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By JayQuan JayQuan:
It’s an honor. What year did you come into contact with Hip Hop, and
how did it happen? Steven
Hager: I think the initial contact would be arriving in New York in
1978, and seeing kids with Ghetto Blasters and seeing the trains. When I
first saw the trains I thought that the city paid the artist s to do
that stuff. I couldn’t believe that the city was mad about the murals,because some of them
were so amazingly beautiful. I had a moment of realization when I
was at an art opening called “New York New Wave” around 1980. They
had a whole section of graffiti art, and I was looking at a subway car
by Futura 2000. The car was called "Break", and it was made to look like
it was snapped in half. There was this big gash in the center of it.
There was a song called “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow. It occurred to
me that all of this was connected. That’s what made me want to go
investigate the whole thing. JQ:
What were you doing at the time, were you already a writer? SH:
I was working for the Daily News as a reporter. They hired 100 people to
re launch the paper and make it hip. It lasted a year and then they fired
us all. I got to do stories on the art scene, and one my first stories
was Futura 2000. He invited me to the Soul Artists meetings, and I also
ended up going to the Mudd Club where I met Fab 5 Freddy. Freddy
introduced me to Afrika Bambaataa, in fact he gave me his phone number
first and I called him. I did 4 or 5 interviews with Bam and that was
the start of everything for me. JQ:
Had Wild Style come out when you met Freddy? SH:
No they started filming it while I was doing my research. JQ:
When you went to interview Bam was there any sense of fear that you
might be harmed, or in the wrong part of town? SH:
He was livin’ in co -op city. He wasn’t in the South Bronx anymore. He was
a good archivist; he kept a lot of stuff. Just listening to him I
realized that the national media had just totally ignored the whole
story. I must have sent queries to every major magazine in America at
the time, and no one was interested in Rap, graf & Breakdancing –
it was totally off the radar. JQ:
What came first your book or screenplay?
JQ:
Did you have any idea that your book (Hip Hop) was selling for over
500.00 on Ebay and Amazon.com? SH:
The publisher that published it didn’t give jack shit about the book.
I hated the whole design, the layout and everything about it. They used
cheap paper, it was horrible – I worked so hard and all the money that
the publisher gave me I spent on pictures. I tried to buy the best
photos that were available at the time. The book very quickly went out
of print, and they never cared about it.
I did see it selling for over 500.00. It was bizarre to me the
whole trajectory of the book just missed me completely. JQ:
Yeah I have an old library copy that’s not in great condition, and I
paid a lot for mine. SH:
As soon as it went out of print the Rock Steady Crew made Xerox copies
of it, and passed them out at their gigs. One thing that happened as a
result of me meeting all these people who created Hip Hop, was that it
made me reconnect to my musical roots which was 60s Garage Band Rock. I
ended up starting a band and getting heavily involved in music from that
inspiration. I wasn’t gonna rap because that wasn’t my background
but it was good to see these guys take charge of their culture, which is
something that you cant buy on TV, you just do it. It was awesome to see
these kids just doin it. I spent like 5 years just tryin’ to put my
musical roots back together. Then I lost contact with the whole Hip Hop
thing, and that’s the nature of journalism – you get really deeply
involved with something for 3 or 4 years, and then you move on to
another topic. JQ:
Were you at all impressed by the fact that these guys took 2 copies of
Billy Squire, Bob James and Aerosmith records and created something
totally new? SH:
Well they were rewriting the book on everything, the same way that the
Original Jazz & Be Bop guys had the zoot suits and their own slang.
This was a whole new thing that evolved out of a group mind. There were
a handful of innovators who had that magic that just took everything to
a new level. It was very magical just being around those guys, and the
vibes coming off of them. JQ:
As far as the Emcees, who impressed you the most with rhyme skills and
showmanship? SH:
At the time that I was working on my book the big showdown was always
between Kool Moe Dee and Melle Mel. Wherever they were gonna go one on
one was the place to be, and that was usually the Disco Fever. I think
that those were some of the super hyped up moments. JQ:
You’re saying that they battled more than once? SH:
Oh yeah at least 4 or 5 times at the Fever!!! Moe Dee could tell you for
sure. JQ:
I can never get the full story on that. Moe said that it wasn’t a real
battle, and that out of the utmost respect for Mel he wouldn’t really
battle him. Sal (Disco Fever owner) says that he never paid much
attention, because he was running the club & Mel as egotistical as
he may seem, he is a modest dude and he won’t talk too much about
it…. SH:
Yeah they used to go at it. I think that Moe Dee toasted him pretty
badly… JQ:
What did you say that the original name of you screen play was? SH:
It was called “The Perfect Beat”, named after the Bambaataa song. JQ:
Was it loosely based around your research? SH:
Yeah, it was stories that I was told, and I jumbled them up and changed
names. It was supposed to be a slice of life drama, and I wanted to
capture the grittiness and feel of what was going on. To me the cusp was
everybody was in a gang and then when they go to school the next day
everybody is a dj or a rapper. So there was this period when everybody
sort of made this evolutionary jump. That was the period that I felt was
the most important period. JQ:
According to what you have gotten from Bam, did it really go that
smoothly, where Bam said ok instead of fighting we are gonna dance rap
& do graffiti?
JQ:
That’s interesting. I think that in life in general that we (men) do
most of what we do for the attention of women, but in Hip Hop and on a
street level I really think that if so many women didn’t support the
tough thug persona, that we would see less of it. SH:
Yes…… exactly JQ:
Let me get more into your script. Some rappers have told me that the
Perfect Beat, which became Beat Street was actually written about
them…. SH:
Well Kool Moe Dee, Phase 2, Kool Herc, Bam, Futura 2000
& Grandmaster Caz
all told me stories, and influenced what I wrote. But you have to
understand – none of what I wrote ended up in the movie.
I weaved the stories together and mixed up the characters. JQ:
So are you saying that your movie would have been grittier like Wild
Style, but they cleaned it up for Hollywood?
JQ:
So you basically sold the rights to the story to Harry Belafonte…you
didn’t have anything to do with the casting and what not? SH:
I got auditions for many of the people in the movie, and I recommended
the two dance crews that had the battle scenes, and they honestly were
best scenes in the movie. The only worthwhile scene in that movie is
when Rock Steady and Michael Holmans group (New York City Breakers)
battle. I got Aurthur Baker involved with the sound track also. JQ:
That was a very good move. What about the Sugarhill acts like Furious 5
& Treacherous 3? SH:
I gave them a list of the most important acts, and they basically did
what they wanted to do. But the Furious 5, Treacherous 3 and Funky 4
were the top of the hill at the time, and I recommended them. JQ:
Were you kinda getting away from Hip Hop by the time that Run Dmc came
out? SH:
No, not yet, I loved Run Dmc. They blew everyone else off the stage when
they came out. Everyone else in the South Bronx was tryin’ to evolve.
They had been doin this for a while, and what Run Dmc did was bring back
the original spirit and energy. Everyone else was flyin’ off into
tangents. Furious 5 were dressing in S&M gear, Bambaataa was looking
like Funkadelic & George Clinton, and here came Run Dmc with the
original thing and no one could touch ‘ em. JQ:
So when did you stop listening to Hip Hop? SH:
Run Dmc was probably the last group that I bought music from, and went
to see in concert. I moved to a new cultural arena and I felt that the
best sh*t had already been done. I could have stuck around to see people
make millions off of the bubble gum songs, but I chose not to.
SH:
I think that they should still try, as long as they have something to
say. When you have great talent it doesn’t just go away. There should
be an old school tour goin’ on every year.
SH:
Oh yes, many of the photos were taken just for that book. There were a
lot of photographers who knew that I was working on a book, and I would
tell them what shows and places to go to. JQ:
What are you doing today, and what have you been up to since Beat
Street. I see that you are editor for High Times magazine.
JQ:
That’s very interesting. So what do you think about 911? SH:
Well that’s a manufactured incident. Anyone with lots of money can buy
and fund terrorism. It’s the old old money people that run and control
these situations. 911 was created so that we could go and take some
countries. I can’t point a finger and say that this or that person did
it, but it was an operation and it was run by some people. Those people
most likely have billions of dollars at their disposal and they will
continue to run terror games, and get people to hate each other and have
wars. JQ:
What about AIDS, do you think that it is natural or man made? SH:
It was manufactured. JQ:
It wouldn’t be the first time right? SH:
Oh no it’s easy to manufacture a disease, but that one looks very
suspect to me. And any wide spread vaccination program is suspect
because that’s where they will drop a lot of the….. stuff. JQ:
What did you think of “Behold A Pale Horse”? SH:
One thing about conspiracies is that the first book that’s written
about something is probably a lightning rod that’s been created. For
every real book with real research, there are 20 that will tell you that
the aliens from another planet are responsible for everything. When you
have a lot of money you can manufacture all of that, and the river gets
so cloudy that you cant see the bottom anymore. Like the Da Vinci Code
to me is a manufactured story made to confuse people. They will tell you
that the billionaires of the Earth are worshipping a Goddess and
protecting the bloodline of Jesus. The real story is that the
billionaires of the Earth created fascism and communism in order to
create war, and they also pull the strings on evangelical Christianity
and Islam and they are making that war. So that’s the real story and
the real con. JQ:
What about organized religion, do you think that it’s a sham? SH:
Well the clearest example of manufactured religion is the Mormons. I am
not trying to put down anyone’s spirituality or faith, because
spirituality is real. If you meditate on God and your heart is true it
doesn’t matter what name you put on it. You can channel real spiritual
energy in any faith, but if you look at the church of the Mormons they
were created as an operation from freemasonry, and all of their rituals
come directly from freemasonry. If you look at the history of
freemasonry it’s controlled by British intelligence to create
monopolies among other things. If you look at the first monopoly they
got that helped build the British Empire was the monopoly on Opium. Not
to say that the Mormons are connected to Opium, but im pointing out that
like today if you go to the FBI in the upper offices on the higher
floors in the corner offices its all Mormons. This has been an operation
since they created the division in my opinion, and they were ushered
into this because they fit the profile of the kind of people that JQ:
Ok is the Illuminati a real thing or more smokescreen to cloud up
everything? SH:
Well the Illuminati is just part of freemasonry. Once you get into
secret societies they nest inside each other. So that’s what’s so
hard to penetrate – it’s a secret society inside a secret society,
inside a secret society. So you never really find out what's happening
there. But the Illuminati is the name that they are gonna push now,
because they have created an operation around that name. But whatever
you wanna call it – it’s a network web of secret societies some of
them are Sicilian perhaps like the Mafia, some of them are American Blue
Bloods like Skull & Bones of Yale University, every ethnic group
basically has one of some sort. The fact is that they all know and talk
to each other, and have created a web of corruption that covers the
globe. JQ:
George Bush was down with Skull & Bones right? SH:
Bush & Kerry both. Skull & Bones was created by the Opium
Syndicate of the United States working with the British East India
Company. JQ:
What affect do you think that Al - Zarqawi's murder will have on
terrorism? SH:
Again I think that it’s all manipulated. They created Osama Bin Laden
to make him the new evil one, just like they manufactured Hitler. Skull
& Bones poured a lot of money into creating Hitler, now they are
probably doing the same with Osama Bin Laden. JQ:
I’ve always wondered since the first time that I saw High Times
magazine, how do you get away with overtly promoting lamps and other
things to grow weed, and just the whole mag….. how are you able to
overtly put it out there like that?
JQ: I thank you for your time, and it’s been an honor….. *There is also a write up here about how Beat Street came about*
As
Told To JayQuan June 2006 |
Steven
Hager- writer of the script “ The Perfect Beat” which became the
movie “Beat Street”, author of the much sought after book: “Hip
Hop: The Illustrated history Of Rap Music, Breakdancing and Graffiti”
and Editor In Chief of High Times magazine
SH:
I did a huge article on Bam, and the Village Voice sat on it for like
6months and it drove me crazy. I asked Bam early on “what do you call
this whole thing” and he said I call it Hip Hop. I had never heard the
word Hip Hop and it surely hadn’t been in print before. So I wrote
this article for the Village Voice about Bambaataa’s life and it
eventually turned into my book. I just expanded on it and interviewed
more people, but it was hard to get that first article published. Nobody
saw any money being made – there were a few records out, but no one
saw the cultural importance of the whole genre. The New York Times told
me that it was just a fad. It’s like saying Reggae or Rock was a fad.
Im sure people said that Elvis was a fad!!!
SH:
Well he gave me the exact dates on his personal trajectory, but there
had been such intense violence for so long that it just wore down
everyone’s spirit. When Herc started throwing these parties you
couldn’t really come in with the gang mentality. Now some still did of
course, I know that some Black Spades may have gone to Hercs parties and
still fly colors, but a new attitude was comin’ and it wasn’t about
being in a gang, but bein’ in a rap group. Bam also said that the
females had a lot of influence. They were really fed up and sick of the
gang violence. And you know the guys are gonna go wherever the hot girls
go.
SH:
Well the thing that I don’t understand is the environments that they
created in that movie that the kids lived in. I spent 2 years going
around from one apartment to the next in the South Bronx; I know what
those apartments look like. There were some differences between the
upper middle class characters and the ones who were penny less. Like the
Hispanic kids who lived 5 to a room. I saw all of that, and nothing in
that movie resembled the houses that I had been in. The guys in Beat
Street had apartments with 10 times more money, equipment and shit than
I had!!! It was so unreal to me the environment that they created. This
was basically Harry Belafontes’ world. Like his kids and what they
would have in their house’s.
JQ:
I’ve noticed recently that there isn’t a lot of support for the
original school of Emcees, and when they attempt to release material
many of them are made mockery of by current artists, djs and fans. Do
you think that they should still attempt to make music?
JQ:
You mentioned that you bought photos for your book (Hip Hop: The
Illustrated History), you had some good never before seen photos –
like Cold Crush in the phone booth, Furious 5 with Flash holding the
camera and Treacherous 3 sitting on a car. Were any of those taken just
for your book?….. Oh yeah my favorite Caz holding his rhyme books….
classic.
SH:
I got pulled into High Times right after I got fired from New York daily
news. I was never much of a pot smoker, but if I was at a party and
someone passed a joint I would never turn it down. I never bought it or
anything like that and it was never part of my life until I came to the
magazine. But I realized that this was the last nationally distributed
publication that was independently owned that hadn’t been bought up by
one of the multi national corporations that run the media. They gave me
the freedom to write what I wanted, so I got into covering political
assassinations and conspiracy theories. I also started to understand
drug policy and how understanding the drug war is key to understanding
the great scam that’s perpetuated on the people, and how wars are
created for profit and people are kept mind controlled with a bunch of
garbage.
SH:
We want people to grow their own weed for sure. It’s the most valuable
most useful medicine on the planet, and better we grow it than buy from
pharmacies or drug dealers on the street. If you grow your own you know
what's in it, and that it hasn’t been tampered with. You know that its
nice & clean and pure – it’s the real plant you have taken care
of and formed a relationship with the plant, and if you need the
medicine its there for you. It’s like growing gold. The first
amendment gives us the right to campaign for the legalization of
marijuana, and if we wanna give out grow information as part of that
campaign that’s part of the first amendment too. As long as we are not
growing pot, selling or distributing it there's nothing wrong. We are
just distributing information. 
©2006
JayQuan Dot Com / 5 Mic Media No Part May Be Reproduced Without Authors
Consent