On August 11th, 1973, the Jamaica-born and the Bronx-based disc jockey and graffiti artist named Clive Campbell (popularly known as DJ Kool Herc) DJed for a now famous back-to-school block party that his younger sister was throwing. His unique style of isolating the breakbeat on old school funk records and enthusiastically vocalizing along to the looped percussion was incredibly revolutionary for the time; a method of genre fusion and verbal crowd control that was a huge influence on other pioneers like Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. This block party has been retrospectively deemed as the event that created hip-hop as a genre; a genre that has gone on to completely revolutionize music in the 21st century. It’s about time we give it some props!
If you keep your radio dial tuned all the way to the left on 88.1 FM next week, you’ll be hearing a variety of all things hip-hop from all assortments of eras and subgenres at the times listed above, brought to you by some of your favorite WRFL DJs! From classic old-school boom bap to a variety of eclectic cuts from islands across the world, WRFL’s got you covered with plenty of underground rap tunes to help you celebrate one of the most influential genres of music of all time!