TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. I am Tonya Mosley.
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MOSLEY: This month marks 50 years of hip-hop. To rejoice, all this week we’ll be that includes interviews with a few of the most influential rappers and DJs over the past 50 years. We’ll begin initially with DJ Kool Herc, who, on August 11, 1973, DJ’d an end-of-summer celebration in his Bronx residence’s rec heart. Little did he know that it was the start of hip-hop as we all know it. Kool Herc was the primary DJ to isolate and repeat the breaks – probably the most danceable beats in a file – to rev the celebration and maintain the dancers going. Though Herc is commonly credited as the daddy of hip-hop, he did not file and, for years, remained comparatively unknown.
Grandmaster Flash took Herc’s technique one step additional, creating mixing and scratching strategies that turned a part of the fundamentals of hip-hop. We’ll hear Terry’s interview with him later within the present. His group, Grandmaster Flash and the Livid 5, was the primary hip-hop group inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. Melle Mel was a member and rapped on “The Message,” which is taken into account among the best rap information ever made. We’ll hear from him additionally. However let’s kick it off with DJ Kool Herc. He spoke to Terry in 2005 in regards to the events he threw within the Bronx again within the ’70s. They began with a combination that Kool Herc would typically play at events.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Oh, I would not change a factor if I needed to dwell my life throughout. Oh, child.
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TERRY GROSS: Kool Herc, welcome to FRESH AIR. Take us again to the start of hip-hop. Would you describe what you’d do at events?
DJ KOOL HERC: OK. The celebration would begin out like this. I experience my bicycle – summertime – everywhere in the Bronx in every single place. And folks would – as I’m going alongside, they’d ask me, hey, Herc. The final celebration was – it was the bomb. It was the joint. , that was simply – that is when the primary slang factor began. It was the joint. I adore it. When is the subsequent one? Till that construct up, when is the subsequent one, that is once we give the celebration. And we give the celebration – three weeks previous to the date, we begin to put out invites about it on index card.
GROSS: Inform us what it was like on the celebration – like, how you’d play information, how you’d discover the breaks, the way you began discovering the breaks.
DJ KOOL HERC: I might – nicely, I assumed folks did not see me. I used to be in a room. I needed to stick my head out and see how the celebration was going. Me and my buddies was within the room, and I might – we’d stick our head out and see how the celebration’s doing, or we would name folks names out. And I did not have the posh of headphones. I needed to queue within the file over the music ‘trigger that is the best way my setup was arrange. And I used to be – you realize, the file – you would inform the place the breaks are. It is a darkish groove. And folks used to attend a while for these explicit components of the file to come back on. And I might simply play stuff, you realize, and I might inform them that I’ve new information. I wished them to test it out on the identical time I am checking it out. And if it is one thing I personally like, I might inform them, I am feeling this one, and I hope you want the remainder I play, you realize, ‘trigger they got here to my home. , they had been my company.
GROSS: Now, what made you assume that it might be nice at events to only play these breaks time and again to make nearly, like, a loop of these breaks as an alternative of simply taking part in…
DJ KOOL HERC: As a result of…
GROSS: …The entire file straight by?
DJ KOOL HERC: That is the one false impression of me. I am a disc jockey. I am not a DJ. I am a disc jockey. I play the disc to make you jockey. And one evening, I experiment. The breaks got here out of an experiment by – I am watching the folks dancing, and lots of people used to attend for some explicit a part of the information. I am finding out the ground. I am like a shepherd. I am watching the flock. , I received to take care of this crowd happening until round 4 o’clock. So I am – I’ve to – I am very observant. So what – I used to be noticing folks used to attend for them explicit components of the file to bop to only to do their particular little transfer. So I stated, pay attention. I will do a factor. I will name it the merry-go-round. So I put all these breaks that I do know that I’ve in my assortment collectively. A few of them have two, however most of them solely had one, so then I assumed to maintain it going. I referred to as it the merry-go-round. And on the time, I had a file referred to as “Apache,” and it was off an album referred to as “The Unbelievable Bongo Rock.” And that file set the tone.
GROSS: In case you’re simply becoming a member of us, my visitor is Kool Herc, and he is principally thought of the daddy of hip-hop, of…
DJ KOOL HERC: No, not principally. I’m.
GROSS: OK (laughter). And Kool…
DJ KOOL HERC: The buck cease proper right here. Ain’t no person after George Washington. Likewise, identical factor for Kool Herc.
GROSS: What had been the information that you simply thought had the perfect breaks once you had been doing events within the ’70s?
DJ KOOL HERC: James Brown, “Give It Up Flip It Unfastened” (ph) – a variety of James Brown file – “Get Concerned.” Bobby Byrd file, “Sizzling Pants,” you realize, and Dennis Coffey, you realize, “Scorpio,” soundtracks from “Shaft In Africa,” you realize, and the listing goes on and on. I am nonetheless shopping for information to this present day.
GROSS: What are you shopping for?
DJ KOOL HERC: Good things that is not performed on the radio.
GROSS: Would you describe among the best events that you may bear in mind from the early days of hip-hop?
DJ KOOL HERC: However all of them was good – all of them. However I could not – I simply may bear in mind someday I play some explicit file that we had been – I do not forget that once we first heard a file referred to as “Seven Minutes Of Funk,” we heard it in a spot referred to as – at Hunts Level. And Jay-Z used it, and some different folks used that very same file. And that got here out of my assortment. And once we performed our file – what we did – Coke did – Coke put the file on, and all of us walked off the stage. And the file simply got here on. (Vocalizing). And it stored on going. And it simply stored on going by modifications. And all people was like, whoa. , even once we performed “Heatwave,” the sluggish file, you realize, all people was shocked ‘trigger we – you realize, we performed a variety of information that the radio wasn’t taking part in until we discovered the radio stations began sending spies to the golf equipment to listen to what we’re taking part in. Then out of the blue, a variety of the information now began to get performed on the radio.
GROSS: , again within the ’70s, once you had been doing events, you’d cost for admission, proper?
DJ KOOL HERC: Twenty-five cents for fellas – for girls and 50 cents for fellas. After that, it was 75 for fellas, 50 cents for girls. We was charging in accordance with what the Juicy Fruit gum was promoting for.
GROSS: (Laughter).
DJ KOOL HERC: We would finances ourselves in accordance with – we weren’t attempting to get wealthy, you realize? Each soda was 50 cents. We received to cost 25 cents for girls. I imply, the gum was 20 – if the gum was a dime, a nickel, we received to cost – you realize, like that. We wasn’t attempting to get wealthy.
GROSS: So how many individuals would present as much as the everyday celebration?
DJ KOOL HERC: Effectively, I am going to let you know one factor. We went upstairs. We put it out on the desk. We made $500 promoting franks and all that. Three to $400 we was clocking.
GROSS: So…
DJ KOOL HERC: And it was somewhat recreation room.
GROSS: Did you need to pay to lease the room?
DJ KOOL HERC: Sure, twenty-five {dollars}.
GROSS: Oh, that is not dangerous.
DJ KOOL HERC: No. , it was simply – you realize, it was enjoyable. And on the time, folks could not – folks did not need no person of their home. Mother’s nonetheless paying for the furnishings. Individuals isn’t going to be too cautious in your home. You don’t need folks all up in what you are promoting. So the recreation was excellent. You could not tear nothing up in there. We had two loos. We had a kitchen, and we had house to bop.
GROSS: So a variety of the residence buildings had recreation rooms.
DJ KOOL HERC: Yeah, a number of of them, a minimum of the brand new one. We lived in a brand new constructing on the time ‘trigger we had – we was burnt out from the place we lived at on the east aspect. And we stayed within the Grand Concourse Lodge for a minute. And my mothers held out and held out until one thing got here alongside. And it was the primary constructing on Cedric Avenue proper by the Main Deegan Freeway. They stated, Mrs. Campbell, we expect we have now one thing you are searching for. And positive sufficient, we discovered it – two loos and sufficient room for all of us. It was the Brady – we had been “The Brady Bunch” household – three boys and three ladies.
GROSS: (Laughter).
DJ KOOL HERC: And we lived on the primary flooring.
GROSS: You moved to New York in 1967 from Jamaica on the age…
DJ KOOL HERC: Yeah.
GROSS: …Of 13. What was your first response to New York? You moved to – what? – to the South Bronx.
DJ KOOL HERC: No, I transfer on the West Bronx on Tremont Avenue, 178th Road – 611 East 178th Road.
GROSS: OK, so…
DJ KOOL HERC: And…
GROSS: What was your first response to it? And the way did it evaluate to the neighborhood you had been used to in Jamaica?
DJ KOOL HERC: Effectively, I used to be, on the time, watching TV down there – “Petticoat Junction” and “Dennis The Menace.” And I simply thought the United – all the USA was, like, good outdated Mr. Wilson “Dennis The Menace” neighborhood.
GROSS: (Laughter).
DJ KOOL HERC: I used to be in for a impolite awakening after I received right here. I went from – I used to be dwelling in Jamaica initially in Jones City, you realize, Trench City over there on Second Road there. Bob Marley lived on First. I lived on Second Road close by somewhat faculty close by – I attended faculty close by a movie show referred to as the Ambassador Theater. And after I moved to Franklin City and received extra into seeing the disco develop, I used to be – I did not dwell in a ghetto a part of Jamaica – Franklin City, you realize? It was, like, somewhat suburbia, nevertheless it was – in all probability there’s one thing about me ghetto. However after I received right here, it was – like, it was no completely different. I used to be like, whoa. I am dwelling upstairs, and it is over different folks, folks dwelling over me. I lived in a yard in Jamaica. I had a yard. I did not dwell in a tenement, you realize? And I see dust. I did not see concrete on a regular basis, you realize? And snow – I might by no means seen snow earlier than, you realize? And it was like a – it was a wake-up name. It wasn’t the great outdated Mr. Wilson neighborhood.
GROSS: (Laughter) What shocked you most about what the kinds had been once you received to New York? , had been the garments completely different? Have been…
DJ KOOL HERC: Yeah.
GROSS: Yeah.
DJ KOOL HERC: I wasn’t – I did not have the hip garments that day. I had on the hick garments. I had on a aviator hat that you simply pull over your ears after which flip up prime. I had the white corduroy jacket on. I seemed straight like a hick. After which I had on – I really like cowboy boots from again in Jamaica and watching cowboy photos, so I assumed that, you realize, cowboy boots was – you realize, was the bomb. After I received right here and received a pair of cowboy winter boots, this lady in highschool – junior highschool was teasing me to demise. Hey. Take a look at him. He received on roach killers, roach killers. And he or she had an entire hallway simply tearing me up – roach killers, roach killers and all that.
Have you learnt I seen her one time years later? I stated, bear in mind me? She says, yeah. I bear in mind you. I used to tease you about them – sporting them cowboy boots. And I stated, look across the place proper now. What do you see? She stated, oh, my God. I stated, yeah, I assume I used to be forward of my time then, proper? Present you proper. It was – cowboy type was within the – cowboy type was in when Teddy Pendergrass made that file and had on the cowboy hat and all that.
GROSS: So – however they referred to as your cowboy boots roach killers.
DJ KOOL HERC: Sure. It has the sharp toe. They referred to as them – any pointed-toe footwear like that, it was referred to as roach killers. OK? You can get in a nook and kill a roach with it.
GROSS: (Laughter) So have you ever ever finished a radio present?
DJ KOOL HERC: No.
GROSS: Do you assume that is…
DJ KOOL HERC: I have been on a radio present.
GROSS: …One thing you’d wish to do someday – you realize, like, to DJ on the radio?
DJ KOOL HERC: I might adore it, however I might must have free reign to play what I am going to play. And I do not – you do not get that at radio stations, so I do not actually hassle with that.
GROSS: Proper.
DJ KOOL HERC: You possibly can’t inform me what to play in New York Metropolis when this tradition was born right here.
GROSS: Effectively, I wish to thanks a lot for speaking with us.
DJ KOOL HERC: You are welcome.
MOSLEY: DJ Kool Herc, the primary hip-hop DJ, spoke to Terry in 2005. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame this previous Might. Let’s hearken to a file that Herc would play lots when he DJed with singer Jill Scott.
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JILL SCOTT: (Singing) Brother, (vocalizing), brotha, (vocalizing), so many occasions you tried to chop we. You wish to tear we down, however you may’t contact we. We ain’t invincible. Lord is aware of we’re stunning and blessed. Verify the affirmative. Oh, sure, brother, do not let no person maintain you again. No, no, no. Do not let no person maintain you, management you or mould you. Brother…
MOSLEY: Arising, we’ll hear what Grandmaster Flash did to take DJing to the subsequent stage with turntable strategies like scratching, needle drops and his fast combine principle. We’ll be again after a fast break. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND’S “APACHE”)
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