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"."