Souls of Hip Hop

B-Boy Teknyc

October 06, 2020 B-Boy Teknyc Season 1 Episode 9
Souls of Hip Hop
B-Boy Teknyc
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode we talk to Joel Martinez aka Teknyc. He is a b-boy, writer, educator, cultural ambassador, spy award recipient and represents Skill Methodz Crew and Fame City Kings.
 
We have an in-depth conversation on his early days, how he got his name, his passionate pursuit of his diverse talents, the Spy award, the Go-off, the Coffee Break, and his views on the social justice issues.
 
You can find Teknyc on:
www.instagram.com/teknyc/ 
www.twitter.com/teknyc 

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Welcome to Souls of hip hop, a podcast for hip hop heads the aims to bring inspiring people together to share their wisdom, passion, and unique stories. My name is Candy, and I'm DJ Razor Cut. And together we are Soulidarity, connecting souls organically. On today's show, we welcome Joel Martinez, aka Teknyc. Teknyc is a B boy, writer, educator, cultural ambassador, and spy award recipient. He represents Skill Methodz and fame city kings. Welcome to the show. Yeah, welcome to the souls of hip hop podcast dope. Thank you for having me. First and foremost, a big shout out to both of you. Let's start at the very beginning. What was your first encounter with hip hop, I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. My first encounter with hip hop culture was in the mid 80s, I was only a kid I was born in 77. And the movies like Wild Style and Style Wars, they hit Puerto Rico like a meteor, just like as it did everywhere else in the world, the phenomenon that hip hop became, it was no different in Puerto Rico. So that was my first encounter with hip hop was at the height of his of its like, explosion. So how would your parents describe what you do? I think my mom says something to the degree of like, Joel is answering to his calling. And Joel is living his dream life. When I was a kid, I will say before, you know that that encounter with the explosion of hip hop. It's funny, because I was always a kid that I love. I will always be trying like comic books, like I try to draw, you know, so I was crap. By the way, I wasn't. I wasn't good at it. But but there's a there's a parallel there in my my affinity for the arts as a kid minute, something that wasn't really still for my parents, no dis to them. It wasn't a thing where they were like, you should draw. It was just something I've gravitated towards, you know, they encourage it for sure. But it wasn't like a home thing. The only thing I would say artistically in my home was music. My dad played the guitar and other indigenous instruments like weed or things like that. Can you explain what that what type of instrument that is? For people that may not know? Yeah, sorry. So the Guido is a seed that grows from from a tree, imagine like a giant teardrop. And the material is almost like wood. And so what Puerto Ricans do culturally, they drill two holes on the inner side to get your index and thumb through it. And then on the opposite side, we carve carefully, multiple lines, I would say like over 100 groups. And then we take a metal brush and rub it against it and it kind of creates this. So there's a wrist movement that you have to do with the with the hand that's holding the metal brush, like a pig brush, if you will. And then there's movement holding that wheel too. So it's like an accompany, obviously to all the other instruments that create our traditional music of boom by playing ourselves in actually which is kind of like a young young genre but but is that sound that you barely hear in the back? Is that my dad that plays that? Did that inspire your love for percussions 100% at home percussion was was the joint and so it's funny because Wiggles, he noticed that very early on in me He's like, like you gravitate towards the drum, as to obviously like there's some horn sections that we when we dance we naturally hit, I think that I naturally Don't try to like forcefully hit horns for the sake of life. I'm on beat because I'm naturally on B by going to the natural tempo of the song. So I know this is a bit of like, off topic, but like when the whole thing of like writing the beat came about it seemed very unnatural to me. I understand that I know that it's a skill. But for me and my generation, it's the thing that is kind of it was very like, I started calling it like karaoke, dancing. I follow the red.to every instrument in every part. And it seemed very unnatural, you know, because you like, again, there's a skill to do it where it's so dope that you're in different movements. You're hit hitting lyrics, horns, drums, so that's cool. Like to watch. It is amazing, but it's not something that I ever said like, oh my god after these 15 years now I got to learn that I'm comfortable in knowing that when a song starts, I'm going to go in and I'm going to catch the wave. And I mean literally, it's like surfers, when they're like paddling and they say Stand up, you've got to ride the wave that's already been created, the song is already been created. You always been a deep guy, first of all, always, always dropping knowledge since we met. And I have to say I thought your real name was technique when we met. I thought that that second technique where your real names are probably that you like really hippie parents. When I was like, oh, they're nice and technique and abstract. My real name is candy. That's what my mom gave me. So I was like, the only one that has like this sort of, you know, nickname. It's like a real real name. But I'm interested in finding out how did you get that name. So I got the name technique from my boy mugs, who was one of the earliest teachers that I had when I got reintroduced to breathing. So I need to do a little backstory there real quick. So as I mentioned, I was my first encounter with breaking was in the 80s in Puerto Rico, right, my brother was it before became a people during that time. So now let's go through the dark ages of like breaking doesn't like it kind of went away, especially in Puerto Rico, right. So now my family, we migrate to the United States, my brother at this point, this is early 90s, my brother had become a jockey, a horse like horse races. So daughter bred horses, and he brought my family to 10. So that's when we migrated to the United States. At this point is the height of 90s. Golden Era, not brick breaking To me, it was done. I now say fast forward a year or so later, I'm old enough to kind of go out on my own with my friends. And we go to Ybor City, which is like a strip in per se, like the downtown of Tampa. And we saw that I saw this really big crowd of people that I never seen on this trip, I'll say what the heck is going on. So as I approach, I'm hearing a drum sound, but it was coming from later on, I find that it's coming from buckets. And there was a squad of guys, clown mugsy came in jazz and came out. Prior to kick that came out that we know that we became to know this came out stri hitting era came out. So these guys were street performing and breaking and having jokes that had a full on theater show on the street that ended with a grand finale of pulling about mugsy at that time was pulling about 12 people from the audience while standing there would bend from the waist. And the finale was him running from half a block, take a leap in the air dive dive style. And then right at the very end, tuck forward and land on his feet, clearing 10 to 12 people. But in between the show had breaking routines. Cloud was poppin. I was like oh my god, they're still doing that. So I approached these people right after I go, I used to break as a kid, my brother Can I do this. And they were just like coming to me. They invited me like they didn't even know me, there was no introduction, there was no hanging out. There's nothing just like, come next week. I go the following week, I joined them, I'm trash. My best move was to suicide, which I damn near broke my spinal cord doing that to like, kind of do my part of bringing some hype to the show. So as I'm progressing and learning and they're teaching me foundation six that kind of guided me every so often I would approach mugs and I'd be like, yo, how was that? Am I getting any better? And he's like, yeah, your technique is good. And keep working at it. So he was kind of dissing me, but also encouraging me, right. So I will keep asking, I will keep asking. And then it was like, it just got to a point where he just kept using the word technique as a pleasant way of saying, like, just keep practicing. You have a long way that became a yo we're gonna call it we're gonna call you technique. Now dispelling TK NYC we want to go make uniforms for some event that was happening like gasparilla or something. So we wanted to make crew shirts to st perform to make money. So when we went to go put our names on the back of our shirts, te ch ni q ue me or went from shoulder to shoulder when you had mugs. Clown came it was like four or five letter nicknames and they were like, Yo dawg, your name is man long. So mugsy also came up with the spelling Tikka NYC to be small and more compact, and also a hip hop way of saying techniques. You know, you wouldn't need some long ass walls to write technique. You know? Yeah, imagine doing a piece like and that was another thing like we'll get to that later when I started writing. It was still problematic because traditionally is like four letters, right? So with six letters I was like, I'm just gonna write tech and big ups to my teacher sees an Ewok they're like dog there's so many tags that's like the most cop out name because I tech one a Tec nine. You know what I mean? The killer tech, and they're like, yo, your name is the technique you need to push through the wall and learn How to do pieces mistakes letters like it is what it is deal with it. And that was that. So I think I've only done in my life, I would, I'm gonna say maybe a handful of tech pieces only because of the space when I got to a mirrorless and shit. But then, most recently that I did, I was in that same situation and I refused to do tech. So I did Tex TK s, which is also a variation in text as in text, footwork, you know, and I mean, and so I'm probably sure someone else right writes text, but for me, it was like, This is the space that I have. And I can do a technique piece. When did you start actually writing 2004 2005 I moved into a Carmen was not a part of it was a house with multiple rooms in Jersey City with a walk in sees. I was living in Brooklyn at the time, and I like the lease was so I had to move I have to find a place that was affordable. At that point. Brooklyn was already done, like the rent that I was paying. I was like the last the last, you know, affordable housing, if you will. So I had to move out of and why. And I had met, he walked through the scene. I started reaching out just kind of like putting out feelers like Yo, I'm looking forward room or apartment and he's like, yo, there's a room available. And in this house that I live, come check it out. So it was exactly that it was a room in a house. So every floor had two to three rooms. So eventually I lived it was myself. He walked sees Marjorie, rest in peace. Why not? Marjorie's fiance gas, who's a dancer and a writer. And yeah, it was like the hip hop house. We named it the barracks. And so in any case, that's what I was. So living there, scene, he was working constantly on canvases and seas, and also going out painting and coming back and showing me footage, we started kind of trading skills like he was already or people trading skills. And now you're like, try this move for some breaking shit. And he gave me an outline and started breaking down. The foundation of graph like this is where graph comes from, you need to learn your letters in a block style. And from there, you evolve this balance their style, your arrows should be part of the letter. They shouldn't be like skinny like little spaghetti arrows when your tea is matte dope and fat. So and then he would also use parallels to break and he's like, you see that dash piece from Fink city? That's like Ken Swift. And you see this other piece by so and so that's a circus runaway piece. Like that's that approach. He's like do you gravitate towards I'm like, Nah, that's not pleasant. I don't like that style graph goes right, because these guys that paint this way. That's the equivalent of a rock steady of incredible breakers. So I appeal to the FC style to dondi. cope, FBA that style that really captures that very mugsy b boy ask parallel to breaking, if you will. And so yeah, so I mean, big shout out to Ewok. Because that's the true skill of a teacher to speak to someone in a language they already understand in order to teach them something that they want to convey to them. And so right away, I was like, oh, and then intil and his brother view were already writing at that time. So he would also be like, yo, member tears. And of course, that's my boy. I've known him since 97. He's like, well, look at feels pieces. I will Oh, that looks exactly how to breaks. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's straightforward, even in his wild style to also be like, well, that's what teal does power and gets up with his mountain and his like, his B boy stands like, that's the wildstyle version of teal. But it's still the B boy style. And so it started clicking, I was like, Okay, I need to model the way I'm going to write in that way, because it has to, I still have to represent technique, the keyboard technique, the writer is not a different person. So I think it's a interesting thing you mentioned, you know, with mentorship and also finding your way of how you master your craft and you've mastered so many different crafts, from breaking to writing to cooking to bartending. What would you say is the most important thing for somebody to focus on when they're trying to learn a new craft? It has this has been true, tried and true prior to me in the history of humanity. foundation is the key to creativity. And that's the motto and skill methods. It has been true to us. It has been true to form to everyone in any practice. If you learn the foundation in your honor the foundation in any craft or anything you get involved in, you will succeed in evolving in that craft. You know what I'm saying? Like, same goes when we learn alphabet when we learn Language what it's the fundamentals are essential, they are called fundamental foundation for reason. If you again pair that word to the foundation of a home of a structure, without a solid foundation, things will crumble, it will be weak. It is true to any form photography, DJ breaking graph, BMX skateboarding foundation is key. A lot of people know I've been bartending for a long time, aka mixologist, right? mixologist, by the way is the equivalent of breakdancing to the bartender world. So it's like a term, that's not really like a thing, right. But in any case, that is the type of bartending that I do taking really old recipes to create a final product, the parallels in creating a proper cocktail, a delicious cocktail, a classic cocktail, it has the parallels to foundation in breaking foundation in graph, in that you have to have a well balanced set of ingredients to achieve a final product. So again, when I started learning this type of bartending, I approached it having already learned breaking graph, hip hop culture. So when I approached it, I excelled really fast. Because I understood that you have to have fundamental ways in creating cocktails and understanding the old g cocktails in order to learn the newer ones. And then also in order to create your own, you know what I mean? So even in something that's like, alchemy, if you will, foundation is key. Since I've known you, you've always been open about sharing anything, you know, you know, from like, 10 lyrics to like breaking down, you know, break down, whatever it is that you're sharing, and I really appreciate that because that's laid the foundation for me, you broke it down in a way where we were able to take the foundation, and people thought we had been breaking way longer than what we had at the time. On top of the fact being female, or no, both females squad, I want to go back to. We know you're a fan of doze green. That's my boy, that's my brother, I assisted Doze. I had the honor. So that was like, a bucket list. I was like, let me aim high. Let me ask him if I could assist them. You know, cuz I was like, I I don't see myself going to college, university anytime soon. And if I'm just going to continue to pursue the arts. This is a person that I highly model myself after. And you never know if you don't try, right. So I asked him and within I never forget, he must think he was already on Instagram. He responded to me, like I wrote and right away I saw typing. Like I asked him, Hey, I will have to assist you sometime like if the opportunity ever presented itself typing. He's like, Yes, actually, I have this big project in Arkansas. Started conversation. I took two weeks off from work, where I was working at the time and he went and assisted those for two weeks on a project called the sparks project in Arkansas sparks it's all theater. It was the last theater to be desegregated and bought by some new young people and now what is the our walk part of the city in our in Arkansas, and they they repaint like those repainted? Like it's beautiful. Is this whole concept thing? It was the experience was just like there's no words, I can't really go into it. Let's take one step back. For people that don't know, tell them who Doze is. yes, so Doze Green is an original member of the legendary Rock Steady crew, a B boy and graffiti artists. That is it, you know, obviously extremely well known from his membership of the Rocksteady in his contribution to our community, not only as a B boy, but as a graffiti artist, including the subway train error. And then also one of the most recognized and influential contemporary artists of our generation who just happens to be one of the fundamental Foundation, fathers of our culture, those his style of art that includes Cubism. Obviously, there's some political statements, some kneel African indigenous elements that pull inspiration from Hip Hop graffiti, and our indigenous cultures is one of a kind and is probably one of the most prolific artists of multiple generations. As we're talking about Rocksteady is one of the Rocksteady anniversaries you received the spy award. Can you also let people know what the spy award is and what it meant to you to receive one Yeah, that was in 2011. The Spy award is named after a legendary people named spy who all the legends that we admire. That's who they admire that was their local hero from the hood, by the hood, per se, right? spy was sub named by the community demand of 1000 moves, he is considered by many, undeniably the best be boy of that generating a man who, who had 1000 moves. So spy was like the first superhero, if you will, right, his complete understanding of breaking made them bigger than life, his influence on the dance and the culture made him bigger than life. So the rock steady crew created a spy award in honor of him to then honor young people who the culture acknowledges have complete understanding of foundation that dance in the culture and uphold this dance to the highest degree of integrity. Despite award is given to a handful of people who the community agrees she received this award for members of the community who have achieved, you know, a similar position in our community. So how did it make you feel that you received such a prestigious award, I was today, the highest accomplishment I've received because it was from the community and it was a way of saying, your hard work, your dedication, your trials, your tribulations, your battles, literally and figuratively, have not been unnoticed, having put my reputation on the line and not only competing, but battling, having had wins and losses, to learn from it and apply it in my development. It led to the combination in 2011 where I was nominated and then won despite award that year with dizzy from supernaturals is the highest compliment is the highest achievement in that the ruling body is Rocksteady, who's a pillar of our culture. And the voters were our people. You know what I mean? Like is my my community including the people that I battled with? Not just my crew, not just my friends, like, I know for a fact people that I battled that at the time, we weren't seeing eye to eye though they were like, yo, like, I get my you get my vote. You know what I mean? segwaying into battles was what is your most memorable battle, it would be one of the many battles I have versus came out. So as I mentioned earlier, cane mill I've known KML since before the formation of skill methods. KML is one of my longest friends. And so anybody that knows KML KML is controversial. He likes to challenge people friendly slash unfriendly, the ultimate outcome is going to be the betterness of both people meaning himself and the person he's having the controversial moment with, you're going to end up better even when chemo smokes, you know, I'm saying so chemo and I had the last battle that we've had, we had many many many words at cipher attics, where there was like some issue where he thought I said something about one of the young kids next month which on record, I never said anything about those kids. But he went and ran with it. Recently, he was on on a live with tired Juan and I had to address it. And he was probably Yeah, tech probably didn't say anything. But I was convinced that I wanted to just battle. So it's though because it's documented. You know, like, I knew that the next time I saw Katie, it was going to be on. So my boy barmac is like, Yo, I'm gonna document this shit. So we embark on that role. He's documented, documenting the whole thing. I'm walking downstairs to the basement, that's the place that it was called work skills was throwing decipher attics. I go in, I pay my money. And the first cipher right in front, like right after UK, K's in there. So I literally walk and it's on and poppin immediately, and it just went on. You know, it was though because you know, KML has his approach. I have my approach. And I felt like we both obviously walk with something out of it. For me, it was a way of showing my philosophy on dance that I've tried to teach in workshops, it was best showcased there against one of the Tabby boys and one of my closest friends, one of the most iconic eaters of all time, in that practices that I apply for myself. Like when you're tired, don't grab your knees. Don't bend down, you know, like, maintain your composure. If someone starts rocking against you, like my mentality is like, I'm not gonna upgrade. That's a different dance. I'm here to break against you. If people want to debate that with me all day, they're going to have to bash their head against the wall. You're not going to convince me otherwise. So there's a moment where he's like Just throwing punches of racket against me my composure, I'm gonna flinch and move into muscle one because I know Kamala is not going to punch me. He's my brother, and two, like, you're not going to get a response out of me. At one point he starts to show because we're human, he is tired, he's throwing a lot of moves. And he's kind of getting tired. I go up to him with a knee, making sure that my eyes are still facing my opponent, kind of like Bruce Lee says, like, always keep your eye on your opponent. I'm looking at him bending down on money, like, Yo, I'm telling him stand up, stand up, like your history is here on the line. Don't show weakness. There's still wonder photographer, cat, that moment is caught on foot and photograph also where I'm like this, I'm telling him Yo, stand up, don't take a knee, don't show weakness. Right now, this, this is a moment for both of us. There's a moment where I go out, obviously his turn to respond. He doesn't respond. And I go out again, which has been my philosophy, like, keep going, you have to have strategy about it, but keep going. So of course there's the opinion lies in in the audience in that they can say what KML got that and then some people are like, tech got that, for me ultimately, is like, I was able to showcase my philosophy in dance after so many years of maturity. learning that up until that point. That's where like everything that I have adopted. For myself how I wanted to present myself, it came out in that moment, how it comes full circle from like, initially, meeting them in Tampa, getting into now calling them out in a cipher in a basement. Because I saw the footage. It's like very tight space. Yes, tight. I'm really glad it's documented. A lot of times, those kind of things are not documented. They're not and you know, the thing is, like Kamal and I come from an era where that was our every other day at gems. People like James abstract, like the whole era. Chino, Josh, we came up in an era when I was a regular. So for that to be documented from two guys that live. That lifestyle is showing like our trajectory. And yeah, like we were exposed to the world, from the competitive side of things, meaning competitions. But Timo and I are a product of that part of the scene. You know what I mean? So it was important that like there, I'm not doing like my windmills, elbow halos to swirls to hollow back which people know, those are combinations that are like kind of trademark of me who I which I learned from quickset, right, like my power moves. There. we're showcasing also the teachings of quickset, which is in a tight circle, you have to you have to adjust to the space and still not crash and still execute. You know, I'm saying those are things that we learned from Quickstep and Rockefeller who we came out and I were both students of quiz seven Rockefeller, like the message there is bigger than, okay, no smoking or technique did better. The amount of information if people pause for a second, they're like, yo, all that shit when they're talking about Oh, remember, like the House Conference. Remember this other gym, and all these underground gems, that shit was like a glimpse of what we were doing every week in New York every fucking week. How has New York influenced you as a person now we're going back to New York, fundamentally, like with my family, the hustle the the hunger to constantly learn new things, and to always create avenues for yourself that started home base, you know, growing and Puerto Rico coming from a family of immigrants, culturally, it's about always doing multiple things, right. So that's fundamentally foundationally. That's that. But living in New York and wanting to live off of the arts, you have to create different avenues, otherwise, you will die. New York City is not for like, if you are a basic minded person, if you're lazy, you're gonna die. The organism that it is New York City, that if you really want to go after it, you can make it happen, the ability to go to the streets and make money until you make you know the fact that to get from point A to point B, if you don't have a car, you have to take the subway train system and you have to account for that space in time to make it on time. It builds the way that you move constantly fast. If you miss the train like that. Those are seconds minutes that add to the goal that you're trying to achieve. So I still carry that work to the point where it's almost like there's this. I know, I definitely like have anxiety. I know that and I'm aware and I recognize it. I'll say this when you recognize things like issues with anxiety, you have to take the power from the thing that takes power from you. So what I've done is I've turned my Anxiety into learning new things I'm constantly not satisfied with. I became, you know, a dope B boy, I excelled. I excelled in graph, I'm constantly like, Where do I put this anxiety to where it benefits me. So I put an anxiety into learning things I know I can control my anxiety into being able to use it productively. And you know, what, like, I'm sure a professional will be like, will probably say, well, anxiety is not productive, you have to treat it with this, I don't deny that I don't deny that anxiety deserves treatment. But above that anxiety deserves, acknowledging it, and then breathing and saying, What am I going to do right now? What am I going to do right now? Am I gonna submit to this deteriorating condition? Or am I going to come out on the other side, having produced something, I can see why you've mastered so many things. Are there any other ways that you balance, you know, your just your health in general, I mean, you know, it's like, this whole thing of which is extremely valuable, like what they call like quality of life. Meaning when people say, like, make sure you go to that, for example, work out good eating habits, things like a simple as a hike, or reading a book, or going camping, kind of like this whole thing of disconnecting, I try to apply all the things that we have not discovered that can help lead a better, healthier life quality life, because we do still have to work right, you know, like work is a part of life, we have responsibility and commitments financially to our brand, food, etc. So we have to find time and space to have things that ease, you have to carve out time that creates quality of life, to the person to you. Obviously, that includes healthy eating habits, reading, putting down the technology, dialog, for me is important. It's important for me to talk about anything and everything with my wife, you know, so like, I relate, you know, with my wife, we're in essentially in a relationship. And she seen firsthand now with quarantine, those anxieties that I've mentioned, and how I deal with it. So I'll give you an example. Like she saw the development of like the coffee break, she saw the development of new canvases that I've been working on, on top of custom orders on top of the cipher sniper t shirts on top of I took the quarantine time and I learned a program on my iPad, procreate, something I never knew before that is helping me with graphic design. So I overwhelmed myself in quarantine, with so many things that there were days that I didn't carve out my time. Proper were then it affected us. It was affecting us. And we're here stuck together. So I took on so much that anxiety and being like that I was like, in my mind, I was like I'm being productive. Look how much I'm doing. I'm killing it. But it's I didn't realize that it was affecting us. It was making me disconnect from us. Something that I'm very aware of is that something that I didn't know. But if I didn't have the ability to accept that dialog, or hold space with a dialog, I was like, you're right, I need to manage my time better. For me, I need to write down the goals for the day. I'm gonna work on technique piece a, I'm gonna work on custom piece crystals. And I need to do the editing, promo clip for skin Richards for the coffee break. And once that's done, I'm going to do that from 11am till 4pm. And after that, as you and I spoke recently, can the boundaries done, ideally, and me saying it That sounds perfect, but I'm still not perfect at it. Because a lot of times, I still get consumed past let's say that four o'clock time slot. And I'm still just like talking engaging at home, but I'm still doodling on the iPad, so I have to be mindful. And I have to be able to accept when some people think they're being called out like when she's calling me up. I have to be like, yo, like, Oh shit, my bad. The ability to excel in defeating something like anxiety is to acknowledge when you're suffering from it when you have in an episode, and there's someone from the outside that's been affected by it. They are watching it happen. So you have to be like, Oh, yes. Okay, cool that Oh, that's happening. Oh, yeah, you're right, that's happening. And lastly, I'll say, Krista, my wife, her last advice to me was with one team, we have been given a gift, the gift the time when I said like quality life like the commitments that we have to our nine to five and then there's other there's time for Rest, there's time for sleep. quarantine didn't take anything away from us is how we set our point of view, her and I have been given a gift, the gift of time, time together, time to build time to reflect time to reinvent. However, if I miss manage that time, when we go back to whatever normal will be, we will look back and be like, I ruined that gift. I didn't take advantage of the gifts that we were given is delicate, you know, and there's something that we were not trained, we're not equipped to do this. It was like one day I went to work and the next day, they're like quarantine, we have a pandemic. Good luck. Figure it out. We're doing our best. But I think the key to succeed is to have compassion to have. Oh my God, my favorite word. Now my wife used to have grace. We have to give each other grace. I always think about you when I when people have catchphrases, and I always thought you especially with like, like really like kids, where I make like a point where and then I'm like that's it cancel Christmas. Like what? I need to make a T shirt that says cancel Christmas. There's like a cancel Christmas society and my inner circle like my boy connects my boy uncle chip. They're constantly like, cancel Christmas. Oh, no, that's not possible without technique. It has become like this thing that is synonymous. You know, it's funny like with them. And with you. I remember the first time saying it and the few people that have adopted it. It's a thing where it's like when I said it, it made sense. It encapsulated the moment of it's like Capitol Christmas is like oh, that means everything's over. You know what I mean? It's so funny. Like my boy uncle chip. He's like, yo, that's just the funniest shit in the world. Like, when you say cancel Christmas, this is done. When when attribute that I feel like you have and it's always something that I wish other people had was like, just humor. Where does that come from? My mom, my mom and my sister. Yo mama like So recently, my wife and I we went to visit, social distancing. We went down to see my mom, you know, she's watching this show is like, what is that ninja? ninja shows where people go through the obstacle. A Ninja Warrior Ninja Warrior. Okay, so in Puerto Rico, they have that but in teams, right? Like a version of that with team. So my mom apparently this is her jam. Every whatever. Tuesday is like, theme Leone is versus the Cobras, right? So she knows all of their names. She She has the one that she disliked the most. In any case, she was like, oh, that girl. She went like this. She did. She put her thumb to her chin. Close her fist. And then they're like a, like cutthroat. And that was I never seen my mom do that. I was a mom. We just started dying. I knew what it meant. But I was like, that's not a thing. Nobody does that. And I said, Well, what does that mean? And so, you know, she's like, it means they're fucked. So my mom's English is pretty good. But she literally said that in English because Kristen, she doesn't speak Spanish that well. She understands and more than she speaks it. So she's like, oh, it means they're fucked. And Yo, my sister You don't even know you're my sister is odd. Funny. like, yo, she is loud. Funny. She laughs at everything. You'll hear her laugh is her laughter is so contagious. So I grew up in this environment, you know, where it's like so loving and funny and coming up with words. That doesn't mean shit to the point. But it makes sense like, creating a word. That means somebody knows like a cancel Christmas to refer to like, yo, that person got smoke. That's how I remember you. That's the first time you were basically just talking about somebody getting smoked and you were like, rotisserie fried. Like you just went through all the words that could mean getting smoked, torched. You just kept going though is like no, you just kept going and then he was just like, cancel Christmas. Yo, and you know what's funny like? Nowadays like my my sense of humor is very like exaggerated. You're I was with flashback and Ellie yesterday. I've got to say big shout out to my boy Ellie rock. He is my biggest fan when it comes to my the way I speak because he will laugh uncontrollably to the point where he can't breathe. So he kind of exits You're on and I just keep going. And so like, the people that know me, like you say, Kenny, like, I'm a bit like, I exaggerate things to the point where it's like, it's not literal. It's exaggerated to make you laugh. When I moved to Cali, I had a really difficult time. Because people would take me serious, I would say cancel Christmas, and people will like that. December 25, it would just take the power away from my sense of humor. When I move back to Florida, like, flashback and Ellie, you know, they're like they get it, you know, my wife gets the abstract, we just be saying the wildest wrench into it makes no sense. But if you're open to it is that Oh, that's you've been exaggerated for a reason. You know what I mean? Like, but in any case, the foundation to that is my mom and my sister, for sure. Earlier, when we were talking about balancing, you mentioned a number of things that we wanted to talk about too. One of them being you know, you're creating a lot of canvases. And you're also doing custom canvases for clients. One thing that's dope about that is that you started providing a certificate of authenticity. Can you give us any of the backstory of how you came up with that, and what the meaning and purpose of it is, I want to address something, again, a little bit of backstory behind the intent and the idea. In graph, there's this thing Ewok wrote, I remember, he was riding a team, he had wrote a note, took a picture and posted it on Instagram, and it said, the 70s writers hate on the 80s. writers, the 80s writers hate on the 90s writers and the 90s writers hate on the 2000 writers, right. And he was saying, like, they're always trying to one up, Oh, you didn't do the steel, or you wasn't there, because so like, no matter what your efforts are, you're never good enough to the generation before. Even if, say for me, like technique. I've been doing this for 27 years, but this generation, and there are individuals that will never, like, never respect me and know my voice. But I still don't get a pass of longevity consistency. Because I wasn't there in the 80s. My father, I was born in 77. Like that's beyond my ability. But guess what, when I did come into it, I've been consistent. I've been ambition non stop, right? And I'm going to tell you why this makes sense to the certificate of authenticity. First, I want to acknowledge that, by the way, in the art world, you don't give out a certificate of authenticity in a gallery setting. That's like a big No, no, but I'm not in a gallery. I'm an independent artist, and a person that was built by the community for the community. So my intent with certificate of authenticity, they saying this, I can never be a dondi or I can never be any other Oh, geez, original writers, even those green, I'm not, I'm just simply not going to get that pass. I wasn't there during the trainer. I didn't hit steel. So I can never win that I can only do what I can do in carrying tradition. So I can never also compete or even be invited to a gallery when the market is so over saturated and already occupied by those people that did all of that. If I take a number and get in line, my sheer will be the year 3030 My turn. But for me, I was like Well, what do I do? I need to carve out a lane I need to create a lane without I'm not stepping on anyone. I'm not biting over and shit. I never will never would. I'm not I'm just not taking from anyone. So I said all right, well, I'm going to provide a service. If you would like to have a custom piece made by me for whatever my worth is worth. I will in return give you a promise that you let's say, candy raiser. If I were to have another client in the future that once candy also or Mike, there's another Mike, my commitment to you my promise with your money. My feeling is that I will never reuse that outline. Again. Yours is the only one that exists. I want to let you know and I want to give you my signature my commitment that yours is the only one that exists in the world. So I had to wrap my head around how do I carve a brand of something that's mine specific to me. I'm not done never will be I'm not cope never will be I never hit steel. I never will be in subway. Or what I can do is say when someone supports me, I can give them my commitment that I've never used that outline because it's their name. So I used to practice in the art world where that there are instances where certificate of authenticity are used. I use that insane every person that's supports me is my commitment, you have my signature in saying I will never use that again. So for me that added a sense of commitment, a sense of pride and a sense of value to the product that I'm selling. You know, like all the oh geez have always said, If you read or hear any of the interviews were like those, they always said that their mentors, they're always told them do other people's names. When the OD writers will go to the trainer I recently heard teak, it was on Museum of graffiti when there and he was like, Yo, I was doing other people's names like the outlines, because I needed to get better, I had to pay dues, I had to crack outlines and fillings, but it made him better when he went back to his own name. So in return is not only monetary, what I'm getting, it's also like, Yo, I did a letter in a sequence that I never did before. I can do a name for a B girl, out of Cali, she Her name is crazy, spelled Kr AZZY. I was like, Fuck, I'm not, I could not z, z y, that's going to be I'm just going to come out so wack. But the challenge was accepted. The commitment was there, she commissioned me, and yo is one of the nastiest pieces I've done in figuring out how to put a z on top of a z. And it's now it's like what now I have developed a format in formulating letters is like an each one is different, and the color scheme is different. And when they receive the certificate of authenticity is like hand painted with acrylic brush, spray paint in the background, which I'm using the medium that I will use on a wall, they're getting it on the canvas, so there's elements of the real shit in it. And on top of that, there's no other like you haven't done that, like these are my last words in regards to that lane that I've created for myself as as a service that I can provide to the community and anyone is showed me that through my own talent, I can create something that is tangible, and not depend on anyone, it completely falls on me to make it happen, meaning how I promote it, my reach and the amount of effort I put into each one, which is the integrity that you have to have to each Canvas, no matter how many other ones I have, how much commitment how much chaos, I may be having my commitment to that person, every Canvas has to be banging, I never have fast on any one of them. So over time it has every year it has double, if not triple the demand. And it showed me that it's like you'll I don't have to be at the mercy of an entity to make it happen. Whether it is dance, or art, I can honestly humbly say I am an independent artist. And I think the community, including myself, at one point, didn't realize that I my skills, my intent, how I carve out my time, I hold the power to what I want to become to what I want to do, when we give that power to a thing or to someone to to guide you to lead you to a place you are a derelict ship with no direction. I think within the community, there's more and more people that are learning that. But I feel also there's this big overwhelming amount of fear for the risk. You're proof that it is possible. As an artist, you know, you're so multi dimensional. And one that I wanted to talk to about too is your course and cocktails. Maybe you can give us a bit of a backdrop of of how you came about with that concept and throw in a little promotion of yourself as well. Yeah, sure. Um, first and foremost, I want to give a big shout out a thank you an eternal amount of gratitude to my mentor. His name is Kevin Dunn. I just want to say like how I came into mixology, as they call it, bartending was at a point in my life when I was living in California and the dance work was not panning out. And so I had to turn to the workforce. I've never been a stranger to work. I was working at Apple Store at the time. I got a part time job and then I had to find another job to essentially end up with a full time job. So long story short, I applied at a bar restaurant, as to work as a barback. I had never in my life work at a bar. I never frequent bars. I didn't know bar culture at the time. If I ever had a drink, I'd be like a Roman coat. Like I just didn't know anything. They do the interview. Obviously, as you guys know me my personality and haven't talked about my history as a B boy, they fell in love with me to hire me on the spot. But still, I didn't know shit. So I was a barback, kind of like the person that had to provide the ability for the bartenders to execute cocktails in a high volume, high demand place. I had to make sure that they were constantly filled with the things they needed to make cocktails. So Kevin Dunn is still the head bartender and curator at the misfit in, in Santa Monica. He's so my potential based on my work ethic, he was like, do you just work nine hours at Apple? And are you coming here and we have a 12 hour shift? And you're the Yo man, you're that guy? And you're going there with my head down. And then when he found out technique, he was like, What? Why are you working here? Because I have to work. And he was like, Yo, I have so much respect for you. And he's like, I am going to teach you how to bartend you need to become a bartender inside of a month, which I think is a short time, I went from barbacking having never worked at a bar or restaurant in my life. I became a bartender at the misfit in California. One of the dope is you know, mixed drinks like cocktail forward, you know, a farm to table restaurant like dope. And I couldn't be more thankful It was like learning from Ken swift himself in bartending. So fast forward to what you just mentioned, you know, now after many, many years having been in the industry, I recently started doing like pop up menus, like private dinners, if you will, I've been pairing with a homeboy ton. Big shout out to tongue out here in Orlando mF kids. And we as soon as I moved in, he was like, yo, let's do a pop up. Let's let's do this private menu, I'm going to come up with a seven course meal come up with seven cocktails, including beer, wine, and non alcoholic drinks and experience. And that experience includes a soundtrack like music that we curated that we're playing in the background, how we dress, the environment, the story behind the dish, and the drink the ingredients, how we came about the name of the cocktails, are influenced from hip hop. So we still were B boy technique and B boy tongue, but chef tongue, and mixologist technique like providing these influences that we use in this thing that we're very passionate about. So we did our first one just before COVID-19 or boy Leto came through my wife was there and and a lot of people from different walks of life that came through and support it. And the experience was just like a big shout out to abstract you know, his passion for for film, he came through and donated his time to film the pop up. And he put together a clip that really, really does show the vibe of that night, it was really beautiful. I look forward to doing many, many, many more with tongue and see where it goes, I think we can we definitely have something there like a B boy cooked it a B boy make the drinks and a B boy film it. And this is in the culinary world. Anything B boys and B girls put their minds to outside of the Cypher, we would smash you cancel Christmas. Straight up New York, the go off was one of my favorite times out there. And I think about that time. I just remember that energy. And I know we get very nostalgic thinking about those parties. I would like our listeners to feel nostalgic as you describe a go off. So at that time, you know, I was still living in New York. And there were many parties that were dope at that time. Not that those parties didn't do it. It was more like I went through the party I want to go to I had just recently met schema at that time. As soon as I'm a scheme scheme bridges big shout out. I was like, This dude is the truth. As a person, this dude is unreal. And on some skills like the shit that he's playing, nobody's fucking with this dude. I was like, Yo, I want to do a party called the go off. There was a mixtape that had a soundbite from someone and that soundbite there's a scratch that goes into the first record. And the person says something to the degree of like, I was doing this before it was called breaking it was only called the goal off and the beat comes on. And I was like wait, wait, wait, wait. So there are unsung pioneers, historians people that were there to have knowledge on this culture that is not used that has hasn't been adopted. I want to give you another example really quick. In Star Wars. There's a moment where frosty freeze recipes and take one there are the part and frosty freezes is going that's not the hump that was called the headache. You could barely make it out because he's talking over for us if we see goes something like man does those all moves. So with That means is that frosty freeze was telling us what that foundation is. These were the moves. And him as the young buck who cannot do the chair freeze, that baby freeze. He's like, yo, those are those old moves. But Frost is trying to tell us something. And so to meet when I heard the soundbite of this person going back in the day, it was just called the goal. Yo, what are you doing? I'm going off. I was just like, Yo, I'm gonna name my fucking party that go off, we're gonna go off. So that's how the name came about. I reproach Ewok. He did the design smash that those letters that flyer people used to steal the flyers I used to print them out and staple them to the wall, scheme. Richards and Uncle chip and sit rock the time, the venue was called identity bar. We I never charged at the door, it was free to get in. And I just wanted people to party. I remember the first one some cats rolled up with knee pads and had spin hats and we were like, yo, you can't come in. This is not the thing. It's not a practice spot. It's Saturday night downtown, like you supposed to be flying, you're gonna bring you got to bring in your flagship, but it's not a breaking journey, to me is still one of the best parties that I've ever been to. And it went on for two years, bartenders, they're the owner, they love the party. They're like you want to do it every week, I'll say no, once a month. You know what I mean? Like just once a month. I just have great memories. And there's so much fun. You're such a connector, though. utilizing all these different people within the community to make an idea happen within your means as a fundamental aspect of entrepreneurship. You want to hear some ill shit that I found out later was happening at the go off. So uncle chip is a graphic designer for clothing brands. He's had his resumes, he's worked with a lot of clothing brands. And on his end of promoting it, he was drawing designers like people from like young heads, hip hop heads that were in the fashion industry like that had a click. So it was drawing people who have now become so influential in fashion, that there's this thing that later created a name like they call it mixers where people go in there like a creative. I've been told that the goal was one of the first mixers of creatives he wanted to design and it was clear that those fucking letters was he was the one that did that shit. So writers will come obviously on my end, the B boys scheme had like the super old t official vinyl DJs like a real DJ and throw uncle chip and Sara said rock with elite camp being a dope DJ squad. But also designers were pulling these fashion forward hip hop people in this little fucking space is so dope. Talking about connecting different people. Right now during this time. You've been connecting a lot of people through the coffee break. Can you give us a bit of a story of how you decided to get into that? Big shout out to Banham one night, you know, Venom's still in California, he's three hours earlier than I am, he hits me up. And you know, we're seeing all the lives, you know, the nice had a hit a million viewers have morons and all the DJs. And then we're kind of seeing the verses and all the different things that are, again, people are utilizing the gift of time that we were given warranty. And so venom is like, Yo, I want to interview you on a live tonight. And I was like, yo, let's do it, you know, and then we could we could all take turns and do skill methods. Like we would interview one another let's do a skill methods back and forth. I was like dope. We should call it something What do we call it? He's like, because he's three hours earlier. He's like, I'll make a cup of coffee when I call you when we go live. Go it'll be like eight o'clock my time but fuck it, I drink coffee doesn't matter. And he goes, let's call it that, you know, the coffee break. And I was like, yo, that's fucking perfect. That's it that there was no rhyme or reason or extra od overthinking it was like the coffee break. venom interviews me on that one. And then his private lessons online. Literally the next day, they fucking blew up. He's been killing it. And so he kind of was his commitment to that is that you're I can't do this thing. So I just kept running with it. And when you guys see the logo, what I the story I told before about, you know, learning the program on the iPad, which I've never done before. That logo was a test of me learning how to do multiple layers airbrush over the little smoke in the coffee like it was a project of learning how I could use this to my advantage from my graffiti shoe. So it was really funny in like being able to interview people create a logo like a graffiti thing which inspired By he walks, they'll go off the coffee break and stuff. I was like, What is this going to be? So I said, Well, I know that I do match it that people don't know, maybe they do know. And I know that my peoples are doing other ships and the shit that we know them for. So I want to be able to give them a space that we can talk about their history, I want to go back like I'm curious as to how the fuck you got your name Lego, you know how the flip side kings come about things like that, right? And then be like a, what are you up to now is quarantine? What do we need to know about you that we could get involved in? How can we support that? I know how awesome I want someone else to sound geeky about their shit, I want to take a break and be like, see, you're a geek. That's definitely what we're trying to do with our podcasts too. You know, we feel like there's so many great stories that are not being told enough that we want to just highlight, you know, all of these unique people that are so talented and that we look up to and that inspire us. What's next for you. Obviously, we spoke about the coffee break the pop up menus, I'm hoping that one's COVID-19, we get to a point where we have some sort of vaccine, and we can go back to a place of whatever normal is going to be, I hope to come out of this with enough pieces for our show, a body of work that I can share, I want to come out of this, hoping that we have created we the community have created enough ideas to create gems nationally, that, that maybe we could create like a voter Drive type event. And that we can create more grassroots events, you know, to educate on financial literacy, voting, you know, just as in our communities in our country, and just, I want to make it sexy to be to be about this kind of shit, were being dope as a B boy or B girl is kind of not enough. It's kind of like, we need to make that like, well, that's you have to do that no matter what. So actually, the shit that's gonna make you fly is that you're you registered to vote. And you actually went out and voted locally. And you wish you're sharing like your soul, does this person running for Sheriff because that's like an elected official, and they actually have commitments to their community. I stand by that person, and that we get hype about things like that. Because in hip hop, we're so inclined with the conspiracy theories, and the New World Order Illuminati and all this shit. And Yo, I love that as much as the next person. You know, when they say like the show must be paused. I say this. How about we pause the conspiracy theory for one year? And we say let's try the thing that we haven't tried before. let's actually go out and vote. Let's see what happens. Is there anything else that you want to talk about? Last night, at around 130 in the morning, I posted a video in regards to a topic that I have been very vocal about for a long time about a certain entity. I want to mention that we are currently as we are recording this and holding that space. We are now in two weeks of the protests after George Floyd rest in peace, George Floyd, rest in peace, Brianna Taylor, rest in peace, Ahmad arbury. And all the black lives that have been unjustly taken by police brutality. This is something that we've been dealing with in our society for a really long time. With like the perfect storm of COVID-19 quarantine, people are hurting financially, emotionally. And this is a thing that has been ongoing now. The world is seeing this last one with George Floyd was really the turning point in where we're at as a society. That was really hard to watch. I just watched it. I'm very right before that, you know. Sometimes the only thing that people have, that can bring a sense of feeling like you exist, is acknowledgement. Even even on a miniscule scale, like I say you create something that would be capable of graffiti artist we started writing. for someone to acknowledge the piece that I did. It made me visible. People saw I felt like people saw me. I can only imagine what it's like to have this car like Black Lives Matter like Can you see me? Can you see I made a post last night in regards to the silence. of say like a rebel BBC One Seems so focused on one company. But it does speak to other guests in our community that have been silent. And it's hurtful that they've been silent. Because I community, we have people of color, this culture was created by people of color. When these companies, not just red, blue, these companies came in and show their support to us. It was at a time when we didn't have corporate support. And if we did, it was rare. So it felt like for like a win. Oh, you got like, you got our back. 10 that's ill, we celebrated them, we tense with them. And when this now is happening in the community, all they're saying is like, stand with us. They say it with us. They're not just words, they made you visible, it make you real. And there's been all these emotions flowing, you know, like, how do I say something, you know, without attacking the people that they have supported? It was really hard to formulate feelings and thoughts, without maybe hurting or accusing colleagues in the community that I work with rebel are sponsored by rebel, like, my intentions are not to attack them, you know, because it's now so black and white that Oh, like, they're bad. Is that that, right? How do I formulate these feelings? And we're like, a heightened state of emotions, right. So again, it's like pulling back breathing and trying to convey a message. That's very intricate. And then I started thinking, Okay, what did it look like? And what did it feel like, when it didn't matter if an entity spoke out, and to me, it's back to the goal. It took me back to outbreak and all the local jams like there's so many cipher addicts, every week, a little jam people summit, freestyle session, like our gems, there was a, there's a time that we took so long to create a landscape of gems in our community. And then I remember, when we celebrated this giant that came in and say, Yo, I acknowledge you, and I want to be part of that. Let me give you my support. Wow, you see us. And over time, they set the bar to work. That's the goal. That's the gym, whatever happens continuously in our grassroots level. Now, it has to lead to that crown, it absorbed our landscape that took so long to create. And now, we need you, we need your voice. Your silence is like you absorbed us, we celebrated you, you betrayed us. So everything that we spoke about about entrepreneurship enterprise, being an independent artist, an independent community of any external forces, we may need to get back to that. And we may need to have some checks and balances with anyone that comes in. Because when we invited as a community, and we allowed rebels to do what they did, we felt like we were visible. I can only imagine what it's like for black people. To hear anyone say Black Lives Matter. I'm visible. You see me, you're protesting for me, in the middle of a pandemic. Okay, you matter, rebel, all they have to do is just say it. They don't have to go and protest in the middle of COVID-19. We're doing the work. And so it's been a moment of reflection, to say, we need to recreate the landscape. And the thing about us, our culture, our seeing our community is that, as my wife says, We have grace. We do what we do. We do it with grace. I try my best to say what I'm wanting to say with grace, there's definitely anger, frustration, but I want it to be as graceful as I can, you know, a world that is where we live in equality and peace, benefits, everyone. What is hip hop to you? Hip hop to me is community, fellowship, unity, family and culture. Thank you so much to our guest Joel Martinez, aka Teknyc for taking the time and being so open while sharing your perspective with us. Some of the gems we took away from this interview were the mentality of mastering a skill through hard work and practice does not only pay off in that particular skill but can be applied to any and all areas. A grassroot movement on a local level managed to create a landscape that became interesting for corporate sponsorship. But it is important to remember that the hip hop culture and community can thrive independently. Speaking up against injustice and complacency while others remain silent requires courage. But this type of leadership can make a difference in people's lives. Our theme music was beatbox by Denis the Menace and produced by Zede, a big shout out to the brothers from Switzerland. Also a big shout out to Krista who is an avid listener of our podcast. We appreciate your support. We would love to get your feedback questions and any suggestions you might have. You can reach out to us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook@soulidarityLLC or via email soulidarityllc@gmail.com. If you liked today's show, please tell a friend about our podcasts. Or as Phife Dawg would say: tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram In our next episode, we welcome Christie Zee. She is the CEO of DMC USA, the most prestigious and longest running DJ championship, as well as the co founder of tools of war Park jam, a publicist and event coordinator. Thank you for listening to our podcast. No seriously though. Thank you. I am candy. I'm DJ Razor Cut. This is Souls of hip hop

Introduction to Hip Hop
How would your parents describe what you do?
How did you get the name Teknyc
When did you start writing?
How to master a craft
Working with Doze Green
Receiving the Spy Award
Most memorable battle
Influence of NYC
Maintaining health
Catch-phrases
Custom canvases
Bartending
The Go-Off
The Coffee Break
Social Justice
What is Hip Hop to you?