Byron Crawford aka Bol (Swahili for "the gulliest one") is the founder of the critically acclaimed hip-hop blog, ByronCrawford.com: The Mindset of a Champion, where he discusses racism, homophobia, healthy living, respect for women, tolerance for religion, and who really runs the entertainment industry. Bol’s views very rarely, actually, never reflect those of XXL or its staff.
Why I’m not donating to Kool Herc
Aside from not having any money to donate.
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(NOTE: I’m assuming it’s alright for me to write about Kool Herc, because he’s not on Young Money. In fact, you could say he’s the antithesis of Young Money. Lollerskates.)
Anyone else get kinda jealous yesterday when several rappers on Black People Twitter were making a big show of cutting a check to Kool Herc, who was said to be in the hospital, suffering from a very serious illness, in need of surgery, and without health insurance?
It’s cool, you can admit it. No one visits this site except fucking losers. You’re amongst friends.
It’s not that I was concerned that Kool Herc might be able to pay his hospital bills. As far as I’m concerned, it’s should be your right as a human being to have access to whatever medical care you need – including preventative, not just emergency care, which is already kinda free, to Mexicans and the terminally dumb (no shots at the founder of hip-hop), at least until the hospital goes out of “business.” Certainly, it should be a right here in the US, the richest country in the world. The fact that it isn’t is one many reasons why this country is slowly but surely (and maybe not so slowly) coming to an end.
I was more concerned with the fact that Kool Herc might end up with more than what it would cost to take care of his medical expenses. There’s a shedload of people on Black People Twitter (though almost all of them are unemployed). If even a tiny percentage of them sent Kool Herc’s sister $5 via PayPal, like that time Noz’s laptop collapsed under the weight of so much shitty rap music, he could end up with millions of dollars. To pay for some shit that couldn’t cost that much money.
It was revealed last night in the New York Times, which must have had someone make a few phone calls, that the very serious illness Kool Herc suffers from is motherfucking kidney stones. Hardly a very serious illness – though I’m sure it’s painful. Don’t they have to take those out through your dick? I’m pretty sure I heard Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate talking about it a while back on the Stern Show. They stick some kind of tube up your dick (nullus on having to talk about dicks, but clearly this is necessary), then they pulverize them and remove them right through said tube. He said the sticking a tube up the end of your dick wasn’t painful, and presumably the passing the stones through it wouldn’t be painful either, but it hurts like a bitch when they pull that tube out. Your piss would probably burn for a week, as if you’d raw dogged Kat Stacks. I’d probably have to curb my epic coffee intake. I could see how this could be a debilitating procedure, for someone who works for a living.
It just goes to show you how worthless hip-hop journalism can be at times. I think the initial report re: Kool Herc’s illness and financial issues came from that show DJ Premier hosts on Sirius on Friday nights, when I’m on my way to put on a drunk. Truckers call in and answer 1988-era hip-hop trivia questions for a chance to win Gang Starr t-shirts that are probably left over from the Ownerz era, of which the less is said the better. But there’s usually not anything on Howard 100/1 at that time. But I digress. 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’ve always been wary of any story involving Kool Herc, ever since I discovered that he was involved in literary shenanigans having to do with a book for which he “wrote” the foreword. A few years ago, there was an article in New York Magazine about the effort to save 1520 Sedgwick, the building where Kool Herc invented hip-hop, which had been purchased by evil developers, like in The Goonies, and was probably about to be turned into a parking garage or some shit. The guy who wrote the article tried to interview Kool Herc, but come to find out Herc, who came off like a real douche, doesn’t do interviews for free, and the guy (and NY Mag) weren’t about to cut him a check to describe, for the umpteenth time, how he invented hip-hop by mixing two James Brown records together at his little sister’s birthday – a process I heard was actually invented by a teh ghey guy anyway. I took this to mean that it was arranged for Kool Herc to receive a fee, from the publisher or possibly from the author himself, for writing the foreword (described by KRS-One as wack) to Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation That Doesn’t So Much As Mention Biggie Smalls, in exchange for being interviewed for the book. Note that the book doesn’t include a disclaimer stating that the author paid some of the people he interviewed, and hence at least some of the information could be suspect.
Keep in mind, I’m not saying that definitely is what happened, because honestly I don’t know. It could be that Kool Herc wrote that amazing foreword for free, out of the kindness of his own heart, and the guy who tried to charge NY Mag for an interview was a Kool Herc impersonator. Why would Kool Herc be in the same building he was in in 1974? Similarly, there’s no way of knowing whether Kool Herc really is that hard up for money to pay his hospital bills, without looking at the contents of his bank account, and his sister’s PayPal account, and comparing that to what it costs to have a kidney stone removed, and then having someone from the New York Times call the hospital and confirm that they’re not treating poor people for free anymore. The part about him being on his death bed, as opposed to his actual bed, turned out to be BS, but I’m willing to chalk that up to a failure of hip-hop journalism.
Hope he dies. Old ass pieces of trash need to get the hell out this is a young mans game. I dont give a damn what he did.
WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?! I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL MOTHA FUCKA.
You must be some type arm chair loser anyway. I love when corny fake hip poppers spit up on themselves because they have nothing worth while to say. Please get back to your retard music and next time you feel like spitting up make sure you are asleep so you can choke to death.
Do you want to experience i-nterra’cial d’a-ting
— Bla ck whi teCu pid * C 0 M —–
It gives you a chance to ma’ke your life bet ter and open opportuni ties for you to me’et the att r’active inte’rra’c ial sin’g’les and treat you like a Qu’een or Ki’ng. Maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends.okay 812
this nigga aint kool nigga im kool
Shut the fuck up white boy! Fucking faggot ass mother fucker I hate you!!!!!!
ima shit in yo mouth nigga watch me nigga
Lol
YALL NIGGAZ CHECK OUT MY NU FREESTYLEZ YALL WILL SHIT YO PANTS WHENU HEAR DEM AND I AINT TALKIN BOUT NO NICE PANTS EITHER I KNOW YALL NIGGAZ GOT SOME CHEAP DOLLA STORE JOINTS ON. BROKE ASS NIGGAZ MAKE ME SICK
BUT YO NEWAY NIGGAZ IMA HOLLA
ONE LAST THING I 4GOT TO ADD IS FUCK DA SOUF NIGGA WE GET MONEY IN NYC
Jesus for people who complain about “haters” all the time yet turn around and say the most disrespectful things about our elders is really disgusting. Most rappers who are mainstream are in their early to late 30′s early 40′s yet its still a young mans game? SMH.
I’ve done some hating myself (At least i’ll admit it) but damm i see new lows everyday. Kool Herc deserves some help because he did more for the culture and making hip-hop expand outside house parties then most of your favorite rappers
Cry some mo niggah smh
get money fuck herc
Who framed roger rabbit yall im serious someone please answer me this shit has been getting to me for the last 20 years. Damn homey.
Who are these children talking!!!! As far as Bol’s speculation its just that speculation. But the billions minorities have made off of hip hop being taken seriously is attributable to Kool Herc. SO IF YOUR “MAKING MONEY” THROUGH HIP HOP RELATED CULTURE, RECOGNIZE YOUR BREADSTREAM!!!!
AND BEER GANGSTA – RK MAROON FRAMED ROGER FOR DOOM!
1,000,000
FUCK DAT NIGGA
If he had any business sense he wouldnt be all broke & shit. Let the dumb nigga pass away and stop being a burden on black society.
2pac was a faggot, there I said it bitch.
Well 2pac died broke too, so should he not be recognized for his artistic contributions cause he was broke????? AND NO IM NOT A 2PAC STAN EITHER!!!
Nothin but ignorant comments on this topic thus far. Where the real G’s at? Caino ,Don, TPAR, Sha, Pierzy, Worley etc??? Lets get some much needed balance on this topic.
Herc is the man largely credited with creating what would become hip-hop. The fact of the matter is, dude never got into commercial hip-hop for whatever reasons ( dude said he got stabbed at a party and kinda withdrew himself from the scene) so thus he never profitted all that much from something he helped create. Afrika Bambaata, Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash soon got on the scene and the rest is history. So what if dude charges for interviews? He’s gotta eat too.
The fact of the matter is many other profitted greatly from this thing we all know and love called hip-hop. Will Smith, Diddy, Jay, 50, Dre, Master P, Russell, etc have all made many millions of dollars off of dude’s creation. Do I think Herc was the only one doin hip-hop at that time? Probably not, but he has become our figurehead. These cats could easily afford to drop a few bones and pay for dudes kidney stone procedure. Are they obligated to? No of course not, but you gotta take care of your own. Most of us can’t afford to help in this economic downturn, but these niggaz could quite easily. The only ones I’ve heard that wanna help so far are Diddy ( he tweeted some shit yesterday apparently) Tony Touch and UTFO. Hopefully cats won’t turn a blind eye like they did when they were tryin to tear down 1520 Sedgwick.
Bol, trust passing a kidney stone is mad painful I hear. You don’t want that pain.
Speak on it yall!
waddupz Q?
actually I’ma wait to speak on this topic…gonna see who does what 1st…
it’s just that the ignorance is so glaring in the comments, I know lurkers wanna go in, but they know it’s a waste of time & effort…believe that cats ignore XXL when school’s closed…
Yeah man I’m interested in hearing some mature opinions on a real hip-hop topic…Tired of these lurkers creepin and not offering any intelligent feedback….
the fuck you haven’t read my post……i see you exactly!!!!
I saw you devi…sometimes you gotta realize you are talking to children on this site…young seeds that have no idea where they will be 20 years from now, or know the real economic impact in their household or know how to balance a budget. Some are still in High School, using the comment sections on the web like a toy.
the 1st comment is waiting for the old head(s) to die, not willing to put in work for their spot, like it’s owed to them…another speaks on Herc’s money situation like they know/knew what was in his bank account. Another said Herc’s a burden on Black society, when his blueprint actually HELPED Black society. Great way to start Black History Month…
There was big thing a couple years ago about musicians and health care (musicians are employees of the label, and it should be provided to them by said employer)…there is no musicians union, like actors…millions are made, concessions are not paid…these young cats don’t know how COBRA costs WAY more than normal medical insurance…you gotta be dirt poor for Medicaid…they are still attached to the parents’ insurance…
they don’t understand the “special interest” of companies who do not wish for universal health care for all Americans…until they will need it.
Sorry Devi, my bad homey I overlooked your comment. There was just so much bullshit on this thread I missed it…
Yall know Poetic from the Gravediggaz also suffered from not having the proper support and insurance when he died from colin cancer 10 years ago? Dude was fighting for “a rapper’s union” or something similar that Don was just speaking on, but died before any progress could be made. Most didnt cover this story because the Gravediggaz had long since faded from mainstream thought.
Check out the eery but dope song by dude and Last Emperor called One life to hear dude before he passed. It’s sad because Don’s 100 percent right and thank God Herc isn’t suffering from something more serious. This is a real serious topic yall so if you young kids lurkin can’t respect that just wait until the next time Bol writes about Lil B or somethin.
“This is a real serious topic yall so if you young kids lurkin can’t respect that just wait until the next time Bol writes about Lil B or somethin.”
^ THIS
’cause none of the older heads sh^tted on the Wiz Khalifa threads when y’all were 100+ deep in there…
a 3 day hospital stay with treatment can cost anywhere from 40-150 thou…not counting prescriptions & follow-up doctor visits…half of y’all don’t flip enuff pills & cracks to cover that…you can barely afford them J’s…and if you out there and catch a beatdown or a shell and mommy & daddy have you covered, the premium goes UP, you’re a LIABILITY, to the point where mommy or daddy have to cancel THEIR coverage for YOU…
@ Don McCaine
Been a minute since I’ve been on here regularly. But, a couple of your assertions are incorrect: 1) “there is no musicians union” – Not true. The American Federation of Musicians has been in existence for over 100 years with locals in lots and lots of cities (including my hometown of New Orleans). 2) “you gotta be dirt poor for Medicaid” – Also not true. If you are medically needy, fall within the guidelines of special waivers or take care of someone who is needy or part of a waiver program, you can get Medicaid. And, for the record, Medicaid’s definition of “dirt poor” is 133% of the Federal poverty level.
Zulu!
Been a minute sir…thank you for clearing that up though…