Coke La Rock is Hip-Hop’s original MC. This is not in dispute.
Coke La Rock was partners with DJ Kool Herc commonly known as the father of Hip-Hop. But right next to him, on the mic, was Coke La Rock. The 60-something-year-old Hip-Hop Pioneer was right there in the West Bronx with Herc and his sister/First Lady of Hip-Hop Cindy Campbell when they threw that now-infamous back to school party that doubled as a fundraiser for Cindy’s school clothing. Coke La Rock served as a companion piece to DJ Kool Herc work on the wheels of steel by grabbing the mic, doing shout outs and short rhymes in front of partygoers. Those rhymes would soon be the foundation for numerous rap heads, hit records like the Sugar Hill Gangs “Rapper’s Delight” and an eventual billion dollar business full of millions and millions of rappers. Such is his impact, he is now being called a “co-founder” of the culture of Hip-Hop.
We talked to Coke La Rock at WonWorld Studios in NYC for this exclusive and enchanting interview with a pioneer in a genre that doesn’t always pay proper homage to its forefathers and mothers. But this interview is a no holds barred look at an intriguing figure whose most interesting parts do not necessarily have anything to do with rap music. However, as it relates to Hip-Hop, Coke has a lot to say about his life and times. He discusses going all out for Kool Herc, ready to take a life, when the legend was nearly killed in a stabbing. He talks his early days of hustling and getting to places no other 17-year old could get into. He also discuses The Bronx, how crazy those jams were and even his penchant for holding three guns on him just in case.
AND THEN THERE IS HIP-HOP…
Coke La Rock keeps it real from his relationship to Herc to how he feels undervalued. He was here for the first Hip-Hop party with Herc and Cindy to being involved in the first rap battle to the first one to grab the mic to kick a rhyme. He even gives his Top 5…and the answer is a shocker. In a historical context, Coke La Rock is a national treasure and does not get nearly the respect that he deserves and it is time for that to change.
Look at this intriguing interview with AllHipHop’s own Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur.
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