Marc Fennell

So she has an idea.

Cindy's older brother is called Clive, but his stage name, yes, is DJ Kool Herc.

And if that name sounds familiar, it's because these days he is a living legend in the hip hop scene.

Some even call him the founder of hip hop.

But at the time, he's just an 18 year old playing around on the decks at his sister's party.

And so Herc sets up his two turntables and he starts playing some reggae records, but they're kind of slow.

And this is where DJ Kool Herc's innovation comes in.

So he's got one vinyl spinning already and it's playing James Brown's Get On The Good Foot.

But he's got the exact same vinyl, another copy, in his bag.

So he gets it out and he puts it on the second turntable.

He finds the same spot in the song that people are dancing to and he cues it up.

He's essentially isolated and extended the best bit of the song, the instrumental breakdown where people are filling the dance floor and just going wild.

By repeating and extending the break, Kool Herc has created one of the foundation stones of hip hop.

And that's sort of the innovation that he brings to the whole scene.

The dexterity involved in doing that, you know, if it's never been done before, like now it's part of the culture, but like if it's never been done before, that's kind of an amazing thing.

People come to see him play because it's not what they're hearing on the radio or what their parents are playing.

And so DJ Kool Herc has started something.

He's not just giving young people in the Bronx a great party with music breaks to dance to.

He's also giving them a place to get together, which is incredibly important at this moment in history because just a few years before all of this, the Bronx was dominated by street gangs and they were territorial.

People are coming together to enjoy this new form of music, thanks to Kool Herc's innovation.