To celebrate the its 85th anniversary, the Jackson Advocate dedicated the first issue of its new volume to poetry, spoken word, and hip hop in Jackson and around the state. Charlie Braxton, a renowned, prolific music journalist, wrote a comprehensive history of Jackson hip hop in the issue. Please visit our website by clicking the graphic below or the link in the story introduction below to read more.

By Charlie Braxton

Jackson Advocate Guest Writer

In August of 1973, a 15-year-old South Bronx resident named Cynthia Campbell wanted to buy some fly new school clothes to impress all of her teenage friends. Unfortunately, she had one major problem – she didn’t have enough money to afford some of the brand name clothes she wanted. She needed a way to raise money, so she decided to throw a back to school party and charge local kids .25 cents for girls and .50 cents for boys to attend. In addition, she would purchase hot dogs, sodas, chips, and malt liquor at a wholesale price and sell them at the party, which would earn her even more revenue. For the venue, she used the recreation room in her apartment building located at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Now the only thing else that was needed was a musical act, which could be quite expensive.

Luckily for her, her brother Clive was a budding DJ who went by the name Kool Herc. Herc had a huge speaker system in his room that would be perfect for a party. So Cynthia asked her brother to DJ her party and he agreed.

Please click the graphic below to continue the story.