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!"