Interview with MC Hi-Cee (Touch Of Class / Inner City Disco)

                      Interview with MC Hi-Cee (Touch Of Class / Inner City Disco)

 

MC Hi-Cee (Touch Of Class / Inner City Disco)

                                      conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)

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

HI-CEE:"I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City.....in Jacobi Hospital which is in the northeast section of the Bronx."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay and where exactly did you live in the Bronx when you encountered Hiphop for the very first time? Was it Edenwald ?"

HI-CEE:"Yes, it sure was. That's where I was born and raised in Edenwald Housing Projects. Yup, that's exactly where it started."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of music were you exposed to as a young girl growing up?"

HI-CEE:"I come from a very diverse background. My mother is Caribean..Trinidadian and my dad was Southern. Music was a very big part of our family. I was raised on traditional Soul music at the time, right in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. R&B of course...and then my oldest brother had a very huge influence on me with Jazz. So I was introduced to a lot of classical Jazz artists at a very young age. So melting Hiphop and some of the Jazz was pretty familiar to me. So yeah it was a myriad of different  music of different sounds. So my evolution with music has been a long standing part of my life."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Could you please name those artists that stood out to you before you became a part of Hiphop?"

HI-CEE:"Sure. James Brown.....of course.....all the Motown artists. The Temptations, Diana Ross & The Supremes. Aretha Franklin was another very huge sound in my household. Sam Cooke....and then in the 1970ies....of course the Jackson Five, The Stylistics, Blue Magic, The Manhattans...that whole genre of music...and then you know it just transitioned into Disco in the mid to late seventies....like Donna Summers and all of these new artists."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe how you got into Hiphop! Where did your first encounter with it take place? Was it at a park jam?"

HI-CEE:"Uhm.... sorta kind of but it actually stems back to the B-Boys..to that whole B-Boy culture and Graffiti. Breaking was my initial exposure to Hiphop."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please elaborate on that! Were you a B-Girl back then?"

HI-CEE:"I would say I was. I was a self-proclaimed B-Girl. That whole culture was just about being young and relaxed. You know, having jeans and sweatshirts and sneakers....you know just hanging out. We would wear the Super Pro-Keds and the wide bottom Lee Jeans. So yeah it was something for the young people to do, just to hang out and express their creativity through music and dance."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Your name appears on Hiphop flyers as early as 1979. So you were undoubtedly among the first female MCees. What made you pick up the microphone and start rhyming?"

HI-CEE:"I had a friend who was at the time a DJ. He was spinning on the 1s and 2s and we would just hang out. I just picked up the mic and I had a knack. I had always been a little bit of a poet. So you know I would write rhymes and I just got encouraged one day to pick up the mic when he was jamming in house. And that was the beginning of it. So wherever he would go he would bring me wih him and I would just get on the mic and rhyme."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was his name?"

HI-CEE:"His name was Carl. I forgot what his DJ name was. He wasn't from Edenwald but he was from right outside of the neighbourhood."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you meet him?"

HI-CEE:"Actually I knew him before he started DJing. We were all like teenage friends and I was dating his best friend at the time. We actually had a crush on each other but I wind up dating his best friend. Me and his friend got close but we maintained our relationship as friends. So when he started DJing and started doing his thing it happened organically and I just started rocking the mic. He was actually my connection to Touch Of Class."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Which year was that?"

HI-CEE:"1977/78."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How long did you perform with him?"

HI-CEE:"It wasn't long. Maybe a few months. I do remember that it was warm when I started rocking with him because we were doing our thing outside. So I would say it was probably about four months. He was connected to DJ Mellow Beat of Touch Of Class. He was really good friends with him. He knew him, we went to his set and the rest is kind of history."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what was it like for you to stand in front of a crowd and to kick your rhymes for the first time?" 

HI-CEE:"I kinda sort of..I remember being in a house and it was all guys. Hiphop was dominated by males back then. DJ Breakout lived on the same block. It was a little stressful but because I was with my really good friend and he felt that I had the confidence to do it I kinda didn't wanna let him down.So I had to bolster up whatever courage I could find at the time to pick up the mic because of course they wanted to hear me and they were all looking at me like, "Is she the next Sha Rock?" (laughs) I was right behind her. So yeah it was a little intense when I think about it."

SIR NORIN RAD:" Please describe how you joined the Touch Of Class Crew which was one of the most prestigious DJ/MC crews in the northeast Bronx. How did your first DJ react to your decision to leave him for Touch Of Class?"

HI-CEE:"There wasn't no bad feelings. He just wanted to see me get to the next level. Which was good..."

SIR NORIN RAD:" So did you have to go through something like a tryout in order to join Touch Of Class? Did you have to rock the mic in front of the crew while their DJs were cutting up beats?"

HI-CEE:"Oh yeah! Exactly! I had to kinda audition. They had some beats going on. I kicked some of my rhymes they liked what they heard and let me join their group."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you already go by the name of Hi-C at that time?"

HI-CEE:"Yes, sir!!! (laughs) It was Hi-C from the beginning." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you come up with that name? Did your choice have anything to do with that drink Hi-C?"

HI-CEE:"So it goes a little something like this: I didn't get my name from the Hi-C drink. That's what a lot of people like to think. It's just that if  you put "Hi" to the initial letter of my first name you would get Hi-C."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did the other MCees of Touch Of Class treat you when you joined their crew?"

HI-CEE:"They were very, very happy to have me on board because those gentlemen were like different. Touch Of Class was a different type of crew. It was exactly what that title was. During that time you had a lot of....I don't wanna say non-classy but unclassy MCees. We were classy!  You know, we had a lot of pride in our appearance and in our delivery of lyrics, in our technique of rapping. We were all very, very lyrical. They all were very lyrical and they all could move a crowd. So for me to be able to pretty much impress them it was an honour for me to be part of that team. Now they were all very welcoming. We really, really performed well together. There was a little tension between me and Mexi Ray....who is Apollo One's brother. He was a little bit spoiled and I was, too. He liked the limelight......so to be a female with them made it a little bit competetive...for the most part between he and I...but the formula still worked well."

August 4th 1979: Touch Of Class is rocking at the 28 Lincoln Ave Disco

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So please explain how much work went into coming up with exceptional rhymes and routines, into making the whole crew appear as a well functioning unit."

HI-CEE:"Well, the process pretty much was.....each invididual MC of course had their own rap lyrics that they would develop and you know we would come together and rehearse just to get a flow and to be comfortable with each other but then with specific beats we would have specific routines. There was one time where Touch Of Class....we were in a competition....it was an outdoor competition and our routine just totally took over. Nobody after that competed against us. We would come up with routines. Usually it started with a specific song, a specific beat. The DJ may have something that he wanted us to work on an so we would just listen to it and then we would just come up with you know different rhymes, the rotation of the rhymes. If there were gonna be any movement we would build that in. We would rehearse multiple times during the week whenever it was feasible for everybody to get together. I know weekly we....Touch Of Class..would have a standing day that we would rehearse. When we knew there was gonna be a competition we would be rehearsing multiple times during the week."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So I guess you would think a lot about new rhymes and concepts for new routines during your days back then."

HI-CEE:"Yes, I did but it never felt like work. So I at the time was in transition. I was going to school downtown in Manhattan. That took up much of my time along with my boyfriend. So I basically dropped out of high school. Unfortunately I did but that gave me a little bit more time to work on my craft. I managed to go to work and in my private time I would write rhymes. A lot of our rehearsals would be done later on in the evening once everybody was through with their working. You know, some of the team they were old enough to work and we would just plan to get together in the evening and work and do what we neeeded to do. We pretty much knew that while we were not actually together and rehearsing we still needed to work on our craft. That kinda build in."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe your approach to writing rhymes back then. Would you write your rhymes while your fellow MCees were around or did you prefer to be alone when it came to that? Would you write your rhymes to a certain beat that was playing on a boom box in your room at home or did you write rhymes to a beat in your head?"

HI-CEE:"I'm just a creative person. So a lot of my rhymes were tied back to old school songs or lyrics. Things that people would sing at the time. So I would just play with that. For the most part it was music that woul inspire me to write a rhyme. So I remembered old school lyrics and I may twist it and you know come up with something. We styled it you know to Hiphop and we would just write."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you keep a rhyme book with you?"

HI-CEE:"Of course! Every MC has to have a rhyme book!! I would keep pads or a notebook. Probably a spiral at the time."

SIR NORIN RAD:"You have stated that the whole Touch Of Class crew also stood out because of the way its members dressed. Please elaborate on that!"

HI-CEE:"We were all definetely fly! As I said I was very creative so I would design a lot of my outfits. So I would make sure for me that I was always fly cause I knew that the brothers would always gonna come nicely dressed. We presented ourselves with a high level of class to the young Hiphop scene at the time. Nobody was doing it like we were."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was considered as female fly gear in Hiphop during the late 1970ies and early 1980ies?"

HI-CEE:"You had the bamboo earrings with the big gold chains. A lot of the designer jeans definetely was the thing. High heeled shoes, some would have on platforms. You had the sheepskin coats. At that time there was a heavy influence of the cowboy style.  So we would wear cowboy hats, cowboy boots with heels. Again the designer jeans was the thing back then. That's when that whole genre began with Gloria Vanderbilt, the Sassons, the Jordaches, the Calvin Kleins. The Le Tigre shirts at that time were very stylish. You would pop your collar.....yeah."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I have seen a lot of 1970ies pictures of Black and Puerto Rican ladies from the Bronx which show them wearing a scarve around their head as well as colorful blouses with huge collars. Was that style still around when you got into Hiphop?"

HI-CEE:"Yeah, so that was right towards the end of the Disco era. So they would have these really puffed sleeves. We would call them puff sleeves and they would have the really long collars. So that's indicative of getting towards the end of the Disco era and going into Hiphop. Some girls you would see them with scarves. Either they would tie them around their neck because it was just part of the dance gear at the time or they would tie them around their neck. It was some sort of a gypsy kind of style. Yeah, that was that mid seventies look."

SIR NORIN RAD:“Did you have a pair of Marshmallow shoes back then?"

HI-CEE:"I had a pair of maroon Marshmallow shoes with the white bottoms. I sure did. I also had a leather coat. Delancey Street is where you would go to get your leathers. If you were fashionable you had to have a leather jacket or a leather coat. That was another big part of your attire, of you being fly." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"What type of hats did the women in Hiphop wear back then?"

HI-CEE:"You would see some of them with Kangols...you know, the one that LL Cool J rocked... you would see some of them rocking those but for the most part...the females...they would have their hair out. They wouldn't have their head covered unless, you know, you had a cowboy hat during that time."

SIR NORIN RAD:"At which venues did you rock at when you were part of the Nice & Nasty MCees of the Touch of Class Crew?"

HI-CEE:"The T-Connection was one....Edenwald Center. We did the Ecstasy Garage one time. That was towards the time when I was gonna separate with them. We did a lot of outdoor jams in the parks. There was one spot on Webster Avenue that was really popular for us....the P.A.L. We rocked down in the Valley, too, at some point. Edenwald Park.......places like that."

August 24th, 1979: Touch Of Class Disco participates in a DJ convention at the legendary Webster P.A.L. in the Bronx.

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"What's the difference between rocking at a community center like the Edenwald Center and rocking at a club like the T-Connection?"

HI-CEE:"Well, the first difference was at a club you had the potential to get paid. So when you rocked at a club that was basically like the birth place of the battle scene. You know, the battling of the different crews. The jams at the community centers were more of a recreational thing. You gotta chance to go and do your thing. You know, showcase your talent. But when you moved into the club, when you're performing in a club....now you have the element of making money. Now you're being paid. And that, you know, really was the difference. Getting into the T-Connection... which at the time was the number one club in the Bronx....that meant you had arrived!!! They had a big stage. The venue was just set for performances. You really felt like an artist."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So that means in places like the Edenwald Center you were on the floor standing face to face with the crowd?"

HI-CEE:"Yeah, exactly you were on the floor. You know, the same floor as the party and everybody was up close. You didn't have the barrier of a stage...it was all together with the party. And that was the difference! The jams at the centers were partys. Even though you partied at the T-Connection but you also had the payment. You know, it was just the way it was marketed."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please elaborate on the parties in the community centers during the late 1970ies. What kind of dances were done there? What was the atmosphere like?"

HI-CEE:"The Freak!!! That was the main dance!!! (laughs) At the community centers it would  actually be such a big party scene....it would be so heavy that the floors would be muddy because of the sweat and the dirt of the shoes. And so when you asked me about the gear back then I recalled the guys when they were coming out of a community center party......the dirt was up to their calves on their Lee Jeans because of all the moisture! It was hot in there. These places were called sweat boxes. But it was the most phenomenal time because you had a large group of people that was coming of age and there was just a new freedom and liberty that you were experiencing and you know we didn't know that we were giving birth to a whole new cultural artform. We were just having a really, really good time...."

October 12th, 1979: Touch Of Class Disco is rocking at the Edenwald Center in the Bronx

      

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you say that it was harder for you as a young woman to make it as an  MC back then?"

HI-CEE:"It's interesting because I rocked with two different crews it's two different perspectives for me. So yeah, with the Touch Of Class.. because it was a male dominated group it was a little bit more difficult because they were very dominating, they made all the decisions about the direction of the crew. I was not consulted on anything and they actually dismissed me from the crew for really no reason. In my opinion I became a lot more popular than the other MCees because I was a female and I had a small following. They would come to all of our jams and they would help me hype it up. So whenever I got on the mic it would just be hyped! The others weren't getting exactly that level of response. So it kinda created a little bit of friction there. There was some resentment. So they decided that I wasn't gonna be a part of the team. From the outside looking in I just disappeared. Kenny Ken....(DJ of the Cheeba Crew) he introduced me to Inner City Disco. With them it wasn't hard because I was with my contemporaries. We were all females, we fed off each other. We knew that there were other female crews out there but we felt that we were number one. So it was a whole different experience. I believe that this particular crew..because we were all females and we performed just so well.....that made it easier for us to get into doors than it was for other groups." 

January 5th, 1980: Touch Of Class rocks at the legendary Ecstasy Garage. This was the last time Hi-Cee performed with them.

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"From where did you know DJ Kenny Ken?"

HI-CEE:"I met him through Touch Of Class. We were jamming together somewhere and Kenny Ken is such a personable person.... he just started talking to me and we just clicked and then we became reallly cool friends. He married my best friend. I introduced him to his wife and it's history ever since (laughs). They just celebrated 40 years, so you know?! He saw in what kind of situation I was with Touch Of Class and he didn't like it. He intervened and I guess he knew Inner City Disco through La Spank (MC of Inner City Disco).....but yeah, he made the connection for me." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did they welcome you with open arms?"

HI-CEE:"Definetely. It was amazing. We really felt like family."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you manage to regularly get to your new crew's rehearsals in Queens?"

HI-CEE:"Yeah, well Kenny Ken was kinda helpful because he would drive out to Lefrak from time to time and when he wouldn't drive it would take me all day. I would hop on the train. It was a journey and it took a lot of time but that's what I love about New York..that ability to transfer to different neighbourhoods because of the train system. I spend a lot of time riding trains and that's how I became familiar with the city......all boroughs....with the exception of Staten Island. It was just something that had to be done. I didn't think much about it. My mother was very supportive with anything I wanted to do positive. She would just tell me to be careful and that we did. La Spank actually came from Gun Hill Projects which is not far from me. She's a couple of stops ahead of me. It just all kinda worked together. Lil Tee...I forgot...I think she was from the South Bronx. So, you know, we would all come back together to the Bronx. It was just us together. We would do what we had to do. We were very comitted!! It's just amazing to think back."

January 12th 1980: Inner City Disco rocks at the Ecstasy Garage in the Bronx along with the Heavenly 7. As you can see by that time Hi-C had already joined Inner City Disco.

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Were you already present for that battle between Inner City Disco and the Mercedes Ladies?" 

HI-CEE:"Oh, are you kidding me? Some people say that they beat us but they never showed up because we were so ready!! We had all of our arsenal we had created. We had routines and we had rehearsed them to the tee. It was fly and we were ready and somebody probably told them that we were that ready as far as the MC battle of it.....'cause see their DJs couldn't touch our DJs!!! They just couldn't! And there were some guys that couldn't touch DJ Quenny Quen. One thing that Quenny Quen showed us that she should have did is that she mixed "Apache" blindfolded. Blindfolded!!!! Blindfolded!!! Do you hear me!!! That's something I will never forget! I wish that was recorded! That's something I will never forget! Never!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Well, when I interviewed Quenny Quen she stated that a battle did indeed take place between Inner City Disco and the Mercedes Ladies. She said that your crew had a routine in which each MC would call out his counterpart. She also said that she messed that part up because she called out her own name instead of that of DJ Baby D. Could it be that you weren't present for that battle?"

HI-CEE:"I know the first initial announcement......'cause we had practiced so hard. They didn't show up. So that battle must have happened at another time. The routine that she was talking about was one that I created off of that movie where this one gang calls out another gang. We would say, "Mercedes Ladies!!! Won't you come out to play??"

SIR NORIN RAD:"That's from that movie called "The Warriors"."

HI-CEE:"Yeah, exactly!!! But I'mma be honest with you I don't recall a battle with them. I don't remember that. It may have happened though when I wasn't around....I know it was a little drama about it and I think they called us out and we responded and they knew that we was ready so they didn't show up."

March 28th, 1980: Inner City Disco performs at the legendary T-Connection in the Bronx.

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"I was told that your manager Pop believed so strongly in your crew because he bought equipment  and even clothes."

HI-CEE:"Oh yeah, he took us shopping! It was the most magical experience. One day..I believe we were in Macy's..probably been there the first time in my life....it was the first time that someone spend that kind of money on me and the other girls. Yeah, he took us shopping and we were ready! We were just ready!  From head to toe! He bought us shoes, he bought us jeans, he bought us swatshirts. All of our mics..we had top notch equipment!!! He invested a lot in us."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe the role of each MC of Inner City Disco!"

HI-CEE:"I would say that Lady Sweet was like the beauty queen. La Spank was just a force, you know? She was just powerful. She would take over!! Lil Tee... she was just standard but she was a pretty girl. We were all scorpios I believe. And then me I would just rock the mic! I was just the lyrical one. And everybody was lyrical but you know I was the lyrical pro. Whenever they needed something clever or catchy.......or someone that would move the crowd that would be me. My skills were a little bit more advanced and I will say that I didn't think that there were any other female MCees out there that really were as lyrical as I was."

MC/DJ La Spank (Inner City Disco)

 

                                                            

MC Lady Sweet (Inner City Disco)

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you rock with them in that big park in Lefrak which they referred to as Rock Creek Park?"

HI-CEE:"No. I went straight to the clubs with them."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I would like to ask you a couple of questions now which deal with the nature of true MCing. How did MC battles go down during your era, during the era of original pure MCing? Would MCees diss each other personally? Would they threaten each other?"

HI-CEE:"No, no way. MCing was a platform that was used to have a party, to have a good time and then later it got into that storytelling thing. Rap changed all of that. I believe al lot of it stems from that 2 Pac Biggie Smalls scenario. Rap now became adversarial to a degree where lives began to become threatened. They began to use Rap as a platform to threaten other people's lives and to tell tales of hurting and terrorizing other people's loved ones in that process. You just started to see things that were not the original intent of Hiphop. It took a different turn. The other huge I would say transition from my era...the true Hiphop era...to where we are now is that in the beginning the DJ was the center piece of Hiphop. It was all about the DJ, the DJ skills and the beats that he played, what they would do to keep the party going. The MCees were just pretty much the hype men for the DJs. So when it went to recording you no longer had the DJ. You didn't need the DJ and now it's all just focussed on the rapper. I think that was another huge transition that took Hiphop into a whole 'nother direction. That really changed the dynamics of Hiphop. Now the party element disappeared."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Reading about what happened to some of those legendary original  DJ/MC Crews after they got signed to record labels like Sugarhill Records about twentyfive years ago really shocked me. All of a sudden the DJs who started Hiphop and were the backbone of MCing became obsolete as they were replaced by a studio band and the record labels had no real use for them and didn't want to pay them." 

HI-CEE:"We lost a very huge part of Hiphop when that happened...you know, a part of the culture. It's not surprising that this was motivated by money but at the the end of it those early MCees would not have been where they were without their DJ. That's just the bottom line. The Furious Five would have been nothing without Grandmaster Flash,okay? Because in the beginning people came to see Flash. And yes, they were very good MCees but the people came to see Flash. The Funky Four Plus One they came with DJ Breakout and DJ Baron.They had the best beats that you could ever imagine!!!! I take off my hat to them....till today!!! These dudes??? Their crates???? Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.....Yeah, it was really incredible! I'm a music enthusiast. So I can appreciate the DJ side of it. But yeah, we lost a huge part of Hiphop when the recording of rap started to happen. DJing....it's a craft. It's something that you had to work for in order to master it and all these parties in the early days of Hiphop took place because of the DJs, because of their performances and the beats that they mixed." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you agree with the assertion that Hiphop music for the most part is a child of the Funk, Jazz & Soul music of the 1970ies?"

HI-CEE:"Absolutely!!! We would NOT HAVE HIPHOP if we didn't have these genres. No, no!!! The beat.....the breakbeat.....that is the driving factor of Hiphop. That is the core of Hiphop....the DJ in the mix!!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"It is fascinating to ponder upon the efforts which the DJs invested back then in order to build up their soundsystem and what it took to find beats back then. Travelling through New York City, taking the train from the Bronx all the way down to Brooklyn, going to different thrift stores and looking through dusty stacks of records just to get a second copy of a specific breakbeat. At times the beat part was very short so the DJ had to be fast to be able to catch it and from those beats and DJ techniques grew a whole beautiful culture!!! I have interviewed many of the most influential B-Boys in Hiphop and most them stated that  hearing those breakbeats blasting through the speakers of a powerful soundsystem filled them with bliss. They called it a spiritual experience."

HI-CEE:"Yes!!!! And see that is the connection to our original culture...to Africa and just the power of that!!! It's a unique phenomenon."

SIR NORIN RAD:"No doubt. What did take to be a fresh MC in the original era of Hiphop? Like when it was all about rocking the mic live in front of a crowd with a DJ in the back cutting up breakbeats?"

HI-CEE:"Well, you had to stay on beat. You had to be able to rock as a unit. That really had to become your instinct. That's why the rehearsal piece is so important because DJs would have their own routines and what they were gonna play. So you had to be able to rock over their mixes and so you had to rehearse. Then you had cassette tapes so we would record the mix and we would rock over it so that we would become one with the beats. Were few people could rhyme off the top and I take my hat off to them but you had to go over your raps. And you had to go over your rhymes with the beats. And you would only rock certain rhymes over certain beats. So when you heard a specific beat at a party you knew,"Oh yes, I'm gonna pull out specific rhymes! These are the rhymes that I'm gonna rock to this beat!" The beats and the rhymes, they went together, you know? So sometimes when I was still with those outstanding MCees of Touch Of Class they would pass the mic to me when they heard  a certain break that they knew I was popular with."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you say that it was important to possess a certain charisma as an MC?"

HI-CEE:"Oh, definitely!!! You had to have a certain swag! You really had to be confident and part of that confidence came from how you looked. So when you knew that you had a show coming up you had to prepare for that show! And you know with Inner City Disco we had uniforms. Pop invested in us, in our uniforms and our look an we really looked like a group. So when you came to our show and you saw five ladies dressed alike you would do a double take and be like,"Oh wait a minute! Who are they?""

February 29th, 1980: Inner City Disco performs at the Ecstasy Garage in the Bronx

 

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

HI-CEE:""Scratching" by the Magic Disco Machine. That beat is crazy! Number two is "Frisco Disco" by Eastside Connection. I loved that. And then there was a song called "Planetary Citizen" by John Mac Laughlin. Loved that! That was my theme song!! That kinda goes back to the DJ Breakout days."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you must have attended the early DJ Breakout parties then. When it was still mainly about the B-Boys?"

HI-CEE:"What??? Of course!!!!! All the time!!! Come on, yo!!! I was there! I remember him playing "Indiscreet" by D.C. La Rue which was one of DJ Kenny Ken's favourites. We called that beat the Cricket Song!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"The Cricket Song?"

HI-CEE:"Yeah, 'cause the break sounds like a bunch of crickets. Breakout just used to go crazy with it. Baron was a good DJ, too. Don't get me wrong....He was more of a party DJ. Kinda little on the Disco side....just a little. But Breakout was the hardcore B-Boy Beatmaster. If you wanted to hear raw beats you would go to his jams. I remember when he played "Give The Drummer Some More" by The Little Hooks with Ray Nato & The Kings. People would go crazy over that beat!!!!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Last question........what was it like to perform in front of a BX crowd back then. I mean I guess the people in the crowd pretty much decided who would make it as an MC and who would not, didn't they?"

HI-CEE:"Oh yeah, they weren't kind. So....here's the thing if you didn't step up and you weren't good you knew it because they would let you know and that ended whatever MC career you had. So when you see those MCees that were able to perform for any length of time back then you know that they were tried because if you weren't good you were not gonna see them anymore. That's what also happened to a lot of DJs early on. Many of them didn't have the equipment or the beats to make it. You really had to have some money behind you to some degree to be able to be out there! The equipment piece alone was a huge investment to make sure you had the right speakers and the right amplification. That's how you were tested during that time. The abililty to bring some power with your equipment and your beats and then your skills, you know? So if you made it to any degree you had a formula that was working. "

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

HI-CEE:"Oh sure, I'm gonna shout out my son who has a career of himself in R&B & Hiphop. H continues with the legacy of the family and I definetely wanna shout out my two crews the Inner City Disco and Touch Of Class. And DJ Breakout, too, because he was very influential in Hiphop in my area and in my era. But yeah, that's who I'm shouting out."

SIR NORIN RAD:"I wanna shout out my Intruders Crew and my mellow Sureshot La Rock (thanks for all the flyers)."