Alien Ness

In this episode we talk to Alien Ness. He is a former member of the New York City Breakers, Rock Steady Crew, and was the president of the Mighty Zulu Kings. Ness published the book “The Art of Battle” and has taught countless dancers around the world. As Fable put it: "You can’t talk about hip hop without mentioning the Bronx, and you can’t talk about the Bronx without mentioning Alien Ness. "

We talk about the importance of representing unity as a crew, focusing on lasting impressions rather than individual contests, continuous learning & travelling, inventing the octagon battle, and much more .

You can find him here:
flow.page/ness4
www.instagram.com/bxalienness/
https://twitter.com/NessFour
www.youtube.com/c/Ness4/videos

Transcript

Unknown: 0:05

Welcome to souls of hip hop, the podcast for hip hop heads that aims to bring inspiring people together to share their wisdom, passion, and unique stories. My name is Candy, I'm Dj Razor Cut. And together we are Soulidarity, connecting souls organically. What's up, fam? Thanks for tuning in. Well I'm Ness, Alien Ness. Currently I'm not representing any hip hop crew. But I've been down with New York City breakers and Rock Steady Crew around 2000 and became the president of the mighty Zulu kings, which eventually turned into mighty Zulu kings and queens worldwide. And, you know, it just got to the point where that crew was just so heightened, so perfect in it. It was like it ran itself, you know what I mean? Where you have a whole bunch of grown educated, like minded people, you know, forward thinking, we got to the point where it was like, this is done, you know, it was the bog and I did what I had to do this is better. Keep on moving. You know what I'm saying? So, I left. I didn't leave MZK, you know, I pass the torch down to tyquan obec. Shout out to Tyquan, international president of Mighty Zulu Kings and queens worldwide, he's been the backbone for forever, you know, and I knew like a lot of what I've done with who I could have done it without. I just wanted to move on and do other things. Me personally, I don't feel like you have to live with the boy's entire life. You always get to be a B boy. But, you know, sometimes the boy has to do his own thing. One of the B boy anthems or classics is from this album right here. Eric B and Rakim's juice or know the ledge on which

Rakim has a bar where he says: 2:08

putting brothers to rest like Eliot Ness because I don't like stress. And for the longest time I always thought Rakim was saying like Alien Ness. a lot of people do, it's so funny. So where does your name come from? It's actually kind of like, you know, in the end it was kind of like a play on Eliot Ness. You know what I mean? But I was always meant when I was younger, in my in my teens, I was kidness my first started breaking and moving around and just a mess always stuck with me during that break and went through life jobs, relationships, I just always remained a mess and alien comes from TC Islam, may he rest in peace. and a joke that Afrika Bambaataa once said, because of my powerful footwork that was kind of like floats on the ground. He said that if aliens came to earth and started breaking they would break, like I was breaking. like, then around that those circles the whole alien thing was really big and TC Islam put together prove the aliens you know the Zulu aliens and it was TC Islam the DJ funky alien, supernatural, the lyrical alien, and Ness the boy alien. but I always wanted to get rid of the b-boy moniker, I really don't like being called a b-boy will be referred to the boy actually tell promoters. A friend of mine applies. And I asked host B boy alienness. I think I'm a lot more than a B boy. You know what I'm saying? And I tried to bring so much to the table that I just felt like a mess. You're just turned into just alienness How would your parents describe what you do? there? That's how she would describe it. That's how mom would describe it. Right? She's a little bit more proud of this deal. A lot more. convinced you. Let's go back to your origins. You grew up in the Bronx in New York. How did that shape you as a person? The Bronx is totally different than any other boroughs. In all the boroughs is different. Every borrower has its own vibe, its own demeanor. You know what I'm saying is its own language. So the brand is totally when I was growing up, there was a lot of cats in my neighborhood. And that was just inspiring, you know, from the way they dress, the way they talk, the way they dance. You know, like everything about him was inspiring. He kind of like adapt. In my days. You didn't like get into hip hop. It was just around you. It was unavoidable. He practically grew up into it and So how did that shape you? As a person? Oh, good waves, bad waves. You know, I still have my 80s and 70s. Blogs, demeanor, you know, it's real cocky, real arrogant, real love. We talk with our hands. I truly I believe that we're all the hands styl s of breaking comes from and I'll wrap this swing day hands a ound when when they rapping I a ways said they got that fro the Bronx to broad people, they talk with their hands, we r ally animate. You know wha I'm saying? So just all that bout me, it just stuck. I neve got unstuck. You know, there's lot of people who have grown p in my neighborhood, orse neighborhoods, that they've been able to mature differently. Like you got cat like, Wiggles, aby, you know, Korean guys? Ex ctly like me, if you were an own r 30 years ago, you don't say w all mature differently. My thin was with me, and this was some hing I had to consider when got back into the scene 99 g t an opportunity to view a rock steady crew, I had t ask myself, I had to que tion myself, because you now, Rocksteady, the legendary ame, and now it's a staple and icon and hip hop. And I'm gonna have more visibility on the e pose more media, things of that nature. And I was like, I on't think I can act in a way that catch my block would see n TV or on the internet or hear radio. And that is that I just didn't want to do that. So lot of people's dismay, and ust, you know, disapproval, I just felt like I just had a busy week, I speak to everybody the way I would tell my frien s on the street corner, you kno, or my brothers that, you kno, we all talk a certain way, w all react to each other a ce tain way. And that's the way t at I felt I should always commun cate with the rest of the world you understand what I mean, I a ways use the word authentici y, I just felt that I could ring anything to the game, wh ther they like it or not, it's onna be a li And I think that is something that everyone is seeking. Right now. I think that it's, it's something that you brought and have been a representative of who you are, and, and expressing that and in regardless of what others are going to think and say. And I think that's something that is, is sort of missing in a way right now. And I'm grateful that a lot of people just saw through all the bullshit and at least got the message. Well, sometimes if I'm sharing, you know, educating or something that's like service, somebody good nutrition, you know, and if you give me a steak, I'm not gonna be service on a on a Dixie plate on a silver platter, I'm gonna eat it regardless, so many people was focused on the delivery, those are the ones that my lessons and everything just went over their head. But I was fortunate, and I'm grateful that there's been a lot of people that are just hungry students, and they, they forget about the delivery, and they actually listen to what's being said, and I'm grateful for that, you know, because I feel complete, when I learned to share and educate, you know, and then see other people appreciate it just as much as I appreciated getting, it's just amazing. I mean, it's an oral tradition, right? Yes, I believe the oral tradition is important. I mean, equipped, really good. For what we have a culture, you know, what I'm staying with technically, is a subculture because we're missing one thing to actually make it culture through defining the culture. And that's our own cuisine. We don't have our own cuisine, technically, everything else that it takes to have a culture, its own language, even though it plans to style a dress is dance, it's art, you know, we have all of that the only thing we don't have to see. So in theory, we really not a culture with some culture, but whether it's subculture of culture, you know, if we're going to handle this way cultures that have survived, the oral tradition is important, just an oral word, being able to get passed down and passed down. And there's like so many different genes, and we have so many different stories and people are complaining and they get confused and dissolution. I'm just looking at I go, you know what, that's one strand. And that's another tribe. This is another tribe and not four tribes got it wrong, but they always did they all exist, your hands on truth, and that's the way I look at. I don't even get into who's right or wrong. I try not to, you know what I'm saying if I see something false, you know, but other than that, you know, we can't You can't speak on everybody's truth. You know, I'm saying only on personal ones and the ones around I think it was one of the outbreaks. Probably one of the last ones before in Orlando, and there was a late evening and the whole town and you had almost like, a good 20 to 30 people in your room. And everyone's just listening, and talking and dialoguing and having conversation. And I just remember that being one of the best things that I loved about going to events, but also the fact that we were able to, you know, I can't I was geeking out on the fact that I was sitting there actually listening to these stories. In real time, I never thought you would draw combo dialogue perspective. And like you said, if people weren't to focus on your delivery, not exactly what you were doing, and I just always appreciated that about you in the fact that you will get young people together. And they will, the conversation will roll on for hours about all these different topics. was one time, it was like that every week in a different country when I was living in Europe, and it was amazing to me too, sometimes overwhelming, because now I'm listening to stories from other countries, and they're oh geez, and things and how they got it from you know, what I'm saying? Like, their first, you know, insights to it. And those stories, I would get geeked out to like, wow, all the way out here. You know, who would have done it. And, you know, as our culture progresses, I think it's amazing that we also have the opportunity to document those stories as well in different forms. And you documented it with one of your books called the art of battle, which I think is really amazing. theories. I think theory is a huge important to pedagogy. That theory aspect is really where people get the actual essence of and learning of what it is to to break and then to be in a battle. So I think theory is huge. And the fact that there's actually on paper something from from someone that lived it in this way, it's so cool. Yeah, I like to say the thirsty boy but it's not the first book by a before but first book by have the boy for the boys about the most important element of the boys. I wanted to do it because people couldn't understand why would when Ben before the who really didn't see anything else has to them at the mall, you know, the move. And I was like, maybe this will be an opportunity to show these people you know that anybody for when a man if it's approached, right, just like anything in life, but I'm a student of war. So I approached him in warlike manner. And when I say war, I don't mean fires and bombs and tears and arrows and all types of different approaches to war. You can win wars without fighting. I just wanted to bring that to the table and give people a difference. Yeah, talking about war, you know, one topic you meant or you talk about in the book is psychological warfare. And how you made the point to have your crew wear leather vests with the patches to bring that image and the vibe of you know, again, how do you experience gang rivalry growing up? And how did you see that transforming into the art form of rocking? I mean, when I was growing up, I've only been seen one gang in my name. You know what I mean? I've never seen my gang violence or, you know, wild crazy stuff like that. But with MC K, at that time, we were going we were under fire a lot of people and we were chapter Zulu Nation, and I felt underappreciated. They referred to us as rebels in the outlaws and the bad guys and Zulu Nation, him and granted, you know, my formula for MC k was those type of people but what's happening? What if I could tell you you can be as gangster as you want to be in the world to love your friends? no crime, you know, just smoke cats. Which you back, you know what I'm saying? So when I do have a bunch of cats like that, which in part was like, my mission as well, you know, I used to say, I saved lives. I try to get a rough count ended up somewhere else and we can be crazy shit And still, you know, we just don't sound positive. But at that time, we was going on the line of fire was just like, you know, what, if they're gonna label us like that, that, you know, let's let's dress as we are to the 10th power and make it obvious. You know? Make it out. And definitely that whole idea of energy, you know, taking energy bringing in energy. Many times when I would win battles, it wasn't like I had big moves. But I would just bring this sort of vibe and energy that I was going to win. I don't know what I'm gonna do. But I'm gonna win. And I kind of always felt like the way that you come into a place in the way that MC k comes into a place, it's always with this very grand energy exchange. Even that is strategically, you know what I mean? We don't come they're broken apart. Before me together, we all go, one person goes to the door, you know, is that I got X amount of free food is the cash stock, the county has, y'all go in there together, we walk in there together, wave, you understand, not fractured, or anything like that. Because I feel like the energy part, when we start doing stuff like that, when we start saying, Let's meet at the gym, or I'll be there later, I'm gonna go eat first, you're already putting fractures in the unit, you understand what I mean? And it's making it weaker. So even when we go to a gym and how we walk in, we always knew exactly where we're gonna go, you know, which is the first open space that we could just put us in now, it was just gonna cycle we always had our cipher, you understand we didn't jump go to ciphers until we were warmed up. Because we don't cipher. You know, that's if there was ever one rule. And MC k was no wasted, go down. If I see you in the site that you bet of trying to smash what was there before you, you're not there to show off, you know, you want to show off, let's make a performance chapter is something that y'all can perform, you know, but if we come into battle, we come to battle, even everything from how we walked into what we was going to do until what we came there to do, because we always come to when the jam or everything was always strategically planned and just flow because all the brothers Porter, back in the days, I think, Smurf a castle, put it at best enemies with everybody. They definitely brought that type of energy, but it always made the event exciting. It would definitely be different without that type of energy there. That's kind of what a crew should do. Right? That's why I always say, Hey, we used to go, we used to try to win the event not gonna stand like it doesn't matter who won the contest, is gonna make noise. Now, with the pandemic situation, we've started to find alternatives with some online battles that have been coming up. What do you think of these online battles? And what advice would you give to a competitor in terms of energy? Because it's a completely different dynamic? I will tell you the truth. Me personally, from my perspective, I give so much props to people can't do it. I watched the online battles, man, people don't say like that, they could do that, cuz I couldn't do it. You understand what I mean? I could recognize God who's doing it, I could recognize them. I can do them. But I couldn't do it because of that, but no energy. It's why I've never liked practice class. So I never really practiced I practice at the gym when there was actually something in music that's when I practice and I had a good time to the battles I answered it with like maybe the second or third time that night that I went down, you know, because I got dad a couple of times to get down and get a warm, which was odd in itself at my age when a person was in practice. You know, in those days I started competing I won my first contest at the age of 33 and went on way into like my mid 40s it was so much harder to warm up you know and feel a type of eyes You know, it starts to take wear and tear to get to hips. Wow, I wore out or the car I wore out or the cartilage in my hips choice. That's why I tell everybody stretch take care your body. Use me as an example. I hate a stretch for all that power work and sweets, I'm sick of the sweets or that I just grind it out on the hips. The hip bones titanium joints now I'm the$250,000 so how do you currently maintain your health physically, mentally? I just want to stay active. You know like my age just being active is good. I just don't have the time I've been wanting to practice which is weird because I never wanted to Judo like but I was a T game. I've been wanting to practice I feel because of the lockdown because of the suppression. You know, and I feel like I took a lot of grants which stands for grant why women in dance? Well, I can't say I take it for granted. Because if I don't dance, the DJs and move, I want to go to jazz DJs. But, um, yeah, I'm like, man, I want to practice, and but I just really don't have the time and space. The only time I do find time to actually move and dance is, you know, I get a lot of people that, you know, from around the city and also from different parts of the world when they visit. Currently, I got a B boy pilot from Colombia. He's in New York for a while, and he comes to my house every Saturday, you know, in the sand, and eventually the breaks go on. And when we had those nights that there's nobody that passes in session. I know that for you, the music part is very important. And so when you came through the girl city in Houston, where I was spinning, after the event, he made a post, where he said, like, Yo, this was one of the first jams where it actually gave the DJs a shout out to me, and I was like, I got the blessing, I would get in down, I don't like ciphering. But I went into a dark corner, and I just started grooving. And next thing, you know, I was getting down in Asia, one came over me, I started going back to back and eventually a really small site, maybe four or five people. But it was really organic. And, and the energy was right, it was just everybody to me, like everybody was fighting. They didn't care who is getting down to it what they was doing, it was just fine. I felt like everybody that was there was just connected with was so dope. Because I don't even do that. And, you know, I haven't done that in a while I go to and chat, just start going out after everything that comes out in front of me and try to smash stuff. You know, that night it was like crazy. And I was having a bad night too. You know, mentally, I was having a bad night. So the whole jet itself lifted my spirits. But that moment was gold. Well, thank you, I appreciate that. I got a job. And I bet any good DJ, all of them will be dope DJs as no pretty dope. People like scheme, Richard, lean rock, all of them will tell you there's always that moment where they look down. And this is right now try to get as close to the DJ as possible. Because not just the music, but the DJ. DJ creates his own energy too. They brew, they move in a groove, it also becomes a wave, you know, so a lot of times every DJ will look down. There is probably blowing them. They're dope. So there's another part in your book where you compare the elements of battling to the five elements of fire, earth, air, water, and ethar, can you break down why the combination of each element is so important, you want to be complete, you know what I'm saying you want to be complete. You want to be well balanced with everything you're doing. You don't want to spread yourself around too thin. And you don't want to put too much weight on one aspect of your life. And short fail on another aspect. And in dance, anything you lack is your weak, you understand? period point blank. Again, I approached breaking from a battlers point of view. When I talk about breaking, it's always about the battle, because that's what it's always been about. You know, it's a battle dance. So in battle, anything you like. And if, instead of trying to beat you, if I could find what your weaknesses are, and expose it, it makes my job a lot easier. I've made, you know, pummeled cat in mid battle, try to be preferred. Knowing the night and made don't put word cast, you know, try to throw in a little power trick us. And that's part of it going back to psychological, psychological aspect of warfare, you know what I mean? Like, put him on the pressure, do something that they won't normally do. And it's their weakness. So you can feel around here. You know, you could consider knowledge, also a weapon in your arsenal, but you're very eager to share your knowledge, whether it is you know, through workshops, panel discussions, your book or you know, discussions on social media, what drives your eagerness to share, what else am I going to do with it? I take it to the grave. You know what I mean? I mean, I've gotten it, you know, and I'm pretty sure there's more people out there like me that want to get it. So, no, you pay forward. That's the meaning of life. You live to learn. You're not learning, you're really not listening. And I learned a lot teaching. You know what I'm saying? Because when it becomes a conversation Like I said, That's why I said earlier, I don't like talking at people. You know, I like going back and forth. Now it's a connection, I believe very much in the 12 insights. That's why I feel everything shouldn't let the conversation or things of that nature. That's what really drives me to teach it and pass it on. And if somebody to say, you know, that they feel that they a little bit more knowledgeable, and then give me credit for I feel appreciated, because I spent my whole career giving credit. People I tried to praise the lead action, I see, the people taught me, it wasn't really always about alien, so it wasn't an alien. discussion. It was like, I was always talking about these people, you know, and hear other people talk like that about me. It's like, wow, you know what I mean? It goes full circle, and God Willing sunset one day, this students will be typically going to, that's, that's how we have our legs. That's how we keep our legs and other people's legs, you become our other peoples, as well. So you always got to give them credit. Well, you're a part of a lot of people story, I know that much. And I'm, I'm interested in knowing what advice you would give your teenage self. That's hard. Because I probably just go get lotto. Just play these numbers. What did I use, what I do is, watch who you work with the things that would be much who you work with. I've been fortunate to catch things sometimes maybe a little too late. Those things were, you know, really messed up times in my life. You believe that somebody and you look at, like your heroes. And you you attach to them, and you follow them and you don't really pay attention. You don't really watch them, you just we just enjoy them because they're our favorite people. You know, so I think that's what I would tell my teammates, watch, watch me walk, watch. If you're gonna judge judgment just strictly for the action. Now what they say what they seen, you know, not what was shown. So, I'm a big Bruce Lee fan. I love Bruce Lee, what inspires you the most about Bruce Lee, his need and how he slept. I think that was the most inspirational thing to me. You don't want to dance, I try to have that snap and I tell my students best that you know, just not swinging up. snapping, you understand what I'm saying? And when I did my footwork, take outs and hit different angles, rather than just hitting angle. Boost would snap a punch or take you know snap and snap it right back. It doesn't need to be seen. It needs to be felt really good. Don't need to see. And I think that was the most inspiring eat in that snap. It's why I never slept. It's true. Cuz you lose that in present, right? What people never uninformed. I used to I used to show him with a rubber band. I used to pull the rubber band out and said this is my my muscles when I don't stretch, stay tight. And I would say pluck it and I'm like you see that's fine. That's what I try to get in my story then I would just let the rather than go and be like this is my muscles when I stretch it loose air relax, like pluck it now and there's no twist. You know what I mean? So I purposely tried not to stretch for that reason in the beginning. Then when I got back and I got old it was more to all the times I don't want to do anything that hurts even though break it hurt. The hell I will go through no pain either, you know bringing heat to do that noise tokens, pubs. Then you go to the hot tubs and then you go to those hotels in Europe. Showers just try to stand in the hot showers. So you have you know some boxing gloves behind you. Yeah, collect bathroom. Actually, I just got these. This is the new it's my collection signed by Amanda Serrano. She's women boxing only seven division chair. Her sister also holds the chain by the way. W and I got to meet Amanda. So there's my newest collection. She also gave me the handwraps that she wore on her first title fight when she got the IBM you know She's amazing. She's amazing box, that amazing woman. So that's the newest one. So my collection, but I have a whole bunch of them I like to collect. Maybe one day they pay for my grandchildren's college. Now I've seen you've been fairly active recently on Tick Tock like the crack jokes. Good. You know, I just like that, but they're great. I love it. I mean, that's really why you go in, it's for entertainment. And it's fun to see you being you on the platform like that. Right. I remember when tightwad first told me, man, you should get to take time away. Oh, hell no. And somebody showed me some stuff that I really liked a lot of the dances on. So I may, you know, like a lot of people, you know, just go on sign on and have a profound, don't put that in there. I went like, a long time almost a year without putting that in on it. I just used to use it on watch. And then I thought it seemed different stuff other than dance and comedy. And I was like, that's fun. I like those two, eventually. I'm gonna do more chest one. I mean, if you go through my followers, I barely had any eaglets of details on there are people who follow me or like bikers, some of them are older than me. You know what I mean? As soon as they see something by adding, so I started doing the same thing. You know, and it's like, not even what it used to be. When I first asked him, I was like, this friendship between a whole bunch of people just like, I think it's a lot of fun. It's like, I won't post names anymore. tic tac, I could beat The beat. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. What's the correlation between you know, the biker life and the hip hop life? Well, specifically, the rock dance, specifically the rock band, The Rock dance was birthed, like, the outdoors. But you start meeting more people in like, in 76, the graffiti legend, he's in my motorcycle club, you know what I'm saying. And we got dope dances, you know, and like filthy mad dogs and see FMD they used to be Flowmaster dances like, the whole rock culture comes almost at least inspired a lot by the outdoors and the gang. So I really like the rock that you get out of say, I don't do it much. I really liked it. And I you see it there. You know what I mean? The way they talk even the hand just to the burners. At one time they've been some. It's why when I do, I do a workshop called power to the people. And what I do is I go around the room, every single one person wants to learn right there I teach it. You know, I was like, I'm tired of trying to put together a workshop. I'm gonna do the workshop and no people you know, but me and I would just go places and I'm like, Okay, what you want to learn? Alright, let's do that. Everybody get up. This is right now. We got it. Okay, next person, what you want to let you know, and a lot of times people have asked me, you know, can you teach burners and I realized, No, I do not teach rocking. burners, because where I come from those burners, those gestures meant something, you know what I'm saying? There's still a lot of cats out there like that might take it the wrong way. You know, if you play attention to a lot of those battles, where you see me actually lose my own and I get pissed and it becomes, you know, whatever you want to do type of situation. It's because people throw a gesture that a B boy really isn't. I stay away from the nose. But if you look at it, the dance is really much rooted in those hearts. You know, one of the first people is fish he established you know, like almost every gang not a dancer. Do kings come out of the baby space? Who did you look up to? Who were some of your mentors throughout your life? A lot of mentors and I had a lot of people that you know, in one way shape or another even a cane have a physical you know, I I I've had like, fast recipes from the original rodu rock fantasy fast cat we go off, or turbo Biggs likes to move. Pure style locomotion book for react. Flex banky walco. Back in the 80s when they first bought or Korra. New York uses irony for many Mr. Frese. He was a two track crew after that. Then then later on, brothers Crazy Legs, Master table, have the track through again, you know, and I've learned so much. And I'm not shocked. I've been to a focus workshop. So teach me something. I joke that I was told it's dangerous to say, but I was always that candidate. That's probably why I was able to know so many people is because I was never too shy to just walk up and say, yo, can you teach me that? You know? I mean, I think that's the part of the dance is that you're always trying to find a new way. There's so many patterns. I feel so bad. I forgot to mention one. Oh, I don't even know how, of course cookie freeze, you know, from being the first person that made me want to break. You know what I'm seeing, just seeing him on and then 80s running into the Roxy immediately went to teach me stuff. And then running back in the late 90s. And then being his friend and showing the whole notion that he's always been smiling. And his ability to teach and communicate. And he was an educator to the fullest that he was a clown, but he was educated. Rich, was Encyclopedia of knowledge. So true. You're one of the biggest assets, one of the biggest assets. If not I met him in program I want to say 99 we were leaving the gym, I think somewhere in Miami Beach. And he stopped and he's like, I saw you at the gym. And I saw you doing my move. I cuz I'm, I'm a rookie beginner. So and then he's like rollback at spin freeze. And I was like, um, yeah, he's like, let me show you how you can do that better. And right in the middle of the concrete is in the sidewalk. He stops and he does it. And he goes, you need to hit this freeze. You're not hitting it, you know? And he showed it to me and show me why he showed me why where to put my hand so that I could catch it. And then he was like, Alright, so yeah, the after party. You know? My sisters and I were just blown away by the fact that one that I didn't know that I was doing his move to that. He was like, let me show you how to do it better. Don't go back. Yeah, right. And then he was like, all right, you're going to afterparty like, anyway. And he's like, let me take a picture, y'all. Let me take a picture y'all with a little with this little Kodak. big yellow pad. Yeah. Great guy. He's a great guy. Very friendly. Yeah, he was super friendly. When? Yeah, I think that's another good topic, like the age old discussion of, you know, learning someone's move into becoming a foundational move versus biting. And I really liked how you put it in your book. If someone starts doing your move. Are you gonna go out and be like, hey, you're a biter. This is my move. Or are you gonna see it as Oh, wow, I did something that was this great. That is inspiring others to make it become a part of the foundation. Maybe you can expand on that a little bit. Actually, I got that. Like, we was watching somebody, and I actually said, Oh, that dude did not move your fighter. Nice look. Like, why do you got to look at it as biking? Why don't you see it as you just had another baby? And I was like, Oh, shit. You know, I never even thought about it. That's the whole bunch of you don't know who the father is. I actually got off of leg nets. How do you want to be remembered? Oh, that's difficult, because I feel like a whole bunch of different things to a whole bunch of different people. You understand what I mean? So it would be hard to say. But, and 360 authentic. would be enough for me, you know that everybody just always knew that I was always me. No matter what I didn't try to be anything different. Cameras was in front of me will be fan friendly. promoted. So like. I used to go to sleep with a radio under my pillow. And I used to listen to the magic show when I was you know, I missed the magic in the show. Every time Exactly. You were always saying alright kitties. This is Mr. Mad To remind me, gotta be yourself. Fine. Just know yourself. It ain't fun being by yourself. He was taking night. And I actually felt that's what hip hop is. Be yourself to find yourself by yourself. I want to say realness, but that that word is also so cliche. You know what I'm saying is just engage everybody but try to do more than a lot of people are still stuck on each one teach one on like nine lessons, each one teach many. You know why stop there? Hold on, I gotta take a drink for that one. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. That was good. That was another Red Bull. Yeah, keep in many places. Now it's okay. I got my husband when we had to sell it when we moved out to Switzerland. We just moved out here from Boston last year. You'll get another one soon. Yeah. No way. Where did you live? Yes, I lived in. And then in a really small barn. Like it was more like a village. It was called Schwartzman. You know, and it was just outside of town. But yeah, I lived there. I used to go to Lowe's on every other weekend a party if I was traveling, I still have all my friends from those are my boy Danny six pack. He facetimes me just because he drunk. But it's cool, because it's always he's got the crew and it just reminds me of, you know, those days where we just did that and you know, take turns going over to somebody's house and go to some buddy's house. You bring all the stuff for them to cook dinner we will drink and just crack jokes and most of them will wrap this but right Ron says I'm looking forward to going out there later in the summer because they're gonna do the concrete Jan, my old promoter from the octagon world rumble by first promoted is from Zurich. I remember I was at that event. I think the first octagon battle in Zurich. That was fun. I really liked that concept. I was supposed to originally judge but my story is he might he's he's a beast in the crowd practically tournament now. I would thought he smoked everybody. Hey, you know what? Those are my kid. I even gave them the desk and got easy my jazzy Justin Jimmy for giving more than so how did you come up with the octagon concept. When I came back in 98 and started going for 40 battles. I just thought it was ridiculous how you had this big like 20 by 20 Arena and cat was still crashing into the crowd. Like it mainly you went to a house party and tried to get ciphers was really just people moving away. So you can get down. And everything's a small I felt control was needed in the game. Even back then, I was a strong advocate as of dance as with the octagon being a method of training originally started as a method of training, just to teach students control. And then it turned more into for me like it was really the first real dance for I mean, it had its outline, you know, and it had its referee by way of the crowd. That's what I was pushing. I saw where the game was going. You know, that was one thing that I enjoy. When I first moved to Boston and got down with the floor lords. We were just dance all the time everywhere. Like we would go and you know, find ourselves in someone's apartment in their tiny ass kitchen. And we're like 12 of us getting down, like 10 square feet. That's pretty big thing because you're like six feet tall so I can see you getting some wrecks. You really don't they're like forcing us to you all over the place. You know? I was born an old man. We love to travel. We love going everywhere. Yeah, man. It's traveling. It's like some of the best experiences and like you learn even so much more culture and everything, our architecture, everything is different. You've got to appreciate the differences and everything. And everyone. The question that keeps popping up is like what is the what is the game because we have a sport you have a game. What would you consider the game? That big one so big ones. Like I used to pull up freestyle sessions, Super Bowl breaking, when it was like the big crew battle. I love those feet. I used to always say that's the, that's the game to win. The crew battles are, I think so important. It's so much fun to see crew battles, because you really get to see the vibe within the group. And then how again, that comes together. And then you can tell the ones that are really like, have camaraderie and really have a friendship. You could tell that they care about each other, as opposed to once I've just been put together to just be there. Yeah, that's that's the important thing. And it makes me laugh because everybody needs to call MZK like the supergroup with a bunch of guys from all over the world. They go to a battle together, and I'm like, Can you see those five? How did you not notice that routine? like Japan, France, Russia, USA, you know, all in one unit, like, I mean, a lot of times, a lot of those routines were put together today. But the vibe, t e connection, Zulu kings To th s day, they still connect on a whole, you know what I'm sayi g they have their one meeti g place, even if it's virtual y their one meeting place whe e everything that everybody kno s is going on family wor, everything, you know, we're ab e to celebrate all o r accomplishments together, y u know, both in and out of t e dance. It's like, soun s cliched, but it's a real famil. huge one. And then they mo e forward. sons to preachers, m n as your own devoted sons, a d they will follow you into t e deepest. Because that's, a d that's what they are to troubl, you know, saying they treat ea h other as family. We go to wa, there's no battles. I think the last time we saw them was at the freestyle session 29. Team and when I say they everybody was wearing white. When was that? 2018? Yep. And only the weather. Yeah, put scripts, no more black less dark spots. I just did this cord, then. Yeah, we stood out like a foot deep, was like the big wave of light coming into the room that was fresh. out of the bottle? Not the second, we know we're entering the battle. The second we agree months in advance. Well, we agree. Okay, we're gonna do this, we're gonna start picking the team, which is a mission itself. You know, once we thought that process to us, the battle for range artists, we always got our game plan. We always come to say something, you know, what a message like? What was it B boy city? What do you 13 we came in there, we did our thing. We made it to the top 16. The next day, we all came with MC t shirts. And back to the shirts that shoot the judges. We tend to make a plan. Everybody's gonna get it. You know, anyone can, you know, the judges got it. First, from the minute we walked in the room, you know, shoot judges, when you see a crew when the crew goes in there to smoke not to win the battle. But for smokey. It's a whole different animal. You understand what I mean? It's a whole different animal when we're not going there to win a contest. You know, we could destroy everything. I remember that the b-boy city. We did ou typical MZK engines. Wer straight to the back of firs open spot. I saw Ben I remembe I went down first MZK circl started well, we're heating u within a few minutes. Smurf wa like, yo, let's go smoke t migrate. And we went from ciphe to cipher to cipher smashin everything. And then everybod broke up after a while. And remember Romeo, the host, loo from the stage he says, Yo, see Zulu kings and every singl cipher at one time like this i Zulu King, every single cipher you know, understand, and that' what we came to. We didn't com there to win the battle. So yo know what ship the judges wer coming to destroy everythin coming to make it safe Yeah, that's definitely known for sure. I feel like that is something I'm glad that we learned early. When I was battling my sisters. It was really that mentality to it was like we're coming in together a whole group of females as a unit coming in. They're like, Who are these big haired girls? Like, what are they doing? You know, we come in and we make a present and it didn't really matter if we won or lost, but we were going to let people know that we were all here. together that we were a group together, and we're going to leave together, it does definitely leave a message that this group is about business and their business is to say, we were here we wrapped and now you're going to miss this cruise going to make a statement? What are they doing? You know, go back to the practice. We just had prevail on the show, shout out to prevail. There is boom call to action actually was at my house with you weeks ago, they still doing few more interviews for my movie. And there was there. They interviewed him a wild card. He's like, Did I say anything of like, anything? alien, that's his movie, anything that is taboo. That instance. Then I was like, Oh, you just gotta throw in this movie. Tell me about this movie. It's actually a series from real stung productions called you can't erase me. And you know, it's a full length film, story, different stories, and they all different people in hip hop that have left an impact, you know, from day one, still to this day, and they're not really seen upon as, you know, it's almost like they've been we are being swept under the rug. You know, you always got the big goats who needs you know what I'm saying? It's like, okay, that's cool. Those are the famous names, but having this shit on Applebee's is understand what I mean. like things like that. And that's the cause. So you got like, Special K, the treacherous three, who change the beast or rap. To this day, people still want to rap. Like, just the way you put things together is crazy delivery. I mean, he wrote it's us patina rock, just listen to those lyrics. Who the fuck things like this in that time, you know, when we looked at now, rap is hip hop as a general with more knowledgeable, you know, more educated than these cats from back then then, you know, things like that. And still people rock like a, you know, obey whole flows. So, basically, as you paid myself, you got Sparky D, you know, her story needs to be told, you know, and then there's a few other ones if they went to coming out soon, soon, a lot of things is happening. So I can't give no dates, because nothing's installed. But it's something I look forward to. And I'm really honored to be a part of it. I'm really honored that the producer, the director, who coincidentally is Mr. Wave from the New York City breakers. Coincidentally, he's the one that gave me my first big big break, you know, and so when he became a filmmaker, he started doing his series of movies based on this. He was like, I got to bring that less because less fits that profile as well. You know, he's like, I still see cat trying to do this. So he was like, you know, we got to tell the story. Yes, shut up. Wave, Mario mode and the whole game down and real. super dope people. And where can people find you or follow you? Follow nobody to ride with me on tik tok and Instagram and Twitter. On Tick Tock on dx ness, Instagram, I actually just created a new Instagram. It's at B x a mess. And I created another Instagram I hate having multiple accounts in one platform. But I created that because I'm starting to get more alive dances like I've got like 13k viewers know and to me that's a lot like Oh shit, but a lot of them have dances that I don't think they're getting my pages private. I don't think they're getting what they came there for, you know, my might post them and then they're gonna get names and tick tock and some biker shit. You know, and pictures of my tack. You know, it's not like I got a platform like these other big boys. So I just say, you know what, I'm creating another page and just putting the input dance. And you know, God, everybody there they want, you know, that's where they'll find everything. Is there anything else you want to share with our listeners? I want to give a shout out to everybody out, you know, people I even knew that people like yeah, that. You know, this past year has been crazy, you know, between the pandemic, you know, isolating everybody Due to politics, breaking everybody upon it, you know, to his generation this year that people survived this, I think, really strong people, a lot of people are weak and falling into the traps, becoming, you know, products of whatever it is that bothers them. But a lot of I see a lot of people like even with the online battle, I would normally be totally against that. But then it happened during a pandemic, where everybody actually needed it. And I was like, This is genius, enough to have them stay with another time, Max. Now I just say it's not for me, but I took the idea genius, whoever did it first. You know, God bless them, because it still gave our people an outlet, when we could still do what we love and put our energy into, you know, staying active and still doing what we love to do. And still being able to compete and connect, you know, on a global scale with so much with somebody just from a handheld device. I think that's amazing. So shout out to everybody. You know, we still got a ways to go. But y'all get shot out, y'all get your flowers to survive. Because I know it's been hard on people financially, mentally, you know, people's mental mental health numbers have gone off the roof, you know. So just shout out to everybody moving forward. That thing God ever created was one day after another. Well, we always end up our interviews with this last question, what is hip hop to you? Observe me and be it. I've said this before. And I think it was probably the best thing I've ever said. So I'll repeat it again, it's up to me is the last attempt to create the universe given us one last attempt to get the shit right. Like I said, hip hop is brought together more people from different colors, races, creed, religion, beliefs than any political or religious leader in the history of this planet. So I think that in itself is amazing. That's where hip hop is. It's the day it's the unity. We live this picture movie hip hop. Thank you so much to our guests, Louis Martinez, aka Alien Nes for taking the time and being s open while sharing you perspective with us Some of the gems we took away from this interview where: it's never too late to make an impact. Rather than thinking of using energy in terms of overcoming negative thought patterns, think of it in terms of establishing new habits. There is what you project out to others. And there is what others project on to you. Learn to master your awareness of energy. Win the event, not the contest. ome go home with a reward while others go home with recognition. Live to learn. If you are not learning, then you're not really living. Our theme music was beatbox by Denis the Menace and produced by Zede. A big shout out to the brothers from Switzerland. The background music was produced by Taki Brano. A big hing to brosky from Providence. uch love to Groove session and b-boy Smurf for the hilario s YouTube series called BRKN q iz. Our podcast basically runs o coffee. Keep our show running y u can support by buying us a c ffee through the link in our s ow notes. A huge thank you to crazy hoo production for your continuou support. Thanks to Nessa f r buying us a coffee. We wou d love to get your feedba k questions and any suggestio s you might have. You can rea h out to us on Instagram Twitt r or Facebook @soulidarityLLC or via email soulidar tyllc@gmail.co If you liked today's show, please tell a friend about our podcast. Or as Phife Dawg would ay: tell your mother, tell y ur father In our next episode, we have the big cheeseburger himself. Lino Delgado, aka Leanskee. Lino is a dancer, DJ, choreographer, c ast instructor, promoter, e ent planner and marketer. Lino i from Boston, Massachusetts w th almost 40 years of e perience within hip hop, and h is the co founder of the l gendary Floor Lords crew and c rrently resides in Hawaii. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a rating and review. We'll see you on our next episode. Thank you for listening to our podcast. No seriously though. Thank you. I am Candy. I'm DJ Razor Cut. And this is souls of hip hop.