oh those merch tables...last time i worked a merch table was after my old crew AAC/ Headquaters (what!) opened up for...hmmm...should i risk coming off like a dick and name drop...oh what the hell...my old crew AAC/ Headquaters opened up for Outkast and the Black Eyed Peas at Maratime Hall in SF (RIP...this was in either 99 or 00)...it's a bit foggy now...but, it was super fun...working the merch table that is, AND performing of course...i sold an AAC/ Headquaters t-shirt to Melky of the hip hop duo Melky Sedek...Melky is the brother of Wyclef Jean and Sedek is the sister...pretty good, now defunct (as far as i know) rap/r&b group (they were also opening)...anyway, Melky was a really fun guy, and blunted as all hell...i didn't want to come off like poser so when i asked him to sign his cd i asked him to make it out to my little brother...stupid...but back then i was an egomaniacial little punk ass hip hopper...brimming with false pride...i'm trying to get my friend and fellow crew founder Daniel Pascal to send this amazing photo he has of 1/2 of the crew down in Fresno (breaking show) from like 98'...it's hilarious...we're all wearing white K-Swiss shoes with fat laces, what!!! (i'll post it if he can find it)
my fondest and most surreal memory of that night was a couple hours before the show backstage, all the performers including: my whole crew, Big Boi, Andre 3000, Apple (of BEP) eating a spaghetti dinner together...i mean, wtf?! you know...there's Apple, with red sauce on his chin shooting the shit with me...the ufin' beat!
too bad that crew busted...the b-boys's heads were too big to fit the bill...that's why to this day i love AND hate b-boys...man, the egos on those kids is phenomenal...i mean, were talking fist fights within the crew, one of them i shamfully took part in...and these guys were probably within the top 15 dancers in the Bay Area, easy...and if you're familiar with b-boy culture in the Bay then you know that's saying something...i mean, A Tribe Called Quest wanted the dancers from AAC to go on tour with them for The Love Movement...and then they broke up...Tribe that is...i've lost touch with most of them...Eric and Daniel went to Iraq and thankfully came back safely (this is Daniel (he looks like a meanie but he's all PLUR, he's going to hate me for posting this)...
(though on my last trip home over x-mas Daniel told me he had been shot 6 times in LA a week after he got back...as he tells it, he's getting out of his car at a Safeway about to do some grocery shopping when this dude said something to him...in Daniel's words, and he says so regretfully "so, i'm just back from Iraq, i'm like, i just fought a war, so who is this punk ass to say shit to me..." so Daniel says something back, the guy pulls his gun and starts shooting...Daniel runs around his car to dodge the bullets, dude follows, still shooting, Daniel is hit, and then hit and then hit and then some...he told me it was like being chased with a squirt gun..it was so surreal...Eric came back and got married, i have no idea if he's living in the Bay...Sean, who was always the craziest member, is according to Daniel, still living in South Concord and crazy as all hell, this guy was a fucking liability...but we loved him...Issac as far as i know is the only ex-member still dancing...and making a living at it...we reconnected through myspace recently, he's still teaching breakdancing at a few local studios in the Bay, but mostly he makes his money off the myriad breaking videos he and his new crew put out...i guess they're pretty big time...as for the other members, i think Safari is in NY now, still MCing...the last thing i heard from him was on Grouch's 2003 album Crusader For Justice...Daniel is about to start junior college in the East Bay using his soldier's pension...i'm still djing though rarely out anymore...though i did have a semi-regular weekly at The Top in the Lower Haight before i moved to Boulder...i'll always DJ, i just hate the hip hop scene as a scene that it limits my level of participation...
anyway, i just got back from a Bombay Gin meeting and felt lke digressing...
...currently listening to Spice 1 AmeriKKK's Nightmare...
"i'm the East Bay Freddy Krueger!"
—Spice 1
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