It was about being the best. Better than the other dancers. Dancing to the beat, and making the crowd respond. But it was about playing with the crowd, doing crazy shyt.
The black kids were the ones that I learnt from but you never learned by asking somebody. Back in the days, it was machoism, it was about that street attitude, that attribute like you ain’t gonna sweat nobody.
Who ever had the nerve to say “teach me”, was considered a sucker, a lil’ bytch-ass punk. So you never asked no one to teach you, you never clapped when a nikka did a good move, you just stood there and acted hard, like it didn’t phase you. It was all about attitude, everyone else did the clapping, not the B-Boys.
Because it wasn’t about clapping, it wasn’t no fukking show, it was dancing, “I’m doing what I do”. So you had to hold your own, you had to learn on your own from what you saw, and you had to be original, ‘cos if you did what you saw you’d be disrespected. You could even get smacked sometimes if you did someone else’s move back in the day. So you had to do your own shyt and you had to learn the foundation, and flipping it right.
For me it wasn’t about making the crowd happy, ‘cos they didn’t know what I was doing anyway. I wanted the B-Boys to say “alright”. For me it was like I wanted to please my crew, I wanted my crew to say “Ohhhhh”. So I didn’t show them none of my shyt until a party, or until the jam or until the battle, and I pulled off some crazy shyt and I gave confidence to them and they didn’t know it because I would do something in front of them and hype them up to do something. You know I was a beginner and I had a lot to prove you know. I wanted to be up there with the best kids, and I wasn’t as good as them, that’s all there was to it. So you know, it took me a while, but I started feeling it, and I really started loving it you know. I really loved Breaking man.
Who would you say is your main influence?
There is no main influence. The main influence for me is the music. OK now, as far as persons are concerned there are a whole number of people who influenced me. Some of the main ones were a kid named Grego, from the Executioners, a crew from East Harlem, there was a kid named Shaky, a Puerto Rican kid from Amsterdam Projects, 61st St. There was also the Number One Sure Shot Crew, with Kid Terrific, he’s a Puerto Rican B-Boy and they inspired me more ‘cos all I saw was brothers, but when I saw Puerto Ricans I felt more comfortable about Breaking.
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