Short answers, pulled from the story.
Coke La Rock, born on the 24th of April, 1955, in The Bronx, is sometimes credited as the first MC in the history of hip-hop. He was an original member of DJ Kool Herc's MC crew, the Herculoids, and was present at Kool Herc's first party in 1973. He originated foundational hip-hop phrases including "You rock and you don't stop" and "Hotel, motel, you don't tell, we won't tell."
Coke La Rock originated "You rock and you don't stop" and "Hotel, motel, you don't tell, we won't tell." The second phrase later appeared, without any credit to La Rock, on "Rapper's Delight," the first single by the Sugarhill Gang.
Coke La Rock stepped away from hip-hop after Kool Herc was stabbed at a party. The perpetrator was part of a crew called the Executive Playhouse; La Rock tracked down the man's associates at a Bronx pool hall, but the attacker had already been moved south. With his son Donte La Rock just born and murder having entered the game, La Rock chose to leave the scene.
Coke La Rock made no recordings during his active years on the Bronx hip-hop scene. In late 2008, the first-ever recording featuring him was released: a song called "Hello - Merry Christmas Baby!" put out by Sedgwick & Cedar as part of a holiday compilation. He later contributed verses to DJ Kay Slay's "Rolling 110 Deep" in 2021 and "Rolling 200 Deep" in 2023.
In the 1986 Boogie Down Productions song "South Bronx," KRS-One rapped: "Now way back in the days when hip-hop began / With Coke La Rock, Kool Herc, and then Bam." The song, described as the opening salvo of the Bridge Wars, placed La Rock alongside Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa at the origin of hip-hop.
Coke La Rock was inducted into the High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame in 2010, at the annual Cannabis Cup ceremonies in Amsterdam.