How Hip-Hop Was Born at a Bronx House Party in 1973 August 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, 18-year-old Jamaican immigrant Clive Campbell (DJ Kool Herc) changed music history. His sister Cindy rented their building's rec room for $25 to earn money for school clothes, charging 25 cents for girls and 50 cents for boys. Herc pioneered the "Merry-Go-Round" technique—using two turntables and two copies of the same record to extend the drum "breaks" from 6 seconds to 6 minutes. This bre