FORMER HOME OF KOOL HERC NAMED BIRTHPLACE OF HIP HOP

Former home of DJ Kool Herc recognized as the birthplace of hip hop by New York State…..

Legendary deejay Kool Herc is credited as being one of the founding fathers of rap largely because he began throwing parties in the Bronx int he seventies which served as the springboard of the hip hop culture. The deejay’s former home, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx has been named the official birthplace of hip hop by New York State.

On Monday July 23rd, hip hop fans and elected officials such as Congressman Jose Serrano and Senator Charles Schumer will convene at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue to formally recognized the building as a place of “exceptional importance.” The site was also recently proclaimed eligible to be named a national histopric landmark.

“And I said you know what since my father is a mechanic, a bodybuilder and a very heavy-handed disciplinarian. I don’t want him to find out that I was somebody tagging up the trains and a problem. So that was my time to get out of the game of tagging the train when my sister asked me to play the party. So with that curiosity, who Kool Herc is, what he looked like, we used that and they came down to the party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.”

In addition to the fanfare, the event will also double as a rally to keep the building as affordable Mitchell-Lama housing. The building’s current owners are thinking about changig the building over so that they can ask market rate for the units.

Kool Herc explained how he was a young graffiti artosts when his sister Cindy asked him to deejay the parties in the building’s community room. He said,