Interview with B-Girl Beedie B (Hunts Point)

                                                     Interview with B-Girl Beedie B  (Hunts Point)

                                 

Original South BX B-Girl Beedie B 

                                           conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders/Germany)

SIR NORIN RAD:"When and where were you born?"

BEEDIE B:"I was born in Manhattan, New York.....in Harlem in 1963."

SIR NORIN RAD:"In which neighbourhood did you grow up? I know that you're from Hunts Point but when did you move there?"

BEEDIE B:"I moved to the Bronx in the early 1970ies. I was about maybe 10 or 11 eleven years old."

SIR NORIN RAD:"To what kind of music were you exposed as a young girl?"

BEEDIE B:"I wanna say Soul music. I grew up listening to Marvin Gaye, The Spinners, The Temptations, The Dells. I'm the youngest of five so the music that was played in my household by my mother and father and my elder siblings is the music I grew up on basically."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"At what point in your life did dancing come into play?"

BEEDIE B:"Growing up I always loved to dance. I just loved it! It just brought joy to me. Dancing does something to me I don't know exactly what it is but I love to dance. As a child...like when I was 6 or 7 my mother said I would always dance when the family came around."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did living in Hunts Point differ from living in Harlem?"

BEEDIE B:"Living in Harlem I only knew Black people and White people 'cause it was the Black people from the neighbourhood and the White teachers that came to the schools to teach us. In the Bronx I encountered Hispanics for the first time. I adjusted and I learnt about their way of life. They spoke a different language and they dressed differently. You know, there were a lot of differences but it all turned out very well."

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did you encounter breakbeats and B-Boys for the very first time?"

BEEDIE B:"That would have to be in 1975 when I was in 7th grade. I was about twelve. Like when I was in junior high school I was getting exposed to breakbeats like "Apache" and all of that. I would be hearing them 'cause they would be giving jams in the parks and stuff like that. I wasn't really able to attend a lot of them because of my age. My parents weren't strict but we had to follow certain rules."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what are your earliest recollections of Breaking?"

BEEDIE B:"First it was just the guys and then as it started to grow they would always have like one female in their crew that would be with them and then she would start Breaking. I saw that and I was like,"Oh kool, I could do that!" And then I would go with my crew of guys and if like a female would start Breaking then they would send me in to burn her with my moves."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So what were the parks that you and your crew went to in order to dance?"

BEEDIE B:"23 Park. I think it was 131 Park over there on Bronx River side. 75 Park, 48 Park. Those are basically the ones I remember off top."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Iconic B-Boys like Cholly Rock from the Zulu Kings and Sondance from the Rock City Crew as well as T.T. La Rock have told me about a spot in Hunts Point which they referred to as the Garrison. What kind of location was that?"

BEEDIE B:"It was a club. It was Garrison. That's where the Black Hats...a group of brothers and cousins.....they used to come and they would be breakdancing there. It was like five or six of them. They used to wear black velours hats. They were very good and they basically came from our side. I don't remember their names though. They were all young black guys.See, Garrison was the side I was from. Remember I was telling you that I came from the side where it was only tenement buildings. It wasn't that many DJs. So our DJs and MCees weren't as exposed as the DJs and MCees that was running with the popular crews. Like you know MC Smiley and Sha Rock  they came from those popular DJs. They used to have a lot of battles. It was a lot going on back then. Garrison was our indoor spot where we gave parties during the winter time. Afrika Bambaataa and them, they used to give their parties in the center. We had no centers on our side of the Bronx. So the man who owned the club, his name was Mingo. He used to let us do parties there. " 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who was the resident DJ of the Garrison?"

BEEDIE B:"No, it was not like a resident DJ. Maybe like DJ Dice which was the DJ from our side. He would go to Mingo and tell him,"Let me give a party here!" It was not like a regular DJ. Flash and them would come and get that spot and do parties there. It was just a club."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Was Mingo Puerto Rican?"

BEEDIE B:"No, he was an older Jamaican man."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did the inside of the Garrison look like? How many people fit in there?"

BEEDIE B:"It was just a big open space. It had like a little bar to the side but it was just a big room where you could set up DJ equipment. They had two bathrooms. It was a nice spot for parties. It held a lot of people. At least close to like 150, 175 people. Yeah, it was a big place. It was also a pleasant place to be. There was no static, nothing. It wasn't really decorated. You had some little designs on the walls but it was basically just a big open space. Mingo allowed us to do parties there because it was a struggling business. He knew that he could bring people and money in by renting it out to the younger generation because that's what Hiphop was really about. In the winter time it was hard for us to find places to have parties."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of effect did those breakbeats have on you when you would hear them at the jams?"

BEEDIE B:"Well, first of all the music would run through my body because when they played that music you felt free! You got on the floor and you did your thang!! It was a beautiful feeling. That's how we all felt! It was such a joyful and happy time in my life when I used to do that! When I used to breakdance, when I used to be around my crew and watch other people with their moves."    

 SIR NORIN RAD:"What prompted you to pick up Breaking?"

BEEDIE B:"I started Breaking because that was what was in and if you wanted to be a part of what was in you had to do what was popular at that time. I watched the guys practicing, I watched their moves, you know, I played around with them. I mimicked their moves and then I started practicing seriously and I became fairly good. They started hyping me up,"Yo, you good!!!! So then when the females came I did what they taught me and basically that's how it started."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who were your mentors as far as Breaking is concerned?"

BEEDIE B:"From my B-Girl days? Tim (T.T. La Rock) he was one of them. Gregory Martin aka G-Man, George Brooks aka Lil G. Who else used to dance with us? Moe Gator. It was quite a few guys but those were the ones that had the best of moves. When our opponents sent out their heavyhitters, then we would send out T.T. La Rock, G-Man and Lil G. Those were the top of the line B-Boys from our side. They would sure enough put in work as they would say and they would mostly win the battles."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you meet all of them?"

BEEDIE B:"We all went to school together. Well, me and G-Man we went to public school together. We went to P.S. 28 together, we went to I.S. 74 together.  I ran a game room for this Italian man in Hunts Point where everybody hung out. T.T. La Rock used to come from the other side from Simpson Street where Casita Maria was at. Casita Maria was a night center. So we basically knew each other from school and from the neighbourhood and then we just hung out together. Not everybody was able to go to these parties back then 'cause peoples' mothers were strict, very strict. That's why I wind up being the only female and then Barbara Jones. We was like really the only B-Girls from our side. Our parents were strict but not super strict. You know, they gave us a little leeway so we were able to hang out and go to these parties."

                                                  

Melle Mel & T.T. La Rock at T.T. La Rock's birthday party

SIR NORIN RAD:"What's your fondest memory of the Casita Maria? I have recently watched a video dating back to the 1970ies which features Grandmaster Flash cutting up "Apache" on the roof of the Casita Maria and he has the people in the crowd doing the Hustle to that."

BEEDIE B:"Yeah, we did the Hustle, too. I was very good with the Hustle. Me and Barbara Jones we did the Hustle! All the parties that I went I didn't breakdance. I just danced. I only went in when they had females 'cause it was like female against female and male against male."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did the parties at the Garrison differ from those at the Casita Maria?"

BEEDIE B:"Okay, see..Garrison..when they wasn't having a party it was like a place to hang out and to play pool and stuff like that. You could maybe get a beer or something. Casita Maria..it was no alcohol because it was run by a Catholic priest. Father...I forgot his name. Casita Maria..if they wasn't giving parties it was just basketball tournaments and stuff of that nature. Like different projects would come over and play ball there. Casita Maria they had a lot of parties but it wasn't consistently like every weekend. Once a month Grandmaster Flash might have come there or something like that...to my knowledge. It wasn't like every weekend we're going to Casita Maria. No, because the DJs bounced around. But when Flash and them did come to Casita Maria it was a turnout! I mean packed back to back, wall to wall. Back then it was project rivalry. So everybody couldn't come to Casita Maria. We coming out of Hunts Point we didn't have that problem because we were like nobodys. Put it like that! We attended every party 'cause we was neutral. Nobody cared about us. So we were able to go everywhere."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"So Hiphop was very territorial back then?"

BEEDIE B:"Right, right! There was shootouts. I'm not just gonna tell you about the good part. I'm gonna tell you what really happened. Sometimes they had a center...like Monroe Center and they played music there and then sometimes the other housing projects would come and shoot up the place. You really took a chance sometimes going to these parties but we were risk takers so me and my crew we went to these parties regardless. We knew about the dangers that might incur. You know, thank God we never got caught up in nothing but it was happening. In the Bronx you had to be built a certain way in order to survive."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever feel that you were oppressed by the males around you? Like they made it harder for you to shine since you're a female?"

BEEDIE B:"No, I never felt that way. Everybody makes their own shine! MC Smiley, Sha Rock and the Mercedes Ladies they were females and they were on the map because of who they MCeed for!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was your B-Girl partner Barbara Jones from?"

BEEDIE B:"She was from Hunts Point, too. I met her through my son's father. We was kool. We never went against each other."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe the way females dressed back then!"

BEEDIE B:"Back then a lot of females wore the turbans, the different color turbans to match their outfit and things like that. Back then they stood heavy on fashion! You know, like the Lees. You had to have your creases. I didn't dress too feminine. I used to wear mocknecks and stuff like that because I used to steal my brother's clothes. A lot of them was like fascinated with me 'cause my brother dressed his behind off!!! A.J. Lester's!! All the fly stuff 'cause he was a Hustler from Harlem. I will put that out there. I used to steal his stuff. So when he had new mocknecks, alpaca sweaters or suede fronts me and my sister we would take it. Back then we had our sheepskin coats, our sheepskin hats, cowboy boots...all of that!!! We was heavy on fashion. The girls would also wear big collared shirts. We would get the leather coats with the white fur and the fur was from Delancey Street.You had to have one of them to be in fashion as well. The Marshmallow Shoes...all of that. "

                                                

The Marshmallow Shoes

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did the girls also wear Cortefiel coats?"

BEEDIE B:"No, the females didn't wear the Cortefiel coats but what was popular was the peacoat. I remember the Cortefiels though. All the guys wore that. I remember no female wearing the Cortefiel coat. No, 'cause I would have had one."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of jewelry was worn back then?"

BEEDIE B:"Oh, the medallions! You had to have at least two medallions on your neck! First they came out with the silver medallions but you was really doing something if you was able to get a gold medallion!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What other shoes besides the Marshmallow Shoes would the females wear?"

BEEDIE B:"Okay, well you had to shop at Fred Braun's on 3rd Avenue. Your shoes had to come from there to know that you got on what you were supposed to have on. Yeah, those were good shoes!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did the girls also wear Pro-Keds?"

BEEDIE B:"Of course! Of course! I couldn't wait when them Super Pro-Keds with the red and blue stripes on the side came out. Yeah, you had to have everything that came out. If you was about something, you had it. And if you didn't you stayed in your mother's and father's hair until you got it. You had to be in style!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"I was told that most guys would wear the Champagne cologne.."

BEEDIE B:"Champagne! Champagne! That's when you was getting money! That's all hustling ni***rs....oh, excuse me! I'm sorry! You're taking me back places and I'm getting hyped. Yeah, that's all you smelled....Champagne!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Which perfume did the females wear?"

BEEDIE B:"What was that green one? We always wore that. It was Chanel but it is not the Chanel now. That's all we wore. It was actually two popular fragrances but I can't recall the name."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did your brother react when he found out that you had worn his gear?"

BEEDIE B:"Oh, he was tight. He was super tight. Let me tell you I was one of the flyest ones in Stevenson High School when I used to come. He had every color. Every color mockneck 'cause they had two mocknecks. Then they came out with the new mockneck. It had to come out in 1976 or whatever. Now the reason that me and my sister  got caught......that is the funny part....is because we got breasts and the mark of our nipples would be on his shirts. That's how he found out. He was mad. He used to have his own closet with a lock on it. We opened it and took his stuff and put it back before he got home from school. He was older than us and he was getting money in the streets in Harlem. He had all the shoes in every color. British Walkers, Playboys, Clarks, all that.." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please elaborate on what you remember about doing the Hustle at the parties back then?"

BEEDIE B:"The Hustle...well, everybody had their own style of the Hustle. Some people they would Hustle and then they would bust a move and then they would get back to the Hustle. Some people used to like the Hustle and do the dip. It was a lot of styles of Hustling. Me personally I liked them all. I did not do them all but  I liked them all. My Hustle partners were Barbara and G-Man. Everything was basically from the people from my side 'cause like I said...projects people...if you wasn't from their projects they wasn't really messing with you unless you had a bond. It was crazy back then. It was nice with the parties but then you had them other little areas with the project versus project. There was also a lot of beef in the schools . A lot of them went to Adlai E. Stevenson High School but they came from all the projects. I also attended Adlai E. Stevenson High School." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Now the beef that you are talking about was that only between males or did females have beef as well?"

BEEDIE B:"It was males AND females because  not for nothing a lot of them guys in the projects they was messing with two girls or two girls had a baby by the same guy. That caused a lot of beef amongst the females.  It was just a lot or if a guy had a misunderstanding with a female and then her crew would come. Many fights broke out because you're talking to somebody else's girl or the girl was talking to somebody else's guy. It was a lot with them projects. It was crazy!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"From what I have heard so far Breaking went through different phases. In the early 1970ies the dance did not involve a lot of moves on the ground. Instead, B-Boys and B-Girls danced mainly on top and then when the break part of the record set in they would  pull out their best moves..."

BEEDIE B:"Right! That's when they would hit the floor! B-Boys would do certain gestures to clown or to intimidate their opponents. Then they would stand like, "I burnt you!" They would play like they would move your head and then hit it with a baseball bat and stuff like that or put it on the floor with a robot type of move and then step on it and then they would be like, "It's over! You're done!!" I liked to do the one where I would smash your head off and then throw it and then hit it with a bat and I would be like, "You're out of here!!!" You're taking me places.......if you notice my hypeness."

SIR NORIN RAD:"That's because you're a B-Girl for life. It will never leave you. What's your most memorable B-Girl battle?"

BEEDIE B:"It probably was at the Garrison when they brought some females over to Garrison that was supposedly their best B-Girls. But being that they were in my turf, in my Garrison club I could not let them outburn me. So I had to put the fire to the butt!

SIR NORIN RAD:"How important was the music to what you were doing as a B-Girl?"

BEEDIE B:"It was the Breakbeat that just made you go off! You felt it in your soul and you wanted to show it. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"What were your top three Breakbeats of all time?"

BEEDIE B:""Apache" was number one. "The Mexican"....."Give It Up Or Turn It Aloose", "It's Just Begun". Later on it was beats like "Dance To The Drummer's Beat"."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you feel when "Rock Creek Park" by the Blackbyrds came on?"

BEEDIE B:"Oh my God!!! (sings) Doing it in the park........See now you getting me hyped again. You're taking me back to the part of my life when I was young, music was good,  life was good."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you also go to DJ Afrika Bambaataa's parties?"

BEEDIE B:"Oh yes, I did! JHS 123.....Bambaataa's joint over there. I remember I got locked in one of those parties because he also used to give them on school nights. We went...me and G-Man and I guess it was a lot of people going in and out. I don't know what happened but they locked the door and they was like,"Nobody gonna leave out of here until 12.30!!" Oh my God! I had a 11 o'clock curfew! I had to go back to Hunts Point! But yeah, Bambaataa had the crowd hypnotized through his beats. "

                                           

B-Boy G-Man & B-Girl Beedie B at T.T. La Rock's birthday party

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you go against the Zulu Queens over there?"

BEEDIE B:"No, I didn't dance against them. I really didn't like to break against females outside of my neighbourhood because if they lost now they wanna fight and if Barbara wasn't with me then I was the only female and then the guys would have to get in. You understand? So we avoided that. It wasn't really safe. If we won, if the crowd gave us more applause then it could turn into something else. Nobody wanted to be embarrassed on their home turf."

SIR NORIN RAD:"To which indoor parties of Grandmaster Flash did you go?"

BEEDIE B:"1111 Fox Street, Mitchell Gym, The Dixie..."

SIR NORIN RAD:"In which regard did outdoor jams differ fom indoor parties?"

BEEDIE B:"There was more people and the outdoor jams were more safe because you didn't have to worry about looking for no exit if anything was to pop off. But as far as the music and the quality of the music it was basically the same."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay and how would you get ready for a party?"

BEEDIE B:"We would do our rollers and stuff, you know? Get our hair together. We would get our outfit. We we would lay it out, take a shower, get dressed. Like back then we didn't really wear make-up but we used to put the vaseline with the black eyeliner..... that was our lipstick. And we would put on our best smelling perfume that we had and we would go and party! We would make sure that we was done. Our outfits we matched. They was color coordinated to the tee. We had our earrings, you know? We would have to take an O' Jay cab to the party because we knew the guys was out there, looking good, smelling good. That was life, yo!!! That was beautiful! That was really life! "

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did take to stand out as a B-Boy or B-Girl in the 1970ies?"

BEEDIE B:"It was all about fashion, charisma and skills. Dressing fly was definetely part of the culture. Your dancing skills had to be on point and you couldn't be scared. You had to go out there and give it all you had. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"You told me that you were also MCing back then. Please elaborate on that!"

BEEDIE B:"My MC name was Baby B. My sister's boyfriend he started calling me that when I started rapping because I had no MC name. He was like,"Baby B! Baby B!" So that's what stuck with me. I MCeed under DJ Dice and also under DJ Sam. He owned a club called Windy City which was on 144th Street in Harlem. DJ Dice was our neighbourhood DJ. He came from Bruckner Boulevard. I was from Hunts Point Avenue &  Lafayette Avenue. Lafayette Avenue is also on the other side where the projects is but no, we are not that part of Lafayette. It was Hunts Point Avenue, Lafayette Avenue, Faile Street, Manida Street, Coster Street, Spofford Avenue...those are all considered the Hunts Point area.  DJ Dice would come out to 48 Park and he would come out to 75 Park. He would come to the Casita Maria as well. I was doing whole rhymes and I would shout out my crew. It was beautiful. That's all I can say."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you become the MC for DJ Dice?"

BEEDIE B:"Like with me running with G-Man..his cousin was DJ Dice...so we practically always stayed at his house and then I started messing with the microphone and then I became his MC. DJ Sam and DJ Dice they never DJed at the same time. DJ Sam was the other DJ that we had. DJ Sam's partner was DJ Ray. DJ Ray used to live on Bryant Avenue and Sam lived on Casanova Street. They also DJed at the Garrison. They were Black DJs."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who inspired you to start MCing?"

BEEDIE B:"I had been doing a lot of poetry from a young age. I'm not tooting my own horn but my poetry was good and then once I started hearing MCees rhyming at the parties I was like,"This is poetry that they are doing!" So I just started writing rhymes about my crew. Like when I got on the mic I would represent them because DJ Dice the only MC he had was me. And then I just kept doing it, making more rhymes. I became more creative and I wrote deeper rhymes and I was able to say things on the microphone that related to a lot of the situations that was going on in the street. Stuff like that. A lot of pieces of my lifestyle, of my life I incorporated in my rhymes.  We also had mic wars, too. You would battle on the mic.  Somebody would say something on the mic and you would want to top that. It was just another competition like Breaking."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Were those battles as disrespectful as they are today?"

BEEDIE B:"Oh no, they wasn't. That's why I can't get with Rap Music now because all that stuff is negative to me and it is poisoning the minds of the youth. Music is supposed to free you. This Rap Music here is all about killing. All this disrespect that they have for other people, all the disrespectful things that they're saying would have never been said in our time!! The original Hiphop wasn't about that. We would say things like, "My rhymes are better than yours. My voice is better than yours. My crew is better than yours. I dress better than you do." That's it.  Now it's mostly negativity. I have a great interest and concern about that. This is not what I want my great-grandkids to grow up with but you can't keep them from it because they're exposed to it no matter how hard you try to avoid it."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"How do you feel about the state of Hiphop today?"

BEEDIE B:"Since Hiphop became a money-oriented establishment with record labels and all of that I think it became separated from its roots. Before it was out of fun. Like just the love for Breaking, just the love for MCing, you know? But when the money came in it separated it from its origins and it caused a lot of beef. The money changed a lot. Back then we didn't speak opnely about sex the way they do now. We never said stuff on the mic like, "Eat the pussy cat like a bowl of cereal." Come on! This is inappropriate!  And God forbid...like the fashion. The females....we never exposed our bodies like that ...the way they dress now. This is slutville dressing that they're doing now. In Hiphop we would never get up there like that. I enjoyed Hiphop when it was just about people getting together having fun all in one place. We didn't do what they're doing now. Hiphop back then was pure, now it is tainted."

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

BEEDIE B:"Wow, I'd like to shout out my Hunts Point Crew. I'd like to give a RIP to DJ Dice. Shoutouts to Tim (T.T. La Rock), G-Man, Barbara Jones....Yeah, my family and that's it!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Thank you very much for this interview! Shout outs to T.T. La Rock for making this happen! Shout outs to my Intruders Crew! Shout outs to Sureshot La Rock, Kenny IB, Input MZK, Leon Skee NHS! UKUMBAMBISANA!! Shout outs to Pete Nice! Shout outs to my mentors Trixie, Dancin' Doug, Cholly Rock, Sondance, Puppetmaster, Wayne Will (RIP) and of course Mr. Wiggles!! Shout outs to Troy L. Smith."