An impactful and valuable piece of music history recently found a new home.
Last week, Hip-Hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc’s original Soundsystem was sold at Christie’s in New York City, according to mixmag.
Description Of The Soundsystem
“Perhaps the most significant early addition was the GLI 3880 mixer, which replaced the eight-channel acoustic mixer, allowing Herc to more easily switch between his two turntables (rather than using two hands to manually switch channels),” Christie’s described.
They added: “The 300 Watt McIntosh amplifier provided sufficient power to fill a room, playground, basketball court or a park with sound — solidifying its reputation as one of the most dominant Soundsystems in the Bronx during the 1970s.”
The Auction
The outlet reported that his Soundsystem sold for $201,600 — over $50,000 more than it was expected to sell.
“That thing cost a lot of money and pumped a lot of juice,” the OG DJ revealed. “It was 300 watts per channel. As the juice start coming man, the lights start dimming. And the turntables, I had the Technics 1100A, the big ones, so it wouldn’t turn.”
In addition to DJ Kool Herc’s Soundsystem, Christie’s auctioned additional artifacts of his, as well as others that tie to Hip-Hop’s history. The list featured “a mixer, a disco ball from Sedgwick Avenue, sneakers worn by Kool Herc, and various images from the early hip-hop heyday of the 1970s and 1980s.”
DJ Kool Herc's History
As previously reported by AfroTech, DJ Kool Herc was one of the pioneers who birthed the art of turntablism with techniques like the “Merry-Go-Round.”
