Interview with Kool DJ Dee (The KD Crew)

                                                           Interview with Kool DJ Dee 

                                                 

Kool DJ Dee (The KD Crew)

                                          

                                        conducted by Sir Norin Rad (The Intruders/Germany)

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

KOOL DJ DEE:"I was born on October 20th, 1956 in Wilson, North Carolina."

SIR NORIN RAD:"At which age did you move to New York City?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"My mother got me in New York City when I was around seven years old."

SIR NORIN RAD:"To which part of New York City did you move?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Well, at seven we moved to Harlem. I think it was 127th Street & Morningside Avenue. From there we moved to Brooklyn. Then we moved to the Bronx."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How old were you when you moved to the Bronx?"

KOOL DJ DEE:" Well, I was in junior high school so I'm thinking I was about 16 or 17."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did living in Brooklyn differ from living in the Bronx?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Well, in Brooklyn it was a completely different thing. I was running around riding bicycles, learning how to talk to girls and shit. I got suspended from school for fighting. In Brooklyn I was introduced to the world or whatever. I was just learning things in Brooklyn.  I wasn't interested in music right there and then. I didn't do that until I got to the Bronx."

SIR NORIN RAD:"After you had moved to the Bronx you became a member of the Black Spades, right?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Yes, when I got to junior high school I was from Brooklyn so I was dressing different than the other kids. So I had this one kid who picked on me and who wanted to fight me. I think he was in a different gang. I think he was in  the Ghetto Brothers. He said to me,"See you at 3 o'clock!" I was like, "Okay." And then a Black guy came to me and said,"Yo, man! This guy is in a gang. You need to join the Spades then we can make sure that you have a fair fight." I was like, "I don't know. I know nothing about gangs." He said, "Okay, we gonna stand there with you anyway." So then 3 o'clock came and I had to fight and then David saw me fight he was the head of the Black Spades. He said, "Oh man, you're good. You're big for your age. We'll put you in the Young Spades." I said, "Okay! Alright." So that's how that started. And then from there I moved up to the president of the first chapter of the first division of the Black Spades. David wanted me to be the president of the first chapter of the first division to recruit more people into the Spades....younger guys like myself. And so that's more or less what I did. You know, Bambaataa and them and their projects and other projects in Soundview. We went around beating up people. You know, it was a whole different thing then. I was wild."

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

KOOL DJ DEE:"James Brown, Otis Redding, Joe Tex  and Motown...the Supremes, Sam Cooke. You know, it was your urban music that they was playing. Every now and then my mother would play some Rock music. Like Mandrill. My mother was young. She was a young mother. She had at me at 16." 

SIR NORIN RAD:"What caused you to become a DJ?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"I used to go this club in the Village on West 3rd Street when I was 16. I was already living in the Bronx by that time. It was a club called "The Duke. It was a small club, you know? And we used to go there and the DJ there had big speakers. I looked and I was amazed how he kept the music going. He was mixing well. I wanted to know how he did it so I looked inside the DJ booth. He didn't really have a mixer. He had levels on the turntables where he would tap one up and at the same time he would tap the other level down. I started talking to him, "How are you doing this? What's all this about?" So he started explaining to me about the volume and the mixing. It was crazy! At the time they didn't call it BPM. They called it strobe light. You had to watch the strobe on the bottom of the turntables where these little squares turn into one line  and then when both squares is in one line on both turntables it's in the same beat. So yeah, I had to learn. I saw that and I got interested in that. So I started going to other clubs where I saw Pete DJ Jones and Grandmaster Flowers. Like Flowers...oh man, when you talk about blending a record that man could blend a record like you would never believe and I was in awe. I was dancing and listening to him. And Pete DJ Jones..the same thing. Pete DJ Jones had a different style though. I noticed that there was a different style between the two. So I incorporated some of Pete DJ Jones' style and some of Grandmaster Flowers' style into me. And also DJ Plummer! Ron Plummer. So that's what got me interested in it. My mother always used to give parties. So the music was already there. When she didn't have money for rent and she had to pay the rent she would give rent parties where people would come and pay and she would sell drinks and fried chicken sandwiches. " 

SIR NORIN RAD:"You have said that Grandmaster Flowers and Pete DJ Jones had different styles of DJing. What do you mean by that?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Alright! Grandmaster Flowers..he's a blender. He blends most of his records, right? And sometimes he blends music that people don't know just to have it blend well before he puts in another record that people do know. So to me he loses the interest of the crowd in one way or another some time. Pete DJ Jones only played the contemporary music. He only played what was in style and he didn't mix at all. He wouldn't blend no record at all. He would extend the front part of the record or whatever part he wanted. Grandmaster Flowers didn't do that. He didn't extend nothing. So there was a difference in their style. So you could say that Grandmaster Flowers mixed and Pete DJ Jones mostly cut."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please describe what you did in order to get your own DJ equipment together!"

KOOL DJ DEE:"I was a messenger at the time in Midtown Manhattan. I worked down there and so I delivered letters and packages to people. So I walked past these electronic stores and I would look in the window. So I walked into one electronic store  and I met this salesman and we was talking. He would show me the equipment. He would show me the GLI speakers, he would show me the GLI mixer. He showed me amps. He would explain everything to me. That's when I started learning about distortion rates. He was good though. We would put a package together. He said, "This is gonna cost you so much. You can pay on it each week." So I put my first 50 $ down. I think it cost 4000 $ in the beginning. It was a lot of money and my mother came in and put the rest and then that's how I got started-"

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did your brother DJ Tyrone The Mixologist join you?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"He joined me later on. My brother was slick. He waited till everything got off the ground  then he wanted in. He saw that the girls liked the DJ and so he told me, "Hey, I want in!" I had to teach him how to mix and he took it from there."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What was your very first party as a DJ?"

KOOL DJ DEE:" My first party when I didn't have no equipment I gave myself a party in Monroe projects where I had little speakers. I took my mother's set apart and I used to use a component ampifier where I turned from phono to auxiliary and stuff like that. That's my first party. It sounded terrible. That was in the center in Monroe projects. Then after I got my equipment my first professional party where I got paid was at a place called Spaghetti Works. At that time they used to take restaurants and turn them into clubs at night time."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you get to play there?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"I was playing in the park and these promoters walked up to me. They said, "We like how you sound. We're giving this party and we need you to play down there."  Spaghetti Works was on 86th Street & Lexington Avenue. I'll never forget that. I only had limited records. You understand? You know, I had the hits but it was limited. Like what? Maybe 20 albums and a couple of 45s, right? I had to make it last so I took the music but I had to mix it in different ways so that they didn't realize that I'm playing the same music over and over again.  That was my first professional party and it was very successful. Those guys hired me again to do a pool party. Before I had my own equipment I was in a DJ crew called Fantasia which was from Brooklyn. It was DJ Chips, DJ Larry B and me. We played against DJ Plummer."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever go to the Tunnel where DJ John Brown was DJing at?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Yeah, I have been  to the Tunnel with Mario. We had fights in there and stuff like that. I was in the Spades and I was young so we was having fights in there.We went in there one time. I wasn't really listening to the music though. I heard about this guy DJ John Brown but I wasn't really listening to the music 'cause I was drunk as hell. I was in a different frame of mind then but I been there, yeah."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What exactly is the difference between Disco DJing and Hiphop DJing from your point of view ? I noticed quite early that DJs such as DJ Hollywood, Grandmaster Flowers etc. are not being recognized as Hiphop DJs by the original Bronx and Harlem B-Boys but are considered to be Disco DJs. You obviously DJed in both realms so please highlight the distinction!"

KOOL DJ DEE:" The discotheques I played for in Manhattan would have people who dressed well.  You know, they was older people maybe in their 20s. The music that I played is the same music that they played in Hiphop.  That urban disco sound is different from that Saturday Night Fever type disco sound. That Studio 54 disco is different disco music. We didn't play that. We only played so much if the record was funky enough. We might play KC & The Sunshine Band or maybe the Bee Gees. The Bee Gees had one record that we might play. I forgot the name of it. We played the records straight through, you know? We might extend one part of the record one or two times then we would let the record go on. It wasn't like in the Bronx. They didn't wanna hear the beginning of the record or whatever. They wanted you to get right to the breakpart. You come down on the breakpart and you keep the breakbeat going. When I first came outside in the park in the Bronx I didn't realize that so I was playing the records the wrong way, like I was playing them down in Manhattan, right? I saw that they stood around until that breakpart came on and then they started jumping all over the place!! I was like,"Okay! So this is what y'all like!"So then I started just extending the beat parts and I was doing this so well because I was already familiar with extending certain parts of the record. So it was nothing for me. That's the difference! The breakbeat part! Playing it non-stop."

SIR NORIN RAD:"In which parks of the Bronx did you play that Breakbeat music for the B-Boys?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"I played in Bronxdale Projects. I played in  Rosedale Park that's outside the Bronxdale Projects. I played in Bronx River. I played in Monroe Projects. I played in 100 Park. I played in Seward Avenue Park in Soundview and I played in Hunts Point. Oh, and I played in the Valley Park Uptown, too."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where exactly did you live when you started playing in the parks for the B-Boys?"

KOOL DJ DEE:" 1121 Elder Avenue. Apartment C4 between Westchester and Watson Avenue."

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

KOOL DJ DEE:"I did Bronx River Center with Pete DJ Jones and JHS 123 with DJ Mario. And I played in many different other indoor spots."

                                                            

                                            

DJ Afrika Bambaataa & DJ Mario

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, so when Pete DJ Jones played  with you in Bronx River Center what kind of DJ style did he use? Disco or Hiphop?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Pete was playing club style. I was cutting up the breaks."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Is it true that DJ Afrika Bambaataa did his first parties on your soundsystem?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"No, he saw my system. DJ Mario was the one who lend Bambaataa equipment to do his first parties. It was Mario."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So is it accurate to say that you were DJing for B-Boys before DJ Afrika Bambaataa?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Yes, I was playing before Bambaataa."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Please explain the importance of records for Hiphop back then."

KOOL DJ DEE:"Records at that time...you had to be able to have your records lined up in the order you was going to play them other than the computer today where you just put them in a file. You wanted to get albums that had three or four good songs on it 'cause that's what you gonna need. You would match and mix your music and you tried to do it gently because you don't wanna scratch up your records. You gotta get your 45s and play them also. Now I have been playing the computer lately and I got all my music that I had in the 1970ies on my computer now.  So I basically like the computer because you don't have to carry a lot of records.With the records...I used to take like 12 crates of records with me in every gig. So that's hard. Those things are heavy when you have to go upstairs and stuff like that. Oh man! So that's the difference. Records are good and the clarity of the record is better than that of the files. They say the computer is supposed to be better than the vinyl but it's not. Original vinyl is much better because you hear all the instruments and you DON'T HEAR all the instruments in digital. That's why the vinyl is better. I like records. Back then records were held in such high regard by us because it's like having a gun with bullets. If you ain't got no bullets you can't hurt nobody in warfare, right? So with your records you gotta have records that sound good and that make people dance or that the other DJs don't have. That makes you a better DJ now, you understand? That's what was going on with DJ Afrika Bambaataa. Bambaataa had records nobody else had. That's what makes the people want to come to your party because they be like, "Oh he's playing records that Kool DJ Herc don't have! Or Dee don't have!" You know? Your records are your ammunition. You need that!! Especially in a battle! Like you're playing against another DJ? When you come on you gotta play your secret weapons!!! Records that he ain't got!!! The B-Boys are gonna be like, "Oh!!! We never heard that beat before!" And they are Breaking on the floor to it. So yeah, records are your ammunition. You definetely need that!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"What went through your head when you were playing with DJ Afrika Bambaataa in Bronx River and you noticed that he had this incredibly huge arsenal of breakbeats?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Well, Bambaataa was the extension of me. That's the way I felt. And I was proud of him with all the records he accumulated. At that point I knew he was gonna be impactful as a DJ. "

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever ask him for titles of  specific records?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"I never asked him for titles of the records but I do believe that if I would have asked him he would have told me the names."  

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who helped you to move your records and your DJ equipment to the parks, rec rooms and clubs?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Well, I had a crew called the KD Crew. You know, it was my MC and some other guys. They would help me.  I had a lot of people that helped me. Once people knew they could get to a party for a free you had guys volunteering to carry equipment to get in the party for free. You don't have to do nothing. They wanna carry your stuff so they can get in free. That was a whole clique.  We didn't pay them, you know? They would do it every week. Everytime I did a party they wanted to go. So all of a sudden they became a part of my crew. Matter of fact, I had about nine guys with me. Let me see...it was Fever Dee, Willy, Lee, Stanley, Timmy, Omar, Norman, Norman's brother and CV."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did anybody ever try to step to you in order to take your records or your equipment from you?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"No, that wouldn't happen."

SIR NORIN RAD:"How did you usually start your parties? Like what kind of records would you play? How would you proceed from there and how would you end your parties?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Well, to start out...I would set up and stuff like that. And you know, at the beginning I wouldn't play the hot stuff yet. I'd play what you call meantime music.  You know, a lot of people are walking in and everybody is talking. So they come in. So then when I saw I had enough crowd then I started hitting them with the good stuff. I may throw in some Cheryl Lyn or James Brown. Stuff that's gonna make them move. Boz Scaggs "Dirty Lowdown". Stuff like that. Then once I got them moving I start hitting them with the hot stuff. But it was a difference. See, in the Bronx I would play the good stuff and fast music all through the party. In Manhattan there's a difference. At 12 o'clock  I would hit them with slow jams. So the guys and girls could get together and talk, hold on to each other or whatever. I'd play about three of those and then I got back  into the fast music again. We used to play from 9 o'clock till 4 o'clock in the morning.  So at 2 o'clock I'd play more slow records and I then I'd get back to fast music till the end of the night."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So in the Bronx you did not play any slow jams at all?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"No, they didn't wanna hear slow joints. I mean in the begining I tried but you know, they would go outside and then later on they'd come back. It was like they was waiting for you to get back into the fast music, the beats. So I said to myself, "I'm not gonna play slow music anymore." So I focussed on the breaks all the time."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever go to a DJ Smoke party?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"No, that's the part...people say he was out at the same time that Herc and I was out but I didn't hear of him. I only went to the West BX to play music once and that was at the Executive Playhouse and that's when I saw Kool DJ Herc on a Friday and I was supposed to play there Saturday. So I just went there to check out the club. Then I did my thing there on Saturday but I never heard of DJ Smoke at all. I met him at this anniversary thing. He told me they was out but I never met him back then."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, let us talk about DJ Mario. When you met him was he already playing breakbeats for the B-Boys?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Okay, when I met Mario he was basically with me as my manager. There's a picture I took...I don't know if you have seen that...it's a picture I took with J.J. The Disco King and we're in a bar and it says 2$  for the drinks or whatever...the sign behind us. Mario got me that gig.  So he was more acting like my manager and while he was going with me to different places he had liked the way J.J. The Disco King was talking on the microphone. So every now and then he would pick up the microphone and start saying things. He gradually got into it. Gradually!! So I would think that he saw how I hooked up the equipment and what records was going on and stuff like that. Then when he got his equipment he took it from there. He already knew how to do things.  I more or less tutored him into what I did. Each one teach one. It's sort of like me watching DJ Plummer where I saw what he had when we played against him with Fantasia. That's what happened, you know what I mean?"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Who were DJ Mario's DJ partners?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Tex DJ Hollywood....he was a Puerto Rican DJ. Tex was hanging out with us every now and then, you know? He would carry our equipment to the outside jams. Then he started getting his own equipment. I think he started with DJ Sinbad. Tex DJ Hollywood started playing outside, too. You could say he was the first Puerto Rican DJ to play Hiphop or Breakbeat music. Then there was DJ Nicky Dee. He was just living in the projects or around the projects. He used to always laugh. He was playing music for Mario when Mario got his system. You also had DJ Ronnie Ron who was DJ Mario's cousin."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did you think when you became aware of Grandmaster Flash's invention the backspin which revolutionized Hiphop?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"I have seen the backspin in the NBC radio station as a little kid. They would take us down to the radio station down in Rockefeller Center. There was a big glass so you could see the DJ on his large turntables and he would spin the record backwards and then forward to just stop the record before he put it on. So I have seen that before but I have never seen it done by a DJ in Hiphop until Grandmaster Flash did it and perfected it. When I heard him first he wasn't always on beat when he did it. I was playing with Flash before he got together with Melle Mel and them.  So there was no MCees at that time and he would do it. People would stand and watch him and I was like,"Okay!" This seemed nice and shit. I liked it. It did change Hiphop. It was like an exhibition for me. It's like a show. He did that. I give him that much."

July 1st, 1978: Kool DJ Dee & DJ Tyrone are rocking at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem along with Grandmaster Flash & The 3 Mcees and Kool DJ AJ 

 

SIR NORIN RAD:"How would you describe your late brother's style of DJing?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Well, he complemented me. See, he had certain records that he would play and I had certain records that I would play. Sometimes he would take records from my crate. He was more innovative than I was 'cause he came up with this scratch thing. Everybody says Grandwizard Theodore came up with the scratching but Tyrone was doing something like that before Theodore. You know, he did it by accident in a club. He caught the record but he did it differently. He was playing "Apache", he caught it and brought it back while the crossfader was still in the middle so he had to do something. So he rubbed it and then let the record go on beat and everybody went crazy 'cause they ain't never heard anything like that before. And then he started doing it outside. But I think he did it a little bit differently than Theodore. He called it The Rub."

DJ Tyrone The Mixologist (RIP) / The KD Crew - Kool DJ Dee's brother

SIR NORIN RAD:"Where did you buy your gear at? You look fly on all your pictures."

KOOL DJ DEE:"I used to get Blyes and Slacks from A.J. Lester's in Harlem. You know, when I wasn't being in the gang I was dressing like a kool guy. They called it, "Dress like a kool guy." when you wasn't wearing your gang colors. I also loved Playboys."

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

KOOL DJ DEE:""Scorpio", "Catch The Beat" and "Blow Your Head". Most of the original Hiphop records...and I'm not talking about Rap records...had movement. You know, different ups and downs. Those records gave the B-Boys the opportunity to show their creativity and it gave them time to think about what they would do when the break part would come in. It was the same thing with "The Mexican". It has movement in the music. THE RECORDS NOW THESE DAYS DON'T HAVE MOVEMENT (excited). It's all one strict thing. They don't have movement no more. Like James Brown's music had movement. It had horns and drums and stuff like that..real instruments. It had different sections of different movement.  THAT'S HIPHOP!! You understand? It got to have different movements to be original Hiphop music. You have to understand that Hiphop music is a mixture of different music. It's not one genre. Jazz, Funk, Rock...it's all mixed together there."

SIR NORIN RAD:"So as long as a record has a funky beat it is HipHop and you can rock it? Is this accurate to say?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"That's accurate. You're right on the money. The music has to be funky, it has to be good in order for you to do that!! Certain records you would play straight through like Jimmy Castor "It's Just Begun".  You don't just play the breakpart you play it straight through. James Brown "Give It Up Or Turn It Aloose" You don't play that in parts. You let that go straight through because of the movement in the music. Thats real Hiphop."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Would you also play some Kool Out Joints?"

KOOL DJ DEE:" Yeah, yeah, yeah...you know, Deniece Williams "Silly". That shit that girls like. Earth, Wind & Fire "Brazilian Rhymes".

SIR NORIN RAD:"Okay, and what about your favourite slow joints?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Oh man (laughs) I do The Moments and The Delfonics "For The Love I -Gave To You". And Black Ivory "You And I" and "Don't Turn Around"."

SIR NORIN RAD:"Did you ever carry a Pilot marker with you and tag up your name?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Yes, and I did use a Pilot marker. We used to steal them from the art store in Manhattan along with spray paint."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What did you write?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Kool Dee. I wasn't a major Writer like Super Kool 223  though. I just hit the insides of the 6, the 2 and the 5 whenever I was on the train. I would also hit the busses. I got turned on to Writing when I lived in the Bronx, not in Brooklyn. The guys in the Bronx was doing it, so I was doing it with them."

Hit (Tag) of Kool DJ Dee on of his record sleeves from the 1970ies).

SIR NORIN RAD:"When did you write?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"Around 1971."

SIR NORIN RAD:"What do these days of rocking jams in the parks in the 1970ies mean to you?"

KOOL DJ DEE:"When I think about those days it makes me so happy because I was young and everything was moving so fast. You know, like when you're young and you're moving around and you're playing music. I was doing something that I loved  doing. You understand? I love it. It's no other feeling. And when you're rocking the park outside and you're connecting with the people. It is NOTHING like it, man!! It is nothing like that feeling!! It was like you can do nothing wrong. It's a spiritual thing when you got everybody in the same mindset at the same time. It's just fucking great, man! And I wish I could have that feeling all the time."

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

KOOL DJ DEE:"I would like to give a shout out to my brother. He is not alive. I wish he was here. My mother, Mario...God bless them! I'd like to shout out my KD Crew! That's about it!"

SIR NORIN RAD:"Thank you very much for this interview! ! 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 and T.T. La Rock!" 

 

                                                

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."