Webbly P.A.L. Teen Cuncil presents D.J. Kool Herc, Coke La Rock at Webster P.A.L., Bronx, New York, December 17, 1976

This flier is an advertisement for one of the earliest performances of DJ Kool Herc and Coke La Rock. This event was held at the Webster P.A.L., which became a popular venue for hip-hop performances. Promoted as a "Disco Smoker," the event occurred long before the music of DJ and MC teams was commonly known as hip-hop or rap.  Coke La Rock, a member of Kool Herc's crew, the Herculords, is considered one of the first MCs of hip-hop.  Herc put Coke La Rock on the microphone to motivate partygoers.  According to DJ Red Alert, Coke La Rock was the first to popularize the phrase "You rock and you don't stop," which is heavily utilized in Old School rap lyrics.  Coke La Rock also called out the names of people in the audience to generate enthusiasm.  He got his name from wearing glasses that looked like Coca-Cola bottles. Commenting on Coke La Rock, Kool Herc once said, "He's the one that started it.  Anytime you hear [of someone named] La Rock-whatever, it came from my man, Coke." 

DJ Kool Herc is known as the founding father of hip-hop. Having Caribbean roots and growing up in the Bronx, Kool Herc (Clive Campbell, b. 1955) is known for cultivating the hip-hop genre with his DJing skills and parties at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. that opened the space for youth parties starting in the late 1970s. Before becoming a DJ, he was a graffiti writer who wrote "Kool Herc." He became popular as a DJ in the Bronx with his massive sound system that revolutionized how music was played at local parties. The birth of hip-hop’s unique sound was Herc’s ability to enhance the sound of the speaker, connect two turn tables and use channel knobs as his mixer, as well as adding an echo chamber and eight microphones so he could play music and talk to the crowd, which was something people had never experienced musically before. The new sonic skill that Herc emphasized during his DJ sets was the extension of the breakdown also known as the break. He began searching for disco, funk, rock, soul and Caribbean records because of the sound of their breaks, which he then played two of the same records on the turn tables, back-cueing a record at the beginning of the break that normally lasted five seconds where he began to extend them together. Kool Herc’s unique DJ style and ability to amplify speakers and having MCs on the mic revolutionized the way urban youth in the Bronx danced and listened to disco and funk music.

Coke La Rock (Birthname unknown, b. 1955) performed alongside Kool Herc for his first party to celebrate Herc's sister Cindy's birthday in 1973. At this party and several parties afterward, La Rock had no stage name and performed out of sight from the audience, so no one knew who was doing the rapping. Coke La Rock was a friend and musical partner of DJ Kool Herc, who himself is generally considered to have laid down the foundation for hip-hop music starting in 1973. La Rock was thus an original member of Herc's MC crew the Herculords. According to Herc, Coke La Rock's MC name had various iterations, beginning as "A-1 Coke" and then moving on to "Nasty Coke" before it was finalized as "Coke La Rock". His original raps were shout-outs to his friends before the actual poetry emerged in his lyrics. He originated phrases such as "You rock and you don't stop" and "Hotel, motel, you don't tell, we won't tell".