DJ Kool Herc took the parties outside of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx. In the aftermath, park jams sprung up, club promoters took note, and Grandmaster Flash saw how picking up a record needle could change the world.

On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc and Cindy Campbell rented the rec room in their apartment building for $25. The party in the tiny room with linoleum floors, steel-encased radiators, and white-tiled drop ceiling, would change their lives forever. Hip-Hop was born.

Students at Eramus High School in Flatbush legitimized graffiti as not only a genuine artistic expression, but also helped create an organizational structure that would lay the groundwork for future Hip-Hop organizations like the Zulu Nation.

Hip-Hop is often unpacked using sampling as the primary example of how the sound was shaped by peripheral genres. However, the infancy of Hip-Hop reveals an unexpected connection to both Jamaican sound system culture, and the immigrant, DJ Kool Herc, who helped launch it in the Bronx.