Gotta correct some stuff in this thread..
One thing most people don't know is that HipHop culture evolved out of 2 schools..
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Older Disco Dj's (they came before herc and were all over New York from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, People like Pete DJ Jones and Grandmaster Flowers for example)
-these Disco Djs were professional disco dj's who did blends, mixing, beat matching etc..
-they played to more middle class and college educated types of crowds and some of them did outside parties and park jams.
-they made more money and you couldn't go to the parties they held w/o dressing up
-the playlists were heavy on disco, disco-funk and some pure hardcore funk
-manipulating songs by having 2 copies of the same record
-the rappers were the kings/crowd drawers...
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2.
Dj Kool Herc and his followers (he started in 1973 and was based in the Bronx)
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-these were younger crowds...like 18 and under
-these were mainly park jams where anyone could go
-they didn't do Disco dj techniques
at first. All they did was play records all the way through
-the playlists were mainly hardcore funk with some disco-funk and disco. The younger crowds wanted that pure Funk over the disco (Herc even tried to play reggae at first but noone liked it according to him)
- at these jams, the DJ was king...this was before rappers appeared in the Herc seen.
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The Bronx scene mainly happened because they could not afford to get into the Disco clubs or they were too young to get into them so the Bronx scene sprung up as an alternative for the younger kids/teens.
bugs please take your medication...
"thier would be no HIP HOP without JAMAICAN MUSIC CULTURE!"
Jamaican Deejays would Toast (rap) on the mic while the selector (turntabilist) would spin a dub riddem (instrumental track) matter of fact Kool Herc had a crew of mic men (m.c's) whom were referred to themselves as TOASTERS......which was basically the root of the chants and poetic slogans i.e (say hoe....everybody scream!) that would lead to modern day rapping in the MC style...
and keep in mind...all this was taking place in Jamaica ,
20 years prior to what Rudy Ray Moore was doing in those blackexploitation flicks and stageshows.....men like Count Matchuki , Lord Comic, Dennis Alcapone, U Roy, Jah Stitch aka Uglyman were toasting or as the yankees say RAPPING along to vinyl being spun..that my friend is the DIRECT LINK and BIRTH OF HIP HOP.
Do you know where Jamaicans actually first picked up what they call toasting? Black American radio Dj's of the 1940's R&b era
American rapping and Jamaican Toasting and dancehall style are related/cousins but its through a different route..
Oldschool black american jive talking-patter!.
The first modern rappers in he scene(s) that birth HipHop were actually Disco Dj"s!!. For the record, Coke La Rock didn't rap like a modern rapper and he's actually from North Carolina
The first people in NYC to "Rap" on the mic were these Disco DJ's like Dj Hollywood and Lovebug Starski . The Kool Herc school of "Mcing" which started off with his main sidekick/MC by name of Coka La Rock . The confusion as where to Rapping started comes from the misconception that American Rapping evolved out of Jamaican "Toasting" via Coke La Rock who was thought to thought to be of Jamaican descent
"The first emcee in hip hop history has been ignored and disrespected for far too long. That is why he will be the first representative of the original hip hop generation to be inducted into the High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam on November 25, 2010. In this video, Coke discusses how he got his name (from drinking chocolate milk), some of the errors in fact that have been circulated about him, and talks in detail about the night Kool Herc was stabbed at a party, an event which led to Coke withdrawing from the hip hop scene just as Grandmaster Flash, the L Brothers, The Funky Four, and the Cold Crush Brothers were emerging to take hip hop to new heights."
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Herc and Coke La Rock
did not rap or do syncopated talking that rhymes while flowing to a beat/music. What Coke La Rock did was more like a radio Dj which is more like Jamaican toasting. Now, the question is, what is the relationship between American Rapping and Jamaican Toasting? The connection is oldschool Afram Jive speak/patter/other oral traditions! Jamaican Toasting is an offshoot of Afram Jive that Jamaicans picked up on in the 1940's/50's from Black Radio DJ and Jazz R&B records. Read below..
More on Jocko, one of the american dj's who was imitated in Jamaica
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Douglas "Jocko" Henderson ranks with Daddy O' Daylie and Hot Rod Hulbert as one of the original rhythm and blues radio disc jockeys. His smooth, swinging, rhymed talkovers were imitated by the jocks of the early rock and roll era, and became one of the major sources for the rap style.
Though his influence on hip-hop was crucial, it took an indirect route as the model for the toasts of early Jamaican sound system deejays. Some say that Jocko's syndicated radio shows, beamed into the Caribbean from Miami provided the standard for Jamaican deejays. Another story claims that sound system promoter and record producer Coxsone Dodd encountered Jocko on one his record buying trips to the U.S., and encouraged his dee-jays to imitate Jocko's style. However his influence reached Jamaica, titles like "The Great Wuga Wuga" by Sir Lord Comic and "Ace from Space" by U. Roy were catch phrases directly appropriated from Jocko's bag of verbal tricks. When Kool DJ Herc adapted the Jamaican sound system to New York City party crowds, the stylized public address patter that accompanied his bass heavy program was rooted in Jocko's rhyming jive patter.
Jocko started in radio in the Baltimore of 1950, moving to Philadelphia, where he attained enough momentum to arrange a daily commute to New York for a second shift. It was in New York that he hosted "Jocko's Rocket Ship", a black oriented television dance party show that was the forerunner of "Soul Train". He also made many appearances as an M.C. of rhythm and blues shows and hosted large scale record hops that anticipated ballroom disco shows."
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jocko-mn0000113325/biography
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Definition of toasting in Jamaican culture
toasting, chatting, or deejaying is the act of talking or chanting, usually in a monotone melody, over a rhythm or beat by a deejay. The lyrics can be either improvised or pre-written. Toasting has been used in various African traditions, such as griots chanting over a drum beat, as well as in Jamaican music forms, such as dancehall, reggae, ska, dub, and lovers rock. Toasting's mix of talking and chanting may have influenced the development of MCing in US hip hop music. The combination of singing and toasting is known as singjaying.
In the late 1950s deejay toasting was developed by Count Machuki. He conceived the idea from listening to disc jockeys on American radio stations. He would do American jive over the music while selecting and playing R&B music. Deejays like Count Machuki working for producers would play the latest hits on traveling sound systems at parties and add their toasts or vocals to the music. These toasts consisted of comedy, boastful commentaries, chants, half-sung rhymes, rhythmic chants, squeals, screams, and rhymed storytelling.
Definition of "Toasts" in Black American culture
Part of the African American oral tradition is toasting (rhymed folk tales about various mythical folk heroes) and signifiying (Signifying refers to the act of using secret or double meanings of words to either communicate multiple meanings to different audiences, or to trick them. To the leader and chorus of a work song, for example, the term “captain” may be used to indicate discontent, while the overseer of the work simultaneously thinks it’s being used as a matter of respect.). Signifiying also involves taking concepts and situations and redefining them. It is part ingenuity, innovation, adaptation, and style. Stories, ideals, and songs can all be signified.
Traditional African American toasting
Toasting has been part of African American urban tradition since Reconstruction as part of a verbal art tradition, dating back to the griots of Africa. African American stories usually lauds the exploits of the clever and not entirely law-abiding trickster hero (not always human) who uses his wits to defeat his opponents.
Toasters continue the oral tradition by recounting the legends and myths of the community in venues ranging from street corner gatherings, bars, and community centers, to libraries and college campuses. As with oral traditions in general, and with other African American art forms as the blues, toasting uses a mixture of repetition and improvisation.
There are many versions of the best-known toasts, often conflicting in detail. Historically, the toast is very male- oriented, and many toasts contain profane or sexual language, although more family-oriented versions also exist.
Well known toasts include "Shine and the Titanic", "Dolemite", "Stack O Lee", "Jo Jo Gun," and "Signifyin' Monkey."
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Now to get a description of what Herc and his 2 sidemen were doing on the mic..The first people to "rap" in the Bronx scence were members of the Furious Five. These were people like Melle Mel and Cowboy
Quote from Scorpio one of the founding members to the group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5
JQ : Furious was one of the original groups outside of the Herculords right ?
SC : With the Herculords - Timmy Tim & Coke La Rock they never rhymed ; they just said lil phrases like "yes yall youre now listening to the sounds of Kool Herc and the Herculords" . But we were the first group in the Bronx to do full rhymes to the beat . If we own any patent ,its that rhymin' to the beat
http://www.thafoundation.com/scorpiof5int.htm
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Quote From Kool Herc on how rapping started
With that in mind I wondered something: If Coke La Rock (Kool Herc’s MC) was just spittin’ little phrases on the mike, not full all out rhymes as we know it today, then who was the first real MC spittin’ lyric for lyric on beat with a continuous flow?
“Mr. Herc,” I asked him as I scratched my head and searched for the right words. “I’m curious about something.” I said, “Who was the first person that you saw rap as we know it today?”
Just then at that moment a warm smile enveloped Kool Herc’s street hardened face. He looked out the window across the street at Lake Merritt, almost as if he was looking back at that day, in a quiet voice he said, “It was Mele Mel… Mele Mel and Kid Creole. They were at a boxing gym on 169th St, in the Fort Apache area, as a matter of fact, it was the last place that I seen Big Pun alive at.”
In a quiet and almost somber voice he recalled the events while sometimes taking a pause to look down at his battle scarred hands. “They was in the middle of a boxing ring with these big Afro’s… Kid Creole, as little as he is, had one too. Flash was behind them cuttin’. When I saw them I just smiled cause I knew where they got it from…they got it from me. And they knew that they got it from me. I wasn’t mad. Mele Mel saw me in the crowd and just nodded at me. I laughed to myself.”
It must’ve been one helluva moment.
Hanging above the dimly lit gym was a thick cloud of smoke; it was a pungent mixture of cigarettes and reefer laced with angel dust. Stoned out dust heads tripped out as the dazzling display of flashing lights played psychedelic tricks on their minds. In the red light haze surrounded by stick up kids, gangsters and hyperactive b-boys Kool Herc got to see the first steps of his creation taking on a new dimension, as brothers Mele Mel and Creole were laying down the foundation for rap, as we know it today..
http://hiphop101a.blogspot.com/2008/06/once-upon-time-in-bronx-rise-of.html
Quote from Kevie Kev the captain of the L- Brothers, Leader of the Fantastic Four and Five M.C.s and a member once of the Furious Five M.C.s. This interview is very telling because it explains why what he call "rappers" today were called "emcees" in the Herc Bronx scene.
Q -The first m.c. you heard on the mic was one of Herc’s boy’s?
A -No, no, they wasn’t really m.c.ing, they just use to talk on the mic. The first m.c.’s I saw was Creole and Mele Mel.
Q- So what about Coke La Rock, did he also just talk on the mic?
A - Yeah he used to talk on the mic, little slurs or what ever, but he was like the strong arm to Herc’s crew. He was like the voice unheard, you know what I am saying, the low. That’s my man.
Q - As far as an m.c., did he get down like ya’ll did, because I have a lot of people that ask me about Coke La Rock?
A - No, it’s different, it was totally different. If we used to try to rhyme, he used to just talk.
(interviewer) Right.
A -Like a real m.c., a master of ceremony.
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Definition of Master of Ceremonies (MC)
A Master of Ceremonies (MC or emcee), or Compère, is the official host of a staged event or similar performance. An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving
This is exactly what Herc and his 2 sidemen were doing in the early days in the Bronx. At that point, there were no rappers=syncopated talking that rhymes while flowing to a beat/music . Rappers in the modern sense did exist with the Disco DJ's though. You didn't have rappers in the Bronx/herc scene before Melle Mel and Cowboy.
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Read Grandmaster Caz's and Grandmaster Flash's thought on the early MC's and where rapping came from below. Afrika Baambaata alos cites some influences
Trust me man... rap as we know it came from pimps 
