Interview with B-Boy / DJ Afrika Zambu (The Zulu Masters)


                                                                  

Afrika Zambu (The Zulu Masters)

                                 conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany) 


NORIN RAD:"Where did you live at when you first witnessed Breaking and when was that?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Well, let me see...I used to live in 1609 East 174th Street in the Bronx, Bronx River Projects. I started out when I was young, you know how you are dancing for your relatives and they're throwing money at you? That's how I really started."

NORIN RAD:"Okay, and how did Breaking come to Bronx River? Was it brought to your neighbourhood by cats who had been to Kool Herc's parties? When did you see it for the first time?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, it started with Kool Herc and their crew. They had that spinning on the floor...I don't recall their names though. You're asking me the first time that I seen it?"

NORIN RAD:"Yes, the first time that you saw it."

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"It had to be a Kool Herc party...it wasn't Mario and it wasn't nobody else that I know that was with us. It had to come from Herc...it had to come from Herc and their crew. I believe I went to one of his block parties and I seen it there. I had seen it at a block party."

NORIN RAD:"So what made you pick up Breaking? I mean you are known as one of the Original 5 Zulu Kings..."

AFRIKA ZAMBU: "Oh I enjoyed the beats and the way they made me move 'cause I was already into the dancing stage of breaking (the Uprocking) but it was more or less that I didn't know how to do it on the floor...but I did a couple of moves on the floor and the rest of the guys from my area, in the projects.. they kinda liked it and so I put a little bit more into it but I didn't really know what I was doing at that time. So I created my own style."

NORIN RAD:"Okay, now what caused the creation of the Zulu Kings?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"What happened is that since we were all touching base with the breakdancing..'cause like I said it was already out....so what I did is...being that first it was just the Zulus..I believe first it was just the Zulus... then it developed into the Zulu Nation and then after the Zulu Nation I broke off and we made the Zulu Kings which really was the Zulu Masters!!!!"

NORIN RAD:"That's interesting! So The Zulu Masters was the first name of the B-Boys of the Zulu Nation?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, that was the name! It was the Zulu Masters first and then it became the Zulu Kings. Cause see I named the group Masters cause we were the masters of that particular dance in our area! Nobody else was doing that! We was doing it! So we became the masters of that! The kings of breakdancing in our hood!"

NORIN RAD:"Thank you very much! What was the hierarchy like within the Zulu Masters? Was there a leader? Shaka was the leader of that group, right?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"No, Shaka was not the leader of the group, I was the leader of the group. I allowed the other four people that was with me to create their own dance and I was mostly like the supervisor over their dance."

NORIN RAD:"So you are the creator and original leader of the Zulu Masters. Did Afrika Bambaataa give you his blessings to start that group?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, he did."

NORIN RAD:"Alright, and who gave you that name Zambu? I guess that was Bambaataa, right?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Bambaataa gave that to me. We had a book that he was looking in...it was from Africa. He had collected money from the people in the projects to make a journey or trip to Africa. He used our money to do this. So he had a book when he came back and we picked names out of that book. Everybody picked their own names. So Zambu means "Holy Prince"!!"

NORIN RAD:"Would the Zulu Masters have like specific Crew Colors? Like vests or T-Shirts back then with your names on them?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"No. We may have a shirt with a name... something like that. I don't know about Zulu Kings but I know about Zulu Masters on the back of a T-Shirt but we don't wear those shirts like that to clubs. We wear regular clothes and we really didn't stay together like that..like all of five of us went to the club together. We would meet up."

NORIN RAD:"Where would you meet up? In the middle of Bronx River Projects?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Everywhere! Wherever we would congregate. If one of us would want to battle somebody then I would have his back...you know cleaning it up.....or challenging the next guy...I'm the next in line like if somebody beat Squirpy (Shaka) or Ahmed then he has to face me, then I gotta go in but I'm also looking in and see how smooth my opponent is so I can know how to attack him and what move I wanna use on this particular individual."

NORIN RAD:"So who were like your toughest competitors back then?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"The only ones that I remember...I had a few that I don't remember who they were. Were they from Soundview? I had two particular ones in Bronxdale. Yeah, Bronxdale was definetely a force to be reckoned with. There were two particular guys. One is still living. One was named Winston they called him Curly and one was named Black."   

NORIN RAD:"So did you battle them?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yes. In the back of Bronx River."

NORIN RAD:"And who won that battle? Did you burn them or did they take you out?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Aaaaah, that's kind of a tough one. I think I wanna say it was kinda like a draw! (laughs) I wanna say it was like a draw cause we both were nice with our moves. The crowd really dictates who wins."

NORIN RAD:"Who out of the first five Zulu Masters was the best B-Boy to you?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"From my perspective? It was between Ahmed and really Artie J. Aziz.. that was his African name."

Ahmed (The Zulu Masters)

NORIN RAD:"So Aziz was a bad B-Boy as well?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yes, yes!!! He had crazy legs! He would move with his legs...his body movement..he would explain what he was doing with his body. The rest of them didn't have that much explaining as in how they moved. If they flip, you know they flip. If they spin, you know they spin."

NORIN RAD:"So Aziz would shock you when he was battling somebody because you never knew what he would throw in next, right?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yes! Yes!"

NORIN RAD:"Later down the line other B-Boys would join your ranks and you had established a special procedure to test if a B-Boy was really worthy to become one of you, right?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, sure. You had to break against one of us in the group. It wasn't just all about me..you had to beat at least on of us in the group to be a Zulu Nation B-Boy but not a Zulu Master. You can't be a Zulu Master because we started it. We started it, so we were the original five."

NORIN RAD:"Oh, so reserved that name Zulu Masters for yourself because you were the ones that started it?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yes, cause see the Zulu Kings I don't really know where that came in at. It must have come in when I had left the group. They changed it to Zulu Kings. I don't remember being a Zulu King 'cause since we had the Zulu Nation and what we represented in (with regards to) Africa it would not be wise to be called a king, you understand what I'm talking about?"

NORIN RAD:"Yes. From what I have heard there is this one guy from Bronx River, a Puerto Rican B-Boy named Peter who called himself Little Zambu. Did you bless him with that name?"



AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, that's my son! That's my son,  Little Zambu! He was a Puerto Rican and he had come to me and we was talking, we had a good conversation. He said,"Would it be alright to be Little Zambu?" He asked me about that  'cause I didn't know. I didn't name him Little Zambu. He kinda asked me for permission because he respected me so much. Being that I was outdoing so many people breakdancing I was the man!"



NORIN RAD:"I see. How did you feel when Wade aka Shyheim established another Zulu B-Boy crew called The Shaka Zulus? He told me that he once tried for the Zulu Kings but was denied membership because you, the original five or the Zulu Masters as you said, did not consider him to be good enough. Hence he created The Shaka Zulus with Bambaataa's special permission. How did you look at the Shaka Zulus back then?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, right. The Shaka Zulus..I don't know really who came up with the name, the term but they wanted to be compared to us and the way I looked at it...I kinda took it personal as a kind of an offence...First of all it was an initiation...you had to prove yourself worthy if you wanted to be accepted by us and obviously for him it didn't work out. As I said I don't remember who started that but they wasn't nowhere compared to what we was trying to establish."

Green Eyed Wade (Founder of the Shaka Zulus)

NORIN RAD:"Did you have a specific signature move?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"No, not that I can remember. It's almost like a Michael Jordan. If I'm up in the air I will know what I need to do."

NORIN RAD:"So you were a well rounded B-Boy?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Well rounded...yes!"
 
NORIN RAD:"Okay, from your perspective...why was Bronx River such a feared place among B-Boys from other parts of the Bronx that only few dared to go there? It was a rather tough place to be at for strangers, right?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yeah, sure it was. It was tough because....first of all you gotta be invited. You can't walk into the projects and challenge one of us Zulu Masters without having a sort of an appointment or knowing someone in the group.....and it's gotta be announced or set up. You can't walk in there and battle one of us and maybe at the time winning and nothing would be said about it. You know it was rough back then. And it wouldn't be me...it would be one of the guys in the group and it would almost be out of my control. I can't really stop them because
you know it's a organization group that is well respected within and you  kinda defend what they got going on."

NORIN RAD:"And you Zulus were always strong in numbers, right?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Yes, we were. We would always walk in a pack when we went to other projects."

NORIN RAD:"Many cats out here have this strange notion that a B-Boy really dances to every kind of music but back then you only got down to a specific type of beats, right? What kind of music did you B-Boy to back then and how did it make you feel?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Alright, the first one that I can tell you that kinda really started me was"Bongo Rock"....that's just the bongos..by the Incredible Bongo Band. That's the first record that they came out with. And "Bongo Rock" with the bongos to me ...it made me move a certain way..I don't know...the bongos really got it for me. The bongos and the drums got it for me. So it was the Incredible Bongo Band and "It's Just Begun" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch..and then there was another one with Earth, Wind & Fire..."Africano"!!!!! That got it for me, too."

NORIN RAD:"What about "Listen To Me" by Baby Huey?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Oh, that's Kool Herc!! That's Kool Herc stuff. Also "The Mexian" by Babe Ruth....Kool Herc played stuff like that but it was a more slower tempo with Kool Herc. With us Zulus it was fast, it was uptempo and to the point.......like the James Brown to the point...the beat, screaming and we did do our thing on the dance floor."

NORIN RAD:"So how would you the Zulu Masters dress up back then?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"We would wear the Pro-Keds, Lee Jeans...we kinda dressed casual because if we're  going to break....sometimes you don't know....if we're going to a club, to a party.. especially like a block party.......I changed three times a day!!! You know why? Because I get sweaty and I might scar up my sneakers. I still do that today."

NORIN RAD:"So all this dressing up extremely splivvy with the Cortefiels, the Mocknecks, the Italian Knits, the Playboys  and all that which was done by some of the early B-Boys like Trixie, Dancing Doug or Wallace Dee at Kool Herc's parties did not apply to Bronx River?"

AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Well, actually that's a Kool Herc type of thing....between Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash... They would come with the London Fog Coats and they would come with the Cortefiels and they would come with the mocknecks and they might have a hat on...that short thing which Run -D.M.C wear. See we were on the floor heavily so that didn't apply to us."

NORIN RAD:"How would you and your crew prepare for an upcoming jam back then?"




AFRIKA ZAMBU:"The way I feel before a jam happens is I would have to prepare myself physically so that means I would be in Bronx River Gym working out....breakdancing...coming up with some new moves. See I'd be working...the rest of them they don't do that but I do cause since I kinda held that position I had to perfect what I did....thinking, "How can I make this better?" So I'd be ready when the party starts just in case somebody might call out one of the guys with us, the Zulu Masters. I gotta be ready cause if he beats him then that means that I gotta step in some kind of way. See when you go down the line you gotta face me."



NORIN RAD:"Last question which will lead into the second part of our interview..What made you quit Breaking and pick up DJing instead?"




AFRIKA ZAMBU:"Well, since I was more or less into the music part of it..which is another story that we will get to later..  I know how the guys breakdance so when I get on the set and play the breakbeat music... cause I know what they wanna hear...it kinda took away from me breakdancing because I would have to go to another jam and hear another DJ play the music and then I would get on the floor but I coudn't do both of it at the same time. I would try my best.. I would really do....I would try to get it in ..Bambaataa would play maybe one or two breakbeats and that would be it... so he wouldn't follow through with nothing else so I was very limited in that area and I kinda lost track with that."

March 1978 - Bronx River Center: Afrika Zambu rocking the Wheels of Steel with Bambaataa

 



                                                   END OF PART ONE