WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Paradise Gray Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.360 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:16.280 Supremo Supremo role called Supremo Shut, Supremo role called Supremo 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:23.079 Supremo role called Supremo Sun Supremo Role. 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.960 I'm an owner, not a GM. Yeah, joints creeping to 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.200 my d ms. Yeah, I represent freedom. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:35.960 Yeah, Hey, Steve, what rhymes with the last corner? 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:42.680 Supremo role called Supremo Supremo role. 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:44.520 My name is Fante. 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.520 Yeah, I got my moisturizer. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:48.600 Yeah, what time is it? 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.680 Yeah, grand Verbaiza. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:59.520 Supremo Supremo role called Supremo Supremo role. 0:00:59.720 --> 0:00:59.880 Call. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.200 My name is Sugar. Yeah, where's my per diem? 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:04.000 Yeah? 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:17.880 Self sabotage. You're an asshole, hit Bill? 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.560 Yeah, you Number one is the border. Yeah, it's time 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:22.640 for tails. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:31.200 Quarter Supremo roll Suprema. 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.160 So Supremo roll. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.119 It's like em. Yeah, it's so nice. I've been talking 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.720 about the Latin quarter. Yeah, finally we got Paaradise. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:49.320 Supremo roll Suprema So sure. 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.440 My name is Paradise. Yeah, I'm twice as nice. Yeah, 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.440 Lece skating on ice. Yeah, I can't say it twice. 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:14.799 Supremo Suprema So Supremo Roll Suprema, So supremo, Ro Supremo supremo. 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:42.800 Roll Wait there, man, that's what I mean, Malory. 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.840 Let's go chill. This is what they called the when 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:47.880 when you have like a special episode. 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:52.080 Well, no, no, but the this is the longest stretch 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.799 of finally getting to the tail ends of what the 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.720 show has been about for the last what seven seven years? 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:01.880 Seven years? Good luck? 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.320 Yes, Okay, there we go. 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.760 You know, we've been talking about or joking about the 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:13.480 Latin Quarter with every hip hop luminary that has made 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:19.160 their mark in this culture in the late eighties early nineties, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.560 and we've heard many a tale of the Latin Quarter. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:27.840 But as a walking Smithsonian pack. 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.600 Ratter pop culture hoarder, of course, you know that I 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.040 easily got excited about doing this particular episode of course, 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.920 Love Supreme, because you can't have any tales of the 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.240 Latin Quarter without our guest today. And you know, for 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:51.600 damn near five decades, our guest has been preserving, building, 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.520 shape shifting many a career in hip hop. But more 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.680 than that, he's embarking on what I would deem probably 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:06.720 his most important project, which is a proprietor of the 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:12.720 Universal Hip Hop Museum, yeah, and you know not to 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:18.120 mention he's an author. Currently your your show about your 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.680 collections in hip hop. Yes, hip Hop Treasures, which I 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.600 the fact that you just had to wherewithal to know 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:27.640 that this stuff was going to be value speaks of 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:28.719 your characters. 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.560 So and also, welcome to Team Supreme with us. 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.920 Yes people, what y Bill? 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.680 I'm back? Yeah, you're back where you been? Sorry to cigarettes. 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:45.920 Okay, no, for real, Welcome Paradise Gray to Claude, Paradise Gray, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.440 the man that holds our history in his hands, to 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:52.159 request love Supreme. 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.599 So, uh, sir, have you ever heard of the Latin Quarter? 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:58.560 How are you did that? 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:05.919 I'm a absolutely fantabulous Okay, well real, this is a great, 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:07.039 great pleasure. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:08.480 Thank you, thank you, thank you. 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:10.600 You look amazing. Well, I thank you. 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:12.760 Look, let's just beginning. 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.800 Where where does your hip hop journey start? Your very 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.160 first moment in which you're meeting the elements. 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:21.560 Of what hip hop is. I don't know if it's 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:23.640 hearing a patchy for the first. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.720 Time, or my journey in hip hop started in my 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.720 mother's living room. You know, my mom was a supermom. 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.840 You know, she was the curator of all culture in 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.920 our household. You didn't touch the TV knob unless she 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.480 did it. You didn't listen to the radio unless she 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:45.440 programmed it. She was my program director, and every Friday 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.160 she would come home from work and go to the 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.920 record store around the corner from my house and come 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.960 in the house with a fistful of brand new forty fives. 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:59.280 And she introduced me to James Brown, George Clinton, sline 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:04.239 of Family Stuff, the Last Poets, Gil Scott, Heron, Marvin 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.719 Gaye A and goes on. 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:07.440 And on and on. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.560 And then she used to play those records and cook 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.839 and clean the house while meet my brother and sister 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.080 sang and danced with her. And then every Saturday morning 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.279 we would watch Soul Train, and after it went off, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.480 we would do our own Soul Train line in the 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.120 house because we had all the records that they just 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.680 had on TV already in the living room. So she 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.120 prepared me to be a DJ and a selector. And 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.800 the first two crates of records that I had when 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.479 I started DJing in the streets, I took it from 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.680 my mother's record collection, you know, really yes records, well two. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.960 Crates the records. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.040 I mean, I had a lot of the breakbeats right 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:52.680 from the door. You know what I mean? 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.919 Because my mom she listened to every genre of music, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.440 you know what I'm saying, So she prepared me well. 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.840 So one day, growing up in the Bronxdale Projects, I 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.520 was going to the store and I heard this music 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.080 coming from beyond this door. There used to be a 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.360 laundry room, but a DJ that lived in my building. 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:18.000 His name was disco King Mario. Oh yes, okay, so 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.080 this was another address that should be remembered with fifteen 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.960 twenty sent a consider seventeen fifteen Bruckner Boulevard in the 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:31.680 Bronxdale Projects, and I heard the music coming from the door. 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.840 I cracked the door open and there he was disco 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.240 King Mario with two turntables and a Bozac mixer with 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.240 a knob, and he was playing a song I think 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:45.840 called Gotta Get a Nut, oh by a. 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.080 New Birth and then then yep, the infamous Yeah I 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:51.560 sold Can You Keep a Secret? 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:52.720 Drum breaking? 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:57.960 And then right I was standing there with my jaw like, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.840 oh wow, what does he do to those records? Like 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:02.600 you know what I mean? 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.280 And he was like, man, come in and close the door. 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.760 I came in and I sat down and I was 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:14.760 surrounded by stacks and crates and equipment and speakers and records. 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:20.080 And you know, he uh had a bad habit of 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.520 when he DJ, he didn't put the record back in 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:22.920 the cover. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:26.920 So his records was all over the place. They were dusty. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:28.600 And because. 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.880 So, because my mother had conditioned me to wipe the 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.439 records and put them back in the sleeve, I systematically 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.319 started organizing Mario's records. 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.560 I was seven years old and I wiped them records. 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.719 You better not touch my record the floor okay, you 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.640 know what I mean, in horrible condition, And I said, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:55.920 I came in with the kit you know they had 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.839 the alcohol in it, remember that with the velvet, and 0:08:59.280 --> 0:08:59.960 wiped the record. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.959 He loved it. I organized his crates and that began 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:06.720 my journey as a real DJ. 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.760 I want to do a slight sidebar because okay, so 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:16.000 as a family, we've been together for seven years, but 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.040 I don't even know your actual journeys. If we can 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.600 keep it under three minutes, like what was your first 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:22.400 hip hop moment? 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.439 I would say my first hip hop moment was my 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:27.880 uncle taking me to the Fresh Vest at the Greensboro 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.760 Coliseum in like eighty this was eighty five A six. 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.520 I was like six years old. Did you not hear 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:33.520 rap music before that? 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:34.160 Yeah? 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:35.840 I heard rap more did Okay? 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.479 So what was the most impact, like your first impactful? 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.199 Like me hearing rappers delight was like what is this? 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.880 I think probably the first we're talking just hearing the music. 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.080 It really wasn't rap. I mean it was like records 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.360 like you know, Nucleus, Jam on It and Rat. 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:55.040 It was those kinds of records. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:56.800 Because my mother would take me with her to the 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.000 park and DJ's will be out playing those records. 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:00.719 You know he should have win last, but seeing it 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:02.600 and some bullshit, but not. 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.840 Seeing it, that was like that was It was eighty 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.079 five run, DMC, Fat Boys and Houdini and that was 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:10.439 just that was it for me. 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:11.720 It was done. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.640 I knew what I want to be, all right? So 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:15.720 like you next? 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.040 Now, first of all, we're in d C. Or were 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:19.600 you in Philly? 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:21.160 In Atlanta, d C. 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.520 That's where I worked for fifteen years of my life. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.480 But I mean, I feel like mine is more disconnected 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.640 through TV because I was babysat by the TV, so 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.760 it was through movies. It was Beach Street, it was 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.199 breaking one, breaking two, Breaking Book. I'm gonna tell my truth. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.680 Breaking Boogloo was my ship man to Judge. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.199 Okay, okay, I saw the movie three times when I 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.920 went to the theater. All right, Steve, Yeah? 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:45.600 Uh. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.520 Besides, you know smoking with Snoop Dogg at the studio. Well, now, 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:52.120 did you want to tell. 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:53.440 Me you stole we from Snoop? 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:54.760 Yeah? 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.640 Okay, but he's so smoking right now. 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.680 I think I told that story when we interviewed Snoop. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.880 But it was a Fat Boys and that first run 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.480 DMC album rock Box. And but the thing was, I 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.120 heard all this stuff at my Jewish summer camp where 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:13.120 there were no black people. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.160 I didn't know what was going on or what. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.120 I was listening to necessarily, but then you know, everything 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:23.000 happened in I guess high school breakdancing. I mean, you 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.440 can tell me what year was that was that first 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:26.960 run DMC album eighty three. 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:28.160 Wait, this is weird. 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.319 I'm noticing now, And you know, we should probably try 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.880 to get cool rock Ski on the show. That the 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:41.319 Fat Boys is actually a lot of people's first introduction 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.719 to hip hop, which is kind of crazy to me. 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.560 But even jay Z said the very first hip hop 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.760 tape he ever brought was the Fat Boys. So it's 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.520 almost like because hip hop was kind of contributing, you know. Again, 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.840 my parents went to that ye Christian Berry, like, yeah, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.760 you ain't listen to that whatever, But they had no 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:03.840 problems with me having the Fat Boys because they were 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:04.400 too funny. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.920 It was funny. They were too funny to be threatening, 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.040 you know, whereas all right on paid Bill. Yeah, I 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.719 think the Fat Boys, I think Heavy D in the 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:14.520 early days, and. 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.840 Then like I came up in like the Vanilla Ice, 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:20.600 Teenage Munan. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.000 Nina Turtles era, but then Ninja I did. But then 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:25.679 I know it's hard to say out loud. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.000 I don't want I don't want to dismiss that because 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:34.880 only because LLLL and I were talking about this on tour. Well, 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.079 concerning Hammer and Vanilla Ice both selling ten million units, 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:42.600 like between Licensed to Ill, Hammer's second album and Vanilla Ice, 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.240 like those three records were the first three albums to 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.439 sell more than ten million units, and for a lot 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:50.920 of people that are in the hip hop now, like 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.079 that was their fat which then led them to everything else. 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.720 So I can't even be dismissive. I mean, I don't 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:58.960 like the mag goodness of. 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.439 X clan's first tour was with the Ghetto Boys and 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:09.480 Vanilla Ice. What what was that like? Man? One day 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:10.320 I was in my room. 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.480 We would go on stage, rock and bounce, you know, 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:16.240 so we didn't know what was going on with the 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.120 other we know, you know, Scarface and the Ghetto Boys 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.920 was one of our favorites. But the first time I 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.640 even heard the name, this beautiful girl was knocking on 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.559 my hotel room after the show opened the door. I 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:37.360 was like, wow, She was like, where's Vanilla Ice? I 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.959 was like, I don't know what chocolate is? 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:46.240 Right here? Babies, now we use it. 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:54.600 Because I know this is actually a subjective fact. If 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:59.200 that's such a thing in your opinion, When did hip 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.559 hop start? Because I keep hearing from many a person that, no, no, 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.120 it wasn't August nineteen seventy three. It was Da da 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:07.720 Da Da da da. 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.079 Honestly, who's gonna win this tug of war? 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.959 I have no idea, okay, but I will be honest. 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:21.720 August eleventh, nineteen seventy three is an arbitrary date, okay, 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.920 but we had to say it started somewhere. But I 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:29.040 believe that hip hop started when the first man walked. 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.040 Hip hop started when the first person rapped. Hip hop started, 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:38.160 when all the elements were developed hundreds, maybe even thousands 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:42.360 of years ago by our ancestors. For us to say 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.600 that we created hip hop from nothing in the Bronx 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.440 in nineteen seventy three is totally disrespectful to James Brown, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:56.760 George Clinton, sline of family, Stone, pig Meat Malcolm, you 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:01.080 know what I'm saying. It's disrespectful to at Hotel Malik 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.480 el Shabaz, to Muhammad Ali, to the Black Arts movement, 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.840 a Mary Baraka, Sonya Sanchez, you know, to watch prophets, 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.920 the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, you know, the jubile Ayers, 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:15.280 Pigmy Malcolm. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.240 You know, can I ask you so? 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.440 When I was a kid and I was eight years 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.560 old when Rappers Delight came out, and you know, for 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.960 a line's share of America, Rappers Delight was for a 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.360 lot of us our first hip hop experience. 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:35.400 We never heard of anything beforehand. 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.960 Even though I lived next door to a DJ, so 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:41.600 you know, I would hear like, let's dance to the 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:43.440 drummers beat and he had like two turns in, but 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.400 I thought he was a disco DJ, right, although he 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:48.400 wasn't scratching. 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.520 Before nineteen eighty three, every DJ was a disco dj. 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.160 Okay, if you was not a disco DJ in New York, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.440 you wasn't making no money. And hip hop is the 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:04.760 bastard child of disco, funk, R and B, gospel, jazz 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.480 and everything that came before it, But it's closest related 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:09.120 to disco. 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:10.200 Think about it. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:15.240 First rap record you said was important was What Delight. 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:17.680 It was a san but it was a disco record, 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.600 Good Times, you know what I'm saying. As matter of fact, 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.840 every record that came out in nineteen seventy nine was 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.080 a disco record that people was rapping over, with the 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.640 exception of Grand Master Flash and the Serious five Freedom, 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:38.920 but rapping and wait right, even Super Dune that all 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.240 of those are disco beats. You know what I'm saying. 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.840 Rapping and rocking the House that was a disco beat, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.440 or you know King Tim the Third that was a 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:49.640 straight disco record. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:51.040 If you look at the. 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.840 Video to the sugar Hill Gang and you turned the 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.520 volume down, you would not believe they was rapping. 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.880 They got silk shirts on with big old collars. You 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:02.640 know what I'm saying. 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:08.320 They wearing dress, slacks and slippery bottom shoes. It wasn't 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.280 no Adidas, it wasn't no Pumas. It wasn't you know, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:17.199 no Nikes, no Gazelli's, no Kingos, none of that. If 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.040 you went in the club, our elders was in the 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.879 club with slippery bottom shoes, gators, jackets, and hats on. 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:25.560 That was it. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.800 The question I'm asking you is that I'm under the 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:35.920 impression that this culture got its name only because it's 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.879 the very first two words that Wonder Mike says on 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.280 the very first hip hop record that anyone ever heard. 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:43.719 I would agree with that, yeah, because my parents used 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.040 to always be like, you better hip hop, your hands 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.439 in bed, you better hip hop, and this is hippity 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:49.520 hoppy and hip hip hop. 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.440 And then dad, you should do exactly the same thing, right. 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.440 So I was asking you, was were you guys even 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:56.400 calling it hip hop? 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:56.560 No? 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.640 Okay, I get it, no more than like the first 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:02.120 two words. And that's the thing. 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.399 Even I didn't know the song was called Rappers the Light. 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:06.920 The first day I brought it, I went to the store, like, 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:07.720 you got hip hop? 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.560 He's like, and he hands me a you know record. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:12.480 What were they calling it? 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:12.719 Then? 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.560 Well, we was calling it jamming. We was you know, 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.760 we're gonna jam today, you know we're gonna go out. 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.439 We even call it rap music, the rap music. Well 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.080 because they called the song Rappers the Light. 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.480 Then it's like, oh my god, yeah, like Rappers of 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.240 Light contains a lot of the elements that we still 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:33.080 use now, like. 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:45.160 Writing, biting the label, label, ribbon off, the artists, the foundations. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.400 But you know what those Sylvia Robinson does not get 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.480 as much credit as she deserves. You know, she was 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.720 the one that saw Hollywood and loved Bug Starsky in 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.400 Harlem and say, yo, this is important. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:18:59.920 You know, do you know that little note? 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:04.560 First of all, Sylvia was the first hip hop mobile, yes, period, 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.280 you know. And second of all, she engineered this song 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:09.159 and mixed it. 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.000 I heard she played bass on it. 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.120 She probably did. I heard she got so much skills 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:14.800 and talents. 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.720 And are we to assume that her business acumen came 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.119 from like the men and the people that came before her. 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.000 The most to the business acumen came because she owned 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:23.840 seven labels. 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.240 I was just thinking she ran with Mars Levy. 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.879 If you know about Mars, like Mars Levy was the 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:38.680 Jewish night the word first YouTube was like, huh what 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:39.920 I heard? 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:40.240 Levy? 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.640 And I was like, Bill too young? 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.879 Mars Levy owned, uh, you know Roulette Records, read the 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.480 book Hitman for real. 0:19:50.400 --> 0:20:02.439 Gangs that stuff. Can you just describe as visually as 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:03.120 you can. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:10.600 What an average jam was like in the Bronx, like 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.640 sound wise, because you know we'll see you know, sort 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.000 of like not revisioned or you know, like people will 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:19.639 give their stories or tells of it. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:21.280 But I want to know. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.840 I have watched sue footage from nineteen eighty three really 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.200 of me and my crew DJ Playboy Paradise and the 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.920 Brothers three and my other rap group to throw Down 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.080 four in nineteen eighty three, and we're dancing, we're doing graffiti, 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:41.080 and we're DJing and rapping organically without Beach Street, you know, 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:46.719 without Hollywood. And one of these days I'm gonna screen 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.880 the footage that we found and then interview. Almost every 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.800 single one of my homies in video is still alive. 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.760 It's a miracle, yes, sir, but guess what the miracles 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.639 called hip hop? Every single one of my homies that 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:08.320 rap danced dig graffiti, except a few, very few. 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.640 Of us perished by natural causes or by murder. 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:16.600 But the friends of mine from Highbridge who didn't rat 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.160 and wasn't in hip hop man decimated. 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.920 Is what you witnessed in terms of any park gyms 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.840 you went to, was that the only existence of that 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:29.239 culture in that particular thing. 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.679 Or on a Sunday, could there be nine block parties happening? 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:33.240 You just good? 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:38.080 Well, the first block parties were live bands. We had 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.400 a lot of live bands in Highbridge, which is where 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.879 I moved after I moved from the Bronxdale projects. I 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.320 lived less than a mile from fifteen to twenty Sedject 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.879 considered okay and quite honestly, in their early years, there 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.920 was a lot of other teachers that were rocking simultaneously 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.639 with Cool Hurt, and before Cool Hurt, in my neighborhood, 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.240 we had a DJ named Pete DJ Jones. 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:07.440 So can you explain who DJ Jones is for our audience. 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:12.280 Yeah, Pete DJ Jones was a mobile DJ. He was 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:16.240 one of the top two mobile DJs in New York 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:20.960 City period. The other one was Grandmaster Flowers from Brooklyn, 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.359 hip hop's first grand Master. And a lot of people 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:26.760 may say, well I never heard of him, Yeah right, 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.680 I got one hundred fliers with him on the same 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.560 flyers with Hurricane Flash and Bam and all of them, 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:38.320 you know. And he opened for James Brown as a 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:43.960 DJ at Yankee Stadium in nineteen sixty eight. Oh wow, 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:49.240 So you know, hip hop just crushed August eleventh in 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:55.040 the Yankee Stadium. But Yankee Stadium has deeper history in 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:59.200 the Bronx, you know. And there's a lot like a 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:01.520 lot of people's say, well, Pete DJ Jones, he was 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:06.080 a disco DJ. Once again, we can't do that. He 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:11.840 mentored Hollywood Loved Buck Starsky, Curtis Blow, and grand Master Flash. 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:14.680 Get that, man, it's hip hop credentials. 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:17.000 Today or no. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:19.600 He passed away a few years ago, but there's some 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.479 footage on it on YouTube with him stealing it speaking 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.000 with his own words. He was amazing dj. He was 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:30.400 great at mixing. He did not cut, he did not scratch, 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:33.639 he didn't do any of that. But he played breakbeats 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:39.160 two and he ushered in Hollywood Loved Buck Starsky Curtis Blow, 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:40.600 and grand Master Flash. 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:42.960 I wanted to ask, of Paradise, how does the DJ 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:46.760 somebody like Larry Levan, How did they someone like him 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:48.120 that played the Paradise Garage. 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:51.400 Was that in y'all's kind of radar at all time? 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:54.879 It well, it definitely was because we we loved disco 0:23:55.040 --> 0:24:00.439 music and dance music and actually, you know, disco to us, 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:03.800 that word is what stops a lot of people from 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:07.920 understanding what we're talking about, because when we say disco, 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:12.760 it wasn't a genre of music. It was a place 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:15.879 to be tech. It was a disco tech. It was 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:19.040 the place where they played music at and when we 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:23.040 went to the clubs, the disco techts, they are a 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:26.960 shout to DC. We played Go Go too in the 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.879 beginning of hip hop, and a lot of Chuck Brown 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:32.679 and the Soul Searchers and a lot of those EU 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:35.840 and all of those guys. They contributed to the to 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:39.160 the creation of hip hop too. You know, a lot 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:43.280 of people from Philly contributed greatly to the creation of 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:45.440 hip hop and they don't get the credit for it. 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:46.879 You know what I'm saying. 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:51.760 The Juice Crew and Cold Chilling records that came out 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:54.720 with Rock, Sanne Chante, Bismarck, Big Daddy came in. 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:57.520 The Juice Crew that we know that started as pop 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:02.640 art in Philly, you understand, So exactly. 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:08.720 There's so you know, we migrated from the South and 0:25:08.840 --> 0:25:12.040 we brought a lot of these things with us. There's 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:15.000 a rap group that was a gospel group in the 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:18.760 twenties and thirties named the Jubile Airs, who rapped with 0:25:18.880 --> 0:25:20.920 the same cadence as the Sugarhill Gang. 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:23.240 Yep, you know. So if we. 0:25:23.440 --> 0:25:28.760 Ignore our elders and ancestors and don't speak of their contributions, 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:31.560 they taught us hip hop. We learned hip hop from 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:35.520 our elders and ancestors, and if we eliminate them, then 0:25:35.560 --> 0:25:38.720 we got to write for young people today to not 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:43.399 remember us or attribute our accomplishments to us. Because we 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:47.679 disrespect our ancestors, we deserve to be disrespected too. 0:25:48.480 --> 0:25:50.280 So I'm trying to think of the proper way to 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:53.280 ask this question though. But is it because disco was 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:57.000 the current music of the time? Is that why it 0:25:57.160 --> 0:26:01.159 became you know, let's say beginning of hip hop, it 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:04.840 was because disco is funky and disco is that shit? 0:26:05.440 --> 0:26:05.600 Man? 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:10.000 Come on, one of the biggest greatest breakbeats in the world, 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:11.560 Frisco Disco. 0:26:12.840 --> 0:26:18.720 Come on? Come on, you know Brown, Yes, you know 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:21.080 what I'm saying. Come on, where would hip hop be 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:24.760 without the Isley Brothers. You know what I'm saying. 0:26:25.320 --> 0:26:29.560 We where would we be without Motown stacks votes, you 0:26:29.640 --> 0:26:32.240 know what I'm saying. Mcfatten and white Head, all of 0:26:32.320 --> 0:26:36.320 these guys were geniuses. We learned hip hop from them 0:26:37.359 --> 0:26:41.320 and we remixed it, we sampled it. Hip Hop is 0:26:41.400 --> 0:26:48.080 a sample of Afro indigenous culture worldwide. It's the best 0:26:48.359 --> 0:26:51.680 of everything that ever existed. If you make a beat 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:54.840 that we like, we don't care if you're corny white 0:26:54.960 --> 0:26:55.640 rock group. 0:26:55.440 --> 0:26:59.000 With long hair. We didn't let it go that far, 0:26:59.320 --> 0:27:04.239 but we love give me that. It's hip hop now. 0:27:04.920 --> 0:27:08.640 Hip hop is a cultural and musical version of Star 0:27:08.800 --> 0:27:12.480 Trek's Borg resistance is futile. 0:27:12.800 --> 0:27:20.880 You will be assimilated new generation and after you, Yeah, 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:21.760 the things. 0:27:21.600 --> 0:27:24.760 I learned about you? When do you say that? 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:29.320 Hip hop started making its uh sort of its trek 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:34.520 into nightclub culture where it starts as block party culture. 0:27:35.000 --> 0:27:41.280 That's where Cool Hurt, the Zulu Nation, Grand Master Flash, 0:27:41.520 --> 0:27:45.119 the l Brothers, Graham with the Theodore, That's where the 0:27:45.240 --> 0:27:46.560 Disco Twins come in. 0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:50.560 These guys took it to those places, you know what 0:27:50.640 --> 0:27:52.800 I'm saying, And we. 0:27:53.080 --> 0:27:56.560 Use disco records as break beats, come on, what would 0:27:56.640 --> 0:27:57.520 hip hop be without? 0:27:58.000 --> 0:28:01.720 I want to thank you having for all the you 0:28:01.800 --> 0:28:02.440 know what I'm saying. 0:28:02.680 --> 0:28:06.320 I mean just there was just some amazing music being 0:28:06.480 --> 0:28:11.879 made by some of the greatest cultural geniuses who ever lived, 0:28:11.960 --> 0:28:14.560 and we got to call them out and give them 0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:18.800 credit for what they created. Bob James, are you kidding meet? 0:28:20.040 --> 0:28:25.119 You know, we had amazing the meters. You know, we 0:28:25.280 --> 0:28:29.080 had amazing teachers who taught us to beat and thank 0:28:29.200 --> 0:28:31.560 god Jane Brown put it on the one baby. 0:28:32.880 --> 0:28:37.560 Can you talk about any historic first that you've seen 0:28:37.600 --> 0:28:42.479 in the first fave, pre pre Latin quarter of your 0:28:42.560 --> 0:28:45.240 hip hop experiences as far as like shows are concerned 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:48.080 or not clubs you've been to or any of those things. 0:28:50.040 --> 0:28:54.520 We hung out at the Fever, the Disco Fever, Halem World, 0:28:55.080 --> 0:28:59.400 the Renni which was called the Renaissance Harlem World, I 0:28:59.480 --> 0:29:02.800 mean the Disco Fever. The Fever was in the Bronx 0:29:02.960 --> 0:29:05.920 right down the stairs, down the Joker stairs from my 0:29:06.040 --> 0:29:09.840 community high Bridge. It was at around one hundred and 0:29:09.920 --> 0:29:13.840 sixty seventh Street, not far from Yankee Stadium, right by 0:29:14.000 --> 0:29:15.160 River Avenue. 0:29:15.240 --> 0:29:18.600 So that's where you had to go to hear those 0:29:18.680 --> 0:29:20.520 particular non main street. 0:29:20.560 --> 0:29:22.160 So if you was open enough to go there, we 0:29:22.280 --> 0:29:24.680 got everything we needed right in the street for free. 0:29:25.840 --> 0:29:27.600 You know, we speak on it. 0:29:28.720 --> 0:29:32.400 There was the pa L, the Police Athletic League. 0:29:33.160 --> 0:29:34.480 Denzel always talks about that. 0:29:34.840 --> 0:29:38.000 Yeah, there was a lot of venues. 0:29:38.280 --> 0:29:42.479 We even had a disco called burger King, which basically 0:29:42.640 --> 0:29:44.040 was a Burger King restaurant. 0:29:44.640 --> 0:29:47.520 At night, one of the brothers that worked there would 0:29:47.560 --> 0:29:48.720 move the tables. 0:29:48.400 --> 0:29:52.120 And chairs and we would charge twenty five cents and 0:29:52.240 --> 0:29:54.600 we would do hip hop parties in Burger. 0:29:54.440 --> 0:29:57.400 King and nobody would be the wiser. 0:29:57.880 --> 0:30:01.280 Nah, they cleaned it up and and you know, nobody 0:30:01.360 --> 0:30:03.239 knew anything about it. You know, we did. 0:30:03.360 --> 0:30:07.200 We used school yards, we used talent shows. We was 0:30:07.280 --> 0:30:10.120 in the streets. You know, we did see the park. 0:30:10.640 --> 0:30:14.280 You know, there was hundreds of parks all over the city, 0:30:14.360 --> 0:30:18.440 from Brooklyn to Queens to Manhattan to the Bronx where 0:30:19.160 --> 0:30:21.840 you know, DJs would just come bring their equipment out, 0:30:21.960 --> 0:30:23.360 set up and get it cracking. 0:30:24.760 --> 0:30:25.600 And it was illegal. 0:30:26.680 --> 0:30:30.880 Everything about hip hop was illegal. We stole most of 0:30:30.960 --> 0:30:35.280 our equipment in the first place. We were stealing ship 0:30:35.320 --> 0:30:38.360 way before that. But that gave a lot of They 0:30:38.440 --> 0:30:40.400 gave a lot of people who wasn't as bold or 0:30:40.400 --> 0:30:44.239 as good thieves like we was an opportunity, but uh, 0:30:44.600 --> 0:30:46.680 you know, we we brought our equipment out in the 0:30:46.800 --> 0:30:50.160 park and we partied without a permit. 0:30:50.680 --> 0:30:54.160 When you say we are you speaking? Were you associated 0:30:54.200 --> 0:30:55.840 with Black Spades or like. 0:30:56.440 --> 0:30:58.920 I was a Baby Spade when I lived in the. 0:31:01.360 --> 0:31:06.360 The crew culture, the Black Spades, A lot of people 0:31:06.400 --> 0:31:08.520 say they were a Black Spade, But the Black Spades 0:31:08.640 --> 0:31:12.160 is from the sixties. Have you ever seen the movie 0:31:12.240 --> 0:31:16.120 A Bronx Tail That was a story of the Black 0:31:16.200 --> 0:31:24.880 Spades and the Bronxdale projects. They organized very similarly to 0:31:25.600 --> 0:31:28.920 the US group on the West Coast, and very similarly 0:31:29.040 --> 0:31:32.320 to the Black Panthers. It was out of necessity. The 0:31:32.440 --> 0:31:39.360 white kids used to live right above where we was 0:31:39.600 --> 0:31:42.160 in the suburbs. There was a couple of blocks that 0:31:42.280 --> 0:31:46.320 separated the projects from the suburbs. And the white kids 0:31:46.400 --> 0:31:51.360 were sons and nephews of Italian mobsters. And they wore 0:31:51.440 --> 0:31:55.800 thelether coats like Phronsie with the collars, you know what 0:31:55.880 --> 0:31:58.640 I'm saying. They had the grease hair bag, and they 0:31:58.720 --> 0:32:04.360 had revolvers, chains, bats and switch blades, and they would 0:32:04.400 --> 0:32:07.480 come down into our community and pray on us, beat 0:32:07.600 --> 0:32:09.800 us up, and rob us and do whatever they wanted. 0:32:10.160 --> 0:32:13.280 So the Black Spades, my dad is from New York 0:32:13.320 --> 0:32:15.480 and he's about ten fifteen years your senior, and it 0:32:15.560 --> 0:32:17.360 was different for them because they used to throw bottles 0:32:17.400 --> 0:32:19.960 off the top of the of the buildings and hitting 0:32:19.960 --> 0:32:22.600 the kids on the ground in Manhattan. So it was, 0:32:22.680 --> 0:32:24.960 you know, it's interesting to hear the Bronx verst of 0:32:25.000 --> 0:32:25.600 what was going on in. 0:32:25.600 --> 0:32:26.560 The other boroughs. 0:32:26.760 --> 0:32:31.120 So the Black Spades fought back against these white gangs 0:32:31.680 --> 0:32:36.800 and pushed there but way up off us and the 0:32:36.960 --> 0:32:40.480 crew got so big that it became the biggest black 0:32:40.600 --> 0:32:46.160 gang in the Bronx. In Brooklyn, they had the Jolly 0:32:46.360 --> 0:32:53.680 Stompers and the Tomahawks, and they were represented by the 0:32:53.800 --> 0:32:55.920 Black gang in the movie The Warriors. 0:32:56.480 --> 0:32:59.520 Okay, the group at the end that was. 0:32:59.600 --> 0:33:04.320 The Tomahawks and Jolly Stumpers, which later were organized into 0:33:04.440 --> 0:33:07.920 a black movement by my elder Sonny Carson in Brooklyn. 0:33:08.640 --> 0:33:13.280 To your knowledge, because to my ears, when I'm listening 0:33:13.400 --> 0:33:18.840 to Justice Doing Going Way Back or listening to Karaswan, 0:33:19.560 --> 0:33:20.520 do the roll call. 0:33:20.440 --> 0:33:22.640 Of like what the South Bronx like, all the names 0:33:22.680 --> 0:33:25.640 and mc shann who did the roll call from Queens. 0:33:25.800 --> 0:33:27.840 Well, that's why you get the bridge. You know what, 0:33:28.280 --> 0:33:30.600 do the other girls have their own tails? 0:33:30.760 --> 0:33:33.440 Hell to the year that just didn't have good marketers, 0:33:34.000 --> 0:33:35.840 yeas the Bronx did exactly. 0:33:36.120 --> 0:33:39.480 So who was first like Chicken on the egg. 0:33:40.880 --> 0:33:43.400 Or I'm asking, like, you know, because I hear of 0:33:43.520 --> 0:33:46.360 Queen's having a history that we don't hear about. I 0:33:46.400 --> 0:33:49.080 don't know much about Brooklyn's history. I know about Grand 0:33:49.120 --> 0:33:50.240 Master Flowers. 0:33:50.640 --> 0:33:53.880 But my boya and there was a bunch of them. 0:33:54.440 --> 0:33:58.400 And there's a DJ that moved from Brooklyn who used 0:33:58.400 --> 0:34:04.160 to DJ Whip Flowers to the Bronxdale Projects who actually 0:34:04.280 --> 0:34:08.239 predated Mario even but he wasn't a cutter or scratcher either. 0:34:08.320 --> 0:34:11.080 But they they played break beats and they blended and 0:34:11.200 --> 0:34:15.399 they did the things that were the predecessor. The DJ 0:34:15.640 --> 0:34:20.279 culture is the foundation and the predecessor of hip hop 0:34:20.360 --> 0:34:23.840 and rap music, and we really have to really do 0:34:23.960 --> 0:34:27.719 a better job of shouting these people out and researching. 0:34:28.480 --> 0:34:31.399 Me and my partner, Prime Minister Pete Knights from Third 0:34:31.440 --> 0:34:34.279 Base mar Cole curator at the Hip Hop Museum, we 0:34:34.560 --> 0:34:38.400 found the earliest flyer that we could find with the 0:34:38.480 --> 0:34:42.200 words hip hop on the fly and the flyer was 0:34:42.239 --> 0:34:46.160 from nineteen seventy nine and it was from Brooklyn. 0:34:49.000 --> 0:34:53.240 So you see what I'm saying. So another battery exactly. 0:34:54.120 --> 0:35:02.160 So there was many DJs, and include Eli Tubo, the 0:35:02.280 --> 0:35:06.279 great legendary hip hop producer that produced Eric B and 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:11.759 Rock Kim you know, and engineered those sessions. He was 0:35:11.840 --> 0:35:15.880 a popular DJ in Queens. Russell Simmons was a popular 0:35:16.000 --> 0:35:16.920 DJ in Queens. 0:35:17.680 --> 0:35:19.120 He actually knew how to DJ. 0:35:19.760 --> 0:35:22.440 Yeah, he wasn't cutting and scratching, but they would dat. 0:35:22.560 --> 0:35:27.399 Ralph McDaniel's from Video Music Box, very popular DJ. 0:35:28.280 --> 0:35:31.759 Was Hollywood's Terrain in a nightclub only or was he 0:35:32.000 --> 0:35:32.960 also a street DJ? 0:35:33.080 --> 0:35:34.680 And is there a difference between. 0:35:35.920 --> 0:35:39.920 Street block party culture versus nightclub cultures? 0:35:39.960 --> 0:35:42.600 There Most of the time street DJs didn't make no money. 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:48.560 We did it for the popularity, for the culture, for 0:35:48.680 --> 0:35:50.120 the love, you know. 0:35:50.640 --> 0:35:53.440 But we spent way more money than we made, you know, 0:35:53.600 --> 0:35:56.840 buying big speakers and records and turntables that was crazy 0:35:57.239 --> 0:35:59.840 expensive on young people. That's why I was telling you 0:36:00.280 --> 0:36:03.800 it was illegal, you know. Those that didn't steal. We 0:36:04.000 --> 0:36:07.320 pieced our sound system together. I had one turntable. He 0:36:07.400 --> 0:36:10.040 got one turntable, he got a mixer, he got some records. 0:36:10.080 --> 0:36:12.959 This guy got a speaker. Somebody else had the power amp, 0:36:13.360 --> 0:36:15.879 so we would form Voltron to even create hip hop. 0:36:16.640 --> 0:36:18.879 How are those speakers being built? Do you have any 0:36:18.960 --> 0:36:22.800 knowledge of is it as loud or Queen? 0:36:24.920 --> 0:36:29.840 Yes, Herk had some monster speakers and he was running 0:36:29.880 --> 0:36:33.320 through people in the Bronx until he ran into Breakout 0:36:33.400 --> 0:36:38.600 and Barren with the Mighty Sasquatch sound system. So Herk 0:36:38.760 --> 0:36:41.560 was killing him with the Herkalrre sound system. And then 0:36:41.600 --> 0:36:44.319 he ran into the Mighty Sasquatch, so. 0:36:44.440 --> 0:36:47.880 The loudier system, the louderier base that like you would win. 0:36:48.080 --> 0:36:48.719 I tell you why. 0:36:49.280 --> 0:36:52.360 There was a DJ by the name of DJ smoke 0:36:52.600 --> 0:36:57.399 or DJ Smoky in the Bronx not far from where 0:36:57.480 --> 0:36:58.040 Herk was. 0:36:58.320 --> 0:37:02.640 Who was DJing and popular at the same time HRK was. 0:37:03.160 --> 0:37:07.680 He played break beats and he had his version of 0:37:07.800 --> 0:37:12.400 bee Boys, which were called Smoka Trons. Had Dj Smokey 0:37:12.719 --> 0:37:15.680 been able to defeat Herk, we would be calling the 0:37:15.920 --> 0:37:20.520 bee Boys and break dancers Smoka Trons today because it 0:37:20.680 --> 0:37:24.920 was the same thing, right, Smokey battle hirk On numerous occasions. 0:37:25.680 --> 0:37:29.200 He lost every time because every time he'd set up 0:37:29.239 --> 0:37:32.000 his equipment, Herk would turn the knobs on him and 0:37:32.200 --> 0:37:32.759 blow them out. 0:37:32.800 --> 0:37:33.719 You couldn't even hear them. 0:37:34.680 --> 0:37:36.400 So what constitutes a battle? 0:37:36.600 --> 0:37:39.680 Like do you guys choose a ground and then this 0:37:39.760 --> 0:37:41.319 guy sets up his speakers over there? 0:37:41.440 --> 0:37:44.880 This guy says, speakers over there is Jamaica styles in 0:37:44.960 --> 0:37:46.480 like five minutes you and five hours. 0:37:47.360 --> 0:37:50.399 It depends. It just depends. Like hirking them. They ain't 0:37:50.440 --> 0:37:53.400 have no rules. You'd be in the park jamming and 0:37:53.520 --> 0:37:55.520 they come and they set up they shit right across 0:37:55.560 --> 0:37:55.759 from you. 0:37:56.040 --> 0:37:56.960 Oh, disrespect you. 0:37:57.040 --> 0:37:59.040 They just turned the knobs up and you can't even 0:37:59.080 --> 0:38:02.759 hear your headphones. And you got to pack your ship 0:38:02.880 --> 0:38:07.400 and leave with your tail between your legs. 0:38:08.040 --> 0:38:09.520 Yes, that's what you mean. 0:38:12.560 --> 0:38:16.960 When when Hirk started battling Grand Master Flash, Flash had 0:38:17.000 --> 0:38:19.839 a great sound system too, plus he was a way 0:38:19.960 --> 0:38:25.040 better DJ, So Hurt had to recruit one of my 0:38:25.640 --> 0:38:30.279 favorite mentors and DJs of all time, the Grand Imperial 0:38:30.480 --> 0:38:34.320 dj JC, which most people never heard of because he 0:38:34.440 --> 0:38:37.640 left the Bronx and moved to Yonkers at an early age, 0:38:37.719 --> 0:38:42.279 but him and Grand Mix of d x T were 0:38:42.440 --> 0:38:45.279 the two best DJs back in the day period, hands down, 0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:45.880 no question. 0:38:46.400 --> 0:38:48.600 That was literally, what'll going to be my next questions? 0:38:48.719 --> 0:38:50.239 Like, you know why what? 0:38:50.680 --> 0:39:01.680 Because they related to you, they were both drummersids. 0:38:58.320 --> 0:38:58.840 Off the books. 0:39:05.840 --> 0:39:08.960 Can you talk about your relationship with I'm about to 0:39:08.960 --> 0:39:14.560 say Lou Adler h Lou Waters, the owner of the 0:39:15.440 --> 0:39:20.120 infamous Latin Quarter nightclub by that point, how did you 0:39:20.960 --> 0:39:25.080 bring your vision admission to the Latin Quarter Nightclub? 0:39:25.840 --> 0:39:29.760 First of all, I never met Lou Walters, Barbara Walter's. 0:39:29.360 --> 0:39:31.759 Father, right, I know he owned the spot, so I 0:39:31.800 --> 0:39:32.160 didn't know. 0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:35.719 Right, But the guy that bought it off of the 0:39:35.840 --> 0:39:40.840 people that brought it off of them is my people. 0:39:42.760 --> 0:39:45.640 I first went to Latin Quarters with the Awesome Two 0:39:46.160 --> 0:39:52.560 DJ Teddy Ted and Special K. Yeah, and actually Donald B. 0:39:53.400 --> 0:39:56.520 The Awesome two was Special K and Donald B with 0:39:56.800 --> 0:40:02.120 DJ Teddy Ted Okay, So they were on WHBIM, the 0:40:02.200 --> 0:40:05.600 same radio station made popular by the Supreme Team UH 0:40:05.719 --> 0:40:09.759 and UH surch Use missed the Magic and they would 0:40:10.160 --> 0:40:15.360 have a show that they played rap music Saturday nights, 0:40:16.200 --> 0:40:22.000 four o'clock in the morning and they would play anything, demos, mixtapes. 0:40:22.040 --> 0:40:23.960 They didn't care if you send it to 'em they 0:40:24.000 --> 0:40:27.200 would play it. So I went down. I was promoting 0:40:27.280 --> 0:40:30.240 records at the time. I was working with Russell Simmons 0:40:30.280 --> 0:40:33.480 and Rush Productions and Early Death Jam, and I would 0:40:33.560 --> 0:40:36.719 promote records and I would listen to their radio show 0:40:37.080 --> 0:40:39.240 and they wasn't playing the stuff that I was promoting. 0:40:39.960 --> 0:40:42.480 So I was called a request line over and over 0:40:42.600 --> 0:40:45.080 trying to get them to answer, and they never answered 0:40:45.080 --> 0:40:49.120 the request line. So me being me, I got on 0:40:49.239 --> 0:40:51.680 the train and went up there, knocked on the door, 0:40:51.840 --> 0:40:54.560 introduced myself and I said, why don't try to answer 0:40:54.600 --> 0:40:56.960 the request line. They said, oh, well, cause we ain't 0:40:56.960 --> 0:41:00.360 got nobody to do it. I rolled my SLA, was up, 0:41:00.360 --> 0:41:01.480 went and sat down and then. 0:41:01.400 --> 0:41:05.279 You do now it is organize their records off the floor. 0:41:06.000 --> 0:41:09.839 Know what that organized? Organized the call to people who 0:41:09.920 --> 0:41:10.560 were calling in. 0:41:11.480 --> 0:41:13.840 And what we did was we were able to filter 0:41:14.000 --> 0:41:16.880 out all the horrible stuff that they was playing and 0:41:17.000 --> 0:41:20.560 started playing the most requested stuff. But anyway, they got 0:41:20.640 --> 0:41:23.719 a gig working at the Latin Quarters on Tuesday nights 0:41:24.120 --> 0:41:27.840 and they called it Celebrity Tuesdays, and they invited me 0:41:28.280 --> 0:41:30.600 to come to the club to be a judge. It 0:41:30.760 --> 0:41:34.279 was like showtime at the Apollo for Rappers. You know, 0:41:34.920 --> 0:41:37.600 you get stuff thrown at you, you get booed right 0:41:37.680 --> 0:41:40.279 on stage, you get a bottle like he ever was 0:41:40.320 --> 0:41:40.840 one second. 0:41:40.960 --> 0:41:45.440 So, but the thing is is like how open is 0:41:45.520 --> 0:41:51.200 the establishment to this culture coming into to play? 0:41:51.440 --> 0:41:58.359 Because well, a very interesting and wonderful Jewish man bought 0:41:58.440 --> 0:41:59.160 the Latin Quarter. 0:41:59.640 --> 0:42:05.120 Okay, his name was Mike Goldberg, and he was a hustler. 0:42:05.760 --> 0:42:10.320 You know what I'm saying, say Steve, Mike, sorry everybody, 0:42:13.400 --> 0:42:16.600 But the Lant Quarter was Mike Goldberg's train set. 0:42:17.560 --> 0:42:19.640 It was his play thing, his playground. 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:20.520 You know. 0:42:20.719 --> 0:42:26.759 He was a multi millionaire that managed the magician David Copperfield, 0:42:27.480 --> 0:42:31.000 who would making twenty million a year on Vegas a loon. 0:42:31.800 --> 0:42:34.120 So this is just a side thing. Yeah, okay, this 0:42:34.320 --> 0:42:37.000 is a side thing. And Mike would just be all 0:42:37.120 --> 0:42:38.759 up in it. He would go stand in front of 0:42:38.840 --> 0:42:41.120 the box office and collect the money himself. 0:42:41.160 --> 0:42:43.000 Don't even let you put it in there to the lady. 0:42:43.239 --> 0:42:44.520 He's standing there, and give me. 0:42:44.680 --> 0:42:47.439 You know, he'd got a fistful of money. 0:42:47.560 --> 0:42:48.240 Sorry everybody. 0:42:50.160 --> 0:42:52.759 Hey, he just had so much fun doing it, you 0:42:52.880 --> 0:42:53.520 know what I'm saying. 0:42:53.600 --> 0:42:58.040 So one night I decided, like the celebrity tuesdays that 0:42:58.160 --> 0:43:00.600 the Awesome Too was doing was cool, but it wasn't 0:43:00.719 --> 0:43:04.840 packing the club, you know what I mean. And it 0:43:05.000 --> 0:43:06.919 was nothing like what was going on at the club 0:43:07.000 --> 0:43:09.680 on Fridays and Saturdays. So we used to go to 0:43:09.800 --> 0:43:13.040 forty second Street to the kung Fu house called Sinny 0:43:13.160 --> 0:43:15.480 forty second and we used to get three Kung Fu 0:43:15.640 --> 0:43:19.279 movies for five dollars, you know, and you get like 0:43:19.719 --> 0:43:23.000 three movies, popcorn, hot dog, and. 0:43:23.080 --> 0:43:25.440 A drink ten bucks, you know. 0:43:25.680 --> 0:43:28.359 So we all hung out down there watching Bruce Lee, 0:43:28.560 --> 0:43:32.919 Jackie Chan, you know, the Shaw Brothers movies. And that's 0:43:32.960 --> 0:43:36.360 why hip hop became so synonymous with Kung Ko movies 0:43:36.400 --> 0:43:40.080 in those early days, because it was all concentrated right there. 0:43:40.760 --> 0:43:43.680 So I come out to Kung Fu movie and I said, 0:43:43.760 --> 0:43:46.360 let me see what's going on at the club, because 0:43:46.360 --> 0:43:47.080 I've never been there on. 0:43:47.120 --> 0:43:48.120 A Friday or Saturday. 0:43:48.680 --> 0:43:52.439 So I go to the club. There's a Jamaican after 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:58.399 work dance party and it's so packed that you can't 0:43:58.400 --> 0:44:03.400 even walk around in the club, and the floor was 0:44:03.920 --> 0:44:10.200 undulating with sex and bass. The bass was turned up 0:44:10.360 --> 0:44:13.520 so much sex that if you stood on the dance floor, 0:44:13.880 --> 0:44:15.840 you would probably be dancing without moving. 0:44:16.960 --> 0:44:18.200 It was just undulating. 0:44:18.280 --> 0:44:21.320 It was like watching the matrix, you know, that singing 0:44:21.400 --> 0:44:24.600 and zion at the end. That's what it looked like 0:44:24.680 --> 0:44:28.120 to me. I was like, there's no place in hip 0:44:28.160 --> 0:44:32.239 hop that you can go and have this experience where 0:44:33.200 --> 0:44:36.440 every party's on the dance floor and all the dudes 0:44:36.840 --> 0:44:37.919 are dancing with women. 0:44:39.880 --> 0:44:40.040 You know. 0:44:40.760 --> 0:44:44.600 So it gave me the idea of epiphany that this 0:44:44.760 --> 0:44:47.600 could be an actual hip hop dance club. 0:44:48.520 --> 0:44:48.680 You know. 0:44:49.440 --> 0:44:51.840 We were going to those clubs and my man was 0:44:51.880 --> 0:44:54.680 talking about Larry Levon and those DJs and stuff. There 0:44:54.800 --> 0:44:57.960 was another movement of freestyle dancing that was going on 0:44:58.080 --> 0:45:01.839 in New York at the time, around eighty five eighty six. 0:45:02.320 --> 0:45:05.759 People wasn't break dancing in New York no more. All 0:45:05.840 --> 0:45:08.759 the rock STEADI Crew, the Dynamic Breakers, all those dudes 0:45:08.880 --> 0:45:12.040 was on tour in Europe, China and Japan. They was 0:45:12.160 --> 0:45:14.560 rocking over there, but nobody was in the club b 0:45:14.719 --> 0:45:17.560 Boy no more in nineteen eighty five eighty six. So 0:45:17.719 --> 0:45:20.479 the new style was the style that they was doing, 0:45:21.040 --> 0:45:27.640 dancing to disco and dancing to club music. They went 0:45:27.760 --> 0:45:30.440 back in time to win the Latin quarter was the 0:45:30.560 --> 0:45:36.200 Cotton Club, and they borrowed the old dancers from Sammy 0:45:36.280 --> 0:45:41.960 Davis Jr. The Nicholas Brothers and Cab Callaway and they 0:45:42.160 --> 0:45:46.120 modernized those dances and danced hip hop with it. 0:45:46.840 --> 0:45:47.680 If you look at. 0:45:49.160 --> 0:45:52.040 The way Salt and Pepper danced store, if you look 0:45:52.080 --> 0:45:55.239 at epmds you got the Chill video, you know. If 0:45:55.239 --> 0:45:57.760 you look at Big Daddy Kane to see Schoob and Scrap, 0:45:58.360 --> 0:46:00.160 you know what I mean. You look at Houdini and 0:46:00.280 --> 0:46:04.800 you see got the Ice and the Kango Kid and 0:46:05.120 --> 0:46:08.719 the young Jermaine Duprie. Those were the dancers that were 0:46:08.800 --> 0:46:12.400 being done in the Latin Quarters. The ghosts of the 0:46:12.560 --> 0:46:16.120 Cotton Club was reborn in the dancing at Latin Quarters. 0:46:16.400 --> 0:46:19.080 And we had a group called the Iou Dancers and 0:46:19.200 --> 0:46:24.000 the jac Dancers and the Jason Dances. Was Buddha Stretch 0:46:24.520 --> 0:46:29.280 who went from dancing at the Latin Quarter to choreographing 0:46:29.600 --> 0:46:30.960 Michael Jackson's. 0:46:30.520 --> 0:46:33.800 Remember the Time video and being the lead dancer in 0:46:33.960 --> 0:46:34.440 that video. 0:46:35.120 --> 0:46:38.480 You know, because those doing that Egyptian style, all those 0:46:38.880 --> 0:46:42.080 interesting dance styles were coming out of the Latin Quarter, 0:46:42.360 --> 0:46:48.560 you know. So fifteen year old Queen Latifa was working 0:46:48.600 --> 0:46:51.520 at Burger King in New Jersey. When she decided to 0:46:51.600 --> 0:46:55.080 go to the Latin Quarter to do dancing and she 0:46:55.239 --> 0:46:57.640 saw MC light for FUM, it was like, oh my god, 0:46:57.719 --> 0:46:58.320 I want to do that. 0:46:59.640 --> 0:47:01.400 So that's how the club was. 0:47:01.920 --> 0:47:05.479 When do you mark the grand opening of the Latin Quarter? 0:47:06.480 --> 0:47:09.480 Well, in my era, the one that that I did, 0:47:09.960 --> 0:47:13.000 that's called you know that made it be renamed. 0:47:13.080 --> 0:47:15.759 Yeah, it's not calling the Latin I know, it's a history. 0:47:15.800 --> 0:47:18.320 I just spent. Like the name of your parties was 0:47:18.600 --> 0:47:19.000 was called? 0:47:19.440 --> 0:47:20.719 It was LQ. 0:47:21.000 --> 0:47:22.960 Well, I'll just say the LQ. When do you consider 0:47:23.040 --> 0:47:24.680 the LQ period of the Latin. 0:47:24.520 --> 0:47:27.200 I say, no tricks in eighty six is time to 0:47:27.280 --> 0:47:31.960 build because by eighty six rap music had blown up internationally. 0:47:32.760 --> 0:47:35.040 And if you went to the Latin Quarter on the weekend, 0:47:35.440 --> 0:47:40.120 Curtis blow Run, DMC, the Fat Boys, Houdini, all of 0:47:40.200 --> 0:47:42.520 them would be hanging out there because they were my friends, 0:47:42.800 --> 0:47:44.160 and I would let them in free and give them 0:47:44.239 --> 0:47:47.319 drink tickets. You know, so all the hip hop would 0:47:47.360 --> 0:47:51.640 convene there. But I couldn't put Melly Mel on stage 0:47:52.000 --> 0:47:54.160 to do a show. He would get on stage. Even 0:47:54.239 --> 0:47:57.120 though he would get on stage and do a little 0:47:57.160 --> 0:48:01.200 impromptu stuff, and he was at actually the catalysts that 0:48:01.320 --> 0:48:04.359 help turn it into the Golden Ebra hip hop because 0:48:04.360 --> 0:48:05.279 he was the filter. 0:48:05.960 --> 0:48:07.800 If these legends. 0:48:08.040 --> 0:48:12.279 And I mean, you know, I understand that one year 0:48:12.320 --> 0:48:14.759 here also to represent the opening of a museum, which 0:48:14.840 --> 0:48:17.080 is like, hey, you preserve the culture. But I mean 0:48:17.160 --> 0:48:20.480 even you have to admit that hip hop is very 0:48:20.560 --> 0:48:24.520 big on this sort of disposable adult culture and like 0:48:24.680 --> 0:48:27.560 the youth run it and once you hit a certain 0:48:27.640 --> 0:48:30.480 age then it's like all right, well that was then. 0:48:30.560 --> 0:48:33.759 But that's because of the record labels man and the 0:48:33.920 --> 0:48:38.000 music industry. When when black artists and hip hop get older, 0:48:38.360 --> 0:48:41.279 you got pay him. They know the game. They're not 0:48:41.400 --> 0:48:44.040 seventeen eighteen years old. You're not gonna just run some 0:48:44.200 --> 0:48:45.920 bull crap contract on them. 0:48:45.800 --> 0:48:47.120 No more, damn. 0:48:47.360 --> 0:48:49.880 So when it came that, yeah, we're all economics, they're like, 0:48:50.120 --> 0:48:53.279 you know what, y're old, We're not paying y'all. You know, 0:48:53.719 --> 0:48:57.840 kick rocks and kind of the way that that I 0:48:58.480 --> 0:49:01.920 really transform here pop at the Latin Quarter was for 0:49:02.080 --> 0:49:02.880 the same reasons. 0:49:02.960 --> 0:49:03.879 It was economics. 0:49:04.680 --> 0:49:08.200 I had Mellie mal Houdini run DMC in the club, 0:49:08.239 --> 0:49:09.440 but I couldn't put him on stage. 0:49:09.520 --> 0:49:13.320 So if if Grandmaster Flash in the Furious Five wanted 0:49:13.360 --> 0:49:14.200 to perform. 0:49:13.960 --> 0:49:17.280 At the Latin Quarter, I would have gave him the stage. 0:49:17.480 --> 0:49:19.680 Great gladly passed them to Mic. 0:49:19.920 --> 0:49:20.920 Okay, you know what I mean. 0:49:24.320 --> 0:49:28.680 They getting arena money now, they were no club money 0:49:28.760 --> 0:49:30.879 no more, you know what I'm saying. 0:49:31.120 --> 0:49:35.680 So so so I put biz Monkey on stage, Roxanne Schaan, 0:49:35.760 --> 0:49:39.960 Te mc shan, Big Daddy, Kane, Salt and Pepper Kid 0:49:40.080 --> 0:49:43.440 and play ep m D Eric Ben rocked him, stets 0:49:43.480 --> 0:49:46.000 of Sonic, just Dice care us one. 0:49:46.640 --> 0:49:49.600 They was all hungry and they weren't They didn't have 0:49:49.680 --> 0:49:50.280 record deals. 0:49:50.920 --> 0:49:53.400 You rocked the Latin Quarter on a Friday or Saturday, 0:49:53.440 --> 0:49:54.840 you had a record deal Monday morning. 0:49:56.880 --> 0:49:59.280 Not that A and R's was in the crowd. Russell 0:49:59.320 --> 0:50:00.640 Simmons is in the crowd. 0:50:01.280 --> 0:50:05.520 Tom Silverman is in the crowd, Fred Maneo is in 0:50:05.640 --> 0:50:09.160 the crowd. Aaron Fuchs is in the crowd. You know, 0:50:09.280 --> 0:50:12.640 they knew where the bread was buttered, and they knew 0:50:12.719 --> 0:50:15.120 that if they did not show up, that they were 0:50:15.160 --> 0:50:16.879 going to miss out on the next big hit. 0:50:17.520 --> 0:50:20.200 Okay, without the threat of getting hit with a lawsuit 0:50:20.280 --> 0:50:24.960 anytime I mentioned these two names. Can you clarify to 0:50:25.080 --> 0:50:28.480 me what exactly is Aaron Fuchs's role in hip hop? 0:50:29.040 --> 0:50:32.600 Because I know of him only when I see a 0:50:32.600 --> 0:50:34.600 relatigious situation happening. 0:50:34.600 --> 0:50:38.960 Right on Tough City Records. He was an independent record 0:50:39.520 --> 0:50:43.400 owner at the time when we started Latin Quarters, the 0:50:43.640 --> 0:50:46.759 majors hadn't come in and dominated and buy out all 0:50:46.840 --> 0:50:51.680 the independent labels. But because all these new artists were 0:50:51.760 --> 0:50:56.480 emerging every week, the majors was getting wiped out, and 0:50:56.800 --> 0:50:59.479 they say, you know what we better get in this game. 0:51:00.080 --> 0:51:05.640 You had Jive RCA, Fourth and Broadway, Columbia, you know, 0:51:05.920 --> 0:51:10.680 start to actually recruit and sign these artists, and we 0:51:10.880 --> 0:51:15.720 replaced the whole generation of artists because of economics and sound. 0:51:16.280 --> 0:51:19.000 You know, the new artists at Latin Quarters they started 0:51:19.080 --> 0:51:23.680 making hip hop dance music. And if Red Alert who 0:51:23.800 --> 0:51:26.759 was my DJ on Friday nights or Chuck Chillout, who 0:51:26.880 --> 0:51:29.600 was my DJ on Saturday nights, if they played your 0:51:29.680 --> 0:51:32.800 music in the Latin Quarter and the IOU and JC 0:51:33.040 --> 0:51:36.920 dancers didn't rush the dance floor and start tearing it up, 0:51:37.320 --> 0:51:38.640 you might not hear your record again. 0:51:39.320 --> 0:51:42.280 So people changed the sound. They made it more up tempo. 0:51:42.560 --> 0:51:45.080 We went a little more James Brown heavy, a lot 0:51:45.160 --> 0:51:48.400 more boomed back, and you know a lot of new 0:51:48.520 --> 0:51:49.680 artists started emerging. 0:51:50.040 --> 0:51:52.719 Okay, so we also live in a time now. Now, 0:51:52.800 --> 0:51:56.520 we live in a time where it's really hard to 0:51:57.600 --> 0:51:59.799 break a new artist out. 0:52:00.320 --> 0:52:03.040 Like you know, as a DJ, I'll play if I 0:52:03.080 --> 0:52:07.279 think something is dope, I'm gonna play it, and you'll 0:52:07.360 --> 0:52:10.319 clearly see an energy shift where it's like I don't 0:52:10.400 --> 0:52:13.319 know this song, so let me go to bathroom or whatever, 0:52:13.440 --> 0:52:15.000 and then it will wind up being a hit later, 0:52:15.160 --> 0:52:16.680 you know, once. 0:52:16.520 --> 0:52:18.759 It goes through the system, if they pay for it 0:52:18.840 --> 0:52:22.200 to go through the system. But you know, to hear 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:22.800 me tell it. 0:52:23.840 --> 0:52:27.200 A lot of what we consider just the classic bread 0:52:27.239 --> 0:52:32.680 and butter basic food groups of hip hop nightly are 0:52:32.800 --> 0:52:35.160 just getting debuted, like play. 0:52:35.000 --> 0:52:36.840 Top Building for the first time and the audience is 0:52:36.920 --> 0:52:41.200 going crazy. But you had to how how okay? 0:52:41.320 --> 0:52:46.000 So how are you telling me that a. 0:52:46.200 --> 0:52:49.560 Def jam rep can go up to the booth to 0:52:50.560 --> 0:52:54.960 red alert and be like, hey, rock this join like 0:52:55.080 --> 0:52:57.719 there's no because people do that to me a lot. 0:52:57.880 --> 0:53:00.200 Thank God for like the system of Sarato now where 0:53:00.200 --> 0:53:02.560 it's like, you know, I don't my hard drive them, 0:53:02.680 --> 0:53:05.200 like I can't immediately play it. I don't like playing 0:53:05.280 --> 0:53:06.399 some unless I hear it first. 0:53:06.840 --> 0:53:08.280 Right, Well, we had. 0:53:09.719 --> 0:53:12.960 A great sound system in the DJ booth, and you 0:53:13.040 --> 0:53:15.839 could bang something and listen to it in the DJ 0:53:16.040 --> 0:53:19.440 booth without playing it out to the house. But what 0:53:19.600 --> 0:53:22.120 I mean more or less, it's like if DMC walks 0:53:22.160 --> 0:53:23.919 in the club and say, yo, this is our new ship, 0:53:24.560 --> 0:53:25.879 you know you're going to give it a chance. 0:53:26.040 --> 0:53:30.440 But if if if MC butter Butt come in with it, you. 0:53:30.440 --> 0:53:34.080 Know whatever, And you know who who Audio two is? 0:53:34.840 --> 0:53:35.680 I did or is it? 0:53:35.880 --> 0:53:38.239 I hated the Audio two at the time, but I 0:53:38.360 --> 0:53:41.160 loved them as human beings, as people, but they had 0:53:41.320 --> 0:53:42.160 horrible music. 0:53:42.320 --> 0:53:43.240 I like Cherries. 0:53:43.640 --> 0:53:46.279 I was gonna say, I was going to say, let 0:53:46.320 --> 0:53:47.080 me take Cherries. 0:53:47.200 --> 0:53:52.000 Was the A side? No, No, the A side was. 0:53:52.320 --> 0:53:55.840 Making it that was produced by Daddy, right, okay, you know, 0:53:56.200 --> 0:53:59.840 and the B side was Top Villain and it was it. 0:54:00.000 --> 0:54:04.399 It was only like about two minutes in the beginning, right. 0:54:04.920 --> 0:54:08.759 So what happened was Matt Robinson Milk's dad, who owned 0:54:08.800 --> 0:54:14.400 First Priority Music record label. He had every DJ in 0:54:14.520 --> 0:54:18.759 New York playing Make It Funky except one cool DJ, 0:54:18.920 --> 0:54:24.360 Red Alert, and my partner rests in peace to Robert 0:54:24.440 --> 0:54:29.920 Lamma Carson aka Procesess, an ex. He was Nat Robinson's 0:54:29.960 --> 0:54:33.160 good friend for years and years, so he would always 0:54:33.880 --> 0:54:36.040 come in Paradise, please get ready to. 0:54:36.080 --> 0:54:38.960 Play that record? Man, where gotta play it? You know? 0:54:40.560 --> 0:54:42.840 You know they're right there, They're almost there. They just 0:54:42.960 --> 0:54:43.720 need Red Alert. 0:54:44.600 --> 0:54:48.319 And I wasn't feeling milking kids myself, so I wasn't 0:54:48.360 --> 0:54:52.560 pushing red I do not ask Red Alert to play 0:54:52.680 --> 0:54:55.160 anything because you will get embarrassed. 0:54:55.760 --> 0:54:58.200 Red Alert is unbiable. 0:54:58.640 --> 0:55:00.080 I was just about to ask that you. 0:55:00.120 --> 0:55:05.040 Cannot offer Red Alert no drugs, no women, no money. 0:55:05.800 --> 0:55:08.239 Red Alert had the most integrity. 0:55:08.440 --> 0:55:13.399 But if he said no, no said are you right 0:55:14.480 --> 0:55:16.080 there now? Where? Okay? 0:55:16.160 --> 0:55:19.239 He don't care. He wouldn't play Bam bodis record. And 0:55:19.320 --> 0:55:20.040 he was a zulu. 0:55:21.120 --> 0:55:23.640 If he wasn't feeling it, he ain't playing it, you 0:55:23.760 --> 0:55:27.000 know what I mean, no matter how much peer pressure come. 0:55:27.680 --> 0:55:30.920 So Nat Robinson came one day and he was like, Paradise, 0:55:31.040 --> 0:55:32.600 please get ready to play it, man. 0:55:32.960 --> 0:55:37.040 We got this people listening for it, you know, and 0:55:37.560 --> 0:55:38.799 it'll take us over the hunt. 0:55:38.880 --> 0:55:39.200 Please. 0:55:39.880 --> 0:55:42.600 I was like, I took the record in the in 0:55:42.680 --> 0:55:44.959 the DJ boot before Red Alert got to the club, 0:55:45.760 --> 0:55:48.600 and I was just dropping the needle all over the record, 0:55:48.680 --> 0:55:51.680 like there gotta be something that's playable on this, and 0:55:51.840 --> 0:55:54.840 I flipped it over to the B side and I 0:55:54.920 --> 0:55:56.320 couldn't believe my ears. 0:56:01.360 --> 0:56:03.840 I was like, oh my god, this is dope. 0:56:04.560 --> 0:56:05.919 The initial thing was it's dope. 0:56:06.239 --> 0:56:10.520 It's dope, okay with time out pause of the thing. Now, 0:56:10.600 --> 0:56:14.800 when I heard it, it was such an unorthodox song. 0:56:15.280 --> 0:56:18.319 Lady B premiereda in Philadelphia, so I'm certain whatever Red 0:56:18.400 --> 0:56:19.160 Alert was doing. 0:56:19.080 --> 0:56:22.840 She co signed it. Next it is an unusual song, 0:56:23.080 --> 0:56:23.560 yes it is. 0:56:24.360 --> 0:56:26.040 That's why How did you see the light? You know 0:56:26.120 --> 0:56:27.959 what made me love that song? 0:56:28.120 --> 0:56:33.360 Milk is Chilling spending uncounted hours in the studio with 0:56:33.520 --> 0:56:34.080 Rick Rubin. 0:56:35.560 --> 0:56:36.160 Rick Rubin. 0:56:36.280 --> 0:56:38.560 If you look at the early records that he produced, 0:56:38.640 --> 0:56:42.920 it doesn't say produced by Rick Rubin, it says reduced 0:56:42.960 --> 0:56:48.200 by Rick Rubin. And Milk Is Chilling was bare bones, raw, 0:56:48.560 --> 0:56:51.760 uncut hip hop that I was used to from being 0:56:51.960 --> 0:56:55.759 a street DJ in the Bronx. That it reminded me 0:56:55.880 --> 0:56:58.640 of a street jam and somebody put a beat on 0:56:59.120 --> 0:57:02.640 and somebody it's sellaneus MC came running out the crowd 0:57:03.080 --> 0:57:04.840 and put it down on the mic. It was so 0:57:05.120 --> 0:57:08.480 catchy and so sing songie. I knew it was to 0:57:08.600 --> 0:57:11.600 hit the first time I heard it, so I gave 0:57:11.680 --> 0:57:14.560 it to my house DJ DJ Roman. He played it 0:57:14.600 --> 0:57:17.040 about five or six times before Red Alert even got 0:57:17.080 --> 0:57:19.040 to the club on the Latin quart. 0:57:18.840 --> 0:57:19.680 Of sound system. 0:57:20.240 --> 0:57:24.440 That beat hit so hard. Right. 0:57:24.960 --> 0:57:28.000 So Red Alert shows up after coming off with Kiss FM. 0:57:28.280 --> 0:57:31.840 He's headed for the DJ booth. I'm like ecstatic. I 0:57:31.920 --> 0:57:35.800 go running over to him with two copies of this 0:57:36.040 --> 0:57:36.800 record and I. 0:57:36.840 --> 0:57:39.000 Was like, yo, Red, Yo, you gotta check this out. 0:57:39.600 --> 0:57:43.480 And he snatched it out of my hand and threw 0:57:43.520 --> 0:57:46.520 it across the room and it smashed on the wall. 0:57:46.920 --> 0:57:50.120 He was like, Yo, this cit is a Frisbee. I 0:57:50.200 --> 0:57:52.720 wish y'all was stopped coming at me with this frisbees man. 0:57:52.760 --> 0:57:53.960 I told him I'm not playing it. 0:57:54.000 --> 0:57:57.080 I don't like it. I was like, Red, why you 0:57:57.200 --> 0:57:57.400 do me? 0:57:57.560 --> 0:58:00.600 Like? I was like, dud ever tell you to play 0:58:00.640 --> 0:58:02.959 something that's whack. He was like no, but I don't 0:58:03.080 --> 0:58:04.920 like that. I said, you ain't even hear it yet. 0:58:05.640 --> 0:58:07.840 So when he went to go to the DJ booth, 0:58:08.080 --> 0:58:10.320 I beat him to the booth and I made sure 0:58:10.360 --> 0:58:13.760 that the last thing that played was Top Villain was 0:58:13.920 --> 0:58:16.160 Top Villain. I put it on and he walked into 0:58:16.240 --> 0:58:19.360 booth and the crowd was going banana. They were bouncing 0:58:19.440 --> 0:58:22.520 all over the place to it, and I walked away 0:58:22.840 --> 0:58:24.200 and I said, Yo, that's yours. 0:58:26.040 --> 0:58:29.000 And you know, I tell the story that after that 0:58:29.120 --> 0:58:31.640 they started banging it. It was a big hit. Milk 0:58:32.160 --> 0:58:37.040 tells the story. Yo, Dice, he still hates it. He 0:58:37.160 --> 0:58:39.400 still don't play it. He might have played it a 0:58:39.480 --> 0:58:42.400 couple of times for you after that, but he still 0:58:42.440 --> 0:58:45.480 hate us. Still. Yep, that's what all that says. I 0:58:45.640 --> 0:58:45.960 love that. 0:58:47.240 --> 0:58:50.320 Okay, QLs listeners, this is where we're cutting it. Please 0:58:50.360 --> 0:58:52.320 come back next week or check your podcast for you 0:58:52.440 --> 0:58:55.520 for part two of our Gains Studio conversation with Paradise Gray. 0:58:56.120 --> 0:58:58.520 In that episode, he speaks more about the glory years 0:58:58.520 --> 0:59:01.320 of the Latin Quarter, his action of hip hop artifacts, 0:59:01.560 --> 0:59:02.400 and so much more. 0:59:03.040 --> 0:59:05.920 Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. This podcast 0:59:06.120 --> 0:59:09.440 is hosted by a Mere Quest Love, Thomas and boss 0:59:09.520 --> 0:59:13.440 Man Like Here, Saint Clair, So Black, Andy Black Myself, 0:59:13.640 --> 0:59:19.080 Fontidelo Fonte, Goldman, Sugar, Steve Mandell, and Unpaid Bill Sherman 0:59:19.400 --> 0:59:22.760 The executive producers are Amir Quest, Love Thompson. 0:59:22.480 --> 0:59:25.280 Sean g and The Unbothered Brian Calho. 0:59:25.760 --> 0:59:30.120 Produced by Britney Benjamin, My Dog Cousin, Jake Pam My 0:59:30.240 --> 0:59:33.919 Motherfucking Man and Like he Is Saint Clair My Work Wife, 0:59:34.480 --> 0:59:38.240 Edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown 0:59:38.320 --> 0:59:43.480 and Mike Johns. Audio engineering by Graham Gibson aka Double 0:59:43.560 --> 0:59:45.640 G at Iheart's La Studio. 0:59:46.240 --> 0:59:48.800 Thank you for tuning in. Check us out next week. 0:59:52.840 --> 0:59:59.200 What's Up Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For 0:59:59.320 --> 1:00:03.520 more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:00:04.000 --> 1:00:05.680 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.