| The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the | | | | same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, |
| ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with | | | | he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the |
| the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African | | | | same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, |
| tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and | | | | with his audience for longer and longer periods. |
| the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have | | | | Others copied Herc's style. Soon a friendly battle |
| reached further back than the accepted origins of | | | | ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the |
| hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, | | | | technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the |
| cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income | | | | game by giving shout-outs to people who were in |
| areas of New York City. | | | | attendance at the parties and coming up with his |
| Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos | | | | signature call and response. Other DJs responded by |
| of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The | | | | rhyming with their words when they spoke to the |
| impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups | | | | audience. More and more DJs used two and four line |
| to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and | | | | rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved |
| culture records and communicated with the audience | | | | and hyped at these parties. |
| over the music. At the time, the DJ's comments | | | | One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of |
| weren't as important as the quality of the sound | | | | his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed |
| system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool | | | | his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, |
| Herc grew up in this community before he moved to | | | | rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks |
| the Bronx. | | | | of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap |
| During the late sixties, reggae wasn't popular with New | | | | as we know it. |
| Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues | | | | Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement |
| records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add | | | | showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the |
| his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to | | | | seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of |
| speak to his audience as he had learned to do in | | | | the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used |
| Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and | | | | his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. |
| then he pumped the volume back up on the record. | | | | Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar |
| This call and response technique was nothing new to | | | | breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new |
| this community who'd been reared in Baptist and | | | | beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of |
| Methodist churches where call and response was a | | | | hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart |
| technique used by the speakers to get the | | | | of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even |
| congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call | | | | though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs |
| and response performed by Jazz musicians and was | | | | (quite a few start out as DJs before they become |
| very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during | | | | producers), today's title "DJ" doesn't carry the same |
| the renaissance in Harlem. | | | | connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Today's |
| Herc's DJ style caught on. His party's grew in | | | | hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the |
| popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the | | | | eighty's DJ. |