On this day, Aug. 11, in hip-hop history...

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1973: DJ Kool Herc hosted the first "Rec Room Party" in the Bronx, NY on Aug. 11, 1973.

It's mid-August in 1973, and a young, ambitious Clive Campbell is set to turn the tables with an all-star playlist at his sister’s back-to-school bash in The Bronx, N.Y. Little did anyone know that this day would go down in history as what we now know as the birth of hip-hop culture.

Colliding classic funk records from James Brown with eclectic, British rock accents from Babe Ruth, Herc became the creator of a new genre and a legend overnight after gathering over 300 people in the rec room of his family’s 1520 Sedgwick Avenue project complex. After captivating the masses and bringing a fresh sound to his first show, Herc was called upon to spin at much larger venues where he then found what is now known as “the break.” Closing in on a particularly percussive portion of a track by spinning the same record on two turntables, Kool Herc would isolate, prolong, and repeat a small fragment of a record that most people would enjoy dancing to. Spearheading “the break” within records had a major impact on dance at the time, thus Herc became the acclaimed pioneer of the hip-hop terms “b-boys” and “b-girls” for the performers that would fall into “breakdance” during this segment of a record.

Over the years, DJ Kool Herc would move on to inspire other hip-hop legends in the making, including recording artist and DJ Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. Herc’s notable innovations would create an everlasting art form and a known culture to thousands. When it was announced that Global Hip Hop Day launched in The Bronx in June last year, Herc was on hand as the gatekeeper to celebrate.

—Asia Burris