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From Jamaica to the rest of the world
Arguably the founder of Hip-Hop, and the pioneer of the breakbeat, DJ Kool Herc was born in Jamaica where he was inspired by the dancehall parties where he grew up in Kingston. When he moved to the Bronx, New York in the late 60’s, when he was 12 years old, Soundsystem culture had made an indelible mark in his upbringing and his future aspirations.
He started throwing parties while still in high-school and it wasn’t too long until he had a full crew of emcees, b-boys (breakdancers) and himself as the DJ. His crew was call the Herculoids and his soundsystem of legendary volume, was called the “the herculords” which not only provided much entertainment for many young party-goers in the Bronx, but also fierce competition to rival crews and their soundsystems from other NY burroughs. Herc was just one of the many originators of hip-hop and the starting point in many fascinating musical innovations, but importantly to this story, he imported Soundsystem culture into the US and with it, changed the face of music forever.
Soundsystem culture would spread over to the UK as well, with the influx of immigrants from the Caribbean. It helped strenghen the UK’s legendary clubbing scene and lead to the establishment of crews such as London Sound System in the 70’s and 80’s who would influence popular Urban music by the likes of Soul II Soul and Massive Attack. Overall Soundsystem culture would ultimately be a key inspiration in the Rave revolution of the 90s which spread across Europe and to the rest of the world.
To this day a DJ, and any musician for that matter, is nothing without a good Soundsystem. And Soundsystem culture, which has been around for over 7 decades, has had as much influence on just about every popular music genre, from Reggae to Hip-Hop to Dance Music, as the music makers themselves.
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