Coke La Rock

Coke La Rock aka Coco La Rock born April 24 1955 is an American rapper from New York City who is sometimes credited as being the first MC in the history of hiphop In 2010 he was inducted into the High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame6 at the annual ceremonies at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam La Rock was born in The Bronx New York City on April 24 1955 with family roots going back to North Carolina Coke La Rock was a friend and musical partner of DJ Kool Herc who himself is generally considered to have laid down the foundation for hiphop music starting in 1973 La Rock was an original member of Hercs MC crew the Herculoids According to Herc Coke La Rocks MC name had various iterations beginning as A1 Coke and then moving on to Nasty Coke before it was finalized as Coke La Rock Coke La Rock joined Kool Herc for his first party in 1973 to celebrate Hercs sister Cindys birthday It wasnt until about the fifth or sixth party that he took the name Coke La Rock The name came to him in a dream Before that time he had no name and did his rapping out of sight from the audience so no one knew who was doing the rapping His original raps were usually shoutouts to friends but gradually the poetry emerged9 He originated such phrases as You rock and you dont stop and Hotel motel you dont tell we wont tellcitation needed which was immortalized on the first Sugarhill Gang single Rappers Delight although La Rock received no credit Coke La Rocks raps were always purely improvisational unlike those of later 70sera rap groups such as the Furious Five and Cold Crush Brothers who wrote down and rehearsed their rhymes and created elaborate routines According to La Rock while rapping at first I would just call out my friends names Then I pretended dudes had doubleparked cars that was to impress the girls Truthfully I wasnt there to rap I was just playing around Nonetheless La Rocks raps would as with much else at Kool Hercs parties in the mid1970s serve as a basic model for other hiphop artists that would come onto the Bronx music scene by the end of the decade La Rock himself has argued in a reference to two pioneering New York City narcotics dealers that me and Herc were to hiphop what Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas were to drugs