INTERVIEW WITH B-BOY BIG BOOM (THE DISCO KIDS)

 

                                                                                                         

Big Boom (The Disco Kids)

    

                                         

 

                                 conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders /Germany) 

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"From which area in the Bronx are you originally?"

BIG BOOM:"My moms lived on Daly (Avenue) and my grandmother lived on Mohegan (Avenue). I had problems with my stepdad so I went to live with my grandmother. That's when I started hanging out on Mohegan (Avenue) and that's where I met Kid (TDK). Kid used to be a member of The Flying Dutchmen. I became a Baby Dutchman. It was, you know, a gang...from the neighbourhood. We used to take care of the neighbourhood and stuff like that. Since they went to the same school, I used to see them with the jackets and everything. So I said, "Wow, that looks kool, man!" So I decided to join them."

SIR NORIN RAD:"On which side of the Bronx is Mohegan Avenue?"

BIG BOOM:"The East Side. Like East Tremont."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you're saying that you were a member of the Baby Dutchmen?"

BIG BOOM:"That's correct. In order for me to join the gang......you know, back then you had the Apache Line....me they put to fight this big, big fat kid! Yo, and this kid beat the shit out of me, bro! He put it on me, bro! I don't know if they didn't like me or they did that to all their members but that kid put it on me, bro! That was like my initiation to get in, you know what I mean?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did the logo of The Flying Dutchmen look like?"

BIG BOOM:"The Dutchmen logo was like a Dutchman. It was like a guy with a hat on, with a long cigarette coming out of his mouth and it was like a Dutchman, you get it? That's how the colors were. They were beautiful! The person who did those colors was real good at what he did."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How old were you when you joined The Baby Dutchmen?"

BIG BOOM:"I was like ten years old."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What year were you born?"

BIG BOOM:"1963. That makes me 56 today."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you joined the Flying Dutchmen in 1973?"

BIG BOOM:"That is correct."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Now you have already told me that you were a part of The Bronx Boys (TBB) before you joined The Disco Kids (TDK). Now from what I have been told TBB started out as a Writing Crew. As a matter of fact, TBB is listed in that book "Getting Up" (written by Craig Castleman)  among the most prominent Writing Crews of NYC. So before they got into B-Boying they were basically a Writing Crew with Batch, Cash and Shark. They would primarily hit bus depots...." 

BIG BOOM:"Exactly!  I met Batch in 1975 and then I used to write Boom TBB."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you were already a part of TBB when they were still strictly a Writing Crew?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh yeah, I was one of their original members. Like when Batch first made the colors and evrything..'cause we used to go get t-shirts......and back then we had to go to either an Army & Navy Store or something like that. They was printing the letters on the t-shirts. That was really famous back then. So when Batch started TBB I was one of the original members. The shirts were blue and white and black and white. The girls had blue and white, the guys had black and white." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"I see. How did you meet Batch?"

BIG BOOM:"Ok, this is gonna be real funny. I met Batch through his sister. I used to see his sister, her name is Elizabeth. So she took me to the house one day and I met Aby, I met Batch, I met his other sister Esther. They were all little. The biggest one there was Batch. He was like 13, I was 12. He asked me,"You wanna come with me?" I was like, "Where are you going?" He said, "I'm gonna go bombing the busses and stuff like that!" And then after we did that...you know, tagging up on the busses....we would be tired so Batch said,"Come on, I got a club!" So we had a club called The TBB Club but it was in a abandoned building. We would find a way to get in and that's how we would sneak the girls in and all that. We would get mattresses, you know, from the street. We would bring the radio and steal electricity from the lamp post. Yeah, we would bring electricity to the abandoned building and we had lights, we had everything, man! Matter of fact Batch was the one that gave me the name Boom. We was looking for a name for me 'cause at that time I didn't have a name. We started looking in a comic book and you know that name BOOM kept popping up. I said, "Yo, what about this? Does anybody write that?" He said,"Nah! Nobody writes that name."  So I said, "Oh, so I'm gonna take that name then."So I started writing Boom TBB."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of influence did Salsa music and dancing have on you?"

BIG BOOM:"Salsa was one of the first dances that I learned. My first dancing partner was my little sister, I still remember it to this day. The second dance I learned was The Freak. That's when I was hanging out with TBB. I also did The Spank. In order for you to know how to dance with a girl you had to know how to do The Freak and The Spank." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"When one listens to these old tapes from the late 1970ies one quickly notices that the MCees at that time used to say things like, "Yes, yes y'all!!!! Freak, freak y'all!! To the beat y'all!" Thus they were inciting the party crowd to do The Freak. From what I have heard that was in late 1977, 1978 when most black B-Boys stopped B-Boying and picked up MCing or DJing. The Freak was like grinding, right?"

BIG BOOM:"Yes, yes,  there you go! The Freak is you getting with a girl and starting to grind her. And sometimes another guy would come and get in front of you. Like, "Oh shit!!!" So you had her through the back and he had her through the front!! (laughs) That was one of my first dances that I learned how to dance."

SIR NORIN RAD:"To which jams would you go in order to do The Freak?"

BIG BOOM:"I would go to 129. That was a famous place to go. Mohegan is like two blocks from there."

SIR NORIN RAD:"That's the park where DJ Lay Lay (The Fun City Crew) used to rock at."

BIG BOOM:"Riiiiiight! DJ Lay Lay was the one! Lay Lay would be the DJ. We were always there. You know the funny part? He would come outside with house turntables. You know those house turntables that we used to have in the house back then? We used to call them radiolas. A radiola is like a audio house turntable. Matter of fact I remember the name of those turntables. They were called Garrard."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Kid (TDK) told me that before him and his crew picked up B-Boying they were heavy into the Toprocking Dance which entailed doing certain gestures in order to intimidate their opponents. Would you also do that type of dancing?"

BIG BOOM:"I picked it up from Batch. Batch had a good way of doing it. He used to grab your head...like when he would come to you and grab your head...he would act like it was a ball and then throw your head up in the sky and hit it with a baseball bat, you get it? Or he would crawl up to you like a dog and lift his leg and piss on you (laughs)."    

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did you witness B-Boying for the time? Did you encounter the black B-Boys back then? I'm asking this question because Lil Boy Keith from the Little Zulu Kings stated in the interview that I did with him that TDK was actually the first Puerto Rican B-Boy Crew he ever ran into."

BIG BOOM:"No, I don't recall running into the Zulu Kings back then. I heard about them though. I remember being in 129 and seeing TT Rock when he went down. I think Batch talks about it that TT Rock threw himself on the floor and did that breakdance move. I was there in 129 when that happened. After that everybody was like,"Yo, you seen that?!?! Oh shit!!!!" That was new to us!!! We were like, "Yo, we gotta start doing this!" Then we started seeing a lot of people doing that. For me that's when I started seeing breakdancing. Before that I would see people rock to the music...in the gang, too...in the Dutchmen Club...grab each other by the head stuff like that but nothing as far as the floor was concerned, you get it? That came a lot later when B-Boying evolved to another level."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So after you had witnessed TT Rock going down to the floor you started to elaborate on the moves you had seen? Like coming up with your own footwork patterns, right?"

BIG BOOM:"Exactly! There you go! Right on the head!"   

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you pick up Breaking after the Freak Dance?"

BIG BOOM:"Yeah..the Freak Dance and also the Spank I knew that way before breakdancing."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how your brother Little Boom got involved in the dance? Did you teach him?"

BIG BOOM:"Yeah! He was good! He would pick up stuff real fast. Faster than me cause he was smaller than me and more athletic than I was, you get it? I was taller. I'm like 6 feet. My little brother is like 5'6, 5'7. Back then he was smaller so he could spin faster than me, you get it? He used to do a headspin like eleven times. Like that! And that was incredible for you to do that back in the days, you know. And we had the big afro, they knew us as The Afros. Me and him we were the only ones that had big afros and my other brother....may he rest in peace......they used to call him Fat Boom. He passed away. It was me, Fat Boom and Little Boom." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"But out of you three only you and Little Boom started B-Boying, right?"

BIG BOOM:"That is correct. No, the other one he wasn't really into that. My other brother..his stuff was working and.....you know? I mean he would go to the jams an stuff like that but he wasn't into the breakdancing. Me and my little brother.. we were the ones that loved it. We'd first seen it and it like took us by storm."

 

B-Boy Little Boom (The Disco Kids)

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"By how many years are you and Little Boom apart?"

BIG BOOM:"Two years. That's it! Two years apart."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I guess he always looked up to you?"

BIG BOOM:"Yes. I'mma tell you what happened.....My real name is George, right? But like I told you I started writing Boom and I started becoming real famous with that name. So that's how my brothers said,"Wait! Look at all the people my brother knows, man!" So that's when they switched their names to Boom also, you get it? They saw how many people I knew in the jams and stuff like that so my little brother started calling himself Little Boom. And they called us The Boom Family. Remember there were three of us so that was like the Boom Family, you know?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"When I spoke to Kid (TDK) he gave your cousin Eddy (TDK) mad props. He said he was an outstanding B-Boy. Was he your real cousin?"

BIG BOOM:"Yeah, Eddy.....he was my real cousin. The one that passed away...Eddy. We used to call him Eddy Rock Steady. He used to breakdance real, real good. He had another standard for that! We couldn't touch him on the floor, man. He was real fast."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was he from?"

BIG BOOM:"He lived on 180th Street & Webster Avenue." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Do you know where and when he picked up B-Boying?"

BIG BOOM:"I think he caught the bug at the same time but the only thing he learned it much faster than I did. What would take me maybe a month to learn he would do it in one day. He would pick up stuff like real quick. I would be like, "Yo, how you did that, man?" Then he would spin on his back and go to his head. I was like,"Yo!! How you do that man?" Like I said I was big. It took me longer to learn stuff, you know what I mean? "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you practice together?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh yeah, yeah! I was always in his house and he was always in my house. We would take the furniture, move the furniture over...you know how that goes...make room and put the record player on and start breakdancing in the house. And you would hear your mother,"Hey, you gonna break something over there!" We'd be like, "No, no we got this!" (laughs) You know that all b-boys got like a burn mark on their back from doing that backspin. I still got that burn mark on my back. You would also have scuffs on your hands from doing the footwork."

SIR NORIN RAD:" Was it important to you to look fly when you showed up at the jams back then? Did you iron creases in to your Lees? Did you carefully clean your sneakers with a toothbrush? Stuff like that?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh, yeah! Every Friday that would be our day, you get it? Because the flyer would come out maybe like Wednesday and we already knew that Friday and Saturday it was jam, you know? So we had to go home, get sharp and go to the jam. It was either there or the Dungeon. Once the Dungeon opened that was an everday thing, you get it?? That place was open every day. There wasn't a day there wasn't a party in there." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"The Dungeon was the homebase of the The Disco Kids Crew. Kid (TDK) told me it opened in 1977. It was located on 176th Street & Belmont Avenue."

BIG BOOM:"That's correct." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how you joined the ranks of the TDK Crew and how that name TDK Zodiacs came about!"

BIG BOOM:"Ok, ok....I'm gonna tell you exactly what happened. We had met Kid on University Avenue 'cause I used to fly birds. So I took birds for check up over there to University. There was a guy over there that we knew.  So I would take birds to see how smart they were to come back to my neighbourhood. And I would see Kid with a TDK shirt and everything. So I said, "Yo, Kid!!!" You know, I knew Kid already from the Dutchmen. Batch had went to prison already, so TBB was like at a standstill. So I told Kid, "Yo, since you got TDK over here on University Avenue why don't we make a crew on the East Side?" So he was like, "Alright! Elaborate on the name and come back to me!" So it took us like a week. Me, my cousin Eddy, Little Boom and Fat Boom we was sitting down with a piece of paper and we would do like brainstorming, you get it? You know how do brainstorming? And we came up with Zodiac. We said, "You know what? Why don't we call it The Zodiac Lovers?" "Oh, shit!!! You know what??? That sounds good, bro!" So that was it. It was red shirts with black letters and it was TDK Zodiac Lovers. On one side of the arm we had TDK and then on the other side we had East Side. So we represented the East Side, you get it?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So TDK had two divisions. One on the West Side and the other one on the East Side?"

BIG BOOM:"Yes, that's correct. I was the president of the Eat Side division."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was the function of Little Joey in TDK?"

BIG BOOM:"Little Joey was like the treasurer. He was like the guy when you'd come he was at the door collecting the money, you know? He was like the doorman at the Dungeon, you know what I mean?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of a place was the Dungeon? What did it look like?"

BIG BOOM:"Okay, the Dungeon....it was a private house. So you would walk into the house, you would go to the first door and that was the Dungeon. You opened the door....TDK Joey would be right there.....you'd come in and you would see furniture like in a regular house but the jam was downstairs in the basement!!  There was a secret door that you had to open to go down to the basement. That's where the jam was. Until we took over the building...when we took over the building then they made the whole thing a disco, you get it? That's when the construction came when they bought the whole building for a dollar.  They started working....it took'em maybe like six months, man. Putting work into it like every day until it was done. The Dungeon was bad!!!!  I'm talking about you walk in there the floor was all plywood...nice....shellac floors...real nice. It was furniture, everything man. There were couches for you to lay back. There were curtains, you know, like in a regular house. There was no walls, they knocked down all the walls. So it was just one big open place for you to dance."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"How many people could fit in there?"

BIG BOOM:"I'd say a good 900 to 1000 people could fit in there! That's how big the Dungeon was! It was big! And let me tell you every given night that place would be packed like that! On a bad day there would still be like 200 people there. Every day! It would be somebody's birthday party coming up or Valentine's Day. Whatever occasion came on we would throw a party, you know what I'm saying? The word would spread like wildfire! You'd be surprised how fast the word would spread around. The Dungeon was popping that night, you know what I mean?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who were the DJs at the Dungeon that you remember? Kid (TDK) told me about DJ Jimmy who used to play there."

BIG BOOM:"Yeah, that's correct. That's who I learned from.....DJ Jimmy!! Yes, he was real, real good! This guy....he could mix the records, boy!!! I mean he fascinated when I first started to play. I said, "This kid is nice!" So I told him to teach me, he wouldn't teach me. He said, "Just watch me, man! Just watch me!" So I would just stand there and watch him and watch him. Then he said to me,"Yo, you wanna hand me those records?" So I became his record boy, you know? I would be there looking at him, "Damn, how he did that?" And I would write the songs down. Little did he know that I would write the songs down. So when he would leave, I would start DJing, you get it? That was nice. People would wake up and go, "Who's that? Jimmy is here? I didn't know Jimmy is here." I said,"Nah, that's Boom, yo!" They would be like,"Get outta here! That's Boom??? He's getting good like that already?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of music did DJ Jimmy play?"

BIG BOOM:"Disco, that's disco! Hustle music!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Kid (TDK) stated that in the beginning The Disco Kids Crew wasn't into B-Boying. When it started all it's members would do was the Hustle and Toprocking. Then by 1978 they picked up B-Boying and took it very seriously. Having regular practice sessions at The Dungeon....."

BIG BOOM:"Yes, that's correct!"

Kid (Founder of the TDK Crew) 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So as far as the breakbeats are concerned who taught you about them?"

BIG BOOM:"DJ Lay Lay! Yeah, when I used to go to 129 and see DJ Lay Lay that's when I learned about the breakbeats. Sex Machine, Yellow Sunshine..... I would look for these kind of beats." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"From what I have heard The Disco Kids had a fierce rivalry with The Rockwell Association back then. What do you recall about all the battles that went down between you and them?"

BIG BOOM:"I'm gonna keep it real with you not because I was a part of TDK or nothing like that but I think out of all the battles that we had with them I think we took them all! But there was one thing that they used to do better than us and I'mma tell you what it is: They used to buy the judges!" 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Yes, I have heard about this allegation before." (laughs)

BIG BOOM:"We was ignorant to that, you know? Since we had the baddest dancers, you know, that wasn't important to us. We knew we was gonna win no matter what!!! But then when it was time for voting the people, even the crowd (when they heard that Rockwell had won) they were like,"Nah, man! That can't be, yo!!! How the hell these ni****rs beat ya?!?!" You know what I'm saying?? Everybody was like, "Nah, nah, man! This shit is bought!!!" And it was that!!! They would fucking buy the judges and we wasn't aware of that! We had no control over that" 

SIR NORIN RAD:"When I spoke to Willie Wil (The Rockwell Association) about that legendary battle that took place between you and them at St. Martin's Church in 1978 he said he was aware of these accusations but dismissed them as pointless. He said the judges were Catholic priests, respectable men who couldn't be bought."

BIG BOOM:"Yeah, but they knew them more than they knew us. They grew up with them and all of that! You know, Willie Will was really good though, man! He was real good!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"How do you feel about that statement that TDK was notorious back then for starting fights after losing in B-Boy Battles? Kid TDK stated your crew had certain members that were known for getting into beef with other B-Boys."

BIG BOOM:"That's true. Yeah, we would react. I was probably one of them. Little Joey he  punched one of the guys from Rockwell in the mouth when we found out that they bought the judges 'cause we knew that we took that battle. That's the one I remember perfectly, the one at St. Martin's. Little Manny was there, we had Spy, we had everybody with us that day. There was no way we was gonna lose that battle!!! And at the end of the day they gave it to Rockwell and it was because of that...they bought the judges!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you 're saying Spy was on your side that day?"

BIG BOOM:"That's correct. You see that battle I remember perfectly........"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how that battle went down!"

BIG BOOM:"Ok, that day I remember it was TDK against Rockwell. It was in St. Martin's Church. Everything went well, everything...the jam....everything. Everybody breakdanced.....at the end of the thing they gave the score to Rockwell, you get it? So TDK got tight. I didn't know what was going on. Then all of a sudden I see commotion in the bathroom. Come to find out... Little Joey came out and said, "Yo, man! Just found out one of the judges snitched on us!" I said, "Oh shit, you're kidding me, bro!" So we went through all this shit for nothing 'cause sometimes that would take a lot of work, man! Gathering people, you know, to come battle. It wasn't easy to get Little Manny or Spy. Sometimes it would take weeks to gather all these people to go to one event, you get it? And then to get cheated on at the end, you understand what I'm saying? I remember we won that batte, man! Straight up and down, we won that battle. The last B-Boys that danced was Spy against Willie Wil and Spy took him hands down!!!!! Spy was like The Man With 1000 Moves!!!! That's what we used to call him and he was real fast. Spy was like.....forget about it! In those days he was like too much, man! I never see nobody beat Spy!!! That's why I knew we took the battle, you know what I'm saying?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"If I remember correctly Willie Wil said that he acknowledges Spy as an incredibly nice B-Boy but he also said that Spy messed up his last move in that battle and then Willie Will defeated him with a nice combination of moves."

BIG BOOM:"Nah man, that's not true, man! That guy it was hard for him to mess up a move, man! He was like a perfectionist. Forget about it, man!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you also participate in that battle?"

BIG BOOM:"Yes, we both went down. Me and my brother (Little Boom). We had a routine that we used to do...me and my brother. I'm gonna tell you what it is .....We used to start off looking at each other. He does a routine....my brother goes down, he does a spin on his head and he falls. It makes him look like he got hurt in his routine, you get it? So I go up to him.....people think he's hurt now...I go up to him and start giving him a mouth-to-mouth...you know, I start pumping his chest.....CPR...and now  the crowd goes, "Oh shit!!!!!" They think he's really hurt!! They already start to come at us. And then when I pump his chest he starts going like.....you know, jumping up and down. Yoooooo, and that's when he starts breakdancing! The people go like, "Oh, shit!!! These ni****ers are crazy!!!!" You know what I'm saying. This is one of the routines we had." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Kid said that one of the best b-boys that TDK ever had was Mongo Rock. What do you remember about him?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh yeah, Mongo was good!!!! Mongo was like ten times better than me. He had his brother, too. They used to breakdance!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"His name was Jesus, right?"

BIG BOOM:"Yes, yes. That's true. His brother could dance, too. This kid could dance, bro!!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"He was also down with TDK, right?"

BIG BOOM:"That is correct. In order for you to be in a battle you had to have your crew shirt on or you couldn't battle. That was one of the rules also.  You couldn't come that day and put on the shirt of somebody else just to win that battle, you know what I'm saying? You had to be registered, too! You had to be registered on paper."

Big Boom (left) and Mongo Rock (right) of the TDK Crew

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you rate Wizard Wiz (TDK) ?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh yeah, Wizzy Wiz!!!! He was good! He was a little chunky but he was good, he was fast!"

Wizard Wiz (TDK) 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So before a battle started each crew had to present a list featuring all it's members?"

BIG BOOM:"Exactly. It would be like ten against ten. So back then another person could not fill in for let's say Mongo and his name is scratched off. Like,"He's filling in for him." No, it's not gonna happen. Mongo has to be there or he has to let us know before the day of the battle. That was one of the main rules, too. 'Cause that's like cheating, you know what I'm saying?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"I was told that the Dungeon burnt down in 1979. What do you remember about this tragic event?"

BIG BOOM:"To be honest with you I wasn't there when the Dungeon burnt down. I was at another house party. I had went to another house party but this is what I heard happened though...I heard that a guy was getting high.....he was tripping or something and he put the curtains on fire. He didn't think it would ignite the way it did, you get it? He thought he had control over it and he could turn it off but the shit ignited so fast that he didn't have control over it. You're not gonna believe what they were saying outside when I got there. When I came and they were outside crying....'cause there were some people that were crying.....they were saying, "The Dungeon is burning! We'll be back!" While the building was burning, yo!!! They were outside chanting, "The Dungeon is burning! We'll be back! The Dungeon is burning! We'll be back!" I said,"Oh shit, these people are crazy, yo!!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Was there also slow dancing going on at The Dungeon back then? Like the 500s?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh yes, man! We used to always end the jams that way! Always! Yup, that was at every given night 'Cause you know you wanted to leave with a shorty (girl), you know what I mean? So every night it was either you're looking at somebody or she was looking at you and that was your move, that chance right there and if you couldn't do it then you wasn't gonna do it no other time. That was your chance to move and say,"Hey, you wanna dance?" And if she said, "Yeah!" Oh man, you was taking her with you. You feel me? If not you blew it 'cause then somebody else would step and he would snatch her up."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So is it accurate to say that a B-Boy back then also knew how to dance with a girl?"

BIG BOOM:"That's correct 'cause you know back then they said that if a guy could move, he could move good in bed. That was something that the girls always talked about and if you was a good slow dance dancer...you know like the 500....if you could grind real good you was taking whoever it was home that night, you know what I'm saying?! And that was my thing, bro!!! My 500 was nice!!!! Call me whatever you wanna call me but don't call me late to dance 500. That was my thing, bro! Righ there!" 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So all these slow joints by groups like The Dramatics or The Moments were also played at The Dungeon?"

BIG BOOM:"Yeah, you know my favourite slow joint was..... you heard of "Float On" (by The Floaters) That one! It says all the signs...Libra!!!! My hair is standing up right now thinking about that shit. Ah man, that's my joint right there!!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it true that stepping on somebody's sneakers back then lead to a fight?"

BIG BOOM:"That's like taboo, bro! Yeah man, that's like taboo!! Cause remember like I told you you were saving money to look fly at the party. Most of us were still going to high school so you had to save up your little money to get your little kicks or whatnot. Remember we all dressed up! Come Friday everybody is dipped to go to The Dungeon. You know, to represent your crew! That's what it is all about... representing your crew! And if somebody walked by and stepped on your sneakers he either didn't like you or he was looking for beef, you know what I'm saying?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you like to give some shoutouts at the end of this interview?"

BIG BOOM:"Oh yeah, most definitely! I'd like to give a shoutout to my cousin Eddy Rock Steady! May he rest in peace! We miss him dearly! I also wanna shoutout the whole TDK Crew! Another shoutout to TBB, man! Most definitely! Without them I don't know where I would be today. And I definitely wanna thank  you also, man! You're doing a great job! Not a great job, you're doing an outstanding job! With your interviews and the knowledge that you have. You took me way way back!" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                            Interview with B-Boy Drac (The Floor Masters / Harlem)

                                                      

                                                                 Drac (The Floormasters)

                                    conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where exactly were you born and raised at?"

DRAC:"I was born in Clarksville, Virginia and we moved to New York City in 1968. We were living in Brooklyn but our house burnt down. The apartment that we were living in was in a tenement building. The building caught fire and burnt down so we wind up moving to Wilson Projects on 105th Street &  1st Avenue in Harlem, Spanish Harlem actually."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I guess Harlem is the place where you encountered Hiphop for the very first time in your life, is that correct?"

DRAC:"Ah yes, it was. What happened was I had a friend named Skeeter and Skeeter was a member of The Floor Masters which was a B-Boy crew. Me and him were talking one day so I asked him if could join their crew and he said,"Yeah!" You know, he took me over to meet E-Man who is the Imperial Floor Lord. I met E-Man and E-Man said in order for me to join The Floor Masters I had to battle Skeeter being that he had brought me to him. Okay, so I battled Skeeter and I wind up taking his spot. That's how I became a Floor Master. Well, actually the name of the group was really the Floor Lords when I joined but because of this gang on 103rd Street & Lexington Avenue called The Young Lords they thought we were a street gang because of the name Floor Lords and tried to take their name. So E-Man and Ski Jump they went over and had a sit-down with the leader of the Young Lords and explained to him that we were a dance group. So what happened is that we wind up changing our name from The Floor Lords to The Floor Masters."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, let's go back for a minute to the time before you battled Skeeter.  Which steps did you take in order to sharpen up your dancing skills?"

DRAC:"What happened was is that I was watching Soul Train and they had this group called The Lockers. They basically did  a type of funky upright dancing, they didn't go down on the floor and stuff like that. And also I was in gymnastics. I was on the gymnastics team in my high school. I was in high school when I joined the Floor Masters. That was in the summer of 1976."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you would combine your gymnastic skills with some of those funky moves that you would see The Lockers do on Soul Train, is that correct?"

DRAC:"Righ, right! The only difference is that I used to do my moves on the floor."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, do you recall how you met Skeeter and how you became friends?" 

DRAC:"How I became friends with Skeeter.....that's kinda funny because we found out that we were dating two friends. He was dating one young lady and I was dating the other young lady. We found out they knew each other and that's how we got to know each other."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did Skeeter hold grudges against you after that battle of yours?"

DRAC:"No, we were still friends. I mean he remained a part of The Floor Masters but I took his spot. Let's say if he was like number four or number five, I became number four or number five. He got moved down the ladder so to say."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, do you recall where that particular battle took place at?"

DRAC:"Schomburg Plaza."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who else was present when that battle took place? I guess you were battling in front of Ski Jump and E-Man?"

DRAC:"Well, Ski Jump wasn't there at the time....Who was there? If my memory serves me correctly I know E-Man was there, Ice Man was there, Ronnie Ron was there, Ernie D...these were all B-Boys of the Floor Masters."

Ronnie Ron (The Floor Masters)

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you know in advance that you were going battle Skeeter there?"

DRAC:"No, I wasn't aware that I had to battle Skeeter. We just showed up and E-Man said I had to battle Skeeter in order for me to become a part of the group. So as I said I battled Skeeter, I won, I took his spot but we were still friends."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I guess you were battling to breakbeats coming out of a boombox?"

DRAC:"Exactly. The music that we danced to.....the name of the record was "Scratchin'". It was on a cassette tape boom box. This was in 1976 so back then they would have cassette tapes, there were no CDs... none of that." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Back then you probably didn't battle on cardboard or on a piece of linoleum, right?"

DRAC:"No, we was on straight concrete black top. There was no linoleum, there was no cardboard boxes. We just got on the floor, you did what you did. The thing about it is you couldn't have delicate hands 'cause if you had delicate hands your skin would get cut up. As a matter of fact I'mma say something that a lot of people don't know. There was a club that had opened up on Lennox Avenue & 116th Street called Harlem World. The Floor Masters....we were the original dancers for Harlem World when it first opened."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did you get that name Drac from?"

DRAC:"Okay, this is the thing. My canine teeth they were a little larger than normal, right? And the name Drac was actually given to me by my little sister. She started calling me Drac and it just stuck with me, you know?  So that's how I acquired that name Drac. Once I became a MC, Drac didn't fit anymore so it got changed from Drac to Prince Hadji. And for those that don't know Prince Hadji was actually the little black dude with a turban on his head in The Adventures Of Jonny Quest."

SIR NORIN RAD:"That's a cartoon series from the 1960s, right?"

DRAC:"Yeah, exactly."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you describe your footwork back then? By that I mean the part of the dance that was done top before you went down to the floor (Among Puerto Rican B-Boys  this part was later called Top Rocking)?"

DRAC:"As far as this went I actually adapted different types of foot movement over the time because each style of dancing had a different foot movement. You just had to adapt your foot movement to your style that you wanted to use at that particular time."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"How much time went into practicing and where would you practice at?"

DRAC:"We practiced in Schomburg Plaza, up on top of the Plaza. That was on 5th Avenue & 110th Street,  right there on the corner. Schomburg Plaza. We had our practices on Thursdays. There was one move that we practiced a lot as a group. It was called The Floor Master Stomp and that became kinda popular especially when you got like seven or eight guys all doing the same move at the same time and then everybody just stopped and they would go into their own routine and people liked that, you know? People really liked that."

 

Schomburg Plaza

SIR NORIN RAD:"So the Floor Master Stomp was something like a group routine?"

DRAC:"Yeah, that was a group routine."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, could you please describe what it looked like?"

DRAC:"Alright...one, two, three to the left......hop on one foot three times to the left....hop on one foot back to the right and stomp on the third one. On the third one you'd stomp...BOOM! Go back again.....one, two, three....stomp! Yeah, like that!! It was nice! We had fun with that!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who came up with that concept?"

DRAC:"E-Man!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What are some of the places in Harlem that The Floor Masters would go to in order to dance at and who were your fiercest opponents?"

DRAC:"Let me put it like this....you had Jefferson, Johnson, Clinton, Washington, Wagner, Taft, Carver. These are all (housing) projects and a lot of B-Boy groups formed in a lot of these projects. We battled some of these groups. One group in particular that we battled a lot were The Crusaders. We would also go to Mr. Soul's, we would go to the 300 Club. There were a few places that we would go to."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you prepare yourself before you went to these parties as far as the dressing is concerned?"

DRAC:"Okay, as far as dressing is concerned... we had our own outfits with the crew. Our colours were black and gold. You wore black jeans with a gold short sleeve sweatshirt. On the back of the sweatshirt it said "Floor Masters" with your name on the front. You would iron your jeans, you would iron your shirt. Back then we used to iron our jeans. They don't do that anymore. You would iron the crease in or you would take them to the cleaners and let them sow in the permanent crease down the front. Everybody would either have on a black Kangol or a gold coloured Kangol. Yeah, this is how we danced. Except for Ski Jump...Ski Jump always wore a Godfather Hat. He always had the Godfather Hat!"  

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of sneakers did you wear?"

DRAC:"It would either be the regular Pro-Keds, the Super-Keds or we would wear the Converse Chuck Taylor's. Super Pro-Keds you had to have them in black 'cause if you're going with the crew everybody had to have either black Super Pro-Keds or  black regular Pro-Keds. The Super Pro-Keds had the red and blue line on the outside of the sneaker, the regular Pro-Keds had the black lines that went all around the sneakers, at the bottom of the sneaker."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"From which sneaker store would you get those?"

DRAC:"Okay, for me that was a store called Tom, Dick & Harry on 108th Street & 3rd Avenue in Spanish Harlem."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How much was a pair of Pro-Keds back then?"

DRAC:"12.99$ to precise.Yeah, 12 dollars and 99 cents."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, but I guess back then a dollar had way more buying power than today, right?"

DRAC:"Yeah, it had a lot more buying power than today 'cause I remember the first time I went to buy a pair of Pro-Keds and I came home....my mother was like,"Why you went out there and spent 12.99$ on a pair of sneakers???!! What's wrong with you?? You think I'm rich?" So I was like, "Okay, but I worked a summer job so I bought it with my own money!!" But it didn't matter to her. "I ain't rich! You're spending money like you're crazy! You must have lost your mind!" Oh my goodness, she went bezerk! (laughs) That was so funny!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So dressing up fly was important for a B-Boy back then?"

DRAC:"You had to be fly! Listen, you couldn't show up to  a party in Chuck Center, 300 Club, Mr. Soul's...you could not show up at any of those places looking like derelict. You walk in there looking busted you're gonna get laughed out of the place, man. You had to come fly! You either came fly or you stayed home."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you also wear that extra fly gear from AJ Lester's?"

DRAC:"Oh yeeeeeeeaaaah, man!!!!! Whaaaaat?!? I stayed up in AJ Lester's." (chuckles)

SIR NORIN RAD:"How much money would you spend there? Coke La Rock stated that he would spend regularly like a G or better in there and thus got to meet Mr. AJ Lester himself who used to stay downstairs in that store."

DRAC:"Well, basically it's like this...when you talk about Coke La Rock.....these guys were making really big money back then. So we go in there we buy maybe a pair of pants and a shirt and spend maybe like 150 $. Back then that was a lot. Me I always had a job. Even though I was B-Boying and MCing and going to school I also had a job that I went to every morning before I went to school. I used to work for a newspaper company. I would deliver newspapers every morning before I went to school. So I was up at 4 o' clock in the morning to be at work by 5 o'clock. I had to finish by 8.30 so I could reach school by 8.40. The way I was raised you had to have a job. There was no way you was gonna stay in bed until it was time for you to go to school and you wasn't making no kind of money to sustain yourself. Another one of my favourite places to shop was Delancey Street because you could go down there and you could get stuff at disounted prices as opposed to paying full prices. The first Cortefiel coat I ever bought I bought from Delancey Street. 95 $ I'll never forget it."

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did you join the Gangster Five MCs? Was that in 1979?"

DRAC:"The Gangster Five actually started in '78. Marty Mart..he was one of the original Gangster Five but he was never there when it came to performing. So I had them let me perform with them at one particular day and that's when they found out that I had rhyming skills and that I could rock the mic with the best of them. That's how I became part of The Gangster Five. Besides from that I was always there."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did it take back then to be a good MC?"

DRAC:"I mean being an MC standing in front of the DJ when the music is playing and once that beat hits you.....you see this is the thing that people don't understand about being an MC...you gotta feel the music. You know, you can't try to grab it, you just gotta feel it! If you can feel it and you know what you're gonna say off the top of your head you could be a good MC."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so when you replaced Marty Mart as a member of The Gangster Five you already had some rhymes prepared?"

DRAC:"Oh, I always had rhymes because back then I could rhyme off the top of my head! Let me give you an example.....I'm the capital H-A-J-I-E rockin' to the rhythm, to the highést degree. I'm the jazzy jazzy brother that lives on the block, when I snap my fingers you start to rock! Rockin' to the west, rockin' to the east, rockin' to the rhythm 'cause you want a little piece. I'm not Spoonie Gee, I'm not Rapper's Delight, just a bad, bad brother that is rocking the mic. 'Cause rappin' on the mic is the perfect example to show the other MCs just scramble.... You know just gotta have a nice even flow!"

Prince Hadji

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Very nice! What were some of the places that The Gangster Five would perform at? Like schoolyards and public parks?"

DRAC:"Oh boy, let me see. We performed on 119th Street between 3rd Avenue & We performed on 124th Street in 24 Park that's underneath the bridge there, right by Wagner Projects. We performed in that Junior High School on 3rd Avenue & 115th Street. We played there. We played on 112th Street in Foster Projects. I mean we played in a lot of different places and some of the places that we played in are not even there anymore." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"I have noticed that the name of The Gangster Five appears on many of those flyers which advertised huge DJ & MC Conventions. Like that "East vs. West" competition at I.S. 201 which was put together by Mike & Dave Productions. What was it like to compete there? Please describe the efforts that would go into preparing for these kind of events!"

DRAC:"Okay, MC Priest had an apartment in 2065.....3rd Avenue which is in Jefferson Projects, right? It's apartment 11C in 2065. We called it The Penthouse. The reason why we called it The Penthouse because that was the hangout. That was our practice spot. We practiced like almost every day. DJ Blue was our original DJ, then after DJ Blue it came to be DJ Al Ski. Now here's a funny story about Al.....Al used to work at a place called Downstairs Records and he had all the beats!!! I mean he had beats beyond beats. He also had records with little extras. So Al Ski became our DJ and whenever Al Ski went out, we performed. I mean we put on a show!!! We had the crowd, we had everybody because between me, Ski Jump and MC Priest...we could make a crowd come alive! It was all about fun for us, it wasn't about getting rich."

 

Ski Jump (The Floor Masters / The Gangster Five)

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what kind of things would you practice at The Penthouse?"

DRAC:"We were working on things like switching from one MC to the next MC. Instead of saying,"MC Priest, my mellow, my man get on the mic and do the best that you can!" we would practice to a point where at the end of a word the next person would start and then at the end of another word another person would start. Then we had this going on where we would start a song that we were singing about The Gangster Five...... like in harmony. I mean everybody still had their own rhymes but we would practice it to harmonize with the rhymes." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was your approach to writing rhymes back then? Would you sit down in front of your composition book and write down lyrics to beats that you had playing in the back? Or would you write rhymes without music?"

DRAC:"My thing is this...back then I never wrote anything on paper 'cause I had everything in my head."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you were freestyling?"

DRAC:"Yeah, I could freestlye but whatever rhyme I made up in my head I could always remember it so I can come back to it again."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you describe the role of each MC within The Gangster Five?"

DRAC:"Kid Kendu.....He was the brainiac! He was smart, matter of fact he was real smart. He went to private school. Priest was like the hype man. Priest used to rock a collar like a catholic priest and he used to carry a book with a bible cover on it but inside the book was his microphone. Ski Jump was the pretty boy. He was the lightskin black guy with the grey eyes. Me I was I was number 4 In the line up even though I made up rhymes for myself and Priest."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What about Tony G?"

DRAC:" Tony G came after l left. Easy Earny D was the fifth member when I was down."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what was his role?"

DRAC:"He was just an MC. He didn't have a specific role. As I said I was number four, he would be number five."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What are your five top breakbeats?"

DRAC:" "Scratching","Apache","Funky Drummer", "Black Grass"and "Seven Minutes Of Funk"."