Hip-Hop continues to evolve its 50th year, and relevancy in the genre is no longer tied to ageism. But Kool DJ Red Alert continues to exemplify how at age 66 he’s helped break down that barrier, just like the culture has in the mainstream and beyond.

The revered DJ trinity during Hip-Hop’s formative years was Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and the culture’s ostensible founding father, Kool Herc. When rap records gained groundswell on FM radio in Hip-Hop’s birthplace, New York City, during the following decade, the DJ trinity on the airwaves was Mr. Magic, Chuck Chillout, and Kool DJ Red Alert.

Red Alert is celebrating 40 years as a radio DJ and over 45 years spinning at parties. He currently presides over a weekly time slot on WBLS 107.5 FM. His other moniker, “Uncle Red," given to him by his peers in the Hip-Hop community, signifies his earned respect as a trailblazer on WBLS’s former competing station WRKS Kiss 98.7FM, the gold standard for urban contemporary radio in the 1980s.

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