Interview with MC Ducky Dee (The G-Force)
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| MC Ducky Dee (The G-Force) |
conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where were you born and raised?"
DUCKY DEE:"Harlem, New York.....born and raised. Born in Harlem Hospital, raised in the streets of Harlem, New York. Sugar Hill!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where exactly in Harlem is the Sugar Hill section located?"
DUCKY DEE:"Actually, if I'm correct it might be like the end of Harlem. It might be actually where Harlem ends. I'm not 110 percent sure but I believe it's like the upper part of Harlem where it ends. You know, just before Washington Heights begins."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, and could you please tell me in which year were you born?"
DUCKY DEE:"1963."
SIR NORIN RAD:"In which year did you notice DJs setting up their equipment in the parks and playing that breakbeat sound for the very first time? How old were you when that happened?"
DUCKY DEE:"I was probably around 15. You know, there was a group called The Aquarius Sounds and those were like the first guys that I remember bringing out music but they weren't really like playing these breakbeats. It was just before Hiphop had hit the part of Harlem where I was living at. I believe it was a group called TPC.....The People's Choice....they were like the first ones to kinda bring out that music (the breakbeats) in the parks in our neighbourhood in Harlem...The Battlegrounds. The Bronx of course is where it originated and everything like that. I used to go to a place when I was 15.....in 1978....but it wasn't in the parks, it was actually a place in the Bronx called the Galaxy 2000. DJ Kool Herc used to play up there. So he actually was the first one to open my and my peoples' eyes up to that real Hiphop. It was in the Galaxy 2000....they said that club used to be called the Stafford's Place but by the time I got there it was called the Galaxy 2000. I was actually too young to be getting in there but my stepsister used to date one of the DJs and so she used to get me and my people up in there. Herc used to battle different Bronx DJs there like The L-Brothers, DJ Casanova Fly...... It was a beautiful time then."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Wasn't the Galaxy 2000 close to University Avenue?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yes, sir! It was right on University Avenue."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you find out about the Galaxy 2000 and Kool Herc? Did your stepsister tell you about these things?"
DUCKY DEE:"Right. So my pops was dating her moms. So I used to go over there on the weekends. I used to go from Harlem to the Bronx every weekend and my stepsister used to date one of Kool Herc's DJs named Black Jack. So I went there with her once and I never stopped going so even if I wasn't gonna go over to the Bronx that weekend I had to go anyway because I had to get up into the Galaxy 2000 to see who Kool Herc was battling or you know just to hear him because I was actually real cool with one of his MCs.....MC Labrue...that was my man! He was a good brother because you know I was just a young cat that loved Hiphop, that used to just come in there to listen to the music and he embraced me. He used to let me sit in there with him while he rocked the mic and everything 'cause they used to kinda rock in this room. They would set the speakers outside the room in the club but they would actually sit like in a room. So when you was coming up in New York at that time word of mouth was everything. So people would tell you like, "Yo! I heard so and so is gonna be jamming over here! I heard so and so is gonna be jamming over there!" So you would make your way around Harlem or the Bronx to see it. Maybe you might even have a boombox where you could record the joint. You know get close to the speaker and record the jam, you know? So when you went back to the block you not only had proof that you was there but now you got a tape that everybody wants and you can make copies and sell them for 5$ a pop, you know? So it was a beautiful time but you also had to have some balls about you because you never knew what would happen when you stepped outside your neighbourhood or stepped outside your borough. But I loved Hiphop so much, you know what I'm saying, that I had to have it and the people I was with also had to have it so yeah! "
SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of impression did attending Kool DJ Herc's parties leave upon you? Was Imperial JC already with him at that time?"
DUCKY DEE:"I don't remember Imperial JC. I remember Clark Kent, Black Jack and Herc and I believe the MCs was Labrue and Pebblee Poo and I'm not sure if they had anybody else but I remember those two. So anyway me and my brother who started the crew G-Force.....Supreme Master Wayne Gee...I took him up there with me one weekend and we went up there and partied. We had a good time and he caught that bug like me. Now we all had the bug already but that's when he caught the bug that made him say, "I wanna do this! We're going to do this!" So we ended up going back to Harlem and it was like, "Okay, we're gonna do our own thing!" And that's how we started G-Force but that's what gave Supreme Master Wayne Gee the idea, "Yo, I wanna start a crew! I wanna play music! This is what I wanna do!" And he was my big brother so I always followed what he did. He took care of me."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Was DJ Wayne Gee your blood brother?"
DUCKY DEE:"No, actually he's not blood related but he's my real brother. Something that I learnt growing up is that you gonna have people that are blood but don't treat you like blood but you gonna have people that's not blood that are closer to you than your own blood. We've known each other since we were little kids. We grew up together and at one point his people took me in and adopted me. He's not my blood brother but that's my real brother."
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| DJ Wayne Gee - Founder of the G-Force Crew |
SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of dances were done at those Herc parties back in 1978?"
DUCKY DEE:"That's a good question! (laughs) I believe the Freak might have been the first Hiphop dance that I can remember and then the Spank followed and all that stuff but I definitely remember the Freak and the Spank being the first two dances at Hiphop Jams."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What did the music there make you feel like ?"
DUCKY DEE:"Like I said we had people that brought music out in the park just before Hiphop had exploded. So of course you know they had the big speakers and everything like that but when you went to the Galaxy 2000 and you heard Kool Herc....and I remember this like it was yesterday....he would get on the mic and the first thing he would say before every jam was, "All systems go!!!!" on the echo chamber. So when he said that it would sound like, "All systems go go go go!" And then he would play just a regular record, you know what I'm saying? Not even a beat or anything like that, just a regular record to get the party started but them speakers would be bumping!!! Yeah man, it was something!! It was something!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Did DJ Black Jack assist you and your brother in any way to get your crew started? Like telling you which speakers and amps to get?"
DUCKY DEE:"Nah!!!! (laughs) Actually, me and dude ain't really clicked. I can't tell you too much about dude it's just that he was the DJ and he used to rock with my sister but me and him ain't really.....I mean me and him we didn't have no beef or nothing like that but I can't sit here and tell you that we was kool. Like I said Labrue was the one who embraced me. That was my man. Whatever we did as far as getting that crew together, we did that! It was Supreme Master Wayne Gee, it was a guy that we went to school with....G-Man. He got Wayne Gee started out on the turntables. Actually, where the name G-Force came from was G-Man because one of the cats that used to rock with us....Rock City Ram.......we was at a house party, not even like a jam...we was at a house party and Rock City Ram was there and he just said, "Yo G-Man and the Mighty G-Force!" and when he said that, that name G-Force just stuck. So that's actually where we got the name from...from G-Man. We basically didn't have any equipment but we built it over the years like I remember doing somebody's house party with two stereos.....you know, not even like a real mixer or nothing like that...just turn it down on this one here and then turn it down on this one here (laughs..). Like that! That's how bad we wanted to do it until we came into our own. You know, building equipment, getting our own stuff and becoming somebody that was known."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it accurate to say that MC Labrue inspired you to become an MC?"
DUCKY DEE:"You know what? Yeah, because he's like the first one that I remember and everything like that... so yeah. At that time everybody wanted to be.... in some part, form, fashion..a part of Hiphop. Whether you wanted to be an MC, whether you wanted to be a DJ or whatever, whatever. So yeah I would say MC Labrue was a big reason why I wanted to be an MC."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Judging from the various G-Force flyers I have come across so far it seems to me that your crew went through several different phases. Like you obviously had different MC line-ups over the time and even different DJs. Do you recall DJ Money Gee?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, man! Money Gee is one of the original members! When we was doing our thing..you know, when we started blowing up with the music and everything like that...we used to rock at a spot called The Show Place right down the block from where we grew up. So we had three DJs: G-Man, Wayne Gee and Money Gee. We started out with The Shining Star MCs, then we went to The Galaxy Four and then we went to the Jazzy Two which became like the permanent MCs for the G-Force. That was me and my brother the Love Sweet Vee."
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| September 15th, 1979: The G-Force performs at the Show Place in Harlem along with DJ Master Don & The Death Committee |
SIR NORIN RAD:"Apparently, one of your MCs that rocked with you when you were still the Shining Star MCs later on jumped ship and joined DJ Master Don & The Death Committee. I'm talking about MC Boo Ski. How did that come about and how did you feel about that move at the time?"
DUCKY DEE:"Boo Ski was from the neighbourhood. He didn't grow up with us but he was somebody who's moved to the neighbourhood. Now understand Boo Ski has a lot of brothers. So one of those brothers is Gangster Gee who ended up being one of Master Don's MCs. That's actually Boo Ski's little brother. But anyway getting back to Boo Ski.....when he left no we didn't take it good because it wasn't done with good taste. It wasn't done like, "Hey, I wanna get down with them." It was like all of a sudden we're getting word that one of our best MCs is jumping ship. So nah that didn't go good So we kinda chased him outta there behind that."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Yes, I have heard that the G-Force was also notorius for beating up cats. What's your take on that?"
DUCKY DEE:"As far as G-Force being like that....so what happens is back in New York you could play music out in the parks but you also had to enforce what you were doing because you might have people come out there who wanna start fights or whatever, whatever or just disrespect what you're doing or disrespect your crew. So what happened was, we did both! We did both and eventually we left the music side to go to that side. When we were just on some crew stuff, you know?? Going around, busting up heads and all that.....So we started out with the music but ended up with the ass whipping."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So when did the ass whipping become your priority? In the 1980s?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, I would say in the early 1980s."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Who came up with the name "The Shining Star MCs"?
DUCKY DEE:"I believe that's a name that my man Rob Gee (another original G-Force MC) came up with. The Shining Star!!! It was me, Rob Gee, Boo Ski and Tony Dee. Rob Gee left us also and he ended up rocking with RC La Rock. He took that name Shining Stars MCs with him when he left us. Big shoutouts to RC La Rock! One of the greatest MCs ever!! Rob Gee got down with him and another guy. Damn, I can't remember his name..."
SIR NORIN RAD:"DJ Chevy Chev."
DUCKY DEE:" DJ Chevy Chev!! My man, you are correct! Rob Gee and RC La Rock ended up rocking with DJ Chevy Chev who had a pretty good name for himself back then. I think the Galaxy Four..if I'm correct... was something that I came up with because I was trying to keep the format of the G-Force, you know what I'm saying? The guy who used to do our flyers which was this cat named Mike....Mike used to do our flyers and I used to tell him the ideas of how I wanted them done and everything like that and he would hook them up like that."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how the Shining Star MCs were formed!"
DUCKY DEE:"I can tell you nine times out of ten it was Wayne Gee. Wayne Gee was always the one that put everything together and he was the one that would always... like if I would bring somebody around and tell him,"Yo, my man can rock!" he would be like,"Let me hear him. I might put him down." So Tony Dee lived on the other end of the block. So Tony Dee was down. Boo Ski as well. Rob Gee was somebody I brought from JFK....from my school...that everybody was like, "Yo, that dude is nice!!" Rob was that dude on the mic, you know? So Rob got down. So that's how that goes."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you find out about Rob Gee's exceptional MCing skills? Were there rhyming sessions in the cafeteria of JFK High School back then where you you would see him rocking on the mic?"
DUCKY DEE:"I don't remember doing that. I saw that being done in Martin Luther King (a high school in Harlem) with the Fearless Four. I saw them rocking in the cafeteria in Martin Luther King. So with Rob Gee..that's just the thing that somebody might say, "Ey, yo! You MC, right? Yo, my man knows how to MC, too." So you'd be like, "Word? Let me hear him!" So that's how that used to go. It wasn't like the cafeteria thing, it was just word of mouth. Like you could be in the back of the train, you could be anywhere, you know what I'm saying? If you are who you say you are....nah, do that right here right now!! You'd be on the corner, "Word? You rap? Let me hear it!" Or MC 'cause it wasn't about no rap, it was MC."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So you had basically heard about his reputation as an MC, got to check out his skills and found them good enough to ask Rob Gee to join your crew?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, something like that."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it accurate to say that the Shining Star MCs lasted from 1978 till early 1980 when Boo Ski left you for DJ Master Don & The Death Committee Crew?"
DUCKY DEE:" Probably so because I would say that Rob Gee and Boo Ski almost left at the same time."
SIR NORIN RAD:"So how did your crew receive the news that Rob Gee wanted to leave you and join DJ Chevy Chev and RC La Rock? Did you feel as disrespected as you did when Boo Ski left for Master Don or was there a difference?"
DUCKY DEE:"It was disappointment but it was done right. It wasn't done like we gotta hear it from somebody else. Everybody knew how we got down. You didn't wanna cross us. So both of them were like family but at the same time one thing that you don't accept is disrespect. Boo Ski left us in a disrespectful way and that's why it went down like it went down. Rob Gee did it like it was supposed to be done. He came to us like a man and he told us that that's what he wanted to do. So he got Wayne Gee's blessings. I have to provide some clarification though about Boo Ski leaving. Him and Master Don eventually got Wayne Gee's blessings to join the Death Committee but certain crew members didn't know and stepped to him. Master Don wouldn't have dared to bring Boo Ski into his crew without Wayne's ok because we protected Don many times. "
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did the Shining Star MCs meet in order to rehearse? At Wayne Gee's house?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, at Wayne Gee's house. Nine times out of ten at Wayne Gee's house."
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| December 22nd,1979: The G-Force performs at the Show Place in Harlem along with DJ Master Don & The Death Committee |
DUCKY DEE:"No, they just had their slot times."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Ok, so what about the Shining Star MCs? Did you do any routines?"
DUCKY DEE:"No, we didn't have routines. Nah, I don't even know if MCs was really doing routines that early in the game. I remember like maybe a year or so later you started hearing like The Furious Five or the Cold Crush Brothers. No, you just passed the mic. You just said your rhyme, you know? And then you'd be like, "Tony Dee it's on you! So what you gonna do?!" You know, you just passed the mic off." That's the way it was done back then. I didn't start doing routines until we was the Jazzy Two. Me and the Love Sweet Vee."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Out here in Germany many cats wonder what that phrase "passing the mic" really referred to. Some have asked me whether crews initially had just one microphone when they were rocking in the parks back then which therefore had to be shared by all of the crew's members."
DUCKY DEE:" (laughs) No, no.....(laughs). You had several mics! I mean maybe sometimes you did have a night where the mic wasn't working or you didn't have enough mics but even when everybody had their own mics passing the mic just meant, "Okay, I have finished my rhyme. I'm passing it off to you." So you would say something like, "I'm finished on the mic...go ahead Rob Gee to the ladies's delight!" That was passing the mic."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Like Mele Mel would say to Rahiem, "A 7-6-5-4-3-2-1....Come on, Rahiem! Come and get some!"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah....That group is the greatest MC group of all time!!! I knew Grandmaster Caz, I knew J-DL from the Cold Crush Brothers and I knew Prince Whippper Whip from The Fantastic Five, right? So when you talk to them.... because those are the top groups.....The Furious Five, The Cold Crush Brothers and The Fantastic Romantic Five MCs. Those are the top groups. So whenever you ask somebody of The Fantastic Five or The Cold Crush Brothers, "Who was the number one group?" They'll say, "The Furious Five!" So everybody had that respect for Mele Mel and them."
SIR NORIN RAD:"The legendary MC Barry Bee of the Mean Machine Crew told me that before he had even started MCing he used to chill outside with his friends drinking Grape Soda and eating pumpkin seeds while listening to the tapes of the Funky Four with Sha Rock. Did you also get your hands on these tapes back in the days?
DUCKY DEE:"Oh yeah!! Oh yeah!! (excited) We got our hands on tapes like that all the time! That was a big thing back then, you know? Back then when you had tapes like that of the Cold Crush Brothers vs. The Fantastic Five......you would get some weed and everybody would sit around and listen to them joints there. That was the thing back then. You would have people bothering you that wanted to hear those tapes. You'd be like, "Yo man, go get us some weed, man, and I let you listen to that Cold Crush Brothers tape." (They'd be like)"Word?" "Yeah, man!""
SIR NORIN RAD:"Were those tapes something that inspired to improve your rhyming skills as an MC?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, because you gotta be a real special MC to not borrow from other people. Coming up....when I started MCing I used to go to the Bronx and get rhymes from up there and bring them back to Harlem 'cause I had no rhymes of my own back then. So as long as I knew that wouldn't bite me in the ass ....because not everybody was going up to the Bronx to them jams to hear that... I would go there and add rhymes to my repertoire. Shit, I might even have gotten some Labrue joints! You know, until I started writing (ryhmes) and really getting into my own."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe the process through which you would come up with new rhymes! Would you write your rhymes in your crib alone or would you be doing that along with the other MCs of the G-Force at DJ Wayne Gee's house?"
DUCKY DEE:"So when this all started I was staying with Wayne Gee. His moms had took me in, right? So I was staying with Wayne Gee so he could be practicing DJing and I'm on the side writing rhymes and the more I wrote the better I got. You know, you sit there and rhymes pop up in your head out of somewhere. So you'd be like,"Hold on! Let me write that down!"Or you would hear something and you'd be like, "That's a fly word! Let me see if I can make that into a rhyme!" So there's a whole bunch of things that inspire you to write something. To me rhymes could come from anywhere."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Would also take measures to enlarge your vocabulary?"
DUCKY DEE:"Nah. I'm not saying that that's not a good idea but I just didn't. You know, you're getting motivated by hearing somebody that's just awesome. Like, "Yo!!! Oh my God! This guy is a beast on the mic and I gotta step my game up!" If you got any type of dignity or pride about yourself yeah you'll hear somebody that makes you say,"Damn!! Nah, I ain't ready yet. I need to get back to the drawing board." And then to be perfectly honest when Rob Gee and Boo Ski were down with us they were my motivation to get better because those cats were really that good. They were really that good! So knowing that we got a party to do Friday night and I gotta be on stage with these cats??? So I was like, "Yeah, I gotta get my shit together!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it accurate to say that the Battlegrounds was like your main stomping ground as far as rocking parties outside is concerned?"
DUCKY DEE:"Oh yeah! Most definitely!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Which other outdoor spots did you rock at?"
DUCKY DEE:"We did the Battlegrounds and we did 28 Park which was like a few blocks up....a schoolyard. The Battlegrounds is just a regular park, you know, where we all came up playing basketball in. It's up the block from up where we grew up. 28 was the elementary school we all went to so we would also jam in there. So those were our two places.....including the Show Place which was the club we used to rock in."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of location was the Show Place?"
DUCKY DEE:"That was a night spot up the block from us but they had this big open space on the top that they let us use to play Hiphop in. So the Show Place was like our spot and they actually used to have nude dancing in there, so sometimes I used to sneak down there in the middle of a party to go sneak a peak (laughs)."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What was your relationship with DJ Master Don & The Death Committee like? Were they from the same area as you guys? "
DUCKY DEE:"No, they're from Harlem but they're from a place we call "The Valley" and they called us "The Hill" because they was downhill and we was up the hill. So they called us "Hillbillies" and we called them "The Valley Boys." Not particularly the Death Committee and not particularly the G-Force but just people from those areas. So Wayne Gee used to date one of Master Don's sisters. That's how we got down with Master Don....I mean not really getting down with him but doing parties together but then we actually made it possible for a lot of people to survive out there. We protected Master Don because....God bless the dead....he wasn't really liked. You know, Master Don was a hell of a DJ! Oh my God, he was a beast! He was a beast but he was also.....I don't wanna use the word conceited but he was very confident."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Yes, I read about that in many of Troy L. Smith's interviews....."
DUCKY DEE:"See, here's the problem with that...you can't do that and not be about that life. Now you can be the nicest DJ and all that but there's a lot of people in New York that's gonna come to you and gonna say to you,"How good is your knuckle game? Yeah, you can DJ and all that but what's your knuckle game about? Cause I don't like the way you carry yourself..." That's the honest to God truth! In New York.... if you carry yourself like that then you better be about that life."
SIR NORIN RAD:"I hear you."
DUCKY DEE:"So, here's a true story.....he was having a battle in a gym and tearing the other DJ out the frame but the other DJ still robbed him and took all his stuff!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Damn!"
DUCKY DEE:"See, the other DJ...he's my man, too...but I'm not gonna put his name out like that...(laughs)....I still keep in touch with him....his people took all of Don's shit and walked up out of there. The moral of the story is...yeah, you won the battle but you lost the war!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"What truly fascinates me about the DJing and MCing of the late 1970s and early 1980s is the fact that it focussed on live shows and you therefore had to present the crowd with an outstanding performance or they would let you know that you sucked right away. No chance to redo anything unlike today where it's all about recording songs and you got ample time at your disposal in the studio."
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, you got booed out your own park if your shit ain't correct! So let me tell you a funny story...when I first started MCing I was very shy. So I actually rocked with my back to the crowd. So I'm rocking and all the girls are going like, "Tell him to turn around!" And Wayne Gee was like"Yo kid, turn around! They wanna see you!" So I had to get over that because I had never been in that condition! I didn't know I was shy and all of that until I'm like,"Oh shit! All these people are looking at me!" You had to come correct!! So luckily I came correct and was able to turn around and face the crowd 'cause they liked what they heard but they also wanted to see me rocking as well."
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| December 31st, 1979: The G-Force performs at the Audobon Ballroom in Harlem |
SIR NORIN RAD:"So MCing was also about impressing and rocking the crowd visually? Like doing choreographies and stuff like that?"
DUCKY DEE:" Yeah, but that came down the road. Down the road you put on a full-blown show. In the very beginning you just wanted to hear some fly shit. That's all. It wasn't rocket science, it wasn't that serious...it was like, "Yo, I just wanna hear some fly shit!" But then as time went on people started taking the game to a new level. You know, them Furious Five, them Cold Crush Brothers, them Fantastic Five. They were really putting on a show!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"I heard the same thing about DJ Master Don & The Death Committee.....like that there are tapes of them performing at Harlem World where they would stop rapping for a moment and do something on stage that had the crowd going crazy."
DUCKY DEE:"They would go, "Ooooooooooh!" Right! You'd be like, "I can't see it but they must have did something outside of that rhyming." Yeah, because what it is .....somebody always gonna set the bar higher and you gotta meet it. You can't just keep doing the same old shit, the bar's been set higher." So all of a sudden you go to a show and these MCs are singing and dancing, you know what I'm saying???!!! Oh boy, here we go! (excited) Now we gotta get some steps in and so forth and so on."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What made you add Scotty Dee and Love Sweet Vee to your crew roster after Boo Ski and Rob Gee had left?"
DUCKY DEE:"Well, Scotty Dee was from the neighbourhood. He was from up the block. Sweet Vee was somebody who started running with us and we found out he could rhyme and what's crazy about that is that when it was all said and done Wayne Gee was like, "Yo, I want it to be you and Sweet Vee!" And I wasn't crazy about the idea at the time that me and this guy was about to become a duet. But then later on we would give a lot of guys the bussiness back then. We were all that but we also became brothers and that's my brother to this day. Wayne Gee always had this eye even when everybody else was like, "Yo, what is he doing?" Like he gave Rob Base and E-Z Rock time in Trinity Church for them to get exposure. We used to go to outside jams in the parks and everything like that and Doug E Fresh would be down there and nobody would let him rock. Like he wasn't with a crew or anything like that, he would just go and ask, "Hey, can I rock?" And people used to not want him to rock because he was so good. Once you let Doug E on, people don't want him to get off. Now you carried all your heavy equipment to this park for you and your people to shine, now all of a sudden the park is telling you, "We just wanna hear Doug E. Fresh!" So we made it possible for a lot of cats to rock."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Were Scotty Dee and Sweet Vee able to fill in the gap left by Rob Gee and Boo Ski?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, because even though those guys were good but we had chemistry, you know what I'm saying? When we had Rob Gee and Boo Ski...they were great but it was like every man for himself. There was no chemistry. When Scotty Dee and Sweet Vee joined us it was chemistry and that's what Wayne Gee saw,"Oh, these guys are more together!" When it was the Shining Star MCs it was every man for himself. Plain and simple! Rob Gee and Boo Ski knew they were the alpha males...so it was more like a competition or maybe even an interview for somebody else to see them and say, "I want you to get down with me!"
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| April 19th, 1980: The G-Force performs at the Show Place |
SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of advice would you give to the young cats of today that may want to resurrect the original live MCing as it was done in the parks back then? You know, forming a MC crew and rocking with a DJ that spins breakbeats..... "
DUCKY DEE:"If you're trying to build up a crew it's about chemistry and when I say that I mean you gotta want the same thing. It's got to be about the crew more than anything. It can't be about you and what you wanna do. It's like a great company, you know what I'm saying? It's about the company. Not only do you have to know your rhymes and your style but you got to know your peoples' style and rhymes just like they're your own. You gotta know everybody even your DJ like second nature. I'll never forget we had a battle at a place called the Ponderosa which was on 8th Avenue.... between 145th and 146th street .....an MC battle...100$ prize. So now we're talking about the early 1980s. 100$ was a lot of money back then. I would usually write the routines for Sweet Vee and me, right? So we practiced the routine, we got it down pat. We got this mean routine that we gonna put on these cats at this battle!! Written just for the battle! Written just for the battle! We didn't have any equipment at the time because we had had a run in with the Ballbusters and had lost our equipment."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Damn!""
DUCKY DEE:"Yup, got into a big joint with them and had to leave our equipment. So Wayne Gee came up to the house and said to us,"Let me hear what y'all got!" And we did it. So we were like, "Yo, what you gonna play?" He said, "Don't worry about it! I got it!" So we were like,"Okay!" because we trusted him. So anyway....jam comes. We have no idea what Wayne is gonna play and I kid you not we told him how our intro was gonna go and when he would come in with the music. And he played The Honey Drippers.......Ladies and Gentlemen.....you know what I'm saying?"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Impeach The President!"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, and when he put that on the crowd went crazy!!! Now to me it was a nice beat but I would never think that it would get that type of response! If he would have told me that he was gonna play that I might even have been like, "Aaaah....Really?!?! That's what you gonna play? Aight." But when he put that on, the crowd went crazy like it was the best Hiphop beat they ever heard. And I was like, "Wow!! Okay...", you know?? And we rocked and we won that battle. So the advice is that you gotta know each other and you gotta practice. It's gotta be like a second job. When it's time to practice you gotta practice! No bullshit!!! Ain't no, "Oh man I was supposed to hang out with my girl! " Or this that and the other. Nah!!!! It's time to practice, you know what I'm saying? So back then it was all about being the best. Even if you knew you wasn't the best but you know what? I wanna be right! I wanna be right up there with them! I want when they come through and look, I want them to say,"I like them, man! They tight!" You want them to acknowledge you."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Since you're stressing the importance of practicing I would like to ask you how often you did you meet up back then in order to rehearse?"
DUCKY DEE:"I think it was more than once a week. I don't remember exactly but I know it was more than once a week. Once we got our equipment together and we had a place to practice we practiced. We never had no problems of being there for practice. So it was just mandatory. It was mandatory! There was no ifs ands or buts about it because it took place at a time to not inconvenience anyone. You know, you talk it out, "This is good for me!" "Okay, so we're having practice at such and such!" And that's the way we did it. I would like to say we practiced at least twice a week. At least!! Especially when were getting ready to have a jam or a battle. That takes precedence over everything."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did MCs dress in your era?"
DUCKY DEE:"Well, we did have the sweatshirts with our crew name on it. That was big. And you know when it first came out...I think Pumas were the big shoes back then. You had your Clyde Pumas on with your sweatshirt with your crew on it. You had your Lee Dungaree on....so yeah you was fly. It wasn't like you was pimped out or nothing like that because, you know, you was kinda rugged. You had your jeans on, you had your sneakers on, you might have your name belt on and stuff like that. You might even have a Kangol with some Cazals on. So those were like the big things back then as far as clothes....you know B-Boy clothes."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe the role which Tony Dee had within your squad when he was MCing with you as a part of The Shining Star MCs and then later of the Galaxy Four!"
DUCKY DEE:"He was....and I'm not trying to be funny...he was like sexual chocolate. He was like that fly dark skin brother when light skin brothers was getting all the play. And his style...he kinda had a Bronx style to him. So when Wayne Gee heard him he fell in love with the way Tony Dee rocked. So Tony had that fly guy rap which was real good back then. He was a hell of a MC, he was like the ladies delight, you know what I'm saying? Sexual chocolate!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"What about your man Sweet Vee. What kind of an MC was he?"
DUCKY DEE:"Sweet Vee was another ladies' MC. He was the most compatible MC with me, you know what I'm saying? And he was also a real good MC. He was the Love Sweet Vee and the ladies loved him. He had nice rhymes and he could back it up. You know, it's always good when you can rhyme and you can throw them hands, too. You gotta understand if there's a lot of ladies in the crowd and they say, "Oh my god! He's cute!" "Oh my god! He can rhyme!" There's always gonna be haters. So if you're not about that life you wil have somebody saying, "Yo fuck that punk! I punch him in the face!!" You know what I'm saying? So it's always good to let people know that you can rap and throw them hands, too."
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| MC Love Sweet Vee (The G-Force) |
SIR NORIN RAD:"So why did Tony Dee an Scotty Dee eventually have to leave you?"
DUCKY DEE:"I don't know, I think that was just Wayne Gee 'cause you know what? I just remember one night we was going to practice and Wayne Gee was telling me like,"Yo, I want you to rock with Sweet Vee!" Now we had rocked together and all that but as a group. For some reason Wayne Gee was like, "I just want you two!"And I was kinda like, "Where you getting this idea from?" I wasn't crazy about it... to be honest. You know, but Wayne Gee had that eye for that! And sure enough this shit turned out to be great!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"When did that transition from the Galaxy Four to the Jazzy Two take place? Was that in 1981 or 1982?"
DUCKY DEE:"It probably was around that time. I'm perfectly honest I don't remember to be sure but I would say around that time."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What was the role of DJ G-Man and DJ Money G within your crew? Like when would they be playing and what kind of music did they play?"
DUCKY DEE:"Let me tell you how it went down and I'm glad you brought that up.....So when we did parties G-Man would start off the parties by playing Disco 'cause this was the Disco era back then, right? G-Man would get the party going...like I'll never forget I heard G-Man one day and he was playing Prince and the joint came on at the beginning and he was like, "Yo, I want everybody in here to go to the bar 'cause I gonna buy everybody a drink but check this out! Before you get to the bar there's just one thing I need you to know before you get there...." And then Prince would go,"I ain't got no money!!!!" (The name of track is "I Wanna Be Your Lover". It came out in 1979) and the crowd was like, "Oooooh!" I'll never forget that and I tell him about this joint to this day!! So that's the kind of DJ G-Man was. G-Man was the one who played that type of music to get the crowd going. Wayne Gee came on and he played music for us, the MCs. He was cutting for the MCs. Money Gee was like the exhibitionist like how Master Don could cut with one hand backwards on the up and down fader and all that. That was Money Gee!!!! Money Gee was the cat that if somebody was like, "Yo, you know I got this DJ, he can do XYZ!" That was Money Gee's job....."Yo take him out!" You know what I'm saying? "Oh, that's what y'all got? We got somebody for that!" Money Gee could do all the tricks on the turntables and Money Gee was a baby by the way back then. Money Gee used to go to sleep at the jams and we would have to wake him up at the end to do his thing! Yeah, he was a baby! I mean we were all young but even though he was bigger than probably all of us, he was the youngest, he was a baby."
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| DJ G-Man (The G-Force) |
SIR NORIN RAD:"What were your top 5 beats to rock to back then when you were jamming in the parks, the gyms, the clubs etc.?"
DUCKY DEE:"Okay, definitely T-Ski Valley "Catch The Beat"................................ "
SIR NORIN RAD:"What about "Funky Drummer" by James Brown?"
DUCKY DEE:"That was alright but you had to rhyme real fast. I'm just talking about joints that I ain't gotta rush and you could hear what I'm saying. So like "Outstanding" by The Gap Band, you know what I'm saying? Yeah! What else? It's been so long........"Take Me To The Mardi Gras" by Bob James and "The Son Of Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey." Those joints were good, too, but....you know...back then it was primarily about what we were saying on the mic, not about that beat that you're hearing. Today it's like totally the opposite. It's like, "Oh, that's a great beat and this guy can fucking just say about anything!" Back then....yeah beats were tight but motherfuckers wanted to really know what you're saying. You couldn't hide behind a beat back then!! YOU COULDN'T HIDE BEHIND A BEAT!!!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"It seems to me that the beats back then also posed a much bigger challenge to the MCs as their sound was much rougher and they weren't taylor made like today. "
DUCKY DEE:"Right. Yeah, I remember like putting a whole bunch of change on top of the needle, you know what I'm saying? I remember marking up the record with a marker or a tape to help you find where the beat was. I remember all those tricks even though I wasn't a DJ but you know that stuff when you're around it so long. So like you said things were much more complicated, it wasn't as easy. Everything took like real skill. They call it Rap now and that's pretty much the truth because I'm from the Hiphop Era. Things were totally different back then."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What was your relationship with the other crews from the Sugar Hill section like The People's Choice and The Mighty Gestapo Crew?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yeah, we're all from the same area. So like I said TPC was the first Hiphop group to come out in the Battlegrounds. Now the Gestapo Crew....now we're from St. Nicholas....TPC was from right up the block from us on 152nd Street...right the same block as The Battlegrounds and The Gestapo Crew was further down by Riverside. Count Dee and them. God bless the Dead....Count Dee passed away a couple of years ago. He was a real good brother. Shout outs to the Gestapo Crew! They also had connections with Whipper Whip and Dot-A-Rock. So we're all from the same area and everything like that but I will go on the record saying G-Force has always been number one and always will be! (laughs)."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever battle TPC or The Gestapo Crew?"
DUCKY DEE:"I don't really remember us ever battling them. I know we were supposed to, I know a lot of shit was talked and everything like that but we didn't get to battle TPC or Gestapo. I know Gestapo and TPC battled each other and to be perfectly honest, I thought the Gestapo Crew cheated because they had Whipper Whip and Dot-A-Rock who were Fantastic Five, they weren't Gestapo Crew. To me it was like you're playing Peewee Football and you bring in two grown men to play. Because at that point none of us was in the realm of Whipper Whip and Dot-A-Rock. These cats were on Mount Rushmore back then!"
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| September 18th, 1982: The G-Force performs at the Pac Jam Throwdown in Harlem along with Doug E. Fresh and others |
SIR NORIN RAD:"In closing I would like to ask you about two individuals and their specific ties to the Almighty G-Force namely DJ Jazz E aka DJ Jazzemoto (RIP) and MC Missy Dee. How were they related to you?"
DUCKY DEE:"Missy Dee is from the neighbourhood. She is our little sister and she's the official female MC of the G-Force Crew. DJ Jazzemoto was one of Wayne Gee's proteges, he was also from the neighbourhood. Let me tell you something about Jazzemoto.......one, let me just start off by saying, "God bless him!" but Jazzemoto might be the most talented person musically that I ever met. He could DJ, he could sing and he could rap!!! Jazzemoto...Eric Williams.....big ups to him. Rest in Peace!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you like to give any shoutouts at the end of this interview?"
DUCKY DEE:"Yes, I would. I'd like to give a shoutout to Supreme Master Wayne Gee! I'd love to give a shoutout to Love Sweet Vee! Shoutouts to our warlord Bambu and Mr. Strong....may they rest peacefully! Shout outs to the rest of the Almighty G-Force Crew! I'd love to give a shout out to my man Sugar Ray and Big Stan! Place Players in the place to be! And to my brothers from St. Nicholas Place the Jamie-O Crew and the Beeferoni Crew and last but not least I'd like to give a shoutout to someone very special to me out there in Düsseldorf, Germany...Martine Eugene.... That is the woman that forever will have my heart!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Thank you! I want to give a shoutout to the Flybrarian Sureshot La Rock for all the crazy G-Force flyers he allowed me to use (good looking!) and to the greatest Hiphop Historian of all times, Troy L. Smith, for inspiring me to start searching for The G-Force through his incredible interview with Boo Ski and Keith KC!"
