Interview with DJ Disco Pee & DJ Pernellio (The P-Brothers Disko)
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| DJ Disco Pee & DJ Pernellio (The P-Brothers Disko) |
conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders/Germany)
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where were you born and raised?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"I was born in 1962. I was born in Harlem....at Harlem Hospital on 135th Street & Lenox Avenue. That's where I was born and raised! St. Nick......St. Nicholas Projects!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Disco Pee is the oldest, I'm next in line. I was born in 1963....Harlem Hospital. St.Nicholas Projects! Straight outta St. Nick's! Born and raised!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where exactly in Harlem are the St. Nicholas Projects to be found?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Alright, our neighbourhood....Nicholas Projects.... it runs from between 7th and 8th Avenue.... that's where the Apollo is at...on 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue...but our projects starts two blocks away from Apollo Theater on 127th Street between 7th and 8th (Avenue) and it runs all the way to 131th Street between 7th and 8th (Avenue). You know, that's five blocks and 14 projects in one block."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of music were you exposed to in your home when you were growing up?"
DJ PERNELLIO:" We was exposed to R&B. You know, 70ies R&B. We really wasn't into Rap then, that didn't come out yet. We listened to The Stylistics, The O' Jays....all the popular old school R&B groups. Slave......My family wasn't really into James Brown even though we knew about him. It was a host of all kind of different Black Music, you know?"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how you fell in love with that Bronx breakbeat music. I think you told me once that you attended the same high school as Rahiem (The Funky Four / The Furious Five), Shahiem (The Infinity Four) and DJ Pete La Rock (The P.T. Disco Crew) and became good friends with them. Please elaborate on that!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"When we was growing up, we lived in Manhattan......in Harlem..in St.Nicholas Projects but we went to school up in Truman High School up in the Boogie Down Bronx, up in Co-op City. That's where we met Rahiem, Shahiem and Peter Crawford aka DJ Pete La Rock from P.T. Disco. We also met Aaron & Leo from Co-op City, Section 5. So we had got a lot of exposure to the music up there when we was in Truman from The Valley, Boston Secor, Edenwald, Co-op City and all that. We had a lot of exposure to Afrika Bambaataa. DJ Breakout & The Funky Four....they was up there, playing in The Valley! The Kaos Crew!! A whole lot of people was up in The Valley and we just got hooked to the beats and the breaks and we was in high school up there, man, we told each other, "We gonna do this!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"I wanna give a shoutout to the Bronx but my experience was back in Harlem. I was a nerd, I liked being in the house with my black light, my posters, you know, smoke a joint and listen to music. My brother kept harassing me about going to the Renaissance (Ballroom)...so we went and DJ Donald D from The Sapphire Crew.....the whole crew and all of them was on stage....and he just played those breaks! It was the first time I heard the breaks and the atmosphere was ridiculous!!! I'm just watching him cutting and scratching and the reaction from the crowd..... You know, it just blew my mind! After the party I went home and I said to myself, "Yo, that's what I wanna do right there!" So I definetely wanna give a shoutout to the Sapphire Crew and DJ Donald D (Rest In Peace)!!! From Harlem to the Bronx Disco Pee filled all that in so that's how that worked for me!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"You were especially thrilled with the way DJ Donald D cut up "Funky Man" by Kool & The Gang, right?
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yo, how you know about that??? I'm glad you're asking that question. The first record that DJ Donald-D played that just took me crazy was "Star Wars" (by Dave Matthews). That was the first time that I heard breakbeats, you know? When I heard this beat and he just kept bringing it back and mixing it, it just took me away and then came that "Funkyman" by Kool & The Gang. Ahhhhh, it was crazy!!!!!!! (excited) To not only hear the record but to hear the record coming out their system because they had a system!!! And to hear that I was like, "Wow, man!!!!!" It was ridiculous!!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"When did you run into Rahiem and them at Truman? Was that around 1978?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Right, right."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Well, I'm 58. I think we were like 15, 16 when that started going on."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Yo Norin, you wouldn't believe where we got our first pair of turntables from! Our first pair of turntables that we got when we broke into the scene was SL-210s that we brought from The Untouchables, from my man DJ Mike D and Andre...DJ Andre!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's right!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you get to know Shahiem and Rahiem at Truman?"
DJ PERNELLIO:"I hope my moms don't hear this but there were days that we would cut certain classes and so we would go the back of the school, drinking 40s and they would then gather in a circle. Rahiem, Shahiem from the Infinity Four...all of them would be rhyming, you know? We would just listen and that's how we started to know each other....just by that. You know, we never rocked together at a party or anything or never been to their house or anything but it was through school. The thing about it is that Disco Pee had bought this suitcase. It looked like a suitcase for school but it was really a box. A box with a cassette deck, a radio and a turntable in a suitcase. We started getting breakbeats off of Gun Hill Road, right off the 5 train. Big ups to that little store! I forgot the name of it....."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Word up! Word up!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"With our allowance we would get breakbeats, take'em home. Pause button....get a fresh tape and pause button the breakbeat, you know? Big ups to to the Pause Button King! No one can say there was no DJ that started on pause button tapes! Let's get that straight! From there Disco Pee would have a fresh tape with the beats and we would walk into class and Disco Pee would rock the breakbeats through the radio, through the suitcase. That's how we got rec (recognition), you know? Just being kool. Everybody just came together as friends. But again like I said everybody had their own crew. It was a pleasure to meet the brothers. When we hung out it was all good."
DJ DISCO PEE:"We went to Boston Secor, we went to see P.T. Disco in Boston Secor. They was breakdancing all up in there. We seen DJ Breakout in The Valley ......"
DJ PERNELLIO:"We seen Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five rock Truman High School!!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Oh yeah, they rocked that school! Definetely rocked that school!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"I wanna tell you this, Rad, check this out! We was in Section 1 (Co-op City). DJ Breakout and them was playing in the community center. DJ Baron was with them. The community center was so packed...... I'll never forget this. Baron is a awesome mixer where when I say mix I mean one record into another. DJ Baron was more of a blender and mixer than a scratcher. He had the show at this time, he had the floor. The place...all you saw was everybody was going up and down to T-Connection.... "Do What You Wanna Do" and then all of a sudden this shit changed over and that came with a chill in my body. In the background I heard this record with a lot of squeeshing coming on blending in with "Do What You Wanna Do"....there's a break in there. That record was "Indiscreet" by D.C. La Rue and he had a 12 inch version and this record came on and when he took out the T-Connection and it was just "Indiscreet" playing....this shit blew on my mind, yo!!!!! You saw people going up and down to this beat and I said to my brother,"Yo Parrish, you hear this???? You hear this???" Oh my God, man!!! Big ups to DJ Baron!!!!
SIR NORIN RAD:"You said that you got your first pair of turntables from Mixmaster Andre..."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Yeah, we went to Douglass (Projects) to get the turntables from Andre."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so please describe how you built up your record collection and your soundsystem!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"We had a weekly allowance, so we would go out to Brooklyn and other different places and we spent hours going through rows and rows of records to find breakbeats. You know, you gotta do your homework! You gotta get it in! You can get it just as long as you got a nice system and you're not scared to bring it out.....and you got electricity. Bro, you went for it! That's the only way you earn your respect and get known!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Yeah, 'cause when we started, we made our speakers! We made our speakers by hand! My brother built big ass speakers in school...in shop class!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"We was putting speakers together, man! We wasn't buying no Cerwin Vegas and all that shit they had. We had our own shit, Rad! When we went out, we didn't give a fuck! We took our sytem and our records and we went out there!"
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| The P-Brothers Disko do a block party in the St. Nicholas Projects, Harlem |
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's right! And we had bad MCs so it was just putting it together and stop being shy and let's get it 'cause you couldn't be scared, you know? Big ups to the ECs....the equipment carriers. They would meet you at the house and help you bring your stuff out in the park.....let's get it up and let's get it in!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"That's right 'cause we had about 20 crates of records!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yo, we went to Downstairs Records. Big ups to all the record stores! I remember we paid 15$ a copy for "Apache"!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Yeah....and 15$ for "Catch A Groove......"
DJ PERNELLIO:"On the 12 inch..."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Right, on the 12 inch. Big ups to my man Elroy for sticking out the records for us....."
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's right! That's right!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"'Cause only the VIPs got to know the real records, the breaks that come out."
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's right! Hey, big ups to DJ Darryl Cee from the Crash Crew! We'd hop on the A train and go to Brooklyn and go upstairs in this warehouse where they had tons and tons of records and we'd come home with shopping bags of records!"
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| DJ Darryl Cee (The Crash Crew) - Digging partner of the P-Brothers |
DJ DISCO PEE:"Church Avenue....We took the B Train to Church Avenue. Man, you're talking about digging in the crates......these records were so old and dusty!!!
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah, man! They were breakbeats and you got them at an excellent price like 3.99$ to 5.99$. That's why like I said we came home with shopping bags of records!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Man, Darryl Cee.....together we got some records, boy!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"I must say that to me it's absolutely mind-blowing to hear about what it took back then to get started as a DJ. It wasn't as easy as today where everybody is just downloading their beats from the internet."
DJ DISCO PEE:"That's right! It ain't like going to the internet trying to pull something out. This is searching! This is digging in the crates, man! This is searching!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah man, we did a lot of footwork to get breakbeats!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"I still remember that Drum Drops album you told me about, Pernellio. I think you said something to the effect that it was one of DJ Darryl Cee's secret waepons."
DJ PERNELLIO:"It's called Drum Drops Volume 4 and Darryl Cee had it. That record is dangerous, man! It's dangerous! It's a step off from Sesso Matto. The beat is just ridiculous on that, you know?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"And you know that record is for drum lessons!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of amps did you use in the beginning?" (both start laughing)
DJ PERNELLIO:"You know, we wasn't rich, man. We didn't have people behind us, believing in us. So thank God like Disco Pee said I made speakers in my shop class. Our amps weren't amps. they were receivers."
DJ DISCO PEE:"We took our mother's receivers from out the living room."
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's right! That's how we had to roll! That's how it went. Later on Disco Pee got some money and that's when he got our first turntables from the Untouchables. We would also get a mixer and all that but we never had a spectacular system. I would have loved to have Cerwin Vegas. You know who had a nice system? DJ Master Don & The Death Committee!!! His system was nice and compact: We never had that luxury. You turn that receiver up too loud that whole thing gonna blow!"
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| December 7th, 1979: DJ Pernellio & DJ Disco Pee are rocking at I.S. 201 in Harlem |
SIR NORIN RAD:"From where did you know Mixmaster Andre & The Untouchables?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"We were already friends from their parties. When we did parties in the park they used to come through. We had thrown a birthday party for my brother. My moms had put a birthday party in the park...for my brother and she had done a big ass cake that looked like a record album. So we had a big party and the Treacherous Three showed up and performed, the Crash Crew showed up and performed, Master Don & The Death Commitee showed up and performed. I mean G-Brothers performed, The Super Three performed. I mean we had so many people performing, if I forgot somebody I'm sorry. That was one the meanest jams! We performed at I.S. 201 together. We did many parties in Manhattan, man. We did parties with Afrika Islam and Afrika Bambaataa at the P.A.L....on 123rd Street (in Harlem)."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah, we had a battle with the Jazzy Five and them at the P.A.L. on 123rd Street. It was nice! Every projects in Harlem had their DJ, you know? St. Nick had The P-Brothers, Drew Hamilton had The Sapphire Crew..."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Lincoln had The Crash Crew, Schomburg had The Magnificent Seven, Douglass had The Untouchables."
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's right!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Everybody had their own DJ representing their projects."
DJ PERNELLIO:"If you were a real DJ back then and you had your projects rocking you were already on the map."
DJ DISCO PEE:"That's right! And God bless the president of our projects who passed. He used to have block parties every year and we used to DJ at these block parties and everybody came!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"What was the main stomping ground of the P-Brothers Disko?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"The big park, man. We always rocked the big park on our side. It was the North Side Park. We had two big parks in our projects, man but we always stayed on our side."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Everybody had their park in their projects. So even if we heard that another project was out we would walk and represent for them. You know, The Fearless Four in Grant and Manhattanville...wherever they were DJing we felt safe. But you know at that time you just couldn't go in anybody's project. That was a no no. "
DJ DISCO PEE:"You had to have respect, you know?"
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| October 12th, 1980: DJ Pernellio & DJ Disco Pee perform at The Amsterdam Projects Center along with Mixmaster Andre & The Untouchables and DJ Master Don & The Death Committee | |
SIR NORIN RAD:"Where would you play at during fall and winter."
DJ PERNELLIO:"When we first started the president of our projects would let us use the community center. We had a lot of people come over and party with us but all good things come to an end when it comes down to the financial part of things. But mainly in fall Mike & Dave would invite us to their parties."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Which beats took you some time back then until you were able to catch them?"
DJ DISCO PEE:" You know that Captain Sky record....(sings) Do that right! Do that right! That beat was at the end so it was hard to catch that shit 'cause it ran off on you. Also the short version of "Indiscreet ".
DJ PERNELLIO:"For me it was Mario Van Peebles "Come On Write Me!" I could not get that shit for nothing, man! (laughs) Come on write meeeeeeeee!!!!!! And the "Fruit Song" (by Jeanie Rynolds) that took me a while to get that going."
DJ DISCO PEE:"The "Fruit Song" and "Charleston Hustle"(by The Starlings & The MFM Orchestra)."
DJ PERNELLIO:"The Charleston Hustle!! Big ups to the Charleston Hustle!!"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you have a friendly competition going on between you guys?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"I think my brother was much better than me, man. He knew how to backspin real fucking good, man!!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"I liked the needle dropping."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Yeah, he knew how to do the needle dropping. My hands were too shaky for that shit."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah, I was a needle man like Grandwizard Theodore. I got into needle action after I got tired of backspinning. Grandwizard Theodore is a professor and I'm a student."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How much time did you spend perfecting your skills on the turntables?"
DJ PERNELLIO:"For me it wasn't that much. We was always out in the streets. When we was in the mood to cut and scratch we'll do it. Now my other brother and his little crew, you know, when we're not home....he loved to play with it. My brother Shawnie B! Music was attached to me, you know? I could hear the breakbeat... just as long as I get the record when I'm ready to do the damn thing I do it but other than that I was outside."
DJ DISCO PEE:"I was outside getting too much ass, man."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Word!" (everybody is laughing) My brother was a player, a lady's man, you know?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Yeah, I tried to tell Norin when we did our parties we looked like him. We dressed up, man. We was the flyest motherfuckers in dressing when we did our thing. When we came through they split like the Red Sea for us."
DJ PERNELLIO:"T-Boy was our barber. We got our haircuts right in our house, got dressed. we always came to the party sharp. Ready to go!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"British Walkers, Ballys, Mocknecks, Kangols, Sheepskins..all that."
SIR NORIN RAD:"You said your little brother Shawnie B was also DJing and had a crew. Please elaborate on that!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah, my little brother Shawnie B. His crew was....What was the name of his crew?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Outlaws!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"The Outlaws!"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Ey yo, my brother was the youngest DJ! He was only five years old!! We took him with us to a battle at the Old Terrace Ballroom and he tore up everybody there! We won that battle!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"My mom and my aunt came with us to the party. They had to let him in."
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| June 6th, 1980: DJ Pernellio & The P-Brothers Disko compete in the Battle Of The Project DJs at I.S. 201 in Harlem |
DJ DISCO PEE:"I wanna give a shoutout to my MCees....to Jazzy Gee, Kid Finesse (RIP) and Prince Divine."
SIR NORIN RAD:"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you about. How did you recruit your MC Squad....The Prince Of Time MCees?"
DJ PERNELLIO:"The Prince Of Time Mcees!! That's right! Big ups to you, Norin! Prince Divine lived on the same floor as we did. So once we got to know Prince Divine he would come over to our house and he started MCing for us. He was down by law, no matter what. Jazzy Gee also had family in St. Nick...."
DJ DISCO PEE:"That lived right in our building on the second floor."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Right. So we found out that he rapped and all of that. He came down. Kid Finesse he's from our projects, too.
DJ DISCO PEE:"He lived right the next building."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Yeah. I mentioned that we needed to have another MC. Two was good but three MCees woul be nice. So we got Kid Finesse...God bless him! That was our three MCees! That's how we came about."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe where and how the rehearsals with your MCees would go down."
DJ PERNELLIO:"We practiced a lot in our house, in our room. We did a lot of things there."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Especially, we had a big JVC box. You hold it to the speakers so when they did rap we would tape it and they would remember the routines."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Right.We also practiced down in front of the building, around the back where we smoked our blunts."
SIR NORIN RAD:"Who was in charge of cutting up the beats for the MCs? Did you take turns?"
DJ PERNELLIO:"It depended on our mood because we would do this so much that we knew which breakbeat went with the routine. It really didn't matter.
SIR NORIN RAD:"What were some of the clubs where you performed at?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Harlem World, Celebrity Club, Randy's Place, B&B Disco...."
DJ PERNELLIO:"C&C Disco."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Audubon Ballroom."
DJ PERNELLIO:"We didn't really do nothing in the Bronx. Harlem was our area......"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you have people that had your back while your were jamming in the parks, community centers etc.?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"We had people that supported us. We had a bunch of crews in St. Nick that was down with us. The P-Brothers was taking no shorts from nobody. People knew who we was. Everybody gave us mad respect so we had no problems really."
DJ PERNELLIO:" That's right! People from other projects came to our projects and we would go to their projects. That's how that pretty much worked out. We didn't need no security."
SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you have reacted back then if somebody from outside of your crew had tried to go through your crates in order to find out what beats you had? My crew went through this kind of situation a couple of times. People accused us of violating the rules of true Hiphop since we didn't allow them to touch our stuff and told them to back up. They maintained that in Hiphop you have to share everything with everyone. Talking about each one teach one....." (both DJ Disco Pee and DJ Pernellio burst out laughing)
DJ PERNELLIO:"That's straight bullcrap! Those cats are just trying to get information. They're the ones that are violating. Back then when we had breakbeats we covered them up."
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| The P-Brothers Disko and some of their friends. Top left to right: DJ Pernellio, MC Kid Finesse, MC Prince Divine, CB, Anthony, DJ Disco Pee, Jazzy Gee. Bottom row: Larry Nickins, T-Boy, Derrick |
DJ DISCO PEE:"We'd erase the lables and titles with a black marker."
DJ PERNELLIO:"Or we'd get a knife and scrape the whole thing out. That's for you. If they wanna know, they gotta do the knowledge to find out what's the name of that record. They just can't go through your crate."
SIR NORIN RAD:"In which way did the music at your parties differ from the music that DJ Hollywood (legendary Harlem Disco DJ) would play?"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Well, DJ Hollywood and Eddie Cheeba and them they were a one-man-band. They played a totally different variety of music."
DJ DISCO PEE:"Mostly R&B.....they didn't play breaks and stuff like that. They played for an older crowd."
SIR NORIN RAD:"What do you recall about DJ Youngblood & The Crusaders? I was told they were a very early crew from your side of Harlem. They disbanded in 1978 and Youngblood became a musician along with some of his relatives."
DJ PERNELLIO:"He came outside a couple of times and he was good! Yeah, he was good. I was at his house a couple of times when I didn't even have a system and he would let me cut. And I couldn't even cut. I remember him laughing at me. That's when it all started coming together, you know?"
SIR NORIN RAD:"Please name your top five breakbeats of all time!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"Mmh. Disco Pee?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Oh man, I got "Shack Up" (by Banbarra), "Indiscreet" (by D.C La Rue), "Groove To Get Down"(by T-Connection)......it's just too many, man!!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"My top five would be "Phenomena Theme" (by In Search Of..Orchestra , "Doin' The Do" ("Mandamentos Black by Gersson King Combo), "Well, Have A Nice Day" (by King Erisson), my fourth one would be "I Can't Stop" (by John Davis & The Monster Orchestra). Passport would be my fifth one..."Juju Man".
SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you like to give some shoutouts at the end of this interview?"
DJ DISCO PEE:"Shout outs to my man Prince Divine, Jazzy Gee, Kid Finesse....Rest In Peace!! To my mom! Thank God! To my man Norin Rad, the Silver Surfer! Thank you my brother for this interview!"
DJ PERNELLIO:"I wanna shout out all the equipment carriers. Each DJ from each project! Big ups to Mike & Dave! They played a big role in our career. Big ups to St. Nick!!!"
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| January 31st, 1981: DJ Pernellio & The P-Brothers Disko battle DJ Spivey & Kid Delight + Kool Ski at I.S. 201 in Harlem |
