Jeff Chang

There's a lot of excitement.

You know, they're rolling these big Shure speakers.

These are like tower speakers.

So they're probably, I don't know, they're maybe four or five feet high, maybe higher.

Trying to figure out how he might be able to take this sound system

and do what he saw the DJs do back in Kingston when they were living there.

Because what he saw in Kingston was a new way of playing music.

Herc's seen these DJs in Kingston playing these records on these two turntables with this loud sound system and packing tenement yards and different types of places within the city where people gather.

This is a New York Bronx youth type of audience.

They're used to soul music.

They're used to uptempo music.

And so he realizes, oh, I've got to switch this up really quick.

And so he starts putting on things like James Brown's Get On The Good Foot.

Which is a much more up-tempo type of song.

And that's when the kids really begin to dance.

And the dance that's going off right now, at that particular time, they're calling it like the break, right?

The part where the crowd gets most excited is when all of the instrumentalists drop out and it just goes to the percussion.

This part of the song is called the break or the break down.

And that's the part where the dancers get really live and they start really competing with each other on the dance floor.

So Herc's like, wow, like if that's the mood and the vibe that I get when I do that, how do I make that go longer?