This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley.

This month marks 50 years of hip-hop. To celebrate, all this week will be featuring interviews

with some of the most influential rappers and DJs over the last 50 years.

We'll start at the beginning with DJ Cool Herc, who on August 11, 1973,

DJed an end-of-summer party in his Bronx Apartments Rec Center. Little did he know that it was

the beginning of hip-hop as we know it. Cool Herc was the first DJ to isolate and repeat the

breaks, the most danceable beats in a record, to rev the party and keep the dancers going.

Although Herc is often credited as the father of hip-hop, he didn't record and for years remained

relatively unknown. Grandmaster Flash took Hert's method one step further, developing mixing and

scratching techniques that became part of the basics of hip-hop. We'll hear Terry's interview

with him later in the show. His group, Grandmaster Flash in the Furious Five, was the first hip-hop

group inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. Meli Mel was a member and wrapped on the

message which is considered one of the best rap records ever made. We'll hear from him also.

But let's kick it off with DJ Cool Herc. He spoke to Terry in 2005 about the parties he threw

in the Bronx back in the 70s. They started with the mix that Cool Herc would often play at parties.

We'll hear from him later in the show.

Cool Herc, welcome to Fresh Air. Take us back to the beginning of hip-hop. Would you

describe what you would do at parties? Okay, the party was started like this. I ride my bicycle

some of the time all over the Bronx everywhere and people as I go along, they would ask,

hey Herc, the last party was the bomb, it was the joint, you know, that's when the first slang

thing started, it was the joint. I love it. When is the next one? Until I build up, when is the

next one? That's when we give the party. When we give the party three weeks prior to the date,

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