The Freshest Kids Page #6

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We were like the young kids of the '80s, you know what I mean?

The exploitation era, but it took us all over the world

We were bumping into each other across continents, you know what I'm saying?

And we though we were rich and sh*t!

Crazy Legs and those guys were managed by a chick named Lady Blue

She had engineered them to make a record that became a number one hit in London!

"Hey You, The Rock Steady Crew!"

It was not a Bboy record, it was a copped record..

But it was a number one song

And I don't think the Rock Steady Crew ever really loved the record..

Cuz they were like, you know "This ain't about Bboying!"

But it was about putting some money in their pockets for a minute..

I started Break Dancing with my friend Donnavan and Mike

And we actually had a lot of those Black people and Simon

And they used to all come to my house and my mom would wake up in the morning and there would be like, a gang of Simons

From like Carson City hardcore, and she would be like "What the f*** is going on here?!"

Like, "Mom, they're teaching me to spin on my head!"

A lot of people, unfortunatley took it as a fad, you know?

I guess what was going on was that the Break Dancers themselves weren't in control of it..

It was just a media frenzy

As often times happens, in this here crazy pop culture that we live in..

And so you just get chewed up and spit out by the media machine

I don't know why, but the police and other people in the city..

and officials, wanted to ban Break Dancing because they felt it was a nusiance..

And they shut down the streets, they shut down Venice Beach before..

I saw a guy just do an arm wave and go to jail..

Well what they did was just, you know, they put it out there and..

And then everybody was into it like it was the "in thing"

Then when the next thing came through, they kinda like kicked it to the curb

A lot of the mainstream kids, you know, the media said..

"Okay, it's dead it's time to move on"

So you know, everybody in the industry tried to get all their milage out of it and milk it for what its worth

Rape it like they do, and move on...

Bboying did eventually..die out

There's a number of reasons why, and there are people out there that kinda blame me in a way

Because they see myself and the New York City Breakers..

As being the people who took Breaking from being undergound and taking and making it really huge

And making a big splash out of it, putting it out there on television...

And in films, and we comercialized it..

I'm not, I'm not ashamed of that.

Everywhere and one minute we were in the lime light..

Everything was, everything was straight!

Traveling all around the world, walk up to a club "Hey come on in the club!"

You helped build, as far as reputation, you know?

And the next thing you know it's like.. "Go to the back of the line!" "Boom!"

You know, how do you really nurture someone for this industry?

You know, and prepare them for what can happen?

Especially someone coming from the ghetto, and all you see is like, money!

From that, to having loot in your pocket,

Getting all your boys high, and having honeys...

And to the next thing, having the rug pulled out from under you

Yeah, I went through an ill identity crisis

When we were dancing and when one of the guys, Matt..

He got killed in a motorcycle accident, it's like from then..

It's like everything just started falling apart

We didn't get more gigs.. Yeah that kinda brought us bad luck..

We just kinda lost it from there we stopped dancing..

Toward the end of '84, a lot of crews broke up

Including Rock Steadys, New York City Breakers and Dynamics..

I think that it should have never gone above ground

I don't think it was made for comercialism and I think it was designed..

By God, to spread love between the communities, you know

There's a lot of kids that have so much energy, creative energy and they don't know what to do with it..

You know, we were doing wild things man, but..

When I was on the cardboard, it just kept me occupied

You were too tired to fight, because you've been Popping and Breaking all night

You were too busy learning how to windmill, then to rob and steal..

Because an idle hand, is the devil's workshop

So if you had so much to do, you ain't never had time to go out and do the wrong

Imagine if someone took me and showed me how to wear a bandana, a rag or somethin

To claim a color, I would have put the same energy into gangbanging as I did into Bboying

Our agression was Break Dancing, it was Bboying

Towards another crew, you know because before that came, there was gangs

N.W.A. they came out with their versions of Rap

And what they did was that it actually influenced gangsterism

I've seen the change from Rap being, rocking parties to Rap being gangster, I was there when it changed

I was there and I even became a part of it

Trying to be a gangsta

Like getting tatted, started getting braids, cornrows, started sagging..

And I was like so disappointed with just like everything that was going on in my life

With you know, Rock Steady Crew...I just..

Started going back to school, I got a job, what, you know..

Also going to college for a minute..

And I started hanging out with some old school friends

Buck 4 and you know, he was my best friend

And unfortunately they weren't into the greatest scene in the world..

I was sniffing blow, smoking weed, I used to sell guns..

I held over a million dollars for a friend of mine at my crib for about 2 years..

Cash?

Cash

And I, you know, I was involved with certain things that

That you know, um, led to some of my closest friends getting killed

You look right now, at like um, Randy, um

He was from the L, I think he was from the L.A. Breakers

Kid Tough, they are all in jail!

And it's like, even Float, one of the best breakers ever in New York City

Is in jail for murder right now

Buck 4 got involved with hustling and doing his thing..

Along with that game, comes a lot of

You know, rediculous beefs, sometimes there's beef and then one person gets murdered

Another person on the other side gets murdered

And eventually it got to a point where they found out where Buck lived..

They caught him in his uh, in his uh..

Garage

And uh, they basically kind like tortured him

And murdered him execution style..

We ask to have a moment of silence..

So everyone in here can be quiet for a few moments,

Just want to remember all our brothers that have passed away

In the street you see markings, killings..

And you say to yourself, "Hey I'm doing something for this world, I'm entertaining people"

And that's good, that makes me feel good..

Thank you

Now, there are a lot of people from the old school that are not here right now

My first moment of silence

Goes out to Kid Tough from the Dominoes

Kid Tough got to the point to where he was one of the

Best on the West Coast, I mean one of THE best

He got caught up, he ended up doing time..

He got back out, he was going to start breaking..

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