WCS in for #92Noon! 10am Hour 6/21 Crazy Legs!

--Max takes your questions and talks breakdancing with Richard ‘Crazy Legs’ Colon.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
If you want to chime into what'shappening to your favorite KFAAN shows, you
can make your voice heard on theBradshawn Bryant Kfan text line. Let's let
us know what you have to sayby texting. Your message is six four
six eighty six. That is sixfour six eighty six inner text message in
data and supply never a better timefor that liner. Because whenever Brett Blake
Moore and myself Max Fuller are luckyenough to grace these here airwaves, we

(00:28):
like to call whatever show we areon the People's Show. We love talking
to the listeners, interacting with thelisteners. So you got a question for
us, We're gonna this is abrand new segment that we're dating when we
call the People's Portion basically and askus anything style segment, a fan line
for just pretty much anything, auniversal fan lines. If you want to

(00:51):
call in eight hundred three two zerofive three two six. We got plenty
of texts on the text line sixfour six eight six asking questions. We
just like right do with the listeners, and we like you. You want
to be a part of the show, You want to help dictate what we
talk about sometimes because Clearly some peoplewere not happy that we opened the show
talking about the nothing, but askedLeague, so you you tell us you're
the expert. You tell us whatyou want us to talk about. First

(01:15):
question on the text line, isthere any way to dial max back two
clicks? No, that's not possible, ask Brett blakemore. This is not
a bit, this is who Iam. Where yeah, it says,
is there any way to dial maxback two clicks? This is really who
I am in real life. I'mnot putting on a front for the radio.
I'm not like putting on I'm I'mreally this loud and obnoxious in real

(01:38):
life. My whole family is likethis hot you down to clicks and you
just get too clicks fit. Ican sense it. So I apologize for
having fun and enjoying my job,but no, I cannot be dialed back.
That is just who I am.Question from Sean Evanson on the text
line, if you were a professionalwrestler, what is your fishing move and

(02:00):
if you can explain what your charactermight be, that's awesome. I'm assuming
both of us were huge wrestling rooms. What would you what would I don't
want finishing move? I would probablyI probably have to do. So I
want to do something crazy, youknow, like off the top rope.
I mean I'm not capable of that, but it would be a lot more
fun, you know, Like I'dprobably try to do like a shooting star

(02:20):
press or something, you know,like I wouldn't be able to do it.
It'd take me a long time tolearn it, but I would do
something like that or sweech and musicoh to one of my favorite wrestlers of
all time, Solid exactly right,Yeah, like that's always a great move
man. My character, I forsuld be a heel, no doubt about
it. I'd be a heel.It'd be a lot more fun to like
just you know, chastise the crowd, make fun of people. Especially in

(02:44):
today's day and age, I feellike we have we have a more generally
accepted idea of like the dynamics andwrestling, so people can be more heelish
without taking it too far and gettingreal life problems like back in the day
when everybody you know surreal here.Yeah exactly, But that's the thing,
It's like, that's the best.The best wrestlers in wrestling are the ones

(03:05):
that make you go wait, wasthat scripted? You know, like,
what's that excellent part of the bed, Like what he's like, you know,
throwing drinks on kids in the standsand stuff like that like that,
I mean, obviously not that specificallywould be fun, but just making fun
of every city that you're in andeverything like that would for sure be the
villain. Well what about you,Brett Blake, what your finishing move and
what would your character be? Ithink it. I mean I kind of
play a heel as it is beinga Packers fan. I don't even have

(03:29):
to try. I just have towear green and gold, and people just
I get the heat just from that. I think it'd be funny though,
if it was like a local promotion, like a like a promotion around Minnisota,
to just be literally your only gimmicksis just a Packers fan down the
building. Yeah, it'd be easy. You could even go in there and
like smile and wave and high fivekids and you would still be the most

(03:51):
overheel in the promotion for sure,just by doing that. There was I
went to a local wrestling show downat First Half last earlier this week on
Sunday at First Wrestling, the Iwas introduced from Green Bay never even needed
to know anything else. It justboom. Green Bay sucks, green Bay
sucks. Chance, just rain out. That's all you gotta do is just
be from green Bay. And you'realready a here, mister Kennedy. No

(04:12):
chance, right, no chance?So I want she move. I don't
know what would the finish? Whatif here's an idea going off the Packers
bit. What if I literally justcame up with this, It might not
be good. What if it wasjust like a splash like Ultimate Warrior,
but you just called it the LambeauLeap, the lamb Yes, oh my
gosh, yeah, that would begreat, the Lambeau Leap and bread Blake

(04:35):
Moore wins. That could be asplash off the top rope. Who knows
that could act? That actually isa good idea you might want to copyright.
There, Frenny Packers Packers themed wrestlersout there. We got another question
on the text line seven six tothree. Guy, He says a hoodie,
Thank you, sir, appreciate thehoodie. Who what is a good
way to get into radio? AndI would have to say, man is

(04:58):
just start doing it. If youcan get a microphone at your house,
just start doing and make sure what. I will preface it by saying this,
make sure that you have more thanone or two episodes worth of things
to say. I think a lotof people think they want to get into
radio or podcasting, and then theydo a podcast or they do a radio
show and they're like, geezh,that actually takes a lot more work than
I thought, and they don't actuallyhave as much to say as they thought

(05:23):
they did. So make sure youhave enough to say. You have a
subject that you want to you wantto touch on, that you want to
that you want to break into,and just start doing it. Man.
There's so many cool volunteer radio stationsaround the Twin Cities that I got started
with. I was lucky enough toget my start over at Radio K at
the U and there, But there'sso many radio stations that you can get
your start in around the Twin Cities. Man. You just got to start

(05:45):
doing it, because it's it's oneof those things that you're never gonna be
able to gauge how good you areor how successful you could be at it
until you start doing it. Whatwould you say to someone that wants to
break into radio, Brett Blake thatwe're bribing. We're right at the bottom
of the top were so, yeah, exactly, we're still trying to break
in. But what would you sayto someone trying to get their starting radio.
I would say, know how toride the line between persistent and annoying?

(06:08):
Yeah, right, yeah, becauseyou have to be persistent. Yeah,
you can't be annoying. You gottabe there's a line there, and
you say yes to everything and getyour foot in the door by any means
necessary, however that you can doit, do it, and we man
if you do a podcast too,Yeah, exactly, recommend that even if
no one listens, Like, doesanyone listen to the London Club Council with

(06:29):
me and Robbie Rosehouse for a talkPremier League cheap plug it's free on the
iHeartRadio app. Probably not so,but we do it because we love it
and because it makes us better attalking, exactly. So, And that's
actually better if nobody is listening,because then you have room to improve without
people texting the text line and tellingyou that you suck, like they do
to me when I'm on major marketairways, which is fine as long as
they're listening, that's fine. That'sif you like me. If you hate

(06:53):
me, at least I'm making youfeel something. So I appreciate everybody out
there listening. We got a wholebunch of texts in the text we probably
have to turn this into a twosegment bit. We got Richard Colone,
crazy legs around the corner to talkto us about break dancing. We're gonna
answer John from Chakapie's call. First, John, what's good? My man?

(07:14):
Hey? I thought you and CoachFinch were good. Hey, thanks,
man, I thought you were friends. We all Why are you calling
for his job? What are you? What are you talking about? We're
talking about drafting Browny Dames and bringingLebron here. What has Lebron done every
stop he's made, won a championshipand the coach fired? You got to

(07:34):
think about the repercussions fast. Yeah. I guess I would rather keep coach
Finch than have Lebron come here andwin a championship. Okay, we finally
got this organization turned around to wherethey're not cry babies. And you want
to bring the biggest one in Minnesota. I mean, come on, man,

(07:54):
biggest hell of a tournament. Man. Appreciate you, John, I
don't I mean Yeah, obviously someof the times that doesn't work out and
the coaches get fired and whatnot.For Chris Finch, I think I think
he's solid over here. And firstof all, Lebron James came here,
we'd win a championship. Nobody's gettingfired after that. We're just it's gonna
be nothing but a party in paradesall through the streets of Minneapolis. But

(08:16):
I guess he's got a point.Yeah, I like to keep finching around.
I'm definitely not calling for his job. But no, that guy was
a little guy's a little aggressive.John from Shahkape was But we got ready
to go. He was ready togo. He was. He had to
gunloaded the clip and he was readyto fire some bullets. We got a
whole bunch of texts on the textline for more questions. We're gonna have
to do that a little bit laterin the show because coming up next we

(08:39):
got Richard Crazy Legs caught on oneof the innovators and oh Geez of breakdancing
here to talk up to us aboutthe history of the sport and the addition
of breakdancing at the Summer twenty twentyfour Olympics will do all of that and
more coming up next on the FansGet Ready to Laugh and comedian Russell Peters

(09:01):
heads to Treasure Island, So missusHilarious, an unapologetic comic plane takes a
stage in the Island Event Center Novembertwenty ninth. Tickets on sale now and
you can get yours at TI casinodot com. Max Fuller ak Max keel
O Neil aka Leonardo de Max Briofilling in for Paul Allen on nine to

(09:22):
noon alongside Brett Blakemore. The twentytwenty four Summer Olympics is set to get
underway in just a little over amonth, and one of the newest and
most exciting additions to the summer lineupis the sport of breaking. Now,
we're not talking about breaking bad here. Nobody's competitively cooking meth or anything like
that. We're talking about the sportand art form more commonly known as breakdancing.

(09:45):
And who better to discuss breakdancing withthan one of the true innovators and
groundbreakers of the art form. Ournext guest is one of the founders of
the rock Steady Crew, one ofthe first and foremost breakdancing crew is in
all of America. He's the inventorof more than a couple of moves and
a true pioneer in the dancing sphere. Pablo Picasso used to paint pictures with

(10:09):
his hands, but Richard Crazy Legsgot on paints them with his feet.
Crazy Legs, I really appreciate youjoining us today. Man, it's an
honor to get to talk to you. I got to ask off the top,
is there a story behind the nicknameCrazy Legs or is it just because
you had mad dance moves since youwere young. That's definitely a story.
But I'm gonna say one thing.The fact that you had a Russell Peters

(10:30):
commercial on before we went on,and Russell Peters is one of the most
die hard hip hop heads I know, was pretty cool. Cool, It's
pretty cool, and that's one ofmy boys. So, oh no,
what that felt good? Be like, oh wow, I'm following my man
rough. Yeah, there is astory. I got it when I was
in grade school, middle school anda girl named by a girl by the

(10:50):
name of Arlem Rozario, Puerto Ricangirl saw me dancing in the auditorium apter
school and she was like, eh, he got some crazy leg and she
was captain of the cheerleaders. Soat that point, all the cheerleaders started
calling me crazy Legs. And thenwe did this rendition of the of the
show Grease as a play in myin my junior high school, and I

(11:11):
actually started breaking on the on thebreak part of the song hand drive Way,
and that just lit everything up intoschool and then everyone started calling me
crazy. Especially if the cheerleaders arecalling you crazy Legs and the cheerleaders are
calling you anything, you just gottago by that nickname, right that's like
the ultimate code sign in junior highschool. You got the cheerleaders boom you

(11:35):
in. Right now, You've kindof been around dancing your whole life,
crazy Legs, But like, whatin what inspired you to start to start
break dancing? Like what was itlike the moment you first saw breakdancing with
your own eyes? Well, whenI when I first saw when I first
saw breaking, it was different fromthe first time, which was a year

(11:56):
later when when I went to anactual park jam and the Bronx on Katona
Avenue, and I was shorty tenyears old, eleven years old, and
everything was very much grand to mebecause I'm a little kid and I was
thinking like, oh wow, likethis is great, Like people are competing,
this doesn't cost me any money.There's music, there's fun, there's
competitiveness, and I was just blownaway. It was I feel like I

(12:22):
was born in sixty six, butI came to life in seventy seven because
of what was eventually to be calledhip hop had blown me away. And
so for me, it was Ithink a matter of the conditions. You
know, when you're living in ahood, you're poor, and there is

(12:43):
any there isn't anything much out ofstruggles, so you gotta create with what's
there, and that was a goodUnfortunately, those struggles were a great environment
for creativity. Yeah, no doubtabout it. Man. And then you
mentioned it just being poor and andgetting to do something that's free. I

(13:03):
know, how about that manage alwaystrying to find free entertainment, free things
to do, and then you stumbleupon this blossom, two blossoping art forms
in the park and breaking and inhip hop, and they obviously go hand
in hand. But I and we'llget we'll get to that in a little
bit. But you were around Breakingbasically since its inception, since infant days.
What were those early days of breakingculture like where did you do it?

(13:26):
Who was doing it? Et cetera, et cetera. So my cousin
Lenny Land, who's a Puerto Ricancat. Of course, when he brought
me to that part, my firstjam experience was there was a brother named
Little Angel. It was a PuertoRican DJ, and there was a lot
of Latinos in this particular part ofthe Bronx. So my initial introduction to

(13:52):
hip hop, it was a blackand brown experience for me. I'm not
getting into percentages or anything like that, but we all share the same hood,
the same the same economic status,uh, you know, getting arrested
by the same police. So therewas a really dope It's crazy that I
say dope, but you know,but it was a bonding that happened between

(14:16):
black and Latino people. So theexchange between cultures was really dope. There
would be times when you know,our neighbors were African American come over and
they're learning Southside and then we're goingover there to their place and we're learning
how to do the butt stop,you know. So there was a really
special dynamic between the relationships of blackand Latino people in New York. It

(14:39):
was just so that made for agreat camaraderie, uh an exchange of ideas
and talent, and we partied together. So growing up in that environment when
you really as a kid looking todo some sports and you can't afford those
sports activities and you jump into thiswhole second time of family of of I

(15:03):
don't want to say street life,but community life, because people say street
and they start giving it a negativeconnotation because it's usually associated with black and
brown. But for me, itwas all community. And I think we
unwittingly created something that, of coursewe all know became a multi billion dollar

(15:24):
year industry, right, but itwas done out of innocence. And I
can't say that we sat there andthought it out and said, hey,
we're going to create hip hop,because when you look at the ages of
the people who were doing that,you know, and what we were facing
socially and economically, kids weren't thinkingabout those things. Those were for Those

(15:45):
thoughts were for the adults, unlessyou were like a special outlier. Right.
I was actually going to ask youabout that, because when you're when
you're around it at that age andyou're and you're just seeing what it's becoming,
there's no way that anyone would havethought that it's good that hip hop
and breaking would be where they're attoday. Right. No, I mean,
look the climate of New York atthat time. You had the Blackout

(16:07):
of seventy seven, You had theYankees winning going on, our becoming a
dynasty, you know, back andforth with the Dodgers and the Red Socks
and all that. Yeah, thethe forty four Caliber Killers Son of Sam
who had everyone at that you know, on edge because of the murders that
were going on in the city.And you know, New York was pretty

(16:27):
much bankrupt at the time, soit was a very it's amazing how something
so great could come down of sucha bad situation. Right, Seriously,
it's, as tupac Ones put it, it's the rows that grew from concrete,
you know what I'm saying. Sometimesthat negative situation, in that negative
environment can create something truly beautiful.And that's really what you guys did,

(16:48):
innovating hip hop and innovating breaking.Like I said in the intro, you're
one of the og members of therock Steady Crew. And then back then,
I would imagine there was a lotof crews rolling around the streets of
New York. I'm sure you raninto other cruises stuff. What was was
their rivalry? What was the interactionwith other cruise like all right, so
let me just correct one thing.I'm not one of the founders of Rocks

(17:10):
Study, although I've led Rocks Studythrough most of its life. You know,
the founders are Jimmy d and JimmyLee. So I want to just
give them their respect. You know, I don't like taking the props.
But in terms of cruise, bythe time I was getting good in seventy
nine, for the most part,those crews started to dissipate. People got
a little bit older, they weregoing to job corps, they were going

(17:32):
to graduating from high school or whatever. The retirement age four B boy back
then was about sixteen. So you'relooking at me getting better when coming up
with some original moves, and nowI'm hungry. I'm just like, yo,
Now I got to find people thatI've heard about, don't even know
what they look like, and findout where could they could possibly be on

(17:56):
a particular day, and I runup on them in front of their building,
in front out there the girls,their girlfriend's sweet sixteen. It didn't
matter. I'll roll up on yoube like, yo, you you X,
Y and Z. Word you breakall right? Word you want to
battle right here and we just hitit right there on the concrete or we
go into a tenement building. Some doing that, and I don't like

(18:18):
to pat myself on the back oranything, but you know, I'm recognized
as the person who brought Breaking backto life when it was dying because of
that little mission of like kind oflike the martial arts films when you go
around you're like, oh, yes, I was very good, but what
about mind? You know, Iwas doing stuff like that that led to

(18:40):
people wanting to be down with me, and me having my own ending up
with my own division of vox studycrew and kind of like being like the
board and star treking and grabbing allthese people and making them part of my
things. And the thing that madeit special was that some of those people
ended up breaking off and forming othercrews and crew members would be like,
Yo, that's whack. This dudejust stepped off over here and broke and

(19:03):
started another crew to go against us, And I'm like, Yo, that's
good. That is feeding the community. It's growing the community. We need
more people like that. I don'tcare. It means that we now have
more people to battle, right exactly. I've always looked at it as the
positive when things like that happen,because you know, it took a while
for Cruise to really grow in amuch larger way outside of the Bronx.

(19:29):
Yeah, I would imagine that itwas very like New York specific for invent
Bronx specific for a really long timebefore it started branching out. And you
mentioned it crazy like you are acredited You invented several moves that are just
like commonly a part of breaking inB boy culture today. How did you
go about inventing brand new moves?I think within dance, when you have

(19:52):
the idea of creating something or andyou stumble upon something else while you're trying
to create, the genius and I'mnot saying I'm a genius, but the
genius, if I'm looking at someoneelse, is recognizing that on your way
to doing something, you stumbled uponsomething else. Put that out something to
the side, Focus on a newthing, because you already know that other

(20:15):
things you could get back with.You already had that idea in your head.
Focus on the new possibility, andthat really takes a lot of practice,
you know, meaning like a lotof trial ever, spending hours in
there and sometimes waiting for a mistaketo happen, right, And that's how
those moves happen. There's a lotof practice and stumbling upon things. Talking

(20:40):
to Crazy Legs, one of theinnovators in Ogs of Breaking. It'll be
at the summer twenty twenty four Olympics. We're going to get into that in
a little bit. But I'm justso curious about the history, man,
And that's just you. You grewup in New York in such a such
an awesome time, such a creativetime, where all these different art forms
are blossoming. And obviously when whenany art forms onto the scene, there's

(21:00):
always gonna be some derision from likealready established genres, and I would imagine
doubly so in the kind of stuffyworld that dancing can be at times.
So I'm curious what was the like, the mainstream reaction to the emergence of
breaking when you guys first started,And I would imagine, and from what
I've read, it was a littlebit different the reaction in the US than
it was internationally. I think thefact that we were already coming out of

(21:26):
the disco era and hip hop wasstarting to get more of a shine in
seventy nine. No, I'm nottrying to rhyme, but yeah, hey
bod And the fact that we wethere was kind of a there was a
genesis between the reggae crowd, thepunk rock crowd, and what would eventually

(21:47):
be known as hip hop that washappening in nineteen eighty eighty one, eighty
two. And I think because westarted appreciating each other and the music that
came from each group, that putI think that's put. It made the
light shine brighter on everything that wewere, you know, from different communities.

(22:12):
And then when when you're looking atthat whole disco era ending, what's
the next thing? The next thingwas hip hop? You know. So
we I wouldn't say we were embracedby the arts community. And the thing
is that when you're looking at thisstyle of dance, you're looking at something

(22:33):
that is a useful thing. You'relooking at something that when a child sees
this dance, they're already trying toemulate it because it does put out an
amazing amount of a vibe, acompetitive competitiveness, creativity, and it's kind
of you know, what we've donehas always been anti establishment and representative of

(22:56):
our voice speaking through our bodies.So it's very much I guess came into
especially for black and brown people,our indigenous natures. Yeah, for sure,
man, And I just I justthink it's so cool how something like
dance could bring so many different culturestogether, especially in a place like New

(23:17):
York. That's just you know,the big melting pod and everything like that.
I just think it's such a cooltime to have come up and seen
all of this blossoming into the full, fully fledged, like beautiful art forms
that they are today. And obviouslythe ascension of breaking goes hand in hand
with the ascension of hip hop likeyou've been talking about, and in fact,
you know, some of our listenersmight not even know. Like when
hip hop was founded, there wasconsidered to be four pillars of hip hop.

(23:40):
There was mceing of course, youknow, doing the actual rap in,
there's djaying, but then graffitiing andbreak dancing were also considered pillars of
hip hop, like part of itsvery foundation and core. But to me
these days, it kind of seemslike graffiti and break dancing have fallen by
the wayside when it comes to beingessential parts of the hip hop experience,
do you agree? And if youdon't, like, how do you feel

(24:00):
about breaking being a part of thepillars of hip hop and being a part
of hip hop culture today? Okay, so just by default all these things
came together, there was no grandplan. DJs through parties and recongregated as
people in the streets who were alreadycreative. But you know when people number

(24:26):
one, the word hip hop isjust is an umbrella name for all four
elements. The things splinter off.Yeah, they did splinter off within the
music industry, but when you goto these jams that still exist today and
you have thousands of people at them, you're looking at people who are true
hip hop heads, who recognize everyelement of hip hop, and you'll see,

(24:48):
like even for my festival coming upin August, will have graffiti,
breaking, d James and scene.When I throw an event, I throw
a hip hop event. When theindustry throws a hip hop event, it's
really a rap event. So theaverage person doesn't even know that their definition
of hip hop is not of itsorigins, No, one hundred percent,

(25:14):
And I totally get that, Likewhen it's live when you're seeing it,
when you're a part of it,live, that all of it comes together.
It just it makes me a littlebit sad that a lot of people
in the mainstream sense don't recognize graffitiand breaking as influential as it was on
hip hop culture as it has been, because clearly it's all going hand and
get it twisted. There are alot of very successful artists and a lot

(25:37):
of successful dances. Don't think thatwe didn't figure it out. We found
a way. It's just a unitythat's within the industry that looks weird,
right. You know, it's amad funny style because a lot of those
people really believe that they are hiphop heads and they're just rap heads.
And that's not even to be judgmental, because yo do you Yeah, you

(26:00):
dope at that, but you know, at least know that what's coming out
your mouth makes no sense to someonewho actually knows one hundred percent. Here's
somebody that definitely knows you're an ogin the game. Man. You've been
doing it pretty much your whole life, like you said, since you were
nine years old, which is justmind blowing me. And you're still doing
it to this day, ten yearsold, ten years old? Okay,

(26:21):
but you're still doing it to thisday, right, yeah? I mean
you know I was. So here'shere's a funny thing. There's there's always
this discussion about who's a pioneer,who's not, who's a legend, all
that nonsense, and who came inwhen, as if hip hop was created
in one day, which is impossible, right, you know, even back
then, if I started seventy seven, we're only looking at maybe two years

(26:45):
at best that you have full fledgeelements really coming together. Did they exist
separately? Some of them existed definitelyseparately before rap came about, where there
are other forms of rap and othercultures different contexts. Yes, but you
know, when it comes to whatwas going on back then, if you're

(27:07):
looking at generationally, am I oneof the first generation D boys? I
would say yes? But in hiphop some people have selective, self serving
definitions of the word generation so thatthey can separate themselves. But it's like,

(27:27):
yo, dude, if you dothat, then I have to point
out that what you did was remedialat best, and you never did what
I did. So are we rockingon this together and share the history or
do we want to separate? Andthen I got to point out how whack
you were. Yeah, you gotto do the knowledge, man, You

(27:49):
got to learn the history of thethings that you love for show, and
you were one of the don't getit twisted. I love celebrating, even
if they came two years before me, and even if what they did with
Super Basic, you know, that'simportant. It's important, and I will
never ever disregard that for sure.But you also, like gotta get your

(28:11):
respect too, as somebody that wasthere and that's been there and done that.
Right, you gotta take it athen go and give it to you,
right, you know. And yougotta pick and choose your battles.
You can't entertain the trolls. Youknow. If you entertain the trolls,
you're platforming the words that are goingagainst you. And you're just you may
as well just shoot yourself in thehead if you're gonna do that. And
I'm not telling anyone to shoot theirselvesin the head, but you know,

(28:33):
metaphorically, yeah, I get whatyou say, man, trust me,
as a black man on radio inMinnesota, trust me, I get what
you said. You cannot pay attention, you can't fight every single battle,
man, otherwise you ain't gonna haveno knuckles in your cartilage. Yeah,
and you could, you know,fighting certain battles in the industry, you
can lose work in the industry.So pick your battles wisely. There's a

(28:56):
lot of people trying to jump onand trol anything and just have a voice
in something because they feel like,oh, that'll be good for getting my
name out. And it's like,yo, you're actually part of the problem,
man. So you know, Itry to stay away from a lot
of those things. I'm not sayingI'm perfect, because I've definitely been guilty
for shoutting people out and when Ishould have just shut up. For sure,

(29:18):
We're all guilty of it, man, We're all human. It happens
sometimes. It happens sometimes, man. And you like when you were still
coming up with the rock Steady Crew, I mean, you guys had like
hit songs that were, you know, topping the charts and everything like that.
You were featured in several movies WildStyle, Beat, Street Flash Dance,
Like what was that whole experience ofbeing on Hollywood sets with big wig

(29:42):
actors and directors. Like when youtake a person from the hood who is
only trying to be a dope beeboy meet girls and be competitive, and
you throw them in that situation.We don't know how to deal with it,
and sometimes we don't even know howto. And then when you lose

(30:02):
it for a moment, you realizelike, oh wow, that was cool,
But what happened because now you know, I was walking in through the
door real quick and now I'm onthe line. So there's some There was
some humbling for all of us backthen until we figured it out and then
got on Naimes back back out thereand said, Okay, well we're gonna
approach it differently this time and figureout the business of it. Yeah,

(30:26):
I would imagine because you were youwere, I mean, you were a
shorty man, you were really youngwhen you when you got and you guys
were so influential. I would imaginethat that kind of no matter how much
you tried to not let it,it kind of has got to get to
your head a little bit. Right. You're like, I mean, you're
you're, you're you're a young catand you're on You're on TV, you're
on the movies, you're dancing onDavid Letterman. Well, here's the thing
We did a lot of first whichwere great. Me and Frosty Freeze were

(30:49):
the first B boys to ever goon tour in nineteen eighty one. Uh,
and then you know, we didthe first hip hop tour in nineteen
eighty two, the first curated hiphop tour. We also did the first
curated hip hop shows in Manhattan.I was also the first person to give
crews like New York City Breakers andDynamic Rockers their first gigs. Yo.

(31:14):
You know, to be more specific, it's like, you know, when
you see us battling Dynamic Rockers andStyle Wars, that was because I invited
them to battle us because Henry Chaudfunkwas doing his documentary and he was like,
legs, I want to fill theseguys. I'm like, all right,
cool, we gotta battle. Comefilm this. And then New York
City Breakers when we first started doingclubs, I went to school with some

(31:36):
of them and I was like,yo, boom, come on, come
do this battle with us at thisnightclub. Everybody gets paid, you know,
we get paid like fifty dollars orwhatever it was. We're doing what
we did. But you know,it's good to be able to look back
and say, wow, you know, not only was I the first to
perform, you know, on thosekinds of platforms, but I was also

(31:57):
able to open doors for other crews, whether they were our arrivals or not.
Yeah, no, for sure.And that's that's and that's just again
speaking to that nature of of theof the dance and and then bringing all
these different kinds of cultures and allthese different kinds of people from all these
different kinds of walks of life together, and that's just it's a super cool
thing to see, man. Andyou've mentioned it a couple of times about

(32:17):
battling, Like what is what isthe difference if you're just like if you're
just breaking with your boys compared tolike doing it competitively or battling adrenaline and
you and your preparation. And here'sthe crazy thing. Breaking with your boys,
you could come up with some funnystuff, you know, and practicing
and goofing around, you can comeup funny and good stuff. But going

(32:39):
togetst your your your rivals means youknow, there's a there's a threat to
your status. And as men,status is important to us and if that
status is chipped away at or there'san attempt at it by another crew.
You're gonna prepare you going to war, and you want to make sure that

(33:00):
you know that floor is yours untilsomeone takes it from you, and if
they take it from you, youknow, lose it with dignity and go
out like a warrior. Right,But I'm sure that a lot of people
didn't do that though, right.Sometimes no, back then, it's all
we had. It's all we had. We were self disciplined, which was

(33:21):
amazing because we didn't have our parentsteaching us or taking us to some dance
schools. So we knew that asa crew or extended family that we had
to protect the family name. Andif you lost the battle, you know,
you don't want that on you don'twant that on your resume. And
if you do, it better bea good loss. If you know who

(33:46):
Gabriel Risotto was, he doesn't havethe best boxing record, but he had
some of the best ever fights youever watch. You a boxing head,
I love boxing, man, that'smy favorite. Yes, I'll be going
and boxing gym and get off thephone. I mean it's hand in hand
though, Right, it's the sametype of preparation fighting and then breaking love

(34:08):
boxing and baseball my first love beforeor before dance. Yeah, so it's
I mean, yeah exactly, whichis crazy because you've been doing it for
your whole life, so it hitsyou really young then. So I was
supposed to go with with you know, the rest of the kids in my
neighborhood to the Junior Olympics, butsince we didn't my you know, we

(34:29):
didn't have the money. I couldn'tafford the registration. I feel like twelve
fourteen dollars back then, So youknow, I ended up sticking with breaking
after a while because I didn't havethose issues. All you needed with a
pair of sneakers, right, Sometimes, I'm sure there's some people that probably
did it without this pair of sneakers. Trust me, man, how was
that dude? When I would comehome, my mom would be like,

(34:52):
what are you doing out there walkingon rocks all day? Because would be
beat up. I was that kidin the streets who had like, you
know, the back of the thesneaker looking like a mouse. Is right,
it's talking back coming back to me, man, making fun of me.
You know whatever, Everyone got theirshots in on each other. It's
all good. We were. Wewere tough like that. A couple more

(35:15):
questions for crazy Legs. One ofthe ogs and innovators of Breaking, You
mentioned that you weren't able to makeit to the Junior Olympics as a shorty.
But now Breaking is at the twentytwenty four Summer Olympics in Paris.
It's that's the newest edition. Idon't even think almost everybody that I've mentioned
it too didn't even know that it'sa thing. So what, how does

(35:37):
the how does the scoring work?What is the criteria? How is the
Olympic Breaking going to be different thanthan how you were doing it when you
were coming up the Olympic Breaking.Let's be honest, it's the Olympics is
not a thing that's run by blackand brown people, so the edge and
the essence will not be there theway it would normally be. And I
would say that has a lot todo us. Who is though, who

(36:00):
isn't consulting? But by the sametoken, you you know, you want
to wish all these young people thebest. Uh. The unfortunate thing,
well, I don't you know.The unfortunate thing is that Breaking was selected
for the twenty twenty four Olympics.But when the Olympics comes to the United
States. The US Olympic Committee turnsits back on the on the on breaking,

(36:23):
which is crazy because France picks itsomething that doesn't come from its country,
and then when it's the US hasturned, the US turns its back
on it for twenty twenty eight.Uh. So you know, there's the
judging system and all these other thingsthat we would like to see happen.
Matter. Yeah, but only ifit's going to continue, because otherwise it's

(36:45):
just want and done and we haveto continue to make sure that we support,
you know, all these other promoterswho throw events like the uk B
boy chants and all these other events. And uh, you know, I
say this all the time, likepeople have understand that basketball is in the
Olympics, but the Olympics will neverbe the NBA, right the same way

(37:07):
these breakings in the Olympics, butthe Olympics will never be the cultural essence
of what we do as a people. So it's a it's a version of
breaking, but not the breaking thatnot the same spirit and vibe and energy
that you would see if you wentto one of these events, right,
And I can't sit here and saythat I've looked at the judging system and

(37:29):
when it does come to a judgingsystem, how do you account for what
we steel and see as a peoplewhen it comes to soul and vibe and
flavor, Like when you see something, it's like when you hear it beat
Man, you can't you can't figureit out, but it gives you ugly
faith and it's like cool, damn, oh wow, say that again.

(37:51):
It's the same thing with a persondancing and responding to music. You you
kind of like watch them and it'snot You're fine. They all have the
visual dynamics, but there's that oneperson who's who is doing the same thing
as everyone else, but does itso funky and so soulful. And that's
the intangibles that they have to allowfor it to happen that you can't create,

(38:15):
create a name for it, andyou can't create a scoring for it.
It's a hard thing. That's kindof that's when your judges, that's
when your judges have to be asreal as they come. And that's kind
of what I was wondering too,Crazy Legs. It's just like, how
do you how do you even quantifysomething like That's something that's so subjective,
something that's so personal and can meanthe same type of dance or the same

(38:39):
type of music can mean something completelydifferent to one guy as as it is
the next. So that's why Iwas. I was curious, Like,
I'm happy to see it on sucha big stage, but I'm curious as
to how the how that judging iseven gonna work. I feel like things
are gonna get real whacky or afunny style, as y'all call it over
there in New York. It's nevergonna be perfect. But if you have

(38:59):
a person judging who has never dancedon beat but does visually acrobatic, amazing
moves, that person should not bejudging. That person should be dope with
or without the big moves that reallyare visually dynamic. When you have people
like that, judges will look ateach other and not even have to talk
about but we word, we allknow why we chose that person. He

(39:23):
had that factor that you can't explain. And if I got it, it's
like those things. If I gotto explain it to you, you're never
gonna understand exactly. It's something youjust got to feel. Man, it's
just got to be like you said, it's soul. It's not something that
you could really quantify or put anumber on you. Just it's got to
be something that you feel. Let'shope that we could get if it does

(39:43):
get beyond the twenty twenty eight,if it comes back in twenty thirty two
in Brisbane, let's hope we couldget you on the panel judging. Man.
Uh, you know what I'm gonnasay. I'll be honest right now,
The Olympics doesn't really allow for peopleto leverage their situation in terms of
working for Thelympics in a way thatwould benefit them financially. It's very limiting.

(40:04):
I'd rather work outside of it withoutside sponsors or corporations so that I
could be a free agent speak freelybe branded. However, I want not
be subjected to any kind of blackoutswith branding and you know, continue to
elevate my business. We shouldn't haveto shut down business just because of the
Olympics. No, I totally feelthat. And then speaking of that,

(40:27):
you got your Puerto Rican you're proudPuerto Rican. You got an event coming
up in Puerto Rico. You wantto talk about that for No, no,
no, I'm Puerto Rican. Butlet's get one thing straight. But
makes a Puerto Rican is also partof being African. My hair grows into
an Afro for a reason. Mygreat grandmothers are more you know. So
you know, as a Puerto Rican, I like to I always like to

(40:49):
recognize that I am Afro Latino.No, I appreciate that. Man,
I got this. I'm not goingto Afro right now. Man. So
here's the thing. What your questionwas, Oh, oh, my event,
My event. It's an event.It's called Porto rock Steady, Porto
Rock meaning like you know, blackpeople in New York back in the days,

(41:10):
we're called Puerto Ricans Puorto rocks.And then my crew, rock Steady
crew is rock Steady crue. SoI just combined the words and put Puorto
rock steady, you know, becauseit's like the hip hop version. It's
that the hybrid kind of situation whereit's not a Puerto Rican event because you
go there and you see mcas andgraffiti and DJing, but you also see

(41:32):
the environment all of all these Latinoswho are a part of the same community
as as black people, and andit's coming together of all of us.
This isn't about Puerto Rico or anything. Our give back and we call those
a party with a purpose because wedo give back. We help farmers in
Puerto Rico. We're going to begiven to arts communities in Patterson, New

(41:52):
Jersey as well as Houston. Andyou know we have a two percent surcharge
on the check out where of buyingtickets, where one of that money will
be going towards organizations one and youknow we got Big Daddy Kane performing a
lot of legacy artists like Mellie melCraig g Rozel, Supernatural, Cold Crush

(42:19):
Brothers, and our headliners will beannounced next week and I guarantee you hip
hop is fully alive. And whenpeople hear this lineup of headliners, they're
going to be blown away. Man, I'm looking forward to that. Thank
you so much for joining us today, Crazy Legs. I got five hundred
million more questions for you, butwe got to take a break here.

(42:42):
Hopefully we can have you on againsometime. Yeah. Tell them to please
prssis dot com and go get yourtickets for sure, man. And where
can the people find you on socialmedia? Real quick? Crazy Lakes BX
on all platforms. Appreciate you,Crazy Legs. That is Richard Crazy Zy
Legs code on one of the oginnovators of breaking can't wait to see that

(43:05):
at the twenty twenty four Summer Olympics, we got much more around the corner.
This is a nine to noon onthe fan, Max Bullert filling in
for Pa. Find on Mall ofAmerica Street Team all summer long, out
of our events. Ask about theMall of America Mystery Cards where everyone is
a winner and see what will benext. Cafe dot Com keyword Calendar.

(43:28):
Super short segment here because I wentlong. I'm just so fascinated with the
history of hip hop and breakdancing andeverything like that. I went super long
with Richard Crazy Legs Coote on talkingto him about break dancing ahead of the
twenty twenty four Olympics and breakdancing's Olympicdebut. Brett blakemore real quick, What's
something that isn't an Olympic sport?But if it was, you'd be a

(43:50):
gold medalist? Because for me,not just not running track in general.
Now I got a forty yard dashor one hundred yard dash or anything like
that, but specifically running to gocatch the boss when you are late.
I mean like I'm just normally I'mI you know, I'm decently fast,
but what I'm about to be latefor the bus? I turned into Usain
Boat. I mean like it's turningto Spider Man from Spider Man Water.

(44:13):
Basically, it's like people sometimes they'rerunning past people when I'm late for the
bus, and like dang, Idon't know Sonic the Hedgehog grewing afro.
I mean, I'm I'm speedy,man, my legs are doing the Scooby
Doo circles. What's something that's notan Olympic sport that if it was,
you'd be a gold medalist? Well, golf is an Olympic sport. But
if there was an events for hittinga great drive and then shanking your next
shot, a gold medalist at that? Uh yeah maybe maybe with a splash

(44:38):
of e sports. I think Ithink this new game X Defiant I could
I couldn't play, so okay,yeah, all right, I'm working hard.
You the listener, I'm curious whatyour thoughts are. What is something
that isn't an Olympic sport that youwould be a gold medalist? And if
it was in Texas six four sixeight six and Texas, if you have
any questions for Tom Shreyer of zonecoverage dot Com. We're gonna be talking

(45:00):
gonna Heim, about twins, Vikings, and much much more, just around
the corner final hour of nine tonoon, Coming at you next