Kool DJ Herc

Essential Festival 2000

Saturday 15th to Sunday 16th July 2000
Stanmer Park , Brighton, England

What can you say? He basically invented hip-hop, and DJing generally, when he started spinning breakbeats back to back to extend them. Ask anyone who is properly into hip-hop and they will name Herc as one of the founding fathers. He is a legend, not just of the hip-hop scene, but of all modern black and dance music. As one of the originators, you would expect him to have a higher profile, but Herc got stabbed in the early 80's at a party he was DJing and dropped out of the limelight. People obviously wanted to check out this older-than-the-old-school legend and the tent was consequently packed. So, did he spin a legendary set, demonstrating the talents of a man who started all this shit? No. Herc was pretty wack to be honest.

When he DJed in the Bronx he was famous for having the biggest sound system and a crate of the heaviest funky breaks. A decent sound system was in place on Sunday, and he certainly brought the funk with him, but unfortunately he seemed to have left his skills at home. His set basically consisted of rarely heard, James-Brown style, hard drum breaks, mixed with absolutely no talent whatsoever. While the tunes were out of the top drawer, his annoying habit of simply cutting each record halfway through to bring in the next one, with no regard for timing, and his 'moblie disco' mic pronouncements were awful. At one point it seemed as though he was introducing every tune with 'Here's another sure-shot for you and yours.' To make things worse, no one was dancing because he kept cutting each record out halfway and then bringing a totally incompatible one straight in, making any attempt to get your groove on nearly impossible.

Now I hate to basically dis one of hip-hop's creators, but his set was shit. Although skills like that might have been acceptable in the late 70's, they are not good enough for anyone who calls him- or herself a DJ in the year 2000, and it is no coincidence that Herc was mainly known for his sound system, while others such as Grandmaster Flash and Grandwizard Theodore were known for their innovative techniques and skills. However, Herc deserves our respect for what he started back in the day, and when you consider that many less deserving and even talentless people have made millions from the artform that he was instrumental in developing, he also deserves our support. I will never urge anyone to see Herc for musical thrills, but hip-hop heads the world over owe him a debt of gratitude and as such, it is almost our duty to pay to see him, no matter how unhappy the experience is.

review by: Ill Will