Contributions of DJ Kool Herc to Hip-Hop Music
Hip-hop is described as a cultural movement that achieved popularity in the 1980s to the 90s. It had the music support for rap, including athymic speech, which later spread as a durable movement and influential art system. DJ Kool Herc is credited for developing hip-hop music back in the 1970s. He was the initial hip-hop deejay. The 18-year-old immigrant came up with a firm sound system that originated from Jamaica’s roots up to parties in the urban areas. With the aids of two turntables, Kool was able to meld shocking fragments derived from previous records with popular dance songs. He developed a continuous flow of music. Together with other early DJs like Grand Wizard, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa, they developed the breakbeat, which aroused improvisational dancing (Hess 20). Challenges came about where the best dancers developed break dancing, which was acrobatic and sometimes involved airborne moves and backspins.
Kool Herc is referred to as the founding father of the modern rapping due to the spoken interjections in records he came up with. He threw the initial hip-hop party held in 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx in 1973; hence the art of DJing became the source of hip-hop music. DJ Kool Herc encouraged his audience to dance is a form known as rapping. He also developed several oratorical precedents associated with MCing derived from West Africa, among others. Regardless of hip-hop’s internal struggles, it continues to grow in the 21st century.
Work Cited
Hess, Mickey, ed. Icons of hip hop: an encyclopedia of the movement, music, and culture. ABC-CLIO, 2007.