DJ KOOL HERC at Wrongbar (1279 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, February 10), 9 pm. $10. 416-516-8677. See listing.
DJ Kool Herc taught the world plenty about the power of spinning records at a party. His legendary early 70s Bronx bashes are considered the birthplace of hip-hop.
Now Herc, born Clive Campbell in Jamaica, is teaching us not to take our Canadian health care system for granted. Last week DJ Premier dropped a bomb on his radio show that Campbell was sick in hospital and unable to afford proper treatment due to lack of insurance. The hip-hop community immediately jumped to his aid, establishing an online medical relief fund.
The cause is also being taken up locally. Herculoids Unite! features an A-list squad of Toronto DJs including Starting from Scratch, Paul E. Lopes and Skratch Bastid, aka Paul Murphy.
“It’s a chance for me as a DJ to give back to the source,” says Murphy. “Hip-hop has brought me a lot of good times, it’s taught me a lot and I have a career because of it today.”
The DJs will keep it old-school by strictly spinning vinyl. It’s a tip of the sideways cap to Campbell’s game-changing record-playing innovations, like keeping a crowd moving by using only the break section of a song, or playing two copies of the same record on separate turntables and switching back and forth during the same break, inventing hip-hop in the process.
All proceeds go straight to Campbell.
