Can't Stop Won't Stop (Young Adult Edition): A Hip-Hop History

DJ Kool Herc is the father of hip-hop music and culture—the man who started it all. When Herc’s sister, Cindy Campbell, wanted to host a back-to-school party, the two of them got the idea to use their father’s massive stereo system and have Herc be the host. He was already DJing house parties, but this was different. So, on August 11, 1973, the Campbells hosted the first ever hip-hop jam in their apartment complex. There was a small dancefloor, and a few people showed up. People in the Bronx “wanted the breaks” (17) and DJ Kool Herc was prepared to deliver them. He started playing funk and soul and created a new technique he coined the “Merry-Go-Round” in which he would play a song until its break, then start a second identical record at that song’s break, effectively creating breakbeat, or hip-hop, music. His father taught him to wipe the labels off his records to prevent people from stealing his mixes.

DJ Kool Herc was born in Kingstown, Jamaica, like Bob Marley, and was heavily inspired by Jamaican Reggae and African music as well as James Brown. As a child his country was ridden with political violence, so his parents decided to immigrate to America.