WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Kurtis Blow 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:09.720 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. What's Up. 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.040 It's June and that means it's Black Music Month, and 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.120 every year on Questlove Supreme and now The Quest Love Show, 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.079 we honor it by bringing you an episode every day 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.040 that celebrates black music, its history, and its impact. My 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:25.639 team and I have selected episodes from our archive that 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.680 we feel are specially relevant to the celebration, offering history, 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.360 insight a little fun along the way. So be on 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.040 the lookout for four brand new episodes throughout June, each 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.440 connected to the past president future of Black music. You're 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:45.840 going to highlight trail blazers, innovators, cultural conduits, and revolutionaries 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:50.159 whose word continues to shape the world around us. Happy June, 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:51.880 Happy Black Music Month. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:09.520 Suprema So Sun Supremo roll call, Supreme Son Son Supremo, 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:16.000 roll called Suprema son Some Supremo roll called Suprema Son 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.040 So Suprema roll call. 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.319 I had a brilliant ro call Yeah for Curtis Blow. 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.039 But for some reason, you ain't never going. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:25.400 To know it. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:32.360 Oh Supremo Sun Sun Supremo, roll called Supremo Son Son 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:33.959 Supremo roll call. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.840 My name is Sugar, Yeah, I love you. 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:37.240 All. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:47.199 Yeah, but once and for all. Yeah, Baseball Supremo, Roll Supremo. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:49.760 Suck some Supremo. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:53.120 Roll call coming off the cuff. 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.320 Yeah, rummer words in English. Yeah, so why it doesn't 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:58.640 have to be so damned. 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:06.160 Supreme So Supremo roll call Suprema Son Supremo. 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.120 Roll calls em. Yeah what curt is blown? 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:09.840 Yeah? 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.880 If your hip hop, yeah, you should already know. 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:18.880 Ro call Suprema Son Sun Supremo ro Cal Supreme. 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.640 Can't believe my Supremo roll. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:28.160 Call one, two, three, four hit it yeah now yeah, 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:29.360 I'm gonna spit it. 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:35.760 Supremo. Roll come come back, Suprema. 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:41.399 Son Sun Supremo, Roll cal Supremo Son Son Supremo. Roll 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.799 call Suprema Son Supremo roll call. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:52.760 Right, ladies and gentlemen, this is Court Love Supreme. I 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.799 forgot the name of my own show. We are at iHeartRadio. 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.720 Thank you very much. We're here with Team Supreme. Unpaid 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.240 Bill and here is not here. You are not a 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:05.920 paid bill, you are a boss bill. 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.600 Wow. I knew what I was saying. I knew I 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.440 was just testing to see if you knew who you were. 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.000 Of course, we got a sugar Steve and we have 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.640 a laia with us on paid Bill right now is 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:19.200 doing his thing. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.240 And Broadway, yeah yeah, whenever, whenever he's hit on Broadway, 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:25.840 he don't have time for us. No more. 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.000 Ladies and gentlemen, plain and simple. You know you hear 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.320 of kings and pioneers and people bragging about their status 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.000 and this culture. I'm sure you, ladies and gentlemen, uh 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.800 that the gentlemen that we're about to introduce is literally 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.760 the pioneer of this amazing art form that has made 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.880 trillions of dollars. What can I say, first rapper on 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:54.000 a major label, first rapper to get a gold plaque, 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.680 first rapper to cover a song, first rapper to make 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:03.680 a love ballot, first rabitatur overseas. I mean his production 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.600 credits looming large. I mean, for God's sakes, he produced 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.160 the record that was Jay Z's very first purchase of 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.760 a full hip hop album. Speaking of the Fat Boy's debut, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:17.760 I mean, through this man like this is how we 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.440 know he was. He was the entry of Russell Simmons 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.839 into the world, a run into the world of full force, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.599 into the professional world of Alison Williams, of the Great 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:33.680 Unhurled Larry Smith and his production credits. The aforementioned Fat Boys, 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:38.120 not to mention, gave Salaam Remy his first start in production. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.440 Oh yes, a yeah, fourteen year old. Yes do we do? 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.159 We do our homework. Not to mention, Uh what I what? 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.839 I credit as one of the rare legit hip hop 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.400 movies about hip hop culture. This man is starred in 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:58.400 as a political activist working with anti apartheid Sun City Project, 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.799 not to mention organizing the King Celebrate holiday. There's so many, 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.960 so many credits. Oh Jesus, we for a lot of 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.719 us are entry to Bob Dylan and if our culture. 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.880 This dude, Yes, I'm pointing to the one and only 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.560 first rapper on Soul Tree. You know, Soul Tree means 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:22.240 everything to me, Ladies and gentlemen. I'm so honored to 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.719 have on Quest Love Supreme, the one and only Curtis. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.479 Bloke. It's a Quest Love Supreme. 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.480 Thank you, Thank you man. Uh, this is a long 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.440 time coming. We have a gazillion questions. This this is 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.640 like a this show is such a it's nerd out 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:47.039 culture going awry. So it's it's just bear with us. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.040 If we asked too many nerdy questions. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.360 That that intro was so incredible. I mean you kind 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.640 of like had me shook there for I didn't know 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.440 I did so much stuff I was here. Yes, wait 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.479 a minute, I remember things. 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.200 We're we're literally about giving flowers where they're due. 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.360 Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:08.960 Yeah, there's so much more that you're doing. 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:11.479 I've been known to make like fifteen minute intros and 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:17.400 then it's time to gorl. Right, So what I really 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.240 this is this is like one of our first chances 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:25.000 to interview someone that was there for the beginning of 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:29.200 hip hop culture before it came a professional business. So 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.760 I have so many questions about it's starting its formation 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.480 in the Bronx to like the parties and all those things. Well, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.040 for those that don't know that listen to us that 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:41.760 are that are younger, where were you born? 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.600 I was born and raised in Harlem. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:48.919 Okay, Harlem Worm Okay, yes, yes, sir, So could you 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:53.360 give us kind of a, I guess, a prototypical idea 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:58.200 of what the environment was when hip hop was just 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.239 a local block party thing, when it was just yes, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.800 you know, like on a Saturday, let's let's pick a 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.960 Saturday in nineteen seventy eight, before it was a business. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.080 Oh man, what was You probably go back before Sudny. 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:19.440 It's really amazing and it's a story that you know, 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.240 the energy and the vibe and the spirit that was 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.320 going around New York City the Five Boroughs during that 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:31.040 time was something that's so hard to explain. You really 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:35.600 had to be there to really understand that energy that 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.640 was happening. See, we were all like a group of 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:46.320 people who understood and really related and loved this culture 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.920 way before it became a culture. So it was just 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.160 like something new that we were trying to do and represent. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.400 Of course, you had disco on this side of the fence, 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.400 and then you had R and B soul music, and 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:02.400 most of us grew up on soul music, and we 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.920 love James Brown and the Motown sound and the Isisley 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.120 Brothers and all of that stuff and soul music. We 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:15.480 started playing soul music when disco became the most prominent 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.640 thing that you heard on the radio. But if you 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.440 remember the Motown sound that we grew up on in 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.000 the sixties, the snare drum, we're talking music theory now. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.480 The snare drum was on the one, two, three, and 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:32.000 the four pop pop pop boom babe, babe baby, you know, 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.360 and and then disco comes out and it went back 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.680 to the same four on the floor of the floor 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:43.080 there talking about the kick drum right, the boom boom 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:48.040 boom boom. So that beat for us wasn't like James Brown, 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:53.000 because James Brown, in between disco and motown, had a 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:57.280 musical revolution with the sound that we call boom. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:03.880 Bat So the boom back, syncopated rhythms. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:08.040 Syncopated rhythms, and the drummer, you know, Clyde Stubberfield, was incredible. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.240 So as kids, when we heard this new sound, we 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.320 were like, we lost our minds. Everybody wanted to be 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.680 James Brown and dance like him. And uh, that's when 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.319 we started going down to the floor whenever we heard 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.040 the break because the break of the music was the 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.000 most important part of the song. That's when everyone did 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.240 their best dance moves. That's when we created the circle. 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.280 So people just literally wanted to wait for the breakdown, like. 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.600 Okay, that's what it was five, that's what it was 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.800 really going to get crazy And I'm talking in nineteen 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.360 seventy two, seventy three, So here comes cool Herk, the 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.640 DJ who understood this that the break was so very important, 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.280 and we were B boys and B girls because we 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.400 danced to the breaks that Cool Herk would play. And 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:55.000 he would play these funky, incredible songs like give It 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.720 Up a Turn It Loose, or getting Into Something by 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.720 the Isley Brothers, or or Listening by Baby Hughey or 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.800 Jimmy Cast has Just Begun, the Mexican you know, the 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:12.040 Melting Pot Apache, you know all these incredible songs. They 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.559 were soul music, but they were fast and it was 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.880 the same kind of tempo as disco music. It was 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:22.000 dance music. I call it obscure dance music. It was funk, 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.240 and we just lost our minds. So we represented and 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.280 created those circles around us, just like Saturday Night Fever, 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:30.840 you know the movie with John Travolta with the white 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.040 suit on. You creates this circle around him and pretty 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.760 soon somebody comes in the circle and they do a 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.319 competition and a battle, and the winner of that competition 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.559 was the most popular guy. He was the hero of 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.360 the story, right, And so that's what happened at the 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.120 Cool Hurt clubs. Around twelve one o'clock in the morning, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.320 he played this give It Up a Turn and Loose, 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.960 and everybody was standing around waiting for the break. When 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.000 that break came, we went off. And that was hip 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:00.800 hop the first early days. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:07.760 Now, God, now for that particular record that you gave 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:09.760 an example of, give It Up for Turn It Loose, 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.880 which that particular recording was made in nineteen sixty nine. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:17.000 So even though James Brown himself was trying to keep 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.600 up with the trends of the day and make disco records, 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.040 you're basically saying that you guys never left those records alone. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:26.800 So a song like Get on the. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:32.160 Good Foot still had life way beyond it's nineteen seventy 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.319 two release, like It's still was something in seventy four, 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:37.520 seventy five, seventy six, as long as it had. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:38.440 A funk break. 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.240 So did you guys look at the commercial music at 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.400 the time as kind of like how we look at 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.240 modern pop radio now, Like I don't listen to that. 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.760 I listened to No, it was cool. It was cool. 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.640 It was a you know, we you know, we listened 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.439 to it. It was on the radio, but. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.000 Somebody was break dancing to like Stevie Wonders. I wish 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:56.560 you know. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.600 No, it was more like, you know, the village people. 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.199 Why Okay? So like the commercial disco stuff, Okay. 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.320 Down a Summer and stuff like that, You're like, yo, 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.559 we want James Brown, you know what I mean? So, 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:14.240 so the hip hop became that rebellion to disco. I 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.360 call it, you know, ghetto disco. 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.240 Okay for those that been collecting tapes and and really 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.760 keeping up in sort of the early formation of what 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.840 hip hop was. The role that MC was once the 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:33.199 co star to who the DJ was? So can you 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.160 What I want to know is, and I've heard like 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:35.920 some of these. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.079 Like DJ Hollywood tapes. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:42.520 Right where in my mind he had an endless vocabulary, 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.720 an endless combination of rhymes that came up nowhere. Now, 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.040 I mean most of them season I know, really have 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.760 a good fifteen to twenty minute repertoire before they run 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.800 out of space and steam and you know, don't know 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.600 what to do. But he's his things seemed endless, Like 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.720 who was who in your mind were like the top five? 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.280 First of all? Who was the one? Was Hollywood? 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:10.959 The pioneer of the calling response rhyming k ice right 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:12.560 at least in the hip hop sins, I know there's 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:15.040 Jocko Henderson and all that stuff back, yes, of course, 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.400 of course, but who was in terms of hip hop 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.280 was DJ Hollywood first? Like where does Hollywood? And Eddie 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.520 Chiba and like all these other mcs that really weren't 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:25.320 making records. 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:31.839 Okay, so after herk okay, you have to see there 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.800 there there were two different kinds of crowds, Okay, first 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.400 and foremost, you know Flash Grandmass and Flash calls them 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:40.560 the shoe people and the sneaker people. 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:45.160 Oh okay, you know the sneaker people. 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.480 You know, we partied at the block parties and the 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.679 community centers, and the park jams and and and and 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.680 the the small around the way clubs, you know, like 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.520 three seventy one Disco Fever up in the Bronx and 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.680 places like that. But you know, Grandmaster Flash was so 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:08.040 very important to this transition from the DJ being the 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.520 focal point of the party. He controlled the music, He 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.240 controlled the ambiance, he controlled the lights, he controlled the 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.920 tempo of the songs he was playing. He hired, he 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.240 hired and fired the mcs. The mcs were first a 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.040 diamond dozen. All we did was we we we we 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.160 went to the house and we got the equipment and 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.440 took the equipment to the gig and set it up, 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.360 and at the end of the night we break it 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.640 down and carry it back to the house, and the 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.040 DJ would let us in free, you know. 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.440 So that's your plus, that's your getting on the guest list. 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.160 And so you know, if we were nice to him, 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.280 or if he was nice to us and feeling good, 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.120 he would let us make announcements like, Yo, Joey, your 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:50.600 mom's outside is ten o'clock, you're gonna go, you know, 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:54.240 sound okay, Sam, your car is getting told, you know, okay? 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:59.680 And so Flash, you know, now herk played a whole song. 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.760 He had the most incredible playlist, all the songs I named, 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.240 and they were about twenty five to thirty songs, maybe 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:12.680 even fifty soul music in a club. And so Flash 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.440 understood that the most important part of this song that 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.160 he played was the break, because he knew all the 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.200 bee boys would go down to the floor and start 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.200 doing their best moves. Everyone got crazy and started yelling 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.400 and screaming, you know when the break came. And so 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.800 he wanted to try to find a way to extend 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.760 his break because the break was only fifteen twenty seconds long, 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.960 And so he got two copies of the same record, 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:39.480 and he started playing the break. Her would play a 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.320 whole song and you have to stand up waiting for 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:46.560 the break to come. Right, Flash went there. He just 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.800 started the break at the top of the song. You know, 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.880 he'd played a break, and when it got to the 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.920 end of the break, before the singing started coming back in, 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.640 he played the beginning of the break again. So he 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.720 actually extended this break and made it from fifteen twenty 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.560 seconds to three four minutes, right, So we had to 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.880 do more as MC's than make announcements. 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.280 So I have a question at the time, what was 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.120 the transition because are people then are we scratching yet? 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:18.920 Right? 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.320 He started scratching and oh he was very very fast 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.240 because you had to go from one turntable to the 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.520 other to catch the beat before it ended and got 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.800 to the whack part, right, And so he extended the 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:33.960 break and then shuts right. 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:40.600 Listen to the show. He'll get mad, Yes scratch, yes, yes, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:41.320 we love you. 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.800 And so you know it was like DJs like that 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.560 that gave us the opportunity to shine. So we became 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.800 like instead of standing on the side of the turntables 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:55.040 just making announcements, we went out front and started rocking 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:56.840 the crowd and we had to do more, so we 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.640 started telling stories and rapping in rhythm and you know, 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.360 using crowd response, throw your hands in the air and 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.320 all of that stuff, and that's how you know, it 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.800 really came off. So Hollywood get into Hollywood. He was 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:15.119 a master at the crowd response, and he had a 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.760 Puerto Rican DJ by the name of DJ Junebuck Rest 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.440 in Peace and best DJ Iver saw in my life, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.760 very fast, accurate, would keep the beat going for Hollywood, 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.560 and he was just tearing it up. When I saw 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:33.320 Hollywood at this club three seventy one, it blew my mind. 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.960 I never knew that there was something like this possible, 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.280 You know, that a guy could just take control of 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:42.840 an audience and have them eating out of the palm 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.719 of his hands, just by the way that he was 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.720 rapping in rhythm. First time I ever heard rhythmic rap 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.560 was DJ Hollywood. You know, of course, there are other 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.119 MC's before him, like KC, the Princess Soul JJ to 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.040 Disco King you had up in the Bronx with HERK 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.639 you had Coch He was the first MC up in 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.520 the Bronx, rock and just talking smack on the microphone, 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.119 you know, but Hollywood put it together with rhythmic chance 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.800 like throw your hands in the air and way. I'm like, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:18.000 you just don't care. And if you got on clean underwear, somebody. 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.359 Say, oh yeah, yeah. 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.480 Everybody, you gotta say, oh yeah, you know I got 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:33.480 I don't commander, Yeah, mama got clean on the So 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.520 it's was that a Eureka moment for you? 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.399 Like it was a Eureka moment, you know? Just seeing 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.840 herk the first time I saw herk. It blew my mind, 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.600 just to the fact that he had this big, huge 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.280 Mungo's sound system and he was playing these songs that 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.560 I grew up with that I just thought that, you know, 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:54.119 give it up a turn and lose. It was my 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.720 favorite song and he played it loud and and everyone 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.280 went crazy. And then you had Grandmaster. Flash was another 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.440 one blew my mind with the speed on the turntables. 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.640 This guy had white gloves on with rings on and 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.280 they would just flashing, He's going to turntable. I saw 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.879 him at the Hotel Diplomat one time, and that was 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.040 just amazing to see how fast he was and keeping 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.840 that beat going. And it's real what we call turntablism. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.120 This evolution of the turntable, the DJs and flash gave 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.280 us the opportunity along with Hollywood. Everyone mimicked Hollywood when 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.160 he came out. He blew my mind as well. 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.760 Did you guys ever venture out of the Burroughs? So 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.040 was there a thing of like, you know, was touring 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.000 for you back then, like Okay, I'm gonna do a 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.040 party in Queen's Or would Long Island be a part 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:46.600 of this folklore as well? 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.679 Staten Island even like new or was it just or 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:50.160 even newer? 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.000 Like were or did Burroughs just like stick to themselves 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:54.680 until rat became a business? 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:56.800 Well? Me, I was a traveler. 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.600 I went from Harlem, you know, I had fourteen years old, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.639 fifteen years old, travel on that number four train riding 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.200 up to the Bronx, you know, to check out cool 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.680 Herk at the Executive Playhouse. And and it was scary. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:09.040 You know. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.280 That was during the time when Roots had came out, 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.639 Alex Haley's Roots, and so there was a lot of that, 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.200 you know, right straight out of the Civil rights movement, 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.639 and cats were like feeling themselves and there was a 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.360 lot of violence on that train. You know what I mean, 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:23.880 a lot of. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.880 People you risked everything just to see men. It was worth. 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:28.760 That's why I want to know what makes that's the 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:30.440 one the one thing I didn't have, Like I had 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.040 strict parents that were just like, no, you ain't going 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:37.920 so whenever I hear like, uh, the generation after you 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.200 talk about the Latin quarter right right, and I'm like, yo, 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:42.399 y'all could. 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:45.960 Have y'all risking y'all lives to hear this, like you 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:52.960 might get stab shot, killed her. But I understand understand. 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.199 There were so many things u going around in the 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.919 community in New York City that was happening during that time. 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:03.840 And I'm telling you hip hop was like a saveror 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:06.960 you know, like like you know, we had the gangs, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.240 the gangs like that that movie The Warriors was real. 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.560 There were a lot of gangs. I remember running home 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:16.320 from school, you know, in the early early seventies, because 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.800 all you had to do is say they coming and 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.000 were out, you know what I mean, you know, going 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.640 to the corner store from my mom. It's like, yo, 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:26.840 you want me to go to store rial. 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:28.719 Okay, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:30.760 that would go to crazy And then you had for 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.120 toilet paper, and then then you had to map out. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.120 You had the drug wars of the Bronx and Harlem 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:42.280 coming out of the Frank Lucas story American gangster, right, 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.600 you know when he went to jail, and I think 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.280 it was nineteen seventy four seventy five, they had a 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.760 big drug war. Everybody was fighting for his territory. So 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.560 there were a lot of murders and gunshots and all 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:58.360 around people were just dropping like flies, you know, So 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.440 it was kind of dangerous. It was dangerous living during 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.719 that time. So for me, you know, it was my savior. 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:06.679 I used to love to go to the club and 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.639 just you know, go to the speaker and stick my 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.280 head and the speaker and the base was rumbling all 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.520 the way through my toes and I just closed was 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.080 worth it. I closed my eyes and go off. And 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:20.200 that's hip hop. 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:21.919 He just told me the story of the first time 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:22.400 I ever went. 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.600 To a club, Like everyone has put your head in 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:26.920 the speaker and it just changes your life. 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:27.480 Yeah, yep. 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:29.640 What do you think hip hop culture would have been 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.680 if there was no blackout of nineteen seventy seven. 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.960 A lot of a lot of cats talk about that 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:44.960 because a lot of Equick equipment was obtained doing those 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:50.080 years doing that that that Blackout nineteen seventy seven. But 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:53.920 for me, it was more like, you know, we hit 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.639 the local bike store and I got like three bikes. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.040