Dg Kol Herc Biography

The story of hip-hop is long, storied, and extraordinarily complex. With influences stretching back to the 1900s, particularly during the civil rights movement when Black Pride and cultural identity were at the forefront of the political landscape. Various musical genres that emerged during this era like ‘The Blues’ tragic and depressing undertones, ‘Gospel’ and its themes of recognizing the hard times and the necessity to remain strong, ‘Jazz’s’ unique sound, spoken word poems’ cadence of saying sentences in a rhythmic manner, and most notably ‘Funk’. laid the foundation for what hip-hop would become. As the 1970s arrived, the pioneers of hip-hop began to arise, each with their own idea of what hip-hop would become. Some envisioned hip-hop

“He wanted to stamp his personality onto his playlist. But this is the Bronx. They wanted to break it. They wanted the break. So, like any good DJ, he gave the people what they wanted”. Chang, 17: DJ Kool Herc studied his audience and catered his sound to the people of the Bronx. From this, he created the Breakbeat and the Merry-go-round to prolong the most danceable part of the song. Here James Brown and his Funk music are used often because of their signature breaks, further reinforcing his impact on hip-hop culture. The people of the Bronx wanted to dance and DJ Kool Herc gave them that outlet. At his parties, B-boying became a staple of hip-hop, with people dance-battling, or gathering around one dancer during the breaks of each song. Often while Herc boasted over the breaks, hyping up the crowd. Here hip-hop got its first identity full of dancing, boasting, and energy. In many ways, DJ Kool Herc viewed hip-hop as an escape from the harsh world around the Bronx. A sound separate from political and social commentary, one for the youth of the Bronx. Another pioneer similar to Kool Herc, his once apprentice, Grandmaster Flash, evolved what it meant to be a

Evolving rapping into more than just boasting over a breakbeat. However, on the other side of the Bronx was a man by the name of Afrika Bambaata. Who had another vision for hip-hop, one focused more on social commentary? He created an organization by the name of Zulu Nation with the ultimate goal of his vision of peace, unity, and love to expand geographically and spread it all over. Zulu Nation also set out to empower women, referring to them as queens. What set Bambaata apart is while DJing he not only boasted over the breaks but used it to critique society and gang culture. Stated in a performance “Society put us all in here to fight against each other and kill us off, and we’re not getting nowhere”(Chang, 34). With Bambaata, he added maturity to hip-hop. Here it became not only a place for the youth to forget all their problems, but also a place to empower and raise awareness of their problems. These three, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Baambata, and Grandmaster Flash, helped spread hip-hop’s influence from the Bronx to Brooklyn to Queens, and more. However, as we reached 1979, hip-hop began to