Interview with MC Stanie Stan (The Supreme Masters)

Stanie Stan (The Supreme Masters)

                                         conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders / Germany)



SIR NORIN RAD:"From which part of the Boogie Down are you originally?"

STANIE STAN:"I'm originally from the South Bronx...Washington Avenue...170th street...1420, Bronx New York. That's the Claremont Projects, Washington Avenue..that's across from Webster....Webster that's where DJ Tibby Tibbs and DJ Charlie Rock were from."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What made you pick up the art of MCing? Who inspired you to do that?"

STANIE STAN:"That was MC Cowboy from Grandmaster Flash. That was actually before Mr. Ness joined The 3 MCs and they became The Furious 4. Mr. Ness who later on called himself Scorpio lived in my building at that time...in 1420." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you join the Supreme Masters from John Adams Houses?"

STANIE STAN:"Well, when I went to junior high school I used to write poetry and most of my poetry was in rhymes at that time, you know? So then one day I met Mike Ski (one of the MCs of The Supreme Masters). We went to the same high school..to I.S. 184 which is not too far from John Adams. It was the first year that this school was open, it was a bilingual school. So we both went there together and he had a brother that we hung out with and who was DJing... like in the house. His name was DJ Capricorn. I got to see his equipment and I was like,"Wow! That's kinda interesting!" Mike Ski said to me, "Yo, you're doing poetry...that's the same thing! Just get on the mic and say some of your poetry rhymes!" You know, so I got on the mic and tried it and I liked it and after that I started writing rhymes. He was the one that gave me the name Stanie Stan 'cause I was called Stan The Man. He was like, "Nah, man! Everybody calls himself Stan The Man. Just use something different! Stanie Stan...use that as your MC name!"  I said, "Aight, that'll work!" And he started rhyming at the same time, too but he called himself Mike Ski. It came from the Ski Brothers. It was Mike Ski, Rob Ski and Tip Ski. Rob Ski didn't get down with us but Mike Ski and Tip Ski they became the Ski Brothers. They was known to everybody as the Ski Brothers, they used to rock around John Adams and Tip Ski also became my partner. Tip Ski was from where Kool DJ AJ was from....from Moore Houses. He used to come to where we was at. He saw us and the soundsystem that we used and he kinda liked it. We put him to a test on the mic and I told these guys once we decided to form a group, "Yo, I like the way he rhymes! He should be down with us!" And there was another guy named Gerald that lived in the building across the street. He lived in 700, that's in John Adams...and we called him Holiday. So after that it was me, Mike Ski, Tip Ski, Holiday, DJ Smokey (not to be confused with the legendary DJ Smoke (y) from Grant Avenue), DJ Capricorn. We also had a guy that we called Dondee who used to put the wires together, who made sure that the amp was on, you know stuff like that. Then we had a guy that was called BC. He played guitar so he would add some guitar speakers to our soundsystem. What else? Then we had another guy...he was good with records so he used to help us out with records and stuff. He used to DJ as well, his DJ name was DJ Savoir Faire...he was from Manhattan but he used to always come down with us.  And then Kool DJ AJ (RIP) of course... he used to live on St. Mary's...he used to come through and check out other groups trying to find talent. So he came through one time and he saw us in the park  and he liked the way we played and he was like, "I'm gonna put you guys under my wing. I'm gonna bring you with me to the clubs and stuff like that!" So he would take us to the clubs to perform there."

SIR NORIN RAD:"You also had a DJ called Shane, right?"

STANIE STAN:"Yeah, DJ Shane...we called him The Spinmaster. At that time those three DJs were the best to me....when we came out...'cause we stayed undefeated. Everywhere we went, we played..no one could defeat us. We had tapes all over the places. There are a couple of records out there that people actually stole our rhymes. At that time we didn't know about copyright. I don't even wanna say the names of the groups that took our stuff. Yeah, so our DJs had three different styles of DJing. They all were nice!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"So who was the founding father of the Supreme Masters?"

STANIE STAN:"DJ Smokey..'cause he was really the one who had equipment before Capricorn and Mike Ski had it. We used to go to his house first. He was the one who started with the turntables and stuff like that, yeah."

SIR NORIN RAD:"And when did the Supreme Masters form as a group?"

STANIE STAN:"About 1977/78....before we started playing at clubs we used to play in the streets...you know, hook up our stuff to a lamp post. We used to go to different places. We used to go to Forest (Houses), we used to go to Castle Hill, battle guys up there. Then later on when people asked us about doing records we didn't care about that.We did it for the love of it...for the good times...we only wanted to make some money, get the girls, get high, that's about it. To be frank."    

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was the stomping ground of the Supreme Masters?"

STANIE STAN:"We owned John Adams park. That was our park. You couldn't come in there and play music without battling us. That park was right there between 700 and 720."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Now as far as the MC section of the Supreme Masters is concerned who was the leader of that?"

STANIE STAN:"Well, I was the leader....'cause they put me as the leader. I actually put the MCs together. I picked Holiday, I picked Mike Ski and I put Tip Ski down. I was the one who thought of most of our routines, I'm the one who told everybody to write rhymes. I was the one who had the microphones and if you wasn't doing well...like if you was stuttering on the mic or you wasn't delivering your rhymes correctly because you had drunk too much or whatever I would tell you to take a seat...I was like,"Yo, you gotta get off the mic. The rest of us will take over till you got yourself together!" I was the one that got the routines together, you know, the dance steps...stuff like that. As I said we played mostly outside but in 1979 we performed at places like the Celebrity Club, the Audubon Ballroom, the Sparkle."

April 15th, 1979: The Supreme Masters perform at the Celebrity Club

SIR NORIN RAD: "How much effort would you put into your stage shows?"

STANIE STAN:"Believe it or not, we practiced everyday! I stopped going to school just to practice. That's why we were one of the best. Our routines were tight, our DJs were tight...as I said we had Dondee who was like our engineer and he also was like our record boy. He actually got the records and set them up. He had to make sure that he watched our crates so that nobody would steal our records. You know, he would also cover the labels up so that nobody saw the labels and knew what our beats were, you know what I mean? We would practice everyday, we just cut classes and we would practice. After we left junior high school me and Mike Ski went to Samuel Gompers High School. Keith Keith from The Funky Four went there as well. I was a little older than him. Him and K.K. Rockwell knew me and I would go to their parties and listen to DJ Breakout and DJ Baron. They had the Mighty Sasquatch soundsystem and they had the Funky Four with Sha Rock. That was like the first I had ever seen a female MC and I was like, "Wow, she's kinda nice!" You know, she was even better than some of the guys. So I said, "Yo, we gotta tighten up!" That was also the first time that I ever heard the echo chamber after they had Sha Rock. I was like, "Wow, they have an echo chamber!" And they had these McIntosh horns on stands and they also had mic stands. So, you know, they went from holding regular microphones to microphone stands where they was like a group. Like The Temptations! So I was like, "They got microphone stands and everything. We gotta get some routines together and stuff like that!" We had three DJs because Grandmaster Flash used to have three DJs at one time ( Grandmaster Flash, Disco Bee, DJ EZ Mike) and in the beginning he had three MCs so we had four...one more. Then later they got four MCs and then they got five 'cause you know Rahiem left The Funky Four and joined Flash and them. They changed from Furious Four to Furious Five."

 

April 13th, 1979: The Supreme Masters peform at the Audubon Ballroom

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where would you practice at? Would you practice at your crib because you were the captain of the MCs or would you practice at Smokey's house?"

STANIE STAN:"Remember I lived on 170th & Washington Avenue...Claremont....on the other side. I used to go to John Adams so much that people thought I lived over there. That's how much I practiced over there...every day!! To this day some people probably gonna say, "Stanie Stan lived over here." I never lived over there. I used to spend the nights, stay over there. So we used to practice at Smokey's house. Smokey lived on 13B, Dondee lived on 10A and Capricorn and Mike Ski lived on 12B (all in the same building). So we used to pracice at Mike's and Capricorn's house. Their mother went to work like 8 o'clock in the morning. We played in there to like 3 o'clock, act like we went to school. We would also practice at Smokey's house. 13B. He had all the equipment but sometimes it was hard for us to take all the equipment and go downstairs to Mike's & Cap's house. So we was like, "Nah, let's keep it up there!" And then we would practice in Smokey's house. A lot of times though when we took the equipment downstairs to Mike Ski's and Capricorn's we had almost like a little party there...we called it hookie party.  We had everybody from the neighbourhood that didn't go to school come in, smoke weed, drinke 40 oz of Old English, you know what I mean, and party with us. So that's how we got good, that's why our routines were so good because we hit them where they was at. They let you do your thing because they liked you. So we were like, "Now we're set! Now we can go outside!"That's how we did!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"You said that you would also incorporate dance steps into your live show. So does that mean that MCing wasn't just about rapping?"

STANIE STAN:"Nah, nah, nah......even the clothes that we wore!!!  You couldn't just wear regular clothes as a MC. You had to come out looking like a star! We used to starch our pants! You know, the jeans? The crease was so tight it stuck out.  We used to wear hats. All the fresh stuff that you had, you wore that. You couldn't come out looking like you just came home from work. You had to look like you're a star."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you also come out with a uniform look sometimes? Like wearing sweaters in the colour?"

STANIE STAN:"Sometimes we came out with the jeans with our names written on the side. We were one of the first guys starting the graffiti writing on the sides of our pants. We had the name of our crew on the side of our pants and we had the jacket and the hat to match. It was done by a graffiti artist ( a writer)..I forgot his name. Later on you would see a lot of other groups like The Funky Four...they started doing designs on their pants. A lot of other crews also started wearing tuxedos...they started getting fresh....you know, like the Cold Crush. Everybody was fresh back then. You wore the best stuff that you had. Leather pants...you know, you had your medallions. At that time you had silver medallions. Silver was big back then. You had your silver medallion on and, you know, your house medallion. Back then you had to be clean. Put it that way. " 

SIR NORIN RAD:"So looking fly was an integral part of being a MC?"

STANIE STAN:"You had to be fly! Like I said....everything that was hot back then..if you're a MC you should have it. If it was Cazals, you should have Cazals. If it was Kangols, you should have Kangols. If it was Super Pro-Keds, you should have Super-Pro-Keds. They shouldn't be dirty, they should be fresh out the box!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Let's talk about the coreography that you used for your live shows back then. What was it like?"

STANIE STAN:"We had choreography stuff like a mix of The Temptations and The Jackson Five. Do a few steps, turn around, spin..you know, stuff like that. We even had a thing with our DJ. Basically what the DJ's would do was play a breakbeat and turn the music off then he would count in his head till he get to the breakbeat then he would hit the mixer and beat would be on time. And at that time the crowd would be amazed so it look like he wasn't counting it just look like he just walked away from turntable "

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would a typical rehearsal of the Supreme Masters go do down back then? Were there any rules that had to be observed and that were enforced by you as the leader of the crew?"

STANIE STAN:"Yeah! It was like...if you didn't show up on time or stuff like that a lot of times you had to sit down...like a punishment..you won't get on the mic that day.  You just sit there and watch the rest of us practice. Next time when you're on time you'll be part of the routine but right now you don't seem like you wanna get down. They left that up to me, they was like, "Yo, you gotta get these guys tight!" These three guys were tight as DJs. They worked together on their stuff, you know?  So while they were practicing their tricks and all that stuff, you had me and the other MCs get together on the other side. They would say to us, "Listen, we got a new beat. Check out this new beat! Would you guys like to do something with this beat?" So we would be like, "Yeah, we could do something with that! We gonna do a rehearsal." Everybody would contribute ideas. Like,"Yo, I like this beat! We could to this....blah, blah, blah" So then we would say,"Okay, we gonna try this out. We'll work on it today and tomorrow and Thursday we gonna bring some people upstairs and we gonna try this routine out and if they don't like then we're not going to do it outside in the park." People would come to our crib and we would ask them, "Yo,  you like that routine?" And they'd be like,"The first routine you did was hot, the second routine...I don't know man..it was kinda weak. The first one was dope, you should do that!"So I was like, "Oh really, okay we gonna keep that one and we gonna trash the second one." Sometimes we would try to fix it up though. It actually took sometimes a week or two before we got to the point where everybody knew their rhymes because remember at time it was a lot about harmony. Like if I say a rhyme, you say that rhyme at the same time. Stuff like you see the basketball players now doing handshakes. People were like, "Wow, that's wild! They are all doing the handshake at the same time?" You know, it was a little something that made that made us look like we were tight...which we were!!"
 

The DJs of the Supreme Masters setting up their equipment in John Adams Park

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who was in charge of providing your crew with new beats?"

STANIE STAN:"It was everybody! Everybody helped us. If he hears something that is funky he brings it to us and we check it out. I brought that Ottis Redding beat "Tramp".....back before they was playing it. DJ Savoir Faire...he was from Manhattan so he would always bring us Manhattan beats  that hadn't gotten to the Bronx yet. He was like, "Yo, this is what they're playing Uptown!" We'd be like, "Word? Show us!" He'd be like, "Yo, this is the beat! Check it out!" He was DJing, too, so he had a lot of beats. But everybody chipped in with beats. And a lot of times we would go to other DJs jams and we would listen to the stuff they played. Then we had Stanley Patron a drummer that played for Evelyn Champagne King that gave us a lot of beats 'cause  he had a Billy Cobham record called "Pocket Change" that we used to play all the time. It was a drumbeat that he used to practice off. He told us, "Yo, you gotta use this beat! Nobody has this!" That was our secret weapon. When we brought that up we were the first ones with that record. Cats were like,"What the hell are these guys playing?"A lot of people used to come to our parties like Grandmaster Flash, Busy Bee Starksi, Lovebug Starski..Then there was DJ Supreme from Forest with his crew. They had a crazy soundsystem!!! It was off the chain! They kinda ruled Forest but we ruled John Adams. We was so good! There was a gang called The Wales Crew from around there. Back then there were many of these gangs...like Grandmaster Flash had the Casanovas. So when we played in John Adams they were like, "Yo, this our block. We run things over here!" They were the big gang over there...terrorizing...you know, doing whatever they got to do. They asked us,"So you are the Supreme Masters? Can we use your name ?" So they changed their name to Supreme Wales Crew and they used to be at all our jams. They were like our protectors...if any other crews (gangs) came in there and tried to start fuck with us...you know, they would just look out for us. They made sure nothing jumped off or chased the guys out of there."

SIR NORIN RAD:"And I guess they would also protect your equipment?"

STANIE STAN:"Yeah, back then you had people who would take your stuff so they made sure nobody took our equipment after it was all over and we had to pack it up and take it upstairs. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where would you draw your inspirations for routines from?"

STANIE STAN:"We would even take nursery rhymes and if it sounded good enough we would make a routine out of it. We would keep the melody but just change the words."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you also use songs that were played on the radio like the Cold Crush Four did?"

STANIE STAN:"Yeah, we would take some stuff that was played on the radio, too. Like "Rock The Boat" by The Hues Corporation. Even commercials....like we had a routine from The Adams Family. We used to make our rhymes off to that."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Since you had three DJs in your crew how would they divide up the time on the turntables between each other when you were rocking in John Adams Park?"

STANIE STAN:"It was according to who was actually hot that day, like who was really on point that day. DJ Capricorn used to stay on more than everybody else 'cause he was the one that practiced the most. That's why his name stayed on top over everybody. DJ Smokey was second and then DJ Shane was like the last. Certain beats Shane could cut like unbelievable, certain beats he was just good with. So he would be the last, he was like the anchor. So when he got on he just tore the show up 'cause we would cut the records that he could play best. Capricorn always set it off and got everybody hyped up. He was the one that a lot of people like myself would MC for first. Then we switched back and forth. You know, I would rhyme a little bit for Smokey and then I would rhyme a little bit for Shane."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So you would rhyme together as a MC unit as well as individually to showcase your skillset, is that correct?"

STANIE STAN:"Right, right, we would do our group thing  then we would stop the group thing where everybody would do their solo stuff to show how nice you are as a MC. Then there was nobody there and it was all on you. Like can you hold your yourself? And we all could hold us on our own!! Me and Tip Ski were the two best MCs of the group and so we would travel to other places challenging and battling other MCs. Mike Ski and Holiday wouldn't come with us. We got on other people's systems and destroyed their MCs. Back then it was like, "Oh you think you're better than my MCs?" And we'd be like, "Yeah, we're better than you guys!" And so we got on there solo and destroyed them."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How were these solo MC battles done back then? Was it like today? No beats and abusing and threatening each other verbally?"

STANIE STAN:"No, you would do it over beats! Whatever beat there was! A lot of times you didn't get the chance to choose your beat let alone your DJ. And so the other DJ might play some whack ass beat to make you look bad. So you had to have the skills to take that whack beat and make it phat, you know what I mean?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"And crews used to battle each other with their whole performance, right?"

STANIE STAN:"That's right! And it wasn't about fighting...at the end of the day we were shaking hands and we'd be like,"Yo, you're nice!" or "You know what? We would like to battle you guys next week!"  So you would go home and practice and then you'd go back and try to win. Back then it wasn't about dissing...I mean you might say some little things but most of the time it was all about how nice your rhymes were. We wasn't really going to like talking about your mother or your sister.  You would talk about your yourself. Like, "I'm this and that! I'm the nicest out here! Nobody can touch me!"One of my rhymes was like, "If you wondering just who I am..party people, they call me Stanie Stan! Now let me tell you just what I gonna do, I'm gonna do a little something just for you! I'm gonna rap on this mic and make you all dance! But all you gotta do is just give me a chance! Now to prove my point in my own way,  well I'm Stanie Stan y'all and I'm here to stay! I was born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in the Bronx and this is the way I learn to rock the spot Some people say I'm on then on, when I rap on the mic till the break of dawn. You know, stuff like that! That was one of the rhymes from back in the days. It was clean, no cursing and we just had fun. That's what it was all about. Telling you who was the best, who was the nicest."

SIR NORIN RAD:"After a while the Supreme Masters would add another MC to its roster namely Sham La Rock. How and when did he join your crew?"

STANIE STAN:"Sham La Rock joined the crew around 1979. We've been friends since the third grade. I told him how to write rhymes he was always around the crew since day one so he want to be a part of the team so we put him down. And believe it or not he was crazy nice on the microphone!"

The Supreme Masters: (standing from left to right) DJ Shane, DJ Capricorn, Mike Ski (kneeling from left to right) Sham La Rock, Stanie Stan

SIR NORIN RAD:"How long did the Supreme Masters last? You said you started in 1977..."

STANIE STAN:"1977.We lasted until about maybe 1980, 81. I'm trying to think of when the Crash Crew record (High Power Rap) came out. When the Crash Crew record came out we was kinda breaking up then. Tip Ski kept going and he later on joined DJ Supreme."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was it like for you to be at a park jam back then in the 1970ies and early 1980ies?"

STANIE STAN:"Listen, man, we loved the park so much! It was like your second home. Especially if it was yours. Every DJ had his own park. John Adams Park was our park. Even if it was raining...after it had stopped raining people used to go like, "Yo, come on! You guys need to come outside! We're bored, we ain't got nothing to do." They used to sweep the rain off the ground. They were like, "We gonna sweep the ground off so you guys can play. We'll get you weed, we'll get you beer..."We were famous! Playing in the park was fantastic 'cause you got everybody there..from different places, from different projects to hear you play. And you know, they show you love. When you're good, you're good. As they came you would see the crowd get bigger, bigger and bigger."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What I would like to know is how did you move your equipment and your records crates to the park? I figure you had people from outside of your crew helping you with that, right? But weren't you worried that they might check out the records that you got?"

STANIE STAN:"A lot of times we had people from the building helping us but we ourselves also moved our own stuff 'cause you couldn't trust nobody moving your crates, you know? Speakers is fine but we moved our crates. Dondee and BC would watch our crates. You had them standing on both sides of the crates. Dondee was standing on one side, BC was standing on the other side.. making sure nobody stole our records because they would steal your records in a minute. They would try to get behind the ropes so we told people, "Stay behind the ropes because we don't know who you are so we don't want you behind the ropes!" Because you could take two records and these might be two records that we can't find anymore. So we only let people that we knew behind the ropes."   

SIR NORIN RAD:"What would have happened back then if somebody that wasn't down with you had tried to go through your records in order to know what beats you had? Was that permissible?"

STANIE STAN:"Nah, that's a disrespect!  You are NOT going to people's crates, you DON'T ask people what the names of the records are! Get the hell outta here!!! Nobody that you are not kool with goes behind the ropes, NOBODY touches the records.....or stealing another MC's rhymes. You could get beat up for that! Usually it was like, "Yo, I heard this guy say your rhyme!" So you're listening to that (live) tape and you be like, "Yo, that's my rhyme!" So you'd go over there and be like, "Yo, my man! If you say my rhyme again you gonna get problems!" You stole nobody's stuff. You had to be original. You never stole nobody's routines, you stole nobody's style!! That's how you knew who were who. Different styles, different rhymes and different routines. That's why you had people travelling to different places to see these guys. You'd be like, "I'mma see Grandmaster Flash and his MCs!" or "I'mma see the Soul Sonic Force!" At one time the Soul Sonic Force had damn near twenty MCs ! You couldn't come to the park sounding like somebody else. People would tell to your face, "Oh, you sound like Busy Bee!" You know what I mean? "Oh you sound like Melle Mel!" "Ah man, I heard that rhyme before!" You had (live) tapes out there, too. So after a while you'd hear tapes of all these parties and you'd hear somebody saying your stuff. And you'd be like, "Oh, man!" But then (rap) records came out and that kinda messed a lot of MCs up because a lot of (rap) records that came out, they bit...we call it biting.....they took stuff from a lot of MCs!"  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Like the Sugarhill Gang took rhymes from Grandmaster Caz...how did you and the people that were around you feel when "Rapper's Delight" came out?"

STANIE STAN:"Everybody that was a DJ or a MC was upset like, "These guys were never heard of!" Nobody knew who they were or where they came from. To be the face of Hiphop as we call it today....we were like,"They're gonna be the face of  what we started? Of something that we cared for and loved and took time to actually be an artform????? We said, "No way! Hell no!!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What were your three favourite beats to rap to back then?"

STANIE STAN:"My favourite one was Edwin Starr "I Just Wanna Do My Thing!" That was my favourite cause I used to like the bassline (hums the bassline). Then "Scratching" (by Magic Disco Machine) and then it was another one called "Get Happy" by Jimmy Bo Horne." Yeah, I liked that one! James Brown...."The Funky President"! That one is a classic! That's a beat I think most MCs back then loved it. You could do all kinds of routines and rhymes off that."

SIR NORIN RAD:"In your opinion who were the three best MCs in the Bronx back then in the era of original MCing?" 

STANIE STAN:"My top three MCs in the Bronx are Grandmaster Caz, Melle Mel and Rahiem."