Interview with MC Wally G (The High Quality Crew)

                                             Interview with MC Wally G (The High Quality Crew)

                                 

MC Wally G (The High Quality Crew)

                                   conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders Crew / Germany) 

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

WALLY G:"I was born in New York Hospital on 1st Avenue in New York City."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, and in which year were you born?"

WALLY G:"1961."

SIR NORIN RAD:"In which section of the Bronx did you grow up?"

WALLY G:"Primarily Washington Avenue in an area called Claremont Village. But I didn't live in the projects, I lived in the tenement across the street. They used to play us like we was "Good Times" and they were "The Jeffersons"...if you know th difference in the text brackets. I used to have to fight to play in all them playgrounds.  That's how I got popular as a kid 'cause I won the fights."

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

WALLY G:"Well, for the most part my dad was a Jazz aficionado. So I was surrounded with Jazz all along. Oscar Brown Jr., Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, you know what I'm saying, John Coltrane and some of them used to frequent our house when I was a kid." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Which role played James Brown in your musical upbringing?"

WALLY G:"James Brown was undeniable!!! You know, mommy dug Jazz, too, but mommy was hardcore R&B and James Brown was undeniable! You know, I go back to the days of "Please, Please, Please", "Cold Sweat". You know, I go back! "Give It Up Or Turn It A Loose"...that's a B-Boy national anthem right there!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What is your earliest recollection of DJs playing Breakbeats in the park or at a block party?"

WALLY G:"I'll share with you if you don't mind how I saw the development of the DJ in the park. We used to have jams in the street and it would be live bands playing Top 40 stuff, doing whatever they wanted to do with the songs. A lot of extra drums, whatever. Repeating the chorusses over and over so the people got involved. And then that transitioned into DJs coming out with them, you understand? Like between sets the DJ would plug his stuff to the speakers and he would play his records while the band was taking a break. And we would just go around and be like,"See they're jamming over here! They're jamming over there!" And I saw the transition when the bands fell off and the DJs just was prominent.  It was outdoor jams..like every four blocks or so you would find those jams in the Bronx. But as far as those Breakbeats you speak of I heard them in a park. There was a DJ called Grandmaster Flowers who wasn't necessarily what you would call a Hiphop DJ but I remember he played "The Mexican". I was also around DJ Smokey. I was kind of little then but I went up there with Smokey and them and heard some stuff but they was kinda G'd up for me at the age of 13. Still, I hung out for a couple of times but where it really locked, where I really got my nourishment from as I call it was from Kool DJ Herc."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was it like for you to be at a Kool DJ Herc party?"

WALLY G:"My father used to run a club called The Top Of The Lane. I think  it was on 140 or 141 Featherbed Lane. It was an afterhour spot for the most part for all the big hustlers. Nicky Barnes, Frank Lucas...all of them used to be there. Even Frank Matthews. My father knew Frank Mathhews. Anyway, there was a juke box and the story goes that somebody used to rent out that juke box and it broke. Not sure how. My father wanted to throw a big party for a few of the big ballers of the day. He had a large VIP area in the basement, too. My pops called his pops or somebody and they sent Kool Herc with his system there.  That's how he first got into The Top Of The lane. I was around 13 and my job was simply to clean up the club, me and my little brother. He was like 9. Me and him would clean up the club and we would be hanging out on the weekends. In the summertime we'd be there during the week. Kool Herc would be there and I heard him play "The Mexican", "It's Just Begun","Bongo Rock". I saw Coke La Rock doing the fake echo chamber and then they really got the echo chamber. I was there when they said,"Yes, yes, y'all!!" Checking the echo chamber. I can't give you the exact year but I was like in first year of high school.  I was like in the 9th grade when all this was popping. So that would be like 1975 then."

SIR NORIN RAD:"The Top Of The Lane was located on the westside of the Bronx, right?"

WALLY G:"Yes, it was."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you also witness B-Boys going off at Kool DJ Herc's parties?"

WALLY G:"Oh, come on, man! Hell yeah! (laughs). I seen the Ni**er Twins, El Dorado Mike. El Dorado Mike wasn't a famous B-Boy but he could do that move where he dropped that leg behind his  other leg and do the spin and he was able to spin continously. One night I remember he said,"I will hit 29 spins!" and I saw him do that. I saw Sasa and James Bond. I seen a lot of them, man. I couldn't remember all their names off the top of the head but the ones that stand out for me are the Ni**er Twins, El Dorado Mike, Sasa and James Bond."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe what the Top Of The Lane looked like!"

WALLY G:"Okay. You come in the door...there's a little doorway so to speak and then the dancefloor is right there to your right. The dancefloor might have been about 150 feet...barely more and then straight in front of the door that you came in...the bar is beyond the dancefloor that way. When you come through the door to the right is where the staging area was for the DJ. You know, that's their stage there. And then right past there there's another room which my father called it the VIP section 'cause everybody ain't go back there. And there was a couple of cushioned booths around the edges of it.  And then there was a place downstairs where nobody from the party ever went to but that's where some of the bigger players would go and have what I call extracurricular activities. Like they kept somebody upstairs that would go down there to entertain them."

SIR NORIN  RAD:"Please explain how watching and hearing Coke La Rock talking on the microphone affected you!"

WALLY G:"Well, I thought Coke La Rock was as cool as they come. It wasn't a lot of stuff like Melle Mel and them did but he was just cool, man!!! And listen: Just for the record...at that time I didn't have many interactions with them. They all were like 4, 5 years older than me. I was a little dude to them so to speak, you understand? But how it impacted me... I felt like I belong...like I was a part of  something special. And how I picked up the microphone....actually, I was in a marching band called Lancers. A guy named Eric Wilson used to bring his stereo equipment to the Headquarters and play and we would have parties on the weekends. And then there was a club upstairs called the Sweet Tree and sooner or later my man DJ Formalo...our DJ... got up to play in the Sweet Tree. By that time he had got equipment and stuff and we were like his friendling MCees. We started making up rhymes and getting down with DJ Formalo. The people..when they came to our parties..we didn't have a name..they called us the HQ Crew because the place we was at was called Headquarters. A couple of years later we started thinking,"Yo, we're bigger than Headquarters!" And we came up with the name High Quality to match the acronym we already had. We would say, "High Quality is more than a name. It's a state of mind!""  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Let's talk about the Kool DJ Herc parties a little bit longer. What would you do at these parties at The Top Of The Lane?"

WALLY G:"I would alternate 'cause sometimes it would be my turn to be the bartender. At other times I would just be bouncing around and I would be right there with them. Like I'm in the circle screaming- Hollering and screaming when they would do some incredible stuff. You know, the thing that still stands out to me was El Dorado Mike doing his spins. Like doing them for a minute. I remember Crusher. He used to take his hat off called the Crusher. He used to flip his hat off and do some dances around the hat. It was great!"  

SIR NORIN RAD:"What kind of effect did the music at Kool DJ Herc's parties have on you?"

WALLY G:"It was like a swimming pool. You was immersed into the sound. It hugged you. It enveloped you, you understand? And at the same time it was soothing. It wasn't scary. It was exciting. It was no escaping. You was a part of it. Like I never was on that B-Boy level but I did my share of Breaking, too. I used to Breakdance with Flash and them before he even got a sound system." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"That means you must have been to such places as 23 Park, Mitchell Gym etc."

WALLY G:"Yeah, I have been to Mitchell Gym. I've been to 23 Park. My primary place though was 63 Park. The L-Brothers, Flash, Busy Bee and all of them used to be over there 'cause by this time I might have been 16 or 17. We already had our equipment. So the HQ Crew was in  the parks, too, simultaneously while all this other stuff was going on. I remember going to parks to see Kool Herc on the westside of the Bronx. It wasn't necessarily to see Herc. I just heard, "They're jamming up there! They got a wild crowd!" So we're going up there. By 1977/1978 we was full-fledged. Like every other weekend we'd be outside with 500 to 1000 people." 

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

WALLY G:"It was about the girls, man! You see, the girls was sweating the dudes with the dance moves so I had to get me some moves!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you describe your style of Breaking back then?"

WALLY G:"Like me personally...once the dance went to the floor and gymnastics got involved in  it I fell back 'cause my thing to this day is footwork and little poses and stuff like that."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What do you remember about DJ Smokey's parties?"

WALLY G:"I didn't have a lot of interactions with him but that's where the B-Boys would be....at Smokey's house. I think he lived on the 5th floor so you would be going up there and on your way up you would pass everybody in the hallway. They would also be hanging out in front of the building. And it was every room.. when you got in there you would see some of the most phenomenal B-Boy shit!! Like I remember being amazed like,"How did they do that?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please break down how you met the Rockmaster DJ Formalo!"

WALLY G:"Formalo was a member of the Lancers before I was. He was a drummer. So was Eric. They was the first DJs down there but then we hooked up with Formalo and before we established ourseves as an actual group which is called the HQ Crew DJ Formalo was already connected with DJ Abel on Webster Avenue. Then we made a transition around 1979. It was no more DJ Abel and them. It was Rockmaster DJ Formalo & The HQ Brothers. When we started their career was over.  None of them could compete with DJ Formalo and none of their MCees could mess with us. Our system wasn't as loud as Herc's but it was quality and it reasonated. There is a school called 132 on the corner of 168th Street & Park Avenue. It's a full playground area with basketball courts behind it which stretches out for like three quarters of a long city block. We used to fill that whole space with people! "

Rockmaster DJ Formalo (The High Quality Crew)

SIR NORIN RAD:"Are you also familiar with DJ Tibbs and DJ Charlie Rock from Tibby Tibbs Productions?"

WALLY G:"Yeah, DJ Charlie Rock is my brother-in-law. Me and his sister was  a couple. I got kids with Charlie Rock's older sister. Yeah, I remember them. They was popping, too, but I'm telling you once the HQ Crew came out Claremont Village was ours for like three or four years in a row."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it accurate to say that the HQ Crew came out of the Lancers?"

WALLY G:"It happened organically. Everybody who was there we considered them HQ Brothers 'cause they was all at the Headquarters and they was all in the band but the performers was just a few of us."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What caused you to start MCing?"

WALLY G:"Curiosity, see if I could do it. Plus I had been writing poetry since the 6th grade. So I gave it a shot. I made a couple of rhymes up that people seemed to like and I have been writing ever since."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Which MCees were the ones that inspired you?"

WALLY G:"It was the Furious. Hands down. It was the Furious Five. It was the Furious Four first , then it turned to Furious Five. Melle Mel and Kid Creole blew my mind when I heard that, "From the World Trade to the dephts of hell !!" It was something about that. We used to buy their live tapes."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was the name of the store where you bought these live tapes from?"

WALLY G:"From a record shop called the Funk Factory. It was selling cassettes."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you find out about these live tapes?"

WALLY G:"I went to the junior high school right down the block from where the record store was.  I went to 148."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you also go and watch the Furious MCees perform with Grandmaster Flash?"

WALLY G:"Yeah, like I said I knew Mel and his girlfriend Melanie from going to Melanie's house. Playing spades, drinking beer, smoking weed and breakdancing in the living room. And then we went to some Black Door jams by Forest Avenue. I seen them in the big park. They were very organized and professional as kids, as youngsters, you dig? And they sort of set the  framework. They were the prototype if you will. And we had MCees as well. The writing of rhymes almost became competitive. I would write something and then Charlie Rock would write something and then Skip La Rock would write something. Then we got Acie Ace Barday down with us. God bless the dead! He came from another group called Phase 2. When he got with us the chemistry was undeniable. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe the role of each MC within the High Quality Four MCees!"

WALLY G:"The most animated MC and the one who interacted the most with the crowd was Acie Ace Barday. He talked to the people. I'm highly animated, too, and generally when we did our routines I would go first 'cause I always get up. I could get a hit, a base hit, you understand? And then Acie Ace Barday or Skip La Rock would get on after me to maintain the vibe that I established and then Acie Ace would turn it up. And then Charlie Rock more than likely would be last and he would bring us home. His delivery was reasonating. You know, the way he delivered. He made a statement with every sentence. So I would say Acie Ace was that guy wih the crowd interaction stuff. I was more sceurity. Yeah, I have been known to confront people at the parties for just standing around ice grillling. I was like,"We're at a party so why are you looking like you wanna fight, yo??" You know, I would step to your business. Yeah, I would go to the crowd with a long ass cord confronting the gangsters."

                                                              

MC Acie Ace Barday (The High Quality Four MCees)

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you come up with new concepts for your live shows?"

WALLY G:"Good question! We didn't use this language but it was like a brainstorming session. Somebody heard a beat that they liked. We're the first persons that ever used Isaac Hayes' "Ike's Mood". Nobody used it. We didn't hear it nowhere. We was fishing through beats and my man DJ Formalo sped the beat up and we fell in love with it. And that routine there became our theme song. Now as far these sessions went we would tell each other ,"Yo, that's whack!" And then you'd go back and you'd write some more trying to come up with something better." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who would propose the beats for your live shows?"

WALLY G:"DJ Formalo had a great ear. He knew our voices and he knew our rhyming patterns. He would show us beats and ask us, "You wanna do something with this?" or, "What can you do with this?" And then we would give it a shot. Different people would take the lead on different routines, you know? We also had a routine called "Funky Fresh." We did that over "T Plays It Cool" by Marvin Gaye. We trusted DJ Formalo. If Formalo gave us something we knew it was gold. And for the record: the confidence you feel when you know the DJ behind you is not gonna do some random shit while you're spitting your lyrics....'cause you know DJ Formalo is a drummer! He keeps the beat and he's a true master at at.  DJ Formalo actually put Frankie Beverly back on the map. I don't care if people give it to DJ Hollywood and all that. DJ Formalo was the one who put Frankie Beverly back on the map with that "Before I Let Go" song. God bless the dead! DJ Formalo did a lot for the culture of Hiphop and really didn't get recognized on the level he warranted. And I'm gonna share that because we was doing it for the love. We were basically talents. There was no business format. There was no business protocoll. We just did it 'cause we loved it. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did DJ Formalo live at? Did he live at 168th Street & Webster Avenue?"

WALLY G:"Yeah, right on the corner."

Rockmaster DJ Formalo (The HQ Crew) with Pow Wow (The Zulu Kings/ The Soul Sonic Force) and Lil Rodney Cee (The Magnificent Seven/ The Funky Four Plus One) 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, and where was DJ Easy Bee's apartment?"

WALLY G:"He lived on 500 East 171st Street, right off 3rd Avenue."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did you rehearse at? At DJ Formalo's house?"

WALLY G:"No, no, we never rehearsed at Formalo's house. We was at Easy Bee's house and then we went to Skip La Rock's house which became our new headquarter."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where was that?"

WALLY G:"At this time it was on Fulton Avenue & 172nd Street across the street from Crotona Park."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please break down how you came up with new concepts for your DJ/MC shows! To me it seeems that this is truly a lost art."

WALLY G:"Okay, in the beginning stages we spent a lot of time at DJ Easy Bee's house but once we started getting established and Skip La Rock got a bigger space that's when we went to Skip La Rock's house. We would meet there every Friday, coming up with stuff and bouncing it around in the living room over each other and then we'd do it as a unit. And then more than likely we'd be jamming somewhere on Saturday and then Sunday we'd go back to Skip La Rock's house. We would talk about what we did wrong or what we could do better. We would talk about the fun we had. And that pretty much was it...Fridays to Sundays." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you actually analyzed what went wrong?"

WALLY G:"Yeah, well it was organic. Form follows function. I look back at it and see the form but when we was doing it, it was organic. We was just hanging out. We used to go hang out at Skip's house 'cause he was the only one who had his own spot. I lived with my parents, Ace lived with his parents....So the place to hang out was Skip La Rock's house and since we would all do that it was an organic thing."

                                                   

MC Skip La Rock (The High Quality Four)

SIR NORIN RAD:"What were some of the mistakes that an MC could make during a live performance?"

WALLY G:"It wasn't a lot of like major mess ups but sometimes you would miss a line and make up another line or you don't come in on time because you're so caught up in the crowd or watching one of your MC brothers and so you would actually miss your first couple of lines. What was good about that is we all knew each others verses so if it's my turn and I slip it Skip La Rock would step right up and I would go, "Oh!" and then I would catch the second line. Stuff like that. We'd laugh about it. And then another thing...and I don't wanna sound like conceited or arrogant but I'm like a Freestyle guy. Like I can rhyme right now while we're talking and I don't know why and I'm gonna demonstrate it as I speak to you, you understand!?  This is just one of the things that I happen to do. I could be on a stage and seem like I broke out of a cage and the people say,"Wow!" And they get  all enraged because of the stuff I do on stage. You see how I do that while I'm talking to you?  I do it at a party  and I say rhymes and I don't remember what I said. And they say,"Yo, Wally G! That shit you said was crazy!!! Say that shit again!" I say,"What are you talking about?" And more often than not Skip La Rock would remember it. And then we'd put that in our next routine."

MC Charlie Rock (The High Quality Four)

SIR NORIN RAD:"So going off the top was already around in the late 1970ies?"

WALLY G:"Definetely! Definetely! It's a freedom! Yo Norin, that's a freedom that you gonna feel on stage. When you're connecting with the crowd they are not necessarily looking for perfection. I just share me with the people and they feel the honesty. They are also very forgiving if you fuck up a line here and there as long as you give it your all." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please name all the outdoor locations where the High Quality used to throw parties at!"

WALLY G:"Well, like I said earlier 132 Park on 168th Street & Park Avenue. That's a school.  Another one was 110 Schoolyard. That's about a block away from that on 170th Street & Washington Avenue. We was in front of 1460 Washington Avenue. We did a couple of jams over at Crotona Park, not often though. Just a couple of times. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"What about the indoor spots?"

WALLY G:"Well, we performed at the T-Connection with the Cold Crush Brothers. People would invite us to do parties. The one place that we rocked consistently for about one year was the club 371."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Was that a Hiphop club? I heard that the 371 was DJ Hollywood's place."

WALLY G:"Yes, and I don't know what was going on with DJ Hollywood but he abandoned this spot. He was missing in action or whatever and our DJ Formalo was already playing in there and we would come through and do a set here and there. But when DJ Hollywood disappeared for one year to 18 months that was HQ Crew's house."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever battle against other DJ/MC crews?"

WALLY G:"Nah! People tried but....like Cold Crush packed up. Easy AD lived in 1460 Washington Avenue where we used to rock in front of and one day we heard that the Cold Crush came out and was setting their system up while we was playing. So we was ready!!! And then they just packed up and left. So no, we didn't have to battle them. I don't know what went wrong with their stuff but they didn't do it. We had another cat named Pre Sweet. What's the name of his crew?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"The TR Nation."

WALLY G:"Oh, you be knowing!!! Yo, you know your stuff! Anyway, TR Nation tried to come at us a couple of times but they packed up. We didn't go head to head like this, like on the same stage. They would be half a block away from us, setting up. Then they would be packing up 'cause all the people came to us. If you wanna call that a battle then that's how we won them. And then it got to the point that we was tempted to battle the L-Brothers 'cause 63 Park stayed crowded. But we didn't have to 'cause we kept playing Claremont Village Pool."

The TR Nation

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

WALLY G:"The rhymes had to be tight.....one. Personality.....two. Crowd engagement...three.  Like, "Say Hooooo!" And then fourth you had to look good. You had to have clean sneakers on. And women needed to like you 'cause if the women like you all the dudes are coming. We had that sing-song-style and the girls loved it."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did looking fly entail back then?"

WALLY G:"Some crispy jeans, sneakers and a knit. Like we wore jeans but Skip La Rock was more fly. He was the first one to wear all this jewelry. Back in the beginning of it they had a jeans called Lee Rider. They was really big bell bottoms. We used to fold them up and they would be so stiff from the starch in them that we would use them like a bag. We put bottles of beer in them, you know what I mean? It was crazy, man. The Kangol hats. I still wear them today. We wore stuff like what I seen you put pictures up of, Norin. Yeah, that was it, man. Pro-Keds was fading out in the late 1970ies. We wore British Walkers. Some were still wearing Playboys but not a lot."

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did the Ballys enter Hiphop fashion?"

WALLY G:"Doug E Fresh put them on the map. They wasn't big until  Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick put them out there. They came later like in 1985."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What are your top 3 breakbeats?"

WALLY G:"Hold up! Is it the beats that we used to perform on or the beats we danced to?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Well, you can talk about both."

WALLY G:"The ones we performed the best on was "Ike's Mood" and "T Plays It Cool". As far as the B-Boy Breakbeats go...for me it was "It's Just Begun", "Listen To Me", "Give It Up Or Turn It A Loose" and every so often somebody would play "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & The Drells. Those are the ones that stand out the most for me."

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

WALLY G:"Yes, I wanna shout out the HQ Brothers!!! I wanna shout out Rockmaster DJ Formalo! Rest In Peace! Shoutouts to my family, my kids, my grandkids, you know what I mean?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Thank you for this interview!