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 hip-hop. In 2010, he was inducted into the High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame[6] 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 hip-hop music starting in 1973. La Rock was an original member of Herc's MC crew, the Herculoids.

According to Herc, Coke La Rock's MC name had various iterations, beginning as "A-1 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 Herc's sister Cindy's birthday. It wasn't 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 shout-outs to friends, but gradually the poetry emerged.[9] He originated such phrases as "You rock and you don't stop," and "Hotel, motel, you don't tell, we won't tell"[citation needed] (which was immortalized on the first Sugarhill Gang single "Rapper's Delight", although La Rock received no credit).