January 10, 2024 • 56 mins
Paradise Gray continues some incredible storytelling in part 2 of his QLS interview. He speaks about moments at the Latin Quarter nightclub that shaped Hip Hop history, his years with the X-Clan, and his collection of artifacts surrounding the culture. Listeners will understand why they call Paradise The Architect, as his passion, groundwork, and love of Hip Hop run deep.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
What's Up QLs listeners, This is Sugar Steve. Thank you
for tuning in to part two of our interview with
Paradise Gray. Dice is a leading hip hop historian, a
member of the Ex Klan, and a true raconteur of
the culture. Before this, though, listen to part one, where
Paradise Gray discusses his Bronx upbringing his earliest hip hop memories,
and making his inroads to help making the Latin Quarter a.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Legendary nineteen eighties landmark for rap.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Take It Away, Team Supreme and Paradise Gray.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
All right, So the question I want to ask you
is what does this sound represent?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You ready?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yes? Goes? That's it by Sex and Sonic.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
What does it represent?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
That's the Latin Quarter, That was the Latin Quarter. Anthem that.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But explain to our listeners what happens when this comes
o see what does that mean? For?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
See that? And it used to start to you know,
it used to start go Brooklyn, Go Brooklyn, and it
was a signal for fifty cent and the Brooklyn Crew
that go wild starts snatching chains and going wild in
(01:24):
the club, which.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Leads to my next question, and I've We've had every
luminary of the Latin quarters from Special Led to like
literally everyone's come on the show and I asked them
the same thing, knowing the likelihood.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Of why did they play it?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
No, knowing the likelihood of something about to break out,
a punch, a snatch, chains, chaos. Why would you risk
your life for the love of hip hop? Why would
you risk your life for them?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Go there? Yes, because if you didn't go there, you
was a punk dude it to. First of all, the
Latin quarrier was all about location, location, location. It was
right in the middle of Times Square, bro Like, right
(02:18):
in the middle of forty eighth Street between Broadway and
Seventh Avenue.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Okay, this building is where the ball drops.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Right then you got a big empty space where they
fill up during New Year's Right then there was another
building that had the Coca Cola bottle on it. The
Latin coler was in that building. It was right in
the middle of Times Square, the busiest place in New
York City bar none. Right, But what was about Times Square?
(02:49):
Time Square was all about sex, drugs, and violence. The
American dream as American as apple and cherry pie. If
people don't understand nothing else. They understand sex, drugs, and violence.
Let me tell you what I did in Latin Quarters. Okay,
(03:10):
you have in one hour, you have more traffic passed
by our club than anywhere in the world.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Right, So I took advantage of that.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I used to advertise ladies free before eleven, right, and
then I would make the lady's line go slow as hell.
I would open the ladies line at ten to eleven,
so every male driving by Times square a line of
women going all the way around the block trying to
(03:42):
get in free.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
And then I cheated again.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I will walk that line, and all the most beautiful
women and all the women who had the least clothes on,
I would bring them to the front of the line.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's how it started.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I love this guy.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
So next week, every chick in that line looked like
Vanity six and everybody, I'm like, yo, I don't know
where you're going tonight, but I'm going there.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Who was your closest competition during this period between when's.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
The beginning racket eighty five? Really, they want to hear
some crazy stuff. The real run of Latin Quarters that
I had was eighty six to eighty eight two years.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
It was two and a half years. In two and
a half years.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That much impact incubated the golden era of hip hop.
It seemed like it was fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Thought it was seven to eight.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
No, there was the Africa Islam and other people would
do shows at Latin Quarters, but it was not a
hip hop club. The Latin Quarters were the first and
only legitimate hip hop dance club. Our competition that opened
a few months after US was Union Square. They had
(05:06):
Red Alert before I did well. Red work with me
a little bit, but he worked at Union Square. He
helped make that pop. But the difference was it was
fourteenth Street, which is close to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Curious, I'm curious what is the going rate to hire
Red Alert to be your Friday night DJ and how
long is he spending for.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Red Alert used to come directly off of the air
at Kiss on Friday night and go directly to the
Latin Quarter and he would DJ for maybe he would
get to the club around twelve midnight, like about fifteen
after twelve, and he would DJ as much as he won.
I had like four five house DJs that also dj there,
(05:51):
so whenever Red took a break, you know, the party
kept going. But I don't know if I want to divulge.
Red paid this time. It was this way, it was,
it was uh, it was the top of the game
for the time.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Okay, can you make a real living?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Can you make a four figure living for a high three?
Speaker 4 (06:13):
He ain't taking okay now, but he already had a
job at Kiss Radio, you know what I mean. He
was the top djai on the radio.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
We now live in the era where a Diplo or
Skrills makes two point five million, tell me about it, or.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
You know, in the case of Pretty Lights makes.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
We he'll make that every week.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well, yeah, Pretty.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Lights only spends ten times a year. He must meet
his price. He ain't coming so thus he meant to remember.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
We were struggling to exist back in these days. Remember
hip hop. We was being dish left and right, you
know by Elder Winford, Marsallis and James and two May
and Larry Blackman from Cameo. They were talking mad shit
about hip hop. They were haters. Yeah, but James and
(07:09):
Toomey wound up being one of my best friends because
my elder edwin Bird's song brought us together and I
had a few conversations with James, and he understood what
we were trying to do, and he started advising us
and supporting us. But the biggest supporter that saved hip
(07:29):
hop was none other than elder Harry Belafonte. Rest in
pe Smster.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Beach talk about it, educate real quick.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Harry Belafonte produced Beach Street when all the other elders
were shitting on us.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Radio stations had taglines.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Like no rap and they would play our instrumentals and
not play our vocals. They were totally dissing us. We're
not real musicians. We just steal their shit. You know,
we don't We don't sing. You know, what we do
(08:06):
is that dibbit when y'all gonna sing? You know.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Then we were so disrespected.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
What are your top five live performance moments at the
Latin Quarter?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Wow, that's hard. Top five, no particular rock, Sanne Chante,
biz Markie and Big Daddy came. Okay, and then later
Big Daddy came on his own a name my book,
No half stepping. Because Big Daddy came was the epitome
(08:41):
of the Latin Quarter. What was it about him? He
had everything? He had, the jewelry, he had, the haircut,
He had the look, the dance, the voice, the lyrical dexterity,
and he had Marley Maul's beats, unfunckiable. Big Daddy came
with nothing to mess with. You could not follow him
(09:04):
at Latin Quarters.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Did you know was he feared or respected? In other words,
if you're like watching the show, I'm assuming you're watching
from the booth or whatever, don't I don't even know
what the.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Put it. This way, car Ris won this everybody. He
dis the Juice Crew, but he did not this Big
Daddy came and Big Daddy Kane wrote some of Sean
Tay's This record against kr Ris one interesting. But it
was a Latin Quarter family. You know, they had become
family at the LQ. We didn't go against each other
(09:38):
at the LQ. It was like the only thing that
we don't have now that we had back then is
each other. If twenty artists got on stage and performed
that night, at the end of the day when the
club is closing, or twenty of those artists that perform
was still in the damn club. Nowadays you put five
(09:59):
artists after they performed, I mean they leave and take
their people that came to see them with them. Not
at LQ. We stayed from the time that club open
to the time it closed. Sometimes we closed eight nine
in the morning. You know what I'm saying. And you
(10:21):
know it's still be deep in the club. Whenever we
close the door, we will lock the door at five.
Ain't nobody else getting in. But if you already in there, man,
the owner already bounced to let's keep the party going.
It's not.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Now I'm you know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
In the nineties and especially in the arts, like, I
don't know of any club night existence without the fire
marshal coming in to shut it down. You know, the
inspector coming to see you. Guys never had those problems whatsoever. No,
they didn't know that even they didn't know you guys existed.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Or oh they knew we existed. You run in the
middle of a time square. You couldn't help but notice us,
you know. Uh, well, we had plenty of police on
our payroll. We had six undercover cops as security, and
a whole bunch more. And we had Mike Goldberg. It
(11:19):
was such a brilliant business man. I loved that dude.
And he gave a nineteen year old the keys to
the club. Bro. Can you imagine you were nineteen at
the time. I was nineteen years old when I saw
running the Latin.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Did you have any experience whatsoever in terms of negotiating
or any of those things.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Yeah, I used to I used to be a street DJ.
I was a hustler. I'm from Highbridge. You know what
I'm saying. I was a pool shark, but Latin But
I was hanging out way before Latin Quarter. I was
learning from South Abatilla at the disco Fever. I'm watching him,
you know what I'm saying. I'm talking to Jungbug and
(11:58):
Courtges blowing all of them. Learning from Russell Simmons. You know,
I'm working with Russell Simmons, Rush Productions and Depth dam
and since nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
You know, I'm in the studio with run dmc, Curtis,
blow Ll cool J.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
I'm watching all of these things get created, and I'm
learning every step of the way. I had Pete DJ
Jones who owned a bar one block from my crib.
I'm learning from him. When I'm seven eight years old,
I'm twelve years old. I'm DJing in the bar.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So what's can.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
You tell me what the general modus operandi or just
the general operation.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Of what it takes to keep.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That operation going on your nights, in terms of what
you're doing from Saturday to Thursday night. Like flyers calls
managers money.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I never dealt with managers. I never dealt with promoters.
I never dealt with booking agents. All of the artists
hang out with me before Latin Quarters. I was like
the hip hop concierge.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Of New York. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
On a Friday Saturday night, I'm hanging with Curtis Blow,
Orange Juice, Jones, Run, DMC, the Fat Boys, Houdani. All
these people are calling me, yo, dice, where the party at.
I'd be like, hold on, let me see, Oh, tonight
is popping at the funhouse. I'll go to the club early,
let them know who I got coming later and when
(13:38):
they could you.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Go to other bars and lure them.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So there was no like calling Carol Lewis or nah nah.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
We didn't do none of that. We dealt directly with
the artists. They didn't have to pay no manager, they
didn't have to pay no booking agent. And like you're
already hanging out at the club right you drinking? You
got a girl, you want to go to the hotel,
you roll up a yo dice, but you put me on.
I'd be like all right, And it was just like yeah,
(14:06):
I go to Mike Goldberger and say your Mike just
dice on the rock.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
It's like cool. I was like, let's let's give him
eight hundred.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
He'd be like, Okay, no hotel, no limo, He's right here,
right now here, go ahead. So we didn't really even
have to book artists. They already was in the club,
you know, and then you you couldn't touch us. You
show up Friday, on Saturday, Mike Tyson's hanging out, Bobby
Brown's in there hanging out. Cosmic kids out in there
(14:39):
hanging out. Yeah, you know, Chris Rock's in there hanging out,
you know, and every major and independent artist in New
York is there. There was no place else to be. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
I think on this show Paradise, you should know that.
I think where were we at twenty guests? At least
twenty guests on this podcast alone. If told Latin quarter stories,
and most of those people that you've already named.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Mm hmm, I got one that you haven't spoken to.
Who was who was the coach, check girl, heaven.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
She might get start.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
We were like what you lived in the Latin She
literally lived in.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
The Latin Quarter, and she she was homeless, and she
used to sneak in the club, but I just didn't
let her in anyway. And here's something that most people
didn't know at the time.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
She was homeless.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
She was in an art program in the village for
homeless youth. And her teacher and mentor was Keith Haring.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
What and to this day what Heather's art.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yes, it's better than Keith having dude.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Her her entire apartment is just like a bunch of sculptures,
a photographer I didn't even.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Know her, and a painter, and her paintings you could
tell they have keep having influence, but they just so
more alive and compelling.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Her apartments.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Standing there at a museum, y'all done. But ye, murals
and sculptures and all those things.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
And you had no idea fast forward that what she
was going to evolve into in the I.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Had a little bit of a clue.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
She was going to coach.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
I wanted to ask you about X clam Man and like,
how y'all.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Formed at Latin courts? Really brother J and professor, you.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Guys are regular dressing cats, and then you're here.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I would never know regular dressing dude, flip through that book.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I'm looking you guys went through a street where that
morphed into shad a cover.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yes that's me. Then I know this.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Then morton to me, but yeah, I do, I do
want to know. Yeah, now you're in your sma, which
is which is awesome. Yeah, but how did the band formed?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I was working at the Latin Quarter and Lamomba Professor
x Overseer aka Lamomba Carson. He called Heidi Smith from
Rush Productions earlier in the day and he asked her
if he could get some of their groups to perform
at a fundraiser for anti drug concert in Brooklyn, and
(17:35):
she was like.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
No, we don't do that kind of thing, you know.
He's like really, She was like.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Yeah, you need to find artists who are more young
and independent, you know, because our artists do concert series
and we don't do charity like that. So she said,
I'll tell you what. Go to Latin Quarters and and
see paradise. He knows all the new artists and he'll
(18:00):
probably be able to help you put a show together.
She called me put him on the guest list, and
he showed up one day and I let him in free,
and he wound up becoming my partner because he talked
to me. He saw the energy that we had at
the club, and I helped him do event in Prospect Park, Brooklyn,
(18:21):
and I brought half the artists from the Latin Quarter
to the park, including Statsasonic, Ultra Magnetic Boogie Down production.
It was crazy. We had like forty fifty thousand people
show up in the park, no violence, and we tore
it down and raised a whole bunch of money for
the anti crack organization that we was working with.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
And from that moment, he was like paradise.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
If we could bring this youthful energy to my father's movement,
we could change everything. And I was like, yeah, whatever,
We're gonna make money, I hope, so I'm like cool.
So he took me to the Slave Theater and on
(19:09):
Fulton Street in bed Star and Al Sharpton, Reverend Al
Sharpton used to own that theater and do rallies there.
So today I went to meet his father Sonny Carson.
They were doing a rally there and I walked through
the door and I thought I had stepped into a
time machine or a Saturday Night Live skip because all
(19:33):
the elders was in there. They had big silver afros
and they was wearing Dashiki's and here I am. I
got hazel contact lendsers, Jemmy curl diamond rings. I got
a fur coat on, a Louis Baton tam, a Louis
Baton sweater, you know what I mean. I had some
(19:54):
brown shark skin soup pants, you know. So I go
in there and I'm looking at them like they was
in costumes. I'm all costumed out myself right. The mom
what takes me over to introduce me to his father.
He says, a brother, Sonny, this is my homeboy, Paradise
I was telling you about. Sonny stares at me without
(20:20):
saying nothing, looks me in my eyes, and he looks
follows down head to toe, and then he looks at
me and says, what kind of name is Paradise for
a nigga? I said, well, actually, it's not a name.
(20:40):
It's an invocation of my goals. I'm trying to achieve
Paradise in my life. So every time someone says that name,
it reminds me of my goals. He's smiled, did a
deep lad. He said, Oh, you're a smart nigga too.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Huh.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I'll tell you what. You see that door that you
walked in. If I was you, I'd walk out that
door fast as I came in here, because if you
stick around here, we're gonna mess up everything you think,
you know. I was like really, He was like yeah.
I was like, I think I'll stick around for a minute.
And he smiled at me and gave me the deep
(21:22):
belly laugh. Sonny Carson had moved Fossa's voice. You know
what I'm saying. When Sonny speak, you know the police
and anybody else do that.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Sonny Carson was no joke. Baby, my elder.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I literally didn't know that that was his his son
Now makes sense, Yeah, Sonny Carson, Lamumba Carson.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
Was he right about what your life and how you
should have walked out?
Speaker 4 (21:48):
It had changed? Hell? Yeah? And the beautiful thing about
it is him or the elders never mentioned my hazel contacts.
They never mentioned my gold and diamonds and the flamboyant
way I dressed. They just responded to my intelligence and
my promotion and marketing skills, and they just taught me
(22:10):
who I was, so I got rid of the costume
on my own. I didn't need it anymore.
Speaker 7 (22:17):
How did brother Jay? He was just one of my
favorite MC's man and he had just that voice. Yeah,
working on the first album, man, Like, how how did
that come about?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Sugar Chef used to be one of the violators. Oh okay.
He used to hang with Chris Lighty and them dudes
were Read Alert and he was one of the guys
that would carry Red crates and records from the radio
station to the Latin Quarter. One day, you know, he
was on the subway, the two train going to Brooklyn.
I was on the same train. We got off the
(22:51):
train at the same stop. We looked at each other.
I was like, yeah, where you live? He said, I
live right around the corner. I said, yeah, I live
right here. So he stopped going there in quartered with
Red Alerts riding with me, and we became really good friends.
And he kept telling me about his homeboy brother Jay,
who was really good as a rapper and all this,
and that I really wasn't working with artists on that
(23:13):
level anymore, developing them, but him and Sugar Sad was
like seventeen years old, and I kind of let them
hang with me.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wait he was seventeen with that voice, brother Jay motherfuckers
sounded like my dad wrote.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
To the East black Wood was when he was seventeen
years old and spit it when he was eighteen. How
about that?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (23:34):
So when people make excuses and say, oh, dudes are young,
and I no.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
But that's like with x Claan.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
To me, I just looked at him like, oh, okay,
forty old pay y'all just looked like y'all looked like
my cool ass uncles.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Professor X was probably your cool last uncle, you know
what I mean? He was folder than.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I didn't think I was older than one of y'all.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Damn brother to the definitely brother Jane sugar Shaft from
my Little Brothers.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Since you mentioned it now, one of our most infamous
Latin quarter guests, sir mc search you still searching for.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
That guy where you go right right?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
All right?
Speaker 1 (24:23):
But wait wait, but no, no, no, But this also
involves Pete as well, because it just hit me when
I brought the EP, the Cactus EP three strikes five thousand,
was there were some shots fired at the X Clan
organization and then of course I forget the song the
(24:45):
song where you guys start with pop goes the weasel?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
What was the.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Unspoken, indirect, non passive aggressive shots fired between those clans?
And I guess also if you want.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
To add it between love and hey.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
But also today when I was listening to sex and Violence,
there was some satisfied there too, like so wait, what
happened between.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
When I first met Prime Minister Pete Nice. He was
seventeen years old and he was going to Boys and
Girls High School and he was managed by a gentleman
named Robert Lamumba Carson Professor X before X clan really
(25:31):
and he was in a group called sin Quinn and right.
And then once Professor X met me, now he had
access to care as one big daddy came just Nice.
He neglected the groups he already was managing, right, which
Pete Nice was one of them. So MC search was
(25:53):
hanging at the Latin Quarter with me and Pete Nice
came to the Latin Quarter with Professor X. So Pete
got frustrated because they didn't get any run or no focus.
So Pete went to the moment and said, hey, deaf
jam is interested in signing me if you're not gonna
do nothing with me? Could you release me? And Professor
(26:15):
X laughed him out the door and released him Death
Jam's gonna sign you Ah, and Russell pulled the Beastie
Boys two point zero. He took two independent artists that
they were interested in and created Third Base. And Search
was a cool dude, but he exaggerated a lot, and
(26:40):
he was very popular at Latin Quarter okay, but he
was not popular at Latin Quarter for rapping. He got
popular at Latin no Oh as a joke. I used
to host the shows, me and Read Alert and Bismarck.
It would snap on each other, the warm the crowd up.
And there was this real fat six foot three dudes
(27:02):
in the crowd that called him heavy right. This dude
was like butter and ice on the dance floor. He
was so big, but he was so smooth, and so
I would always pull him up on the stage to
warm the crowd up. And while he would dance, run
Alert would play some joints and I'd be like, go
(27:25):
fat boy, go fat Boy, and the whole crowd be screaming,
go fat Boy, go fat Boy, and MC Search game
running can I go? I was like, oh God, here
we go because mc search thought he could dance, but
he had two left feet. He was cool with us.
We liked him. He was our dude. He was a
(27:46):
great guy, but he could not dance. He would dance,
don't know. He would try and we.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Would okay, with two left feet.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I'm trying. I'm trying to be Switzerland here.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
I mean, I'm working on.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
And I got love for Peter.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Corn was where brothers was dancing in that club. Dude,
you're not their level period ever. So he would run
on stage and Red would play dudey James and I
would go gold, white boy, Gold white Boy go in.
The crowd would go crazy, and they loved him.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Novel to see the white guy with rhythm. He took
advantage of that, right I.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
See, greatly. But then as he became third base, he
seemed like he was trying to be a brother and
he was going too.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Far with it as far as we was concerned.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Like when the camera zoomed up to the back of
his head and he turned around like it's the other man,
it was like, what what did you talking about? Dude?
Like what are you doing? You know?
Speaker 5 (28:56):
So he was an ultimate.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Culture vulture, but he was accepted because he hung out
with us and we accepted him hanging with us, you know,
then he did the group would wound up being our
good friend m F. Doom and the logo was a
coon face and we didn't like that. KMD. Yeah, yeah,
you know what I'm saying. So it was it was
(29:19):
a lot of cultural problem that we was having problems with.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Amir mentioned the Hip Hop Museum in his roll call.
I just wanted to touch on that a little bit
for our listeners who may not know what's going on.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Wait, I'll get there eventually, right, he still want to
get to the part where Kenny Parker just did it.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Right, I'll get there.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Wait, you also didn't name the other four performers at
the Latin Quarter. I was I'm starting not hoping to
get the story of Melle Mail and the push ups
or the sit ups.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Melly Mail was the debo of the Latin Quarter. He
was the filter. That's what I called him. If you
got on stage and you was whag. Mellie Mail was Sandman,
really self appointed Sandman. Him and Busy B were the
most arrogant dudes ever. They were coming the club throwing
(30:13):
elbows at dudes. Get out the way, get out the way.
The champions here, the champions here. Ain't none of y'all
getting no money tonight, and y'all ain't getting no puts
he tonight. The champs is here, and you be on
stage rocking. All of a sudden, you hit the crowd
going crazy. You're like, oh, I'm doing it tonight. And
(30:34):
then you take a look to the sign and Mellie
mel standing there with his shirt off, Muscle Simmons in
his full glory. Then he started doing push ups real
quick while you're.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Trying to do a show.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
You like, So he's working out on the side of
the stage, you know, on the stage.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
He's on the stage with you now doing.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Are you allowed to name some of the artists that
he disrespected, who remembers them?
Speaker 4 (31:07):
So?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Were there some artists that performed him again?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
They disappeared? He sure him all right, you know, he
jumped on his feet, snatched the mic and say red alert,
put on some real hip hop. I'm tired of this bullshit.
And then he would rock the house.
Speaker 6 (31:25):
And never cause a fight. Nobody ever wanted to fight
him after they I'm just.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So mused.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
It was only a couple of dudes that had the
balls or the size to deal with Melly Mel Justice
and King's son. They can handle him physically, but ain't
nobody wanted to try that. Plus he's the goat this
Grandma's and Melly mal a child is born. Damn you
ain't got no wins there until one day Belly Mel
(31:57):
jumped on the stage with that bragg of dose. I
got five hundred dollars. Anybody in here wanted come get
it right now?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Oh y'all.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
He's looking at run DMC and LL and all of
them like and then you heard the crowd go crazy,
and you look and krs one was standing there like this, Okay, now,
it already was some friction between the last generation and
the new generation. The first shots across the bow that
(32:27):
was successful was none other than LL cool J. LL
was not having it Coolmo d iced tea whoever. He
was not intimidated. And if you went at LL, he
coming back at you. The first shots across the old
school bow was by LL cool J. So he got
(32:48):
it right here. It was right here, and it was bubbling,
and then kr us one dropped the nail in the coffin.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
What happened that night like, can you describe, well, was
it a song? Was n how the battle?
Speaker 4 (33:02):
I handed car us One the mic and krus One
did a freestyle. First, he did this everybody in the
club that he had beef with. He did about four
people before going that Mail Rock, sand Sean tay Uh.
He went at mc shan. Of course, coogi rap even
(33:27):
you know, I am a professional.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
This is not a demo, Chris do a bunch of
shots to grow.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Oh no, I didn't even catch that. I am a professor.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
This is not it's a demo. It's a demos. It's
the demos.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I'm just catching that, see what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So Chris was already set up to be that next
dude because he had just smashed sh which was difficult
to do because Sham was as popular as LL back
in the day. Sha was not no easy noth to crack,
you know what I'm saying. Sham was highly respected. And
so Carrius One did a freestyle. He went at Mail
(34:04):
and then he said, hey, yo, who won this battle
and dropped the mic and the crowd went crazy and
Melly mal he was so angry. The crowd was like
going for Carris One, and he didn't even rhyme yet
he start jumping up and down. It's not fair. I
didn't get to go yet. I didn't get to go.
I said, come on, y'all, this is melly Mao. You
gotta least let the man spit. Mellie mal dug in
(34:29):
that brilliant brain of his and came out with one
of the dopest rhymes I ever heard. He was talking
about spaceships and battling aliens and molecules and scientific facts,
and he killed it. But the crowd was like no manoo,
and some people cheered him. But Carris won won to day,
(34:53):
and from that day on things started changing. You know,
Big Daddy Cane got really ridiculous in there, rock him
came out of nowhere on them. Check out my melody.
You know, Eric beat for President Red Alert, banging that
like over and over. It was a new day.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Well, okay, so what are the other three that you
can name?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (35:21):
Other three that got dissed by Meloy man.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
The other three like life changing performances that happened at the.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Big Daddy came, man. Big Daddy came when he first
came out with school and scrap. He changed the game. Bro.
It was just I mean heavy dn of boys whoa
when they rock miss the big stuff at Latin Quarters
forget about it. Really yeah, man, that's so Sonic performed
(35:48):
with my man Bobby Simmons with the live drum.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
That was crazy.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
I mean, it was just so many amazing, amazing performances,
especially you know EPMD Bro. Oh my god. They used
to tear the Latin Quarters down, and then out of
nowhere came the native tongues. The tribe called Quest, the
Jungle Brothers, Daylon Soul. So that could fly Onny Love
(36:17):
it was born there.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Okay, I'm only asking that because it seems to me
that the Latin Quarter seems more hard of me no ob.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Dapper dan variety.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And then suddenly here comes like no backpackers. Yeah, like
I would figure like they were the nerves and duebs of.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
So they were walcome with yeah, because they were already
people who hung out at the Latin Quarters. Ninety percent
of the artist that broke in Latin Quarters was always
in the crowd. Kid and play was in the crowd
at Latin Quarters. Their name was the Fresh Force Kid,
Cool Out and Playboy, and they had a song called
(36:59):
off a rock I'm a deis see.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
I was gonna say, please don't say I'm.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
The They sampled rocked me and then a song off
of rock Me a'madas and they had another song called
She's a Skeezer that.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Song which is what I did this.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Posts told me about that, okay, with the same beat
for three days later.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Yeah. But then they saw the I O U and
the JAC dances. They changed their head sounds, they changed
the way that they dress, and somehow the dance that
was being done at the Latin Quarters became the Kiddhn't
play kickstep.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
So all those dances were born there. We're talking about
like the Steve Martin, the Mark.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Top Oh my god, dude used to kill when he performed.
You know who else killed at lag Quarters, Schoolly d Yes.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
And remember this was New jack City, New York, Okay.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
You know this was around the time of Larry Davis
and the Central Park five and Useph Hawkins murder. So
there was a tension in the young black people at
the time also, and we were angry at a lot.
You know, parth I was going on. Nelson Mandela was
still in jail. You know what I'm saying, so there
(38:25):
was a consciousness that took over the club because it's
Zulu Nation and the beginnings of the Black Watch movement
and the five Percent Nation was heavy in the club.
So we was all about the fifth element, knowledge, wisdom
and understanding at the same time we was creating this music.
(38:46):
So that is official.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
I was wondering when you look up hip hop sometimes, Okay,
the fifth element is knowledge, wisdom and understanding. All right,
I feel like it came much later, can.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
You all right?
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Since the the sound system was ungodly?
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
What did you guys think when y'all first heard Rebel
without a pause?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Because I heard it two in.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
The morning on a radio with the volume down, and
of course, like you know, I'm talking about clock radio.
I can't imagine what it is to hear this teakettle
noise of Public Enemy.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
That song saved Public Enemies career because Public Enemy got
booed off the stage at Latin Quarters and their first show,
Grand Master and Mellie Mail.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
He was on the side doing push ups.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
No, he couldn't get to the stage, but he was
in the crowd heckling him the whole time. That shit
ain't hip hop. They on stage with oozies and shit,
were trying to stop the violence. What is this, Russell Simmons,
you need to sign grand Master flies in the previous
five putting all this bullshit on stage, I had to
(39:57):
I had to literally pull Melly Mal off the dance
floor and explain to him what the s one w's
were and why they had the plastic oozies. But then
they came later with Rebel without a pause, and guess
what it was a hip hop dance classic. You put
(40:20):
that record on the IOU and the jay Z dances
break their.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
Necks in the club off it.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
And that inspired Chuck to step up the tempo and
he realized, as you get up there.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And dance at the LQ right right right, I get it.
I see it now, I see it now, I see
it now. So the next question I want to know
is why did it end so early?
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Monday? Location? Location? Location? It was sitting on that property
that was way too valuable for them to keep just
letting us little niggats. Have ain't black club there since
exactly they built the hotel, which one isnaissance we.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Used to stay there.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Wow? Okay, yep, the Union Square club had closed, so
all the crazy ass Brooklyn niggas ain't have nowhere to
hang out no more. So they came uptown to the
Latin Quarters and they turned the Latin Quarters into the
Okay carraal.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
All right, so it was the myth of Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Real, I e Like, we just want to party and
here come Brooklyn wounding out again.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Hell yeah, that sh it was true because it wasn't
just ghost Steps to that set them off. That was
the second song. There was another song that was more
of a trigger than.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
That, which was Brooklyn's than the House by d C Dclyn.
So any Brooklyn song is just going to trigger.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
It's fifty cent and the Supreme Team and the Hollis
Crew and the whole powder keg of different.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
So they were all paid.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
They get in yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yoke and still change and no.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Well at first, I mean it took a while because
fifty would come to me, he respected me, and I
would let them in free, give him drink to get
treat him like they were stars too.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
He explaining who fifty was. And now we're not talking
about Curtis Jackson.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
No, he was a little gangster ass Doug from Brooklyn,
who was one of the original knuckleheads that you just
he had no respect for nobody, not even himself, and
he would come to the club with two guns and
a bulletpoof vest on. I would let him keep all
let him in. I would look put it this way, okay, right,
(42:49):
if you let him in, he could control the other
ones that's lesser than him. So instead of going wild,
now they had something to lose. Now they had status,
and now they wouldn't just run up on somebody and
rob them. They would come to me first and be like, yo, dice,
is that your man? I'd be like, yeah, damn man
(43:10):
told me, can't be coming up in here like that
man organized.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Crime and that would be ok what would they walking
target look like? Ll WOJ tell me the story jam
Master J. I heard that story about dragging on the floor,
but he held onto the chain I heard.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
Now he didn't drag the floor. His chain is solid.
They don't have no clasp. Jam Aster J had the
best chain in hip hop.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
But wasn't like royalty, like untouchable or is it like
we got to test.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Your Jay had the Holly's Crew with him, Hurricane in
about twenty twenty five other ones. So it was the
first time it was an even match, Dude fifty tried
to snatch Jay's chain. It don't pop.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
Jay went with the chain.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
And J is no slouch right right. I went out
and pulled J out of the melee and he literally
fought me. And when I looked in his face, he said, Yo, dice,
my people was out there. I let him go. He
went right back out there. You know who am I
(44:19):
out to tell him? You know what I mean? But uh, yeah,
jam Master J. Let me say something about him. He
was the most humble and wonderful human being ever. You know,
you go to the club. J would be at a club,
no security, no homeboys.
Speaker 5 (44:38):
He'd be out on tour.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
You find jam Master J with a forty in the
hood in the projects, four o'clock in the morning, smoking
and drinking and telling stories and jokes with dudes he
don't even know. And he had the total hood pass
because he was Jammaster J. He was that dope. Yeah,
he taught me how to act once I became popular.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Can we talk about the Hip Hop Museum?
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (45:05):
See? Yeah, Now I'm told that you were collecting artifacts
and whatnot since seventy.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Nine, seventy eight.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Okay, so yeah, how did you know, I was a kid.
How did you know instantly?
Speaker 4 (45:20):
I shouldn't know instant. My brother Michael Michael Green coach Green.
He was a baseball and football coach at de Wick
Clinton High School in the Bronx, and my brother was
four years older than me, and he did everything to
influence me. I didn't respect or understand my brother when
I was young because he wasn't a fighter. I had
(45:41):
to fight every day. But as I got older, everything
I do and everything I know really came from my brother.
A photographer, a writer, an artist, and illustrator. But most importantly,
he collected stamps and coins. I wasn't into that. I
get out of here with that. Then he started collecting
(46:01):
baseball cards, football cards, and comic books. That's when I
lost my mind, you know, because I was an avid
reader and comic book collectors and comic book readers. It's
like oil and water. We really didn't met. So I
start collecting my own comics. And then here comes hip
hop flyers, grand Master Flash who DJ hurt the Herk Lords?
(46:27):
You know, grand was it Theodore? It was like walking
Marvel heroes in my hood who were doing those flyers?
Buddy Esquire a whole bunch of good Phase two, but
he Esquire and Phase two were the two most popular ones.
But there was a whole host of people making flyers
(46:47):
back then, and they were beautiful. When the hip hop
universe was like the Marvel and DC universe to me,
you know, so they would have cartoon characters. I got
a fly with Iron Man on it, one with Spider
Man on it, one with Muhammed Aldi on it, you know,
fly girls and nice calls. It was amazing to me.
(47:10):
So I kept them and me and my homeboy kids Zeep,
we started trading with each other and it just became
a thing in my hood that we would collect hip
hop flyers. And later on it became everything with hip
hop on it, Yo, MTV rap cards, you know what
(47:31):
I'm saying, magazines, Yo, rap masters, the Sowres, Double Excel,
if it had anything about hip hop. I was hip
hop's biggest fan. I wanted So were you just naturally.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
A pop culture junkie that just you know part like
I'm collecting stuff now, I don't know why I'm collecting it.
I'm not saying to myself like, Okay, one day I'm
gonna have a museum. But like now, I mean I'm
going hard on. I went hard on on Hrk's auction.
(48:06):
Now we're seeing the auction stuff. Yeah, so I'm like,
I'm doing it. I guess I figure, like, Okay, maybe
when I'm sixty or seventies, I'll have these artifacts to
pass on to a museum or that sort of.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Thing in your mind.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Are you saying, like, one day I'm going to open
up the hip hop museum and I'm having these artifacts there.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
No, I didn't even consider that. I just knew what
I liked and I loved, and I just catered to myself.
I loved myself, so I tried to surround myself with
beautiful things and things that make me feel good. I
was a little ashy, skin nappy headed, dark skinned kid
(48:49):
in the South Bronx with holes in the bottom of
my shoe, and hip hop gave me my self esteem.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
How do you preserve everything through the years, with all
the floods and robberies and everything that everybody goes through
with moving one hundred times.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
I never had a flood, I never got robbed.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
My dad still live in the same apartment that we
lived in since nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Wow, there's the answer.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
There right there. Yeah, yeah, okay, we had stability. So
let me know what closet space.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Okay, now I'm really asked the question that I always asks.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
You know, one answers. Yeah, You're given.
Speaker 4 (49:29):
One minute.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
To grab three artifacts and the rest you'll never see again.
What three things are you grabbing?
Speaker 4 (49:42):
My original crown that I created, the first crown of
x Crime. My wooden stick that I carved with a
lion's face in the middle of a morph between the
lion and the man.
Speaker 5 (49:58):
That staff is called the iron in lion Zion.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Yes, yes, you carved too.
Speaker 4 (50:05):
Yeah. Yeah, that's why they called me the architect, baby architect,
you know, yeah, did.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
You have dreams to be an actual architect?
Speaker 4 (50:16):
In term I went to Brooklyn Tech to be an architect,
and I dropped out in the tenth grade because I
couldn't go through high school with holes in my ship
like I did junior high. My parents are from the South.
My dad, I told him what I wanted and he said, hey.
He walked me to the front door and said, everything
you want right outside this door. Everything you need, I
got it in here. Go get what you want. So
(50:38):
I said, okay, I'm gonna go get it. I went,
and I dropped out of high school, and within two
years I was making more money than my mother and
my father combined legally.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Where are your parents from?
Speaker 4 (50:49):
North Carolina? What city? I was born in a little
town called Washington, North Carolina. Washington.
Speaker 7 (50:58):
Yeah, I grew up in I lived all over over
Fatteville of red s Range, Robinson County. Grew up in Greensboro,
living Raleigh. But nah, man, that's that's so dope.
Speaker 4 (51:08):
I'm home from. So. I was born in nineteen sixty
four in North Carolina Freedom Summer, and my mother decided
when I was four years old that she didn't want
me and my brother and sister to grow up picking
cotton and tobacco. So she followed her sister, Helen my aunt,
to Harlem, and she stayed in Harlem with my aunt
(51:29):
and sent me and my brother and sister to live
in the Bronxdale Projects with my aunt's daughter, her niece,
Susie Davis, and my little cousin who lived with us
in Disco King Mario's building. His name is Aaron Davis.
He wound up becoming a welterweight champion of the world.
Aaron Superman Davis and he knocked Mark Brelan out to
(51:52):
take the belt.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
No, you're a sports expert.
Speaker 4 (51:56):
Well, I love hip hop and sports. I think hip
hop was a sport us too.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
It is you know, surviving it is key. Well you
didn't name the third thing, the third artifact that you
were saying.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah, that first Flyer was the first time hip hop's
mentioned on It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
Yeah, but there's more important things.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
Yeah, okay, well record record things that I own or
I mean like treasures.
Speaker 5 (52:25):
I mean, dude, I have so much in my collection.
Speaker 4 (52:33):
I'm not Bismarck status with my collection, but the hip
hop part of my collection bigger than business hip hop collection.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
See, he's the one that got me in. When I
saw business stuff, I was like, Oh, this is what
I want to do. Spend my money. You got to
spend your money on something. So that's the thing. Artifact historical,
artifact wise, what do you have? Jeff just shared with
me that he has the records from Grandmaster Grandmaster Flash
(53:03):
used in Wild Style Sope.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
I still have a bunch of my original creates that
I DJ with since the seventies in the Bronx. I
still have my original vinyl, all my breakbeats.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (53:16):
You know I have the big red, black and green
flag that X Clan used to perform with and that
we used to march in the streets of Brooklyn with
Sonny Carson with. You know, I have a cutout of
the Nile's pharrowhead.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
From I Am Oh, yeah, I am record.
Speaker 4 (53:37):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I have the cutout of master P.
You know, I've got the master P doll that go.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
Right.
Speaker 5 (53:48):
You know, I got so much artifacts, bro.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
I do want to know when do you feel as
though the museum will have its grand.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
Opening fourth quarter for first quarter twenty twenty five in
the location right where it is, right in the Boogie
down Bronx one hundred and forty ninth Street and Bronx
Point Baby, right on the Harlem River.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
Well, brother, this this has been long overdue. Yeah, thank you,
thank you for sharing.
Speaker 4 (54:18):
We didn't have more time, and you know, I didn't
really get to tell you a new stories. But it's
all good.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
No, this is this is beautiful and we thank you
for coming on the show. So we have a fontiicolo
on paper bill Sugar Steve and like, yeah, this is
quest Love is a great paradise. Gray, Yeah, support hip
hop culture, collect your artifacts, don't dispose of things that
you don't know will be you know, well man's trash,
that next man's treasure.
Speaker 4 (54:44):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Telling the history, yes, and share stories and build.
Speaker 4 (54:49):
In the history. Because while it's good that we celebrated
their fiftieth anniversary of hip hop make history. Now it's
our time to plot the next fifty years of hip hop.
There you go, and to support young artists with the
real support that we need to give them. And we
need to stop being the old man sitting on the
(55:09):
porch telling them to get off our laan. Hip Hop
was created by children and children will always rule hip hop.
So if you owe and you feel like, oh I
can't understand what they're saying, well maybe they're not talking
to your ass.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
Oh and there it is, ladies.
Speaker 3 (55:26):
All right, we'll see all next cover.
Speaker 4 (55:31):
This is Sugar Steve.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. This podcast
is hosted by a mere Quest of Thompson, Liah Saint
Clair Fonte Coleman, Sugar Steve Mandel, and Unpaid Bill Sherman.
The executive producers are a mere Quest of Thompson, Sean
g and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittey, Benjamin, Jake Payne,
and Liah Saint Clair. Edited by Alex Conrod. Produced for
(55:55):
iHeart by Noel Brown and Mike Johns. Audio engineering by
Graham Gibson at Iheart's La studio.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
Bost Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
What's Up QLs listeners, This is Sugar Steve. Thank you
for tuning in to part two of our interview with
Paradise Gray. Dice is a leading hip hop historian, a
member of the Ex Klan, and a true raconteur of
the culture. Before this, though, listen to part one, where
Paradise Gray discusses his Bronx upbringing his earliest hip hop memories,
and making his inroads to help making the Latin Quarter a.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Legendary nineteen eighties landmark for rap.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Take It Away, Team Supreme and Paradise Gray.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
All right, So the question I want to ask you
is what does this sound represent?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You ready?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yes? Goes? That's it by Sex and Sonic.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
What does it represent?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
That's the Latin Quarter, That was the Latin Quarter. Anthem that.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But explain to our listeners what happens when this comes
o see what does that mean? For?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
See that? And it used to start to you know,
it used to start go Brooklyn, Go Brooklyn, and it
was a signal for fifty cent and the Brooklyn Crew
that go wild starts snatching chains and going wild in
(01:24):
the club, which.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Leads to my next question, and I've We've had every
luminary of the Latin quarters from Special Led to like
literally everyone's come on the show and I asked them
the same thing, knowing the likelihood.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Of why did they play it?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
No, knowing the likelihood of something about to break out,
a punch, a snatch, chains, chaos. Why would you risk
your life for the love of hip hop? Why would
you risk your life for them?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Go there? Yes, because if you didn't go there, you
was a punk dude it to. First of all, the
Latin quarrier was all about location, location, location. It was
right in the middle of Times Square, bro Like, right
(02:18):
in the middle of forty eighth Street between Broadway and
Seventh Avenue.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Okay, this building is where the ball drops.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Right then you got a big empty space where they
fill up during New Year's Right then there was another
building that had the Coca Cola bottle on it. The
Latin coler was in that building. It was right in
the middle of Times Square, the busiest place in New
York City bar none. Right, But what was about Times Square?
(02:49):
Time Square was all about sex, drugs, and violence. The
American dream as American as apple and cherry pie. If
people don't understand nothing else. They understand sex, drugs, and violence.
Let me tell you what I did in Latin Quarters. Okay,
(03:10):
you have in one hour, you have more traffic passed
by our club than anywhere in the world.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Right, So I took advantage of that.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I used to advertise ladies free before eleven, right, and
then I would make the lady's line go slow as hell.
I would open the ladies line at ten to eleven,
so every male driving by Times square a line of
women going all the way around the block trying to
(03:42):
get in free.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
And then I cheated again.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I will walk that line, and all the most beautiful
women and all the women who had the least clothes on,
I would bring them to the front of the line.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's how it started.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I love this guy.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
So next week, every chick in that line looked like
Vanity six and everybody, I'm like, yo, I don't know
where you're going tonight, but I'm going there.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Who was your closest competition during this period between when's.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
The beginning racket eighty five? Really, they want to hear
some crazy stuff. The real run of Latin Quarters that
I had was eighty six to eighty eight two years.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
It was two and a half years. In two and
a half years.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That much impact incubated the golden era of hip hop.
It seemed like it was fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Thought it was seven to eight.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
No, there was the Africa Islam and other people would
do shows at Latin Quarters, but it was not a
hip hop club. The Latin Quarters were the first and
only legitimate hip hop dance club. Our competition that opened
a few months after US was Union Square. They had
(05:06):
Red Alert before I did well. Red work with me
a little bit, but he worked at Union Square. He
helped make that pop. But the difference was it was
fourteenth Street, which is close to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Curious, I'm curious what is the going rate to hire
Red Alert to be your Friday night DJ and how
long is he spending for.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Red Alert used to come directly off of the air
at Kiss on Friday night and go directly to the
Latin Quarter and he would DJ for maybe he would
get to the club around twelve midnight, like about fifteen
after twelve, and he would DJ as much as he won.
I had like four five house DJs that also dj there,
(05:51):
so whenever Red took a break, you know, the party
kept going. But I don't know if I want to divulge.
Red paid this time. It was this way, it was,
it was uh, it was the top of the game
for the time.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Okay, can you make a real living?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Can you make a four figure living for a high three?
Speaker 4 (06:13):
He ain't taking okay now, but he already had a
job at Kiss Radio, you know what I mean. He
was the top djai on the radio.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
We now live in the era where a Diplo or
Skrills makes two point five million, tell me about it, or.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
You know, in the case of Pretty Lights makes.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
We he'll make that every week.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well, yeah, Pretty.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Lights only spends ten times a year. He must meet
his price. He ain't coming so thus he meant to remember.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
We were struggling to exist back in these days. Remember
hip hop. We was being dish left and right, you
know by Elder Winford, Marsallis and James and two May
and Larry Blackman from Cameo. They were talking mad shit
about hip hop. They were haters. Yeah, but James and
(07:09):
Toomey wound up being one of my best friends because
my elder edwin Bird's song brought us together and I
had a few conversations with James, and he understood what
we were trying to do, and he started advising us
and supporting us. But the biggest supporter that saved hip
(07:29):
hop was none other than elder Harry Belafonte. Rest in
pe Smster.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Beach talk about it, educate real quick.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Harry Belafonte produced Beach Street when all the other elders
were shitting on us.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Radio stations had taglines.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Like no rap and they would play our instrumentals and
not play our vocals. They were totally dissing us. We're
not real musicians. We just steal their shit. You know,
we don't We don't sing. You know, what we do
(08:06):
is that dibbit when y'all gonna sing? You know.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Then we were so disrespected.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
What are your top five live performance moments at the
Latin Quarter?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Wow, that's hard. Top five, no particular rock, Sanne Chante,
biz Markie and Big Daddy came. Okay, and then later
Big Daddy came on his own a name my book,
No half stepping. Because Big Daddy came was the epitome
(08:41):
of the Latin Quarter. What was it about him? He
had everything? He had, the jewelry, he had, the haircut,
He had the look, the dance, the voice, the lyrical dexterity,
and he had Marley Maul's beats, unfunckiable. Big Daddy came
with nothing to mess with. You could not follow him
(09:04):
at Latin Quarters.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Did you know was he feared or respected? In other words,
if you're like watching the show, I'm assuming you're watching
from the booth or whatever, don't I don't even know
what the.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Put it. This way, car Ris won this everybody. He
dis the Juice Crew, but he did not this Big
Daddy came and Big Daddy Kane wrote some of Sean
Tay's This record against kr Ris one interesting. But it
was a Latin Quarter family. You know, they had become
family at the LQ. We didn't go against each other
(09:38):
at the LQ. It was like the only thing that
we don't have now that we had back then is
each other. If twenty artists got on stage and performed
that night, at the end of the day when the
club is closing, or twenty of those artists that perform
was still in the damn club. Nowadays you put five
(09:59):
artists after they performed, I mean they leave and take
their people that came to see them with them. Not
at LQ. We stayed from the time that club open
to the time it closed. Sometimes we closed eight nine
in the morning. You know what I'm saying. And you
(10:21):
know it's still be deep in the club. Whenever we
close the door, we will lock the door at five.
Ain't nobody else getting in. But if you already in there, man,
the owner already bounced to let's keep the party going.
It's not.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Now I'm you know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
In the nineties and especially in the arts, like, I
don't know of any club night existence without the fire
marshal coming in to shut it down. You know, the
inspector coming to see you. Guys never had those problems whatsoever. No,
they didn't know that even they didn't know you guys existed.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Or oh they knew we existed. You run in the
middle of a time square. You couldn't help but notice us,
you know. Uh, well, we had plenty of police on
our payroll. We had six undercover cops as security, and
a whole bunch more. And we had Mike Goldberg. It
(11:19):
was such a brilliant business man. I loved that dude.
And he gave a nineteen year old the keys to
the club. Bro. Can you imagine you were nineteen at
the time. I was nineteen years old when I saw
running the Latin.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Did you have any experience whatsoever in terms of negotiating
or any of those things.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Yeah, I used to I used to be a street DJ.
I was a hustler. I'm from Highbridge. You know what
I'm saying. I was a pool shark, but Latin But
I was hanging out way before Latin Quarter. I was
learning from South Abatilla at the disco Fever. I'm watching him,
you know what I'm saying. I'm talking to Jungbug and
(11:58):
Courtges blowing all of them. Learning from Russell Simmons. You know,
I'm working with Russell Simmons, Rush Productions and Depth dam
and since nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
You know, I'm in the studio with run dmc, Curtis,
blow Ll cool J.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
I'm watching all of these things get created, and I'm
learning every step of the way. I had Pete DJ
Jones who owned a bar one block from my crib.
I'm learning from him. When I'm seven eight years old,
I'm twelve years old. I'm DJing in the bar.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So what's can.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
You tell me what the general modus operandi or just
the general operation.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Of what it takes to keep.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That operation going on your nights, in terms of what
you're doing from Saturday to Thursday night. Like flyers calls
managers money.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I never dealt with managers. I never dealt with promoters.
I never dealt with booking agents. All of the artists
hang out with me before Latin Quarters. I was like
the hip hop concierge.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Of New York. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
On a Friday Saturday night, I'm hanging with Curtis Blow,
Orange Juice, Jones, Run, DMC, the Fat Boys, Houdani. All
these people are calling me, yo, dice, where the party at.
I'd be like, hold on, let me see, Oh, tonight
is popping at the funhouse. I'll go to the club early,
let them know who I got coming later and when
(13:38):
they could you.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Go to other bars and lure them.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So there was no like calling Carol Lewis or nah nah.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
We didn't do none of that. We dealt directly with
the artists. They didn't have to pay no manager, they
didn't have to pay no booking agent. And like you're
already hanging out at the club right you drinking? You
got a girl, you want to go to the hotel,
you roll up a yo dice, but you put me on.
I'd be like all right, And it was just like yeah,
(14:06):
I go to Mike Goldberger and say your Mike just
dice on the rock.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
It's like cool. I was like, let's let's give him
eight hundred.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
He'd be like, Okay, no hotel, no limo, He's right here,
right now here, go ahead. So we didn't really even
have to book artists. They already was in the club,
you know, and then you you couldn't touch us. You
show up Friday, on Saturday, Mike Tyson's hanging out, Bobby
Brown's in there hanging out. Cosmic kids out in there
(14:39):
hanging out. Yeah, you know, Chris Rock's in there hanging out,
you know, and every major and independent artist in New
York is there. There was no place else to be. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
I think on this show Paradise, you should know that.
I think where were we at twenty guests? At least
twenty guests on this podcast alone. If told Latin quarter stories,
and most of those people that you've already named.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Mm hmm, I got one that you haven't spoken to.
Who was who was the coach, check girl, heaven.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
She might get start.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
We were like what you lived in the Latin She
literally lived in.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
The Latin Quarter, and she she was homeless, and she
used to sneak in the club, but I just didn't
let her in anyway. And here's something that most people
didn't know at the time.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
She was homeless.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
She was in an art program in the village for
homeless youth. And her teacher and mentor was Keith Haring.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
What and to this day what Heather's art.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yes, it's better than Keith having dude.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Her her entire apartment is just like a bunch of sculptures,
a photographer I didn't even.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Know her, and a painter, and her paintings you could
tell they have keep having influence, but they just so
more alive and compelling.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Her apartments.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Standing there at a museum, y'all done. But ye, murals
and sculptures and all those things.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
And you had no idea fast forward that what she
was going to evolve into in the I.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Had a little bit of a clue.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
She was going to coach.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
I wanted to ask you about X clam Man and like,
how y'all.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Formed at Latin courts? Really brother J and professor, you.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Guys are regular dressing cats, and then you're here.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I would never know regular dressing dude, flip through that book.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I'm looking you guys went through a street where that
morphed into shad a cover.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yes that's me. Then I know this.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Then morton to me, but yeah, I do, I do
want to know. Yeah, now you're in your sma, which
is which is awesome. Yeah, but how did the band formed?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I was working at the Latin Quarter and Lamomba Professor
x Overseer aka Lamomba Carson. He called Heidi Smith from
Rush Productions earlier in the day and he asked her
if he could get some of their groups to perform
at a fundraiser for anti drug concert in Brooklyn, and
(17:35):
she was like.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
No, we don't do that kind of thing, you know.
He's like really, She was like.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Yeah, you need to find artists who are more young
and independent, you know, because our artists do concert series
and we don't do charity like that. So she said,
I'll tell you what. Go to Latin Quarters and and
see paradise. He knows all the new artists and he'll
(18:00):
probably be able to help you put a show together.
She called me put him on the guest list, and
he showed up one day and I let him in free,
and he wound up becoming my partner because he talked
to me. He saw the energy that we had at
the club, and I helped him do event in Prospect Park, Brooklyn,
(18:21):
and I brought half the artists from the Latin Quarter
to the park, including Statsasonic, Ultra Magnetic Boogie Down production.
It was crazy. We had like forty fifty thousand people
show up in the park, no violence, and we tore
it down and raised a whole bunch of money for
the anti crack organization that we was working with.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
And from that moment, he was like paradise.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
If we could bring this youthful energy to my father's movement,
we could change everything. And I was like, yeah, whatever,
We're gonna make money, I hope, so I'm like cool.
So he took me to the Slave Theater and on
(19:09):
Fulton Street in bed Star and Al Sharpton, Reverend Al
Sharpton used to own that theater and do rallies there.
So today I went to meet his father Sonny Carson.
They were doing a rally there and I walked through
the door and I thought I had stepped into a
time machine or a Saturday Night Live skip because all
(19:33):
the elders was in there. They had big silver afros
and they was wearing Dashiki's and here I am. I
got hazel contact lendsers, Jemmy curl diamond rings. I got
a fur coat on, a Louis Baton tam, a Louis
Baton sweater, you know what I mean. I had some
(19:54):
brown shark skin soup pants, you know. So I go
in there and I'm looking at them like they was
in costumes. I'm all costumed out myself right. The mom
what takes me over to introduce me to his father.
He says, a brother, Sonny, this is my homeboy, Paradise
I was telling you about. Sonny stares at me without
(20:20):
saying nothing, looks me in my eyes, and he looks
follows down head to toe, and then he looks at
me and says, what kind of name is Paradise for
a nigga? I said, well, actually, it's not a name.
(20:40):
It's an invocation of my goals. I'm trying to achieve
Paradise in my life. So every time someone says that name,
it reminds me of my goals. He's smiled, did a
deep lad. He said, Oh, you're a smart nigga too.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Huh.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I'll tell you what. You see that door that you
walked in. If I was you, I'd walk out that
door fast as I came in here, because if you
stick around here, we're gonna mess up everything you think,
you know. I was like really, He was like yeah.
I was like, I think I'll stick around for a minute.
And he smiled at me and gave me the deep
(21:22):
belly laugh. Sonny Carson had moved Fossa's voice. You know
what I'm saying. When Sonny speak, you know the police
and anybody else do that.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Sonny Carson was no joke. Baby, my elder.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I literally didn't know that that was his his son
Now makes sense, Yeah, Sonny Carson, Lamumba Carson.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
Was he right about what your life and how you
should have walked out?
Speaker 4 (21:48):
It had changed? Hell? Yeah? And the beautiful thing about
it is him or the elders never mentioned my hazel contacts.
They never mentioned my gold and diamonds and the flamboyant
way I dressed. They just responded to my intelligence and
my promotion and marketing skills, and they just taught me
(22:10):
who I was, so I got rid of the costume
on my own. I didn't need it anymore.
Speaker 7 (22:17):
How did brother Jay? He was just one of my
favorite MC's man and he had just that voice. Yeah,
working on the first album, man, Like, how how did
that come about?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Sugar Chef used to be one of the violators. Oh okay.
He used to hang with Chris Lighty and them dudes
were Read Alert and he was one of the guys
that would carry Red crates and records from the radio
station to the Latin Quarter. One day, you know, he
was on the subway, the two train going to Brooklyn.
I was on the same train. We got off the
(22:51):
train at the same stop. We looked at each other.
I was like, yeah, where you live? He said, I
live right around the corner. I said, yeah, I live
right here. So he stopped going there in quartered with
Red Alerts riding with me, and we became really good friends.
And he kept telling me about his homeboy brother Jay,
who was really good as a rapper and all this,
and that I really wasn't working with artists on that
(23:13):
level anymore, developing them, but him and Sugar Sad was
like seventeen years old, and I kind of let them
hang with me.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wait he was seventeen with that voice, brother Jay motherfuckers
sounded like my dad wrote.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
To the East black Wood was when he was seventeen
years old and spit it when he was eighteen. How
about that?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (23:34):
So when people make excuses and say, oh, dudes are young,
and I no.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
But that's like with x Claan.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
To me, I just looked at him like, oh, okay,
forty old pay y'all just looked like y'all looked like
my cool ass uncles.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Professor X was probably your cool last uncle, you know
what I mean? He was folder than.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I didn't think I was older than one of y'all.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Damn brother to the definitely brother Jane sugar Shaft from
my Little Brothers.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Since you mentioned it now, one of our most infamous
Latin quarter guests, sir mc search you still searching for.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
That guy where you go right right?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
All right?
Speaker 1 (24:23):
But wait wait, but no, no, no, But this also
involves Pete as well, because it just hit me when
I brought the EP, the Cactus EP three strikes five thousand,
was there were some shots fired at the X Clan
organization and then of course I forget the song the
(24:45):
song where you guys start with pop goes the weasel?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
What was the.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Unspoken, indirect, non passive aggressive shots fired between those clans?
And I guess also if you want.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
To add it between love and hey.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
But also today when I was listening to sex and Violence,
there was some satisfied there too, like so wait, what
happened between.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
When I first met Prime Minister Pete Nice. He was
seventeen years old and he was going to Boys and
Girls High School and he was managed by a gentleman
named Robert Lamumba Carson Professor X before X clan really
(25:31):
and he was in a group called sin Quinn and right.
And then once Professor X met me, now he had
access to care as one big daddy came just Nice.
He neglected the groups he already was managing, right, which
Pete Nice was one of them. So MC search was
(25:53):
hanging at the Latin Quarter with me and Pete Nice
came to the Latin Quarter with Professor X. So Pete
got frustrated because they didn't get any run or no focus.
So Pete went to the moment and said, hey, deaf
jam is interested in signing me if you're not gonna
do nothing with me? Could you release me? And Professor
(26:15):
X laughed him out the door and released him Death
Jam's gonna sign you Ah, and Russell pulled the Beastie
Boys two point zero. He took two independent artists that
they were interested in and created Third Base. And Search
was a cool dude, but he exaggerated a lot, and
(26:40):
he was very popular at Latin Quarter okay, but he
was not popular at Latin Quarter for rapping. He got
popular at Latin no Oh as a joke. I used
to host the shows, me and Read Alert and Bismarck.
It would snap on each other, the warm the crowd up.
And there was this real fat six foot three dudes
(27:02):
in the crowd that called him heavy right. This dude
was like butter and ice on the dance floor. He
was so big, but he was so smooth, and so
I would always pull him up on the stage to
warm the crowd up. And while he would dance, run
Alert would play some joints and I'd be like, go
(27:25):
fat boy, go fat Boy, and the whole crowd be screaming,
go fat Boy, go fat Boy, and MC Search game
running can I go? I was like, oh God, here
we go because mc search thought he could dance, but
he had two left feet. He was cool with us.
We liked him. He was our dude. He was a
(27:46):
great guy, but he could not dance. He would dance,
don't know. He would try and we.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Would okay, with two left feet.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I'm trying. I'm trying to be Switzerland here.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
I mean, I'm working on.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
And I got love for Peter.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Corn was where brothers was dancing in that club. Dude,
you're not their level period ever. So he would run
on stage and Red would play dudey James and I
would go gold, white boy, Gold white Boy go in.
The crowd would go crazy, and they loved him.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Novel to see the white guy with rhythm. He took
advantage of that, right I.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
See, greatly. But then as he became third base, he
seemed like he was trying to be a brother and
he was going too.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Far with it as far as we was concerned.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Like when the camera zoomed up to the back of
his head and he turned around like it's the other man,
it was like, what what did you talking about? Dude?
Like what are you doing? You know?
Speaker 5 (28:56):
So he was an ultimate.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Culture vulture, but he was accepted because he hung out
with us and we accepted him hanging with us, you know,
then he did the group would wound up being our
good friend m F. Doom and the logo was a
coon face and we didn't like that. KMD. Yeah, yeah,
you know what I'm saying. So it was it was
(29:19):
a lot of cultural problem that we was having problems with.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Amir mentioned the Hip Hop Museum in his roll call.
I just wanted to touch on that a little bit
for our listeners who may not know what's going on.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Wait, I'll get there eventually, right, he still want to
get to the part where Kenny Parker just did it.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Right, I'll get there.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Wait, you also didn't name the other four performers at
the Latin Quarter. I was I'm starting not hoping to
get the story of Melle Mail and the push ups
or the sit ups.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Melly Mail was the debo of the Latin Quarter. He
was the filter. That's what I called him. If you
got on stage and you was whag. Mellie Mail was Sandman,
really self appointed Sandman. Him and Busy B were the
most arrogant dudes ever. They were coming the club throwing
(30:13):
elbows at dudes. Get out the way, get out the way.
The champions here, the champions here. Ain't none of y'all
getting no money tonight, and y'all ain't getting no puts
he tonight. The champs is here, and you be on
stage rocking. All of a sudden, you hit the crowd
going crazy. You're like, oh, I'm doing it tonight. And
(30:34):
then you take a look to the sign and Mellie
mel standing there with his shirt off, Muscle Simmons in
his full glory. Then he started doing push ups real
quick while you're.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Trying to do a show.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
You like, So he's working out on the side of
the stage, you know, on the stage.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
He's on the stage with you now doing.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Are you allowed to name some of the artists that
he disrespected, who remembers them?
Speaker 4 (31:07):
So?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Were there some artists that performed him again?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
They disappeared? He sure him all right, you know, he
jumped on his feet, snatched the mic and say red alert,
put on some real hip hop. I'm tired of this bullshit.
And then he would rock the house.
Speaker 6 (31:25):
And never cause a fight. Nobody ever wanted to fight
him after they I'm just.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So mused.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
It was only a couple of dudes that had the
balls or the size to deal with Melly Mel Justice
and King's son. They can handle him physically, but ain't
nobody wanted to try that. Plus he's the goat this
Grandma's and Melly mal a child is born. Damn you
ain't got no wins there until one day Belly Mel
(31:57):
jumped on the stage with that bragg of dose. I
got five hundred dollars. Anybody in here wanted come get
it right now?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Oh y'all.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
He's looking at run DMC and LL and all of
them like and then you heard the crowd go crazy,
and you look and krs one was standing there like this, Okay, now,
it already was some friction between the last generation and
the new generation. The first shots across the bow that
(32:27):
was successful was none other than LL cool J. LL
was not having it Coolmo d iced tea whoever. He
was not intimidated. And if you went at LL, he
coming back at you. The first shots across the old
school bow was by LL cool J. So he got
(32:48):
it right here. It was right here, and it was bubbling,
and then kr us one dropped the nail in the coffin.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
What happened that night like, can you describe, well, was
it a song? Was n how the battle?
Speaker 4 (33:02):
I handed car us One the mic and krus One
did a freestyle. First, he did this everybody in the
club that he had beef with. He did about four
people before going that Mail Rock, sand Sean tay Uh.
He went at mc shan. Of course, coogi rap even
(33:27):
you know, I am a professional.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
This is not a demo, Chris do a bunch of
shots to grow.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Oh no, I didn't even catch that. I am a professor.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
This is not it's a demo. It's a demos. It's
the demos.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I'm just catching that, see what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So Chris was already set up to be that next
dude because he had just smashed sh which was difficult
to do because Sham was as popular as LL back
in the day. Sha was not no easy noth to crack,
you know what I'm saying. Sham was highly respected. And
so Carrius One did a freestyle. He went at Mail
(34:04):
and then he said, hey, yo, who won this battle
and dropped the mic and the crowd went crazy and
Melly mal he was so angry. The crowd was like
going for Carris One, and he didn't even rhyme yet
he start jumping up and down. It's not fair. I
didn't get to go yet. I didn't get to go.
I said, come on, y'all, this is melly Mao. You
gotta least let the man spit. Mellie mal dug in
(34:29):
that brilliant brain of his and came out with one
of the dopest rhymes I ever heard. He was talking
about spaceships and battling aliens and molecules and scientific facts,
and he killed it. But the crowd was like no manoo,
and some people cheered him. But Carris won won to day,
(34:53):
and from that day on things started changing. You know,
Big Daddy Cane got really ridiculous in there, rock him
came out of nowhere on them. Check out my melody.
You know, Eric beat for President Red Alert, banging that
like over and over. It was a new day.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Well, okay, so what are the other three that you
can name?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (35:21):
Other three that got dissed by Meloy man.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
The other three like life changing performances that happened at the.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Big Daddy came, man. Big Daddy came when he first
came out with school and scrap. He changed the game. Bro.
It was just I mean heavy dn of boys whoa
when they rock miss the big stuff at Latin Quarters
forget about it. Really yeah, man, that's so Sonic performed
(35:48):
with my man Bobby Simmons with the live drum.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
That was crazy.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
I mean, it was just so many amazing, amazing performances,
especially you know EPMD Bro. Oh my god. They used
to tear the Latin Quarters down, and then out of
nowhere came the native tongues. The tribe called Quest, the
Jungle Brothers, Daylon Soul. So that could fly Onny Love
(36:17):
it was born there.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Okay, I'm only asking that because it seems to me
that the Latin Quarter seems more hard of me no ob.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Dapper dan variety.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And then suddenly here comes like no backpackers. Yeah, like
I would figure like they were the nerves and duebs of.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
So they were walcome with yeah, because they were already
people who hung out at the Latin Quarters. Ninety percent
of the artist that broke in Latin Quarters was always
in the crowd. Kid and play was in the crowd
at Latin Quarters. Their name was the Fresh Force Kid,
Cool Out and Playboy, and they had a song called
(36:59):
off a rock I'm a deis see.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
I was gonna say, please don't say I'm.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
The They sampled rocked me and then a song off
of rock Me a'madas and they had another song called
She's a Skeezer that.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Song which is what I did this.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Posts told me about that, okay, with the same beat
for three days later.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Yeah. But then they saw the I O U and
the JAC dances. They changed their head sounds, they changed
the way that they dress, and somehow the dance that
was being done at the Latin Quarters became the Kiddhn't
play kickstep.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
So all those dances were born there. We're talking about
like the Steve Martin, the Mark.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Top Oh my god, dude used to kill when he performed.
You know who else killed at lag Quarters, Schoolly d Yes.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
And remember this was New jack City, New York, Okay.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
You know this was around the time of Larry Davis
and the Central Park five and Useph Hawkins murder. So
there was a tension in the young black people at
the time also, and we were angry at a lot.
You know, parth I was going on. Nelson Mandela was
still in jail. You know what I'm saying, so there
(38:25):
was a consciousness that took over the club because it's
Zulu Nation and the beginnings of the Black Watch movement
and the five Percent Nation was heavy in the club.
So we was all about the fifth element, knowledge, wisdom
and understanding at the same time we was creating this music.
(38:46):
So that is official.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
I was wondering when you look up hip hop sometimes, Okay,
the fifth element is knowledge, wisdom and understanding. All right,
I feel like it came much later, can.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
You all right?
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Since the the sound system was ungodly?
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
What did you guys think when y'all first heard Rebel
without a pause?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Because I heard it two in.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
The morning on a radio with the volume down, and
of course, like you know, I'm talking about clock radio.
I can't imagine what it is to hear this teakettle
noise of Public Enemy.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
That song saved Public Enemies career because Public Enemy got
booed off the stage at Latin Quarters and their first show,
Grand Master and Mellie Mail.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
He was on the side doing push ups.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
No, he couldn't get to the stage, but he was
in the crowd heckling him the whole time. That shit
ain't hip hop. They on stage with oozies and shit,
were trying to stop the violence. What is this, Russell Simmons,
you need to sign grand Master flies in the previous
five putting all this bullshit on stage, I had to
(39:57):
I had to literally pull Melly Mal off the dance
floor and explain to him what the s one w's
were and why they had the plastic oozies. But then
they came later with Rebel without a pause, and guess
what it was a hip hop dance classic. You put
(40:20):
that record on the IOU and the jay Z dances
break their.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
Necks in the club off it.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
And that inspired Chuck to step up the tempo and
he realized, as you get up there.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And dance at the LQ right right right, I get it.
I see it now, I see it now, I see
it now. So the next question I want to know
is why did it end so early?
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Monday? Location? Location? Location? It was sitting on that property
that was way too valuable for them to keep just
letting us little niggats. Have ain't black club there since
exactly they built the hotel, which one isnaissance we.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Used to stay there.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Wow? Okay, yep, the Union Square club had closed, so
all the crazy ass Brooklyn niggas ain't have nowhere to
hang out no more. So they came uptown to the
Latin Quarters and they turned the Latin Quarters into the
Okay carraal.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
All right, so it was the myth of Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Real, I e Like, we just want to party and
here come Brooklyn wounding out again.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Hell yeah, that sh it was true because it wasn't
just ghost Steps to that set them off. That was
the second song. There was another song that was more
of a trigger than.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
That, which was Brooklyn's than the House by d C Dclyn.
So any Brooklyn song is just going to trigger.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
It's fifty cent and the Supreme Team and the Hollis
Crew and the whole powder keg of different.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
So they were all paid.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
They get in yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yoke and still change and no.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Well at first, I mean it took a while because
fifty would come to me, he respected me, and I
would let them in free, give him drink to get
treat him like they were stars too.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
He explaining who fifty was. And now we're not talking
about Curtis Jackson.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
No, he was a little gangster ass Doug from Brooklyn,
who was one of the original knuckleheads that you just
he had no respect for nobody, not even himself, and
he would come to the club with two guns and
a bulletpoof vest on. I would let him keep all
let him in. I would look put it this way, okay, right,
(42:49):
if you let him in, he could control the other
ones that's lesser than him. So instead of going wild,
now they had something to lose. Now they had status,
and now they wouldn't just run up on somebody and
rob them. They would come to me first and be like, yo, dice,
is that your man? I'd be like, yeah, damn man
(43:10):
told me, can't be coming up in here like that
man organized.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Crime and that would be ok what would they walking
target look like? Ll WOJ tell me the story jam
Master J. I heard that story about dragging on the floor,
but he held onto the chain I heard.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
Now he didn't drag the floor. His chain is solid.
They don't have no clasp. Jam Aster J had the
best chain in hip hop.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
But wasn't like royalty, like untouchable or is it like
we got to test.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Your Jay had the Holly's Crew with him, Hurricane in
about twenty twenty five other ones. So it was the
first time it was an even match, Dude fifty tried
to snatch Jay's chain. It don't pop.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
Jay went with the chain.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
And J is no slouch right right. I went out
and pulled J out of the melee and he literally
fought me. And when I looked in his face, he said, Yo, dice,
my people was out there. I let him go. He
went right back out there. You know who am I
(44:19):
out to tell him? You know what I mean? But uh, yeah,
jam Master J. Let me say something about him. He
was the most humble and wonderful human being ever. You know,
you go to the club. J would be at a club,
no security, no homeboys.
Speaker 5 (44:38):
He'd be out on tour.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
You find jam Master J with a forty in the
hood in the projects, four o'clock in the morning, smoking
and drinking and telling stories and jokes with dudes he
don't even know. And he had the total hood pass
because he was Jammaster J. He was that dope. Yeah,
he taught me how to act once I became popular.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Can we talk about the Hip Hop Museum?
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (45:05):
See? Yeah, Now I'm told that you were collecting artifacts
and whatnot since seventy.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Nine, seventy eight.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Okay, so yeah, how did you know, I was a kid.
How did you know instantly?
Speaker 4 (45:20):
I shouldn't know instant. My brother Michael Michael Green coach Green.
He was a baseball and football coach at de Wick
Clinton High School in the Bronx, and my brother was
four years older than me, and he did everything to
influence me. I didn't respect or understand my brother when
I was young because he wasn't a fighter. I had
(45:41):
to fight every day. But as I got older, everything
I do and everything I know really came from my brother.
A photographer, a writer, an artist, and illustrator. But most importantly,
he collected stamps and coins. I wasn't into that. I
get out of here with that. Then he started collecting
(46:01):
baseball cards, football cards, and comic books. That's when I
lost my mind, you know, because I was an avid
reader and comic book collectors and comic book readers. It's
like oil and water. We really didn't met. So I
start collecting my own comics. And then here comes hip
hop flyers, grand Master Flash who DJ hurt the Herk Lords?
(46:27):
You know, grand was it Theodore? It was like walking
Marvel heroes in my hood who were doing those flyers?
Buddy Esquire a whole bunch of good Phase two, but
he Esquire and Phase two were the two most popular ones.
But there was a whole host of people making flyers
(46:47):
back then, and they were beautiful. When the hip hop
universe was like the Marvel and DC universe to me,
you know, so they would have cartoon characters. I got
a fly with Iron Man on it, one with Spider
Man on it, one with Muhammed Aldi on it, you know,
fly girls and nice calls. It was amazing to me.
(47:10):
So I kept them and me and my homeboy kids Zeep,
we started trading with each other and it just became
a thing in my hood that we would collect hip
hop flyers. And later on it became everything with hip
hop on it, Yo, MTV rap cards, you know what
(47:31):
I'm saying, magazines, Yo, rap masters, the Sowres, Double Excel,
if it had anything about hip hop. I was hip
hop's biggest fan. I wanted So were you just naturally.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
A pop culture junkie that just you know part like
I'm collecting stuff now, I don't know why I'm collecting it.
I'm not saying to myself like, Okay, one day I'm
gonna have a museum. But like now, I mean I'm
going hard on. I went hard on on Hrk's auction.
(48:06):
Now we're seeing the auction stuff. Yeah, so I'm like,
I'm doing it. I guess I figure, like, Okay, maybe
when I'm sixty or seventies, I'll have these artifacts to
pass on to a museum or that sort of.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Thing in your mind.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Are you saying, like, one day I'm going to open
up the hip hop museum and I'm having these artifacts there.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
No, I didn't even consider that. I just knew what
I liked and I loved, and I just catered to myself.
I loved myself, so I tried to surround myself with
beautiful things and things that make me feel good. I
was a little ashy, skin nappy headed, dark skinned kid
(48:49):
in the South Bronx with holes in the bottom of
my shoe, and hip hop gave me my self esteem.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
How do you preserve everything through the years, with all
the floods and robberies and everything that everybody goes through
with moving one hundred times.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
I never had a flood, I never got robbed.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
My dad still live in the same apartment that we
lived in since nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Wow, there's the answer.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
There right there. Yeah, yeah, okay, we had stability. So
let me know what closet space.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Okay, now I'm really asked the question that I always asks.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
You know, one answers. Yeah, You're given.
Speaker 4 (49:29):
One minute.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
To grab three artifacts and the rest you'll never see again.
What three things are you grabbing?
Speaker 4 (49:42):
My original crown that I created, the first crown of
x Crime. My wooden stick that I carved with a
lion's face in the middle of a morph between the
lion and the man.
Speaker 5 (49:58):
That staff is called the iron in lion Zion.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Yes, yes, you carved too.
Speaker 4 (50:05):
Yeah. Yeah, that's why they called me the architect, baby architect,
you know, yeah, did.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
You have dreams to be an actual architect?
Speaker 4 (50:16):
In term I went to Brooklyn Tech to be an architect,
and I dropped out in the tenth grade because I
couldn't go through high school with holes in my ship
like I did junior high. My parents are from the South.
My dad, I told him what I wanted and he said, hey.
He walked me to the front door and said, everything
you want right outside this door. Everything you need, I
got it in here. Go get what you want. So
(50:38):
I said, okay, I'm gonna go get it. I went,
and I dropped out of high school, and within two
years I was making more money than my mother and
my father combined legally.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Where are your parents from?
Speaker 4 (50:49):
North Carolina? What city? I was born in a little
town called Washington, North Carolina. Washington.
Speaker 7 (50:58):
Yeah, I grew up in I lived all over over
Fatteville of red s Range, Robinson County. Grew up in Greensboro,
living Raleigh. But nah, man, that's that's so dope.
Speaker 4 (51:08):
I'm home from. So. I was born in nineteen sixty
four in North Carolina Freedom Summer, and my mother decided
when I was four years old that she didn't want
me and my brother and sister to grow up picking
cotton and tobacco. So she followed her sister, Helen my aunt,
to Harlem, and she stayed in Harlem with my aunt
(51:29):
and sent me and my brother and sister to live
in the Bronxdale Projects with my aunt's daughter, her niece,
Susie Davis, and my little cousin who lived with us
in Disco King Mario's building. His name is Aaron Davis.
He wound up becoming a welterweight champion of the world.
Aaron Superman Davis and he knocked Mark Brelan out to
(51:52):
take the belt.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
No, you're a sports expert.
Speaker 4 (51:56):
Well, I love hip hop and sports. I think hip
hop was a sport us too.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
It is you know, surviving it is key. Well you
didn't name the third thing, the third artifact that you
were saying.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah, that first Flyer was the first time hip hop's
mentioned on It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
Yeah, but there's more important things.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
Yeah, okay, well record record things that I own or
I mean like treasures.
Speaker 5 (52:25):
I mean, dude, I have so much in my collection.
Speaker 4 (52:33):
I'm not Bismarck status with my collection, but the hip
hop part of my collection bigger than business hip hop collection.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
See, he's the one that got me in. When I
saw business stuff, I was like, Oh, this is what
I want to do. Spend my money. You got to
spend your money on something. So that's the thing. Artifact historical,
artifact wise, what do you have? Jeff just shared with
me that he has the records from Grandmaster Grandmaster Flash
(53:03):
used in Wild Style Sope.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
I still have a bunch of my original creates that
I DJ with since the seventies in the Bronx. I
still have my original vinyl, all my breakbeats.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (53:16):
You know I have the big red, black and green
flag that X Clan used to perform with and that
we used to march in the streets of Brooklyn with
Sonny Carson with. You know, I have a cutout of
the Nile's pharrowhead.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
From I Am Oh, yeah, I am record.
Speaker 4 (53:37):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I have the cutout of master P.
You know, I've got the master P doll that go.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
Right.
Speaker 5 (53:48):
You know, I got so much artifacts, bro.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
I do want to know when do you feel as
though the museum will have its grand.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
Opening fourth quarter for first quarter twenty twenty five in
the location right where it is, right in the Boogie
down Bronx one hundred and forty ninth Street and Bronx
Point Baby, right on the Harlem River.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
Well, brother, this this has been long overdue. Yeah, thank you,
thank you for sharing.
Speaker 4 (54:18):
We didn't have more time, and you know, I didn't
really get to tell you a new stories. But it's
all good.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
No, this is this is beautiful and we thank you
for coming on the show. So we have a fontiicolo
on paper bill Sugar Steve and like, yeah, this is
quest Love is a great paradise. Gray, Yeah, support hip
hop culture, collect your artifacts, don't dispose of things that
you don't know will be you know, well man's trash,
that next man's treasure.
Speaker 4 (54:44):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Telling the history, yes, and share stories and build.
Speaker 4 (54:49):
In the history. Because while it's good that we celebrated
their fiftieth anniversary of hip hop make history. Now it's
our time to plot the next fifty years of hip hop.
There you go, and to support young artists with the
real support that we need to give them. And we
need to stop being the old man sitting on the
(55:09):
porch telling them to get off our laan. Hip Hop
was created by children and children will always rule hip hop.
So if you owe and you feel like, oh I
can't understand what they're saying, well maybe they're not talking
to your ass.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
Oh and there it is, ladies.
Speaker 3 (55:26):
All right, we'll see all next cover.
Speaker 4 (55:31):
This is Sugar Steve.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. This podcast
is hosted by a mere Quest of Thompson, Liah Saint
Clair Fonte Coleman, Sugar Steve Mandel, and Unpaid Bill Sherman.
The executive producers are a mere Quest of Thompson, Sean
g and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittey, Benjamin, Jake Payne,
and Liah Saint Clair. Edited by Alex Conrod. Produced for
(55:55):
iHeart by Noel Brown and Mike Johns. Audio engineering by
Graham Gibson at Iheart's La studio.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
Bost Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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