The Beginning - Bronx 1973

An invitation to DJ Kool Herc's party

While all the adults in the Bronx were dancing the night away to disco in the club, the kids had their own parties. DJ Kool Herc, known as the founder of hip-hop founded the technique that became the base of the genre, and playing it for these crowds in recreation rooms of the burning Bronx.

"I remember going to the Herc parties in the community room, and it grew so big that we couldn't fit in the community room anymore. The music it was just... slamming."

The insane amount of gang violence, crime, and rising rates of poverty caused the young people to turn funk music into something new. Herc would only play parts of the song known as the "breakdown", where the only things playing would be drums and bass, mixing his tracks in this part. People would only dance to these beats, and that is how breakdancers were born.

Herc and his friends experimenting with his turn table

MCing started as one of Herc's friends, Coke La Rock, shouting out his friends over the music Herc was spinning. No one was talking on the mic, that had not been a thing, let alone rapping. The gang scene in the Bronx was huge amongst Black and Latinx teenagers, and the Zulu Nation was formed.

The Black Spades took over street culture in the Bronx, being the biggest gang in the city. Afrika Bambaataa, a DJ and former Black Spade, created the Zulu Nation in hopes of bringing together those who wanted to escape gang culture and turn their lives around. Many of these individuals turned to DJing and MCing as a creative outlet.