health and wellness | February 11, 2026

DJ Kool Herc Net Worth 2024, Age, Height, Bio, Birthday, Wiki!

Explore DJ Kool Herc net worth, age, height, bio, birthday, wiki, and salary! In this article, we will discover how old is DJ Kool Herc? Who is DJ Kool Herc dating now & how much money does DJ Kool Herc have?

DJ Kool Herc Biography

DJ Kool Herc is one of the most popular and richest Disc Jockey who was born on April 16, 1955 in United States.

Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican DJ who is credited with helping originate hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s through his “Back to School Jam”, hosted on August 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. After his younger sister, Cindy Campbell, became inspired to earn extra cash for back-to-school clothes, she decided to have her older brother, then 16 years old, play music for the neighborhood in their apartment building. Known as the “Founder of Hip-Hop” and “Father of Hip-Hop”, Campbell began playing hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown.

Clive Campbell was the first of six children born to Keith and Nettie Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica. While growing up, he saw and heard the sound systems of neighborhood parties called dance halls, and the accompanying speech of their DJs, known as toasting. He emigrated with his family at the age of 12 to The Bronx, New York City in November 1967, where they lived at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

NameDJ Kool Herc
First NameDouglas
Last NameElmendorf
OccupationDisc Jockey
BirthdayApril 16
Birth Year1955
Place of Birth
Home Town
Birth CountryUnited States
Birth SignAries
Full/Birth Name
ParentsNettie Campbell, Keith Campbell
SiblingsNot Available
SpouseNot Known
Children(s)Not Available

Ethnicity, religion & political views

Many peoples want to know what is DJ Kool Herc ethnicity, nationality, Ancestry & Race? Let's check it out! As per public resource, IMDb & Wikipedia, DJ Kool Herc's ethnicity is Not Known. We will update DJ Kool Herc's religion & political views in this article. Please check the article again after few days.

Herc stated that he first introduced the Merry-Go-Round into his sets in 1972. The earliest known Merry-Go-Round involved playing James Brown’s “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” (with its refrain, “Now clap your hands! Stomp your feet!”), then switching from that record’s break into the break from a second record, “Bongo Rock” by The Incredible Bongo Band. From the “Bongo Rock”‘s break, Herc used a third record to switch to the break on “The Mexican” by the English rock band Babe Ruth.

DJ Kool Herc Net Worth

DJ Kool Herc is one of the richest Disc Jockey from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, DJ Kool Herc's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

Campbell attended the Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the Bronx, where his height, frame, and demeanor on the basketball court prompted the other kids to nickname him “Hercules”. After being involved in a physical altercation with school bullies, the Five Percenters came to Herc’s aid, befriended him and as Herc put it, helped “Americanize” him with an education in New York City street culture. He began running with a graffiti crew called the Ex-Vandals, taking the name Kool Herc. Herc recalls persuading his father to buy him a copy of “Sex Machine” by James Brown, a record that not a lot of his friends had, and which they would come to him to hear. He and his sister, Cindy, began hosting back-to-school parties in the recreation room of their building, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

Net Worth$5 Million
SalaryUnder Review
Source of IncomeDisc Jockey
CarsNot Available
HouseLiving in own house.

Afrika Bambaataa first heard Kool Herc in 1973. Bambaataa, at that time a general in the notorious Black Spades gang of the Bronx, obtained his own soundsystem in 1975 and began to DJ in Herc’s style, converting his followers to the non-violent Zulu Nation in the process. Kool Herc began using The Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache” as a break in 1975. It became a firm b-boy favorite—”the Bronx national anthem”—and is still in use in hip hop today. Steven Hager wrote of this period:

According to music journalist Steven Ivory, in 1973, Herc placed on the turntables two copies of Brown’s 1970 Sex Machine album and ran “an extended cut ‘n’ mix of the percussion breakdown” from “Give It Up or Turnit Loose”, signaling the birth of hip hop.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

DJ Kool Herc height Not available right now. Douglas weight Not Known & body measurements will update soon.

HeightUnknown
WeightNot Known
Body MeasurementsUnder Review
Eye ColorNot Available
Hair ColorNot Available
Feet/Shoe SizeNot Available

Grandmaster Flash suggests that Herc may not have kept pace with developments in techniques of cueing (lining up a record to play at a certain place on it). Developments changed techniques of cutting (switching from one record to another) and scratching (moving the record by hand to and fro under the stylus for percussive effect) in the late 1970s. Herc said he retreated from the scene after being stabbed at the Executive Playhouse while trying to intercede in a fight, and the burning down of one of his venues. In 1980, Herc had stopped DJing and was working in a record shop in South Bronx.

For over five years the Bronx had lived in constant terror of street gangs. Suddenly, in 1975, they disappeared almost as quickly as they had arrived. This happened because something better came along to replace the gangs. That something was eventually called hip-hop.

Who is DJ Kool Herc Dating?

According to our records, DJ Kool Herc is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, DJ Kool Herc’s is not dating anyone.

Relationships Record: We have no records of past relationships for DJ Kool Herc. You may help us to build the dating records for DJ Kool Herc!

On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc was a disc jockey and emcee at a party in the recreation room at Sedgwick Avenue. Specifically, DJ Kool Herc:

Facts & Trivia

Douglas Ranked on the list of most popular Disc Jockey. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. DJ Kool Herc celebrates birthday on April 16 of every year.

In 1975, the young Grandmaster Flash, to whom Kool Herc was, in his words, “a hero”, began DJing in Herc’s style. By 1976, Flash and his MCs The Furious Five played to a packed Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Venue owners were often nervous of unruly young crowds, however, and soon sent hip hop back to the clubs, community centres and high school gymnasiums of the Bronx.

Why is DJ Kool Herc the father of hip hop?

Playing funk records by artists such as James Brown, DJ Kool Herc revolutionized the way records were played when he began isolating the instrumental portion of a song and then switching to the break in another song. This method of DJing became the foundation for hip hop music.

Who is father of hip hop?

DJ Kool Herc is the father of the breakbeat, the deejay practice of isolating and repeating “breaks,” the most danceable portions of songs; breakbeats make up the foundation of modern hip-hop.

What did DJ Kool Herc discover?

DJ Kool Herc developed the style that was the blueprint for hip hop music. Herc used the record to focus on a short, heavily percussive part in it: the “break”. Since this part of the record was the one the dancers liked best, Herc isolated the break and prolonged it by changing between two record players.

How old was DJ Kool Herc when he invented hip hop?

major hip-hop deejay was DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), an 18-year-old immigrant who introduced the huge sound systems of his native Jamaica to inner-city parties. Using two turntables, he melded percussive fragments from older records with popular dance songs to create a continuous flow of music.

Who invented rap?

One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the 1970s, was also hip hop’s first DJ, DJ Kool Herc. Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting.

You may read full biography about DJ Kool Herc from Wikipedia.