Interview with DJ Stevie Steve (The Magnificent Seven)
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| DJ Stevie Steve (The Magnificent Seven) |
conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders/Germany)
SIR NORIN RAD:"From which part of the Boogie Down Bronx are you?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"I used to live on Tiffany street between 167th and 165th. Later on I moved to Prospect Avenue. That's the South Bronx."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What made you fall in love with this whole Hip Hop DJ thing?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"When I went to see Grandmaster Flash play at the Dixie Club in 1976/77."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So he was a huge inspiration to you?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh, absolutely!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you describe what the Dixie Club looked like?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, the inside was kind of like a.....let me see if I can explain it to you...like a dancehall. Kinda like an upstairs auditorium. You had to go up to the second floor and that's were the dancefloor was, the stage for the DJ and there might have been a spot in the back for refreshments."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was the Dixie Club located at?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was located on Freeman street."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How many people fit in there?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"I would say about 150, maybe 200."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Ok and do you recall what made you go there to see Grandmaster Flash?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, one of my DJs at the time...Caliph 09...he had heard Flash playing before....he had heard a mixtape of Flash mixing beats and the Dixie Club was really only a block away from where I lived at so we went there to check him out."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you please explain what was so special about that party?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was the way that Flash was mixing those beats and also the vibe at that spot. The vibe at the spot was like happy, you know? Everybody was having a good time! It was a peaceful affair. There was no trouble. Everybody was having a good time. Flash was playing that real Old School Hip Hop music like "Apache" stuff like that. Old fashioned Hip Hop, Old School Beats....."
SIR NORIN RAD:"The breakbeats..."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly, the breakbeats! Exactly!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So was that party like the starting point for you to take Djing more seriously? To get records and to build up a soundsystem?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well it was actually because Disco Bee...he was one of Flash's DJs and him and I we lived on the same block in the Bronx. It's funny how things came around. What made me want to go out and get my own stuff was that at that particular party Grandmaster Flash called me up on stage to mix and I was nervous as hell. He gave me...I think it was "Let's Dance" by Pleasure.....I'm mixing that and I'm shaking!!!! My knees were literally shaking and Disco Bee got under the table and held my legs!!! And the crowd stopped dancing and somebody said, "That's not Flash that's mixing the beat!" The entire crowd stopped and turned around and saw me on the turntables! Then they rushed to the turntables! Disco Bee gave me "Star Wars" by Dave Matthews and I started getting more comfortable. Then he gave me "Apache" and I start tearing "Apache" up!!! (laughs) And Flash was like,"You gotta go! You gotta leave the turntables!" Nobody was dancing the crowd, just stood there watching me, you know what I'm saying? And that's the first time I had ever seen a mixer and headphones because before that I did it with my ear to the vinyl!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you would put your head close to the grooves and you would listen to the beat?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly, that's when I was mixing without a mixer and headphones!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Oh! But you were still able to mix the beats properly?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh absolutely! I could cut and everything!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So what kind of turntables were you using at that time when you were using that technique? And how did you switch over from one channel to the other?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"My moms had a Panasonic stereo so I used that and another regular turntable from that time. I used the Aux port for the 2nd turntable and I used to just switch from Phono to Aux to mix! That's how I got so fast!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did it come about that someone as great as Grandmaster Flash invited you up on stage? I mean at that point you weren't known as a DJ, right?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Like I said Disco Bee....we knew each other and Flash had heard about me. He had heard about that guy that was DJing out of his window on Prospect Avenue...so he had heard about me, you know? When I came to the show I saw him, he saw me...I gave Disco Bee a hug and said, "What's Up?!" I just got there, you know, chilling, doing my thing, watching him mix and then he called me up. So I'm standing there saying to myself,"He's calling me up!!!!"And he's like, "Come on, Steve! Come On!" So because I knew Disco Bee who was Flash's assistant and he had told him, "That's Stevie Steve! He could mix a little bit!" and Flash had said, "Ok!" I could mix a little bit!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Now that you mention that you were DJing out of your window in the beginning of your career I would like to know how did that go down? Would that happen spontaneously when you were practicing?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Actuallly for me it was just some friends from the block asking me to play music and I did. I would put the two small speakers in the window and just go back in the living room and mix.That’s how my following grew. Those sessions were always spontaneous, usually after school when your chores and homework was done."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So how did you proceed after that party as far as building up a soundsystem is concerned?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, I knew I had to get a mixer and back in those days there was no crossfader. It was up and down."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Oh, so you would use the linefaders?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! You would push up on one and change to the next record and push down on the other one...... So people always asked me how I got so fast mixing... I said, "Because when I started I didn't even own a mixer so I couldn't hear the other record, I was listening to the actual vinyl!" So once I got a mixer I was like, "Wow! I can actually hear the other record through the headphone!" By that time I was already cutting, using that technique that I told you about. The mixer and the headphones made everything easier. So the first turntable that I got was a Technics SL-210 and then I got a SL-220."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How much were those turntables back then?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, back in the days the Technics SL-210 was running about 75 to 80 bucks 'cause they were still belt-driven. So they weren't that expensive."
SIR NORIN RAD:"And what was your first mixer? Was it a Clubman Mixer?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"No, it was in between that 'cause it didn't have a crossfader. I can't remember the name of the first crossfader that I had. It might have been a Numark. I know it didn't have a crossfader so it might have been a Numark."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What really amazes me every time I see pictures of the DJs back in the days cutting up breakbeats in the parks or whenenever I get to listen to one of these old tapes is the fact that you did all this with equipment that wasn't specifically designed for that purpose. Like the mixers, the turntables and even the needles....still you succeeded to extend those beats absolutely seamlessly and flawlessly. Obviously, most cats today utterly fail to understand what it took to be a DJ back in your day."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:" That's correct! The thing about it is people show me clips on youtube of these kids mixing at like 7,8,9 years old on Serato and I'm like,"Listen, it sounds nice but take the computer away, put two turntables and a mixer in front of them and let's see what kind of skills they have. Like you said back in the days you really had to practice to get that flawlessness. I mean it came naturally to some of us but still you had to practice. I had an older brother named Mike who would always tell me, "I heard you mix!" You know so that made me practice more so that he wouldn't hear anything as far as flaws were concerned. It's kinda like were spinning back came from 'cause when you're spinning back the record depending on how good you are or how precise you are with the spin back you wouldn't even hear a cut! I could take two records of the same song and mix them and you wouldn't even hear a cut!!! People would come to me and ask me,"How do you that?" And I was like,"You know, it's just the beat. Once you know the beat and you learn the beat you could mix that beat together endlessly!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Yes, nowadays they use buttons to loop those beats but you did manually......"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly!!!!! Exactly!!! (excited) WE DID IT MANUALLY!! WE DIDN'T HAVE NO BEAT MATCH BACK THEN!!! WE DIDN'T HAVE NO BEAT SYNC!!!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"And if you were messing up on the cut constantly in the park the crowd would let you know, right?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh absolutely! They would let you know! I remember one day I was DJing in 63 Park my brother had just come back from Spain and he had brought a little system for ourselves....that was our little soundsytem. He had brought two Marantz speakers and a Kenwood amp. Now I remember coming out in the park and Meane Gene (DJ from the legendary L-Brothers) said to me,"Take that stuff back to your house 'cause you're not gonna rock with that!" I said,"Okay Gene, stand away from the speaker I'm gonna turn the amp on. So I turned the amp on, started mixing, blew Gene away!!! And he said"Wow!" And that was my first experience in 63 Park. Now if you wanted to be any kind of DJ on that side of the Bronx you had to play 63 Park!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So it was like playing basketball at the Rucker?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! You had to play there in order to get your name out there."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Which other parks did you play besides 63 Park?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"We played Forest Park as well, also Bronx River (home of the Zulu Nation), Echo Park on the other side of the Bronx where Kool Herc and them was from. Yeah, we played those parks particularly. There were other venues but they weren't parks like the Dixie Club of course, the Audubon, the Disco Fever, 371 Club. I remember the first time I played at 371......that was the domain of DJ Hollywood and them.....and they were like," We don't want that Hippedy Hop stuff in here!" We were like,"Really?! We're booked here so we gonna play here!" But it was like they didn't want any parts of Hip Hop and it's weird cause nowadays Hollywood wants to be known as a Hip Hop DJ. He wasn't a Hip Hop DJ, he was a Disco DJ!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"I have read that DJ Hollywood would tell B-Boys at his parties, "Take that breakdancing shit to Kool Herc's party!"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Absolutely! And nowadays that Hip Hop has taken off and has become what it is these guys now wanna claim part of the fame for the history of Hip Hop when they weren't Hip Hop DJs. Hollywood couldn't mix or scratch!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you recruit the rest of your crew? Like how did you bring in DJ Caliph 09 and DJ Shaft and the four MCs ?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Okay here is how it went........Caliph grew up with me on Tiffany like Mean Gene and Theodore and Disco Bee......and he came up to me one day and said,"Yo Steve, we can actually do this!" And I was like,"Okay, that's cool!" And so I was living on Prospect Avenue at the time and Tiffany street was maybe 7 blocks south from where I lived at so we would always hang out. My old school people from Tiffany they would come to Prospect and that's how I met the people living on Prospect. Kevie Kev lived upstairs from me on the second floor and he became our record man. He brought Lil Rodney Cee to me. Lil Shotgun Rob lived on Tiffany as well. Davey Dave lived on Prospect, he was Kevie Kev's cousin. So as far as our MCees are concerned Davey Dave got down, Lil Shotgun Rob, Lil Rodney Cee....and then Rodney brought Jazzy Jeff on 'cause both of them went to Lehman High School. That's how we got the seven together."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What about DJ Shaft though?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Shaft was also living around the area of Prospect and his dad was big time numbers runner."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So when did the Magnificent Seven actually form?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, we got the Seven together between 1976 and 1977."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you must have witnessed that whole evolution which the element of MCing went through from being merely an additional attraction of the DJ show to eventually taking the forefront in Hiphop, correct?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes, 1977 was the time when this whole process started 'cause everybody knows that initially the DJ was the star of the show."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So when you were rocking at let's say 63 park...how would you divide up the time behind the turntables between you, Caliph 09 and Shaft? Who set up the equipment? And who would bring what kind of flava in terms of the music that was being played?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"I used to hook the equipment up almost every party. Me and Caliph and sometimes Shaft. See, Shaft was a pretty boy, his thing was to hang out with the girls while we were setting up. So basically me and Caliph we would hook up the equipment...the wiring, the decks, the mics, everything. The majority of the time I was behind the turntables. Now if I wanted to take a break I would put Caliph on. I wouldn't ask Shaft 'cause he was concerned with the girls most of the time. So he would ask me if he could get on and I would say,"Sure!" because he hadn't been on. Now Caliph's style was more like mine....the kind of mixing and scratching DJing. Shaft's style was kinda like that of the old fashioned disco DJs. So he could blend, you know?"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it true that in the very beginning like in 1977-78 the MCs would be standing behind the DJ?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Right, they were behind the turntables or off to the left or to the right because basically when people came to the party they came to see the DJ. Then the MCs started rapping and as time went on their rhymes became more intricate. So guys were like,"Wow!! He's telling a story!"Then they started to perform in front of the turntables so they could be seen and heard."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you describe those different phases that a party went through during those unforgetable summer nights when you were rocking at 63 park? Like how would you start? What kind of music would you play? What would you play to have the crowd rocking during the middle phase of the jam and how would you end?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, the first phase with my crew was always slow. We would play the coolouts...."T Plays It Cool" by Marvin Gaye....."Keep That Same Old Feeling" by Side Effect...there was a couple of other ones. When the people were just arriving at the party we didn't want to hit them over the head with all the hot beats when nobody was there. When things got hotter we would play songs like "Let's Dance", "Dance To The Drummer's Beat", "Planetary Citizen"......things like that. That was like in the middle of the party, we were getting the people hyped up and then once that starts to happen the B-Boys started breaking because we played songs like "Yellow Sunshine". That's when I would get into the heavy mixing...I would mix songs like "Apache", "Last Night Changed It All"....all these breakbeats we would play when the party got hot. Towards the end of the party we would slow it down again, people were chilling now, they just wanted to dance close so we would throw in the slower stuff. But of course almost every jam back in the day ended with "Apache", you know? The MCs wanted to hear it, the B-Boys wanted to hear it, the crowd wanted to hear it. So "Apache" was one of the last songs that we would play."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So B-Boys played a vital role at the jams in that part of the BX as well? I mean the South BX?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:" There were B-boys in the South Bronx for sure. Mr Ness was a b-boy before he became a MC with the Furious 5 and KK Rockwell was a b-boy as well."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Do you recall anyone out of the following four South BX B-Boys: 1. Bumpy Face Melvin 2. Black Avery 3. Bruce Lee 4. Flipping Mike?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Bumpy Face Melvin, Black Avery and Flipping Mike hung out with the L-Brothers and Grandmaster Flash on Boston Road. I also witnessed all of them dancing. I don't recall Bruce Lee though."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was Bumpy Face Melvin from?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was either Boston Road or Forest."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so you're saying that there was mostly a joyful and peaceful vibe at those parties back then but what about the presence of such elements as stick-up kids or tough guys like the Casanovas?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Right, right...there was gang stuff going on back then but basically it seemed as if the party scene was kinda like a neutral zone, you know what I'm saying? There was a time though when we were playing at 63 park and some cats tried to stick us up at the party. They thought I was crazy because there was a guy with a shotgun and a guy with a machete. I saw that shit coming...you gotta be aware...so I grabbed the guy with the machete and took the machete out of his hand. While I grabbed the machete I said, "Listen, I'm not scared of guns but I never liked knives." So the guy with the shotgun looked at me like I was crazy, he was shocked and because of that Caliph and Lil Shotgun Rob came up from behind him and grabbed the shotgun off his hand. So you're always tested...especially in the Bronx ....you're always tested, you know? Not just musically but in general and you gotta prove that you can handle yourself in those kind of situations because that's just the way it was back in the 70ies and 80ies."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you feel in 1979 when you were told that Lil Rodney Cee and Jazzy Jeff were leaving your crew to join the Brothers Disco and to become members of the Funky Four MCs replacing Rahiem and Sha Rock (who would rejoin them later on as the Plus One)?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Okay, here's how it happend...how it happened was by that time in 1979 the Magnificent 7 had come to a point where we weren't heading into the same direction anymore. The crew was no longer united. That happened after we had taken out the other Magnificent 7 on their turf in Harlem and after we had started playing at places like the T-Connection. We started to get our name known. All of a sudden it seemed as if the DJs and the MCs were at odds. When we made money the MCs wanted to get microphones and mic stands and us DJs we wanted to get records. It was the time when the MCs started to be at the forefront of Hip Hop. We needed to take that next step but it really seemed like my other two DJs weren't insync with what the MCs wanted. So what happened was....I was at home and Brothers Disco were having auditions at 180 park....I had no idea that Rodney and Jazzy Jeff were auditioning. There was this Spanish cat from my block that told me, "Yo Steve, you're peeps are over there on 180 MCing with Brothers Disco!" I was like, "What!?!" I was kinda pissed, I was kinda upset, you know what I'm saying, but I knew that we weren't moving like that so I couldn't say nothing. Now I have known Rodney for more than 40 years.....same thing with Jeff....so I was mad at the time but you know what that quickly passed because two years later when KK Rockwell and Lil Rodney Cee left The Funky Four Plus One they came to me to be their DJ and we started Double Trouble."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did that battle between your crew and that other Magnificent Seven from Harlem come about and how did it go down?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"We had seen a flyer from a crew called Magnificent Seven and I was like, "What Magnificent Seven?? That's not us." So what happened was we contacted Spivey and Rayvon and told them, "Listen, you can't be the Magnificent Seven 'cause we're the Magnificent Seven!" So to make a long story short we set up a battle for the name. It was spring '77 going into summer. We decided that we would battle on their territory so we went down to 116th street and Park Avenue to their spot to battle. We get down there, you know, they're setting up and I hear Spivey (DJ of the Magnificent Seven from Harlem) say, "I'm gonna go across the street, smoke me a joint and kill this Stevie Steve kid!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:" Damn!!" (laughs)
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That's what he said. I'm standing there, we're in their territory and I'm like,"Whatever!" So now they came first and they really got the house rocking! So then we come on and it's funny because Spivey told Rodney about a month ago, "Yo Stevie bust my ass back then!" So I get on and we start slow...we start with that routine which me and Kevie Kev do over that James Brown song and then I start mixing. I'm mixing "Clyde" (Give It Up Or Turn It Loose by James Brown), then I start spinning back "Clyde" and the crowd is going crazy. Then Lil Shotgun Rob pulls off my headphones while I'm spinning back!! People started asking my MCs, "What's the DJ's name?" They said, "Stevie Steve!"and so the people started shouting,"Stevie Steve! Stevie Steve!" Then my MC Davey Dave said,"You think this man is talented? Watch this!" So I put on Aretha Franklin's "Rock Steady"....the 45!!!! Now mind you, Norin, I started spinning back Aretha Franklin on 45s which they had never seen before! You had cats coming up to the stage putting their face on the turntable while I'm spinning back because they couldn't believe it. The crowd is going crazy! I'm spinning back 45s!!! Nobody had ever done that before and really not in a battle.... maybe in practice. I was the first DJ to ever do that!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you would spin back that famous breakpart where Pretty Purdie goes off playing the drums and Aretha sings "Rock.......Steady!!!!"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Excatly, that's the part I'm spinning back! And I had it going like,"Rock, Rock, Rock..."So cats were asking "Who is this guy?" That's how I quick I was back in the day!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Without any flaws?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh yeah, I mean you might hear a cut or two in between but for the most part it was flawless!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So these DJ/MC crew battles back then were about rocking the crowd, right? Like you would go back and forth..."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! And the purpose of this particular battle was to battle for the name. It's part of history you always see them be called now as Magnificent Seven from Harlem. They had to add "from Harlem" after we busted their ass! And we did it twice! Six months apart, both on their turf. It was in a community center.... like that."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you have any problems getting back safely to the Bronx after that battle? I'm asking this question because I have been told by various original B-Boys that you if you took out somebody on their block back then you were often facing the danger of getting jumped by your opponent's homeboys."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That was true in a lot of cases but that depends on the other crew, you know what I mean? Like if you get your ass beat convincingly...I mean with no tricks or hidden adavantages...it was like they had to respect your talent of the DJs and MCs that you just battled. So basically we had no issues when we went out of our borough to other places 'cause they knew who we were. It was a real battle....if your cats were better than me then fine.We walked home with our equipment, we kept it moving. We didn't know the agony of defeat because it wasn't happening."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So your opponents, the Magnificent Seven from Harlem, admitted to their defeat?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes, they did."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you move your equipment to all these venues far away from your homebase?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"(laughs) Let me tell you, Norin! Let me tell you! It's a funny story. Whenever we travelled out of the bororugh we didn't have cars. We would pack our shit up and took it on the subway!! (chuckles)"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Your whole equipment???"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Everything.....on the subway! I'm talking speakers, multiple crates of records, amplifiers, mics, mic stands....."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Nowadays obviously many fail to recognize what it took to build up a reputation as DJ/MC crew back then. No record company behind you pushing your shit to the masses.....you had to do it on your own and only the strongest succeeded."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That's right!! Because, you know, we didn't have no money back then. Who could afford a van to move his stuff to the parks??? Grandmaster Flash did. But we went on the subway with our shit. That's how we did it!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Let me ask you something about the quest for beats back then......you said were invited once to play at Bronx River by Afrika Bambaataa once, right?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Now as everyone knows Bam was called the Master of Records because he had the deepest crates and the most obscure and rarest breakbeats out of every DJ back then. So when you were playing with him at Bronx River, did you try to get the names of some of his beats?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh absolutely 'cause see Bambaataa was the head of the Zulu Nation over there in Bronx River and one of my MCs....Lil Shotgun Rob as well as my DJ partner Caliph 09...they both were Zulus and they would hang out in Bronx River all the time......"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you were always welcome there?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes, we were."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so what was your method of getting breakbeat titles out of Bambaataa? I remember that you once told me that you would always get Mean Gene to brag about his beats which resulted in him showing you album covers and boasting,"You will never find this record!"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! Exactly! And also we would get beats before Flash would get them because Bambaataa was the king of the rare beats and he would share some of them with me. He was in a record club before anybody else was so he would get the imports from Germany, France, the UK, Italy...stuff that no other DJ in the Bronx knew about. Like "Phenomena Theme" by In Search Of...Orchestra....I played that at a party one night and Flash went crazy...he was like,"Steve, what the hell was that???" so I was like, "That's my bro, so I'mma turn him on 'cause he could help me out with a couple of things." So I told him what it was and by whom it was and he was like,"Wow!". Bam was the king of the beats. He couldn't really mix that well but he had superior beats to anybody."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How many crates of beats did you have back then? Like at the height of your DJ career?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"In my heyday I had about 35 crates of records. But I mean you didn't go out to a party with 35 crates. You went out with 35 crates when you wanted to show the other motherfuckers, "I got this!" Normally at a party you would carry maybe 10 crates."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So DJ battles also always involved the element of psychological warfare? Like intimidating your opponent by showing him how many crates you got?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Right! Exactly! Absolutely! When you came to the park with ten or fifteen crates cats were like,"Damn!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"You would let them know that they were entering dangerous grounds by battling you..."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was psychological warfare that's for sure because you didn't play out 15 crates of records. You seriously used maybe four to five crates in one night because you kept all your crates organized by beats, by tempo, by crowd response, by MC jams. So you really didn't need to have 15 crates out there, you had that for the purpose of psychological warfare."
SIR NORIN RAD:"It's absolutely fascinating to hear about the intensity of the beat game back then."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yeah, the thing about it is see as I said I lived on the same block as Disco Bee and he would always let me know which new beats Flash had cause he was my boy! So when I heard a beat that I didn't know and I heard it at a Flash party....after the show I would talk to Bee, "Yo Bee, what's that joint, man?!?" and Bee would tell me what it was and vice versa, you know? I had a couple of beats that Flash didn't have. I got them mostly from Bambaataa or they were some obscure joints that I got at my house. Like there was a 45 called "Soul Makossa" by a band called All Directions and on the back of that "Soul Makossa" was a song called "On Top Of It". "On Top Of It" had a crazy beat! I put it on in the park one time and Flash was like "What the fuck is that?" When Flash saw my skills he invited me to practice with him at his crib on 169th & Franklin Ave. A lot of people don't know that we practiced together for six months and what made me know that I had made it was when we were practicing one time and Flash showed me how to spin back albums. So I went home that Friday and I said,"Wow! Okay, let's do that with 45s!"So the next day I'm practicing with them I'm spinning back "Rock Steady" and "On Top Of It" on 45s was Melle Mel was like,"Holy shit!" Even Flash said,"Spinning back 45s?" They were amazed! So then Melle Mel said to me,"Don't forget who taught you, Steve!""
SIR NORIN RAD:"So I guess being taught by the legendary Grandmaster Flash must have put you ahead of a lot of other DJs."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Leaps and bounds, Norin. Leaps and bounds!!!! Nobody wanted to battle us. Not Flash, not the L-Brothers....they wanted us to join their crew! Nobody wanted to battle us because first of all I could spin back like Flash, I could cut like Flash but my MCs were ridiculous! I mean Lil Rodney Cee, Jazzy Jeff...they couldn't be touched! That's why the Brothers Disco wanted them."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did that name Magnificent Seven come from? Was it that western movie from the 60ies with the seven gunmen?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That's where it came from 'cause that was my favourite movie back then!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Do you wish to give any shoutouts at the end of this interview?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"To the Funky 4, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, the L Brothers, Afrika Bambaata & the Soul Sonic Force, Kool Herc, Double Trouble, Kevy Kev, The Original Magnificent Seven."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"I used to live on Tiffany street between 167th and 165th. Later on I moved to Prospect Avenue. That's the South Bronx."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What made you fall in love with this whole Hip Hop DJ thing?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"When I went to see Grandmaster Flash play at the Dixie Club in 1976/77."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So he was a huge inspiration to you?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh, absolutely!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you describe what the Dixie Club looked like?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, the inside was kind of like a.....let me see if I can explain it to you...like a dancehall. Kinda like an upstairs auditorium. You had to go up to the second floor and that's were the dancefloor was, the stage for the DJ and there might have been a spot in the back for refreshments."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was the Dixie Club located at?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was located on Freeman street."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How many people fit in there?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"I would say about 150, maybe 200."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Ok and do you recall what made you go there to see Grandmaster Flash?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, one of my DJs at the time...Caliph 09...he had heard Flash playing before....he had heard a mixtape of Flash mixing beats and the Dixie Club was really only a block away from where I lived at so we went there to check him out."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you please explain what was so special about that party?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was the way that Flash was mixing those beats and also the vibe at that spot. The vibe at the spot was like happy, you know? Everybody was having a good time! It was a peaceful affair. There was no trouble. Everybody was having a good time. Flash was playing that real Old School Hip Hop music like "Apache" stuff like that. Old fashioned Hip Hop, Old School Beats....."
SIR NORIN RAD:"The breakbeats..."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly, the breakbeats! Exactly!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So was that party like the starting point for you to take Djing more seriously? To get records and to build up a soundsystem?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well it was actually because Disco Bee...he was one of Flash's DJs and him and I we lived on the same block in the Bronx. It's funny how things came around. What made me want to go out and get my own stuff was that at that particular party Grandmaster Flash called me up on stage to mix and I was nervous as hell. He gave me...I think it was "Let's Dance" by Pleasure.....I'm mixing that and I'm shaking!!!! My knees were literally shaking and Disco Bee got under the table and held my legs!!! And the crowd stopped dancing and somebody said, "That's not Flash that's mixing the beat!" The entire crowd stopped and turned around and saw me on the turntables! Then they rushed to the turntables! Disco Bee gave me "Star Wars" by Dave Matthews and I started getting more comfortable. Then he gave me "Apache" and I start tearing "Apache" up!!! (laughs) And Flash was like,"You gotta go! You gotta leave the turntables!" Nobody was dancing the crowd, just stood there watching me, you know what I'm saying? And that's the first time I had ever seen a mixer and headphones because before that I did it with my ear to the vinyl!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you would put your head close to the grooves and you would listen to the beat?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly, that's when I was mixing without a mixer and headphones!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Oh! But you were still able to mix the beats properly?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh absolutely! I could cut and everything!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So what kind of turntables were you using at that time when you were using that technique? And how did you switch over from one channel to the other?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"My moms had a Panasonic stereo so I used that and another regular turntable from that time. I used the Aux port for the 2nd turntable and I used to just switch from Phono to Aux to mix! That's how I got so fast!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did it come about that someone as great as Grandmaster Flash invited you up on stage? I mean at that point you weren't known as a DJ, right?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Like I said Disco Bee....we knew each other and Flash had heard about me. He had heard about that guy that was DJing out of his window on Prospect Avenue...so he had heard about me, you know? When I came to the show I saw him, he saw me...I gave Disco Bee a hug and said, "What's Up?!" I just got there, you know, chilling, doing my thing, watching him mix and then he called me up. So I'm standing there saying to myself,"He's calling me up!!!!"And he's like, "Come on, Steve! Come On!" So because I knew Disco Bee who was Flash's assistant and he had told him, "That's Stevie Steve! He could mix a little bit!" and Flash had said, "Ok!" I could mix a little bit!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Now that you mention that you were DJing out of your window in the beginning of your career I would like to know how did that go down? Would that happen spontaneously when you were practicing?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Actuallly for me it was just some friends from the block asking me to play music and I did. I would put the two small speakers in the window and just go back in the living room and mix.That’s how my following grew. Those sessions were always spontaneous, usually after school when your chores and homework was done."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So how did you proceed after that party as far as building up a soundsystem is concerned?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, I knew I had to get a mixer and back in those days there was no crossfader. It was up and down."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Oh, so you would use the linefaders?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! You would push up on one and change to the next record and push down on the other one...... So people always asked me how I got so fast mixing... I said, "Because when I started I didn't even own a mixer so I couldn't hear the other record, I was listening to the actual vinyl!" So once I got a mixer I was like, "Wow! I can actually hear the other record through the headphone!" By that time I was already cutting, using that technique that I told you about. The mixer and the headphones made everything easier. So the first turntable that I got was a Technics SL-210 and then I got a SL-220."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How much were those turntables back then?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, back in the days the Technics SL-210 was running about 75 to 80 bucks 'cause they were still belt-driven. So they weren't that expensive."
SIR NORIN RAD:"And what was your first mixer? Was it a Clubman Mixer?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"No, it was in between that 'cause it didn't have a crossfader. I can't remember the name of the first crossfader that I had. It might have been a Numark. I know it didn't have a crossfader so it might have been a Numark."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What really amazes me every time I see pictures of the DJs back in the days cutting up breakbeats in the parks or whenenever I get to listen to one of these old tapes is the fact that you did all this with equipment that wasn't specifically designed for that purpose. Like the mixers, the turntables and even the needles....still you succeeded to extend those beats absolutely seamlessly and flawlessly. Obviously, most cats today utterly fail to understand what it took to be a DJ back in your day."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:" That's correct! The thing about it is people show me clips on youtube of these kids mixing at like 7,8,9 years old on Serato and I'm like,"Listen, it sounds nice but take the computer away, put two turntables and a mixer in front of them and let's see what kind of skills they have. Like you said back in the days you really had to practice to get that flawlessness. I mean it came naturally to some of us but still you had to practice. I had an older brother named Mike who would always tell me, "I heard you mix!" You know so that made me practice more so that he wouldn't hear anything as far as flaws were concerned. It's kinda like were spinning back came from 'cause when you're spinning back the record depending on how good you are or how precise you are with the spin back you wouldn't even hear a cut! I could take two records of the same song and mix them and you wouldn't even hear a cut!!! People would come to me and ask me,"How do you that?" And I was like,"You know, it's just the beat. Once you know the beat and you learn the beat you could mix that beat together endlessly!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Yes, nowadays they use buttons to loop those beats but you did manually......"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly!!!!! Exactly!!! (excited) WE DID IT MANUALLY!! WE DIDN'T HAVE NO BEAT MATCH BACK THEN!!! WE DIDN'T HAVE NO BEAT SYNC!!!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"And if you were messing up on the cut constantly in the park the crowd would let you know, right?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh absolutely! They would let you know! I remember one day I was DJing in 63 Park my brother had just come back from Spain and he had brought a little system for ourselves....that was our little soundsytem. He had brought two Marantz speakers and a Kenwood amp. Now I remember coming out in the park and Meane Gene (DJ from the legendary L-Brothers) said to me,"Take that stuff back to your house 'cause you're not gonna rock with that!" I said,"Okay Gene, stand away from the speaker I'm gonna turn the amp on. So I turned the amp on, started mixing, blew Gene away!!! And he said"Wow!" And that was my first experience in 63 Park. Now if you wanted to be any kind of DJ on that side of the Bronx you had to play 63 Park!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So it was like playing basketball at the Rucker?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! You had to play there in order to get your name out there."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Which other parks did you play besides 63 Park?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"We played Forest Park as well, also Bronx River (home of the Zulu Nation), Echo Park on the other side of the Bronx where Kool Herc and them was from. Yeah, we played those parks particularly. There were other venues but they weren't parks like the Dixie Club of course, the Audubon, the Disco Fever, 371 Club. I remember the first time I played at 371......that was the domain of DJ Hollywood and them.....and they were like," We don't want that Hippedy Hop stuff in here!" We were like,"Really?! We're booked here so we gonna play here!" But it was like they didn't want any parts of Hip Hop and it's weird cause nowadays Hollywood wants to be known as a Hip Hop DJ. He wasn't a Hip Hop DJ, he was a Disco DJ!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"I have read that DJ Hollywood would tell B-Boys at his parties, "Take that breakdancing shit to Kool Herc's party!"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Absolutely! And nowadays that Hip Hop has taken off and has become what it is these guys now wanna claim part of the fame for the history of Hip Hop when they weren't Hip Hop DJs. Hollywood couldn't mix or scratch!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you recruit the rest of your crew? Like how did you bring in DJ Caliph 09 and DJ Shaft and the four MCs ?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Okay here is how it went........Caliph grew up with me on Tiffany like Mean Gene and Theodore and Disco Bee......and he came up to me one day and said,"Yo Steve, we can actually do this!" And I was like,"Okay, that's cool!" And so I was living on Prospect Avenue at the time and Tiffany street was maybe 7 blocks south from where I lived at so we would always hang out. My old school people from Tiffany they would come to Prospect and that's how I met the people living on Prospect. Kevie Kev lived upstairs from me on the second floor and he became our record man. He brought Lil Rodney Cee to me. Lil Shotgun Rob lived on Tiffany as well. Davey Dave lived on Prospect, he was Kevie Kev's cousin. So as far as our MCees are concerned Davey Dave got down, Lil Shotgun Rob, Lil Rodney Cee....and then Rodney brought Jazzy Jeff on 'cause both of them went to Lehman High School. That's how we got the seven together."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What about DJ Shaft though?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Shaft was also living around the area of Prospect and his dad was big time numbers runner."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So when did the Magnificent Seven actually form?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, we got the Seven together between 1976 and 1977."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you must have witnessed that whole evolution which the element of MCing went through from being merely an additional attraction of the DJ show to eventually taking the forefront in Hiphop, correct?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes, 1977 was the time when this whole process started 'cause everybody knows that initially the DJ was the star of the show."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So when you were rocking at let's say 63 park...how would you divide up the time behind the turntables between you, Caliph 09 and Shaft? Who set up the equipment? And who would bring what kind of flava in terms of the music that was being played?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"I used to hook the equipment up almost every party. Me and Caliph and sometimes Shaft. See, Shaft was a pretty boy, his thing was to hang out with the girls while we were setting up. So basically me and Caliph we would hook up the equipment...the wiring, the decks, the mics, everything. The majority of the time I was behind the turntables. Now if I wanted to take a break I would put Caliph on. I wouldn't ask Shaft 'cause he was concerned with the girls most of the time. So he would ask me if he could get on and I would say,"Sure!" because he hadn't been on. Now Caliph's style was more like mine....the kind of mixing and scratching DJing. Shaft's style was kinda like that of the old fashioned disco DJs. So he could blend, you know?"
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| DJ Caliph 09 (The Magnificent Seven) standing on Sedgwick Avenue |
SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it true that in the very beginning like in 1977-78 the MCs would be standing behind the DJ?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Right, they were behind the turntables or off to the left or to the right because basically when people came to the party they came to see the DJ. Then the MCs started rapping and as time went on their rhymes became more intricate. So guys were like,"Wow!! He's telling a story!"Then they started to perform in front of the turntables so they could be seen and heard."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you describe those different phases that a party went through during those unforgetable summer nights when you were rocking at 63 park? Like how would you start? What kind of music would you play? What would you play to have the crowd rocking during the middle phase of the jam and how would you end?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Well, the first phase with my crew was always slow. We would play the coolouts...."T Plays It Cool" by Marvin Gaye....."Keep That Same Old Feeling" by Side Effect...there was a couple of other ones. When the people were just arriving at the party we didn't want to hit them over the head with all the hot beats when nobody was there. When things got hotter we would play songs like "Let's Dance", "Dance To The Drummer's Beat", "Planetary Citizen"......things like that. That was like in the middle of the party, we were getting the people hyped up and then once that starts to happen the B-Boys started breaking because we played songs like "Yellow Sunshine". That's when I would get into the heavy mixing...I would mix songs like "Apache", "Last Night Changed It All"....all these breakbeats we would play when the party got hot. Towards the end of the party we would slow it down again, people were chilling now, they just wanted to dance close so we would throw in the slower stuff. But of course almost every jam back in the day ended with "Apache", you know? The MCs wanted to hear it, the B-Boys wanted to hear it, the crowd wanted to hear it. So "Apache" was one of the last songs that we would play."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So B-Boys played a vital role at the jams in that part of the BX as well? I mean the South BX?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:" There were B-boys in the South Bronx for sure. Mr Ness was a b-boy before he became a MC with the Furious 5 and KK Rockwell was a b-boy as well."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Do you recall anyone out of the following four South BX B-Boys: 1. Bumpy Face Melvin 2. Black Avery 3. Bruce Lee 4. Flipping Mike?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Bumpy Face Melvin, Black Avery and Flipping Mike hung out with the L-Brothers and Grandmaster Flash on Boston Road. I also witnessed all of them dancing. I don't recall Bruce Lee though."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was Bumpy Face Melvin from?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was either Boston Road or Forest."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so you're saying that there was mostly a joyful and peaceful vibe at those parties back then but what about the presence of such elements as stick-up kids or tough guys like the Casanovas?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Right, right...there was gang stuff going on back then but basically it seemed as if the party scene was kinda like a neutral zone, you know what I'm saying? There was a time though when we were playing at 63 park and some cats tried to stick us up at the party. They thought I was crazy because there was a guy with a shotgun and a guy with a machete. I saw that shit coming...you gotta be aware...so I grabbed the guy with the machete and took the machete out of his hand. While I grabbed the machete I said, "Listen, I'm not scared of guns but I never liked knives." So the guy with the shotgun looked at me like I was crazy, he was shocked and because of that Caliph and Lil Shotgun Rob came up from behind him and grabbed the shotgun off his hand. So you're always tested...especially in the Bronx ....you're always tested, you know? Not just musically but in general and you gotta prove that you can handle yourself in those kind of situations because that's just the way it was back in the 70ies and 80ies."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you feel in 1979 when you were told that Lil Rodney Cee and Jazzy Jeff were leaving your crew to join the Brothers Disco and to become members of the Funky Four MCs replacing Rahiem and Sha Rock (who would rejoin them later on as the Plus One)?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Okay, here's how it happend...how it happened was by that time in 1979 the Magnificent 7 had come to a point where we weren't heading into the same direction anymore. The crew was no longer united. That happened after we had taken out the other Magnificent 7 on their turf in Harlem and after we had started playing at places like the T-Connection. We started to get our name known. All of a sudden it seemed as if the DJs and the MCs were at odds. When we made money the MCs wanted to get microphones and mic stands and us DJs we wanted to get records. It was the time when the MCs started to be at the forefront of Hip Hop. We needed to take that next step but it really seemed like my other two DJs weren't insync with what the MCs wanted. So what happened was....I was at home and Brothers Disco were having auditions at 180 park....I had no idea that Rodney and Jazzy Jeff were auditioning. There was this Spanish cat from my block that told me, "Yo Steve, you're peeps are over there on 180 MCing with Brothers Disco!" I was like, "What!?!" I was kinda pissed, I was kinda upset, you know what I'm saying, but I knew that we weren't moving like that so I couldn't say nothing. Now I have known Rodney for more than 40 years.....same thing with Jeff....so I was mad at the time but you know what that quickly passed because two years later when KK Rockwell and Lil Rodney Cee left The Funky Four Plus One they came to me to be their DJ and we started Double Trouble."
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| The Magnificent Seven (from left to right): Davey Dave, Lil Rodney Cee, Jazzy Jeff, Lil Shotgun Rob, DJ Stevie Steve, DJ Caliph 09 (NOTE: DJ Shaft is not in that picture) |
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did that battle between your crew and that other Magnificent Seven from Harlem come about and how did it go down?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"We had seen a flyer from a crew called Magnificent Seven and I was like, "What Magnificent Seven?? That's not us." So what happened was we contacted Spivey and Rayvon and told them, "Listen, you can't be the Magnificent Seven 'cause we're the Magnificent Seven!" So to make a long story short we set up a battle for the name. It was spring '77 going into summer. We decided that we would battle on their territory so we went down to 116th street and Park Avenue to their spot to battle. We get down there, you know, they're setting up and I hear Spivey (DJ of the Magnificent Seven from Harlem) say, "I'm gonna go across the street, smoke me a joint and kill this Stevie Steve kid!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:" Damn!!" (laughs)
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That's what he said. I'm standing there, we're in their territory and I'm like,"Whatever!" So now they came first and they really got the house rocking! So then we come on and it's funny because Spivey told Rodney about a month ago, "Yo Stevie bust my ass back then!" So I get on and we start slow...we start with that routine which me and Kevie Kev do over that James Brown song and then I start mixing. I'm mixing "Clyde" (Give It Up Or Turn It Loose by James Brown), then I start spinning back "Clyde" and the crowd is going crazy. Then Lil Shotgun Rob pulls off my headphones while I'm spinning back!! People started asking my MCs, "What's the DJ's name?" They said, "Stevie Steve!"and so the people started shouting,"Stevie Steve! Stevie Steve!" Then my MC Davey Dave said,"You think this man is talented? Watch this!" So I put on Aretha Franklin's "Rock Steady"....the 45!!!! Now mind you, Norin, I started spinning back Aretha Franklin on 45s which they had never seen before! You had cats coming up to the stage putting their face on the turntable while I'm spinning back because they couldn't believe it. The crowd is going crazy! I'm spinning back 45s!!! Nobody had ever done that before and really not in a battle.... maybe in practice. I was the first DJ to ever do that!"
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| MC Davey Dave (The Magnificent Seven) |
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you would spin back that famous breakpart where Pretty Purdie goes off playing the drums and Aretha sings "Rock.......Steady!!!!"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Excatly, that's the part I'm spinning back! And I had it going like,"Rock, Rock, Rock..."So cats were asking "Who is this guy?" That's how I quick I was back in the day!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Without any flaws?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh yeah, I mean you might hear a cut or two in between but for the most part it was flawless!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So these DJ/MC crew battles back then were about rocking the crowd, right? Like you would go back and forth..."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! And the purpose of this particular battle was to battle for the name. It's part of history you always see them be called now as Magnificent Seven from Harlem. They had to add "from Harlem" after we busted their ass! And we did it twice! Six months apart, both on their turf. It was in a community center.... like that."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you have any problems getting back safely to the Bronx after that battle? I'm asking this question because I have been told by various original B-Boys that you if you took out somebody on their block back then you were often facing the danger of getting jumped by your opponent's homeboys."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That was true in a lot of cases but that depends on the other crew, you know what I mean? Like if you get your ass beat convincingly...I mean with no tricks or hidden adavantages...it was like they had to respect your talent of the DJs and MCs that you just battled. So basically we had no issues when we went out of our borough to other places 'cause they knew who we were. It was a real battle....if your cats were better than me then fine.We walked home with our equipment, we kept it moving. We didn't know the agony of defeat because it wasn't happening."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So your opponents, the Magnificent Seven from Harlem, admitted to their defeat?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes, they did."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you move your equipment to all these venues far away from your homebase?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"(laughs) Let me tell you, Norin! Let me tell you! It's a funny story. Whenever we travelled out of the bororugh we didn't have cars. We would pack our shit up and took it on the subway!! (chuckles)"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Your whole equipment???"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Everything.....on the subway! I'm talking speakers, multiple crates of records, amplifiers, mics, mic stands....."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Nowadays obviously many fail to recognize what it took to build up a reputation as DJ/MC crew back then. No record company behind you pushing your shit to the masses.....you had to do it on your own and only the strongest succeeded."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That's right!! Because, you know, we didn't have no money back then. Who could afford a van to move his stuff to the parks??? Grandmaster Flash did. But we went on the subway with our shit. That's how we did it!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Let me ask you something about the quest for beats back then......you said were invited once to play at Bronx River by Afrika Bambaataa once, right?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Now as everyone knows Bam was called the Master of Records because he had the deepest crates and the most obscure and rarest breakbeats out of every DJ back then. So when you were playing with him at Bronx River, did you try to get the names of some of his beats?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Oh absolutely 'cause see Bambaataa was the head of the Zulu Nation over there in Bronx River and one of my MCs....Lil Shotgun Rob as well as my DJ partner Caliph 09...they both were Zulus and they would hang out in Bronx River all the time......"
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you were always welcome there?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yes, we were."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so what was your method of getting breakbeat titles out of Bambaataa? I remember that you once told me that you would always get Mean Gene to brag about his beats which resulted in him showing you album covers and boasting,"You will never find this record!"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Exactly! Exactly! And also we would get beats before Flash would get them because Bambaataa was the king of the rare beats and he would share some of them with me. He was in a record club before anybody else was so he would get the imports from Germany, France, the UK, Italy...stuff that no other DJ in the Bronx knew about. Like "Phenomena Theme" by In Search Of...Orchestra....I played that at a party one night and Flash went crazy...he was like,"Steve, what the hell was that???" so I was like, "That's my bro, so I'mma turn him on 'cause he could help me out with a couple of things." So I told him what it was and by whom it was and he was like,"Wow!". Bam was the king of the beats. He couldn't really mix that well but he had superior beats to anybody."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How many crates of beats did you have back then? Like at the height of your DJ career?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"In my heyday I had about 35 crates of records. But I mean you didn't go out to a party with 35 crates. You went out with 35 crates when you wanted to show the other motherfuckers, "I got this!" Normally at a party you would carry maybe 10 crates."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So DJ battles also always involved the element of psychological warfare? Like intimidating your opponent by showing him how many crates you got?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Right! Exactly! Absolutely! When you came to the park with ten or fifteen crates cats were like,"Damn!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"You would let them know that they were entering dangerous grounds by battling you..."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"It was psychological warfare that's for sure because you didn't play out 15 crates of records. You seriously used maybe four to five crates in one night because you kept all your crates organized by beats, by tempo, by crowd response, by MC jams. So you really didn't need to have 15 crates out there, you had that for the purpose of psychological warfare."
SIR NORIN RAD:"It's absolutely fascinating to hear about the intensity of the beat game back then."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Yeah, the thing about it is see as I said I lived on the same block as Disco Bee and he would always let me know which new beats Flash had cause he was my boy! So when I heard a beat that I didn't know and I heard it at a Flash party....after the show I would talk to Bee, "Yo Bee, what's that joint, man?!?" and Bee would tell me what it was and vice versa, you know? I had a couple of beats that Flash didn't have. I got them mostly from Bambaataa or they were some obscure joints that I got at my house. Like there was a 45 called "Soul Makossa" by a band called All Directions and on the back of that "Soul Makossa" was a song called "On Top Of It". "On Top Of It" had a crazy beat! I put it on in the park one time and Flash was like "What the fuck is that?" When Flash saw my skills he invited me to practice with him at his crib on 169th & Franklin Ave. A lot of people don't know that we practiced together for six months and what made me know that I had made it was when we were practicing one time and Flash showed me how to spin back albums. So I went home that Friday and I said,"Wow! Okay, let's do that with 45s!"So the next day I'm practicing with them I'm spinning back "Rock Steady" and "On Top Of It" on 45s was Melle Mel was like,"Holy shit!" Even Flash said,"Spinning back 45s?" They were amazed! So then Melle Mel said to me,"Don't forget who taught you, Steve!""
SIR NORIN RAD:"So I guess being taught by the legendary Grandmaster Flash must have put you ahead of a lot of other DJs."
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"Leaps and bounds, Norin. Leaps and bounds!!!! Nobody wanted to battle us. Not Flash, not the L-Brothers....they wanted us to join their crew! Nobody wanted to battle us because first of all I could spin back like Flash, I could cut like Flash but my MCs were ridiculous! I mean Lil Rodney Cee, Jazzy Jeff...they couldn't be touched! That's why the Brothers Disco wanted them."
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| Lil Rodney Cee (Leader of the MCs of the Magnificent Seven) |
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did that name Magnificent Seven come from? Was it that western movie from the 60ies with the seven gunmen?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"That's where it came from 'cause that was my favourite movie back then!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Do you wish to give any shoutouts at the end of this interview?"
DJ STEVIE STEVE:"To the Funky 4, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, the L Brothers, Afrika Bambaata & the Soul Sonic Force, Kool Herc, Double Trouble, Kevy Kev, The Original Magnificent Seven."
