Interview with MC Hutchy Bee (The Mac Dynasty Crew)

                                Interview with MC Hutchy Bee (The Mac Dynasty Crew)

                                                            

 MC Hutchy Bee (The Mac Dynasty Crew)

                                          conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where exactly were you born and raised at?"

HUTCHY BEE:"I was born in Manhattan but we moved to the Bronx maybe a year later but from there it was nothing but the Bronx after that."

SIR NORIN RAD:"You're from Bronx River, right?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Yeah, I'm from Bronx River. I came there when I was about five years old and I stayed there till like I was 19 or 20 or something like that."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Which year were you born?"

HUTCHY BEE:"I was born in 1962."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Bronx River is obviously one of the most important places in the history of Hiphop......"

HUTCHY BEE:"That's a fact!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what are your earliest memories of DJs playing breakbeats in Bronx River and people partying over there? I guess you must have witnessed all the different phases from the Zulu Kings and Shaka Zulus breaking during the mid 1970ies to the Soul Sonic Force rocking the mic after that." 

HUTCHY BEE:"Oh man, first of all.....all those are my brothers! We all lived in Bronx River together! You know, Squirpy (B-Boy Shaka from the Zulu Masters) is my bro bro even to this day.  We all didn't hang out together like that but we all came from the same place. We grew up together. My recollections? Come on, man, you know I go farther than that. Before this Zulu thing I was in the 2nd Division of the Baby Spades. I joined them when I was in 4th or 5th grade. It began with that in public school of PS 102. That's actually where a lot of us came from. The gang thing....it was about going against other gangs.....we started out at a young age. From there after that they became The Organization but when they became The Organization I wasn't part of The Organization, you know? Because I chose not to be. So I was basically doing my own thing. When Zulu came I didn't join them neither. Zulu was almost like the Black Spades was, so it was like if you lived in Bronx River even if you wasn't a Spade or you wasn't a Zulu, people damn near they still gonna treat you like you was a Spade or a Zulu because you lived there. So you were looked at as that regardless. So even if you wasn't part of it,  you was part of it and that's basically what happened with us....The Mac Dynasty Crew because some of us were Zulus but the majority of us wasn't. When it came to our crew we didn't really wanna be part of anything else. We wanted to be part of us, you know?! So we loved music, my whole crew. We all were people that loved music, all of my crew. We did sports together, we did everything together! All the people in my crew were basically guys that I grew up with. So like when the music came, you know what I mean, with Bambaataa and them and they started to have parties and all of that, this was something that we loved anyway so next thing you know our crew got together. The majority of the crew was from Bronx River and Parkchester. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please elaborate on your first recollecions of jams taking place in Bronx River!"

HUTCHY BEE:" Ok, first of all I come from 1420. That's the first building when you come from across the bridge (the 174th street bridge) and my recollection..you see, the thing with me with music was that my music came from my older brother 'cause my older brother Onnie used to always buy music. All the time! He wasn't a DJ but he was a music fanatic. So like a lot of those breakbeats that we had like "Dance To The Drummer's Beat" and all of these other beats...my brother had these records. So I just loved music, I had no choice. Like with me,  Stevie Steve and Jay La Rock...those were my friends since I was seven years old and we always loved music. So we used to do the thing with the tapes (pause button tapes) and that was way before Mr. Magic. So the first time I heard Hiphop being played was being behind the center (Bronx River Center). I mean I used to hear Bam play his music out the window before but my first recollection of a jam was behind the center. I don't know exactly when it was but I remember going behind the center and it was really like amazing. I was like, "These guys is up here playing music and shit like that. What is going on here??" People dancing, having fun.....it was just a great experience!! It wasn't like we knew what this thing would become later on. To us it was like a get-together. People were doing The Hustle 'cause those were more or less the Hustle days to be honest with you. It just started to turn into Hiphop, you know? I remember seeing Mr. Biggs on the mic. I looked up to Mr. Biggs a lot, you know what I mean? So as I said I was going behind the center...I think it was me Stevie Steve and Jay La Rock and we were watching Bambaataa on the stage playing music and stuff like that. It was amazing to see all these people together, you know what I'm saying? And then they kept doing it...the jams...and the more they did it.. the more people would come out ...people we didn't even know!!! At the first party you would mainly see people from our projects (Bronx River) but now you would see people from Bronxdale, from Monroe, you would see people from damn near all over the place!! You would see them do the Hustle...you know, you would hear a gradual change of the music until when the beats came in and then you'd start to see people breakdancing. So I got to see the whole entire thing! We would go to DJ Mario's parties as well and that was a great experience as well for us, you know? 'Cause normally we didn't go to Bronxdale that much 'cause Bronx River was Bronx River and Bronxdale was Bronxdale...you know, all of these projects stayed in their own lane. I mean we kinda socialized with each other, we didn't have like a lot of beef but everybody more or less stayed to themselves but when the music thing came I really believe it made us come together, though it probably started even before that with the gang thing and all of that. We all kinda got together there, you know? Transitioning from the gangs to the music thing. So that's basically how that happenend with that."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Let's talk about the B-Boys of the Zulu Kings for a minute. I suppose you witnessed them all from Zambu, Shaka, Cholly Rock to the younger ones like Beaver?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Of course, of course!! That was a nice experience watching them. I mean that's my projects!! We got to see the whole evolution of Hiphop. Those are guys.....I got stories for everybody. Like I said we grew up together. They was from one side of the projects and we was from the other side even though it's one projects.  Squirpy (Shaka), Artie J (Aziz), Zambu, Beaver...all them guys. I was watching them like, "That shit is really kool!" Watching them getting it in was amazing!!! Watching them in the big park, watching them like at parties ...it was a beautiful thing! So when that happened it was also a great experience to me because I saw people doing it that I grew up with. We gravitated to that, we felt that we were part of something special that was happening in the projects. I never got into Breaking though."    

SIR NORIN RAD:"Whom do you recall on the mic at those early Zulu Nations jams besides Mr. Biggs?" 

HUTCHY BEE:"You have to understand that during those times it wasn't about the MCees. It was more about the DJ, abouth the music that he was playing, about the beats, you know what I mean? It wasn't about what they was saying or what kind of rhymes they had 'cause you really didn't pay too much attention to  what they was saying. It was a music thing. When they was out there I didn't know who was out there. I just knew there was voices coming out and there was music. I didn't recognize anybody besides Mr. Biggs and I know Cholly Rock was doing his thing but I can't tell you who else was on the mic saying, "Yes, yes y'all!" and all these other things. I think it was pretty knew to them as well. I think as parties probably went on they started to get their rhyming thing together. The only thing that we were really concerned with at that point was the crowd of the people and the music itself, you know what I'm saying? That was more of an amazing thing to me!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what do you remember about the Soul Sonic Force? Were they an important influence on you?"

HUTCHY BEE:"You gotta remember I'm from the beginning....when it all started. So I got to see the whole Soul Sonice Force. I got to see them when it was just Mr. Biggs, Cholly Rock and them. I guess the Soul Sonic Force came when....I'm thinking about the original members.....I think they started out without Pow Wow. Let me make sure I got my stuff together. I remember when Pow Wow came 'cause I think he came with Hutch Hutch. I might be wrong but I know I ain't wrong 'cause Pow Wow came with Hutch when they started adding MCees to the Soul Sonic Force. I remember when Master Bee got down with them and then I remember when they added Lisa Lee. She used to live where I live I now...over there on Lafayette. When they came along we (The Mac Dynasty Crew) were already playing. They kept extending stuff, they kept extending their number of MCees. MC G.L.O.B.E. It was a lot of them, you know what I mean? I didn't think anything of that at that time 'cause at that time we were already playing music. We wasn't into their music, we was into our own music at that time. I remember when they got Hutch Hutch 'cause I already was Hutchy Bee. So I was wondering, "Why the hell is this dude taking my name?" (laughs) I mean, it was great to watch them play because at the end of the day we watched this thing progress. So we went from watching one MC to watching ten MCees. The more the merrier...it was Bronx River as far as I'm concerned. I loved watching them rock. When it got to ten Soul Sonic Force MCees Hiphop had become mainly focussed on the MCees. In the beginning though it wasn't about that. It was about the beats, the breaks....the B-Boys, it was about the party. It wasn't about the MC, it really was about the DJ. It wasn't till years later...to me..that the MCees took form in Hiphop. So we all was together but at the same time we all had our own cliques." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Judging from the Mac Dynasty Crew flyers that Sureshot La Rock gave me it seems that you were already doing it in May 1979 which is really early. Please describe how your crew was formed."

HUTCHY BEE:"What made us pick up music was just that we liked music and what made us different was that we didn't wanna be like everybody else, you know what I'm saying?  We loved the music, we're from Bronx River but we was never like one of them Bronx River type of guys. We had our own little crew. We didn't follow behind nobody. I'm not saying that they was followers but we definitely wasn't followers. How I wind up picking up a microphone is because of Mr. Magical who was our best MC. He was the best of all our MCees. Lucky Dee was great as well. We was very, very tight. Mr. Magical wanted me to be a part of a routine and so we started rehearsing that routine and from that routine I became a MC."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was Mr. Magical from?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Mr. Magical and Lucky Dee was from Freeman Street....Southern Boulevard. We picked them up because we was getting a crew together and we was trying to be serious about this. We met them in James Monroe High School. That brung them to us. That's where I met Lucky Dee and Mr. Magical. We was inseparable from that day. They was already, I guess, rapping. Not with nobody but evidently they was doing  their "One, two.." thing. So we all got introduced in James Monroe." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So who were the original  members of the MC section of your crew? Was it you, Lucky Dee, Missy Miss and Mr. Magical?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Okay, this is how it started out...I didn't start out as an original MC (of the Mac Dynasty Crew). We didn't have any MCees at first. At the first parties that we gave which had MCees involved it was those three at first..it was Mr. Magical, Lucky Dee and Missy Miss. That's when we had our first real party. Our first real party happened to be where they lived at.....at Southern Boulevard, right there on Freeman Street. That was the day when all hell broke loose and we almost got killed. They found out that the Zulu Nation was playing in their neighbourhood. We had nothing to do with whatever happened with those incidents. That happened over there. Most of us weren't even Zulus at the time. Like 85 percent of us weren't Zulus at the time. I think the only Zulus that we had at that time was DJ Starchild. So in the beginning it was those three MCees. After that it grew, it was almost like the Soul Sonic Force 'cause we started adding people. They weren't mainstays but we added a couple of people and then it came to where it was the four MCees. We had Kool Dee and Gee Cee...I think that was it as far as the MCees are concerned. That's when we went to Twin Parks where our base would be at. Our major party thing would be on 183rd & Garden Street which is Twin Parks. The other Twin Parks because it's two different Twin Parks. That's where Mac Dynasty really became Mac Dynasty when we played there 'cause that was home for us. Even though we was from Bronx River but like every week we would play there." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please explain the task of each DJ in your crew. Who was in charge of what?"

HUTCHY BEE:"You see it's like you got a team.....everybody plays his part but nobody has a particular role. You know, it was something that we was learning on the road. As for knowing those beats it was DJ Stevie Steve 'cause Steve knew all the beats! Even till today..if you put a beat on, he'll know that beat. I'm almost like the same way but I'm not a DJ, you know what I'm saying but that was from the love of the game and being with him. So as for the music and the records and all that, it was Stevie Steve who did that. We had other DJs, too. There was DJ Starchild. Then there was DJ Lightning who also was known as DJ Starchild before but we had to change his name 'cause we had two Starchilds. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so who would cut up the beats when it was time for the MCees to get on the mic?"

HUTCHY BEE:"When we got on the mic, right? It didn't matter who it was 'cause everybody got to play. We had multiple DJs. So DJ Mr. Mac might get on for a session, DJ Stevie Steve would get on for a session....as I said we had multiple DJs. I don't wanna sit there and tell you who was the main person because everybody got on. When the party rocked though...to be honest with you...it was Wayne...it was DJ Lightning but all of our DJs played, you know what I mean? Who was the best? I mean, this guy was just as good as Jazzy Jay and anybody else that was out there. I put him up there with the best of 'em. See, I'm telling you this but I don't know how this is gonna come out with my crew because they're not gonna appreciate this too much but I gotta be honest. When we rocked it was DJ Lightning and he was nice!!! When he joined us that's more or less when we really took off. I mean, we took off 'cause we played music. When it came down battles, when we played (against) Kool DJ AJ and Busy Bee Starksi...we battled them and we battled Afrika Isaac & The Crazy 8, we battled The L-Brothers Part 2 and stuff like that....I don't think DJ Lightning was actually at the L-Brothers party but as we started to really get into the game, he more or less was the one that we looked forward to if we really needed somebody to put it on somebody when it came to the turntables. When we got respected...when we played against Crazy 8 and all of these crews we had to get the come up and it was the battle of the next crew up. So basically we had to put our best foot forward and I think that's when DJ Lightning started to shine."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please break down where the name of your crew came from. It had something to do with your DJ Mr. Mac, right?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Alright.....Mac Dynasty...okay. Mac Dynasty is spelled M-A-C which stood for Brian Mac Leod. The equipment was his family's equipment. The system we had was ridiculous! I put our system in the top 5. Period! Like you know, the Sasquatch shit (the soundsytem of the Brothers Disco) was rocking, Bambaataa's shit was rocking. Herc of course...his joints was rocking...I'd never seen nobody do it like Herc did it that day in the P.A.L. He did what he did with those. As for Mr. Mac..his uncle had a crazy system and so we had to use his uncle's equipment to be able to play. So it was equivalent to you wanna play basketball, right? And you don't have a basketball and the guy in the building that don't know how to play he got the ball....so you gotta let him play 'cause if he don't play you're not gonna be able to play. That's basically what happened with him 'cause he sucked. (both are laughing) It got to a point where he was making our crew look bad. So we put it upon ourselves to change our name to M-C instead of M-A-C." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So was he ejected from your crew?"

HUTCHY BEE:"No, he never got ejected from the crew. No! He was there. He was part of our crew. Even when we named it Mc Dynasty instead of Mac Dynasty he was still there. It was like you had to deal with it 'cause he had the basketball. There was little frictions inside the crew but nobody would know about these things 'cause we kept in house. We had a lot of things going on within our crew, especially with that right there. You know, he would kinda make us look bad so we would let him have his little time on there and then we would get on and do our thing. But I mean we was Mac Dynasty Crew so....."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What made you pick that jamming spot on 183rd & Garden Street..Twin Parks?"

HUTCHY BEE:"See, I don't know. I don't know how that came about. It was right after that party where we almost got killed by those guys, right? Over that Zulu beef that had nothing to do with us but they thought it was us that jumped somebody and then there was these grown ass mafia type Spanish guys that came with like ten black cars. They put a gun in my mouth and they stabbed DJ LDC in the back. Yeah, it was bad but after that party..the next week after that we wind up in Twin Parks. I don't know how we wind up in Twin Parks. I just know we went there for the first time, we started playing in the basement and then next thing I know that shit became our fucking home, bro. Like every fucking week we was there.  Unless we were playing somewhere else but like when we came home that was our home base. So I actually don't know how that came about. But that's how we got the other two MCees which was Kool Dee and Gee Cee. Gee Cee was from there and Kool Dee was also from Twin Parks. So they're cousins. That was their turf, their real home. Next thing you know we became friends."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of a location was that though? A basement or a park?"

HUTCHY BEE:"It was a basement but then it was also a park as well because remember in the winter time we gotta be inside. So they had like a community center and they used to charge  at the door. 'Cause at first we wasn't getting that money, they was getting that money.And then next thing you know after we started working the shit out we had part of that door money as well.We was getting robbed by Mr. Mac. None of us probably saw that original Twin parks money until later in the game but that’s a whole nother chapter. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"So it was like two spots in one location?"

HUTCHY BEE:"See this is what would happen....when you would go down it was a basement, right? A fucking huge ass basement! I guess it was like a community room in the basement. But when we would play..like when it got hot outside we used to play in the basketball court. So there would be like a spot there in middle of Twin Parks where we would play at. Right near the first building across the street from Bronx Zoo. Not Lambert but farther up. So we would play inside and outside." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"I remember that you once told me about the crazy look that your crew's soundsystem had back then....."

HUTCHY BEE:"Yeah, those were our ass kickers!  That distinguished us from a lot of other crews. I don't know if you remember the colours of the bus of the Partridge Family. The speakers were like the colours of the bus. They was like all different colours! Them shits was ugly as fuck but the system was ridiculous! I think the tweeter box was like 36 tweeters, then there was the midranges..... We used to use speakers for ropes. We didn't need no ropes because the speakers was blocking it, you know what I mean? We had so many! There were times when Bambaataa used to ask us if he could use our speakers and we would let him borrow it. That's when he used to go out to Yonkers and all of that shit. We were known for the crazy ass speakers. Yes! We had the Mac Dynasty speakers..we used to call them the Partridges but only because of their colours. It was crazy but as I said the system was ridiculous."

                                                      

 The bus of the Partridge Family (US TV Series)

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so how strong was your soundsystem? Like 5000 Watt?" 

HUTCHY BEE:"I can't tell you that but whatever it was,  it was top notch! That's why like I told you we could rock against anybody and we did. I remember there was one party that we was giving in Bronx River. I think it was the flyer you showed me actually. It might have been that party. And Flash and Bam....they was there that day. They was near the speakers and they was also talking to the owner of the speakers which was DJ Mr. Mac's uncle. I forgot his name but they was talking to him 'cause they're all from the islands (from the Caribean). You know, most of this soundsystem stuff came from Jamaica and all these other places...you know that, right? Those guys got West Indian background....you know, Flash and Bam and so was the guy who owned our speakers. When they got together, they was chopping it up 'cause they really knew about that music and they noticed that our shit was banging. Bam and Flash were like,"Damn!" That's when Bam asked us whether he could borrow our speakers....you know, some of them to go with his. I can't tell you what the wattage of our system was but it was just loud. If we needed to turn it up on somebody, you wouldn't be able to hear nobody else. Actually that's how we wind up getting into the fight with the Crazy 8 Crew that night 'cause we turned it up on them a little too loud. (chuckles)"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was your crew's relationship with the Brick House Crew? From what I have heard this crew came from the same area as Mac Dynasty and was also already performing on the regular by 1979. Did you ever battle them?"

HUTCHY BEE:"No, we never got to battle them punk asses. (laughs) But you know, the beautiful thing about that is the way we grew up, right? We all knew each other like we was friends. We was friends but at the same time we wasn't friends, you know? We grew up together. What we used to do is we used to play sports against each other when were younger. Most of us. We'd play baseball against them, we'd play basketball against them and we'd play football. Then when Hiphop came we all played music 'cause we all fell in love with this shit. You gotta remember we all went to James Monroe High School together. So I knew Tony Rome and Moe Ski (MCees of the Brick House Crew), I knew all of them. All of us was in the same school. I might be wrong, but I think Brick House was out before us. They started to get their little crew together and then we started to get our crew together but it was all around the same time (late 1970ies). We all were younger crews compared to Bam and them 'cause Bam and Mario was doing what they was doing before us. We were the younger crews starting to get up. So that was like the beginning of the second generation but it wasn't even really the second generation 'cause we were still pretty much part of the first generation 'cause w got to play against a lot of these people. So that was our association..growin' up as kids and getting crews together. We wanted to battle each other but it never happened. We wanted to battle them so bad but it just never happened. Just like with Beaver (legendary B-Boy of the Little Zulu Kings) an his brother Poo Poo (also a B-Boy of the Little Zulu Kings) they had a crew as well that used to DJ and MC....."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please explain the importance of having a soundsystem back then in the era of Original Hiphop. A lot of the younger cats today especially out here in Europe obviously don't know anything about that."

HUTCHY BEE:"Ok.....well it's kinda self explanatory (laughs). I mean it was about the boomin  system 'cause when the system got there now you got the music playing, now you're playing for a lot of people. You gotta have a real nice system to be able to reach out. Not to just play in a small area but you had to be able to expand the sound. Herc and them made the soundsystem important. Now you started to see crews battling each other and they would come out with their systems. Shit is loud because like sometimes you would try to drown out the other crew and so you wouldn't hear the other crew because your shit was louder than theirs. You would turn up the shit another notch. That's where that came from..turning it up another notch!!! So it was important that you had a great system because people would do shit like that. Like they would turn it up. But you couldn't turn your system up on us, you know what I'm saying? We did the turning up 'cause our system was ridiculous. Like I said I put it up there with the top five sytems. Our system was up there! You know, without borrowing stuff, getting other people's stuff and adding on from other people's stuff...But yeah, that was very important at that time. It was very important!!! The music and the system was what brung the people. So next thing you know you got mad people coming to your party and so you need a bigger place and you need a really big system. You wanna hear that shit down the block. You wanna hear people go like, "Oh shit, they're jamming!!!" Like you would hear Mario's system from ten blocks away. That's how we went to the jams!! You didn't have to know where it was, you just had to hear it and follow it. It was a beautiful thing and I got to see that!!! (excited) I was influenced more by Mario than by Bam 'cause when Mario played in that park shit was different, you know what I'm saying? And then when we got to do it in our own backyard it got even better. Like I said I was always one of the people that would go to all the parties. I wouldn't just go to one because a lot of people were afraid to go to other places 'cause these parties took place when shit was still territorial and you couldn't just go to other people's projects or would get your fucking system stolen. You got robbed for a lot of things...for your sheepskin, your British Walkers.....all types of shit. But yeah, the soundsystem was everything."

  DJ Stevie Steve (The Mac Dynasty Crew)

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who moved your records and your equipment to the jams? Would you have kids that helped you with that?"

HUTCHY BEE:"No, no we brung our own shit. You know, 'cause you gotta remember we was deep. We had stuff in different places. So the equipment came from DJ Mr. Mac's uncle's house. The majority of our records probably came from Stevie Steve. But there've been times where I stole records from my brother (laughs). You know what I mean? He might got one but we needed to get another one. Imagine! Then they started going downtown to Downstairs Records and that's when they started to really get into this whole digging thing. I think it was more or less DJ Stevie Steve who got us in tune with the beats."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did your crew wear shirts with their names on them?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Yeah, hell yeah!! But that's not what we became specifically known for. We started with the MBC shirts, right? We had multiple colour shirts. Everybody had different ones. But that's not what we were known for. We was known for French Stars. French Stars was everything, you know what I'm saying?! You'd get the little script with the name of your crew.  If you was a Zulu, you had a French Star.  We had "Mac Dynasty" on the right side and we had "Zulu Nation" on the left side. But that's a Bronx River thing. Well, not just Bronx River 'cause Bronxdale did it, too. They had French Stars as well. Their girls, too. Miss Khayan and them... It's like a windbreaker. It was a windbreaker, straight up! It was a windbreaker but it was like a different kind of windbreaker. They came in like four different colours. They came in like red, blue, black, white, gold..... I think those were the colours. They started out with that and then we carried it on but we wore white French Stars. See, we all wore white and blue with blue trimming. And then the name would be in the back like HUTCHY BEE would be on the back of it, in the middle of the back. It was almost like gang colours. You know like we had colours in the Baby Spades and Spades. We took that and kinda stepped it up. But we all wore French Stars. Like all Bronx River and Bronxdale. It was a kind of a style but then it became part of the culture." 

T-Connection-April 18th, 1980: The Mc Dynasty Zulus are being shouted out on a DJ Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force MCs flyer 

   

SIR NORIN RAD:"Nowadays most people are unaware of what it took back then to deliver an intriguing live show that had the crowd go crazy. Please describe how much effort went into the preparation of your shows."

HUTCHY BEE:"I mean that's also kinda self explanatory. You know,  you gotta be on the same page especially when you have other MCees in your crew 'cause at one point we started doing routines. So like I said we grew up under real MCees even though cats like Grandmaster Caz aren't that much older than me.....but when you saw how they did that (MCing) that showed you the importance of doing rehearsals in order to put a real show together. My thing was like DJ Breakout, DJ Baron and The Funky Four....to me when they got together and when I went to the T-Connection and I seen them for the first time and watching Keith Keith and Sha Rock and KK Rockwell and Rahiem that's when I knew that's what I  wanted to do because the shit was different!!  It wasn't like what I seen where I lived at, you know what I'm saying??? Because we didn't have routines like that. Bam and them didn't have routines like that. Nobody had routines like that. Not the way they did.When they did their routines I just fell in love with that. That's what really made me wanna be a part of that. Being part of the Bronx River thing was beautiful 'cause we knew we was part of something big because people from all over was coming to our projecs to be part of what we was doing. But when I expanded that and went to other people's places...like I said I woul go to The T-Connection, I would go to The Valley, I would go to The Nine where the Nine Crew was at.......and when I finally got to see that just changed my whole fucking outlook. To me they changed the whole fucking game. Before them people wasn't giving shows..people would just get on the mic and freestyle...it wasn't like a crew thing. Somebody may say something different but as for routines when you would see them get up and perform...THEY GAVE A SHOW!!!! There's a difference between getting up there like fucking Wu-Tang...you know, just having a thousand ni***s up there.... and somebody actually giving you a show that you really wanna pay money for. They were the first people that I actually seen do that. As of real rehearsed shit and harmonizing and voices and blending in and fucking sound and equipment they're the ones I look up to to this day! Shit sounded professional!  That's why to this day Sha Rock is still my favourite MC. To this day! Period! Watching them guys do that together..the way they did it....that's to me what Hiphop brung to the next step. Somebody else might tell you something different but that's my story and I have been to all of these people's parties where most of these people were too scared to go anywhere.The Funky Four were on a whole different level as far as I'm concerned. So when we did our stuff we knew we had to practice 'cause if you know that you'll be going against all of these people you know that you have to come correct 'cause now we're not just playing music for ourselves. So we went like from watching these people and idolizing these people and loving this game to playing in the game where we actually played against our heroes. So now it ain't about just saying a couple of rhymes and then get off the mic and get some Old English and shit, now people are paying too see us, you know what I'm saying? They paid to see us then but now we're about to play in Bronx River. Now we're being noticed now. Now we got people noticing who the fuck we are like, "Those are those cats over there! They be playing like every week!" 'Cause we wasn't no flash in the pan. We did our thing! If you wasn't playing like every week or every two weeks or you had at least ten, fifteen jams you wasn't really doing shit back then. Most of the people didn't have that. I'm talking about actual parties with asskickers....with speakers going all the way around where you gotta rope that shit off, you know? Like that type of shit."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was it like for you when the Mac Dynasty Crew was invited to the Ecstasy Garage? You were even listed in the category of the most promising groups...."

HUTCHY BEE:"With the Mac Dynasty crew, right? I don't think none of us ever really saw ourselves as, you know, like pioneers. We were just doing what we do, you know what I'm saying? And it took me like years later on to really understand what we was doing 'cause we really was part of that foundation.  I remember the day when I got that flyer 'cause I was in Twin Parks....I was on the side of Twin Parks and somebody passed it to me and they was like,"Yo, look! Y'all made it!!" And I was like, "Made it? Fuck you mean we made it?" "Look!" They was showing it to me and I was like, "Oh shit! We're on the flyer!"  and, "Look who we on the flyer with!"  We were supposed to go against DJ Rockin Rob & The Mean Machine and against (DJ Afrika) Islam & The Funk Machine. We felt we deserved to be on there. We wasn't like, "Wow!" but like, "Yo, we made it. They're acknowledging us!" It took to like now for me to understand the magnitude of what we did back then, you know?"

March 1st, 1980: The Mac Dynasty Crew performs at the Ecstasy Garage

 

The Mac Dynasty Crew listed in the legendary Ecstasy Garage's category of the "Most Promising Groups"

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Let's talk about that infamous battle between the Mac Dynasty Crew and DJ Afrika Isaac & The Crazy 8 which took place at the Bronx River Center. I remember that you once told me that this battle was about determing who was the next big DJ/MC Crew from that part of the BX......"

HUTCHY BEE:"Right."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So please walk me trough that night. Ikey Cee told me he was down with the Crazy 8 then and battled you."

HUTCHY BEE:"Yeah, he was there....Well, I can't really walk you through that because it's kinda confusing to me! I just know it was their side and we're from this side of Bronx River. And like Cosmic (Force), Jazzy (Five) and Monroe and Bronxdale and Sack Wern and all them little project buildings..they all to me was like one. So when they got together that night I don't know if it was Cosmic Force or Jazzy Five 'cause they was all there.  Ice Ice and Ikey Cee was on....man you couldn't find one without the other.  But I don't know who was rocking with them that night 'cause to be honest with you I wasn't even paying them ni**ers no mind. They was on their side and we was on our side."

SIR NORIN RAD:"But then all of a sudden all hell broke loose.......Cats started brawling. What happened? Kusa didn't want to comment on that when I asked him even though he said he remembered that battle."

HUTCHY BEE:"He didn't wanna comment on it???? (laughs) Well, I think what happened was they got mad at us for turning the music up and I think it was on that record, on "Catch A Groove". They didn't like that shit because like first of all  we already had a chip on our shoulder. We were doing our thing without help from others. See,  Mac Dynasty is Mac Dynasty. We was never the type of kids that were followers. We ain't Mac Dynasty Zulus, we're Mac Dynasty Crew and we are Zulus, too. But it ain't Zulu first it's Mac Dynasty. We asked nobody for nothing, we did our own thing. We just did what we did and it worked. To where now we got people from Bronx River hanging out with us. Now everybody started to realize that we were doing our thing. The Mac Dynasty house became the Zulu house.  Shit, I mean everybody be in there. Motherfucking Smitty be in there, Bambaataa may stop by and shit. Not many times but he would come as well. So we was like the new wave. The Crazy 8 were also part of that new movement. I guess Bam wanted them to be the ones who had the keys. That's why a lot of Bam's MCees helped Crazy 8 that night. They were the crew that was supposed to take Bam's place and I guess we were supposed to be the sacrificial lamb but it didn't happen that way." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did that battle take place at?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Inside of Bronx River (center)."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So how did things escalate?" 

HUTCHY BEE:"(laughs) Flip knocked our speaker over. I guess they got tired of our bullshit and so they came over and they knocked one of our fucking speakers over. All hell broke loose after that.  I just remember I was pulling out things...we pulled out a couple of things. I remember chasing Flip and Lil Bam after they had knocked the speakers over. To be honest I don't remember what happened next 'cause I just lost it after that shit. People was being disrespectful.  You know, them ni***rs knocked our fucking speakers over. Come on, that's like smacking you in your face! It got crazy...the next thing I know we were trying to go for them and then the next thing I know we're getting jumped by our own projects. They don't even live there and my crew is getting jumped. It was a ugly night. It wasn't Crazy 8 who we're fighting, we were fighting with our own projects. Shit happens. That's a part of Hiphop. It wasn't something that we didn't expect either because like I told you we were always on our own."

November 8th, 1980: The Mac Dynasty Crew gets shout outs from DJ Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"You also mentioned a battle between the Mac Dynasty Crew and the L-Brothers Part 2? How did that go down?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Put it this way. This happened right after the L-Brothers had that problem at the Galaxy 2000. They went underground for a while 'cause I think they took their shit. When they came back from the underground they became the L-Brothers Part 2. When they became the L-Brothers Part 2 that's when they started to play with us. So they played in the basement with us. It was DJ Mean Gene, J Cordie-O was there but we wanted to see Grandwizard Theodore. We were like,"We're about to play against big time!" Robbie Rob was there, Kevie Kev was there and Rubie Dee was there. Now Rubie Dee wasn't down with the original ones but he was the first Puerto Rican MC. They played on the right side, we played on the left side. We just played our music but it was like they went, we went. To be honest with you it was like being on a baseball field with Derek Jeter and shit. You tried to be part of the game and you're like a fan of the game and I'm sitting here watching Theodore cutting up fucking "Mambo #5". He wore that shit out!!! But we held our own. It wasn't like a battle battle but it was a battle. Two crews in there..they went, we went. I think they were just trying to get their feet wet again, you know what I mean? They didn't have the same exact crew that they had before they went underground. That's why they called themselves the L-Brothers Part 2. I think Rubie Dee had just got down with them. We played music against these guys that we idolized and it went pretty well. Did we win? I don't think we would have been nice enough to win. They was better than we was. Later on I got drunk with Mean Gene (laughs). We might have even played more than once with them, I don't remember but those were good times!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What were your favourite breakbeats to rhyme over?"

HUTCHY BEE:"Oh man.....I liked "Catch A Groove". I liked "I Can't Stop" and the remix of "Dance To The Drummer's Beat"."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did it take to be fresh MC back then?"

HUTCHY BEE:"For me personally? From my perspective you got to have charisma and style. Back then there was no internet, no videos. You had to earn your stripes."

SIR NORIN RAD:"And you said Mr. Magical was your best MC, correct?"

HUTCHY BEE: Right, right he was what I would consider our main MC . You know you have this one person in your crew who is probably the best out of everybody and he was that guy. All of our MCees were nice. Like I said out of the four I was the weak link. As for being special Mr. Magical was special."

May 25th, 1979: The Mac Dynasty Crew performs at the Bronx River Center

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who was in charge of hyping up the crowd? Which MC had the role of making the crowd go crazy? Who was your hype man?"

HUTCHY BEE:"We didn't have one. That would be all of us. You know what I mean? 'Cause in the party the crowd was already hyped. Beats was pumping....We'd say, "Throw your arms in the air!" But everybody said that in their rhymes. As for the guy that got that shit pumping that would be like all of us because when were rhyming we were jumping around. We were like a hype crew. It was a crew thing. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"What about harmonies? Would you harmonize like Stevie D and Mercury of The Force MCees from Staten Island?"

HUTCHY BEE:"We had a couple of routines but we didn't do harmonies because we couldn't sing. None of us could sing. (laughs). Lucky Dee had a nice voice that came across like harmonizing type of voice but no we never harmonized." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you know that the legendary Bronx Style Writer Wen from the COD Crew stated in an interview that he was heavily inspired by you as a young kid growing up in the late 1970ies? He even said that you're the one who sparked the flame of love for Hiphop in him and that he called himself Lil Hutchy Bee in the beginning. He tagged that name in 1979/80. Moreover he told me that you were like an older brother who looked out for him."

HUTCHY BEE:"What's his real name?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"He wouln't say but he told me to tell you that he's that Puerto Rican kid from Wheeler Ave that hung with Carol."

HUTCHY BEE:"Oh shit!!!! Oh shit!!! That ni***er is teling the truth!!!! I know him!!!  I know that guy. That's crazy. So wait...he's like a legend in writing on the trains? You gotta help me with that 'cause with graffiti I'm not that familiar......you know what I'm saying? " 

SIR NORIN RAD:"As far as I know he's a well respected Writer who paid his dues back then in the early to mid 1980ies and he is known for his fresh lettering style."

HUTCHY BEE:"He's telling the tuth! He is Lil Hutchy Bee. That was waaaaay in the beginning. We didn’t even play Twin Parks. Yes he’s from the very beginning because Carol became DJ Starchild' girlfriend after that. That’s how I know he know me because only a few people and I say a few can tell you about me being with Carol. It became a very sore subject within our crew it almost broke us up. I remember these two young kids that used to hang around us when I would hang out with Carol on Wheeler Avenue and we all would sit on her stoop. I just couldn’t remember their names. Yes, I looked out for him. I did that with a lot of the younger kids in our area. Especially the kids that didn’t live in the Projects."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How do you feel about Wen's aka Lil Hutchy Bee's success in graffiti? Does it make you feel proud of him?"

HUTCHY BEE:"I am ecstatic and speechless.... I’m so happy for him. I guess sharing the love really kind of paid off in so many ways. We never did it for the money because there wasn’t any. We did it for the love. I always say if I  inspired just one person then I did my job. So there you go! Mission accomplished! I’m so proud of him."

  Wen (COD)

 

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

HUTCHY BEE:"Of course I wanna give a shout out (laughs).First of all I wanna give a shout out to you! Shout out to you because you keep us fresh! You keep us relevant and we need that! I wanna shout out my crew! Shout out to DJ LDC! I wanna shout out DJ Starchild! I also wanna give a shout out to Mr. Magical, Lucky Dee, Missy Miss, Kool Dee, Gee Cee, DJ Stevie Steve, DJ Lightning...I know it's a lot but I got to say these names. Dee Cee, Jay-La Rock, Brian B, DJ Shasta and  Barry B. Shout out to my BX Old School fam! Shout out to all the equipment carriers and to all the record boys. We all put a brick in this! Shout out to Wen COD."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Thank you! Shout outs to my crew and to Sureshot La Rock who hooked me up with all these incredible flyers!"