Once upon a time there was DJ Kool Herc

Jamaican born DJ Kool Herc moved to New York in the late 1960's and brought with him the Jamaican tradition of "toasting", which involved reciting improvised rhymes over instrumental sections of reggae records. He used twin turntables and cut back and forth between two seperate records to create a new sound. He would chant things like "Throw your hands in the air/And wave'em like ya just don't care!". This type of crowd pleaser was known as "rapping" to the crowd. At that time rap was not yet known as 'rap' but called 'MCing'.

Grand Wizard Theodore was the first DJ to scratch which he discovered accidently. Playing his music too loud during a practice session, while his mother was yelling, he held back the record and it began to move back and forth in the earphones. He went on to experiment with different records trying to create a sound where people could understand it. He has since been awarded by the International Turntable Foundation for creating the scratch.

In 1979, "Rappers Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang was one of the first rap recordings. It became a huge international hit and went on to become the best selling 12inch record ever, selling over 2 million copies world wide. This is where the term "hip hop" was coined. They used beats and base lines from the disco track "Good Times". Utilizing beats from a wide variety of sources such as old gospel, jazz, James Brown/Motown soul, funk, disco, drum machines, and remixing them became known as sampling - the musical core of hip hop.

Sugar Hill Gang



This was just a brief intro to let you know how, when and where Rap was born and to present you who are our fathers.