DJ Kool Herc Art by Danielle Mastrion, photo taken from LargeUp. DJ Kool Herc, born as Clive Campbell, was one of six children born to Keith and Nettie Campbell in the capital city of Jamaica. He has been repeatedly crowned the father of hip- hop, and like many other hip-hop artists, he was influenced by the sounds of Caribbean music that he himself heard firsthand growing up in Jamaica. Much like his own block parties in the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc was influenced by neighborhood parties at dancehalls in Kingston and loved the music, the energy, the dancing, and the unifying vibes they brought to the community. At the age of 12, DJ Kool Herc immigrated with his family to the Bronx, where they lived at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the birthplace of hip-hop. What DJ Kool Herc did to revolutionize music was his use of two turntables and his emphasis on a short, heavily percussive part of the song, which he called the “break.” Herc was especially talented in seeing what the b-boys and b-girls liked to dance to on the floor (which also spurred the other element of hip-hop culture, break dancing) and he saw that the dancers liked the “breaks” the most. What he did with these breaks formed the foundation on what the music of hip-hop grew from: he took the breaks, isolated them, and eventually prolonged them as well. He also created his signature “The Merry-Go-Round” in which he would switch from break to break at the apex of the party. He was known from using beats from The Incredible Bongo Band, some vocals from James Brown, and other bands like Babe Ruth in his mixes. .