Interview with B-Boy Kid (The Disco Kids)

                                            Interview with B-Boy Kid (The Disco Kids)

                          

   B-Boy Kid (The Disco Kids)

                             conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)          

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did you live when the The Disko Kids Crew was formed?"

KID:"I was living in 1800 University Avenue on the west side of the Bronx."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Were you also born in the Bronx?"

KID:"Yes, I was born in the Bronx."

SIR NORIN RAD:"When was the TDK formed and who were the founders of this crew?"

KID:"Well, the TDK Crew started in 1977 and lasted up to 1979 and the founders of the crew were me and my cousin."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Your cousin's name is Joey TDK, right?"

KID:"Yeah."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Was Joey also from the west side of the Bronx?"

KID:"Uh no, Joey was on the east side of the Bronx on Belmont Avenue."

SIR NORIN RAD:"From what I have heard so far most of the Puerto Ricans in the Bronx did the Latin Hustle and Rocking before they got into Breaking. Were you also doing the Rock Dance before you started Breaking?"

KID:"Yeah, I was heavily into that. Toprocking......we called it Toprocking. I used to do a lot of that dancing over at the Blinkie's. It was a club on Washigton Avenue at Tremont. And I used to do a lot of Toprocking with my partner. His name was Bobby." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Do you recall which year you started Toprocking?"

KID:"Yeah, the Toprocking came in about 1975." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"To what kind of music would you do the Toprocking? Could you name some of those songs?"

KID:"We danced to songs like "Sex Machine" by James Brown and  "It's Just Begun" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch. Basically we danced to the same type of music like "Apache". "Apache" is like the national anthem of the Bronx, you know?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"How much of an influence was Salsa music and Salsa Dancing on you? Would you say that it impacted the way Puerto Ricans later on approached Toprocking and  Breaking?"

KID:"Yeah, because if you look at the old guys doing Salsa back in the 1950ies and all of that, it was like Toprocking. You know, it wasn't all about dancing with a girl. No, there were times when the guy would dance alone. They would even do moves that a lot of guys do now. They would do them back in the 1950ies."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how the TDK was formed. I have heard that TDK came out of  a crew that was called Salsoul. Is that correct?"

KID:"I don't know. That part there is a little bit tricky because my TDKs..my crew started originally in University Avenue. Which we were called University TDK Disco Squad. That was my crew. And then I brought that name to the east side when I met Boom and all of them. That's when they told me they wanted to make TDK Zodiacs and all that and I said,"Go ahead, man! Do your thing, bro!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you neither you nor your cousin Joey was down with Salsoul before you started TDK in 1977?"

KID:"Nah, we wasn't down with Salsoul."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Thank you for clearing that up. So by the time TDK started in 1977 were you already Breaking? Did you go down on the floor?"

KID:"No, we was still a Disco Crew. We used to dance Disco, the Hustle..all of that. Nobody was doing floorwork yet but we were Toprocking, yeah!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Lil Boy Keith from the Little Zulu Kings stated in the interview that I did with him that him and his comrades used to battle TDK B-Boys a lot during the late 1970ies. He gave your crew props for its toprocking abilities and said you would turn abandoned buildings into clubhouses. What's your take on that?"

KID:"That's correct. All he's saying is correct. A lot of my guys...a lot of the guys that joined TDK battled the younger Zulus. That happened a couple of times. When they (the young TDK members) came over to me I started to figure out how to do Breaking.  I was still Toprocking. They're the ones who showed me how to do floorwork. We started doing our thing in a building that my cousin got. It was an abandoned building and he took it and we smashed the walls down and we put the lights in there and everything. My cousin had a crew that would do construction. We got that building and we started calling it the Dungeon. That's how we got the name and then everybody used to go there. All the high schools...Rosevelt...everybody started going there. It got real crowded after a while. In 1978/79 they tried to shut us down. They cut off the light of the building because so many kids ended up coming to our hooky parties. The principals came to us and they told us, "Look, man! You gotta stop all this!" So they cut us off but that didn't last too long because we had Con Edison guys, too. So the club was still there and everybody was doing their thing. At the end of 78...beginning of 79 somebody took a bad trip and freaked out and burnt the whole building down. Once the building burned down everything fell apart. Everybody broke up. I went to further things. I'm in a bike club now....."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where exactly was the Dungeon located at?"

KID:" Belmont Avenue & 174th Street."

SIR NORIN RAD:"The Dungeon had a booth that was shaped like a coconut..."

KID:"Yeah. Yeah. The same booth that they had in the movie "Thank God It's Friday". It looked pretty good." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would people know about your parties? Was it a word of mouth kind of thing?"

KID:"Flyers...we used to throw out flyers and index cards."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, and who were the DJs that used to play in the Dungeon?"

KID:"Our DJ's name was Jimmy. And then we had another DJ that used to come in once in a while..DJ Traquetero. That guy was related to Big Boom and Lil Boom. Traquetero..It's a Spanish word for someone who tinkers with stuff. "  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Rockwell Association was from that area, too. When I spoke to Willie Wil he said that they would have a lot of battles against TDK and he also said that your crew was notorious for starting fights after the battles were over. What's your take on that?"

KID:"(laughs)......Most of my guys didn't want to start fights all the time. Some guys got out of hand once in a while but I used to get on their case and I used to tell them, "Listen, we're all going today but we're not starting nothing!!! Don't start nothing!!" But sometimes some guy might say something that was just too much and then the other guy can't take it..you know, stuff like that! You know, it happens.  'Cause I know Tito (Rockwell Assocation)...he was like that....and I know his brother Macho (Rockwell Association). I knew'em both personally. We used to go to St. Martin's (Catholic church where the Rockwell Association used to throw parties at) a lot and we used to go there because we had a real grudge against each other! (laughs) You know, we really did!! We used to go down on that floor like it was warfare!! But basically most of the time we came out of there without fighting, you know?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did those battles between TDK and Rockwell Association take place?"

KID:"Around 1978/79."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I read that in November 1978 TDK battled Starchild La Rock in the Dungeon. Starchild La Rock got support from Spy and Jojo from the Crazy Commanders and is said to have won that battle. What do you remember about that event?"

KID:"Yeah, they did win. But we gave them a real fight. Starchild La Rock......Spy..all of them. You gotta understand Spy was a top dancer, man!!! He was good, he was really good! It was real tensed minute there, you know? The crowd went wild. Everybody was doing things. I would do my special move that they knew me for...the chest dive where I would throw myself up in the air about 6 feet high and then land on my chest and roll out. After that battle we all became real friends."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who were the best B-Boys of TDK back then?"

KID:"Let me see.. that's a long time ago. Wizard Wiz.....He was not as good as Spy but Wizard Wiz was good, too. He had a lot of good moves. He became a MC later I believe."

 B-Boy Wizard Wiz (The Disco Kids)

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Yes, he rocked with the Undefeated 3 MCees." 

KID:"The Undefeated 3. Yeah, I know those guys. They still talk to me. We hang out. But Wizard Wiz after he became an MC he cooled down on the B-Boy stuff. Then we also had Eddie. Eddie was Boom's cousin and unfortunately he passed away. I think he was inside one of the buildings and he fell out  a broken glass window and he died. But Eddie was my main man!! How do I explain Eddie? A mindful guy.  The way he used to do his moves was swift and smooth.Big Boom was pretty good, too. There was also his brother Lil Boom and Tron. Tron was another one of Boom's cousins."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What about Mongo Rock though?"

KID:"Mongo Rock!!! I'm glad that you mention him. I'm 65 and now I don't remember too well. He was the best, man!!! He was one of my TDKs and he had some wild, wild moves! I'd say he was the best out of all my guys. His brother Jesus was also a very good dancer that was down with TDK. He did a lot of headspins." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did Mongo Rock join TDK?"

KID:"I'd say in 1978."

Mongo Rock (TDK)

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, and who taught your crew Breaking? I'm asking 'cause you said that you were a Disco Crew first that did the Hustle and Toprocking."

KID:"Well, most of the Breaking Mongo and these guys brought to our crew. But when they came to our crew most of our members already knew how to breakdance. The only guy that didn't know how to breakdance was me. When Mongo and them hung around in the Dungeon they taught me a little bit, you know? That's how I learnt and then everyday it was practice, practice, pratice."    

SIR NORIN RAD:"Let's talk about your cousin Joey for a minute, please. What excatly was his role within TDK?"

KID:"His job then was to run the security of the whole club.  It was his spot, his building. He was the one who decided who comes, who goes, you know? That's what Joey used to do." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of relationship did TDK have with The Bronx Boys?"

KID:"TBB? They were good friends. Batch (legendary B-Boy of The Bronx Boys) ....I know Batch, his sisters. I never had a problem with those guys. Batch's younger brother Green Eyed Aby even lived in the Dungeon for a while. We had a couple apartments there. If somebody came to our club and he needed a place to stay he could stay in those rooms."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you keep the Dungeon warm during winter?"

KID:" Lot of people had heaters but the main source of heat there was our funky stove. (chuckles). It would heat up the place like that."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe the relationship between Blacks and Puerto Ricans in the Bronx during the 1970ies. Which changes did you witness? DJ Disco Wiz who was Grandmaster Caz's first DJ partner and who was half Puerto Rican and half Cuban stated in his book that in the beginning there were certain tensions between these groups and that it was kinda hard for him at first because both Blacks and Puerto Ricans oftentimes objected to him being down with Hiphop."

KID:"Well, in the 1970ies there was a lot of gangs involved.  Puerto Rican Gangs, Black Gangs, White Gangs. There was a place in the Bronx called Little Italy. You walked through there and you got beat down. It was all white people and they didn't wanna hear it. As for the black guys..me personally I never had no problems with Black people. Back then there were guys that were prejudiced..on both sides. But then when the crews formed that was it. Everybody was good. Dancing unified us....."

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

KID:"Yeah, I would like to give a shout out to my son.  I would also like to give a shout out to Mongo Rock and to all of my TDKs. If I forgot your name that's probably because I'm getting old. (chuckles)"