Foundation of Hip Hop Music

Date: August 11, 1973 • Location: Washington, United States

At a party in New York City, Jamaican musician DJ Kool Herc (pictured) began rapping during an extended break, laying the foundation for hip hop music.

Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is a pioneer of hip-hop music, where he along with others popularized it in the Bronx, New York City, in 1973. He is often referred to as the founder of hip hop. Nicknamed the Father of Hip-Hop, Campbell began playing hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown. Campbell isolated the instrumental portion of the record which emphasized the drum beat—the "break"—and switch from one break to another. Using the same two-turntable set-up of disco DJs, he used two copies of the same record to elongate the break. This breakbeat DJing, using funky drum solos, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to dancers helped lead to the syncopated, rhythmically spoken accompaniment now known as rapping.