DJ Premier,“Kool Herc Is Very Sick” Live From The HQ Show, 1/28/11
WTFlocka?! So Kool Herc isn’t dying? He has kidney stones, yes a painful thing to have, but it’s a medical condition that he left hanging and now is suffering from inflated medical bills. On January 28th DJ Premier may have slightly exaggerated when he announced on his radio show, Live From The HQ, that Godfather of Hip-Hop, “Kool Herc is very sick, has no insurance, using the metro card to get around, and needs to pay his bills so he can get out of the hospital.” Primo even pleaded to his listeners, “On some real shit we spoke today he was saying that he needed some help pay his bills from the hospital cause he can’t hold it down. And being that he set this whole culture off, y’all should be wanting to do it [help financially] any way you can.” Primo also tweeted to send donations to Kool Herc’s sister. From this point forward, hip-hop news outlets including AllHipHop.com started taking liberties and hyping up Kool Herc headlines.
DJ Premier's Tweet For Donations To Kool Herc
The fans are not accountable for Kool Herc or anyone’s medical costs period. And shame to all the news outlets for fostering ideas that Kool Herc was on his death bed. His medical condition headlines turned from very sick to gravely ill within days of Primo’s radio show. Thanks to DJ Premier and Tony Touch’s goodwill tweet donation alerts to the hip-hop community, the name Kool Herc trended for the first time on Twitter. But what good is rallying the troops under false pretenses? Do we really have to wait to help someone in need when they’re about to die?
Yes, we all want to do our part in helping Hip-Hop but how much can we really help Kool Herc when really he hasn’t sparked new innovations and new music to peddle to the masses. Legendary hip-hop photographer Ernie Paniccioli makes a good point when he begs the question, “Can you go to the store and get a Kool Herc record?” The answer is no.
Journalist Byron Crawford editorialized on XXL.com in his article titled, “Why I’m Not Donating To Kool Herc“:
“I knew something was up yesterday, when I checked Black People Twitter and I saw several updates that made it seem as if Kool Herc was on his deathbed. The fact alone that Kool Herc was trending made me think he might be dead. Keep in mind this was still a day before Black History Month. LOL. Then, a mere matter of hours later, I read that Kool Herc is actually at home, where he’d probably been the entire time. Who knows when he was actually in the hospital. But he definitely needs your money. Tha fuck?”
I also asked Brother Ernie Paniccioli, so what about the people who donated money already or those that want to donate? “Donate because they want to big up Kool Herc. Be able to say, ‘I sent that nigga some money.’ If they sent money and they thought his hands had been severed…but he never said that. So you can’t be mad at him.” He also says, “People give $5 to the church and don’t get nothing in return. They should give to him for the contribution he gave to Hip-Hop.”
Cindy Campbell points out, “There isn’t any type of medical program for these artists,” She also says, “Maybe it takes a visible person like Herc for people to pay attention. Maybe we can help set something up. My brother and I were trailblazers. We tried to save the building. Now we’re going to advocate for plenty of other artists and have a program to assist them.”
We still don’t know much has been raised for Kool Herc. We do know that kidney stone surgery can range from $3,000-$7,000 approximately. If you would like to still donate to Kool Herc:
Kool Herc Production PO Box 20472 Huntington Station, NY 11746
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