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Coming up next. DJ cool Herk
a Jamaican American DJ who is credited with

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being one of the founders of hip
hop music in the Bronx, New York

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City. In nineteen seventy three,
nicknamed the father of hip hop, DJ

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cool Herk began playing hard funk records
of the sort typified by James Brown,

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hip hop legend. Cool Herk joins
Bob Lee to share more about the mark

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he has left on the hip hop
industry. Coming up next, welcome back

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everybody. We got. DJ Vince
Bracy under one to two is cutting it

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up in the back end. Can
you hear? You got the Mini system

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though. Going on, you'll have
the big Macintosh blue face amplifier, the

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voice of the theaters speak with a
deal over there with Dynamite. Our next

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Cuss has made his mark in the
hip hop world and joins us today.

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This ship all about his great work
and upcoming celebration. We welcome cool Herk,

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DJ Coolhirk and song Well you can
introduce my brother here. This is

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Songless, up and coming act homegrown
from the Bronx. Song Less in the

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house. Here we go here you
looking out for him? He have the

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crew in the back and hit her. Let me hear, let me hear,

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let me hear. Hello, we're
welcome to the show man. You've

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been doing a lot of stuff in
our community. You know you are down

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as a person who started a lot
of this stuff and in this game.

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Yes, tell us beginning right,
you know, originally I'm from Jamaica,

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Kingston, Jamaica. Yeah, Trenston, Trenstone, rock Up, Kingston Boy

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and all that stuff. Nineteen sixty
seven, came to this country, you

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know, better life, family,
and we landed in the Bronx. Uh,

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you know, six eleven East,
one hundred and sevent days. Yet

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don't forget had a dress to using
off avenue that their dress is very important?

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Is that the place we're gonna build
the building? No, that's the

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first they called it, the first
boom coming from Jamaica, the A C

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brit It's open line airline, I
know that's right. Yeah, and one

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A team my old Alma motto.
So how did you get involved in music?

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Because in Jamaica had got the biggest
sound systems out there, and against

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saw that as soon agether. My
father's a mechanic. He worked Keith Campbell,

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he work on Kingston warf garage to
Harbor Street and it was in Foreman

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and a lot of music is coming
off the ship. You know. I

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remember when Ben Crosby while Christmas came, you know, the whole thing,

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jim Ma Rees, Dela Reese and
Elephantzgerald. I mean, Needa Simone,

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your armstrong it was. Let me
know that. You know, that's a

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good bounce, that's a good all
of that stuff. Yes, you love

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music. It's like a called a
kingston By Ga used to take his ganga

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got dog. Yeah, so he
used to take his music. And did

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you have what turntables? Did you
have back then? I was in gir

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automatic joints. Yeah, then after
a while we got we got the non

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belt one one, but we could
manually move from there. I'm going downtown

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to Harvey's Equipment store and other places. Got thorn turntable and I sold the

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thorns. I remember the Thorn was
driven turntables at the top of the line

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too. But where they come eleven
hundred a technique, that's a big one.

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That's big for the twelve hundred.
Yes, that's the main thing.

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I don't care what they put in. They can't beat that eleven hundred eight.

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Yeah, you can take a spool
of thread, take all the thread

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off and put it on the spindle
and put a record on top of it

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like a little you know, gonna
put something like a piece of pen and

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turn the needle upside down and play
a record backwards on the eleven hundred,

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I have them Dinosaur job. So
so you used to play with the Voice

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of the Theaters. Yes, I
was going downtown to I saw this one

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of the theater in the Pollo Theater
when they had them and they went to

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ast. That's because the big boys
come. I was. I was building

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my system up DJ from the Bahamas
called the Amazing Birth. It was going

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to Fortum and had the grant money
to buy j L. I just got

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the name of that speaker from birth
out of Amazing Birth that was. That

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was Big Berth. He had the
GLI system though, that I love.

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Yeah. Yeah, the four folded
horns, two voices, the theaters in

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the side, two macintalk twenty two
hundred and some thorn turntables. Yeah,

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five band equalized the JVC and a
reverb. Wow. It surrounding with music.

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Don't hurt your aid to feel it? Yeah, you can feel it?

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Yes, so you had the the
amplifiers, a blue face, big

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Max. Yes you still have those, Yes, I still you have all

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your original equipment from back then.
Smoke it up. People put some money

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in that. I couldn't do that. I didn't stay right there. And

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the clergy came to my house and
say, what's going on with the other

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thing? Is still downstairs's campbell?
Because she calls you a black hawk down

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So so before we get into uh
my man, here, listen, tell

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us one thing. How did you
get started the hip hop? Because you

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are named as a person. I
love that I was. I was athletic

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clan Clark, come from Jamaica as
a cyclist. I liked my bicycle,

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My legs was developed, and I
was spending very aggressive basketball. A lot

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of names tried to stick on me. I didn't like it, so I

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stuck with her was Hercules. I
didn't like it, so I said,

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what's just shot up for hercle said
herk And back home, back in the

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neighborhood, I had the name cool. I put the two names together because

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I first kept in this country.
They were trying to call me Clyde,

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but my name is not Clyde.
Is Clive. The biggest person there was

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Clyde Wart Fraser. Yeah, but
after my father started calling me hurt,

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that was it, you know.
So it came about you like my music,

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I said, buy my records,
a cousins. I was by my

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records that rhythm Dan Ms T Richard
t on Treeman Avenue, off Avenue and

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downstairs record next from down forty second
Street. It was downstairs. I just

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like rare music music I should be
on the radio. That's not on the

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radio. That's where you found me
at. So my record zone has a

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cool work break and you found hip
hop. Yes, well I never named

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it, but people so go down
there to the little Gutta rats go down

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there. I was like, give
me your sneeker wearing, your gene wearing,

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come here. But it was respect. There was never no fights with

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never don hang in for the building, in the building or anything an how

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was you got it? Hurt?
You got it? So I was like

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a big brother over to me.
And in the building we got burnt out.

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So we got relocated to the to
the Congress Plaza Hotel. We stayed

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there till we mother finds something fifteen
twenty Missus Campbell. We found a nice

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building, brand new made to d
and Harvey Pallor said, the avenue,

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and we have two bathrooms. Ooh, two bathrooms and Dad will probably come

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home, you know what I'm saying. So and then the recreation was there

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for any meeting, any birthday,
any birthday, wedding, twenty five hours

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to rent it. So my sister's
going back to schools working you core job,

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and I mean, and I had
one of those so neighbor. All

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they was to ask me to protect
them. To go take this. I

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had to have a squad of people
around me. But it started out,

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you want to give a party back
to school, and I was heaving to

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my graffita and my music. A
part of the called the puzzle on River

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Avenue hundreds to seventh, then the
then the tunnel on the Hunters to first

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and look out of the Path hotel, which I had to come back to

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the party after I moved out of
there. And then they started to spread

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spread because the gangs was turning up
the parties and stuff. And this was

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convening two bathrooms, recreation room,
kitchen. I play my music from the

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room, observed the floor. I
was DJing at one part of co Op

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City and the gangs came in in, tore up. They left me,

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They left me alone. I had
everything, everything around. They asked me

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to be divisionally. I wasn't with
it, you know what I'm saying.

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I have my friend black Spades back
then was as a friends. I was

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chief in a divisional leader that asked
me, I don't need it, you

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know what I'm saying. I wasn't
putting them down. But after you need

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from a bunch of people by yourself, with a gang yourself. How has

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hip hop changed? It turns a
whole lot. First of all, I

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provide a payroll, you know,
giving kids another way to get out of

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the neighborhood. It's not jumping,
urnning fast at selling drugs music. I

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called it black gold ghetto steam.
And you're still DJing today. Enough games.

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I still my wax waxes. I'm
a John Henry of it. I

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still pay my wax quality, high
fidelity, and and I'm with you know

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new stuff too. I don't stand
in progress, you know, I always

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have. I called it up and
coming rookie to be involved. You share

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it and you have a big event
coming up. Yes, it's at the

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Andrew Freeman Home. Uh five,
The Grand Concourse between Hunts six, Huntrety

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fifth across the street from the mansion. Basically at the mansion. Well,

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I have prop have a have a
birthplace. But now we have a home

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and we're not at the bottom.
Now we're in the Grand Concourse and anything

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six blocks away from Yankee Stadium's business
here. When is this party coming up?

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It's going to be May tenth,
the day before Mother's Day. Yes,

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and this was from March first.
It was just coming up on.

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That's coming up. Yeah, and
you on this weekend. Yeah, from

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the car and guy you know,
Ralph Medaniel. We got Melly mel we

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got Treaded, some black Sheep.
We got Dana Dane and also Chante Roxanne

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you know she's she's hosting. And
got Jerry Jerry Leader. That's going to

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be the other room. We got
three rooms, an easier La gonna have

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one of the rooms. There's a
young man sitting next to you coming.

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Oh yeah, I'm looking at looking
at the my label. Now no more

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seeds added to me, So what's
happening with your label? Introduce this young

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man. This this is homegrown songless
songlesseners. And now let him hear you

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your songless Lo to the Hello Homegrown. Definitely, it's up there with Neo,

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He's up there with Usher. Somebody
gonna make his stamp on the music

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business. Oh here you ready for
this? Hello to the Hello, Hello

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to the Hello, A quick little
something something. I feel like I finally

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leave fashion, my queen. I
please, no one up, brother,

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you treat you raw, You leave
Dotyn, stop thinking about you even in

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my sleep. Nah no, Dna. We were me to be. Let

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him hear you, y'all, let
him hear you. He's gonna be on

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the tap. There you go.
You want to have this platform, it's

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gonna be. You're gonna be in
one of the rooms. Huh oh yeah,

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we're gonna put it. We're gonna
put it down, all right.

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Yeah. Some other people with him
on the CD that they have to be

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contacted. Please, they're one of
the three records. I'm feeling right off

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the back, ready to go.
And there's some more stuff to it now,

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but these are three. A producer, extraordinary, Helen Greenberg. She

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has to get you to come in
and do some stuff for us. Okay,

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give give Helen Greenberg a big round
applause, everybody. I can't I

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can't thank you now. She really
puts it together. She knows matter,

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do her thing. She's silent,
but she takes care of business. Also

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read Alert the dj J, Let's
Go Mad and I see him all the

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time over there. And Brad Fox
that man Reggae and also super Mic Beautiful

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that's Brad's that's Brad's nephew. God
restss sour from Grand Groove Man, met

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the record, the label catch the
Beat, that's his. Where can we

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get more information on this? Is
there a website or right now the website?

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Not? There more? An US
in the Bronx on the Grand Concourse.

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Come check it out or go to
the Andrew Freeman