IT STARTED WITH A PARTY In 1973 Cindy Campbell wanted to buy some new clothes It was almost time to head back to school in New York City She did not want to show up in the same outfits that all her friends would be wearing She wanted to shop at fancy clothing stores But the clothes these stores sold were expensive With her birthday coming up Cindy got an idea She would throw a huge party She designed a flyer to invite many people She charged them admission to get into her party Cindy knew her party had to be great to attract many people Cindy asked her older brother Clive to be the disc jockey DJ Clive Campbell also known as DJ Kool Herc looks through his records as he DJs at a party in England 7
A DJ plays recorded music to entertain people Clive was 16 years old He had been born in Jamaica He was influenced by Jamaican DJs DJs in Jamaica were called selectors Like these selectors Clive spoke over his records as he spun them The sound was unlike anything in the United States at this time MAKING DANCE MUSIC When Clive Campbell began to DJ he watched the people at the parties He noticed that many of them would wait for a certain part of a song When it played they would dance or perform a special move Most often the parts that people waited for were the drum breaks This gave Clive an idea He decided to play two copies of a record at once He switched back and forth between them to make the drum breaks last longer Cindy's party took place on August 11 1973. It was held in the Campbell family's apartment building in the Bronx The Bronx is a neighborhood in New York City The party was a huge success Approximately 300 people came The next day people all over the Bronx were talking about DJ Kool Herc 8
This was Clive's stage name Herc stood for Hercules His friends called him this because he was big and strong like the character Hercules Today Clive is best known as the founder of hip hop WHAT IS HIP HOP Other DJs soon began copying DJ Kool Herc's style They spun and scratched records They spoke over the music with rhythm and flow But hip hop began to grow into more than just DJing Many hip hop artists also performed as masters of ceremonies PERSPECTIVES THE MEANING OF HIP HOP Afrika Bambaataa was the first person to use the term hip hop publicly Bambaataa is a DJ He was also the leader of the Universal Zulu Nation This group promotes hip hop music and culture Bambaataa linked the word hip to the feeling that hip hop music inspired Hop referred to the physical movement Bambaataa recalled how he had first explained the term I said This is hip and when you feel that music you gotta hop to it so that's when we called it hip hop MCs MCs were poets who recited their own 9
