How does a ten year old get exposed to hip hop culture in west-end Edmonton?
When Run DMC came out, when Much Music started playing “My Adidas”; Beat Street, Flashdance, Breakin’; when those movies came out, it blew up. They banned break dancing from our elementary school because there was a rumor that some kid broke his neck [head-spinning]. We were rebels. We would bust the cardboard out and kill it, then pack it up when the teachers came. I never heard of anyone in the culture until ‘88 being involved in hip hop. I was fortunate enough to know these [local] guys; they used to baby-sit me back in the day. One day Point Blank was just in the neighborhood and said “yo, I’m bringing Ice-T!” I never knew you could bring a rapper to Edmonton and that was when I understood that they were doing other things. I stumbled on to CJSR and heard “Fuck the Police” and thought “what the hell is going on here?” It turned out to be AOK and Point Blank running the station. Was there a tape or record that inspired you to rap? Ice-T “Rhyme Pays” that’s when I knew I had to get o
