Feb 09, 2016
Words by Phoebe Flynn
43 years ago, DJ Kool Herc and his sister threw a house party that would end up planting a seed for the future of an entire musical genre: hip hop. At 1520 Sedgwick Ave that night on August 11th, he told the crowd, “I’m gonna try something new tonight.” He took the instrumental breaks of two tracks and played them over each other on loop, MC-ing over the beat and allowing people to dance longer (break dancing). He called it the Merry Go Round. Others call it the birth of hip-hop.
Fast forward to today. City Council has just approved a measure to rename the monumental Bronx block ‘Hip Hop Boulevard’ as a commemorative gesture. “The renaming is meant to honor both Herc and the contributions that the Bronx has made towards creating hip-hop over the years," council member Vanessa Gibson remarked. “I’m thankful that it has evolved to a genre of music that has gained so much attention and popularity,” she said. “We have a lot of Bronx natives who are trailblazers.” Gibson is also working towards a hip hop museum for the borough.
The measure still needs the approval of Mayor Bill de Blasio, but Gibson suspects the sign off will take no more than a few weeks. Boogie down, Bronx.
Watch Herc discuss his pivotal innovation of the Merry Go Round here:
Image: NME