While those who have followed in his footsteps have raked in millions, DJ Kool Herc is laid up in a hospital bed. The hip-hop pioneer has been suffering from kidney stones that have caused internal bleeding — untreated due to lack of health insurance or a means to pay his medical bills.
Philly rapper Kuf Knotz readily admits that Herc’s name is not as well known as some of his peers’ — but insists that it should be. “The average teenager who’s into hip-hop right now probably won’t know who he is,” he says. “But he was there at the foundation of hip-hop with Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash.”
For the fourth installment of his new, monthly, live hip-hop series “The Boombox Collective,” Kuf Knotz has assembled a stellar lineup to help raise money for Kool Herc’s medical expenses. The show will feature Doodlebug of Digable Planets, McRad, Schoolly D and a host of others.
“Nowadays, hip-hop artists make a ridiculous amount of money and hip-hop is all over the commercials on TV, so it’s pretty crazy that someone who was there at the beginning can’t even afford hospital bills,” Kuf Knotz says. “I feel like doing this for Kool Herc ties into ‘The Boombox Collective’ because the whole point from the start was to put a spotlight on hip-hop in Philadelphia.”
For your own boombox
Listen to Kuf Knotz and Doodlebug of Digable Planets collaborate on another project. The MC appeared on Kuf Knotz’s recently released album “Boombox Logic” on the track “Soul Music,” produced by Peter Haslanger. The album enlists many talented musicians from the Philadelphia area; check it out at: www.kufknotz.com.
