Jocko Henderson

Douglas "Jocko" Henderson (March 8, 1918 – July 15, 2000) was an American radio disc jockey, businessman, and hip hop music pioneer. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2004.

Early life Henderson was born March 8, 1918, in Baltimore, Maryland. He hosted a show called Jocko's Rocket Ship Show out of New York radio stations WOV and WADO and Philadelphia stations WHAT and WDAS from 1954 to 1964, which was an early conduit for rock & roll. He was known for a distinctive style of rhythmic patter in his radio voice, which he had learned from a Baltimore deejay, Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert. With a heavy reliance on rapping and rhyming, the double entendres and street slang were a hit with audiences. Henderson continued on the stations WDAS and WHAT until 1974, deejaying in Philadelphia and New York as well as hosting concerts in both cities and a TV music program in New York. In addition to Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, Henderson was also broadcast on stations in St. Louis, Detroit, Miami, and Boston. He died July 15, 2000,

Legacy The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Henderson into their Hall of Fame in 2004.

In a 2013 interview, Questlove described Jocko Henderson as "unofficially the first MC" (adapting a jazz style of scat singing in the late disco era), and stated that he was a major influence on the earliest rap and hip-hop in Philadelphia in the late 1970s.

Discography "A Little Bit Of Everything" (Wand Records 1961) "Rhythm Talk" (Philadelphia International, 1979) "The Rocketship" (Philadelphia International, 1979) "Everybody's Uptight (Trying to Get Their Money Right)" (Sugar Hill Records, 1983)