Saturday September 18th will go down in Washington Heights history and will forever be a special date for Hundreds of us that grew in the hood… You know who you are!
To the younger set, it was just another “rave” (ughhhh),, they went,, smoked a little weed, got stupid, perhaps drunk and that was that. This is not the case for us in our 40’s and better.. For me,, it was a spiritual culmination, a nirvana and return to my roots. I made it,, I’m still here and I feel good… Gracias a Dios.!!!!
At one point while chillen with BUBU and seeing all my old friends dancing and smiling,, I actually cried a little..
To understand how special this evening was for ME you have to go way back into time,, back to the Bridge Apartment Jams, Salsa Disco, The block parties, the gangs, the clothes and of course the Streets in the 80’s.
You see, It’s no secret to anyone that really knows me, knows that I was on the streets since I was 13 years old.. My reality was not that of the normal teenager.. I was REALLY ON THE STREETS HARDCORE.
I knew all the gangs members, Ball Busters, Playboys, UCC, AA, TDD, THE BAD BAD BOYS, MBB, etc ect.. On the drug tip,, dudes like CABALLON, CAPO, YAYO. MIKE THE DOME, SERGIO ( shanana) and MANY MANY MORE. Although I Was NEVER in a gang… I knew them ALL, they all showed me Love as a kid and in many cases more than my own family. Some people that grew up in that era swear they knew these guys and talk about them like you knew them.. Lots of you are FULL OF SHIT… But I digress…
Growing up in Washington Heights and navigating in those rough waters with the sharks I just mentioned,, MANY ( not all) people became gang members, stick up dudes, addicts,, bigtime dealers, victims of beatings and worst, Homicides. Unless you were home, hiding from the streets and wasn’t allowed on blocks like 177th, 172nd, 163rd 174th 185th 180th and others… From Amsterdam to Fort Wash.. It was that real…..
And please don’t get all offended,, IM TALKING ABOUT MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE,, NOT YOURS!!!!
Then there were these 2 amazing dudes.. HEX AND JULIO,, somehow they had this energy, power, respect and sound that took us away from all that. Their parties were like a refuge, a Holy ground where all your issues went away..
Let’s face it,, most of us were on welfare, didn’t grow up with a dime, had issues at home and on the streets we were dodging addiction, crime and in many cases death. Back in the dayz I personally saw with my own eyes some of the hardest dudes of our times dancing like kids to JULIO AND HEX mixing on the tables.. Literally dancing right next to dudes from a block they hated… NONE OF THAT MATTERD THERE. It was like spiritual place…
The power of the music that came through those speakers would heal and if even for that moment save us from our realities.. That’s some powerful shit!! DJ’s come and go but in my humble opinion these 2 masters are way bigger than that, they bought together a generation, exposed us all to amazing sounds from all types of genres and in many cases saved us…. I say this all the time, “they wrote the soundtrack to my life”… This is why September 18th 2010 was so special for me… I FUCKING MADE IT TO MY 40′s and was enjoying it with people who understood how special that is. I felt 15 years old again.. THE MUSIC WAS AMAZING!!!! A TIME MACHINE……….
I guess in many ways this is more than just a blog about the Reunion Jam,, it’s more of a thank you to JULIO TON RODRIGUEZ AND HEX HECTOR for playing a huge part in my life.. Thank you for the moments, the memories and a lifetime of happiness via the music.. See you at the next jam!
Milton (Milz) Castro…….
Very well said my friend. God bless!
Tremendo Milton, thanks for the mention mi hermano. I have enjoy the pics the vids like if I was there some faces I remembered some I don’t but nevertheless we made it pasa 40
SSup milton I grew up in Corona, Queens knowing a few Ball Busters from 137th & Broadway for example “Chocolate, Fish, Ecuadorian Carlos & his brother Junior, another junior & his brother Rafael, Winston a BB from Queens as well as Eddie & BB Pedro from corona. You might be familiar with these names or maybe not, I use to hang out with these guys on 137th & B’way, & to me being 16 in 1984 from Queens & hangin out Uptown was indeed one of the high lights of my young life at the time coming back to queens & telling my friends I had hung out uptown with the Ball Busters I was like a star on my block! Lol. not always a good thing in the neighborhood tho cause there was a lot of ppl. who also hated the BB’s & most often had got jumped by them at either the “FUNHOUSE” night club or “ROSELAND BALLROOM”, so I caught a lot of drama, but who cared at that time I was a good friend of the BB’s & had their back, one thing though I’ve always been very interested in the history of the BB’s & how & when they got started?? I’ve heard of a leader called “Pinguita” another called “PUPA”, I would really like to know the history behind how it all got started… If you have any feed back Please let me know Im at xavier1nycee@yahoo.com… your feed back is welcomed… Thank You…