Honey Rockwell & Orko

In this episode we interview Honey Rockwell and Orko. Honey is a legendary B-girl from the South Bronx who created the first film dedicated to B-girls in the 90s. Orko is a legendary B-boy from California who is also a marine veteran. Honey and Orko have performed around the world on Broadway, in movies and television. They currently own the Rockwell Dance Academy and are proud parents of four children.

We talk about the hunger to battle, touring with "Jam on the Groove", the challenges of parenting and marriage, serving as a Recon Marine and training with the SEAL Team Six, reaching career goals and running a dance studio, and much more.

You can find them here:
www.rockwelldanceacademy.com 
www.facebook.com/RockwellDanceAcademy 
www.instagram.com/rockwelldanceacademy 
www.instagram.com/honeyrockwell 

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Hey there, Candy and Razor here. Before we start the

(00:03):
show, we want to take a momentto thank you for listening and
supporting our podcast. We knowthat this year has been very
challenging for everyone. Manyof us have experienced
loneliness, anxiety, fear, oreven depression, sometimes all
at once. Especially as we allnavigate through the pandemic,
the continued fight againstracial injustice, and the recent

(00:25):
movement against sexualharassment in the hip hop
community. In theseunprecedented times, we strive
to bring you the unique storiesof some of the great
contributors to our culture,with the aim to inspire you and
give you hope. Over the pastseven months, we have been able
to produce 15 episodes whilerelocating overseas, switching

(00:46):
and working full time jobs,parenting a teenager and a
toddler, and expanding ourSoulidarity LLC. Each interview
is researched, edited, scoredwith original music and mastered
to bring you the best quality wecan. We love making souls of hip
hop for you and look forward tobringing you more inspiring
stories and content next year.
If you enjoy listening to ourpodcast, please consider

(01:08):
becoming a member of our showthrough the buy me a coffee link
in our show notes.
Welcome to souls of hip hop, apodcast where hip hop head aims
to bring inspiring peopletogether to share their wisdom
passion story.

(01:30):
My name is Candy. I'm DJ RazorCut, and together we are
Soulidarity - connecting soulsorganically.
Hi fam, on today's show wewelcome Honey Rockwell and Orko.

(01:52):
Honey; Can you describe Orko?
Okay, Orko is crazy. This iswhat I tell everybody. This is
what he told me. Firstgeneration B boy shake city
rockers (SCR), Air Force crewlater then Rocksteady - used to
rock it with Buck4, Kuriyaki.
They came out to LA scouted himout they wanted him to battle
one of their boys, B boy Germanout in New York. And that was

(02:14):
like 1985. he came out there andGerman he wasn't around, right?
Yeah. Oh, did you battle him atfever? Yeah, the devils devils
ness which was later calledfever. It was this club in the
Bronx. He battled him and theywere like, Oh my god, who's that
guy with that crazy power? Andthey were like, yo, that's Orko.

(02:36):
He stayed out there with them intheir apartment for three
months. He was 15 years old,staying out in the Bronx, not
knowing nothing about knowingCrotona Park 108 30 180 30
Crotona, and he doesn't evenknow how his parents let him go.
You know, and he didn't hear theparents never even looked for

(02:57):
him. There were no cops thatwere saying, we even met Tommy.
Nothing. When you laugh You justleft. And you know, when you
came back, you're like, oh,where were you? You know, he was
out there in New York. Andthat's where his name. And
people remembered him. Becauselater on in 94/95, when I met

(03:18):
him, he was brought on to thisshow Jim on the group, which is
where we met. And they kepttalking about this guy, they
needed another power move guideto do the show with us. And they
were like, oh, let's get Orko.
And I was like, Who's Orko. Andthen we went to a b boy summit.
And here comes this guy all inwhite bujo. Yo, hollywood,
hollywood. And he backed it up.

(03:44):
He definitely backed it up. Andhe was amazing. Like he was like
that, like the fastest headspins. And he was doing all this
crazy power move tricks andstuff. And it was a little
different from what I'm used to,you know, in New York, New York
style and flavor. Should Icontinue? You want to continue?
That's perfect. Thank you verymuch. That's okay. You described
me when it's sunny Rockwell,from the Bronx half down. Boogie

(04:07):
Down half Panamanian and PuertoRican Panamanian represent
Panamanian, you know, my friend.
I used to dance for freestyle.
Freestyle, Brenda k star, andthen I did the movie. And then I
blew up.
Yeah, my friend Louis, invitedme over to practice Rocksteady
and then a yo flip your flips.
And my first thing was flipper.

(04:31):
No, it wasn't.
Ah, yeah.
Anyway, I got down withRocksteady. And then you know,
made noise seven, then we've gotdown with seven grandmasters and
then started touring. everywherewe went. People wanted to know
like who were we because we wererocking these like seven

(04:52):
Grandmaster jerseys. And I thinkwe get a little deep. I think
that they that think that put iton the map really also, not that
manyPeople were doing it. And we
were not only doing it we werelike possess, demon possessed
for B boying and hip hop, lovethe underground, I never wanted
to go commercial and public andglamour. It was just something
that you know, connected toeveryone. So man, you felt this,

(05:14):
you live this, you didn't careabout anything else other than
this. We were like programbeings or something. And people
eventually spread even more soto the rest of the world. And
when they saw what we weredoing, man, when you see a kid,
let's say enjoying himself inbasketball and BMX or
skateboarding, like wow, youknow, you kind of want to do
that, or he doesn't sogracefully that, you know, he

(05:35):
makes it almost makes you feellike you could do it too. And I
think that's what was a gamechanger for us. You know what I
mean? That we were doing? Wewere training 24 seven, and then
we're going to the clubs andbattling and dancing to
grooving. You know what I mean?
It was about having a good time.
We didn't even we always talklike, I'm like porco. Do you
remember going to anyrestaurants like an eating? You
know, like, was that importantfor us back in the day? Oh, hold

(05:57):
on. He's gonna kill me. Youknow, we didn't even care about
food whenever we were on thesetours in Singapore, Hong Kong,
Brazil, Japan that wereeverywhere. We never cared about
food. We never cared about, youknow, do I have medical
insurance? Would it have thatadult mentality? You know, we're
just all you want to doeverywhere we went. We were
practicing in the in the hotellobbies. We didn't even go

(06:17):
anywhere. We never thought aboutfood. And back then there was no
monster there was no Gatorade.
There was even Advil.
gin saying we had littlecapsules, Tiger Balm. We had a
lot of Tiger Balm. We wereintroduced really early into
chiropractic care and massagetherapy. And honestly, we didn't
even drink back then. We weren'tdrinking. We didn't do nothing.

(06:41):
I mean, one drink we got toreup. Yeah, that you know that
footage that you see of usthrowing down for the seven gyms
in that nightclub. That was thefirst time I think we took
shots. I think we took like twoshots, all of us. And we were
all like drunk with two shots.
That's how lightweight in our inour cleaner system was that? We
never ever, we never thoughtabout that. So we thought that
stuff was like losers. You knowwhat I mean? We just wanted to

(07:03):
like, just train and battle, wewere afraid that we were gonna
go to a city and get taken out,you know, because everybody
would step to you, you know, andyou had to come correct. And
since we were I guess theambassadors or this dance, we
had to kill it. Like, it had tobe on some amazing stuff. Every
time you go down with can be onsome regular stuff, you have to
demonstrate that you had thecontrol. You had the grace, he

(07:24):
had the finesse, he had thespeed, you could slow it up,
speed it up, and then flip itand then land that freeze. You
know what I mean? It's just thewhole vocabulary of dance. And
so the pressure was up for us.
And I don't think we cared aboutanything else. Rent was cheap.
Life was cheap. Back then gaswas cheap. Food was cheap. Milk

(07:44):
was like $1 a gallon. But on apizza, we were able to Yeah, we
were able to travel the worldand not worry about financially,
we're getting paid prettydecent. They were taking care of
our flights, everything. So itwas it was a good time. And a
lot of fun. It was like it wasbrand new. It was the comeback
again, because it was somethingthat was old school that
everybody would say and then andthen to actually bring it back,

(08:08):
and then have even more fun withit. And then we were at the
right place at the right time.
People were like, Oh, you know,Oh, you guys are back out then
like these guys, were gettingall these opportunities like to
go on MTV grind and get offeredall these up.
Just filled the whole dream.

(08:31):
Oh my god. Anyway, anyways, butyeah, it was I had a lot of fun,
you know, a lot of goodmemories, a lot of craziness,
too. I mean, I was younger atthe time, and I was going
through my stuff. And I was justliving free at the moment, you
know, just kind of like takingthe opportunities and see where
it was gonna take me and jumpingon them. And the one thing I

(08:53):
loved was the training. I lovethe training and I loved I was
with the crema the Crim andbeing able to do what I love.
Yeah, it was awesome to betrained by the guys that were
teaching me these guys were likethe legends. These were the, you
know, pioneers of this dance,the creators of this culture and
death. So it was so awesome tobe rolling with these guys. And

(09:17):
it was so contagious. That, youknow, me getting down. I was at
the right time at the rightplace. And I was able to get
these opportunities also, youknow, because yeah, there wasn't
a lot of females back then doingit. So they, me being able to be
part of that. Yeah, you know, alot of it. Yeah, she's a girl.
Let's put her down. I had tolearn, you know, from scratch,

(09:40):
you know, a six step, thedifferent terminology because
I'm from that era, and I had a Ihad a backspin in my gymnastics
routine all the time. I even didit on the balance beam, believe
it or not, I would do like ahalf the head spin and catch on
the balance beam. And I would doback spins all the time. I just
have to be careful because ifyou get a wedgie, then you got
to leotard.
in gymnastics, you can't pick itout, or else you get points

(10:02):
deducted. So in a high schoolgymnastics competition, it's the
worst because you got the hoodlooking at you. And the
competition is like, Oh my god,you know, I was like, do I have
to do the backspin? But I had?
No, no, but it was a lot of fun.
I mean, so much fun that likehow many years later, 30 years

(10:23):
later, I'm still doing it. Youknow, for me, I saw the whole
growth of the culture from frombeing underground. And just, it
was just life, it was no faddisor this, it was just life, you
know, when people are trying tocome up or have a good time, or
show others a good time. Andthen it became like a business
or became, it became something,then MCs were getting paid. And

(10:43):
then the dancers started gettingconnections and contacts. And it
was just, it went from nothingto something, you know, and then
it just kept growing. And whenwe did the Off Broadway, and
then we got a producer dance onBroadway and movies. And it just
became something and now it'sdown to below. Boy, it's just
incredible how the growth ofthis hip hop evolution. And

(11:04):
we're still here, we're stilldoing it with a studio keeps us
in the mix, you know, becausewhat's cool with the studio is
is that you know, we have allthese little kids. So we get to
reintroduce the birth of hip hopevery day. So every time a new
kid comes into the studio, it'slike, well, this is how it
started. This is top rock, thisis a corkscrew is the transition

(11:27):
from the top to the bottom, thisis some basic rounds of how you
go around in a circle called sixstep or CCs is how you go from
one, you know, to and this is apower move. It's so much fun to
be able to show these kids andthey're like minds are like,
they get hungry too. You know,they get so excited and want to
do more and get even, you know,get better and train and they

(11:49):
get that fire in their eyes. Soit's like, it's hard to stop.
They keep pulling us back in. Idon't even know now I'm on the
air. Hmm, I'm a hit the big fiveoh, in September, and I thought
I could do something else. AndI tried. I was like, maybe I'll
do a Photoshop. And I liketaking pictures. I think I'm a

(12:11):
great photographer. And when Itried Photoshop, like Corona
started, I was like, I'm gonnabe a photographer, I threw the
whole thing out the window. Iwas like, I am not doing No, no
Photoshop, I'm gonna stay in mylane. I am meant to just be a
teacher. And that's it. Becausethat's, um, you know, what the
but I think for us even beinvolved still in the scene, you

(12:31):
know, because we really love it.
You know, there's some peoplethat have come into the scene,
they fell in love with it, orthey want to do something new,
something different. And thenafter you know that flame, just
fade it down. And then they'renot even doing it the more you
know, I mean, I really love it.
I really believe in it. You knowwhat I mean? for the kids what
it does for the youth, that'sthey're at an age in their life

(12:51):
where they're like, they don'tknow what they want to do, or,
or they don't want to doanything. You know, I mean, it's
just too much pressure of life.
18 right, get it out of thehouse, go to college. I don't
know, I don't know, if I want togo to college, you know, you
just don't know. And for them tohave something nice to connect
to and show them a good time orhelp out with their self esteem
and their growth. I was a shynervous kid. So this thing

(13:14):
helped me and for some peoplethat have come into it and then
just faded and that's not doingit completely. It's kind of hard
to believe because you put somuch time and sweat and blood
and tears and it's just likeanything else, you know, just
like boxing or just likemeditation or just one. Remember
resume book came out? You knowwhat I mean? It is it's an
amazing culture. Not from it.
You'll be going it'll be thebest workout of life. Oh, yeah,

(13:35):
I mean, I could be easily if Igo to the gym. You know, I can
look nice, but really try tobreak. Sorry, buddy. You can't
even do a flare. You can't evendo a handstand. You need finger
form back shoulders last tries.
You need everything to be bornyou know what I mean to are
bigger throw down. It's the mostultimate workout ever, man no

(13:55):
joke than the stamina and thecontrol Jesus so well. He loves
still doing it. You know, hewants to battle. He really likes
to go in.
And look at some of us men, youknow, or she's also a
competitor. She loves to battlelittle cash. Grab on anybody,
right? So it's just thatcompetitive spirit. You get rid

(14:17):
of that? Or you're 50 years old.
You don't have to go to the newyou know, anything. Flow Valley
for me. It's life is life thatsays I don't you know, I thought
it would come down or go intofishing or bird watching. Oh,
no. You know what I mean? Ican't, I can't I just have too
much fire. You can do that.
Well, what's interesting is likemy daughter, Amanda, she just

(14:40):
got married. She's 28. Shegraduated college, went into a
career. She's she is now in thecareer that she went to college
for marketing and advertisingworks for a company. And I'm
still doing what I did beforeshe was born 28 years ago, like
I had my parentsTelling me oh you're still doing
that. Now my kids are telling meyou're still doing though like

(15:04):
this is awesome what else am Igonna do you know like this is
it I might as well embrace it.
I've dedicated so many years toit. So why not like you know, I
could be stocking at Walmart orI could be going into like
working at McDonald's be like hiCan I help you How can I take
your Would you like some frieswith that shake but what we're

(15:24):
doing with you we've invested somuch time why not make this
great? Make breaking great againyou know what I'm even for you
guys I know you guys are acouple and you guys on the same
path as we are and what's themost beautiful thing of course
this this this coaches movingneeds also the representatives
that people that do look up tous look, we do have a house we

(15:45):
do have a studio we have nicecars. We put all our four kids
through college. Do we got fourkids now using college? No.
No, we're rolling. We just got anice car finally. We're in a
Mercedes and we're doing goodand life. And for yo he's a B
boy and he's a big girl. Theygot down on the floor just like
me, you know? I mean, they coulddo it. I could I could do it. Yo

(16:07):
yo there's got to be I wouldlove to see you know what I
mean? I like driving the van ifthose people because if I want
to go to the lake I don't wantdirty the Mercedes. I want to
drive. Oracle is not video it'swith audio. No, you know what,
um, so for me, I would haveloved to see that all white guy.
Jam. No, no, you know what? Sowhen I was a kid when we went to
Las Vegas to do those shows werebooked for karaoke and ours. We

(16:30):
stayed at Um, I think we said asugar pop sells most of the time
some of the time and then he'lltell me Mr. Freeze, but Mr.
Freeze and sugar pop, weredancing on the show called
splash at the Riviera Hotel andCasino. And sugar pop had a
brand red new trans-am, youknow, brand new, we're hanging
out with them was sugar pop, thephone rang and it was laying

(16:52):
around. She called me him. Youknow what I mean? And it was
like, he's got had money andthey're a generation before me
or a little older. And I waslike, wow, you and I mean, they
had nice apartments, nice cars.
A nice life. They were they'reflying around everywhere they
did Captain EO with MichaelJackson, door tour with Miko, so
all this stuff, and I was like,wow, you know, it wasn't that. I
didn't see a mess naughty orshowing up. But it was dope to

(17:14):
see, hey, that's my reward atthe end of the tunnel when you
have to be just like them, too.
You know what I mean? I couldget some certain things and
certain connections or shows.
And I did Thank God. Yeah. Whatwas your first impression of
honey rock? Well, you know what?
When I first saw honey, and shethrew down, she was she's

(17:34):
actually young and she was stillyoung in the game. I saw her
hungry. You know, right away.
Actually, this was at thepractice for gem on the groove.
I think we had like a two weekrehearsal before the actual
show. And right away, she wantedto learn power moves. And I was
trying to help her to learn morepower moves. And what happened I
just saw her hungry. And it wasdope to see a girl that we you
know what I mean? That waswilling to, to get down and

(17:56):
dirty and the roughness of thepower moves. So right away, I
mean, I think that's what we allwe're all good friends. You know
what I mean? We were on thatsay, don't get me wrong. He
didn't give me props for a longtime. A lot of them did it.
Like, because she was new, youknow, I mean, to have a package
together, you know what I mean?
A new person credit, whatever.
But these guys, none of theseguys wanted to give me the time

(18:18):
of day they would. They made mereally, really train and then I
think we went to a club, I madeher better. We went to a club
and we were dancing all nightand going from club to club and
throwing down and throwing downand it's like, four, four
o'clock in the morning. And mehim and Flowmaster we were
riding the trains, like fouro'clock in the morning, coming
back from the club. My knees arebusted up. We're all like

(18:39):
sweaty, nasty. We're on thetrain platform. And he goes, You
know what, honey? Now I'm gonnagive you your props. Now, this
was like after jam on thegroove, two years traveling on
the plane. And then after theclub, the club night often all
those years. Now you get yourprops.

(19:02):
Oh, wait, whatever. Oh, yeah, wewe like, club hop to New York.
And she's also when she's in herzone. She's on fire. Oh, she's
an aggressive person. She's,she's out there. You know, I
mean, and I that night, youknow, we were battling, you
know, left and right, everybodyand hard. And she threw down
every single time and after thatwhole night, I was like, Yo,

(19:24):
this girl could freakin hang up.
I mean, I got to give her herprize. Finally, you know, I
mean, she. She brought itcorrect. You know? I mean, she
didn't do it. There's some biggirls out there that are
I still don't give them props tothis day.
And that's why that's when thetwinkle when I did my backspin.
The twinkle in his eye cameabout right. Okay.

(19:47):
So you guys jam through and thenGemma and the group ends and
some short time after everyonesort of goes their separate
ways. Marco you went and youwere a marine. Yeah, you know
what elseI was a marine before that's
right after the whole breakingthing, the whole first wave in
the 80s right after high school,I graduated and went into the
Marine Corps during the firstGulf War, which is Desert Storm.

(20:10):
Man, it was like, somebodypicked me up from Los Angeles,
and put me in another planet. Iwas nothing but military people
military lifestyle. And not onlymilitary, I was a Marine, I was
a recon marine. You know, I waslike, with the most craziest,
the most toughest individualsthat that I'll ever meet, I had

(20:31):
to always prove myself, I got togo to jump school. I got to go
via certified Navy Diver I callfor air support to have planes
or artillery people drop bombsand trim Okay, to me, I was
really in it. We did some, a lotof training, jumping on
helicopters, you name it, we didit. That's what recon is about.
And it was a whole nother likelife. Like if I died and was

(20:54):
born again, you know, andthat's, that's what I was
really, really into. And, youknow, what I something that I've
always also, you know,appreciate it and it's, it's a
good time of my life. You knowwhat I mean? That I got to prove
myself, you know, for thecountry that has been so good to
me all these years. You know, Imean, it feels good that some
people here like, Trumpsupporters and all that drama
here in the United States. AndI'll ask them, did you serve

(21:16):
your country? If you love yourcountry that much? No. Well, I
did. So shut up. Come on. Sothat was a whole life and that
felt good. Like I said, all thetime to represent B boying, you
know, and another light I killthis guy was a recon Marine,
who, if you guys know anythingabout the military, just the
Marine Corps is hard enough. Andif you, you know, if you ask him
what a recon marine is, is like,yo, B, what Orca was a recon

(21:38):
Marine, you know, that's insane.
It's really, really insane. Sowe did train with the SEAL Team
Six, and the Philippines off ofa longer pole. And what have
you, but you know, your boy wasthere. I mean, I was all the
time representing you know,100%. Honey, how does that make
you feel? Knowing that aboutthat he better represent

(22:01):
because, you know, sometimes outhere in Kennesaw, they they have
gun laws here that you couldhave guns, and we don't have one
and I'm like, Orko you're amarine recon, where's the gun?
He's like, I don't need a gun.
Let's try to come into thishouse. Please, please.
And then we were like hiking inthe mountains one time. And he

(22:24):
got us lost. And he's looking upin the sky, waiting for the
north and south star to comeabout. And I'm like, the bears
in the Bronx will come and eatyour butt out. Anybody want to
follow me? We out? You'd have tolook at the sun. The sun sets in
the west. Follow the sun. That'sit.
I got us out. Yeah. Okay, I gotus out.

(22:45):
So Marine, what marine?
represent. She knows all thesemarine benefits, though, guys.
All the time. Yeah, he's aveteran. He's a veteran. Do you
take military discount?
parks that are impaired? Oh, wegot um, you know, that's how we
got our house. We got throughthe Marine Corps, you know, VA

(23:06):
home loan, it was almostnothing, I didn't really give
much down. So the military hasbeen good to me, you know,
because being a veteran of thiscountry, there have been in many
ways, if I want to go to the VAhospitals, you do get medical
for life. And also I told her ifI die, I could be allowed to be
buried at the military funeral,a nice burial for free. So it's

(23:27):
all covered, you know, I mean,so she knows. I'm not covered.
So I'm doing a GoFundMe. So heasked me Oh,
yeah, sorry. Sorry. You got it.
But yeah, no, it's it's awesome.
We battle all that all day long.
But at the end of the day, welove this guy just right now,
all day. This is what we gothrough. I think that's what

(23:48):
keeps his relationship. dope.
And especially for that WestCoast. You don't I mean, that.
West Coast, East Coast, WestCoast, East Coast, all that we
are. Oh my god, he wants WestCoast music on I want East Coast
music. I want like Tribe CalledQuest. He wants like Snoop Dogg.
So of course, we're alwaysbattling that. As a family. We
have Christmas coming up soon.

(24:11):
What kind of fun traditions Doyou have as a family?
We can take out Christmas andwe're going to the beach. No, we
did that a couple of times. Butthere's this place here in
Georgia called Stone Mountain.
We used to take the kid all thetime. Dude is like the biggest
rock on Earth. It's so stupid.
He won't get bolder that youcould almost put buildings on it

(24:35):
and everything. And you go outthere and they've got the fake
snow and they've got the PolarExpress movie and all this stuff
is like family ish. And it wasvery flying over you. Yeah,
that's an Oracle type of winterthing. I want to take him skiing
like in the Poconos mountains,Oracle's la like I can't even go
skiing and I used to go crosscountry skiing skiing, I could

(24:58):
snowboardI love all of those went today
and he was like, if I'm gonnaget a week off vacation, it's
gonna be to the beach. Yeah, theski mountains. Yeah, he's like
we are not doing. I'm not doingwith the cold. No. I live in
what you do for what we do forlove you I was in the Bronx
where they had a storm of thecentury all the cars recovered

(25:20):
in the 90s. Remember that?
And, yeah, I was like, I don'tknow why people want to live
here.
I don't understand.
You can walk outside and die.
This is not the place togo. Look at this. Hello. It is
for the snow for me because Iwent we had a house in New
Jersey. And it snowed. And Ididn't know if you don't take

(25:43):
the snow off. It turns into iceon your driveway. And then it's
okay. It's super dangerous. Sothen I bought I bought salt. I
found the bag in our basement ofsalt. We had salt and I got that
bag and poured it. He poured thewhole bag on one spot to
sprinkle it like bird feedingdough. He's not he's not a

(26:04):
winter boy. He's not an EastCoast coast. Boy. You know what
if I slip right on this drivewayon this ice and hit my head. No
one's gonna see me in fourhours. I'm dying from
hypothermia or two hours. I'mdead. Who wants to know where he
could die that says nobody. He'sgonna leave us. He was gonna
leave us and go to go back toCalifornia. He's like, we
barbecue where we come from,like, we go and hang out. We

(26:27):
barbecue and I'm like in anigloo, like in his little house
in Jersey, when he was like,I'll send for you guys back. No,
you know what, there was theseicicles I've never seen. I
thought it was just likeDisneyland. stuff. These big
like two foot or three foot longicicles that were on the side of
the houses. You know, if thosethings fall and hit you in the
head, dude, you're dead. You'redead. I was like, no, we're not

(26:50):
supposed to live here. Humansare supposed to live in this
condition.
No, I'm sorry. Yeah, you'regonna tell me you don't want my
family's back in LA right now.
Party, barbecuing, you know,chillin, going to Downtown
Disney going to the mall?
washing your car, putting newtires, you know, cruising.

(27:11):
Yeah, I couldn't believe it. Andthat's why and that's how we
ended up. We ended up inGeorgia, we were gonna go to
Florida. But Atlanta has alittle cold here. And you got
the seasons. And it's neutralground for both of us. We didn't
go to a area where everybodyknows honey, or everybody knows
me or all her family. You knowwhat I mean? This is neutral for

(27:31):
both of us. So we bothYeah, we will have no friends.
Only five and 10 year oldstie with each other to make it
happy and fun and differenthere. Interesting.
have any advice for families?
You know what? I eat drinks alot? No.

(28:02):
Don't lie.
No, you know, I think just kidskids in general when they become
teenagers are freaking truesnotty. You know what I mean?
That no attitude, like you'renot cool. No more their music is
better than your music. Or theymight even be stronger than you
for some reason. Like, dude. No,no, you're getting it twisted.

(28:22):
For me, though. I'm a people.
I'm a kid person. I love kids,people and keeps you like with
that kid mentality. You knowwhat I mean? You still want to
ride a bike, you still want tochew gum and blow a bubble. You
know, you want to still dothings because of the the
usefulness of B boying and, um,what's the point?
The advice?

(28:43):
I think you know what?
Yeah, he thought,Oh, no, I think that
I think the kids at the studioalso fulfills us has been around
kids. So you know what I mean,that blended family. It's all
good. I just can't wait for themto leave now. Because they're
all they're all successful.
They're all good. Now. I can'twait for just a for me, my wife

(29:03):
just to be alone, really. Andwell, it's weird because, you
know, we're in this place. Ourkids are 1822 and 28. We went
like, for example, to be thisage, this perks of having kids
at an earlier age, right becausewe were able to the other day,
he goes randomly Hey, I got hegot offered a job opportunity in

(29:26):
like Valdosta it's like maybetwo and a half hours away. And I
was like, okay, it was likeSunday to Sunday to Tuesday. And
I was like, Well, I I havepeople at the studio that could
cover for me. Analia has a cardog. He has a car. I was like,
Okay, I'll go with you. Theycould watch the dog. Let's go.
So we left and we had a blast.

(29:49):
Like, he went to work. He did goto work that day. I was alone
for the first time in my life. Icould do whatever I want. I got
up. I took awalk to the mall, it was walking
distance. I had coffee, we metfor lunch, I did whatever I
wanted, and I was free. I waslike, I can't believe it, I'm
free. So there is an end point,they do still live with you, you

(30:13):
know, especially if it'sGeorgia, and they have these
nice houses or whatever, theydon't leave, they don't have no
debt. And there's a pandemic,they really not gonna leave. But
I guess the advice is make surethey have cars, cell phones,
make sure they have a job,because then you could be like,
Oh, you could pay for yourstuff. You can still live here.
But we leave now they stay inthe house, we break out also,

(30:36):
you know what my a call is?
Like, where are you? When areyou coming home. They're always
calling us now. Also my dad, mydad, my two older sisters are
from another dad. You know whatI mean? I saw my dad raised all
four of us were four total haveone brother and two sisters. And
my dad was was loving was fairwas, you know, with all four of

(30:57):
us. So when I became that man,also that had kids, you know,
when my dad brought her kids, Iwas the same way, you know what
I mean? So he was an example forme. And of course, my mom always
tells me that, you know, it'snot the kids fault. You know
what I mean? Anything, kids arekids, they're just any love. And
they're neutral. You know what Imean? Because the x is a
bonehead or an asshole orwhatever. That doesn't mean the

(31:20):
kid is like that the kids isjust just loving. That's all
they want love. My dad did it.
And I could do it to me. And Itell these kids all that I want
at the end of the day, you know,I've spoiled all of them run. I
just want them to say that I wasa good man. I didn't come into
this family and say, I'm doneyour dad now. And you then my
role in this house? No, I'mtheir friend. I'm cool. I've
blessed them. I've taken them onnice vacations. You know,

(31:40):
they've all got cars, they'veall had cell phones, since they
were in their teenage years. Youknow, I've spent a lot of money
on them and giving them a lot oflove and guidance and what have
you. And I just want them to sayI was a good man. That's it.
There's the dance side theculture. And then there's the
family like, Okay, well, how didhow does this blend, work
together? It's kind of separatedthough, because they don't have

(32:03):
anything to do with what we do.
Now you're used to, and sheworks the lobby now it's a job
like I have to pay her to cometo the studio, my own kid. But
I'm like, if you want your car,you need to work and earn to
drive this car and get your owngas and your own car insurance.
But it's like pulling teeth withher. like she'd rather work

(32:24):
another job doing the samething. She's working at a gym as
the reception lobby girl. Andthat's what she's supposed to do
at Rockwell Dance Academy. Butit's different, right? And I pay
her car and her insurance. Butthat's the that's about the only
thing they have to do with artdance in our culture. And it's
totally separate. Oh, we we diddo a family dance all together.

(32:47):
For the wedding. I couldn'tbelieve that's a dream come true
for me. My kids were in thewedding were able to dance. And
actually it was a tribute dancefor kid Dynamo. Because that was
like her uncle. You know, shewas like, What do we do? Do I
you know, who do I dance with?
Like, I want to dance with youfor your mother daughter dance.
I want to be the one that danceswith you like, wait a minute,
let's all dance. And we will doget up off of that thing with

(33:09):
James Brown. What kid Dynamo,you know in a church? He goes,
yes, let's do it. That wasprobably the last time I'm ever
gonna be able to have somethinglike that happen in life. I'm
glad they recorded it. But itwas pretty awesome for me.
Definitely. You know what Imean? This woman has you know
what? The reason that I fell inlove with her and the kids. This
is the number one reason isbecause when they saw their kid

(33:31):
her kids, they were all wellbehaved. A woman or kids. You
know those those kids thatyou're all having all? You know?
My kid? Yo, he's bergerie kidsrunning around and crashing and
you're like, ah nothing youknow. Thank you very much. The
fact that they were eight enoughYo, I think that was a big

(33:54):
selling point. He did the manyou know why she potty like Oh
honey, train them and trick themyo when Oracle's around behave.
Ready good. Okay, kids.
We want him that Yo, step daddy.
Uh huh. He's got benefit Yo, hea veteran? Oh, yeah. Good milk.
We'll get that Kroger milk.

(34:19):
Yes, the pay dues for it though.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. So you know, little birds.
That's when the little burgerssticking their mouth out when
the mom comes with the food.
That's how I feel they all are.
Including the dog.
Even the birds the birds areasking for bird like he might he

(34:40):
feeds the birds outside but anice bird feeder. Yeah, he's I
forgot to bring bird feel likethe birds outside. Just throw
them some bread. No, you gottabuy bird foot bird food for the
birds outside. Including thebirds. You know how he is
getting with the barbecues? Yep,yeah, he's still good.
It can't wait for you guys tocome over, man, thank god

(35:03):
everything's, you know, the dustis settling and in our life in
the kid's life and I think we'rein a good place right now thank
God, you know me, her and Ican't believe that we're in this
position right now. We're notspecial people this is that
we've just been focused, we'vebeen family driven, and we do
fear God, if we're misbehaving,what have you. And I think, you
know, we're just thankful,thankful to life because so many

(35:24):
people now, I've lost so manyfriends, and so many people are
dying left and right every daynow that I'm like, yo, you know
what, I don't have time fordrama and problems and this and
that. It's just have fun. Let'shave fun. You know what I mean?
That's what it's all about.
Yeah. What piece of advice wouldyou give your younger self, I
have a lot of advice.

(35:44):
You know, what I think, for mejust also have that that second
plan, you know, that plan B, orinvest in some stocks, some long
mutual stock, just so you couldhave that as a backup. My son,
my young, you know, he, um, heknew about Bitcoin when it first
came out. And he kept bugging metold me to pull out some money
and buy some Bitcoin. And he waslike, eight years old, eight or

(36:05):
nine years, I was like, thislittle kid doesn't know
anything. So I think I gave him100 bucks. And then he bought
some Bitcoin. And think not to,he made a couple $100 from it,
but this is a long time ago,when the things were like a
penny or 10 cents, or it wascheap. So I totally cash it out,
cash out, that's it, you know,you made some money before it
plummets again, had I not had Ilistened to this kid, this kid

(36:29):
would have been a multimillionaire by now. He's gonna
be a million awareness, hegraduated. And he's the first to
get accepted into the, to workfor Apple. And he's working for
Apple as a software engineer, asa software engineer. So yeah,
he's doing good. Yeah, createdall kinds of apps. But I think
for my younger self, I would sayjust maybe also, um, I've done

(36:51):
them pretty good, I put moneyaside, I plan my life out, I do
a balance the hype of the dance,or the Hollywood of the fame of
this with reality, too, youknow, and I come from a poor
country from a poor backgroundfrom Nicaragua. So that doesn't
let me in my head gets swole andblow up. And I always know that
the music is going to stop andthe party's gonna be over, and

(37:11):
you're gonna have to go home,all exhausted, and then how
these ladies look when thelights come on.
So I just keep life balance, Ithink you know, what they use, I
think also have also likeanother thing that you could
also transition to, that keepsfeeding your ego keep feeding

(37:32):
your drive keeps challenging youin life, you know, also not just
going to something real boring,that's totally opposite that
will you don't get that rush,you know what I mean? To live to
have a something to look forwardto. And mine is Be brave, be a
lot stronger in decision making.
And it's okay to say no,definitely, because I always
knew I was going to be involvedin like teaching and I love

(37:54):
teaching back then go tocollege, and finish and get a
degree and you know, the stuffthat I that I need now, for
business, you know, being abusiness owner accounting, you
know, just all the things thatyou need to do to run a
business. That stuff that wasn'ttaught, no one told me about
that. And now I'm learning itand I feel like it's taking me a

(38:15):
lot longer to be a lot moresuccessful on the business side,
then, you know, with this DataStudio, then just loving the
loving it and just doing it justbecause I love it. But I mean, I
feel I'm blessed. I think Godworks in mysterious ways. And
he's blessed me with somebodythat likes working a nine to
five job.

(38:36):
So I can have fun and hang outwith little kids all day. Yo,
you know, I just thought ofsomething for my younger self.
If I could tell myself anythingfrom my hip hop edge on my
powerheads Yo, don't go for thatcrazy head spin on that concrete
floor. Take off that littlebuttons on top of that, that hat
because guess what? You're gonnago bald.

(38:59):
Yo, don't Don't do it. Don't doit. Shave your hair. shave your
head. You're already bald and Ishould have taken care of my my
scapula.
be disciplined. Eat rightexercise.
No Fritos and monster.
But in the end, it was just tosay to yourself, it's gonna be

(39:23):
okay, knowing now where I'm at,and everything I've been
through. just telling myselfyou're gonna be okay. You've got
this. guys knew each other backin the day. How did you
reconnect and how did thatfriendship turn into romance?
You know what I uh, first ofall, we were

(39:44):
for the whole, you stop. Youstop don't
know. I saw there was a jamgoing on in Maryland. And
Flowmaster and her were thejudges of that jam. And I was
gonna sneak up to that event andI was like, Yo, what are you
It'd be dope. If three of thegrandmasters got together in
that same building because weall had this first, you know

(40:05):
what I mean? Nobody knew wherenobody was really at. And I was
like, okay, so I flew myself outto that event to meet up with
honey and flow. And, you knowwhat honey, and I, it was like,
time didn't pass by everythingjust picked up where I left off.
We were great friends. I mean,we think the same. We train the
same. I think a lot of, youknow, we're both Latinos, we

(40:28):
have had that. Also that Latinocultural background, there's
just so much things that clickin between both, we're both
bughouse We both love to alwayslike laugh and have a good time.
I can't see like being serious.
So I think that's what really,um, and then 14 Apple martinis
later asked me to go to Vegas.
chata like, saw me off my phone.
Seven o'clock on the truck. Igot my cup up cruising the

(40:52):
streets.
Mm hmm. And then real, pretty,pretty little thing that's
waiting for me.
Oh my god, I got plans to put myhand in places and ever seen
girl. You know what? I needAmerican Idol. Girl. You're

(41:16):
going to Hollywood?
Oh my gosh. So you know what Ithink also, at that time, I went
through almost a horribledivorce, like pain and suffering
like I've never experienced inmy life. I've been chased by
gangs. I've been in gang fights.
I was in the Marine Corpsgetting screamed at all this
stuff. You know, just thestruggles and the real hardness
of life. You know, and then thatdivorce was like, unlike

(41:38):
anything, unlike anything andbrought out the animal and you
brought up it just felt like theworst suffering that I've ever
felt. You know what I mean? WhenI met up with honey, she had
gone through her trials andtribulations also. And I think
both of us got together and weboth help heal each other. Well,
cuz I told him, I was like, Idon't want to be with a B boy.
No more. No, no, I'm not tryingto be with you. You're a B boy.

(42:02):
You're gonna be on tour. Nope,nope. And he was like, I'm not a
B boy. I'm a man, ooh,whatever. And then a couple of
weeks later, he shows up with asuitcase. And he was like, this
could be fun. And that's what hetold me. Because I was really in

(42:22):
denial was like, No, this is Ican't do this again. No, I don't
want to do this. It's like, comeon, this could be fun. And then
when he said those words, allthe memories, like the tours, US
bugging out, us having a goodtime. I'm like, could I be with
this man? 50 years, you know,100 years from now? Like, where

(42:42):
do I see myself with this guy?
Where do I see an all I saw?
This is the pitch I promise.
This is what happened. Whatclicked in my head, I saw me in
him on the beach, drinking aCorona, and just talking about
breaking and just like the goodold days or whatever, that alone
was enough for me to say I do.
And I was like, I could do wecould do this. And And sure

(43:05):
enough, every time I you know, Italked to him. I'm like, when
he's being a bad boy. I'm like,this is not fine. This is not
fine. Okay, yeah. So you know,you promise me This is gonna be
fun. As promised, we have agreat, happy, fun life. It was
it was hard. You know, like wedid all the touring. We did, I
don't know, if we could reversetime. And if it would have

(43:26):
worked with us being in theentertainment world. And it's
hard, it's hard. You have toreally, you know, there's a lot
of debt, a lot of temptation.
There's a lot of things thathappen. When you're on the road
and the type of world we're inwith clubs and music and drink
alcohol and everything that'saround, you know, it was really
hard. I don't know how thatwould have worked 20 years ago.

(43:49):
But now we got stopped, likewe're more family style. My kids
are older. And they kind ofneeded more stability and
consistency and Oracle comingin, you know what he wanted
still to have that familylifestyle. He wanted to do the
Disney chips. He wants to dothat. And that's what I wanted,
and it just clicked. And then westill get down, you know, like
to a point with, you know,having the studio and I think

(44:11):
that was something that was newfor him to be a teacher and to
be involved with that. But hewas able to, like fit in, you
know, and know, like, well, whatare you doing? Like he when I
would teach classes, he'd belike, he became my show and tell
y'all how to get him to give himmy player card. You know, I'm
saying, doggy. I was like, thekids all the kids will be like

(44:32):
head, head spin heads. Andthat's how we got kids to sign
up for classes. Mm hmm.
But you know what the also thebeautiful thing with honey is
that it's crazy because we couldbe in a five star hotel, or we
could be at a monkey and she'sstill the same person. I thought
that was special coming intothis relationship. She didn't
know the background that I had.
With the Marine Corps, mybenefits and my work ethics. I

(44:54):
was already a technician workingwith the natural gas industries,
anything fromPutting it underground natural
gas lines to, to responding toemergencies, working with
restaurants, industrialWhatever. I'm already I've
mastered that trade in thatfield. She didn't know none of
this stuff, you know. So when wegot together a little house in
New Jersey, I wasn't evenworking. And I was I Oh boy,

(45:16):
here we go again. Fixing stuff.
Got a job. Yeah, I had moneythough.
I should have fixed the stuffaround the house. And she's
like, yo, how do you know how todo that stuff? You know, I mean,
she didn't know. And I just wantit for me. Really. It was like a
time of trials and seeing whatyou know, she was in it for
really for me, you know, becauseif I would have brought all this

(45:37):
stuff and showered her withgifts and this and that and told
her I got this job. I could dothis. I could do all that. Look.
Oh my god. You know, I wantedher to love you for me. You know
what I mean? Not till after Iwas like, yo, when my money
started running out, she's like,what are you gonna do? You got
to get a job. And I was like,Don't worry, I'll get a job. And
she was like biting yourfingernails. You know, cuz we're
almost down to that last check.
That was supporting three kidsby myself. I was like, Well,

(45:58):
what? What's up? And then guesshow you like me now? Oh, now I
take full advantage of it.
And no, it's the it's stillwomen with we're a team. We're a
team. We bust our asses. We'restill busting our asses. We have
these kids are boujee our kidsthink that they're the
Kardashians right now. You knowwe bought an I have this one.

(46:21):
She's a she works a planet fit.
She's like, please get meStarbucks, please. So me Noriko.
Go get her Starbucks. And we wewere like, we'll go get Waffle
House. You know for us.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we it's cool.
It's a blessing. I feel blessed.

(46:41):
I don't think I could date abanker. You know what I mean? Or
like, like a regular girl, youknow? I mean, she won't
understand she won't understandthat. Find that lingo that
flavor. You know what I mean?
When you get some new ideas? Youdon't I mean, are you get that
matching outfit? like, Yo, I'mthe sheriff out. Sure
understand, you know what Imean? It just won't, it won't
click, it just won't. So this isbeautiful. I met someone that
knows what I love feels what Ifeel. He's also I think she's,

(47:03):
you know, caliente Hot Tamale.
So, you know, he's trying towork his point. He's trying to
work the points. So youmentioned an interesting point
that you were able to heal eachother? Yep. can both of you kind
of describe what you do tomaintain help? Like both
physically, but also mentally?
Yeah, you know, physically, Ido, watch what I eat. I mean, I

(47:26):
know that stress kills, stressleads to tumors, stress leads to
all these other illnesses. So inmy job, and in life, I don't
really try to get too stressedout. And sometimes when I do get
stressed out, I will have adrink, just to get the edge off.
And just to relax. You know, Iknow some people run to pills,
and some people run to drugs onsome stuff. But I think for me,

(47:49):
I know, and I see, I could seemyself when I'm getting stressed
out. And I think honey also hasa good way of understanding, you
know, the stress that I do haveat that time. And so she helps
me out with that she'sunderstanding. And I think just,
firstly, I don't, I don't paintthis humungous picture, I don't
see this finish line that wehave to reach to be classified

(48:09):
as successful people. I do, I dolove what we have. And I feel
appreciative what we have now,you know, I don't want to put a
big pressure on our shoulderthey get we got to get five Game
Studios. And we got to do jam onthe group tour, part three. And
you know, so many things whereI'm gonna, I'm not gonna be
happy with what I have. If youask, could I have some
indigenous family members backin Nicaragua? When I went to

(48:30):
visit them? You might say thatthey're poor, right? But I don't
see them as being poor. Dude. Imean, they're eating fruit off
the land. Everything in life isvery basic. They don't have a
lot of what I have. But I seethem happy. You know, I mean, I
try to study that, like, What ishappiness? What is really
happiness, you see somethingthat some people when they get
on them and the projects andthey seem happy, they're

(48:51):
genuinely happy, you know, Imean, they're not tripping,
they're not trying to get that,that next car, that next gadget,
they're happy, I see that like,yo, just calm down, breathe,
enjoy what you have life thinksomething about, you know,
trying to keep up with theJoneses and this and that. So I
think spirituality that's, thathelps me out. And then um, you
know, what, age are on the edgesand you have a little drink,

(49:13):
thank you to my little RomanCoke, my little barbecue. And
that's like, my littlesanctuary. You know what I mean?
I invite people over And that,to me, that's just freedom.
That's, that's what life is allabout. You know, we're
constantly he's constantly like,wanting more wanting, I mean, as
far as bettering ourselves, youknow, we try we try the best way
that we can. But like as far aslike eating and being healthy

(49:34):
and working out, like ourpriorities are like and still
trying to make it happen. Youknow, we're 10 years married
now, would finally feeling likewe have a grip on the mortgage
payments and and so it's kind ofhard to juggle like being
healthy and knowing what to eatwhen we've never been like that
before. But we know it'simportant. So like, that's kind

(49:55):
of like the new thing that wecan kind of introduce into our
life.
I'd like the last couple ofyears of like consciously trying
to figure out what's best to eatwanting to make better
decisions. I think we needed toget up until this point, you
know, but for that whole healthyeating stuff you don't want to
die skinny. I'm not dying skinnyyou know what I mean? No, bro
I'm dying fit I'm dying a littlebit on the fixed side you know?

(50:18):
I mean, I don't want to diehungry, starving myself like
some people do have just greensand vegan all the way No No bro,
I'm dying. I'm dying happy, fatcranky Lord. And then the people
that aren't you know to thatextreme with that food? Are you
gonna live longer? I don't thinkso. You know, I mean, what's the
guarantee? There's no guaranteein life so I want to enjoy want

(50:42):
to we do want to try to eatbetter what I had this morning
steak and eggs.
A nice steak. It was so juicy.
And a pancake. steak and eggsand a pancake yo so good, bro.
Come on now. That's why I'mbetter that's why I'm fat.
That's better than me because hedoesn't get fat. I get he eats
it. I get the fat No, bro. I'msorry. I'm not eating that

(51:04):
healthy stuff. It has no flavor.
It has no flair. You're gonnaput a lot of salt out of vinegar
out of this and that and to giveit flavor. It has no flavor. I'm
not done with that. Working outwe're trying to work out better
you know going to the gym andeverything hurts. You know? I
mean things hurt. It's not likebefore, you know 20 years ago.
Oh, let's go train. Alright,I'm good. I'm ready to battle

(51:26):
What's up? What's up? He's pain.
You'll find out the old babyboy. Just took a two hour nap.
Okay.
And it's four o'clock let's goand he's drinking.
Unfortunately, when I went tobed all the gods I wasn't 100%
healthy you know had a slightlittle groin practicing or

(51:47):
training with dizzy and thenwhen I got there you know just
the the time difference. Andwhen you get to this place
everybody wants to see youeverybody wants to agree there
so there's the energy in the airis electrifying. Just like when
you go Ranger the jammer? Youguys have been agenda like
everybody wants to socialize andget and catch up and say hi, so
I didn't get no sleep. You'retrying to brainy hung out with

(52:08):
Mertz to the night before? Soall they did was drink no
Morrissey Oh, yeah. Which is myboy from Italia. I go Murcia. He
goes, let's go have fun. corticoI go No, no, dude, let's go get
some rest. You know, after afterthe battle, we'll go ahead and
drink. Or go I never see you fornow for 10 years. What's next
time I see you drink you drinkwith me. And I was like, she

(52:28):
just kept adding. All right. So,you know turned out to be first
we started off with beers, youknow? And then we ended up
taking shots. And then it waslike an all nighter. And how
could you say no to my ritual?
You know, that means he's a gooddude. And yeah, so I got I
didn't dance like how I wantedto dance. I still gotta get out
of my system. He wants to redeemhimself. I'm ready. See what I'm
saying? I deal with all day.

(52:52):
That's what's up. That's whatthe beauty of hip hop and be
born is. That's a real warrior.
No. Oh, I gotta get paid.
$5,000. No, come on. What Ialways find interesting too, is
like people's real names fromthere. Like beep girl and B boy
names. Oh, no. What is yournames? And then if you want to

(53:13):
share and then how did you getyour breaking name?
Yeah, my name is um, it'sactually my dad's name is Roger
Romero. Dude, I was a Roger.
When I hear Roger. I'm like, Idon't even turn my head. Like if
somebody is calling me. When wegot married. They were like,
well, Roger, take it to be youknow, and we were like, we
looked at each other. We'relike, cuz we did the first time

(53:35):
we hear each other's real namesreally spoken. We didn't he was
gonna say that the wholeceremony was done. I had to like
squeeze my hands tight because Ijust couldn't stop laughing. The
kids were on the floor. laughingwhen we heard each other's
names, like we need to do overwedding ceremony. And honey.
They miss it. Elena Valencia. Itwas like the gymnasts eating

(53:57):
only net Valencia. Yo. Yeah, theword names were Orko. So Oracle,
it was just when the cartooncharacter from he man, he man
had a little wizard that wouldwear a red robe. And he had an
old one is in his chest and youcouldn't see his eyes or his
hands? Nothing. So in thebeginning, when I used to get

(54:17):
down, I used to wear a hoodie.
And I used to wear also like aninja mask. And I split the
hoodie up and they're like, yo,he looked like the cartoon
character Oracle because youcan't see your face you can. But
I was just so shy. I didn't wantnobody to see me. I don't want
nobody knew who I was. And itstuck ever since then. You know
what I mean? I actually looklike the character stuck ever
since running. That's what I'msaying. Like, I'm an immigrant

(54:38):
to this country. I can't evenreally speak English. I'm so shy
and now I'm around now theseAfrican American brothers you
know what I mean? LikeAm I gonna dance on beat Are you
gonna set me Do I know that Iput it down? Correct. You know,
just the judgmental stuff oflife only 12 years old. You know
that's when you're very gullibleand very vulnerable for what
peoplesaying, I was really shy man.

(55:00):
And this thing really hasdefinitely brought up my self
esteem, my drive my confidence,you know, doing shows in Vegas
doing shows, you know, cameoappearances I've done in movies
and this net, it's been ablessing in my life. And dude,
tell me how you know, you guyshave traveled the world. So have
I like, man, if I would havebeen a dude working at Costco, I
would have never got to like, goto all these countries and meet

(55:20):
all these people and have suchan interesting life. I thank God
for hip hop for B Boy, that'sfor sure.
And then honey rockwool camebecause we were practicing and
Rockefeller had come up with herown name. Alright, so we were
like the two girls training atthe time. And she was like, I
got my Beagle name. And I waslike, What? It was just like

(55:41):
Rockefeller and I was like, thatis the dopest name ever. Like
you got the dopest name, Oh, myGod. And I had another name. It
was rainbow.
Because of IRENA, Irena. Andthen I used to like to do back
handsprings. So you get it likea rainbow back handspring. And
then I had like, Wiggles, youknow, and then like saying, All

(56:04):
right, next up, we got rainbow.
And after the practice, he waslike, I can't call you that. I
cannot call you that. I'm notsaying that name. And then one
day, we went to a practice spot,and I think we were I was with
Quickstep and Gremlin. And therewas like a street sign in the
Bronx and said Rockwell Avenue.
And I think, you know, Quickstepor Gremlin said, you know, you

(56:25):
should call yourself becausethey should say Hi, what's up,
honey, you know, come throughhoney. And then they were like,
they put it together honey rockwell, and then they were trying
to write like, honey, rock ski,honey rock, water, you know,
like, the graffiti style. Andthen they just said, Honey rock.
Well, and then we was like, I'llcall you hug rock. Well, yeah.
And then that stuck. And thenshe's my hair is like honey and

(56:47):
a rock real? Well, now she'shoney. Hey, honey, boo boo.
No comment. All right. Crickets.
How good are we on time? I thinkwe gotta go.
Yeah, you know what, actually,No, you know what, I love this,
but they're waiting for me atthis fundraiser. Yeah, we just
end all our interviews with thequestion, what is hip hop to

(57:08):
you?
You can answer first. Hip Hop tome is life. It's my life, then
in my life. You got to take thegood with the bad. That's what
life is about the yin and theyang. I don't see myself doing
anything else. I love it. I lovethe the lyrical poetry from it.
You know, I love the beats ofthe deejays make. I love the

(57:31):
artistic of the graffiti. Youknow, and the dancers do this.
That's amazing. You know, Imean, so hip hop is life to me.
I have had a corporatelifestyle, you know, as far as
my employment goes on, and I'mstill a B boy, I'm still in love
hip hop to new just like I didback in the day. So for me,
it's, it's life. It's amazing.
And for me, I feel like I am hiphop. I feel like I think in hip

(57:54):
hop, I interpret language andhip hop. I gave that little hip
hop edge to everything that Ido, whether it's what I dress,
or the way I talk or the way I Iteach at the studio, I just
think it's been my culture forso long already that this is who
I am. And the Brotherhood, thefamily, the freedom to be who I

(58:14):
want to be. I think that's hiphop. It's being free. And that's
what I love about hip hop. And Ifeel like we're all hip hop
babies hip hop, the 80s hip hop,yo.
Let's keep it 80s definitely,man, it was a great time,

(58:34):
though. We miss you. I miss youso much. You know what, and much
credit you know, for for thepeople that are that are
kidding, continuing to keep theculture alive and the spirit
that's what you guys are doing.
You don't I mean, sometimes evenus, like we may think like, oh,
nobody really cares, or nobody'spaying attention stuff. But all
of us are keeping it alive. Youknow what I mean? All of our
efforts, whether it be big orsmall, whatever, we're all
contributing you know what Imean? And that's what it's about

(58:59):
you guys and appreciate what youguys are doing. Of course we
love you guys for it, for whatyou're doing. And shout out to
our ancestors and I see mybrother on your shirt you know
Float, R.I.P. - Oh come on now.
Yes Our brother yeah nobeautiful person. You know all
other ones Louis New Wave kidDynamo. Look for cool Yaki kid
tough animation. Yep, Skeeterrabbit. Well, you know, all the

(59:21):
ones that you know we keep doingthis in honor of them and we're
honoring their their legacy.
That's it. That's how we do it.
Thank you so much to our guestsHoney Rockwell and Orko for
taking the time and being soopen while sharing your
perspective with us. Some of thegems we took away from this

(59:41):
Friendship is the foundation fora healthy marriage. The
eagerness to succeed, thedetermination to win and the
passion to reach your fullpotential are fundamental
attributes to release your ownsuperbness.
Success is different foreveryone. Everybody defines it
in their own way. People thatare able to create a comfortable

(01:00:02):
lifestyle from their passion,serve as an example for the next
generation seeking the same kindof success.
Family is not determined byblood or paperwork, but by the
love that is shared among itsmembers.
Our theme music was beatbox byDenis the Menace and produced by
Zede. A big shout out to thebrothers from Switzerland. The

(01:00:24):
background music was produced byTaki Brano. A big thank you to
our brosky from Providence. Muchlove to our devoted listeners
P.M. aka Afternoon fromMontreal, and Jeryl from Boston.
Thanks so much for your support.
Our podcast basically runs oncoffee to keep our show running
you can support by buying us acoffee through the link in our
show notes. We're so gratefulfor all our guests, and of

(01:00:47):
course you our listeners. Wewould love to get your feedback
questions and any suggestionsyou might have. You can reach
out to us on Instagram, Twitteror Facebook @SoulidarityLLC or
via [e-mail] if you
like today's show, please tell afriend about our podcast. Or as

(01:01:09):
Phife Dawg would say, Tell yourmother, your father, sent a
telegram.
In our next episode, we haveAaron Myers. Aaron is a Locker,
B-boy, Capoeirista and theco-artistic director of the
Beantown Lockers. He is also aHarvard University alumni and
Vice President at United Wayworldwide. Aaron is married with

(01:01:33):
two daughters and lives inBoston
Don't forget to subscribe to theshow and leave a rating and
review. See you on our nextepisode. Thank you for listening
to our podcast. Now Seriouslythough, thank you.
I am Candy. I'm DJ Razor Cut andthis is Souls of Hip Hop.