Interview with the Original Hiphop Hustle King Chip

Chip

                                                                       

NORIN RAD: "Where did you live at when you first went to Kool DJ Herc's parties?"

CHIP:"I was living on Washington Avenue. The neighbourhood was known as The Nine."

NORIN RAD:"Okay and which high school did you attend at that time?"

CHIP:"I went to Taft High School." 

NORIN RAD: "Do you recall the first time you went to a Kool Herc party? At which venue did you first see him?"

CHIP:" I think the first time...I think I went to a party over there in his neighbourhood. It had to be in that recreation room."

NORIN RAD: "What made you go there?"

CHIP:"Well, we all heard about it, you know,  'cause everybody was talking about it. The buzz was all over the place. We was going to the parties with DJ Smokey, you know, before I even went to Kool Herc. We kept hearing about Kool Herc's parties at school. That's why we were so anxious to go. All of us El Dorado Mike, The Ni**er Twins, Clark Kent..Clark Kent wasn't there first.. we would hear things so..even El Dorado Mike he had a friend..a guy named Whiz that would talk about Kool Herc. You know the buzz was all around so we said, "We gotta be there!" And then you know he had the block parties..the block parties were pumped up in the summer time. So we kept hearing about it and then we would go. One party we kept going."

NORIN RAD:"And what was so impressive about his parties that made you come back there again?"

CHIP:"Oh the girls! The girls!!! The music and the girls!!! He had some of the flyest girls there! And the music, you know..the speakers...the music was clear! He had certain records that I had never heard before and that music was like make you wanna to dance! The soundsystem was clear you could hear it from miles...before you even get to his party you could hear the music. And you know like a lot of hustlers went to Kool Herc's parties. Everybody was getting fly, getting dressed to go to his party." 

NORIN RAD: "When you talk about hustlers you are referring to guys that were into scrambling (drug dealing), right?"

CHIP:"Yeah, scramblers, yeah!"

NORIN RAD:"So what kind of vibe prevailed at his parties? Was there any kind of tension?"

CHIP:"Nah, it was more laid back. It was more laid back. You're being real kool, you got all the girls there...That's why it was so good 'cause all the tension was over where I lived at. So when we got to this neighbourhood it was all laid back."

NORIN RAD: "So it was like a welcome change 'cause the Nine had all the tension..."

CHIP:"Oh yeah, the Nine was more tension...you never know when something would jump off. When you get on the West Side (where Herc was at) it was kool....all the girls come in, you know?  All the hustlers are there. They're real kool, they got the sunrooftop cars..laying back, you know? Herc got the echo chamber on, you know..Coke La Rock is talking smack on the microphone...calling out different people names. So it's like a certain swagger. He called out your name... like, "Wow you're the man!!"

NORIN RAD:"What would these hustlers do at Kool Herc's parties? Would they dance or would they chill?"

CHIP:"Yeah! Some of them they danced, some of them they laid back, just chill. Got the nice clothes on, laid back...talking to the girls. You have some that really danced ...."

NORIN RAD: "And what about the B-Boys? I guess you saw them there, too."

CHIP:"Oh, no doubt! That was like the hall of fame. Nobody wasn't called B-Boys but you had certain people that..like I would turn around I would see Doug (Dancin' Doug) doing his thing or I might see Wallace Dee doing his thing....and then I'm there with the (Ni**er) Twins and they start doing their thing. You got different people that would be dancing. And then Herc might put on a certain record...like say for instance he would put on a Sasa (original B-Boy) record and everybody would see Sasa doing his thing. He would do a split move and a couple of moves...so that was so smooth about it. If Clark Kent is there he'd start and do his shit for a minute! And you'd be like, "WoW!!!!"Or I'm there and I'm dancing with Janet...doing the Hiphop Hustle and then I got my little circle. Every time you turn around you got somebody having a smooth moment you're looking at them. And then you got times when everybody is just dancing..."

NORIN RAD:"So when you came to Kool Herc's parties were they already doing the Hiphop Hustle dance  there ?"

CHIP:"Everybody would be doing it but you had certain other people that had certain moves...like a routine...and that's when I seen my dance partner (Janet Rock) doing it wih Rasheen and Rasheen I seen him doing it I was like, "Wow!" They had a certain style how they would be doing it and I said, "Aaah man, I gots to get to do that part, that routine that they do! I got to learn how to do it that way!"

NORIN RAD: "Could you please break down the difference beween what you refer to as Hiphop Hustle and the regular Hustle dance in terms of moves and the music it was done to?"

CHIP:"Alright...these are two different types! Hiphop Hustle is more like...the girl and the guy would be doing it in the same motion and the turns...sometimes..in the Hiphop Hustle the guy would swing around the girl like three times and stop and they'll put their hands up at the same time. The Disco Hustle...which I also did...when we would be going to a disco...  it was more spins and she'd be moving like a ballerina...the girl was spinning by herself like a ballerina coming back to you. So it was kinda like two different styles. On the Hiphop Hustle certain guys had certain styles..like when El Dorado Mike did it....he would take the girl and twirl her like real fast and bring her out and she'd move her hand...they'll go around in a circle like a...how can I say it... he had his hand around her waist and they'd be going around like dipping back and forth to the beat of the music.  Certain records they ( Kool Herc and Coke La Rock) would play you would be doing it to the music...moving the girl...When Herc played "Happy Music" (by The Blackbyrds)....you know depending on the music you can do it slow or do it fast." 

NORIN RAD:"So was there one general style of the Hiphop Hustle or did everybody have a unique approach to it?"

CHIP:"Well, there was one style everybody did. I took it to another level. Iwould take it up to a much higher level...me and Janet. You know, we had all kind of routines. Everybody else was probably doing it the same style."

NORIN RAD:"But you would definetely say that the Hiphop Hustle had its own identity that set it apart from the Disco Hustle, right?"

CHIP:"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!!" (excited)

NORIN RAD:"At which point of the party would Kool Herc and Coke La Rock start playing the Hustle songs? In the beginning of it, in the middle or at the end?" 

CHIP:"Well, you can always do it. Any record..even those records that they breakdance to you can do the Hiphop Hustle to it. It wouldn't even matter. Some of the break records you can hustle to it!"

NORIN RAD:"Could you give me an example? "The Mexican" maybe?"

CHIP:"Yeah!"

NORIN RAD: "For real?"

CHIP:"The Mexican? Yeah!!"

NORIN RAD:"So I guess that's why it is referred to as Hiphop Hustle because it was parly also done to the B-Boy records, right?"

CHIP:"Yeah....'cause you can go right back into the Hiphop thing, into the Breaking! Say I can do the Hiphop Hustle and then I go off and start breaking. If you know how to break you can go right into it. What we call Burning you can go right into it and then you can go back to doing the Hiphop Hustle again."

NORIN RAD:"So what were some of the songs at Kool Herc's parties that the HipHop Hustle was done to? I know "Do You What You Gotta Do" by Eddie Drennon was one. ould you name some more?"
 

"Do You What You Gotta Do" by Eddie Drennon & B.B. S. Unlimited

CHIP: "Alright, you got "Body Talk" by Eddie Kendricks.... you have "Here Comes The Express" by B.T. Express...."Shifting Gears" by Johnny Hammond...then you had "Pursuit Of The Pimpmobile"(by Isaac Hayes)"...

NORIN RAD: What about this one ?" (plays "T Plays It Cool" by Marvin Gaye)

CHIP:"Thats that good shit! Everybody got down to that! Herc would put the Last Poets over that song..."

"T Plays It Cool" by Marvin Gaye

 

NORIN RAD: "What about this one? (plays "Dominoes" by Donald Byrd for Chip)

CHIP:"Oh yeah, that's Hiphop Hustle all the way!"

 NORIN RAD:" So what was the name of dance partner again?"

CHIP:"Janet. Kool Herc named her Janet Rock."

NORIN RAD: "How did you meet her?"

CHIP:"She was from Highbridge. We went to school together.  She went to Taft. She could break.. she was at all the block parties with her sister. They were both doublejointed. She could break with the best of them. Even her cousin used to dance together with Trixie."

NORIN RAD:"So she was breaking and also did the Hiphop Hustle?"

CHIP:"Yeah. I seen her dancing and as I said she was dancing with that guy named Rasheen. They was at a Herc party.. at a block party and they were doing a routine with the Hiphop Hustle. I knew how to do the other style (the Disco Hustle) and I told her, "Can you teach me that style?" And she took me in front of everybody and showed me how to do it and then I came into my own style with it with her 'cause it was a style where she goes back and forth with her leg and you have to stand still 'cause she be kicking her feet up in the air....putting it all the way behind her head. Sometimes she be moving her leg so fast it'd look like if she hit somebody she would knock him out and she'd be doing splits, you know? All kinds of stuff...She was very flexible."

NORIN RAD:"So would you say that Janet is responsible for creating that Hiphop Hustle dance style?"

CHIP:"Yeah."

NORIN RAD: Okay and how would one initiate that Hip Hop Hustle dance procedure? Would you ask a specific girl to dance with you or would you bring your dance partner with you?"

CHIP:"Sometimes we would all come to the party together. Like Janet..we would all come with her. She was funny..if we were going to the P.A.L.... sometimes she would be there with her sisters and she would ask everybody to chip in and we would put out a hat and we would put money in for her to get in. If I'm coming I want her to be there to do this dance 'cause it's gonna be my time to be in the spotlight. You know, I'm dressed from head to toe . I call her up , you know? Saying,"You gonna be there at Kool Herc!" You'll be mad if she don't show up! Like, "Ah man!" Or you gotta check the other girls that knew how to do it. They don't know how to do it as good as her but they know how to do it. So you would be doing it with them."

NORIN RAD: "How would you dress when you went to Herc's parties?"

CHIP:"I would wear nice leather shoes and I would wear AJs.... AJ stitch pants and a Alpaca sweater or I have on a cashmere coat or I have on a Cortefiel and I would wear a velour hat. "

NORIN RAD: "Is it true that back then you couldn't wear an outfit that got like 15 colours in it without being ridiculed?"

CHIP:"Yeah, you had to make sure you was color coordinated. They would tell you about it in a minute if you wasn't matching your colors."

NORIN RAD:"Okay, and how would the girls dress back then?"

CHIP: "Some of the girls they were fly! They had like the scarf..some of them would wear a medallion or they would wear those tennis dresses. They would never wear sneakers they would wear fly shoes and if they did wear sneakers they made sure that they'd be brand new."

NORIN RAD:"What kind of person was El Dorado Mike and what was your relationship with him?"

CHIP:" We was good friends. He would come up to my house and we would play records all day long.I mean I can remember when we would go to parties and I would drop him off to his girl's house or one of his girls house (laughs)...So we did a lot of things together."

NORIN RAD:"So he attracted a lot of girls back then?"

CHIP:"Oh yeah, definetely! And he was a hustler...he was a hustler... you know?! 170, you're getting that money!"

 NORIN RAD:"He was also a great hustle dancer from what I've heard."

CHIP:"Yeah, he was famous for that!"

NORIN RAD:"Where was he from?"

CHIP:"He was from 1-7-0. Webster Avenue."

NORIN RAD: "Did he also have a specific dance partner when it came to the Hiphop Hustle dance?"

CHIP:"That was so good about him 'cause he could grab any girl and make her look good."