You weren’t an emcee yet, you started late as an emcee?
Right!
What made you cross over to the Black music to be an emcee?
Because of me living in Davidson projects I became head of the tenet patrol.
At 17 years old?
Yes, at seventeen years old! Mr. Davis ran it and he was the boss but I had the keys and I was in charge when he wasn’t there.
O.K. so ya’ll have something like what we have over here. The children that live in the neighborhood come inside the community room, which is on the first floor, to do their home work, arts and crafts, watch t.v. and just stay out of the streets and trouble?
Exactly!
At the same time music would be played in there at different hours.
Right, one day Elrod Hendricks of the Baltimore Orioles was coming by. It was like a get together, a party and Mr. Davis was a friend of Elrod Hendricks. So he was stopping by. I was taken back being as I was a big baseball fan. At the time I didn’t know anything about a D.J. or big time party, but I felt we could put a record player in there and charge everybody a dollar.
Like I said I was a big baseball fan and when I was growing up we used to play soft ball in Saint Mary’s park. One day on the way back from playing baseball these guys were playing music and I was like check this out. So I went in there. There was about 12 of us, but the guys didn’t want to go in there. They were like oh man there is a lot of black guys in there. I was like man we are just going over there to listen to some music….don’t look at nobody!
(We both start to laugh.)
I understand. What made you appreciate or gravitate to hip hop music?
The music was something different! It was louder, and more people were involved it seemed. One day I was given a flyer to go to 18 Park. The L- Brothers and The Brothers Bass were going to be there.
I never heard of the Brothers Bass.
I can’t remember who they were at the moment. But they ran with the L- Brothers and Flash at this time. I would just stand there and watch and say to my self “wow look at them.” They used to also play over on Union Avenue at this Park called 23 over there by Morris High School. That was close to were I lived. Being as A.J. was taking a long time to get at me to perform; I went over to Mean Gene and gave him the same proposal. He agreed, and it was good. The next time they would have their party I went and helped out. I asked can I help and they said sure. They next time they seen me they asked if I would like to come to their party, I said sure and they let me in free. This party was at the Sparkle. To be honest Kevin and Rob were the first Emcee’s I ever seen. They were pretty good, and I would go to all their little hooky parties at place like Rock City that they would also call Duck City, which was over there on 169th street and Prospect. Also there was another spot which was a store on 169th street and Union Avenue. Little Rodney Cee lived around the corner from it. Little Rodney Cee’s brother and his partner Wayne kind of ran the place, so they would play music in there. I used to hang out there too because it was a block away from my house. From hanging out I learned a lot of Kevin and Rob’s rhymes which weren’t that many at that time.
Is it safe to say that Busy Bee vouched for you to be an L- Brother?
No, it was a coincidence that we were together. I went to the L- Brothers practice but I first got down with Butchie Gee and them. I have to say if it wasn’t for me seeing D.J. A.J. I would not have been a rapper at all. With the L- Brothers that was Gene’s thing. Their manager at the time was a Jamaican guy named Trevor, you hear it in the rhyme. “And Trevor is our manager and were down with the L- Brothers crew!” One day I was in front of Theodore’s house 168th street and Boston Road. I was just hanging out on the stoop. If I wasn’t playing baseball, that was the place to be. Mean Gene came up to me and said “hey come over here, I want to talk to you.” He took me down the hill to Webster Avenue. Kev and Rob were standing by the stoop. They take me up the stairs to this weed spot that everybody used to cop weed from. You would knock on the door and some one would look through the peep hole and you would pass 5 or 3 dollars through. You would wait a minute and a nickel or tray bag would come through. You had to know these people to be able to get weed from them, and I was known by hanging out with the L- Brothers. Plus I was becoming pretty popular with the softball and the music. In my neck of the woods I was the man. The first thing Kev said to me when we stepped inside was “you are going to listen to what the F--- I tell you.” He let me know that he was the man. Rob said we are going to put you down with a real crew.
Those were Kev’s exact words, “you are going to listen to what the F--- I tell you.”
(Ruby Dee laughs.) Yeah that was probably word for word what he said pretty much in a nut shell. But that was said in a nice way, it wasn’t sarcastic or threatening! If I thought it was disrespectful they would have had to tag team me, because I was also one of those type of dudes you can’t tell me nothing. I was 19 years old 187lb.s and I was one of those dudes that was not having it, and I hit first.
When I got up there they were sitting on top of the speakers. I was a little scared because I was like this is the weed spot, and with all these black dudes they are going to lynch me. It was hang a Puerto Rican day today. I don’t know. I was like whoa! They were all there, Theodore, Gene, Kev, Rob and Busy Bee. It wasn’t a try out, Kevin and Rob just came out and said you are down.
What were your feelings on that?
Well at the time I really didn’t know what I was doing.
I was just proud to be there! I did feel like now I can get some of my people in the party.
I knew about the fame and how big it was getting but this was really just something I did as a hobby but it started to get good and I started to make money. The first party I did at the P.A.L. I made $87! They gave me 87 one dollar bills. Whooooooa!
(We both start laughing.)
I think at that time minimum wage was $2.75 to $3.35 an hour at that time. What I made that night was what some cats was getting in a whole week.
That’s right.
So I remember them giving me $87 in singles in the bathroom. I remember thinking I know they screwing me over by giving me a whole pack of ones so I don’t say anything, but that’s cool! (Ruby in a serious voice then says) Maybe I am wrong, maybe that did not go down like that. I just remember when we were in the bathroom when they paid me and I was like “look at these marenos, these black guys giving me all these ones to make it look like a big knot.” I thought about that. I am not going to deny it. I said “look at these mother f------! It’s cool (Ruby Dee is laughing now.) keep jerking me.” But I found out we were all getting paid equally later on. In the beginning, and I am just using a number, say if Kev and Rob got a hundred dollars for the show I would get eighty dollars!
Say word!
That was just for a couple of shows but after awhile
I was like “hey when we were first doing parties it was all black crowds, but now you got all these Puerto Rican people coming to see me, they are not coming to see ya’ll or just ya’ll!” To shift gears for a minute, I remember saying “Va Ya!” And Kev said “Puerto Rico!” they said “Ho”! That’s how that was invented.
Do you remember any other Spanish emcees or D.J.s back then?
Charlie Chase, Disco Wiz….
Disco Wiz was Caz D.J. right?
Right, he was Puerto Rican. I really don’t remember any one else. Whip was probably out before me, but I got the credit of being the first Puerto Rican. When I got on stage you knew I was Puerto Rican! I talked Spanish on the mic.
Did you ever have Spanish rhymes?
Yeah we had one routine when we battled the Funky 4 at the Audubon Ballroom. We all had our own rhyme to say when it was your turn. When it was my turn I said in Spanish Ruby Dee the romantic and Kev said hold up and one by one Dot, Whip and Rob said hold up! Hold Up, Hold Up, Hold Up! Ruby Dee, Ruby Dee, Ruby Dee Ruby Dee this is not Puerto Rico this is America. Boom then I bust into Fantastic Romantic Five, and the whole crew would then come in.
