Post by haihat on Nov 6, 2005 14:55:41 GMT -5
taken from the freestylesession message board posted by hdt415.
ZULU GREMLIN Interview
"Rocksteady Crew" alumni Steve Roybal founded the modern day b-boy competition. He has appeared in numerous television shows and commercials. He has also travelled around the world in the off broadway show "Jam On The Groove" and was inducted into the Smithsonian Institute for American History. Now living in the Bay Area he's gonna tell Break Remedey the story of the "Hip Hop Historian" himself Zulu Gremlin.
Where and when did bboyin enter your life?
I grew up in Los Angeles, Denver, New York, and Miami. Born in Los Angeles.
B-Boyin entered my life in my living room and at my next door neighbors
house. We used to dance in their basement or living room to the video channels on TV. We witnessed a small piece of some competition in New York that was televised. We saw Gladyse Knight and the Pips video, and Style Wars, and even Graffitti Rock. We didnt have vcr's then so we had to go off our first
memory of what we thought we saw.
How did you get your Bboy name Zulu Gremlin?
I got my name by trying to do graf and I needed a 4 or 5 letter word to
write. I chose the letters GREMZ! then after I saw the movies Gremlin's, I
added the Gremlin part. Soon after that I started organizing for Zulu Nation and people started calling me ZULU because I had zulu beeds on and they didnt know my name. They just said "Hey Zulu! Doze used to say that I was like a Gremlin too!
Who were your influences in breakin?
My influences come directly from Rock Steady Crew, New York City Breakers,
Vince Colon, Seymour Green, and Maurice Williams.
What's your favorite song to dance to?
My favorite song to dance to is still "Give it Up, Turn it Loose". James Brown
What are you up to now?
Currently I have the B-Boy Masters Pro-Am, Breakmania, and Battle Kings
events happening world wide, I have a dance company called The Break Beat
Assassins, I produce music for movies, gaming, and recording artists, and I
spend alot of time teaching and judging abroad.
When and where is your next performance?
Our next performance is in Japan and France for the Pro-Am tour 2003.
check bboymasters.com for details.
Lastly, what is your definition of a bboy?
My definition of a b-boy is = A B-Boy is a male that lives a certain
lifestyle that originated in New York in the 70's. Specifically, A male that
dresses, talks, acts, and dances like the originators of the "B-Boy
Movement".
What is the B-Boy Movement?
The B-Boy Movement is those who react to funk and soul music with bodily
movements that extend down to the ground in a rhythmic form directly from
The greater New York Area, which means the dress code, vocab, and body language were all inspired by the originators of the movement. This is a questions that can be answered in many ways!
You got any shout outs?
My Shout Outs: To the Break Beat Assassins, Medea Sirkas, Ghettoriginals,
Hidden Masters,Visuel Dense, bboysection.com, bboymasters.com,
euro-pro-am.com, Speedy Legs, Ken Swift, Lil Lep, Doze, Dash, Odogg, and all my family world wide! Peace Zulu Gremlin! Thanx Gremz.
Interview by Ron (Profo=Energy)
urbansoulbboy@hotmail.com
________________________________________________
THE NEXT ONE INTERVIEW-MAURTIZO
Maurizio aka The Next One
Rock Steady Crew / Italy
Interview done by Remy (The Spartanic Rockers)
Can you introduce yourself?
Ok, I wanna tell you my real name, my old name from back in the days:
Back then my name was "Dope King Next One"...Then I took a shortcut...
When did you see Breaking for the first time?
This was on TV in '84. One of the first video I saw back then was "Streedance" of the group "Breakmachine". I think this was mostly because of the popular reason that it was shown at that time. Then they used to show the videoclip from the song "Beat Street Strut". This was very, very famous. But the scene in Italy started already around '82. I came like 2 years later. There were already dancers because of Flashdance and some videos from Go Go Dance, you know, Go Go music from Washington DC (USA). There was a famous song, but i can't remember the name. It was showing tricks like footwork and stuff like that. And also some other European came to Italy. Some French B-Boys. And this group from Nottingham (UK) "Rock City Crew". They came to Italy with the name "Extreme Team". This was one of the most influencing group. And the most popular crews in Italy back in '84 were Dynamic Force from Milano, Taxido Breaking and Goes Down Rockers from Torino. But back then everything was very, very slow. Because there was nothing. You know, developing moves and creativity was not like nowadays that everything is there and you gotta just practice. Back then you had to think about moves. It was really hard.
Was the boom of Breaking all over Italy?
Yes, it was all over Italy. Everybody was trying, even the regular people. There were some nice B-Boys in Rome, Bologna, Florence, Padona, Mantova.. But the biggest scene was in Torino and Milano.
What was going on during that time?
There used to be many, many Zulu parties. In Italy the Zulu Nation was always there. Because Afrika Bambaataa came the first time to Italy in '84/'85. He used to tour with "Dolby D" from the London Allstar Breakers. And there were people from Paris City Breakers: Nicolas, Didier who is nowadays also known as Joey Starr of Supreme NTM. And there was another guy who formed later the music group Assassin. He was very famous at that time because he was the one who went to New York, you know. And at that time there were many parties and everybody was travelling from all over Italy. But there weren't really that much people in the south. It was more half Italy..the centre. After Rome there were some kids from Lecce in the south but that's it. And there used to be always battles. People always practiced, practiced, practiced, waited for the battle and showed up. Everybody was looking for each other. Always looking for the top guys. The three main crews always battled because they were the most notorious. They used to tour all over the place. They also got so many shows with sponsors like Adidas, Nike,... What happened then was that a lot of young kids, a lot of new groups wanted to try to get shows too and they used to sell out themselves because they weren't that good and at the level that they could get on stage and do shows. People in the clubs, owners of the clubs and promoters they never understood nothing about the real scene. So whatever for this people looked like B-Boys they would get them. But in the end the level came very, very down and nobody wanted to pay for the main people. And you know, if you get to a level that you get money and get gigs on TV you don't wanna go back, for free or for little money.
How did connections to other European dancers start?
Back then I used to be in this crew called Taxido Breaking and then later in Goes Down Rockers. These groups were one of the first that joined competitions. So, these competitions openend new connections with overseas people and other European countries. They signed me in a competition for joke because i didn't know anything. They said: "Come with us to a competition"..And I was like: "Why?". Anyway, I went there and I won the Italian Championship. So, I went to the World Championship in Istanbul (Turkey) in '85. And there were many, many dancers. Some dancers were very famous like Paulo Nunes from Holland, Brian from Manchester (UK) from the famous group called "Streetmachine". There was another guy that now uses to work with the famous music group "Soul 2 Soul": Benji from "Broken Glass". He is a very good Popper. There used to be Soulboy. He is still leaving in Italy. And that was the first time that I met Swift and Cora from Germany. Of course Crazy from Switzerland. And who else? I mean there were so many.. That was really the way for the connections.
And when was the first time that Italian dancers went to events in countries like Switzerland or Germany?
See, the main problem of Italy..Until for a while I was really the only one to go. There was nobody really there. I don't know why but everybody was just dancing in Italy. And the level was still like it was hard to develop and take it to the next level. Oh, I forgot there was Emilio... I forgot Emilio was there too!! Emilio was there too.. Until about '87 it was mainly Emilio and me. And in '88 I stopped doing competitions. Because at that time I started doing something else. In my town there was a DJ who was my best friend: DJ Graph. I used to go in his house and I used to start playing the music. And you know, you like to play the music, you love to do music. So, I bought turntables and started to collect records. And that's one thing that really helped me a lot on my dance to develop because I understood that the secret is the music. That is really the problem of a lot of people. They never really focus on the music. They just focus on the move.
What about the other elements of Hip Hop in Italy?
Everything started with the B-Boys and the DJs. There weren't so many. But there was DJ Graph. He went to Milano and met DJ Skizzo. Then they started touring and doing their thing. And there were 2 famous DJs from Rome: Ice One and Eolo. There was another famous DJ from Florence: Blade. And there was DJ Phillies from Torino. Milano and Torino were really the places where it was Hip Hop 360°. There were some Graffiti writers all over the place but it wasn't really that big. Painting on the wall and all that wasn't really that big. I don't know for whatever reason...I don't wanna talk about something that I really don't know. And the last thing that came out in Italy was Rap. I mean some B-Boys already were rapping a little bit like Shawn from Milano. He is an Italian-African kid. He was rapping in English. At that time everybody was rapping in English. Because nobody knew that you could express yourself in your own language. Because, you know, Rap is a barrier if you speak in another language. If you wanna communicate you gotta have to speak in your own language...anyway.. And in Torino there were some other guys back in the days like "Grasshopper". He was a writer. And there were a few B-Girls. There was "Carry D". She was a B-Girl. In Torino there used to be the best B-Girls of all Italy. There was this girl named "Alex". She was incredible! She was really incredible..She was one of the best Headspinner of Torino. Better than a lot of guys. Carry D used to do very nice Headspins too. Nice Footworks, nice tricks and stuff like that. And I wanna give props to this guy Soulboy. He was really the one who influenced a lot of people with his friends from Nottingham, like Pepsie. You know Pepsie? This is the the tall guy from Rock City Crew who is doing Headspin and this crazy style in "Electro Rock". Oh sorry, I have to even mention Topcat. This was another American kid raising in Italy. You know, another one that was there. And there was anot
_________________________________________________
ZULU GREMLIN Interview
"Rocksteady Crew" alumni Steve Roybal founded the modern day b-boy competition. He has appeared in numerous television shows and commercials. He has also travelled around the world in the off broadway show "Jam On The Groove" and was inducted into the Smithsonian Institute for American History. Now living in the Bay Area he's gonna tell Break Remedey the story of the "Hip Hop Historian" himself Zulu Gremlin.
Where and when did bboyin enter your life?
I grew up in Los Angeles, Denver, New York, and Miami. Born in Los Angeles.
B-Boyin entered my life in my living room and at my next door neighbors
house. We used to dance in their basement or living room to the video channels on TV. We witnessed a small piece of some competition in New York that was televised. We saw Gladyse Knight and the Pips video, and Style Wars, and even Graffitti Rock. We didnt have vcr's then so we had to go off our first
memory of what we thought we saw.
How did you get your Bboy name Zulu Gremlin?
I got my name by trying to do graf and I needed a 4 or 5 letter word to
write. I chose the letters GREMZ! then after I saw the movies Gremlin's, I
added the Gremlin part. Soon after that I started organizing for Zulu Nation and people started calling me ZULU because I had zulu beeds on and they didnt know my name. They just said "Hey Zulu! Doze used to say that I was like a Gremlin too!
Who were your influences in breakin?
My influences come directly from Rock Steady Crew, New York City Breakers,
Vince Colon, Seymour Green, and Maurice Williams.
What's your favorite song to dance to?
My favorite song to dance to is still "Give it Up, Turn it Loose". James Brown
What are you up to now?
Currently I have the B-Boy Masters Pro-Am, Breakmania, and Battle Kings
events happening world wide, I have a dance company called The Break Beat
Assassins, I produce music for movies, gaming, and recording artists, and I
spend alot of time teaching and judging abroad.
When and where is your next performance?
Our next performance is in Japan and France for the Pro-Am tour 2003.
check bboymasters.com for details.
Lastly, what is your definition of a bboy?
My definition of a b-boy is = A B-Boy is a male that lives a certain
lifestyle that originated in New York in the 70's. Specifically, A male that
dresses, talks, acts, and dances like the originators of the "B-Boy
Movement".
What is the B-Boy Movement?
The B-Boy Movement is those who react to funk and soul music with bodily
movements that extend down to the ground in a rhythmic form directly from
The greater New York Area, which means the dress code, vocab, and body language were all inspired by the originators of the movement. This is a questions that can be answered in many ways!
You got any shout outs?
My Shout Outs: To the Break Beat Assassins, Medea Sirkas, Ghettoriginals,
Hidden Masters,Visuel Dense, bboysection.com, bboymasters.com,
euro-pro-am.com, Speedy Legs, Ken Swift, Lil Lep, Doze, Dash, Odogg, and all my family world wide! Peace Zulu Gremlin! Thanx Gremz.
Interview by Ron (Profo=Energy)
urbansoulbboy@hotmail.com
________________________________________________
THE NEXT ONE INTERVIEW-MAURTIZO
Maurizio aka The Next One
Rock Steady Crew / Italy
Interview done by Remy (The Spartanic Rockers)
Can you introduce yourself?
Ok, I wanna tell you my real name, my old name from back in the days:
Back then my name was "Dope King Next One"...Then I took a shortcut...
When did you see Breaking for the first time?
This was on TV in '84. One of the first video I saw back then was "Streedance" of the group "Breakmachine". I think this was mostly because of the popular reason that it was shown at that time. Then they used to show the videoclip from the song "Beat Street Strut". This was very, very famous. But the scene in Italy started already around '82. I came like 2 years later. There were already dancers because of Flashdance and some videos from Go Go Dance, you know, Go Go music from Washington DC (USA). There was a famous song, but i can't remember the name. It was showing tricks like footwork and stuff like that. And also some other European came to Italy. Some French B-Boys. And this group from Nottingham (UK) "Rock City Crew". They came to Italy with the name "Extreme Team". This was one of the most influencing group. And the most popular crews in Italy back in '84 were Dynamic Force from Milano, Taxido Breaking and Goes Down Rockers from Torino. But back then everything was very, very slow. Because there was nothing. You know, developing moves and creativity was not like nowadays that everything is there and you gotta just practice. Back then you had to think about moves. It was really hard.
Was the boom of Breaking all over Italy?
Yes, it was all over Italy. Everybody was trying, even the regular people. There were some nice B-Boys in Rome, Bologna, Florence, Padona, Mantova.. But the biggest scene was in Torino and Milano.
What was going on during that time?
There used to be many, many Zulu parties. In Italy the Zulu Nation was always there. Because Afrika Bambaataa came the first time to Italy in '84/'85. He used to tour with "Dolby D" from the London Allstar Breakers. And there were people from Paris City Breakers: Nicolas, Didier who is nowadays also known as Joey Starr of Supreme NTM. And there was another guy who formed later the music group Assassin. He was very famous at that time because he was the one who went to New York, you know. And at that time there were many parties and everybody was travelling from all over Italy. But there weren't really that much people in the south. It was more half Italy..the centre. After Rome there were some kids from Lecce in the south but that's it. And there used to be always battles. People always practiced, practiced, practiced, waited for the battle and showed up. Everybody was looking for each other. Always looking for the top guys. The three main crews always battled because they were the most notorious. They used to tour all over the place. They also got so many shows with sponsors like Adidas, Nike,... What happened then was that a lot of young kids, a lot of new groups wanted to try to get shows too and they used to sell out themselves because they weren't that good and at the level that they could get on stage and do shows. People in the clubs, owners of the clubs and promoters they never understood nothing about the real scene. So whatever for this people looked like B-Boys they would get them. But in the end the level came very, very down and nobody wanted to pay for the main people. And you know, if you get to a level that you get money and get gigs on TV you don't wanna go back, for free or for little money.
How did connections to other European dancers start?
Back then I used to be in this crew called Taxido Breaking and then later in Goes Down Rockers. These groups were one of the first that joined competitions. So, these competitions openend new connections with overseas people and other European countries. They signed me in a competition for joke because i didn't know anything. They said: "Come with us to a competition"..And I was like: "Why?". Anyway, I went there and I won the Italian Championship. So, I went to the World Championship in Istanbul (Turkey) in '85. And there were many, many dancers. Some dancers were very famous like Paulo Nunes from Holland, Brian from Manchester (UK) from the famous group called "Streetmachine". There was another guy that now uses to work with the famous music group "Soul 2 Soul": Benji from "Broken Glass". He is a very good Popper. There used to be Soulboy. He is still leaving in Italy. And that was the first time that I met Swift and Cora from Germany. Of course Crazy from Switzerland. And who else? I mean there were so many.. That was really the way for the connections.
And when was the first time that Italian dancers went to events in countries like Switzerland or Germany?
See, the main problem of Italy..Until for a while I was really the only one to go. There was nobody really there. I don't know why but everybody was just dancing in Italy. And the level was still like it was hard to develop and take it to the next level. Oh, I forgot there was Emilio... I forgot Emilio was there too!! Emilio was there too.. Until about '87 it was mainly Emilio and me. And in '88 I stopped doing competitions. Because at that time I started doing something else. In my town there was a DJ who was my best friend: DJ Graph. I used to go in his house and I used to start playing the music. And you know, you like to play the music, you love to do music. So, I bought turntables and started to collect records. And that's one thing that really helped me a lot on my dance to develop because I understood that the secret is the music. That is really the problem of a lot of people. They never really focus on the music. They just focus on the move.
What about the other elements of Hip Hop in Italy?
Everything started with the B-Boys and the DJs. There weren't so many. But there was DJ Graph. He went to Milano and met DJ Skizzo. Then they started touring and doing their thing. And there were 2 famous DJs from Rome: Ice One and Eolo. There was another famous DJ from Florence: Blade. And there was DJ Phillies from Torino. Milano and Torino were really the places where it was Hip Hop 360°. There were some Graffiti writers all over the place but it wasn't really that big. Painting on the wall and all that wasn't really that big. I don't know for whatever reason...I don't wanna talk about something that I really don't know. And the last thing that came out in Italy was Rap. I mean some B-Boys already were rapping a little bit like Shawn from Milano. He is an Italian-African kid. He was rapping in English. At that time everybody was rapping in English. Because nobody knew that you could express yourself in your own language. Because, you know, Rap is a barrier if you speak in another language. If you wanna communicate you gotta have to speak in your own language...anyway.. And in Torino there were some other guys back in the days like "Grasshopper". He was a writer. And there were a few B-Girls. There was "Carry D". She was a B-Girl. In Torino there used to be the best B-Girls of all Italy. There was this girl named "Alex". She was incredible! She was really incredible..She was one of the best Headspinner of Torino. Better than a lot of guys. Carry D used to do very nice Headspins too. Nice Footworks, nice tricks and stuff like that. And I wanna give props to this guy Soulboy. He was really the one who influenced a lot of people with his friends from Nottingham, like Pepsie. You know Pepsie? This is the the tall guy from Rock City Crew who is doing Headspin and this crazy style in "Electro Rock". Oh sorry, I have to even mention Topcat. This was another American kid raising in Italy. You know, another one that was there. And there was anot
_________________________________________________