(ThyBlackMan.com) “To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.” -Muhammad Ali
DJ Kool Herc, The Godfather of Hip-Hop, the first to loop beaks and develop the beat style that set the foundation of the genre, is desperate for aid, being unable to afford health insurance, racking up over $10,000 in hospital bills, and in dire need of kidney stone removal surgery that he can’t afford. Beginning with DJ Premier’s announcement, the fans, famous, and friends are fighting to gather donations, and despite all of the efforts, we’ve yet to see the million dollar hip-hop megastars pitch in to help pay the $10,000 price that is seemingly pennies to them. Rather, they seem to be choosing to keep their cash to personal investments, or tossing it away in numbers greater than most people will make in their lifetime. Having built careers off of what Herc started long before their time, you have to ask why.
Rick Ross dropped an easy million at The King of Diamonds Miami strip club on his birthday (January 28th) amongst a celebrity crowd including Pharrell 
and Diddy, both of which, according to Forbes, are worth well into the double-digit millions.
Not long back, Kanye had diamond teeth implanted for what merely seemed a publicity stunt, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy goes platinum, selling 962,000 copies as of January 23rd. Soon after, he spends $180,000 on a watch with his face on it. Nicki Minaj gets Platinum Certification as well with Pink Friday. Eminem sells 741,000 copies of Recovery in its first week.
According to the U.K. paper The Independent, Diddy recently purchased his son Justin a Maybach limousine for his birthday, saying “Justin has turned himself around and is now an Honors student, which he wasn’t before, so I wanted to treat him. It’s a collector’s car so maybe he will use it for special occasions like on a first date, but like all my kids. He prefers the simpler things than the expensive things. Simple tastes.” As well, he’s charging $750 a head for his Super Bowl bash.
Soulja Boy claims to own $3 million in jewelry, and Wiz Khalifa claims to spend $10,000 a month on marijuana. 50 Cent makes $8 million dollars in one day with his stock scheme on Twitter.
Combined, as of last year’s numbers in Forbes, Jay-Z and Beyonce are worth over $1 billion. As of August 2010, Forbes lists Akon, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, and Ludacris as being worth well over a million dollars each.
Looking at these kind of things, you have to ask yourself how none of these millionaires, these musicians, these hip-hop moguls that have made their millions from the genre that Dj Kool Herc built, can’t pitch in on his surgery bills. While interviews and tweets show a myriad of hip-hop greats fighting for the cause, a sad statement is being made here by what, until word is made by these aforementioned artists on why they aren’t helping, is best called turning the cold shoulder, and an assumed greed. What we are seeing here is that it is the fans that care most about DJ Kool Herc, the fans who never asked to gain anything from him, letting his music and legacy having been enough, while those that have made their millions off of Herc’s endeavor a quarter century ago can’t even open their wallets in thanks.
Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys is up for a Grammy, and is considered the new anthem of The Big Apple. Maybe he should remember The Bronx, the gang-torn streets where a Jamaican immigrant teenager named Clive Campbell transcended the poverty and crime to create a sound that would bring the African-American community together, spark a culture, and simply named himself DJ Kool Herc while doing so. I’m not saying that these artists owe dues, because they made themselves in the industry; you’d just like to think that they would have some respect for the man that made it possible.
Those wanting to help out can do so by mailing check to
Kool Herc Productions
P.O. Box 20472
Huntington Station,
NY 11746, or donating through through PayPal to Herc’s sister Cindy Campell at cindycampbell1@aol.com. If you really want to help, start tweeting the donation information to hip-hop’s millionaires.
Written By JT LANGLEY
