Excerpt from Kool Herc interview

H = Clive "Kool Herc" Campbell
C = Cindy Campbell
S = Spady

H: I was never raised to be “red eye.” [Laughs heartily] When you’re envious of somebody, you can’t hide it. As my father used to say, “It’s a long run, short catch.” No matter how long they run with that “red eye,” it’s going to be a short catch. You’re going
to catch up to them... I know it can’t be. I know, just like A, B, C, one, two, three. I’m one. I started off that count. I’m one. They come as three, as two. I’m A. They come as B and C. I’m A. I’m ahead of the game. I’m eight years ahead of the game with them.
S: So when did you begin?
H: I started out in ‘71, ‘70.
C: 1973.
S: 1973 – now, was that at a playground or what?
H: Nah, it was like a new housing project.
C: It was in the recreation room.
H: There was a new housing development in the Bronx on Sedgwick Avenue, down by the Major Deegan highway.
S: How did you let the people know that you would be DJing the party there?
H: We made index cards.
S: And they would be handwritten. They weren’t even mimeographed at that time were they?
H: They’d be hand written! They’d be handwritten like this. [Herc demonstrates how they would look by writing it down like their early party announcements]
S Who would do the handwriting?
H: All of us. My sister. She’s the one that got me into it.
S: Got you into what?
H: She’s the one who got me to play the music. I started out doing Graffiti and dancing in clubs.
S: What kind of dancing – breakdancing, streetdancing?
H: Yeah, breakdancing. And my sister was working a Youth Corps job. She saved her money. She wanted to build on that money to go back to school and she wanted new clothes. She go down to Delancey Street. That’s where you would go to shop. Discounts
and stuff. She asked me to give a party.
S: To raise some money?
H: Yes, so we rented a recreation room for $25. [The recreation room in the building where they lived] We bought sodas and franks [i.e. hot dogs]. We charged 25 cents to get into the party. 25 cents for the girls, 25 cents for the fellas. And whatever the soda was, we went to the distributor and got them cheaper. So, we sold sodas for 50 cents. Frankfurter sandwiches for like a dollar.
S: Did you make about $100 in profit?
H: Oh no. [Herc and Cindy start laughing at the same time] We made about $300 or $400.
S: The very first party you made that much in profit?
H: Yes!
S: Now just who were you handing those index cards out to?
H: To our friends. And our friends could tell other people. We didn’t care so long as they come up into the party and don’t disrespect the party. When they first got there, they thought well... They never seen me before. They’d only seen my name on the trains and stuff like that. When they got there, they said, “Oh word?!?”
S: So you knew Phase II and other writers?
H: I used to run with them! They were my friends!
S: Is that right? This is before you were even known as “The Father of Hip Hop?” This is before you were even spinning?
H: Right.
S: Did you know how to spin when you were writing?
H: I had an ear for music because when I was dancing, I would hear the gripes from people around me on the dance floor, like, “Why he took that record off? Why he did not
let it play all the way through?” So I took that perspective right from the dance floor and I applied that to the turntable.
S: So you applied what you learned from the dancers on the dance floor to DJing?
H: I kept that mentality that I’m from the dance floor. I’m a dancer.
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