Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is widely considered to be the father of rap music. Born in Jamaica in 1955, he moved to the Bronx, New York City in 1967. It was here that he began to develop the style of music that would become known as hip hop.
In 1973, DJ Kool Herc hosted a “Back to School Jam” at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx. This event is widely credited as the first hip hop party and the beginning of rap music. At the party, DJ Kool Herc used two turntables to create a continuous loop of beats and breaks from funk and soul records. He also used the microphone to introduce the records and to talk between them. This style of mixing records and talking over them became known as “rapping” and is the foundation of rap music.
DJ Kool Herc also pioneered the use of sampling, which is the use of snippets of other songs in a new song. He used this technique to create longer and more complex beats, which allowed for more complex rapping. This technique is still used today in rap music.
DJ Kool Herc’s influence on rap music cannot be overstated. He was the first to use two turntables to create a continuous loop of beats and breaks, the first to introduce the microphone to rap over the records, and the first to use sampling to create longer and more complex beats. He is rightly considered to be the father of rap music.