Music and marsh life inspire Linc Jolly’s DJ Whoop

luffton’s Linc Jolly it struck while driving by a street sign.
Jolly had dropped his oldest son off at crew club on Hilton Head Island and was heading home when he noticed the sign for Whooping Crane Way. Music was playing in the car, and he suddenly pictured a whooping crane in the marsh, bobbing its head to the beat.

“The light bulb just went off at that point,” Jolly said. “DJ Whoop, the whooping crane.”

That thought grew into “DJ Whoop,” the first book in a collection of three illustrated, rhyming stories built around music, marsh animals and a bird who turns the wetlands into his own stage.

In the first story DJ Whoop uses his surroundings to make music. Vines become microphone cords, a cypress board becomes a place to tap out a beat, and frogs, crabs, turtles and other marsh residents join the party.

In the second story, “DJ Whoop and MC Croak,” introduces a frog with musical ambitions of his own. MC Croak challenges Whoop to a “Battle of the Beats,” but competition eventually gives way to collaboration when the two discover their sounds work better together.

The third story, “DJ Whoop’s Marshstock,” expands the musical world into a full marsh festival. Performers include Lil’ Chomp, the raccoon group Bandit Beats, singer Miss Sway, the River Rhymes and the underwater Shell Harmony.

from years spent working as a visual artist at music festivals, where he painted during live performances and encountered musicians playing a wide range of styles.

Music also shaped the language of the books. Jolly said the cadence developed as he wrote. The result can be read as rhyme, poetry or even a rap.

The Lowcountry environment came from experience. Jolly moved from South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to Bluffton when he was in middle school and spent years exploring local waterways up close by kayak.

He wanted children to recognize the creatures and sounds they might encounter around the marsh, particularly at night. For a child those sounds can be intimidating, he said. Giving them familiar characters could change that experience.

“Now they have something to associate with these noises,” Jolly said. “Hey, that’s DJ Whoop. Or hey, that’s MC Croak.”

The project also grew directly from fatherhood. A parent of three, Jolly began thinking about writing a children’s book while reading to his son Ronin, then about a year old.

“I realized, why don’t I just make you my own book,” he said.

What he expected to complete became a roughly two-year project.

Jolly, who studied art at the University of South Carolina and the USCB, also illustrated the stories. Drawing on his experience working with children as an art director at the Boys & Girls Club in Bluffton he chose saturated colors and strong outlines with young readers in mind.

The finished collection brings together several parts of Jolly’s life: fatherhood, visual art, music and years spent around the Lowcountry marsh.

“It’s just making things,” he said. “That’s what makes me feel good.”