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Tony Tone is the founder of the Cold Crush Brothers. He is also the back up D.J. to Charlie Chase and the Cold Crushing, Mother F------, Tough Ass, Four M.C.s.
Interview By Troy L. Smith Winter of 2004. Where were you born and raised? Boston Road. Damn how many of y’all are up there in the that one section? I was with Pow Wow one night and we was walking through the Bronx and he just starts pointing out, there go where Busy Bee used to live, and Breakout was over there, and Theodore was over that way, and the Black Door was over there. I had no idea so much history was right in this small section of the Bronx. I was thinking it was spread out through the Bronx. I lived right across the street from the Boston road ballroom. Right by Wilkins ave. So Kool Herc was by his self over were he was at? He was, basically, but there was a couple of small little groups, but they never made any big names. When I got with Breakout and Baron I moved over to 175th and Prospect then I moved down to Lambert projects. What or who inspired you to want to D.j.? My man Mcadoo and Danny Nimes. He
owned a cleaners on Boston Road. They were older friends of my mother.
They were d.j.s. they let me run with them. I was thier little d.j…
There was a guy name Doc Soul who used to have a lot of equipment so he
would book party’s, and hire d.j.s to come in and play. He would have
ten party’s a night. He would run around and drop off and pick up
equipment all night long. He had a little racket going on. My man Mcadoo
was one of his D.J.s. I was like 14 years old, Mcadoo used to be in the
original Savoy on 149th st. off the Grand Concourse. I also
worked in a record shop called 3 stop record shop. That’s when I
started hearing about Herc. He wasn’t playing any disco? No, he was playing the abstract stuff that people still don’t play. Not unless it’s one of us. Like the J. Giles band the white rock group. Bob James, Etta James. What made him pick those tunes? He played what he liked. But when you first heard it, was it like what the hell is this or something that had to grow on you? No! Or was it like damn this sounds good, soon as you heard it. Yeah. But you never heard it any where else, until you walked into his party that night? Never heard it before. I was like this s--- is funky. Still to this day, the d.j. of today does not know the history of hip hop to know what to play from that era. The only one really is Red Alert. You tell them other d.j.s to dig in their crates, they still don’t know to play the stuff that we played back in the day. Who had the best equipment back in those days? Was it Bam of Kool Herc? Well Bam never really had a system
back in the days! Bam didn’t really start to get a decent system until
later on. Not really until Superman and Jazzy Jay started building it. I always thought it was Bam with the vicious system and others were latching on to him! I didn’t know it was the other way around. Herc was the one everybody had to compete with because he always had some s---. But when Breakout and them, came with the Sasquach, that was the turn of events right there. Nobody was f------ with that. That was a combination of Baron and Breakout putting thier money together? Yes, a combination. Was Barron just as good as Breakout d.j.ing? Well with Baron, if you get a good tape and listen carefully, you will hear that most of the time Baron did the show with the m.c.s., mostly because Brron kept the beat. So you are saying that Baron was better than Breakout? You can not think of it like you
would think of it now. When we first started everyone was going for
speed, and cutting back and forth, etc. certain people got the hang of,
I got to be fast, but I also got to be on time with it. But a whole
different element came into it when the showmanship had to be put into
place. So now you have everybody looking at Herc just playing the music.
Then you got Bam coming out with the break beats. I got you. Keeping the rhythm and tempo flowing, so the Funky Four can do their thing. So that was the reason Barron d.j.ed most of the shows. Since you were there from the very beginning of Hip Hop, was the Furious three m.c.s the first group? Than came the Funky four than came the L- Brothers? Yes to the Furious three, but the L- Brothers might have been out a little before the Funky Four. When the Funky Four first started it was just K.K. Rockwell. It was just the voice of K.K. Then it was just K.K. and Busy Bee Starski. Busy Bee used to float from group to group. Busy used to hang out with Funky Four a lot? Yeah, he used to come and hang out with K.K. and rock with him. So Busy was always a free agent I see. Yeah, so then the Funky Four started to come together. So Master Rob and Kev were actually doing thier thing before Funky Four. Right, Rob and Kev, than Busy, But Busy was always floating. Any other groups Busy was running
with? Busy was with A.J., with Bam. Anybody, if he was at your party he was on your microphone. He be like ha ha ha let me get some. (Tone trying to mimic Busy’s voice having me laughing). That’s my man though. If he came to your party he is on your mic. So of the three who would you rate the best between Furious, Funky and L- Brothers? One, two three. Since you was there. I would say Furious, Funky and then the L- Brothers? I say that because I don’t have any tapes with the L- Brothers doing any routines, I just have them passing the mic. I always heard about Furious and Funky putting on a show with these routines. More so Funky 4! Yeah that’s what I was getting ready to say. Kev and them didn’t get on the job until we came about (that’s Cold Crush). They did do thier thing back in the days, but like you said you didn’t hear them do routines or nothing until the Cold Crush came. We made them get on the job. But the Furious was doing routines? Yeah. Also the Funky Four had routines. Yes, but we made the Fantastic get on thier job. So where did the name “the Cold Crush” come from? One morning I woke up, I have no idea what I was dreaming of, or what bought it to my mind. But Cold Crush is what came out of my mouth. Listen now I asked Dotta Rock the same question, and he said, he made the name up. What ??? The name Cold Crush! He said you,
A.D., and him were sitting in the room, and y’all were throwing a lot
of names around, and the name Cold Crush just came to him and he said
Cold Crush. How Dot going to say that when we had the name before he got down with us? I’m just going by what he said, and I put it in his story as well. But there is always different points of view to these stories. Whether time or date, or even actual event. Like J.D.L one of his stories he tells me that y’all had no idea y’all was supposde to battle the Force Mcs. y’all didn’t even come there to battle them. No! Then when y’all found out, y’all seen them at another club, took their money from them, than battled them at Harlem World and beat the hell out of them. Exactly right. See because what they did is,
Armstrong set up a party in Jersey. That night we had five parties in
different boroughs. So we said we will go out to Jersey first. So we
went out did our thing, got in a limo and left. So did y’all ever really battle them? No we never really battled them! But when they did that bull s--- and we seen them later at Printing High school we chased them out of there. We told them don’t ever play your self again like that. We used to tell them all the time they should just go ahead and be singers, y’all got to much talent as far as singers. I used to wonder why they even doing hip hop. Even Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy records used to say he had to get them choreography and every thing else that goes with that. He said that because every time he looks at them he sees Cold Crush. (Troy starts laughing). When I spoke to Stevie Dee, he said that stuff that J.D.L. said never happen, but he did have a lot of respect for y’all. Yeah he got respect for us but he need to tell the truth. I haven’t interviewed him yet, but when I do I will include you into this story that he says is not true. It ain’t nothing we was all kids, if you got reprimanded back in those days at Printing High school, it is what it is. And I ain’t never lie. See I am not trying to get deep on all this stuff about who made up the name Cold Crush, I love Dota Rock like you. But all these stories that go to the Foundation , we want it to be the Gospel. I hate for it to be twisted just a little bit. Right. Have you been to the Shomberg Library yet? What the Library on 135th st. and Lenox ave, here in Harlem. Right Joey (The Photographer of the Cold Crush) was telling me about that. I haven’t been there yet. Well they have an exhibit of Cold Crush there. With pictures, flyers. A.D. has one of our very first flyers there. Back to what you were saying about the name Cold Crush. Like I said I had a dream, and I woke up and that is were the name Cold Crush came from. That is the same way I made my graffiti name “Chain 2”. Who was “Chain 1”? Nobody! I told my man who was Chain 3, that I was going to stop writing soon because I was going to be a full time D.J.. Today he is a well known artist, known as Chain 3. How old were you when you first started writing? I was about 12, 13. I had just started when I got into Junior high. I first wrote T- Shirt. Then Black Baron for a while, I went through a couple of names. Then I got right, at Chain 2. So you used to go to the train yards also? Yes. So this is it, you woke up one day and said you are going to call your group the Cold Crush? Was Chase there yet? Yeah. I told him we are going to
call our selves the Cold Crush Crew! Than after awhile we said lets call
our selves the Cold Crush Brothers, Cold Crush Brothers, Yeah I love it. I ain’t going to front kid, y’all was my favorite group. From day one. Aright, how did you come to the conclusion that Charlie Chase would always be the lead D.J. of the shows? Being as you were older, experienced and around before him, as well as being a very good d.j. yourself? There was NO Hispanic hip hop D.J.
representing at the time. So I said I am going to fall back and let him
be the lead d.j.. Like I told Caz the other day, I could have went to
him, because I knew him well back than, before he was down with us. I
could have said Caz lets do this. I could have went to any other d.j.
and said lets do this. But it wasn’t any Puerto Rican d.j.s
representing on that level, back then. Even with Funky Four it seemed like you just took a back seat. I look at it more like, you really appreciated hip hop, and you wasn’t trying to shine, but let hip hop shine it self. That’s what I am trying to explain to people now. A lot of cat’s that are hip hop are starting to look phony, because they are starting to get caught up into the money aspect of it. People are even changing stories around. I don’t know who wrote this story but the person writes “Why Rahiem left the Funky Four”?. I am reading and I say “Oh S---, that mother------ lied”. (Troy starts laughing) yeah I got
three different stories. One, Rahiem left because the Funky Listen Rahiem left something that he was the head m.c. of! He was the man from what I heard! I heard he made Funky Four what they were. He was not the founder, but the baddest entertainer there. He was the Mele Mel of the Funky Four. But the night of the battle. See he can’t say the rest of his crew weren’t up for the battle because he was really the leader. From what I heard he tried his hardest, and that’s what made Mel and them want him even more. Listen I was there that night. What did you see. I seen everybody stuttering and intimidated. I was standing on the stage. The Furious Five didn’t get on because they didn’t have to get on. Well Rahiem said Furious did get on. He said Furious got on first and they were so good, that is what intimidated the Funky Four! It was fights, somebody’s girl got slapped. Yeah I read about that in the Yes Yes Y’all book. Breakout’s girl got slapped? Yeah. So that was during that party? Yeah! One of the Casanova’s slapped her. I saw it, I went and told Breakout. He said “yo, I told her not to come.” So I said if you ain’t going to do nothing, I ain’t going to do nothing. Yo, but Dot said Breakout is a Gully N----- too, right? Yeah. What, he just ain’t have no crew behind him strong enough to go against Casanova’s? Breakout is a black belt. Oh man, what’s that about. Maybe he really didn’t give a hoot about the girl than. (Tone laughing.) Well when it came to the Casanova’s, you have to realize that when it come to them, you got to go all the way. If you got time to make that decision make that decision, because it is not something that is just going to go away. It is going to be an on going thing. Every party you go to, it would just be beef, until somebody died. That’s right. Peanut and Tiny was there and others? (leader and members of Casanova’s) Yeah, all of them, and Ray Chandler
(Promoter, and manager of Furious Five, and a heard voice, of the
Casanova’s.) Two of my boys were there telling me don’t worry we got
you. We got your back, we got two forty fives up in here. Don’t worry
we got you Tone. I wasn’t worried because me and Ray Chandler were
o.k. I am at one end of the stage, I hear yelling, and a fight breaks
out on the other side of the stage. It’s Breakout’s brother Jazzy
Dee, he’s fighting one of the Casanova’s. I think it was Football,
or one of them. So I run across the stage and grab Breakouts brother, to
separate him from the guy he was fighting. I look at Ray and say
that’s how its going down. I say that because all of a sudden a black
bag comes out. I ask him what’s in the black bag Ray, what’s up,
what’s it going to be? So he motioned for them to calm down. That’s right. It seemed like he was trying to do that as well when they took on the battle with Fantastic. Not to change the subject but since you want to talk about battles, I remember battling Furious at the Paramount in 1994 at the Old School Throw Down Three, at the Paramount. The Furious were put up against us, and they didn’t even come at us like a real battle. What they was just playing thier records? Yeah, and doing push ups on the
stage. Just acting like it wasn’t a battle. So they was just trying to keep it on the low, they weren’t acting too concerned? Right! But the day before, they was talking a whole bunch of s---. “yeah we don’t need to respect y’all”. We ain’t never respect y’all”. “We ain’t never seen y’all as any type of challenge.” This and that, blazay, blazay. Then when they get down to the Paramount they didn’t do jack s---. Man we went at them, and we went on first. We went in the studio and made some new s---. Y’all did new routines and all that? Yeah. Damn, I wish I would have heard something like that. We changed clothes three times. All that. How long were the sets? They gave everybody twelve and a half minutes. Everybody? Who else was in it? It was us, the Furious, M.C. Shan, K.R.S.1., U.T.F.O. with the real Roxanne. Marly Marl and Red Alert. I think that was it. So the Crush took the trophy home. Yeah, we bust their ass. Then they asked Caz to come on their radio show to do things with them. They was on hot 97 at the time doing their show. So bust it, did you ever have any d.j. battles, back in the days? No, I didn’t really get into that. But how I used to get Charlie Chase hyped up was, I used to bait Flash all the time. I used to say “Yo, he can take you Flash”, and Flash is my man. But you know…... You had to gas him up. Exactly, I had to. So the Crush and Furious played a lot of shows together? No they ducked us for awhile. We was supposed to battle them two times, back in the days. What! I never even heard that one. They ducked us twice. Every time we did do something with them, Flash wouldn’t show up. Damn, I didn’t know it was like that. So y’all only been on a flyer together about three or four times? Right. Every flyer we was on together, I don’t remember them showing up. Well I got one tape with y’all together. Which one? The one with Disco Bee playing for them? Ahh, you might be right. Yes, your’e right and Busy Bee is there also. Right that was Busy Bee anniversary. Flash didn’t show up. o.k., you are right. Flash didn’t show up. Another
night we was supposed to play together at Roseland and he But the Furious was there. Was they talking any junk? No! when they come with out Flash, they ain’t talking no junk. But when we see them and we ain’t playing together, say like out in the streets, then they talking a little junk. Flash never showed up when we was supposed to battle them. Y’all actually had a date to battle? Yes. All these tapes I have (140), I never heard any one mention that a battle was coming. I have tapes were you hear announcements that Fantastic was going to battle Crash Crew, Treacherous Three openly asked Furious for a battle, Master Don was to battle Crash Crew. Kid Kreole was to battle Busy Bee. Doug E. Fresh wanted to battle Busy. But never did I hear anything about Furious and Cold Crush. We was supposed to battle them at the Ecstasy garage one night, and Charlie got sick. Charlie had bad asthma when we first got together. We was still going to battle them, but they didn’t show up. I got another story I did with J.D.L. called “The Call Out”. J.D.L. said the first night “The Skate Fever” was opened, it was jam packed, and all the different crews were there. Yeah. So the party was fly and the Fearless Four were performing . Out of nowhere Furious Five pulls up in a bus, right in front of the Skate Fever. They step out of the bus, dressed in leather suits and this and that. Flash goes up to the d.j. booth and takes over the turntables. Mel goes to the stage and takes the mic from one of the m.c.s of Fearless and tells the crowd of m.c.s and d.j.s in the audience we come to battle all or one by one. He showed money to the crowd and says we will battle any one. Do you remember this? Yeah. But another night in Skate Fever I almost shot Kevie Kev. Kev was down with the Furious and they were doing a show and the crowd wasn’t feeling them. All of us was standing there except Chase. We were watching them, so they stopped the music and they start talking s---. Saying we will battle any one. Then Kev looked right at us….. (Troy starts laughing) …..and says don’t act like y’all don’t know we talking to y’all, stupid! What! I reached and pulled my s--- out and pointed it at him, and Caz and them grabbed me and rushed me up out of there. Then the Furious came down, off the stage. Came to office and talking s---, and I was arguing with them and this and that. I got on the phone and called Charlie and said get over here right now. So y’all was ready to battle right there. Yeah, we was ready to go right there. Charlie was home with his girl. Talking about “yo calm down”. I’m like come right now. Ness was like you know Chase can’t f--- with Flash. I was like alright we will see. Then one of the Casanova’s pulled me to the side and said “Tone, calm down you know we people, we don’t want to do nothing to you. We don’t want to have to do nothing to you”. (Troy starts laughing) I said alright y’all giving me warning. Alright. So I went inside and gave my gun to one of the guys that was running the place. I said I am going to calm down because I want to do this battle. But Flash and them ended up leaving. But I was like yo it is going to happen sooner or later. So what ever happen with that with Kev when y’all seen each other again? Me and Kev cool now, I am getting ready to do his birthday party, January 22nd at the Kennedy center on 135th st. in Harlem. Kev used to get under my skin, but lyrically he couldn’t even mess with A.D. He didn’t really have stories, but Kev had a lot of showmanship. Right. Right Dota- Rock was really the better m.c. of them. It was like, Theodore is Theodore. Dot always been my man. Whip always been my man. As far as Rhyming I never looked at Kev as a hard hitting rhymer. Matter fact Master Rob might have been better then him? Yeah, Rob was supposed to be a little better to carry and get a rhyme quicker than Dot. But I always felt when Dot got on…. Dot was my man. When I was growing
up it was always J.D.L., Caz and Dot- Rock. Something about the style of
rhyming and the way they held the audience, they showed no Yes. I thought they was Gangsters with sunglasses, weighing like two hundred and fifty pound diesel n------. Until I later met and seen pictures of them. just the way they sounded through the tapes, they sounded like……Muhammad Ali like, “I’m taking no shorts n-----, everybody back up, listen to me.” Yeah. See that’s what Mel and them didn’t realize when they came off that bus, that s--- don’t faze us. We ain’t got nothing and we ain’t looking for nothing but to tear n----- ass up. Yeah lets go at it, this is what we do. Alright what were the three best d.j. battles you seen. The hottest s--- was the Audubon. This was like 1978 or 1979. They had the six crew battle. All the crews that came had to bring their own sets. M.c.s had to come correct. It wasn’t just the d.j. Even your system had to be right. So who won? Breakout and the Funky Four did. Who did they beat? It was Herc, A.J., Caz was on it. The L. Brothers. And Breakout. Caz for what reason I don’t know couldn’t get his system on. Who was Caz d.j.ing for that night? It was Caz and the Mighty Force.
Casanova Fly and the Mighty Force. He couldn’t get his What a routine off of the Seven up commercial? Yeah! Damn, I wish I could find and hear that routine! Yeah, We got to the battle late. We had to carry all the equipment over peoples heads. But when I started to put that equipment together they was like how long? I said give me twenty minutes and something will be on. So I am ready now, they all walk up on the stage with thier mic cases, open up thier mic cases, and put thier mics on the stand and plugged them in and tore it. So Busy Bee was there also with A.J.? Nah this time Starski. Starski was trying to strictly m.c.? No, he was doing his Starski show. Along with A.J., Sometimes Starski would be with A.J. or sometimes Busy Bee would be with him. So L- Brothers be doing their regular thing, Kool Herc and his boys doing their thing? Well no disrespect intended, but Herc didn’t really have any quality m.c.s like the other groups. You right. Herc will tell you that also, but Herc was the man. Like I said it was Breakout’s night that night. When we started stacking that s--- up and plugging s--- in, n------ could not believe it. So the Sashquash system, is what y’all had by this time? Yeah. The Sashquash had grown on them. Abel and Bear where there also. Abel and Bear? Yeah they fell to the way side. If I could recreate that night I would. So what was the L- Brothers performance like, were they just passing the mic around? They didn’t come correct that night. So the Funky Four was the best and nobody came close to them? That’s right! How did you feel going to a Disco party, opposed to a hip hop party, say, D.J. Hollywood at 371 club?
You and Hollywood are about the same age? Maybe 2, 3 years apart? Yeah, probably so. See I never want people to think I am trying to bash Hollywood, Eddie Cheba or Reggie Wells etc. but they really didn’t respect or want to be apart of our hip hop during that time. They didn’t want to be looked at as hip hop. Now they want to be included, because of the status. They see that the strong point of music is hip hop. They was wearing silk shirts and gators at their parties. Even today, they play hip hop at there parties but they still consider them selves above, what the basis of hip hop is. So who would be a part of that crew? Eddie Cheeba, Reggie Wells, Hollywood, Pete D.J. Jones and Grand Master Flowers. Would Disco King Mario be a part of that? No. Even though his name was Disco Mario, he was hip hop. When people talk about hip hop and soon as they bring up names like Flowers or Pete d.j Jones, they don’t know what they are talking about. You ain’t going to see no flyer with our name up there and one of theirs. Back in the days Pete tried to get a little crew out to hang and to battle us. After 2 or 3 party’s they was out of it. So what about Lovebug Starski is he border line? Well Starski is the only one who was
able to ride the line and handle both situations. He Alright I am going to name some D.J.s you just give me from 1 to 10 what you would rate them and just a little comment about them. O.K. Charlie Chase. That’s my brother. He has always been a stickler for being on time, with the music and he has always pulled it out. I would give him an 8. Theodore. When I first saw Theodore he was standing on a crate d.j.ing. He has always been the same Theodore, quiet and very professional about what he does. Theodore is a technician. I give Theodore a 10+. Oh man….that’s good.. Even today Theodore is doing his thing. O.K…Jazzy Jay. He is good, but very seldom really gets into it. I give him a 7. Flash. You go to a Flash party and you
watch him and he is going through his thing. We used to say that’s the
n----- to get, because he was displaying some s---. His arrogance is
what made you want to get at him even more. To this day they have not battled, huh? Not yet. For awhile it was thought that Flash respected Theodore and Theodore respected Flash, so they wouldn’t go there. But lately we hearing there may be a little riff between the two. So I think Theodore wants to catch Flash and get him. Bam. Bam is like family. Bam found out my
mother was in the hospital and called way up from Well y’all really only did whole parties in the early days. Yeah. Once your names really got out there for doing shows, y’all was doing maybe four parties a night.
Yeah. Now I practice more than I did back in the days. Africa Islam. Islam is a maniac. For awhile, when we were traveling, Islam would get on and cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. I would be like, damn Islam, slow the f--- down. You mean he is a very fast cutter? Yeah, and that’s all he wants to do is cut. He changed records a lot? Yeah. I give him a 7. A 7? So he wasn’t really giving a good show when he was cutting like that. That’s why I say, some people play for them selves and others play for the crowd. Breakout. That’s my man, and Breakout still don’t cut on beat. He still don’t worry about cutting off beat. Breakout won’t even get on. A couple of years ago I was doing a party, and I told him I had $500 dollars for him, all he had to do was get on for five minutes. Then, all he had to do was talk to the crowd. He got on, but he just let the record play out. He didn’t do his usual. So he just left the whole game alone? Yeah! So what would you give him for during his hey day? During his hey day? I give him a 6. A 6? Yeah some nights he would be on and some nights he would be off. Master Don I didn’t see him. See when you just play in your area a lot of people don’t see you. Breakout, us, we done went to other people’s boroughs and bust thier ass. Who were some of the people y’all went to see to bust their ass? We went to Staten island and seen the Force M.C.s before they blew up, and told them to come across the river and come uptown if you want to be known. You can’t stay out here and get know there. We went up to Poughkeepsie to battle some dudes calling them selves Cold Crush. Saying they was the original Cold Crush. What? Yeah. We went up there, Armstrong put the battle together. Caz, Armstrong and I went to one of the dudes house to finalize the agreement. But first, before we went in there Armstrong said Tone, control your self. (Troy starts laughing) I said don’t worry about it. I got it, I’m all right. Soon as the kid opens the door, Armstrong introduces us, I black out on the kid. The next thing I know, they trying to pull me off the kid. I am choking him. So from that, y’all didn’t even battle? No, we kind of battled. We were in Poughkeepsie the night of the battle, in the party, but they weren’t there. Since the party ended at a certain time, a hour before it was supposed to end we just decided to go on. To let the crowd get a taste of the real Cold Crush? Yeah. So as we were doing our show, these kids we were supposed to battle ran through the crowd and jumped on the stage. Man I lost it. We started fighting them right on the stage. So they never got on the mic? Never. I was screaming “Y’all
crazy running up here on my stage?” I looked at my God Disco King Mario. I give Mario a 5. Mario used to be d.j.ing and dancing at the same time, and miss a cut. (Troy is laughing) Did he try and talk or rhyme, over his music. Yeah, Mario wasn’t really serious about his d.j.ing. So he was more of a Pete d.j. Jones type, who didn’t say that much? No he didn’t say that much. But it was like he wasn’t focused on what he was doing, because he would be dancing and let the break go. He just be dancing. I think he was just doing it to get some recognition so he can get some p----. (Troy starts laughing) Smokey. Who? Smokey! Yo I am going to tell you the truth, I ain’t never seen d.j. Smokey. Well J.D.L. gives him a lot of props. But I told J.D.L. about that. I told J.D.L. stop giving n------ props just because you knew them. I never seen Smokey. I asked Herc about him. Herc said who the f--- is Smokey? (Troy is laughing) Who the f--- is Smokey, Smokey ain’t nobody. I even heard Dota Rock speak about him. He came out of those projects by 169th st. Off Webster ave. Yeah off Webster. Yeah off Webster ave. because I was up in those projects. That’s where the first record shop was, right around there. The first record shop? The first record shop I worked for. Claremont and 3rd. ave. O.k. I understand. That n----- name ain’t on no flyers. At least Able and Bear name was on a flyer. You don’t see no Smokey or Smoke A Trons on no flyer. Im telling them why y’all giving ni****s like that any type of light when the names ain’t on no flyer. You can’t research nothing on them. So how much could they had been doing. See this is were n------ get it f--- up. Its one thing to do block parties. But if you that good you going to go inside in the winter time to make some money. So you got to put some flyers out. This is definitely a turn of events on this guy Smokey. Let me ask you this. Who ever is giving him props J.D.L., or Dot, or any one, if he so nice why he only playing Webster houses? D. ST. Here go another one. (Troy is
laughing) Early in the days I ran into D when I was with Breakout. I
said what’s up? Blazay Blazay. I said, yo, you still d.j.ing he said
no I quit. I asked him why he quit, he didn’t really have an answer. I
said alright, why don’t you come and hang with us. He said nah I
don’t feel right hanging out with y’all because me and Breakout and
them don’t get along. I said don’t worry about that you with me.
They not going to f--- with you. So he was going up to Spring Valley
with us, break dancing. He never spun a record, just dancing with us. To be honest I didn’t know he was down with them, I have a tape with Infinity but he is not on it. I also have them at a Zulu party, but I had no idea he was down with them, I thought he was just hanging out with them for a minute. I have a tape with him not d.j.ing but playing the synthesizer. That’s the one I got, but to be honest it was a painful listen for me. I wasn’t feeling that synthesizer at all. That’s the only c.d. I have of them, in fact I was the d.j. while D.ST was on the synthesizer. O.k. I didn’t know that, in fact that was the Black History month tape. A lot of different crews were on that tape. In fact before the Cold Crush started the set, Caz says this is dedicated to the most soupped up n------ that charge eight dollars for a party and don’t even put on a show. Who was he referring to Furious Five? Yeah. O.K., because I wasn’t sure if Caz wasn’t talking about Fantastic. Alright so you never really seen D.ST. d.j.? No I never really seen him go through it. Krazy Eddie. From Fearless 4? I never seen him! What? I’m telling you man these guys never traveled around. Well Ed told me he did travel around, in fact before he played with Fearless 4, he was runnin with Moe Dee and L.A. and D.J. Reggie Reg and they were called the Fantastic Four! They were supposed to battle the Fantastic 4 of the Bronx who we all know were Kevie Kev, Master Rob, Rubie Dee and Theodore. Which never came off. But he said he was up there in the Bronx d.j.ing with Bam and others from time to time but he was mostly in Manhattan. He originally lived in 126th st and Morningside and Amsterdam ave. but later moved to my Projects. In fact the building he lives in or his mother lived in Kool Moe Dee’s mother later moved into. Like I said he mostly partied at places like Randy’s Place. In fact he was a part owner of Randy’s place, on 125th st. in Harlem. See I never knew that, you telling me something. The only way I knew Moe and them was when they came up to the P.A.L., here and the Bronx and it was the Treacherous Three and Spoonie was there with them also. I didn’t know anything about Moe and Fantastic situation. Lord K-Won. A long pause by Tone……..Yeah, you pulled a name out. (we start laughing) A D.J. from the Force M.C.s…… You pulled another name out. These d.j.s might be known from thier areas but I haven’t really seen them. Starski. Starski always did his thing. I give Starski an 8. Did you ever go to Starski’s Burger King parties? No, Pow Wow was telling me about that. They actually used to close Burger King down and open it back up to do parties. I asked how did they do that with all those chairs and he said they used to take the chairs and tables out. I was in shock when he told me. In fact I thought it was just Flash doing it. Starski too, I think it was every Wednesday. It was a rap. It was one of the wildest things that could be happening back I those days. N------ was trying to get there. He is a partying mother f-----. He is arrogant and think everything he does is good, but he do put on a good show. Kool Herc. I respect Herc. I wouldn’t say
anything bad about him. A lot of mother f------- will say he Yes, I do understand. He is the pioneer. (In the dictionary the word pioneer means one who ventures into unknown or unclaimed territory to settle. An innovator, esp. in research and development.) When he started there was no cutting s---. That didn’t come until later with Flash and them really had to get into it. Somebody had to do it first!! Yeah, but when Herc came out he was just playing joints that nobody ever knew or ever thought about playing. Clark Kent was the n----- that was cutting s--- up. After Clark Kent came J.C., Whiz kid, Toney Dee. These were all Herculoid D.J.s. When cats started cutting Good Times all fast. Good Times Good Times Good Times… over and over. That was J.C., he still want to get at Flash today. Whiz Kid and Toney Dee were really good at cutting. But how much of that s--- can you do in a party. I see that had to come with the whole pie, and that’s what Flash had. Yeah. Flash had the whole package. So what would you give The Imperial J.C.? A 7. Clark Kent A 8 Whiz Kid? He was incredible, he also was a
nerd, but he was fast and blended well. I give him between an 8 and a 9. Red Alert. When he first started I didn’t see him as a good D.J. but as time went on he developed to be a good d.j. and now he is representing well I give him a 7 Baron? I give Baron a 7 because of staying on the beat and blending records. He also has always been aware of the M.C.s rhyming, by staying on time so the m.c.s can stay on time. Even right now, although he doesn’t practice as much as he used to, he wants try anything he doesn’t know how to do. Right now he is playing a lot of house music and he is good at that. A.J.? A.J. that’s my man, he has always been a street person, not really a thug, but a street person. He wasn’t the best promoter. You had to track him down from time to time to get your money. Sometimes he might even tell his boys to start a fight. So why would you say he is your man? When you from streets and that person is from the streets you let him be him. And vice versa. I understand that but what makes his relationship with you and him be Kool and the gang. I got street thug friends as well, killers, dudes that been going back in forth to jail for numerous reason’s forever, and they will cut n----- throat in a second, but will say Troy I love you, you my man. I love them too, but there was something that happened between us, that we built that bond. That’s why I care about them, but somebody else may say that n----- ain’t s---! Just the fact that he is in hip hop and in the same capacity as me. I got to love him. All of us who are still in hip hop today that rocked way back, we still look at each other as he is just like me. A lot of people have had beefs with Cold Crush or what ever but it is now past tense. I look at it now as that was just us growing up. With some people we were rivals. Now I can’t hold that. Any thing I get now if I can pull one of these brothers in or something, I got to do that. That’s why I am doing Water bed Kev’s birthday. Kev came to me and said yo Tone what’s up? I said yo I help you do it dude. Back to A.J.. A.J. used to have his crowds. But a couple of us were just d.j.s., then there was the d.j.s that wanted to do the tricks. Then there was a couple who felt as long as they could just catch the break and keep it going they was good . I ain’t trying to be faster than Flash. I ain’t trying to needle drop like Theodore. That’s their s---. A.J. was never a flamboyant d.j., but he had enough confidence to do his thing. I put him up there with a 7 or 8. Toney Tone? I give my self a 7+ My man! (we start laughing) why do you give yourself a 7+. Back in the days I was alright, but now I know I am better. But still a lot of mother f------ will say I didn’t see you. One time I took Caz and L.A. Sunshine to Cleveland with me because I had a party to do out there. This was last year. I took them with me to be m.c.s. The club was hot, they had a nice sound system and I was ready that night. We was going through it. Caz looked at me like he was surprised. The last couple of shows we did, when we were finished K.G. came up to me with a surprised look like yo you did your thing, I’m glad to hear that. My response to him is yo it ain’t nothing new dude. I mostly was trying to make sure Charlie was o.k.. I really didn’t have time to get on and really do my thing. It wasn’t my fault if we got into that position that we were running all over town running in and out of places to doing shows. When I go overseas I got to d.j. I might be on an hour, 2 hours by myself. I have to do that. In fact I am a lot faster now then when I was younger. But like I said being fast is only half of it. Timing is also a big part of it. I hate to hear a sloppy d.j. So what were your first turntables? The Gerard. And then the Thorn. When I got down with the older cats they had the Technics 1100a. That was when I was in a crew called the Unity Committee. Herc also used the 1100a’s. They were popular but not something that everybody could get. They were top of the line but they cost a lot back then. I just ran into a kid that said he had 3 of them, and he sold 2 of them for a thousand dollars each. He wanted $800 for the last one. Were these for year 2005 or back then. The originals from back then, they are like collectors items, and they are used. So by the time you got to Cold Crush what were you using? With the Cold Crush we were using the B1’s. The belt driven joints. The ones before that were direct drive. Breakout used to use the 1800 techniques. One day my brother and a girl I was with got me a pair of 1200’s. What were the most dependable ones at that time. Well the direct drive techniques were always the more dependable ones. With the belt driven, the belt use to stretch as well as pop. How do you feel about the C.D. turntables as far as the essence of cutting and mixing. Has technology taken away from the actual turntables that you used in the beginning. No, but I still rather use the wax and the turntables. But what is your feelings about the C.D. turntables? I don’t mind but them. But I would rather have the wax. I do have the final scratch s---. That computerized s---. I got but it is still in the box. In fact its been sitting in the box for the last 6 months. So when do you plan on busting that out. (Tone starts laughing) no rush. I got them because you can travel with that and a lap top and 2 plates. With that you ain’t got to carry no crates of records and turntables. But I am still not comfortable with it. See it’s alright if you doing a party. But if you trying to scratch back and forth and all that sometimes it shuts down or either it hesitates or is a 3 second delay. I ain’t know all that . Don’t get me wrong it’s good if you just playing but if you trying to do some fast s---…. Jazzy J uses it. D.ST. uses it. Chase just started. It also takes time adjusting to it. The sound is clearer and cleaner. What is real good about it is, if you only got one record because you can’t find the second one, with that system you can make two of them through one system. There is a magazine out called Scratch. On the back page there is a picture of a turntable, with a record on top of it. But on the side of the turntable, a C.D. is able to slide inside of the turntable. It’s a Numark CDX. I haven’t worked with it but I seen Biz working with the Technics with the silver record on top. I seen him use them in Atlanta. But not with the C.D. but a memory card. He said the memory card hold a lot of records. From what I can see he was going back and forth. It sounded very crisp. He swears by them, says that’s all he use. I haven’t ventured that way though. What is the difference between a D.J. and a turntablist? If there is. Most turntablists can only do the tricks. A lot of them you never see doing whole parties. They’re more into the tricks. They are more competition than anything. So how do you feel about the new d.j. not having to dig in the crates like back in the days because there are so many super Disco breaks and other convenient ways of getting wax as opposed to back in the days? Like I tell everybody big companies are going to get in and make money any way they can. They will kill off the foundation of everything just to make money, because they really don’t care. So they going to make it easier and they are going to make bootlegs, and dudes are going to go and get it because it is there. I understand, its almost impossible for the new d.j. not to. Especially when he is trying to make his music sound real good like the next man. What was the most embarrassing moment for you, back in the days while you were d.j.ing? We was battling Bambaataa and them.
This is with Cold Crush and we had just got together. I just bought I
think 4 to 6 speakers like that week and it was the first time using
them. They were speakers my man built. So who were ya’ll going against Soul Sonic or Cosmic? It was Bam and everybody down with him. They was on a stage and we was on the floor. We couldn’t even say we going to play on y’all s--- or nothing. It was a battle. In hind sight there is no way that the Zulu m.c.s could touch y’all. We was confident when we went in there, system was sounding real good. It was like Murphy’s law, what could go wrong will go wrong. I have one thing to speak about for you to have knowledge of. We have a group we are forming called The Federation. The Universal Federation for the Preservation of Hip Hop. Let me hear this. We started an organization to police all the wrong and bad reputations that people try to put on hip hop like the Ron Artest thing that happened. |
A lot of people were talking about him, I
was like who the hell is this Herc? One night my brother took me to the
Hevalo, I was like oh sweat. Herc wasn’t playing any top twenty
records or anything like that. He was playing Bra (By Cymande) and stuff
like that.
Then you got Flash
cutting it back and forth, faster than anybody. So you got three
different types of d.j.s, to try and be like. So some people were
focusing on “I got to be fast like Flash”. But you have to be fast
and keep it on time. Breakout was fast, but he wasn’t always on time.
So most of the time when it came to doing the show, Baron would do it
because, even though he wasn’t as fast as Breakout, he focused more on
keeping the beat.
The next thing we hear
we battled them. People playing the tape for us, Force m.c.s acted like
we battled. Even had the crowd saying f--- Cold Crush. We ain’t there,
so the crowd going with thier m.c.
because we are always going to treat
our selves like brothers. So we changed it to that.
Caz had Whiz, and d.j. S.w.a.t.,
he had a couple of Puerto Rican dudes down with him. They was alright
but they didn’t take it serious like Chase did at that time. I told
Chase this is it, you the man, because the Puerto Rican’s were in the
party, and they had no real representative. So I said if we do it like
this, we might
Four
weren’t working hard enough for Rahiem. Two, Rahiem wasn’t working
hard enough for the Funky Four, and wanted to be with Furious Five.
Three, Casanova’s and Mel wanted him with Furious Five.
That’s
when the Funky Four was ready to start thier show. They was so shook,
they had to restart three times. They could not get the rhymes off. But
you have to understand the Funky Four to the Furious Five, were like
Little brothers battling thier big brothers. They were in a totally
different mind set. Breakout was packing parties and Flash and them was
packing parties. That was why they started to become rival groups. But
at the time Furious Five were strong. The Funky Four was strong also but
not as strong as Furious. But Sha, and Rahiem were strong, Keith Keith
and K.K. were decent. Like I said if something goes down with Cold Crush
and Caz is head honcho, he the main m.c.. if the other three don’t
show up he is going to take it. He is going to take it on his back.
didn’t show
up.
fear.
system on and
so he ended up using A.J.s system. He should have gotten disqualified,
because you had to do your own thing on your own system. But they let
him play on A.J.s set. But there was nothing he could have done that
night, because Funky Four was on that night. The sound system was hot
that night. That was when they had just started doing
Well I remember some one was break
dancing at his party, he stopped the music and got on the mic and said
get out of here with that on the floor bulls--- go down the block to
Flash’s party with that. Hollywood was o.k., but, I felt out of place
at those parties, at that type of party. First of all I had to get
dressed up to go. Second of all they wasn’t playing the type of music
that Herc or any of us were playing. I just felt like this ain’t it,
this ain’t me.
would be in a hip
hop party with A.J. he did his thing as a hip hop d.j. I guess when he
was in a Disco scene he handled his self accordingly. He is the only one
we consider as one of us. Everybody else we cool with and love them and
all that but they were not really a part of us.
Today, even though he always
wants to turn the music up too loud and it distorts his music, I would
give him a 10. But I think if Theodore could get his hands on Flash, to
get Flash in a situation of battling him, I think Flash would have
problems.
where he was at, to
find out how she was doing. Like I said I been knowing Bam since 1974. I
haven’t heard Bam d.j. in awhile, and back in the days he really
wouldn’t d.j. he would have Red Alert or Jazzy or somebody else d.j.
and just show them were the breaks were at. A lot of his records only he
knew. As far as his D.J. skills it would have to be incomplete. But a
lot of people would say that about me. I tell them listen maybe you
weren’t paying attention or maybe it was a lot of nights I wasn’t
d.j.ing. A lot of nights we was just coming in, doing shows, and
leaving. For a long time, it wasn’t like we was doing whole parties.
brother and
said go get my s---, now. He said “yo police in here.” I said go get
my s--- I don’t care about that, because I had two 38’s, and
Armstrong made me leave them in the office. Just because police was
there! Since he wouldn’t get them I got on the mic and told them I
will kill everybody in here I don’t care about nobody. Then they ended
the party right there.
Then one day he came to me and said yo I am going to get back into
D.J.ing. But you let them tell it, they chose to stay up in Mount Vernon
and Yonkers, instead of doing the circuit. Like battling us or who ever.
Again I say where your flyers at. Where is your flyers that say D.ST.
and Infinity Four on it. I
can’t d.j..
He can’t do this, but when he started there wasn’t no cutting s---.
You know what I am saying?
We was up in Bronx River. Caz got
on and he was d.j.ing. He did something and the needle slid across the
record, and he blew out all the speakers. Mind you this was early into
the battle. They went on first and then us. They was supposed to come
back on. But when that happened, and this was supposed to be a battle.
They said ya’ll got to pack up and get the f--- up out of here with
that bulls---. (we both start laughing) They wa slike what happened
(mocking) we can’t hear ya’ll? Everything blew except the tweeters.