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Kool Herc himself is frequently cited amongst the original architects of hip-hop music, but it was Coke La Rock who took the microphone to captivate audiences with his poetic jests, often recognized as the personification of rap in its raw, formative stages.
Rapper Kurtis Blow becomes the first hip hop artist to sign to a major label, releasing “Christmas Rappin” on Mercury Records.
In 1979, a landmark moment in rap history occurred with the release of “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang. This track marked the first commercially successful rap song, propelling the genre into the mainstream.
Its earliest performers comprise MCs (derived from master of ceremonies but referring to the actual rapper) and DJs (who use and often manipulate pre-recorded tracks as a backdrop to the rap), break dancers and graffiti writers. Old School Roots: early 1970s to the mid-1980s.
Rap’s early stars included Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, Public Enemy (who espoused a radical political message), and the Beastie Boys. The late 1980s saw the advent of “gangsta rap,” with lyrics that were often misogynistic or that glamorized violence and drug dealing.
Most notably there was DJ Kool Herc, whose 1973 party was seen as the official birth of hip-hop; DJ Hollywood, credited as the first DJ to speak in rhyme in the traditional rap cadence; and Grand Wizzard Theodore, the inventor of the record scratch.
Kurtis Blow was the first rapper to sign with a major label, the first to earn a certified gold single, and the first to tour internationally.
But at an apartment complex at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, Herc — also known at the time by his birth name, Clive Campbell — the sonic and vocal roots of rap started to coalesce.
While a number of people were influential in the creation of hip-hop, much credit is given to Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), a Jamaican immigrant who was the first major hip-hop disc jockey.
For Queen Latifah, “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song she and a lot of others heard and memorized where she grew up in Newark, New Jersey. But the biggest record in her world as a kid was Afrika Bambaattaa and the Soul Sonic Force’s 1982 song “ Planet Rock.