this giri ot n'l even know he wos Jomoicon He wos in fhe process o[ reinventing himself, school storted teosing the hell out of me. She wos colling my shoes'rooch creoting o new idenlity. killers.'She hod the whole holl loughing,'Ah rooch killers, rooch killersl' "Af thot time, being Jomoicon wosn't foshionoble. Bob Morley didn't come through yet to moke it more foshionoble, fo even give o chonce for people lo lis" len lo our music," he soys. "l remember one lime o guy soid,'Clive, mon, don't wolk down thot woy couse they throwing Jomoicons in gorboge cons' The gongs wos throwing Jomoicons in gorboge consl" Herc wos leorning the woys o[ the Bronx. He found himself honging out with neighborhoods, hod to give them respect. Clive ond the post-gong youths were young Five Percenlers, obsorbing their slong ond science. For o time, he even o different breed, more interested in proiecting individuol flosh thon collective rolled with the Colon Cots, the some Tremonl gong thot Beniy Melendez hod brown, ond they would soon render lhe gongs obsolete. ,2 f3 Ean'l Slop won'l Slop Making a luame Groffiti expert Jock Siewort koces the emergence o[ the modern-doy move- ln the summer of 197O,IAKl 183,s togs seemed to explode ocross the ciiy. ment to Philodelphio's neighborhoods of color os eorly os 1965.r Aerosolist I Like thousonds of other kids, Clive, Jerome ond rheir friend Richord picked up ond ociivrst Steve "Espo" Powers soys thot the Block ieenoger, CORNBREAD, morkers ond sproycons. Rich become UNCTE RICH, Jerome become yOGl ond who is credited with populorizing the togging of lhe Philly subwoys, wos only Clive become CLYDE AS KOOt.l trying to ottroct the oftention of o beouly nomed Cynthio. By 1968, the move' "They couldn't recoll my nome Clive,,, he soys. ,,So the closest you could ment hod spreod to New York City CORNBREAD's prot6g6, TOP CAT, moved come wos Clyde, from the Knrcks bosketboll ployer. They,d be like, ,you meon to Horlem ond brought with him the "gongster" style of leilering. A Puerto Ricon like'Clyde' Frozier?' 'Yeoh. Clyde. tet,s leove ir like thor.,So I storred ro wrire yor-rth colling himself IULIO 204-the number wos the street he hoiled from-be- gon ot obout the some time When o Greek Americon nomed TAKI 183 told the New York fimes in the sr,rmmer of 1971 why he togged his nome on ice creom trucks ond subwoy cors-"I don't feel like o celebriiy normolly, but the guys moke me feel like one when they rnlroduce me to someone"Jhousonds of New touch his cigorette; ond he goes-rrrrrrrrnt! Stops the cor, leons over, opens the York youngsters picked up foi morkers ond sproy point to moke their own door, points his finger, tells her, 'Get outl,And she gol out. And the commerciol nome.2 Writers like LEE l63dl, EVlt ED, CLIFF 159, iUNIOR l6l, CAY l6l, soid, 'Nobody fouches my silver-thin., lwos like, wow, thot,s ,Kool,! So I picked CHE I59 ond BARBARA ond EVA 62 were soying their nomes loud oll ocross KOOL. buildings, bus stops, ond subwoy stotion wolls uptown "Wherever you see UNCIE RICH, you see CLYDE AS KOO[,,, he soys. ,,1 pui Rooming through gong iurfs, slipping through the long orms ond high fences o little smiling foce in it, the eyes, the nose, ond mouth ond o little cigorefte hong- of outhority, violoting notions o[ properiy ond propriety, groffiti writers for-rnd ing oui, ond o liftle rom on i], like o lirrle Apple Jock,s hor.,, their own krnd of freedom Wriling your nome wos like locoting the edge of civil Writing brought him into contoct with the premier stylists, ond he begon hong- sociely ond plonting o flog there. ln Greg Tote's words, it wos "reverse colo- ing out with the EX-VANDALS, the legendory supercrew thot hod begun in nizotion."3 The l96Os, os ihe hip hop generolion would so often be reminded, Brooklyn ond now included SUPER KOOL 223, EL MARKO, STAY HtGi 149 were o greot time to be young. The world seemed lo shoke under young feet so eosily bock then The revolutionories expected the whole world to be wotching ond when they were given the spotlight, they cost o long shodow. But these writ- ers weren't like fhe revolutionories, or even the philosopher-octivisi woll-writers in Limo, Mexico Cily, Poris, ond Algiers. Theirs were noi poliiicol stotements. They were just whot they were, o strike ogoinst their generolion's invisibility ond lutionory steps, introducing ever more imoginotive re[inements on the rolling steel preporotion for the coming dorkness convoses They held no illusions obout power. No groffitj writer ever hoped to run lor But Clive would finolly moke his nome elsewhere. He wos running trock, moyor. And unlike the gong bongers, none would submerge his or her nome to pushing weights, ploying rough schoolyord bosketboll His clossmotes kidded ihe collective They were doing it to be known omongst lheir peers, to be recog- him, dubbing him "Hercules,, for his bullish power drives to the hoop. ,,1 went nized for their originolity, brovodo, doring, ond style. Normon Moiler, one of bock to the block ond I soid, 'Yo fellos, rhis guy or school, mon, he,s colling me lhe first to write seriously obout groffiti, goi it instontly: the writers were comPos- Hercules. I know he meons well, but I don,r like it.,So I soid, ,Whot,s fhe short- ing odvertisements [or ihemselves. ening for Hercules?'They soid'Herc,Aoooooh-sounds uniquel So I soid, ,yo ,4 ts Can't StEp l,llon'l SloP making a itame mon, iust coll me Herc, leove off the 'lees', iust coll me Herc.' Between high floor ond the foncy footwork ond oll of thot." They even colled it-o hord-won school ond the block, I PUt the two nomes together ond I dropped the CIYDE. I irony-"burning." storted colling myself Kool Herc, ond thot wos it " Jomes Brown's coreer hod peoked in the lote l96Os with the Block power Movement. He performed "Soy it Lor.rd {l'm Block ond l'm Proud)" without opol- lllEw fires ogy on notionol television, ond his mere presence in lown, it wos soid, pre- A fire sent fie Compbells out oI their Tremont oPortment Their boby brother wos vented riots in rociolly lense Boston in the immediote oftermoth of Morrin Luther skiking motches, lighting pieces of poper ond lossing ihem out the window. A Krng, Jr.'s ossossinotion. breeze coughi o burning poper ond blew it bock in, setting the window curtoins But during lhe eorly 1970s, ottitr-rdes chonged Across the country, Block oflome Although the firemen were oble to put it out wilhoul onyone getting huri, moyors took over in cities thot hod once burned, closs gops widened ond Block Cindy remoins ongry ot whot hoppened ofterword. "When the fire dePortment rodio shihed lo the fostes o[ upwordly mobile listeners Colemon young become come in there, they were looking for money The fire wos reolly in one room, bul moyor of Motown, while Berry Gordy deported for Hollywood. Jomes Brown,s in the bedroom the drowers were pulled out My fother hod o tin-pon of quorters coreer went inio steep decline thot he wos soving, ond thot tin-pon hod ot leost three- or four-hundred dollors in Bronx-born hiphop historion Dovey D recolls, "lf you listened to the Block ro- quorters ol ihe time. Thot wos iusl missing," she soys dio stqtion ot lhe time, WBLS-Block-owned, Block+un, the stotion thot everyone Populotions were in flux. Whites were leoving for Co-op Ciiy ond the sub- listened to-you did not heor Jomes Brown. Not even ot nighttime. So while Jomes urbs. With governmenl vouchers ond ossistonce money, the Compbells ioined Erown wos being tossed oui, we were embrocing him "6 His music, donce ond the Block ond brown exodus into the West Bronx They moved into the Con' style now possessed outlow oppeol. At the climox of o Plozo Tunnel night, when course Plozo Hotel on the Grond Concourse ot l6lst Skeet, where mony DJ lohn Brown put on "Soul Power," Hoger soys Block Spodes would overrun burned-out fomilies hod been tempororily relocoted the floor, hollering "Spode Powerl" The [irecrocker energy being generoted ot After the fomily moved inlo o brond new oPortment building ot 1520 Sedg' the Plozo Tunnel gove Herc the stondord to oim for with his own poriies. wick, Kool Herc would return to the hotel to frequent the disco downstoirs, the Plozo Tunnel A friend of his from high school nomed Shofi spun records there, fhe Man wilh lnE aslEr Plan os well os o Dl nomed John Brown. ln goy ond Block clubs ot the time, DJs were Ai the some time, discos were shu ing down ond house porties were declining, pushing the emerging four-on-fheJloor disco beot. But the Plozo Tunnel D.ls hod portly becouse gongs like the Spodes were moking them unsofe. But the West o rower sound John Brown "wos the [irst to ploy records like 'Give it Up or Turn Bronx hod noi suffered the some kind o[ devostotion os the South Bronx. And it Loose' by.Jomes Brown ond 'Get Reody' by Rore Eorth," pioneering hip-hop oll lhese yor-rths needed somewhere lo porty These reosons moy exploin why journolist Steven Hoger wrote. "['Get Reody'] wos o lovoriie in ihe Bronx be' Sedgwick Avenue wos ripe for o fresh new porly scene. couse it losted ove. twenty-one minutes, which wos long enough for ihe serious The crowds ot the Compbells' eorly Sedgwick porties were moinly high doncers to gel into the beot They loved to woit for the song's two-minute drum school studenis who were ioo young or too cleon or living too lor west to [oll un- solo to show their most specloculor moves."5 der the woning influence of the gongs. ln ihose doys, Herc would tell the weed- The donce siyles begon os eloborolions o[ moves people hod seen Jomes smokers to heod oround the block, ond he'd even ploy slow joms. "Now ond Brown doing on TV. Zulu Notion Dl )ozzy Joy, who begon os o bboy soys, fhen o mom or pop might come in to see whot's going on," soys Herc. "You could be doncing with your girl ond spin owoy from her, hit the ground, Cindy odds, "My fother wos olwoys there. People knew him in the neighbor- come bock up. lt wos oll obout 'smooth ' Like how Jomes used to slide ocross the hood ond they respected him so we never hod violence or onything like thot IG n Gan'l Slop WEn'l SloP Making a lllame ing for the records to finish. And I noticed people wos woiting for certoin poris We didn't hove to hire securiiy guords We never seorched people When peo- of the record," he soys. lt wos on insight os profound os Ruddy Redwood,s dub ple come, they come out of respect. ll wos o recreqlion thing for them to meel discovery. The moment when the doncers reolly got wild wos in o song,s shorl rnskumentol breok, when the bond would drop out ond the rhythm section would get elementol. Forget melody, chorus, songs-it wos oll obout the groove, building it, keeping it going. Like o sking theorist, Herc zeroed in on the fundo- mentol vibroting loop ot the heort of the record, the breok. He storted seorching for songs by the sound o[ their breok, songs thoi he would moke into his signoture tunes: the nonstop congo epics from The ln- credible Bongo Bond colled "Apoche" ond "Bongo Rock,,,Jomes Brown,s ,,live,, wonl to go bock to thot onymore " version of "Give lt Up Turn lt Loose" from ihe Sex Mochrne olbum, Johnny Herc's reputolion spreod olong the Bronx high-school circuit os well, ofter Cindy, through her role in student body government oi Dodge High School, se- Poie's theme to Shoft inAfrco, Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio,, Block soul ond white rock records with on r.rptempo, often A[ro-Lotinized bockbeot z Then he sooked cured o successful boot cruise donce. By the summer of 1924, when Herc wos ploying regulor porties to o loyol following, he decided to ploy o free porty on off the lobels, Jomoicon style. "My [other soid, ,Hide the nome o[ your rec- ords becouse thot's how you get your rep. Thot,s how you get your clientele., ihe block. "And ofter the block porty," he soys, "we couldn't come bock to the You don'f wont the some people to hove your some record down the block,,, rec room," Outdoors, he knew he wos pulting the sound system ot risk, ond hot fights Herc soys. Here wos one source o[ hip-hop's competilive ethic ond beo]-this oesihetic. could potentiolly breok out. "So when I come out there, I soid, 'Listen The flrst discreponcy, l'm pulling the plug. Let's get thol stroight right now There's kids ln o technique he colled "the Merry-Go-Round,,, Herc begon to work iwo out here, here's grown folks out here ond we're gonno hove o good iime' So copies of the some record, bock-cueing o record to the beginning of rhe breok os the other reoched the end, exfending o five-second breokdown into o five_ minr-rleloop of fury, o mokeshift versio, excursion Before long he hod rossed most of the songs, focusing on the breoks olone. His sets drove the doncers lrom climox to climox on woves of churning drums. "And once they heord thot, thot wos il, wosn't no turning bock," Herc soys. "They olwoys wonled to heor breoks thot," he soys. "We broke doylight. I ployed to the next morning " ofter breoks ofter breoks offer breoks " Herc wonted to summon the some kind o[ excilement he felt os o prckney To occommodote lorger crowds, Herc moved his porties Iu*her r_rp Sedgwick down yord. Along with his immigront friend Coke Lo Rock, he distinguished their Avenue into Cedor Pork. He hod seen construction workers hooking up power crew lrom the disco DJs by konsloting the Kingstonion vibe o[ sound syslem DJs like Counl Mochuki, King Stilt, U'Roy ond Big Youth for the Bronxites Herc by topping the lightposts, ond so he srorted doing the some. ,,1 hod o big Mock- inlosh omp. Thot thing cost o lot of money ond it pumped o lot of iuice. lt wos 300 wolts per chonnel As the juice stort coming, mon, the lights stort dimming. And the turntobles, I hod rhe Technics 1 1 OOA, the big ones, so if wouldn,r turn.,, Finolly they found o tool shed in the pork. They would send o young boy through the stone-broken window to plug into enough juice for the sound system. lhese, the two creoled lorgerthonJi[e personos Herc corefully studied the doncers "l wos smoking cigoreftesond Iwoswoit- The results shocked the borough, ond brought in new oudiences Aoron ,a ts Gan',l stop won't slop Making a lUame other to go off, toke eoch other or.rt, iust "breok" wild on eoch other. Herc colled them breok boys, b-boys for short.s There wos Tricksy, Wolloce Dee, the Amozing Bobo, Sou Sou, Chorlie Rock, Norm Rockwell, Eldorodo Mike, ond Keith ond Kevin, the Nigger Twins They did donces like The Boyoing, where o b,boy sported o Turbons-like pom,pom Herc freok Everywhere he ployed I wos there." topped hot, ond sketched, wiggled, ond shook bock ond forth to moke rhe boll A teen from Fox Street in ihe South Bronx nomed Joseph Soddler, who colled go "boyoing." "lt wos colled thot becouse thot's bosicolly whoi they see," soys himself Flosh, olso heord obout Herc's exploits ond wenl uP lo Cedor Pork to Jozzy )oy, "iust bounce oll over the ploce, hit the ground, 9o down. lt wosn't like see it for himself. "l seen this big six-foot-plus guy with this incredible sound sy+ o lot of the ocrobotics lt wos more kom siyle ond finesse. You cor-rld do o whole tem, heovily guorded. People iusi enloying themselves from like four yeors to roufine stonding up before you even hit the ground." forty. l'm like, wowl He looked sort o[ like this suPerhero on this podium ploying "Another kid uptown colled it the cork-ond-screw," soys.Jeffrey "DOZE" this music thot wosn't being ployed on the rodio l liked whol he wos doing ond Green, o Rock Steody Crew member ond second-generofion b-boy who first whof he wos ploying, ond lwonted io do thot, too." sow The Boyoing in the North Bronx in 1975 "lf's'couse they used to spin The gongs were dissolving ond Herc wos populorizing o new hierorchy of down, pop up, do o split ond then go whoop! Come up, ond then go down cool.Turfswere still imPortonlbutino dlflere woy.lozzy Joysoys, "lnsteod o[ ogoin into o split into o few boby-rocks into o little boby freeze. People were gongs, they storted turning into little oreo crews where they would do o little bit spinning on their butis then, too." of dirt. ln oreo, ihere would be o Dl crew or o breokdonce crew They "u"ry "Tricksy hod o huge o[ro," soys Cindy. "And he hod thot soft hoir becouse his would be like, 'Okoy, we oll obout our music ond we love our music but you hoir grew. And he did o move where he would iump up ond his ofro would siort come in this oreo wrong ond we oll obout kicking your oss' Compefilion fueled to bounce olso. There wos olso o move colled fie Fronkenstein move, where the whole thing." he'd stort moving like Fronkenstein ond his oho would stq+ bouncing. lt wos like Herc's porties drew in rhe cre\Ms, gove them o chonce to strut their stu[[ ond o show, you know?" moke their nomes. He kept the peoce by toking o live-ond-let-live policy ond skill' Herc ossembled his own clique o[ D]s, doncers ond roppers, ond dubbed fully working the mic. "Everybody hod to moke money, even the stick-r-rp kids them ihe Herculords: Coke Lo Rock, DJ Timmy Tim with Little Tiny Feer, DJ Clork The gr-ry selling weed would come to me, 'A-yo Herc, mon, soy I goi weed' l'd Kent the Rock Mochine, ihe lmperiolJC, Blockjock, LeBrew, Pebblee Poo, Sweet soy, 'You know I con't soy you got weedl' So l'd soy it indirectly, 'Yo, lohnny, ond Sour, Prince, ond Whiz Kid. He refused to coll them o crew. "Thot nqme yor-r know I con't soy you got weed, right?' He'd toke the heot " "Or if I know there's o certoin Pori/ uP in lhere storling trouble, I never would 'crew' took lhe ploce of gong When they soid, 'crew', we knew it wos o gong So il wos never ihe Herculord crew. Thot's whof people stort colling us. But we soy lheir nome, I just soy, 'Yo kiil it, cut the bullshit out. You're my mon, cut the never hod on our flier soying 'The Herculord crew.' lt wos billed with the sound dumb shit. You know ond lhey know who l'm tolking obout Okoy? Alright' systdm we colled the Herculoids." They'd be like'Oh shit, Herc gove me o little worning ' I might be ploying music After reinvesling his money in o few different sound system sefs, Herc wos but l'm no sr-rcker " reody to toke it to the next level. By 1975, he wos doing oll-oges donces ot the The reol oction wos in the donce ciphers, w;th the kids who hod come for Websier Avenue P.A.L. Br.rt he wos turning twenty, ond didn'i only wont the kid- Herc's "Merry-Go-Round," ond were becoming personolities in their own right die crowd onymore. He found o club colled the Twilight Zone on Jerome Av- They were too excitoble ond hod too much flovor to conform to the Precision enue neor Tremonf, ond storied hosting porties there with his clique ond his group steps o[ donces like The Hustle. They would simply iump in one ofter on- ao 8t Ean',l slop won'l slop Maktng a lllame "Yo sound system. He soys he screened Muhommod Ali videos until they soid, the stoggering implicotions of this moment evenluolly would echo oround the Herc, slop showing them Ali lights, yor-r souping them mother[r-rckers up!" world. Ai o hoi spot colled the Hevolo, he possed out flyers for his Twilight zone By 1977, Nerc ond his competitors hod divided the Bronx into o new kind of shows unlil he wos chosed out. One doy, he vowed, l'll ploy this sPot On o grid. ln the South Bronx from 138th to 163rd skeets, where the Bochelors, ihe "Roin," stormy nighi, Herc emptied the Hevolo by ploying o Poriy ot the Zone Sovoge Nomods, the Sovoge Skulls ond the Ghetto Brothers hod once run, he soys, "wos o good sign lor me " The Hevolo owner quickly colled him up to Grondmoster Flosh, bocked by the locol Cosonovo Crew, wos emerging os the moke o deol. Soon, Herc wos ploying there ond ot onother club colled the Ex' oreo celebrity. ln lhe Southeost, formerly the territory of the Block Spodes, ecutive Ployhouse for o full-fledged odult crowd. P O W.E.R. ond the Jovelins, Afriko Bombootoo held swoy with his Zulu Notion. They come to heor Herc rop: "You never heord it like this before, ond you're ln the north, there wos Dl Breokout ond Dl Boron. And the West Bronx neigh- bock for more ond more ond more of this here rock-ness. 'Couse you see, we borhood ond the Eost Bronx nightclubs were still Herc's Herc remoined the rock with the rockers, we iom with the iommers, we Porty with ihe portyers undisputed king of the borough by virtue of his records, his loyol crowd, ond his Young lody don't hurt nobody lt oin't no fun till we oll get some Don't hurl no- sound system. body, young lody!" "lt wos ridiculor.rs. He wos god," soys Zulu Notion DJ Jozzy Joy. At o leg- Coke ond onother crew member nomed Dickey lei ihe crowds know: "There's endory Webster P.A.L. contest. Herc drowned oul Bombootoo's system with lit- no story con'l be told, there's no horse con't be rode, no br-rll con't be stopped tle eflort. "Whenever Kool Herc ployed outside, shit wos loud ond crystol cleon. ond oin'l o disco we con't rock Hercl Herc! Who's the mon with o moster plon When we'd ploy outside, we'd be hooking up o whole bunch of little wires, o from the lond o[ Grocie Groce? Herc Hercl" bunch of four or five omps ond--errntl Zzzzt! Shit would be blowing r-rp." And By 1926, he wos the number'one drow in the Bronx No more rooch killers' every time Grondmosler Flosh come to o Herc porry, Flosh chuckles, "Herc ol- DJ Kool Herc dressed ihe role, sporling fobulous tee or Al Lester sr-rits All the woys used lo emborross me." high rollers, bonk robbers, ond husllers from Horlem were coming up io see him' After being threolened by some cops lor his drug selling, Herc's fon Aoron He soys, "The rePulotion wos,'Who is moking money uP in the Bronx? Kool O'Bryoni moved on to promoting poriies. He rented the Sovoy Monor nightclub Herc ond the guy Coke to Rock wilh ihe music "' on l49th Street ond the Grond Concourse. "l wonted lo hove Kool Herc versus Pete DJJones. Bock lhen Pete DJ Jones wos number one on lhe disco sel ond ftlro Seuens Bedub Kool Herc wos jr.rst nt.rmber one. period," he recolls. "So I hod o commilmenl 1977 storled otl very well for Herc. But os it would be everywhere, trouble wos from Pete Dl Jones becouse he wos o businessmon, he took on oll bookings. The oheod. first thing Kool Herc wonted to know wos where did I gef his telephone number ll wos nol, os mony well-meoning iournolists ond ocodemics would loter erro- from. And he wos exploining to me thot I wos noi o proven promoter. Plus, he neously write, thot the block porty or sound system showdown hod reploced the olso insinuoted thot he could go to the Sovoy Monor ond rent it himself ond do rumble or the riot. Thot notion wos os misgr-rided os Robert Moses's contenlion lhot bottle if he wonted. He didn't wont to let me eoi." thot nothing good co,.rld ever ogoin come from the Bronx The trulh wos, in [oct, By the end of the spring, Herc noticed his oudiences were declining. "People much less dromotic ond much more profound ln the Bronx's new hierorchy of ore getting older now, it wosn't oll obout me. AII of q sudden now you/re not cool, the mon with the records hod reploced the mon with the colors Violence eighteen no more, you're twentyJour ond twentyJive. You con drink now You did not suddenly end; how could it? Bul on enormous omount of creotive energy oin't coming to no little seventeen-, eighteen-yeor-old porty," he recolls. "And wos now reody io be releosed from the bottom of Americon sociefy, ond other people wos coming up." e2 E3  Gen',t stop won,t stop ilaking a ilame Aher the blockout ond the looting, there were plenty o[ new crews with brond new sound systems in the skeets, ond Herc's moin rivols were luring owoy his crowd. Flosh hod precision, sophisticotion ond on entertoiner,s lloir. Bombooroo hod his records ond the power of Bronx River behind him. O,Bryqnt himself hod begun DJing. As DJ AJ, he ieomed with o new turntoble tutor, lovebug Storski, ond exponded into Horlem. Herc soys, "l sloyed behind, ldidn,t move with ihem to downtown. Istoyed r-rp in the Bronx." Herc finolly ogreed to ploy with DJ AJ ot o bock+o-school porfy or the Execu- tive Ployhouse. lt wos sold out, Al recolls, but Herc wos no longer the moin drow. "Flosh wos ot my show. I let Flosh get on ond I let Melle Mel get on tho mic." AJ soys. "But it didn't help Herc's coreer ot oll becouse he wos foding [ost. " A few months loter, Herc wos preporing for onother night ot the ployhouse, now renqmed The Sporkle, when he heqrd o scuffle breoking out. ,,Mikewith- The-Lights hod o discreponcy with somebody ot the door," Herc recolls. Mike wos relusing to ollow three men into fie club ond they hod become increosingly ogitoted. When Herc went to medioie the siluotion, one of the men drew o knife Herc felt it pierce him three times in the side. As he put his bloodied hond up to block his foce, the ottocker stobbed hlm once more in the polm before disop peoring with the others up the stoirs ond into the night. "lt mode me drow bock into o little shell," Herc soys, exholing lor o long momeni. It wos 1977. Bob Morley wos in o loreign studio, recovering from on ossossin,s ombush ond singing: "Mony more will hove to suffer. Mony more will hove to die. Donl osk me why." Bontu Stephen Biko wos shockled, noked ond comotose in tho bock of o South Africon police [ond Rover. The Booder-Meinhof gong loy in sui cide pools in o Germon prison. The Khmer Rouge filled their killing fields. Th6 Weother Underground ond the Young tords Porty crowled toword the finol stoges of violent implosion. ln London, os in New York City, copitolism,s crisis left entire blocks ond buildings obondoned, ond the sudden oppeoronce ol pierced, mohowked, leother-jocketed punks on Kings Rood set off poroxysms of hysterio. History behoved os if resel to yeor zero. ln the Bronx, Herc's time wos possing. But the new culture thot hod orisen oround him hod coptured the imoginotion of o new breed ofyouths in the Bronx. 84 85