Cindy Campbell aimed to buy new school clothes and had an inventive way to fund them. She rented out the rec room in her family’s Bronx apartment building for just $25 and personally crafted invitations on index cards. Admission was set at 25 cents for girls and 50 cents for boys.
Her parents assisted by offering food and beverages for sale. For music, Cindy enlisted her older brother, an 18-year-old who had created his own sound system.
This gathering happened on August 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, lasting from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. Her brother, Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, is credited for pioneering hip-hop that night in the Bronx. The party’s 50th anniversary was marked in 2023.
“My sister threw a back-to-school party,” Herc shared with NPR during the commemoration, laughing.
Duplicated Records and the Birth of a New Sound
The Campbell siblings were natives of Kingston, Jamaica, immersed in the island’s sound system traditions. Their mother, Nettie, relocated the family to the Bronx while attending nursing school, with Clive arriving in 1967 at age 12. His sound system, the Herculoids, drew inspiration from Kingston systems but emphasized higher-frequency sounds rather than the dominant bass found in Jamaican setups.
Observing the dance floor, Herc noticed dancers energized most during the instrumental breaks—short drum and percussion sequences in funk and soul tracks. To extend these moments, he used two copies of the same record on separate turntables and alternated between them using a mixer, looping the break repeatedly. He called this technique the merry-go-round. Without headphones, he identified breaks by inspecting the vinyl grooves.
“I had two copies of the same record and I went for the yolk, the butter,” he explained.
The playlist that night featured “It’s Just Begun” by the Jimmy Castor Bunch as well as songs from the Incredible Bongo Band, the Isley Brothers, and James Brown. Herc’s friend, Coke La Rock, acted as the MC, hyping the crowd with shoutouts and quick rhymes during the breaks. Dancers energizing these breaks became known as b-boys and b-girls.
Estimating the Crowd Size
Historical reports on attendance vary. Some claim more than 300 attendees were present. Jeff Chang, author of the definitive hip-hop chronicle Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, estimates about one hundred people at most including kids and adults, describing the event as a “creation myth” that evolved into legend.
Jerry Leader, a 6-year-old resident in the building at that time, didn’t attend but recalled Herc “set up in a closet” while the crowd danced nearby.
Herc’s gatherings attracted teens too young for New York’s 21-plus nightclubs. “He’s providing music for kids,” Chuck D of Public Enemy noted in Smithsonian magazine in a 2021 interview. Cindy Campbell emphasized, “It wasn’t started from blood money, illegal money, or drug money.”
The Legacy of an 18-Story Bronx Building
The setting was a large, 18-story apartment complex housing 102 units, completed in 1967 within the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx. On July 5, 2007, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation officially designated it as hip-hop’s birthplace.
This recognition didn’t guarantee the building’s preservation. Purchased by investors in 2008 intending to develop market-rate apartments, it fell into disrepair following the housing market collapse. In 2010, a $5.6 million loan from the city enabled a new management group to acquire the mortgage, assuming ownership in 2011.
In August 2022, Herc’s original gear went to auction at Christie’s. Over 200 items, including turntables, records, disco balls, and six-foot custom speakers, raised more than $850,000. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honored him in 2023 with the Musical Influence Award, with LL Cool J hailing him as “the Father of Hip-Hop.”
The initial rec room remains on the building’s first floor, featuring low ceilings, a compact kitchen, and storage areas. As of 2023, it looks much the same as it did in the 1970s, though no commemorative plaque adorns its walls.
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