One day after practice Cash asked me to teach him how to scratch and mix, so I took him to my room and I showed him how to do my style of cuttings.Ĭash came by everyday after dance practice to learn to cut. Cash was very young at the time so we taught him to soulstep and used him as a secret weapon when we danced. How did you meet them and how did it happen?ĭJ Grand Wizard Rasheen – Cash Money (Jerome) was a dancer in my group called Franchise at the time a lot of people could not beat my groups so they joined us, we had people from every part of Philly in my group. Nahila S – You are a legend and among the most influential DJs of Philly! You taught people such as DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Cash Money how to make a cut. I would scratch, rhyme and dance at the same time and it was over. I would battle crews all by myself and win. Many groups would try to battle me, but they just could not keep up, I had too much talent for them. I was a battle dancer and DJ and MC from Franchise Superbad and I lived for battles. Rappers and dancers from NY from NY started to come to Philly to do shows at the Hotel Phila, the Mayfair and other spots like that. A few years after “Philly Soul Stepping”. Nahila S – You are also an Emcee and a dancer (some New York City dancers would even travel down to compete with you at the time) can you tell us more about this part of your career?ĭJ Grand Wizard Rasheen – Once NY came out with “Break dancing”. So that is how I got known as a DJ in Philly. We were the talk of the town and all DJs around Philly from Philly would come and jam with us. I played Disco – Funk – Breakbeats – Live Rap conventions tapes I had. So me and Him started the first 24h Hip Hop station in Philly called WSMP FM. Then I met a guy called Stone Mike, he had a bootleg or pirate 50 Watts radio station around the corner from my house. I incorporated dance moves with my DJing tricks and I was on my way with my new sound. I did not have enough room on my dresser to put them the right way so I turned them sideways and put the mixer in the middle and they fitted perfectly! And that was the start of Philly Battle Style or Grand Wizard Rasheen Style DJing. Then one day my mom (Emma Roberts) gave me 2 (B.S.R) turntables and a mixer. I like the way Grand Wizard Theodore was cuttin’ and liked the name Grand Wizard so I called myself “Grand Wizard Rasheen”. We would listen to them, then try to imitate what we heard. We also had some guys form NY in our group that had Grand Master Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore and Cold Crush Crew tapes. So I took a boombox and started making pulse button mix tapes to expend the beats. But we had a lot of dancers in our group and the break was not long enough. We were dancing off of “James Brown – I can’t stand it”, “Kay Gees – Theme Song”, “Cerrone – Look for love”, we would wait for the drum break of the record to hit our steps. We did a dance called “Philly Soul Steeping or G.Q”, it’s kind of like line dancing, break dancing and tap dance all at the same time. We would go battle everybody everywhere we didn’t care! we were the best in the Southwest Philly. In 1976, in Southwest Philly I was 16 years old – I was a dancer with two groups, one was called “Super Bad” with Ray or Grand Slam and the other called “Franchise Dancers” with Ronnie Ron. Nahila S – When and how did you start DJing?ĭj Grand Wizard Rasheen – My name is David Roberts aka Grand Wizard Rasheen.
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