conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)
NORIN RAD:"Where did you get that name Pixie from?"
PIXIE:"I took it from my brother Trixie. It was Trixie and Pixie..."
NORIN RAD:"So your big brother was the one who showed you the ropes in terms of breaking, right?"
PIXIE:"No, I just used to watch him. I used to watch him.. He never taught me anything."
NORIN RAD:"Okay...and where did you watch him doing his dance? At Kool Herc's parties or in your house?"
PIXIE:"We used to dance on our block. Like, like back in the days they used to put music out the windows and we used to go in front of this guy's house who would play real loud music out of his window and we would dance in front of his window! And that's where we used to practice at.....outside....in the street."
NORIN RAD:"Alright, and what made you pick up breaking in the first place? Did that also start on your block back then?"
PIXIE:"That's when we first started breakdancing...in our neighbourhood... then we started going to the parties for breakdancing but we could do it on our block! Right on our block!"
NORIN RAD:"I see and were you and Trixie the only ones breakdancing on your block at that time?"
PIXIE:"No!!!! The whole neighbourhood!!! Everybody! We were just real good at it but everybody used to do it. Yeah!! Everybody! Then when my brother (Trixie) got so popular and got all the girls....that's what I wanted...I wanted all the girls...so I said to myself, "I can do all this, too!" (starts laughing)
NORIN RAD:"Did you take some of your brother's move and incorporate it into your set?"
PIXIE:"No. I never used my brother's moves. I used to do flips in the air and all that type of stuff. My brother..we danced totally different...yeah totally different."
NORIN RAD:"What were your signature moves back then? Like I heard everybody was doing characters back then..."
PIXIE:"I did the Underdog, the Frankenstein and the Wind Up Dummy."
NORIN RAD:"What kind of a move was that??"
PIXIE:"Yeah, you wind me up like you're winding up a toy and then when they stop I spin around all out of control."
NORIN RAD:"Did you come up with the Underdog or was that originally Clark Kent's concept ?"
PIXIE:"Kool Herc gave Clark Kent his name because of his glasses. The Underdog was something that me and Timmy came up with."
NORIN RAD:"From what I have heard in the very beginning breakdancing was done mainly on top and then gradually went on to become a dance that was focused more on floormoves...."
PIXIE:"Yeah! Trixie had everything on top! He used to do the shit on top!! He would do the shit that would shake your body! And I guess we....the rest of us....went down to the ground!"
NORIN RAD:"You've told me that you were like real close to the late Timmy Tim (Original B-Boy and also DJ for The Herculords), right?"
PIXIE:"Timmy...that was my dance partner!"
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| DJ Timmy Tim (The Herculords) a.k.a B-Boy Dixie |
NORIN RAD:"Okay, do you recall the first time you and him ever met?"
PIXIE:"My man Timmy! I met Timmy walking through my neighbourhood...he came through my block and he had the music. Like everybody else he was just there, listening to the music and watching us dancing. So everyday he came through my block and then me and him got real close."
NORIN RAD:"Okay, and how would you describe his style of breaking? Like what were the moves and routines that he was famous for back then?"
PIXIE:"Everything I did he did! We used to practice..me and Timmy we used to practice! We actually used to go in...into a room, sit down, dance, practice and then do everything at the parties."
NORIN RAD:"Where exactly would you and Timmy practice at?"
PIXIE:"My house...his house. Mostly his house 'cause he had the music. Timmy had the same music Herc would play so every Saturday we were prepared! I had a bed in Timmy's house. We were like brothers."
NORIN RAD:"So I guess music must have played a big role in your life back then, right? Did you go record shopping together?"
PIXIE:"No, Timmy used to go record shopping. Not me."
NORIN RAD:"But he would show you the beats that he had discovered, right?"
PIXIE:"Oh yeah, definetely! James Brown...all that! All that"
NORIN RAD:"And so you are saying that your style of dancing was very similar?"
PIXIE:"Same Style!"
NORIN RAD:"I see....would you help each other in battles? Like when one of you went against somebody else in a circle?"
PIXIE:"No, me and Timmy never battled against people! We used to just go to the parties and dance in the circle. We didn't battle. My first battle was with Clark Kent (legendary B-Boy / DJ from The Herculords). That's the only battle I ever had. Cause we used to just do the big circles! The big circles were where you wanted to be in back in the days. You wanted all the people around you with the big circle and if you had the big circle you was it!!! That's all we used to look for. It was about having the biggest circle and everybody watching you!"
NORIN RAD:"I hear what you are saying but Sasa told me that he remembered one night at the Twilight Zone where you and Timmy Tim would go against him and try to double team him!"
PIXIE:"Oh yeah....I remember that (chuckles)! Me and Timmy Tim got at him!! We switched up on him...like every ten seconds we switched!"
NORIN RAD:"I see.. I think Sasa also said that Timmy Tim would take out a spray can during that battle and then set it on fire trying to burn him. What do you remember about that?"
PIXIE:"Yeah....with a match!!! (laughs) No, that wasn't Timmy that was me! Yeah I used to take the match and the hair spray and light it to get the fire...the big flame!"
NORIN RAD:" I guess this was part of that whole aspect of trying to intimidate your opponent during a battle back then, right?"
PIXIE:"Yeah...always... always intimidate them!"
NORIN RAD:"So who won that battle?"
PIXIE:"We stopped. It never got off because the way it was going we never got the circle to battling. We didn't get the spotlight to battle. Like you normally get the spotlight to battle. We just chopped at him while he was out there dancing. So that never finished. Me and Timmy doubleteamed him and killed this shit but it was never an official battle because we wasn't in front of the stage. Normally, when you battle somebody you gotta be in front of the stage and you put that circle around you and Kool Herc and Coke La Rock be on top...they see you battling but that time with Sasa was in the back of the party and we just chopped at him, yeah!"
NORIN RAD:"What kind of a spot was the Twilight Zone?"
PIXIE:"The Twilight Zone... you would walk up the steps then get inside. You had a big dancefloor and then you had a stage where Kool Herc and Coke La Rock would be. They would have a light...if you were in the circle and you were dancing and if they put the spotlight on you then everybody would stop dancing and make that circle bigger. Now back in the days the bigger your circle the bigger you are! And I'mma tell you right now nobody had a circle bigger than Trixie! Trixie had the biggest circles ever! When Trixie danced nobody else in the party danced. Everybody was in that circle. I might be dancing in a circle or whatever and people would still be partying but when Trixie went under that light nobody else was partying anymore. That's how you know who you are! How big your circle is...I had some big circles too tough. Me and Timmy we had circles....listen, I never had to pay one dollar to get into a party!"
NORIN RAD:"How did you carry yourself back then as a B-Boy?"
PIXIE:"The way I carried myself...I was like a pretty boy, a young pretty boy and I had all the young girls. I had all the young girls and I had swag!!! I had swag that was out of this world."
NORIN RAD:"So was it important back then to have a certain swag? To come across self-confident and strong?"
PIXIE:"You had to! You had to! If you didn't you was weak, you was nobody!!! You had to be real strong when you walked in a party....even after the party. Like when the people saw you..you had to be really confident of who you were! You had to look at your clothes before you came outside like,"Yo! Am I right? Yeah, I'm right!!" You know? "Did I do this right for this party? Yeah, I did this right!" You just couldn't go out any kind of way!"
NORIN RAD:"Timmy Tim's B-Boy name was Dixie, right?"
PIXIE:"Yeah!"
NORIN RAD:"So that means you were called Pixie & Dixie?"
PIXIE:"Right!"
NORIN RAD:"Where did he get that name from?"
PIXIE:"We took that off from my brother. As I said my brother was Trixie the baddest breakdancer in the Bronx! He was the King of all Kings! Listen, he was the man! So I said, "Okay, my name is Pixie and your name is Dixie! We both come from Trixie!" Trixie, Pixie and Dixie!"
NORIN RAD:"Did that name have anything to do with that cartoon series "Pixie & Dixie" from the 1960ies?" (Shout Outs To Zulu King Cholly Rock for pointing that out to me!)
PIXIE:"(laughs) Yeah, that's where we got it from! Right there!"
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| Pixie & Dixie |
PIXIE:"Ah man, we used to get on the floor and act like we would row a boat! We started that! We would paddle past each other...then we grab each other's leg and hand and row. We used to row around the whole damn dance floor! And then that's when the Frankenstein came in I would lie down...Timmy would lift my head up and my whole body would be stiff and then I would act like Frankenstein and choke somebody."
NORIN RAD:"I know that Timmy Tim was a DJ for Kool Herc but did he also do parties on his own?"
PIXIE:"Before he got down with Kool Herc me and Timmy used to have parties. Since I was a B-Boy...me and him we were B-Boys...number one B-Boys.. we could get some crowd to come to the party. So that's how the parties got filled up. Everybody coming to see us breakdancing."
NORIN RAD:"Could you please tell me where that spot used to be at in which Timmy Tim rocked these parties?"
PIXIE:"Okay, Timmy's parties used to be on Ogden Avenue & University. It was like a little celllar. It was like a basement party. We had an arrangement so he could do his parties. They were nice! They wasn't no Kool Herc event but we had a good bunch of young girls in there... our age. See, at Kool Herc's we used to party with all the older people. But when me and Timmy started it we had all the people of our age coming. Then when we got a little older Timmy started DJing for Herc."
NORIN RAD:"I see and how many people fit in that cellar?"
PIXIE:"Maybe thirty."
NORIN RAD:"What were your five most favourite beats to get down to back in the Kool Herc days?"
PIXIE:"James Brown......Sex Machine ("Give It Up Or Turn It Loose"), wait a minute..."The Mexican"....that was my favourite!!! Ohio Players "Fire"!! (enthusiastically hums the tune) Yeah, "Fire" brought me out! That's the song I came out on! That's how I got my name! Let's see..there was so much music out there back then. "Rock Creek Park"!!!"
NORIN RAD:"What about "Apache"?
PIXIE:""Apache"!!! You got it. That's it right there!"
NORIN RAD:"Alright, now what was the first Kool DJ Herc party like that you ever went to?"
PIXIE:" 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the park....that was my first party! My brother (Trixie) stood on top of the stairs there and they put a light on him and man the fucking girls went craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzyy!!!!!!!!!!!!! He came down the stairs and they opened up the circle.. he jumped in and started breakdancing and the crowd went absolutely crazy!!!!!! That's when I was like, "That's what I want to do!" Man, that guy was like....he was like Michael Jackson!!!!!!
NORIN RAD:"Oh shit!!!!!!"
PIXIE:"Yeah, man!!! (excited) Oh my god, it was like...it was something I will never forget in my life! NEVER....EVER!!!"
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| The legendary Trixie |
NORIN RAD:"Did you ever get involved in Graffiti ( I know the correct term is Writing...Shout Outs to Phase 2!)? I'm asking this because your brother Trixie told me that he was close with El Marko 174 and I know that Kool Herc and his sister Cindy were also Writers at some point in time...?"
PIXIE:"Yeah, my name was BABYFACE!"
NORIN RAD:"Oh! I guess you were doing mostly insides, right?"
PIXIE:"Nah, on the train! On the outsides of the trains...yeah! BABYFACE!"
NORIN RAD:"So growing up in the Bronx back then doing Graffiti and Breakdancing was something that went kind of hand in hand for some?"
PIXIE:"The breakdancing and that? Yeah!"
NORIN RAD:"So you already called yourselves B-Boys back in the Kool Herc era?"
PIXIE:"Yeah, we were B-Boys and it was called breakdancing."
NORIN RAD:"There is something I need to ask you with regards to the origin of the dance. There is this narrative that Breaking has its roots in Brooklyn Rocking. Allegedly, people from the Bronx would go to a club in Downtown Manhattan called "Starship Enterprise" in 1974 and they would see all the Brooklyn Rock dancers there and unsuccessfully tried to copy their style. The sloppy result of this attempt was Breaking.What is your take on that?"
PIXIE:"That's a lie! That's lie! The Bronx started B-Boying. Everybody else came in later."
NORIN RAD:"There you have it! Coming from an Original B-Boy from the Kool Herc parties..."
PIXIE:"I'm a original B-Boy! That's right! The only borough that was breakdancing with us was Manhattan because of Dougie Doug (aka Dancing Doug)! Dougie Doug is from Manhattan. So Manhattan and the Bronx was where that started at. But it all started in the Bronx. It did not start in Manhattan. Manhattan came to the Bronx! I don't know nobody from Brooklyn that came to no party out here in the Bronx!!! 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was where it all started. Then later you also had other guys in the Bronx that would put music out and people would just start breakdancing but Kool Herc was the official for the B-Boys, right? If you was breakdancing and all that and you didn't breakdance at a Kool Herc party you were nobody."
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| B-Boy Rossy aka Pixie today |
