Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's going on, y'all? Corpus Christi Richards back at it again. Today we're going to focusing on the Corpus Christi hip hop scene. Real quick, shout out to the Scare Investigations, Texas, for helping to support the channel. Also, Almighty Public Zoo for supporting the channel. Supporting this podcast. Today we got Almighty Public Zoo, A few of the crew members from there we got Indiana John, Johnathan and Isaac. Want to introduce yourselves.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Fellas, how you doing? My name is Indiana Walking Stick. Born and raised here in Corpus Christi, Texas. Been in Public zoo since the 90s. Well, before it was Public Zoo, but we'll get to talking about that in a minute.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Yeah. What's up, man? I'm John. John 81 or Jonathan. I've been called worse. It's okay. Just like India. I've been in Public Zoo since the. The inception of it, since before.
Yeah, I'm just happy to be here. Ready to talk about it.
[00:00:50] Speaker D: My name is Isaac Sanchez, newest member of Public Zoo. I'm a B boy and. Yeah, man, happy to be here.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Happy to be back, man. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for having us today. Really appreciate that.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:01:01] Speaker D: First time in the studio, man.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: So think about it so far.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: I like the woodwork. I like the woodwork.
Yeah. Very beautiful.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: I feel like I should have took my shoes off coming in.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: So this is not all of y'all. Right, off to the side we got Joe, also another crew member.
So how many members are there?
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Or like 15?
[00:01:25] Speaker D: We can't officially get out.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: The thing is, there's a lot of us. It's a. It's just a majority of us are. Are well into it, doing. Playing our part for as much as we can. But there are also people behind the scenes that are Public Zoo that a lot of people don't ever really see. I mean, you'll see them out, but you won't even really know that they're Public Zoo. They're not sitting there. Oh, we're Public Zoo. But they are putting in a lot of work in areas where you're not seeing it.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: So that's interesting.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: We've got a. We've got a clockwork system. And it's a lot of people that actually contribute and help out with it. So that's a good thing, man.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: That's cool. So, like, some. So some of. What do they do to contribute? Like you're saying contribute?
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Like.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we got people who, like, we specifically have guys who do certain things, like trying to find venues, coming up with ideas for new events.
Just overall, anything that we can get as far as, you know, mandating. You're gonna do this, you're gonna do that. I mean, that's usually how it goes. And these people, like I said, they. They call the venues. Hey, you know, what do you got going on on this date? We got this coming up. Okay. Oh, you booked. Okay. Boom. Boom. So they're trying to find venues. We got other guys who are actually trying to plot the venues out, and then we got guys who are out there trying to get sponsorships for it, trying to get everything going. So everybody plays their part. And that's the really good thing about it that I like is because that's cool. There's not one person who's just specifically does a lot. Yeah, yeah. Marlena does us as well. Yes. Joe Brock does a lot for us as well.
I mean, there's. There's. Like I said, there's a bunch of people behind the scenes that a lot of people don't really see that really play a big part of this.
[00:03:04] Speaker D: And a lot of cats out. Out outside of Corpus, too.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Clements evolve. Mike, Mel. I mean, we've. They're. Like I said, there's a lot of guys that nobody really sees, but they're. They're still playing their part as best they can, so.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: That's awesome. What's going on in the chat, you guys? Elvago, what's going on in Facebook? So you guys. So I guess we'll start at the. The origins of the public zoo. You two guys are buddies to begin with, right?
[00:03:28] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Oh, y'all were in a confusion crew, right?
[00:03:31] Speaker C: Yeah. So the way we met was through graffiti. So when I moved to Corpus, I was, like, doodling on some paper and, like, in class when I should have been paying attention. So the teacher saw it turn it into the. The principal or the dean or whatever, and they thought I was doing graffiti under another name.
[00:03:51] Speaker D: Can I say the name?
[00:03:51] Speaker B: You good?
[00:03:52] Speaker C: Okay. So this guy used to graffiti, right? Porn star?
I don't know.
[00:03:57] Speaker D: Well, we're not even five minutes in, and that's coming up.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: So they. They thought I was the one scribbling porn star all over the. The walls and the lockers and whatnot. And I had just moved here, and I just, like, checked in the car. I've been in the car for, like, two weeks. Maybe, like, I don't know. I got, like, one friend, and, like, I'm not even sure that guy's actually a friend or so, like, they were, like, talking about expelling me already and all this stuff. It was crazy. I was Like, I swear to God it's not me. Like, nobody believe in me, man. It's like, this is crazy. And then I end up befriending this guy, Robert Peterson, and everyone called him Black Rob or Robbie Rob. And. And I started, like, sharing this story with him, and he's like, oh, yeah, that's. That's the homeboy, Indiana.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: And.
[00:04:44] Speaker C: And to this point in my life, I never met anyone named Indiana.
[00:04:48] Speaker D: No.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: Well, right. And then Indiana Walking Stick. Like, that's not a real name.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Is that really your last name?
[00:04:55] Speaker B: My real name. Wow, this is crazy.
Yo, that's crazy.
[00:05:02] Speaker C: I thought that was fake. Like, just like you're saying.
Nobody names a kid.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: My mom was in love with Harrison Ford.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: So then I end up meeting. Meeting him that way. And then I didn't like him initially. And then we ended up obviously becoming friends.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: Through a series of events. And. Yeah, we just been, like, kicking it. And then we were both break dancing at the time.
[00:05:23] Speaker D: And.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: He approaches me like, hey, you porn star.
Hey, man, quit writing in the bathrooms and stuff. I'm getting in trouble, man. I'm like, okay, man.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: I was mad. I was trying to get a scholarship. Like, the NBA won't call me back.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Oh, you were playing basketball at the time?
[00:05:39] Speaker C: No.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: No. Yeah. Since then, we've been best friends, man. It's hilarious how we met. It's. It's. Ever since then, though, it's been. It's been good, I think.
[00:05:52] Speaker C: I mean, he's all right, man.
No, then we were. We were like, break dancing together.
And then at the time, this is the late 90s, I don't know, like, 98 maybe, or 97. 98.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: I don't forget what year it was.
And there was like a ton of breakdance crews and Corpuscle, like, a lot. Like, like, it. It was super popular. Like, I was talking about this last night or the other night. Like, even schools had breakdancing teams. So we. There was like, Carol, the high school we went to had a break dancing team that we were on. And King had one, Miller had one. Yeah, it was nice. It was a big deal back then.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: I was gonna say shout out Robojosh for still having the trophy from.
You have yours too?
[00:06:33] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: I don't have.
[00:06:34] Speaker C: Yeah. And we. We got trophies from the school, and it was pretty awesome.
[00:06:37] Speaker D: Letterman's Adventure.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: So it was like. It was a really big deal.
But then, like, we ended up joining this group called Confusion Crew.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: It was. It was originally hip hop kids, and it was.
It was A bunch of guys. It's still the homies. Daniel Bobby Hobbs, Ralio me. You Mike Bustos are RIP Mike Medina. There was a bunch of guys in a. It was literally just a breakdancing crew. We had some graffiti artists, and we were doing graffiti at the time. And it literally took from that. We're hip hop kids, and I think our colors were orange and blue.
[00:07:20] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Orange and blue. And it went from hip hop kids. And we did that for a couple years. And then what he's talking about, from 97, 98, we started transitioning from hip hop kids to all star B boys and then all star B boys. We kind of cut ties with some of our friends. They weren't. They weren't into it as much as we were at this point. We were kind of invested into it. We liked break dancing, we were practicing. We're traveling, doing what we could, and the other guys just weren't really into it anymore. So we kind of broke off from that. And that's kind of where Public Zoo started with me, John, the two brothers, Medina, which are Matt and Adi.
[00:08:03] Speaker D: That was after Confusion crew.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it went from hip hop.
[00:08:08] Speaker D: How long did Confusion, like, last?
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Confusion lasted for a couple of years, man. It was.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: It was three or five years.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah, three to five years.
[00:08:15] Speaker D: And that was doing the Corpus circuit, like having everybody here circuit.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: And then like I said, after that, it was. It was just kind of a loss of interest for some of the guys that were doing that.
[00:08:26] Speaker D: That story in itself, though, is like the. That's, I don't know, like, the. So common in, like, hip hop in general.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, people grow up.
[00:08:35] Speaker D: Yeah. Like certain members of a crew being more dedicated than others, especially in breaking, you see that all the time. And then, you know, there's a falling out. Or the two that are more dedicated battle with other crews that are more dedicated, and they, you know, or they get to the next level of skill and they go and start battling with other. Other cats.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:53] Speaker D: And the guys that aren't as into it or aren't as skilled, they kind of, you know, they stay back and they do the local thing, and sometimes they either fizzle out or they'll stay in their. Their little circle. And that's what keeps the. The drama going.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: What's the break scene like now? Like, is it.
[00:09:09] Speaker D: Is it in Corpus or just in general?
[00:09:11] Speaker A: In Corpus.
[00:09:12] Speaker D: What I mean, well, the Indy's gonna talk about a little bit because it.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Seems like hip hop has gone a long way since since, since it start, like, I guess I want to say in like New York or whatever.
[00:09:22] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: But I'm talking about hip hop in general.
[00:09:23] Speaker D: Well, it's globally. I mean the hip hop scene in general is huge.
The breaking scene, I think we talked about this on my, the episode I was on. But Texas has a, has a pretty big breaking scene. Like as a pretty big hip hop scene. But as a whole, like Texas B Boys are the best in the world. Like there's no convincing me otherwise.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: I. I've been around.
[00:09:46] Speaker D: Yeah. And they were a part of that generation where those Texas B Boys were establishing those names and those reputations. I, I came in a little bit after and I'm more of a fan now. But even now, like we're still. I mean, one of the dudes in the Olympic squad was from Houston.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:06] Speaker D: You know, like that. That tells you a lot. And he's. I mean he's Adobe Boy, but he's one of a bunch that are all at that level, you know, so that's pretty cool. But yeah, they were kind of on the forefront of, of that.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:21] Speaker D: What was that like?
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Yeah, when I was talking with you in the, in the truck is like we, we didn't have the Internet. So when we saw people, when we went out of town and we saw people like when we first saw Ninja, like ridiculous. Like we see in something just completely different. And then I was like, I was telling Isaac, like back then when we were dancing, like Texas had just started to kick it up a notch. They. They took it to another level and doing air flares, one handed air chair poses.
I mean just creating different styles that nobody else was seeing.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Do you feel like, do you feel like they had to like, okay, we gotta up our.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:02] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: They knew what they were doing because they literally had the format and the blueprint for it. I don't know how it came about or how Texas just everybody got it at once. It was so crazy because I think what it was is there were so many people competing that you had no choice but to get better. We didn't get better. You just, you were out off to the side.
[00:11:23] Speaker D: It was like this when y'all were like in, in those years. But for me, traveling the Texas scene, like every city, like we're so spread apart. Like every city is like a state here.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:33] Speaker D: You know what I mean? Like Dallas is eight hours away. And Dallas has their own like culture and their own style. But blueprint of B boys that are at a high level. Houston, you know, everybody San Antonio. They're all more like dancing based, you know, with some old school powerheads, you know, sprinkled in there. Austin, it's a. It's a melting pot.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:11:54] Speaker D: What a. You know. But yeah, it was like that back then too, though.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, there was. I mean, the way we ever had any kind of communication with anybody else out of our city was. I think we had a. Like a forum. I think it was a break freestyle session. It was like freestyle session, I think. Bboy.com and break check.com.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: They had these little, like, little chats. Like, just chats. Like, like basically like a. Like a room.
[00:12:25] Speaker D: Like I heard of them. That's where people used to go talk, right?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah.
What is this? You know what it was you. What it was. That was the original Call of Duty lobby. Ah, that's really what it is.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Because you could make up fake names.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: You could do whatever. Yeah, you could make up fake names and everybody just talking crazy. Oh, well, what's up? I'll battle you in San Antonio. I'll battle you over here. We'll show up.
Next thing you know, people were showing up to battle each other. And it. That's just how it was. But even before that, like when we were. When we were just dancing and stuff, like even in the city when we first started and it was big, like, how many crews were there? There was a bunch of cruise.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: There was a lot. There was like Playboys.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: The Playboys is across the bridge.
Bic Us. There was Cruising Kings, Cruising Kingsville.
There was a bunch of different cruises.
It was always. It was always something going on on the weekend where somebody was gonna battle.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: So this is like all before social media. You can go to like the mall on a Saturday afternoon.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: And we would. There would be battles at the mall.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: At the mall. Yeah.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: It was like on site.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Was weird. We were. We were very dedicated back then. Yeah. You see somebody. It was like the movies. You see somebody walking across. What's up?
[00:13:42] Speaker C: Do you remember where the. The Chick Fil? A used to be? Like downstairs, that hallway. We would break dance right there.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: It's Lululemon now in the mall.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: And then. So that would be the spot. And then we would go to King Sieta's on Saturday nights. And like, don't even know.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Don't even know whose party it is, but they got a nice dance. We're going to go over there and go dance.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: We would just go be like, oh, there's these B boys over Here.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Was there ever, like, a fist fight?
[00:14:09] Speaker B: No, that. That was. The cool thing about it.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Is like, it was. It was genuine. Like, we were battling. We were battling to battle. It wasn't a. Like, I'm g you up. You know, it was just a. I'mma get you on. Yeah. Never, never, never came to fisticuffs. I mean, rapping a little different, but breaking down with no. No drama that got there.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to stay.
[00:14:34] Speaker D: I mean, it's. It's.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: No, I mean, it happens for sure. There's. Sometimes people just can't control emotion, and they get, you know, a little upset and stuff. So that's natural. But for the most part, it was always fairly clean. Everybody just so that.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: So that was back in the day. Chat forms. So how do you. How do you. How y'all get it now? Like, I mean, I'll tell you what.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: It'S me a while to like social media. I didn't. I didn't like social media. I still don't even really get on social media. I mean, I'll get on and I'll advertise certain stuff, but I really don't post my life on social media.
The difference now, though, is it's gotten everybody, I think, more. I think, like, what Ronnie was talking about earlier on that podcast you're listening to, it's become more of a.
They're more. It's more friendly now. Everybody's friendly. It's not so cutthroat and so ruthless as it was. It's more of a.
Everybody can communicate. So everybody's friends with each other or friends with each other.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Like, it's.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: So when you. They go to battle and stuff. When they go to battle or something, it's. It's more of a, hey, let's shake hands first. You know, hey, good luck. When back in the day, as a. What's up? Let's go.
[00:15:45] Speaker D: That I can see.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Like, it was. It was more cutthroat. But social media has definitely helped it, though. I mean, it's. Look where it's gotten with Red Bull. I mean, it's gotten. It's got break dancing into the Olympics.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Do you think it influenced break dancing, being in the Olympics, social media and stuff like that?
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yes. I think what happened with the Olympics was.
Yeah, it was. It was watered down very much, I think. I didn't. I didn't like the representation of it, but it was awesome that it was there. But it's just the way it was portrayed and seen. Everybody kind of just got the Bad end of the stick, I think, visually for it.
[00:16:21] Speaker D: You talking about the Olympics.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was it. I think they rushed.
[00:16:26] Speaker C: Talk about Reagan. He just don't want to say it.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Shout out, ray Gun, I love you.
But no.
[00:16:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I was hoping we wouldn't, but, you know.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: No. Yeah, definitely. The. The influence of social has definitely fire started everything. I mean, it's even graffiti rapping, DJing. Everything has gotten its best foot forward because of social media now, too.
[00:16:49] Speaker D: Just for my own, because I've never asked y'all this, but when y'all two were traveling, was that under Confusion or was that under early Public Zoo days?
[00:17:01] Speaker C: Oh, we did trips with Confusion.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Confusion.
[00:17:03] Speaker D: Oh, did you?
[00:17:03] Speaker C: Yeah. And then we also did trips with public, too.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Did you?
[00:17:06] Speaker D: So y'all battle and breaking under Public Zoo. Damn. Okay. I thought all that was Yalls confusion Years and then Public Z kind of transition, kind of what it is.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: One time, there was. There used to be an event in Chicago called City versus City.
[00:17:18] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: And me and this dude went, and we just, like, we talked about going, but we never had a plan to go. And then the day came for us to leave, and we just woke up and we just went.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: We drove straight to Chicago.
[00:17:31] Speaker D: Right there.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Straight to Chicago, nonstop, non stop, non.
[00:17:34] Speaker C: Stop, all the way in.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: What.
[00:17:36] Speaker D: What kind of vehicle are you?
Old D. With no, like, GPS or anything?
[00:17:44] Speaker B: No, no.
Yes.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: That's how long ago?
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Oh, shoot. Yeah.
[00:17:51] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: So we were. We stayed up and you weren't like.
[00:17:54] Speaker D: With the big map in it? You're like, no.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: That'S it.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Well, it was me, him, and Kevin Mack. Kevin Mack, that's right.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: Kevin Mack, this other guy we sing out with. And then I remember we were driving up there, and we had stopped at a store, and I remember this guy bought, like, these, like, trucker pills to, like, stay awake. The Hornet pills or whatever.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah, the yellow jacket.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: And they took them. It's like we're driving and like, from the passenger scene, I go to sleep for a little bit and I wake up. I look at him and he's like.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: I'm, like, driving slow.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: I wake up and, like, why are we going so slow? Like, we're on the open inners of how we do, like, 30 miles an hour. I'm like, what the hell's going on?
[00:18:38] Speaker B: I just.
[00:18:39] Speaker C: He's, like, staring and he's like, you see that up there, bro?
[00:18:41] Speaker B: I've been driving for a while. I been driving for a while, and I was just. I was lit. Kevin. Max, like, in the back seat, completely Laid out asleep. John. John's in the front. He's napping. So I'm. We get to this point where it's like a straightaway. Like, it's like so many miles, and you don't have to make any turns. He's like, I'm gonna take a nap. I'm taking. I was like, go ahead, man.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: Cool.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Go, go. And I'm already chock full of these damn pills. And I'm literally like, gas, Asian dick pills.
I'm just like, oh. Like, hey, hey, hey. Do you see that up there? And he's like, see what, man? I was like, them lights up there, man. The lights up there. He's like, man, there ain't no man. Pull over, man. God. Yeah. I was like, oh, it's making me dirty.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: Get to Chicago. That gets us lost in Chicago. And we don't have, like, gps.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah, we haven't. Yeah. This is the era of no Internet on your phone.
I don't even think we're cell phones at that point. Do we have cell phones?
[00:19:37] Speaker C: I think we had a cell phone, but it wasn't. They didn't have a little cell phone.
[00:19:39] Speaker D: To play a snake on.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Nokia 1520i. Yeah.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: And then we. We got there, we went to the event, and it was like, so the city versus City. I don't know if they still do it or not, but basically. Whatever.
That's basically what. Who you're representing. And so I think Texas.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: We had enough B boys from different parts of Texas that we all just teamed up together as Team Texas.
[00:20:03] Speaker D: What year was that? I'm gonna go try and find that battle, actually.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: You know, if you. If you find. I think. I think it was city versus City. Yeah, three or something.
[00:20:11] Speaker D: Was that when, like, Angelo went out there?
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's when we. We were with Angelo. Recon some giants, right?
[00:20:21] Speaker D: There's a few of them out there.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
Romeo and all them.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: That was a fun trip, but, yeah, we should go on trips all the time.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah. It was funny because everybody. Everybody just assumed that since you were from Texas, you were just remarkably dope. It didn't even matter, you know, they were just like, that kind of representation. Yeah. Well, at this point, the guys who were doing power and like. Like doing new tricks and stuff that nobody had seen before were from Texas. So when they were out there, they're like, oh, y'all from Texas? Oh, I think what you told somebody, they asked you, how do y'all train? Or anything? He's like, oh, we drink beer. We brush our teeth with beer. And drink great Kool aid all day. And I was like. And they were just like, oh, really?
[00:21:00] Speaker D: Oh, that's what they're texting.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Yeah. We were messing with people. They were like, they're like 80. Y'all have tumbleweeds?
Yeah, yeah, they were. They were eating it up, though.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: They're like.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Like, that's. And I was like, for real, bro. I mean, they still do shootouts at the daytime, at noon, 10 pace steps, turn and shoot, bro. And they're like, I do my killing in some counties, but once again, there's no Internet. So there. I mean, they literally take. They've taken from whatever western movie they've seen about Texas or whatever. And this is. What. When was this? 2000-2001-2002-2001. Yeah. And so at this point back then, there's no Internet still, like, I'm saying. So it's just hilarious because you're telling people certain things. Like, yeah, we got big ass tumble weeds. There's dirt in the road. And you're being satire as hell, you know? And they're just still like.
They're talking people at High Noon. Really. Sure are, man.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: Every day, something that did happen. This is how I knew we were in Chicago. We went to the McDonald's and had a metal detector.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: Just to go.
Yeah. And I remember sitting there thinking, like, oh, that's pretty nice. Like, but it's the people who couldn't get in that you got to worry.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: About, who are still outside.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: I'm like. And they're gonna like, rob is for some cheeseburger.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: What are some of the lessons y'all learned from the early days?
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Oh, where do I start?
Don't take any wooden nickels right off the bat. No, I think. I think the thing that I've learned is go for what you want to do, continue doing what you want to do.
I think. I think I. I stopped break dancing, and I think I. I didn't want to because even still now, I still try and break dance. I'll just do stuff out of random areas and times. But I think if I could go back, I would. I wouldn't stop break dancing. I think I would have continued doing it, and I think it could have been fun. Still at my age of 43.
[00:23:02] Speaker D: Over 40 battles now, dude.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I'm saying right now.
[00:23:05] Speaker D: My running joke is that, like, I'm trained. I got five years to train for the over 40.
But you know what's funny is, like, all that generation, those angel them, they're battling in that. So, like, the competition just went to that. Like, it's still at a freaking high level. So I'm like, you know, it's cool, bro.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: It's like your life, like, you like doing stuff you just keep. You continue doing.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the thing about it. That's. I think that's the thing was with us is like, we've. We just genuinely love doing this. We love it. Like, I think we've had a bunch of people with us, but some of them have gone. Like, some people. There's a lot of people have come and gone with us as far as friendships or as far as just in general being a part of us, but then leaving to like Hawaii or going like. Our buddy Hob. Hob lives in Hawaii. He was. Used to be part of the original crew. And he's still one of our good friends. Still one of my best friends that I talk to still too. And. But he's no longer part of. He doesn't want to do that. He's got his own thing. He's got a spice company.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:24:04] Speaker C: And that's a weird way to say only fans, but.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah, but. No but like. Like I was saying, like, it's a. It's. It's something like. Like it's instilled in me. I love doing this. I'm not going to stop rapping or stop doing anything like that anytime soon. And I think that's really what it is. It's just you have to have a fire for this. And I think everybody right here has a fire for it, and everybody that's still part of the crew has a fire for it.
[00:24:29] Speaker D: And to kind of like touch on your question, like, I. I knew it was kind of directed them, but one thing I've always related to John. John specifically about is the marketing aspect that I've learned from, like, traveling.
You know, there's. Even though I did, I. I come from the generation that did have like the. The social media and, you know, we just use that as ways to make connections so it was easier to get to those people so I could go back to that spot. But when my brother and I were traveling, we were broke. We had like, no money. All our. We'd pay our rent and then, you know, it was. It was off to the next battle. And who you knew was the difference between how comfortable you were going to be out there. And to be honest, like, that's business. You know what I mean? Like, those are business relationships. Like, recently I.
I had went to Nashville for like, A wedding like a year ago. And anytime my wife has this rule, like, side note, anytime I travel with the wife, she's like, hey, you get one day. Go do your B boy thing. And I'll go and I'll hit up, like, every social media who. Who knows people. B boys in Seattle. Who knows B boys in Tennessee or Nashville? And I had made some connections out in Nashville. Well, I went for a business trip back in October, and one of the guys who I had sessioned with teaches at a studio, and he's like, yo, you teach? I was like, yeah, yeah. He's like, come. He's gonna be in time for the week on Wednesday or Thursday. Come teach our advanced class. And I got to go do a guest like spot. But that right there is something I learned from the. The days where we were going out there with no money. You know what I mean? Hey, meet everybody. You know what I mean? Like, when it's battle time, that's different. But off, outside of that, you're. You're making connections. And I mean, just to bring it full circle. Like, there's been a ton of times where I've been out in a random city and people ask where I'm from, and I'm like, corpus. And they're like, oh, you know John, John? Yeah, yeah. He's like, oh, that's the homie.
[00:26:27] Speaker C: We.
[00:26:27] Speaker D: He used to come through here back in the early 2000s.
[00:26:30] Speaker C: I thought. I thought this was gonna say, my wife's got this rule when we go to weddings. Don't embarrass me with that break dancing.
I'm.
[00:26:38] Speaker D: I'm like the last person to dance like that at wedding, man. I'm. I'm 35. It's hard to get going. I can't just bust out like Indiana.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:47] Speaker D: I'm like, bro, I gotta stretch. I need to warm up.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: I'm a big dude, but I move, baby.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Hey, shout out to Joe, Joe Brock, for sending the stars on Facebook. Thanks a lot. Appreciate that, Joe. Yeah, I touch on that often on the podcast. Networking how important that is in any.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Industry, bro, like, definitely.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Yeah, she's just. Just talk. Talking to people and stuff like that. So you guys have been for the last 20 plus years.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: A public zoo. How has the public zoo evolved in terms of music style and community involvement?
[00:27:18] Speaker C: So Public Zoo started as just a break dance crew. Well, like, what Andy was talking about earlier.
And then, like, with Confusion Crew, some of the core members moved away to Dallas and Colorado or something.
But what had happened was we had an older Guy that was in Public Zoo, his name was Chris.
And I was talking about this guy before. He's kind of like a mythical creature. Like, there's only a handful of people who know who he is because he's like, completely off the grid. But his real name is Chris Tucker, just like Smokey, but that was like a real day. But he's an older guy and he went by Dirty Rex. And so he and I were living together and it was his idea to, like, want to like, evolve Public Zoo into something.
So we. We live together, this house on the street called Bahamas. And so we referred to the house as Bahamas.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: As the Bahamas.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: So like, yo, we're kicking at the Bahamas.
Yeah, it just sounds cool. Especially if a stranger over here.
That's cool. Yeah, we're bringing everybody with us. And so what had happened was a lot of people would start hanging out at this. This house.
And then our friend Worm, it was his idea to like, oh, we should like, form this, like super, super hip hop crew group of guys. That's cool because we're always together anyways. And then like, some, like, graffiti writers and a couple skaters and.
And we had a roommate too. Rez. Rez. Res. And I used to call him the Resonator.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: But he was real.
[00:28:46] Speaker C: No, I call him Resonator. I know his name is Riz, but I call him Resonator. Anyways. But he's still the homie.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: And so anyways, so he was in a band and he had a drum set kit or drum kit setup and he used to play beats. And so. Yeah, and then it was Rex's idea to like, evolve Public Zoo into like an event group because he worked at Stinger. This is how long, long ago it was? Yeah, back when Stingers. Yeah, back when Stingers was the place.
How did Dirty. I don't know how Dirty Rex got his name.
I honestly thought his name was Rex for a long time.
That's the weird thing about everybody in Pogazul. Everyone but Isaac's got this weird nickname.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: It's Time.
[00:29:32] Speaker C: And so it was Rex's idea in his organization because he had just got out of the Marine Corps at that time. And so he was still. He still had that mindset, I suppose. And it was his idea to evolve us into a collective hip hop group. Wow, that's con. That's conformed of, you know, B boys and skaters and graffiti writers. And I think what really like. Well, what I really liked about it because the Internet was starting to become new, like Facebook, like, people have Facebook Accounts, my space. That's what it was. MySpace was real big and.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Photo booking.
[00:30:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:05] Speaker C: And so that was like, a big deal. And so what we started, like, just like, collecting people who we. We. We felt like were like us because we weren't like, into the. The Jordans and the Bling Bling and the Tall tees. But don't get me wrong, I like all that fancy too. But it wasn't who we were.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: It's a culture that.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: Yeah, we were just like. You couldn't tell if we were, like, homeless. You couldn't tell if we were skaters. You couldn't tell if we worked at the mall. Like, that's what I like the most about us. And we just started attracting more people that way and. And meeting different people. And that's.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Yeah, because when we. I think at that point, that's when we started to do shows, I think at like, Honeybee Hams.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And we were. Honeybee Hams.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: What else?
[00:30:45] Speaker D: What were some of those shows? Like, what were y'all doing early on?
[00:30:47] Speaker C: Oh, they were just like little shows for us.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Yeah, they were. They're literally like events, or not even like really hypers events. There was a. Like, I think it evolved from us talking about it and making a super group into. Actually we were like. We had connections in different places to talk to people. And I think is Yosef. DJ Yosef. He was his. I think. Yeah. Yos is. I think his family owns Honeybee.
So he was a homie back in the day. Because we used to go to these raves and break down. We'd go out.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:24] Speaker C: Like the only place that we could go to the Raven.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, they would play like, house music and stuff like that. So. Yeah, we.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: Yeah, they're like the only group of people who were like. Because we would try to break dancing Stingers or something. They can't break down the Stingers back then.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: But we'd go to these Braves or anything or they see even. I think it was like. Like VIP 2 or the Honda or something. They would have it on Sundays. Like, they would have, like, dance music. So we'd go out there and mess around. But anyways, back to it, though. I got sidetracked. Yeah, we would. We started doing shows at Honeybee Hams. Like, they would shut down after hours and DJ Yosef would go set up a sound system and we would invite people just like, basically come hang out and we'd rap a little bit. But for the most part, that's how it started. We just literally had These little get.
[00:32:10] Speaker D: Togethers, these little jams.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And then. And then from there, it just. Just snowballed.
[00:32:15] Speaker C: I think one of the first events. I think I see Dose on the screen. That's why I said it. But not Dose. But Rex was calling it don't be a victim.
I think that was the first name.
[00:32:24] Speaker D: Who were some of the early, like, non B boy members or some of the.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: What, like early B Boys?
[00:32:33] Speaker D: Yeah, like non B boys.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: Oh, Rock Worm. So Worm wasn't a B boy?
[00:32:39] Speaker C: No, he was a graffiti writer.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: He's a graffiti writer. Yep.
[00:32:43] Speaker C: Yeah. So definitely him. Pez.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Pez is not a B boy.
[00:32:47] Speaker C: Not a B Boy.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Obviously. Marlena's not a B boy. No.
[00:32:50] Speaker C: But she come to our practices before.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: There was even public. She would be at the practices.
[00:32:55] Speaker C: Damn, that's a good. I never thought about that one. I just assumed everybody break dances.
[00:33:00] Speaker D: I'm be honest, man.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Like, that's Joe Brock doesn't break dance.
[00:33:02] Speaker D: They got the history.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: I bet he could, though.
[00:33:04] Speaker D: Everybody in the crew, like, these two have been like the OG that I've kind of always picking their brains. I never run out of questions.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Oh, nice, bro.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: Yeah, a little ball of information sometimes, man. It's weird.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: What are some of the challenges?
Explore the challenges in the group's identity, music production, and the challenges faced in staying relevant in the evolving hip hop culture.
[00:33:25] Speaker C: Oh, wow. You know, something I always run into. Everyone thinks I rap. I don't rap.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: I thought that too, and I didn't. I never would. Yeah, exactly.
[00:33:34] Speaker C: A lot of people think I rap, so I get asked that. I was even getting to ask that last night. Like, or do you rap? Like, I wrap presents, conversations. Yeah, so that. I think that's like a big miss. What's the word?
[00:33:49] Speaker B: Misconception.
[00:33:50] Speaker C: Misconceptions, out of word.
[00:33:52] Speaker D: Ms. Misconstrued.
[00:33:53] Speaker C: Missy Elliott let you work it there. That's what. See, that's why. That's why we were friends all these years. Because he gets what I'm saying. All y'all confused. But he understands picking up what you're laying down. All right, all.
But I think that's something that people always think. Like, I'm a rapper. I don't rap, man. But what's hard for us, I think, to stay relevant is because we are getting older. Like, I just turned 25 last week.
No. So, like, now we're entering our 40s. We've been doing this since our early 20s and late teens. So now it's like staying relevant with kids who are like, in Diapers. Like we started doing this when they were in diapers or not even born yet in some cases. So I think, I think that's the biggest challenge is trying to stay relevant in their eyes. Like, be honest. Like, I'm not, it's not like an end goal of mine. Like, I gotta have the acceptance of this night scene. I could care less. Yeah, we're gonna keep doing this anyways. But like.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: Right, right. Do you find yourself like, I guess like asking them or for like, hey, what do you think about this? You know what I mean?
[00:35:00] Speaker B: No, no, no. Hell no. No.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: We have like several conversations amongst ourselves. So that was like the, the for Public Zoo. Like we wanted to do shows for us.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:09] Speaker C: Like that's why Honeybee Hams, the original Honeybee Hams, it was a little bigger than this room that we're in. So like 20 of us were there. It sounded like a packed house. Right.
So we were doing shows originally just for us and our friends.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Speaker C: Like, that's it.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: It was literally a way for us to, to hang out and kick it in in a place where it was more open and available and just share.
[00:35:32] Speaker C: Our talents with each other and just vibe out and, and do whatever.
So it was never for us. It was never about like, how many people can we, like, I think, I think it like towards certain parts. It did get that way sometimes, but that was always our, our end goal in the beginning and it's what we're trying to do now. Like shows for self, ourselves. Like, it's a little hard to explain.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: I guess because it's like we wanna, we want to share with everybody what we have to offer, but at the same time we want to stay kind of true to ourselves and what we've originally been doing all these years. And I think that's where it kind of gets hard for us to play into what everybody wants now in comparison to what we naturally, when we first.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: Started this to now. There's never, as far as I know, in Corpus, there's never been a crew like us. And I'm not trying to like, you know, Big Debo, anybody, but like this is honestly like a pretty well organized super crew of like all four funky elements all in one. And, and outside of that, that a lot of us, you know, they're artists and they're poets and they're business owners and runners.
As far as I know, there's never been another crew like us for the 20 plus years. And still even today, I don't know if there is or not because I Don't live in Corpus. So I don't know if there is or not, but as far as I know, no, because.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Did you think it would get to that point, to the point you're at.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Now, like, 20 years that we would still be doing this? 20 years.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: I know, it's. This was literally just for us. It was friends.
[00:37:00] Speaker C: I remember when I turned to 26, I remember saying this when I turned 26, I was like, damn, I'm 26 and I still break dead now I'm in my 40s, and I'm like, do.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: You ever have that voice? Like, oh, maybe you should stop. Like, like, because.
[00:37:16] Speaker C: You know what I mean?
[00:37:18] Speaker D: I've had some injuries lately and some. I've had to fight through some adversity. And that thought has popped in my head. But I mean, over the years, the times it has, I mean, Indy said one of his biggest regrets is quitting. And I've heard that story more times than I can count. And so for me, it comes and goes really quickly.
But yeah, like, I know that I'll regret it if I do. And as long as I can do it on some kind of level, whether it's teaching or just having fun with it, like, I'm winning, you know?
[00:37:51] Speaker A: So how did you break the acceptance freeze? And how was your inclusion?
[00:37:56] Speaker D: Man, I've known these guys for 15 years, and, man, that's kind of.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: It took him 15 years before we said, okay.
[00:38:05] Speaker D: Yeah, kinda.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:38:06] Speaker C: Well, not. Not literally.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Okay, before we get to that about how you were in there, give him the little breakdown of how we used to actually recruit people or even, you know, how we would get them in.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So. So how did y'all. How did y'all recruit people?
[00:38:21] Speaker B: Even when we had shows. Shows or anybody who wanted to open or do anything like that, I'll let you explain it because, yeah, y. Doing that at the Bahamas directly.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: Yep. So I always call it the peak popularity years for Public Zoo. Like in the 2005-ish-era or 2008 era, it used to be like, Chris Tuck, Chris Tucker, Dirty Rex, used to, like, literally hold auditions at our house because, like, so many people wanted to do events with us.
So. And then it kind of got out of hand where, like, the people were just joining Public Zoo like crazy. Like, it was like 30 plus people in public Zoo. And so I left. I moved away from Corpus in 2006. 6. And I would be like, coming home to visit and I would, like, people would introduce themselves to me like, yeah, I'm such and such in Public Zoo, like, cool, man. And like, never met you in my life. Like, and I've been in Public Zoo since day one. And so it got really out of hand. And we had like, I don't say hang arounds, but there was a lot of people that would just be constantly, like, just around, which was cool. I'm not saying, like, you're not bully or excuse. I don't mean to cuss. Yeah, actually I did mean the cuss.
No, but like, I'm not trying to say, like, we're too cool, you can't hang around us, but it just got out of hand. It really. It really got out of hand. And that's when we had to, like, start, you know, tightening things up. And that's. We had like, well, now if you want to join Public Zoo, you really do got to be hanging around us for a long time. And then like somebody in Public Zoo, like someone who's been in Public Zoo but has to like, vouch for you and. Or advocate for you.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: And then we put you on like a 90 day probation period.
[00:39:59] Speaker D: And then like, mine was like 100 after 15 years.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: You got to be active too.
[00:40:07] Speaker C: Like, I was advocating. I was advocating a lot for Isaac and honest, like, everyone knew who he was. But honestly, it took a lot of convincing on my end because we've been a core, like, the core group of Public Zoo has been together like, like for years. It's like, oh, man, I know. It's just kind of wild. Like, we've had so many highs, like, literally highs and like, spiritual highs and like the lows of the lows. Like, we've lost friends and One of our D.J. devious passed away. And like, that really put us in a weird place for a long time.
So, like, I was. So I was advocating for Isaac for a long time to join. But, like, it was. It was nothing personal. It's just like we don't really want it. And that's kind of where we're at.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: I mean, we were all still kind of in a place where we didn't even know what was going on for a little bit. Like, like there was a point in time where we were. We were kind of scatterbrained, all of us. Nobody knew what we were doing. Nobody knew what was going on. It's like we fell off the map for a little bit and people were wondering where we were actually at.
[00:41:03] Speaker D: Even I was hanging out with. With them. Anytime Jon Jon was in town, we'd go, we'd kick it. Indy's like, really good friends with my cousin too. So I was hanging out with him when I could. And then our other homie do from who lives in Hawaii, anytime he's in town, we were all, you know, kicking it too. So I always stayed on good terms. To be honest, I actually reached out to them, kind of, you know, bringing it back to you. Like, I reached out because I saw they were, they were getting active again. And I don't think I've told them this, but, you know, it's nothing crazy.
[00:41:38] Speaker C: Do spill the tea.
[00:41:40] Speaker D: But like, I would, I wouldn't have asked. I think I asked at the right time because at the time I did, I, I had already been putting in work. So like, like, it was almost like, like if they would have said no, I would have been good. Like, I still have a, A, you know.
Yeah. Like, no.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Shout out. Isaac. Yeah, I mean, he, he, he stood his ground. He stayed around. He, he would. Like, he's saying he didn't have to. He, We. If we had told him no, he probably. He would have been fine. Yeah, he would have been continuing doing what he was doing. And like, I've told him, like, I love what he's doing still because he's, he's like. I was, I think I was trying to explain it to you about.
We get old with this and we think about what we're going to do moving forward or whatever. But like I had told you, like, we have opportunity to possibly help other people who want to step up into something similar to public zoo. Not public. It doesn't have to be public zoo. But I mean, he has the opportunity to teach kids break dancing. Right. So he still has that opportunity of being involved in the hip hop community without having to hurt himself or break dance or prove what he's doing. That's why I was saying, like, there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes. So what he's doing, what he can do after he's done break dancing or doing that is still contributed to the hip hop community by teaching breakdancing, letting them know the evolution of breakdancing and stuff like that, or even the history of hip hop and corpus.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: How is your teaching experience influence your approach to dance and community outreach?
[00:43:13] Speaker D: I think for me, like, like teaching is.
It's always been. Even though I, I enjoy it now and I'm. I'm passionate about it now probably more than ever, but it's always just been what you do. When you're in B1 long enough, you. You give back. And it could be. It could just be, hey, helping some kid with a. With a six step. But, like, that's part of. Of breaking culture is each one teach one, right? And I think, you know, we. We haven't really talked about hip hop too much, but out of all the elements of hip hop, like, breaking culture is the one that is, like, closest to the roots. Like, and so we. Those traditions and shit like that, like, we. We hold those. Like, I would say, you know, I'll say anybody wants to get mad, like, more than the other elements, we hold to those. Those traditions more so than the other elements, you know, each one teach one, peace, love, unity, having fun, all that stuff. But, yeah, man, like, when I. When I asked, you know, I'm toot my own horn a little bit. But one of my goals, I was solo for a minute. Like, I had a crew here, shots supposedly rotten. I left on good terms and stuff. Stuff, but I left them. And for, like, five years, I was just traveling solo. And I had been doing this 15 years. I've been traveling for 15 years doing this, and it's hard to get picked up by a Texas crew. Like, especially a good one. Like, we. We've all said how compatible. It's still like that. And I got picked up by this crew, Los Lobos. Shout to the homies from. From Houston and OKC Dallas.
But I had been battling these dudes for a couple years, and then they reached out, and right before the zoo started getting active, I went to B Boy City, which these guys have both battled at. Biggest crew on crew event in. In Texas. And we battled, like, we made it to the semifinals. We battled a crew from the Netherlands.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:44:54] Speaker D: Came up, and we almost took it. You know, it was a close battle, but I battled with them, and then they put me down, and that was like, check that box. So when I. When I reached out, I was kind of on a high of, like, confidence, you know, like, hey, man, y'all can say no, but, man, I'm. I feel like I. I also did have stuff to offer, too, because I didn't see any. Any current B ways at the time. And I was like, well, they can say no, but I feel like, you know, I got something to offer now that I didn't have 15 years ago, other than just being one of the homies, you know.
[00:45:24] Speaker A: Well, so did that. And that goes with what you're saying. Like, you have to be active.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: In order to.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we. I mean, a lot of us are not as active as we were, but. But it's It's a family. Like, it's not like we're gonna be like, we've been together for so long, he's not break dancing. But I'm not gonna be like, oh, you're not break dancing, bro.
[00:45:45] Speaker C: We're legally married.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:46] Speaker C: Basically based on the law for sure.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: But yeah, but no. Yeah, everybody was active in. Everybody who stayed active and did everything. I mean, it just carried on. And I was really glad that Isaac joined because like I said, he was active, he was doing stuff, he was traveling, he was break dancing, he was battling. I mean, that was one of the things that I think me and John had put up forward about him was that he's the only one right now who's break dancing. He's the only one who's traveling. He's the only one who's going out and making a name for himself right now. I'm not going anywhere right now. I'm not doing nothing. So it was like, dude, this. He's the perfect piece to this puzzle. Like he. And in all honesty, I mean, I feel like he brought a little bit of light back to us because. Because we were. Like I said we were. We were still at a point of.
[00:46:33] Speaker C: We.
[00:46:33] Speaker B: I'll be honest with everybody. I think we were all at a point of where we were like, what are we gonna do? We've even said it.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: Like I was gonna say, like, do you feel like you're gonna be zoo.
[00:46:41] Speaker B: Like all, like forever, all day, every day? I've never quit it. I mean that. Since day one. I mean. But that's why. Yeah, like, that's what I was saying. Like it's. This is something that I'm gonna be doing forever. Forever. I don't know why I love it. That's probably why. But I have no point or intention of stopping anytime soon. And.
[00:47:01] Speaker C: And I mean, we've done tons, tons of events too, over the years. I mean, the Gulf War battle raps, the Gulf War events, the laces out sneaker events. And then last night, you know, we just did that thousand dollar rap battle event.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:16] Speaker C: And we got some other stuff coming next year. I don't know if we're going to talk about it yet.
I guess we can talk about it. We have a graffiti.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: A little, A little bit of.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: I think. Yeah, there's a. Talks of a. Talks of a graffiti event coming up.
[00:47:30] Speaker A: Okay, so you guys have graffiti artists, obviously.
[00:47:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we. I think we still have every element of hip hop on board still. DJ Technique is still doing his thing in San Antonio. And we have Clements also in Austin. There's also Evolve and Mike Knight. Mike. Nice. Rest in peace. Mike Melt is down in the Valley as well. Evolves in the Valley. We've got our graffiti artists ones in Hawaii, those two. We have Waker in Austin. I mean, there we have people spread out all over the place, but a lot of them, we've all kind of, like, slowed down, but I think right now we're about to pick back up, and it's going to be something that's going to be.
[00:48:10] Speaker D: For me, it kind of feels like. Like y'all too. Or like the zoo is kind of getting back to grassroots.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:16] Speaker D: Like, you know what I mean? And I'm of the mindset, like, it doesn't always have to be a big event to make a difference. Like, you know, sometimes, like at my class, I like six students, I'll put up like ten bucks and some, like, little dollar store trophies and kids will go hard.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:48:31] Speaker D: You know what I mean? Like, that kind of concept. But it's really just getting them used to battling and the culture. And I think we're kind of. We're kind of doing that and, you know, like. Or that's what it feels like for me being.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's what I was saying. I think. I think right now it's going to start. We're going to start getting back to. To doing what we naturally do. I think especially since we've been talking about everything lately as well. I think we're gonna start feeling a little more homely and it's gonna. We're gonna start producing some events that people are gonna be like, oh, like.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: Okay, like, so what is. What are some of the ways that you're gonna get. Get that out and get the word out. Do you think social media plays an important role?
[00:49:08] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: As far as getting that out there. Do you still do word of mouth?
[00:49:11] Speaker B: Like, yeah, we still do word of mouth. Obviously, Joey B, he still does his art walks at qbr, and a lot of that partakes in there. Like, he has a MC's and out there people performing and stuff like that. So we always have a little reach on where people are at, especially with the youngsters right now. The youngsters. There's youngsters that are out there rapping right now, and they've actually introduced themselves to Joe Brock. I've met some of them as well, and really good kids that have talent, and I think their little following is starting to get active as well now that things are starting to come back out and stuff like that.
[00:49:49] Speaker D: I think that's a move too, is like providing them a spot.
[00:49:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:52] Speaker D: An avenue to do that even, Even with like the MC or the rap culture, like you know, giving them a spot. Hey, every first of the month we're gonna have a battle. Some of these kids need some experience.
[00:50:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: I'm gonna ask, what effort, what efforts are you making to keep the culture alive and engage with the younger generations?
[00:50:12] Speaker C: Just keep doing these events like we used. So when we used to do these events, they were all the time because we were much younger and we had way less responsibilities.
[00:50:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:21] Speaker C: And we were also super reckless too.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So was like at least two shows every month.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: We would do a lot of things and. But now, you know, now we have kids are, you know, we got kids in high school and you know, we got real life responsibilities that we weren't carrying in our late teens, early 20s.
But the way that we intend on staying relevant and connecting with the, the next generation of Corpus Christi hip hop is by providing these quality events. And we do our best to be well organized and fair. But I don't want people to like get the wrong idea that we only cater to ourselves. But we, we do, we do cater to ourselves. Like we're going to do events that we like that will, we feel are hip hop to us. Cuz hip hop is such a broad, broad thing. Like.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: Like you, that's a hip hop to you may not be hip hop to me and vice versa. Right. But we're going to continue to like put ourselves out there first and like, and then kind of work with everyone else. But we do want to give everyone the opportunity. Like with these rap battles.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:22] Speaker C: Anybody could have signed up.
[00:51:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:25] Speaker C: Whether they do or not. I think that concept of one versus one rap battling is kind of like a foreign idea to some people. Like constantly trying to explain it and it's like, yeah, just go watch the movie eight Mile.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Oh, right, right. Yeah.
[00:51:40] Speaker C: Some people get it and some people don't get it. But.
But yeah, that's how I think we're moving forward. We're just more organized, more professional, quality events.
[00:51:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think means by when he says like we're doing it for us, it's like we're gonna play the music we want to play that we like to hear. That is the hip hop we listen to. We're gonna let our DJ play what he wants to play. We're gonna let our rappers rap what they want to rap. Like, I think that's what we mean by when we say, like, yeah, I.
[00:52:09] Speaker C: Don'T want to be like. We're like gatekeeping.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: Well, obviously. So there is that pushback. Oh, you should do it like this.
[00:52:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: Do it like that.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's the. If you want to do that, then you create them. You make it happen. Don't tell me what you want me to do, because I'm already doing in the zoo, too.
[00:52:27] Speaker D: Like, you. Like, there's like. There's an. I don't know, like a freedom to be able to kind of go and do your thing.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: Like. Yeah, we're in no way.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Like.
[00:52:40] Speaker B: Oh, you're.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: You're specifically.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: He goes and he does the art.
[00:52:44] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: He does the art. Walk with a desire. Right?
[00:52:47] Speaker D: Yeah, Adrian.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So they. They do that. And. And like. Like, he was saying, like, it's. You don't. We're not holding you here. We're not going to hold you here and say, hey, this is. This is it. I don't want you doing no show. No. If he's going off and doing that, that's just more exposure. Like.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: It's good. Like. Like Joe Brock.
Everybody's got their own little thing going.
[00:53:07] Speaker D: Like QBR and like that culture. I'm not. I'm. I'm aware of that world, but I don't live there.
[00:53:12] Speaker B: I live.
[00:53:13] Speaker D: I'm a purist, like, to the core when it comes. Four elements of hip. That's my hip hop, you know what I mean? And I'm not going to knock. Knock somebody else's version of it, you know, just because it's.
[00:53:21] Speaker C: At the same time, you can't please everybody.
[00:53:23] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:53:24] Speaker C: So last year we did Thousand Dollar Rap Battle, and this. That wasn't the first time we've done it. It was the first time we've done it in a while. And then there was all these rumors that we rigged it. Oh, and then last night during the battle, there's, like, people. So my wife was sitting in the crowd and she was telling me that she could, like, overhear people like, oh, this is. Rig. This rig.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Like, we didn't do a very good job because I didn't win.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Shout out to.
[00:53:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:47] Speaker A: Facebook. Thanks a lot for joining.
[00:53:48] Speaker B: Funny, I don't. I don't think we've. I don't think we've ever.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: So they think y'all rigged it.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: I can't please everyone. So my. Just to piggyback off what they're saying, if. If y'all really believe we're pretty rigging it, which we're not. You are More than welcome to like have your own MC battle. And we'll do our best to show up and spread rumors that you're rigging yours too, or. You know what I mean?
[00:54:05] Speaker D: Like, yeah, man, saying that don't know hip hop, man. I've been telling them this. Like, I don't know how many battles I've gone to breaking. And there's like three members from the crew hosting it on the, they're judging and then the crew, like, their members, like either make it to the finals or win. That's hip hop, man. Like, if you don't like it, throw your own battle like that. You know what I mean? It's part of the culture. And that's how you know that's what I meant. Like, these kids, like, they don't understand battle culture, man. Like, B boys is what we do, man. Like, I've been robbed, like in battles I should have won because of politics. I've, you know. Yeah, man, like, it is part of it. Like you. Those are the stories that we talk about years ago. And I don't think that these younger generation really understand that. Like, yeah, it's okay, like, it's not that big of a deal, dog.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it's okay to like, it's okay to lose, basically.
[00:54:56] Speaker D: Like, you can lose. Yeah, you can, you can be mad at the, the people throwing the event. Like, I've been there, done that, but at the end of day, it's, it's really not that big of a deal, man. It's just a, it's just another hip hop check mark, you know?
[00:55:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:09] Speaker A: What's the importance of lineage in hip hop culture and how do you pass the knowledge and passion on?
[00:55:15] Speaker B: I'll tell you what, I'm not a very lineage wise. Like, I, I, look, I love hip hop and I love music, but there is a lot of stuff that I don't know. I think, I think it's, it's a, it's a melting pot of just knowledge, just from wherever you can grab it from. And I saw that up there. Who that, that.
Yes. Rip Merck Case Move Gunplay Music. Yes, yes. Merc right there. One of the greatest graffiti artists in tech, in corporate.
[00:55:42] Speaker D: Okay, Texas.
[00:55:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:43] Speaker A: Was that. What are you saying?
[00:55:44] Speaker B: Oh, Merc.
[00:55:45] Speaker A: Merc Rock.
[00:55:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I remember when he, he, he was in Hellraiser's crew. He's the homie. He, he was a rapper as well. Awesome ass rapper as well. Hey, man, Case moved.
[00:55:53] Speaker C: I knew him back in high school.
[00:55:55] Speaker B: Yeah, he chopped the one Chicano freestyle.
[00:56:00] Speaker C: Yeah. When I Met him. That's how he introduced himself to me.
[00:56:03] Speaker B: He was a. He was one of the pillars of graffiti in the. In the hip hop community. One of the homies to him. And Ink and they used to do artwork with me and. And Astro and Dallas.
[00:56:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
It was a long time ago. In front of little Anthony's house.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: Yep. On Walco.
[00:56:20] Speaker C: Yep. And I was just standing out there, and he. So he was walking by, and I got. We. I don't know, we started talking, and he gave me this black book. So a black book is like, yeah, okay. So you know what that is? So he gave it to me and he was like, yeah, just take this with you. And I was like, yo, but you get like, I don't know you.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:56:35] Speaker D: Like, we just met.
[00:56:36] Speaker C: And he's like giving me this book. He's like, draw whatever and have your. Your people drawing and give it back to me next time I see you. And I had that book in my possession for a few weeks until I saw him again.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:45] Speaker C: So that was my earliest memory of Merc.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I used to substitute teach at a moody high school. I still got a book out there. Whoever's got it, give it back.
[00:56:55] Speaker B: That's how it goes when somebody gets it and you're like, where's my book go? I don't know, man. You had it. Goddamn.
[00:57:01] Speaker C: Yeah, but that's just. That's how Merc was, man. Merkel's Merk was. Merkel's cool with everybody. And I think that's why so many people love something.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: Yep. Hell, yeah.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: Right on. That's good, man. I appreciate you guys coming on the show. So. Journey, evolution, future prospects. So what.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: I mean, as of right now, we're not gonna do. We're not gonna do any kind of initiating anybody anytime soon in the public zoo. I think what we got going on right now is.
I don't know if it's safe to say this, we're in a. Not a. Not a building phase, but we are in a. We're in a phase right now where we're. We're really trying to solidify what we're going to be doing from now on. And I think we're going to focus mainly on making these events as wholeheartedly rooted to its original forms. And than anything other than that, we're.
[00:57:51] Speaker C: Not just trying to focusing on pushing the brand, the brand name, because there's two sides of the public zoo, right? There's that one side that's. That's us. And like, the. The core members and the core memories and all the things, the good times and the bad times that we all share together. Like the lightning in the bottle.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: Right, right, right.
[00:58:05] Speaker C: And then there's the other side of Public Zoo. That's just the brand, like the surface level. And so I think we're going to focus on pushing the, the brand and kind of just building up who we. I don't want to say who we used to be because we're not the same people anymore. But just like my end goal or I think all of our end goal is like when people bring up Corpus Christi hip hop, like they should always associate that with Public Zoo.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[00:58:29] Speaker C: And again, I'm not gatekeeping at all, like listening or wants to do. They can do whatever.
[00:58:34] Speaker B: Yeah, anybody can do this if you apply yourself, of course. And I, I really think that there's some youngsters that should be trying to do this and keeping something alive. But I think that's where, I think that's where the problem lies as well. It's hard to keep these kids interested in something.
[00:58:49] Speaker D: So you asked, you know, like a question about like how to keep it going. And when I was at an event like one of the, One of the promoters, Romeo from B Boy City, he, He said if you want to keep the scene going in your, in your city, you start with the kids. And I don't really know how you do that with like rapping and stuff like that, but from a breaking perspective, that's why we've always been so, you know, like, teach the kids. Even if, if you only know one move, teach somebody that move and then they'll go teach their homie, you know, that's kind of how I plan on doing it. As far as that goes, as far as the zoo goes, I'm just, I'm just kind of along for the ride, man.
I hope we do get to the point though where we're, we're recruiting like, you know, other talent and stuff like that.
We met the other day and I was like, man, I got some, I got my eyes on some homies. I'd love to see them in a Z shirt, you know, that time will come. Yeah. And I, I'm will come my voice.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: Right on. What's going on? Who's that? Kelso on Facebook.
[00:59:52] Speaker C: JR, Junior, what's up?
[00:59:55] Speaker A: Marcelo on YouTube. What's going on? He says two sided face, whatever that means.
[01:00:00] Speaker D: I don't know.
[01:00:02] Speaker C: But yeah, Junior, jr's the homie. He was there last night with the food truck. His sweet Bay Easy Eats gonna Give him a shout.
[01:00:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Shout out Sweet Bay Easy Eats.
Shout out G Flow on Facebook. The lead by example, especially for all the kiddos.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: Yes, definitely.
[01:00:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:00:17] Speaker C: So I think we just keep producing quality events. The next generation will be hopefully inspired to do what we've done and. And maybe do it better than us.
[01:00:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like, goes down to like, oh, did you. Did you hear about that show? Did you see that show or whatever?
[01:00:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:35] Speaker A: But now it's like, oh, check it out. Now you have to, like, show it.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
[01:00:39] Speaker A: That's because I had. I was at work last night and then I was like, damn, I wonder how the battle's going or whatever. And I was trying to find, like, video. Like, is somebody doing it live so I can actually see it?
[01:00:49] Speaker B: Did it live? I think he had a live stream on there for Block Leaders. I think he did.
[01:00:53] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[01:00:54] Speaker C: Or was it right. And High Podcast.
[01:00:56] Speaker B: No, I think it Block bl. He did it by himself.
[01:00:59] Speaker D: I didn't really know the difference between the two. I thought they were together. Block Leaders.
[01:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, R. High Podcast is its own entity by DJ Lil King. And then.
[01:01:10] Speaker D: Is that the one.
That's his name.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: No, no, no, that's. I can't. I still.
[01:01:15] Speaker D: You've had him on.
The dude in the fedora. He was like. Like short.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: Huh? Cron Martin.
[01:01:22] Speaker C: Right.
[01:01:22] Speaker D: Okay. Yeah, I've seen him on Here Daddy. Right? Talking about some real. I want to meet him these days.
[01:01:27] Speaker B: Daddy.
[01:01:28] Speaker C: Cree, man. I ain't calling the other.
[01:01:33] Speaker D: No, I've seen him on. I don't think it was riding high or maybe it was here, but he was. He was speaking on some real hip hop.
[01:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah, he was. He was saying like, that it's not our generation. No. More like, as far as it's not.
[01:01:44] Speaker D: It's.
[01:01:45] Speaker B: It's.
[01:01:45] Speaker C: I. I'll.
[01:01:46] Speaker B: I'll be honest. I have not seen any. Any youth even in the city or any around sitting. City service in area. I think there's one kid. I think get.
Is his name Merc 361. Or there's. There's. There's a kid out here that spits really nice. Yeah. And he's really. He's really good. Not. And he's got. He's got good. Good cadence, got good breathing, you know, technique the whole night. That's what I look at when I look at somebody rapping or something like that. I want to see what they're doing, how they're.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: The technique.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Their techniques and stuff. It's it's. If you're, if you're just standing on the stage and you're just doing this right here and that's all you're doing. It's not very entertaining, you know, Right. Stage presence, presence and all that. You want to see somebody moving. So I, I have not seen that in the city. I know I saw that kid, I think. Is that who it is? Joe Merc 361.
Okay. And, and like he's got, he's got a good flow, good cadence, good breathing ability. But I have not seen anybody else really in the city at a young age or a younger age doing stuff like that. Like that. And I think that's what I would like to see because I mean there, I've never seen that kid. But a lot of people know that kid. He's got a lot of followers, I've heard and everything like that. So I was like, damn, I've never really seen him. But that's just the thing too, is that where are all these people? If y'all are out there somewhere, where's the camera? If y'all are out there and you have a talent and are really good at something, please continue to do it. Push forward. Don't stop doing what you're doing.
[01:03:14] Speaker C: To audition for America's Got Talent.
[01:03:16] Speaker B: Don't be afraid to put yourself out there as well. It's like, like because there's people out there who really do have talent, but it could literally be their parent or sibling that's like, ah, you suck. Don't do that. Don't why you try to do that, that's so stupid.
But you really got a talent, you know what I'm saying? But they're just, they, they don't want to see you doing that. And people get discouraged really quick when the whole thing is just keep doing what you want to do.
[01:03:43] Speaker A: Right?
[01:03:43] Speaker B: Right. It's. There should be no setback or boundaries for yourself if you really enjoy or love doing what you're doing. So there's any rappers out there that are really good, start showing up to these events, start doing something and getting your voice.
[01:03:56] Speaker A: Shout out. Matt, Noah and Elago on Facebook. Thanks a lot you guys for joining the chat.
[01:04:01] Speaker C: Me and Noah got the same last name. We must be cousins.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Ah, so Lisa, nice. Yeah, I was going to ask because you're talking about like update music wise, like cuz it now it's about streaming, right?
[01:04:12] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: You got to push your, your, your single out or whatever. It's not CDs no more like how.
[01:04:17] Speaker B: Do you I bought a CD last night.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: Oh, you did? Where?
[01:04:20] Speaker B: Yes. Shout Out Mack Games, man. Shout Out Co Collective.
[01:04:23] Speaker C: Collective.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: He showed up with CDs and I was like, I'mma buy one of those, man. Give me a cd, bro. Dude, no I didn't. Look, that's what I said. I said that immediately after I bought. I was like, I don't even got a TD player. But just the fact that he had CDs and he was willing to merch it like that.
[01:04:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I was like, that's what's up.
[01:04:42] Speaker B: I'll find a CD player somewhere. I'll throw it in a DVD player.
[01:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah, my truck's old enough, it's got a D player. My daughter, dude, she's nine.
The Honda that we have is still has a CD player. She's like, what is that? So we got her, dude. Every time we go for a ride, she takes her CD with her.
Yeah, CDs are coming back. I was thinking that too.
[01:04:59] Speaker B: Damn it.
[01:05:00] Speaker C: It's a vintage wave.
[01:05:01] Speaker D: We got Levi, my, my six year old. A CD player with little like Walkman. Oh yeah, that skips if you try to put.
[01:05:08] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Oh man. I was in that era. We were in that era.
[01:05:12] Speaker C: Heard the Tony hawk Pro Skater 2 is coming out.
[01:05:16] Speaker D: Mom, let me put him on Wuang, dude.
I have to like tell him to skip certain, certain tracks.
[01:05:23] Speaker B: Well my so heavy into Doom.
[01:05:25] Speaker C: Really.
[01:05:25] Speaker D: He.
[01:05:26] Speaker B: He loves Doom. He loves MF doom. He doesn't with me though. My son don't with me on my lyrics and stuff.
[01:05:33] Speaker A: He got stuff on, on.
[01:05:35] Speaker B: No, I don't really put out music like that. I just, I just kind of rap, man. I mean I've done it before. I put out CDs with Wasted.
[01:05:42] Speaker D: Yeah, like he's kind of.
[01:05:49] Speaker B: I just do my thing, man. I don't know. I've never really pursued it like that. I've always just liked a rap.
[01:05:54] Speaker A: Would you say he's an mc, like.
[01:05:55] Speaker D: The mc, not a rapper or. I mean he could, he could wear both hats, but I consider it like India mc.
[01:06:01] Speaker A: What's the difference between an MC and a rapper ceremony?
[01:06:04] Speaker B: I'm able to. I'm able to control the crowd. I'm able to.
[01:06:07] Speaker D: What does KRS want to say?
[01:06:09] Speaker B: I'll get you. I'll get you involved.
I try to try to incorporate instead of when I want you. Yeah, we're not. When I'm. When I'm rapping, shouts to K. I'm watching you too. So if you're looking at me from the, from the st. From the floor of the stage. I'm looking at you, too. So you. You're going to feel like you're there, right there.
[01:06:28] Speaker A: Wow.
[01:06:29] Speaker B: I'm not going to go looking everywhere else. I'm right here on you.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: It's like, that's a basic element of hip hop, too.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I want you to. I want you to be.
[01:06:39] Speaker C: There is an Outspoken Kills CD out there.
[01:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I got to get that one.
[01:06:44] Speaker B: I have.
[01:06:47] Speaker A: I have an indie mixtape still.
[01:06:49] Speaker B: I'm telling you, man, I put out a couple of little things back in the day, but as far as, like, trying to do fully produced music, I never, I never. I. I made my own.
I recorded my own stuff one time when I was really heavy into it, and I think that's probably my best work. But that was even from 2005 or 2006, like. But ultimately, though, I, I, I will never. I don't think I'll ever diminish. I. Here. I think. I think I. I keep enough entertainment and topics that I talk about when I'm rapping that you're. You're forced to listen.
[01:07:25] Speaker D: Yeah, really. Kind of a little bit off topic, but can I tell a story? It's pretty funny. It's about. I just dropped that. That krs1 quote. It kind of made me think of this.
So at work, for what I do, I have to interview, like, like, new hires and stuff like that, that I. I do the onboarding stuff for our company.
[01:07:42] Speaker B: Company.
[01:07:43] Speaker D: And we had this kid come in one time. It was probably, like, early this year. And he comes in. He's like. I could tell. He's kind of like. Irby's got kind of, like, a little swagged about him, you know? I'm like, hey, man, like, you know, what's your story? Where you from? He's like, I just got back from Cali. It's cool, man. What you doing out there? He's like, I'm doing music. I was like, that's cool, man. Like, what kind of music? And he's like. And he's, like, trying to be like, like, fake humble about it, you know? He's like, you know. Yeah, just like that.
Just like that.
[01:08:14] Speaker B: Nothing too crazy.
[01:08:15] Speaker D: Yeah, ain't nothing too crazy. I was out in Cali doing music. I got. I got flown out there by a producer. And he's flexing, and I have, like, I'm. I don't wear, you know, I wear a different shirt. Y'all seen it? It fits.
[01:08:26] Speaker C: But, yeah, you dress like Wednesday.
[01:08:27] Speaker D: I dress like Wednesday.
I gave him the layup on the the burn. But, yeah, I'm in my Wednesday Adams attire interviewing this kid. And I was like, hey, man, so you're a rapper, huh? He's like, yeah, yeah. I go. I was like, just. Do you mind if I ask a question on that? He's like, what's up? I was like, yo, what's the four elements of hip hop? Just curiosity. And, like, the funny part is he tried to get like, like, deep about it. He's like, you know, man, that's a, that's a pretty, pretty broad question.
[01:08:58] Speaker B: And I was like, really?
[01:09:00] Speaker D: Not really. He's like. He's like, no, no, you know, like, you got to think of it like. And I'm like, whoa, you don't have to think of it like anything.
[01:09:07] Speaker C: Just.
[01:09:07] Speaker D: Just give me the four elements, bro. And he's like, well, no, because, you know, it's creativity and it's this. I was like, I'll tell you what, man. I was like, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but just, you're fired. Right?
I go, I just Google it real quick. And he's like, is it breakdancing, MCing, graffiti and DJing? I was like, yeah, man. And he's like. I was like, you're good, bro. Just put your phone away. And I continue the interview like, nothing, bro. I, I, I ended up hiring him, but I told him after it was funny because I had just seen a dude right before that quote Saul Williams, and they say, and I'm not gonna pretend like I know anything about rapping or mcn, but the poet that I watched quoted Saul Williams and he said, they should have never gave the MC the cordless mic. They should have never gave the emcee the cordless mic because he strayed too far from the store, you know? And I, for me, some rappers gonna be mad, but, like, I see that with like, rap culture, like, straying so far from hip hop and so it related. And here we are, we have this young kid who's a rapper, doesn't know the, the history. That's just me being a purist, kind of being an OG hater, if you would. But no, that's really.
[01:10:16] Speaker A: So how do you feel about, like, some of, some, some artists or whatever, like, making it commercialized?
[01:10:22] Speaker D: I mean, man, it is that with breaking too. I, I will say now, I try not to be that old guy, like the old, old, you know, salty, like, that's hot hip hop head. But at the same time, like, I, I make it clear, like, this is my lane of hip hop. This is what I'm into. And if you're doing it to make money or whatever, whatever reason, like, that's on you, man. Like, cats are. A lot of kids are getting into it for money, if you want my opinion on it. I don't think. I think your reasons are what creates your longevity. You know what I mean? If you're doing it for money and you don't blow up in the. In the first couple years, then you're probably not going to be around very long, you know what I mean? And I've seen that. Like, we've seen that. I'm not gonna name drop, but we've seen that just being around the rap culture because of Public Zoo, like, there's cats that, when I was doing my probation at the beginning of the year, aren't making moves anymore because they didn't have the success. And I feel like it comes one, from your reasons why you're doing it. And, and two, like, like your. Your foundation. I was talking to a musician.
[01:11:25] Speaker C: He.
[01:11:26] Speaker D: He does a lot of, like, a lot of local gigs. And yeah, I know you can relate to this, but, man, he gave me a dope quote. It.
He said, because we were talking about how, you know, in breaking, you have to have a foundation. You have to have your. Your. Your footwork, your. Your baby freeze, your. Your foundation before you can start doing power moves, you got to have foundation, right? And he gave me this quote. He said, he's like, before you can. Before you can come in and start decorating the house. House, like you. You gotta have something to. To decorate on.
[01:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:11:54] Speaker D: And I was like, damn. He said, you gotta have your walls. You gotta have your. Your base. Like, I was like, damn, that's cold. I'm gonna steal that.
But that's how it is. Like, a lot of these kids don't have a foundation, you know, and their reasons aren't.
[01:12:06] Speaker B: Or even just somebody who's doing it. Like, that's the other thing too, is like, I mean, there could be kids out there that are actually into this and they don't have any kind of outlet because they don't have another friend that's doing it. Like, I think that plays a part on some of the stuff with some of these younger kids too, is like. Or. Or they're in that there. It's that era of life right now where if you're doing something that's even remotely different from somebody, it's like, oh, that's weird. Like, don't do that.
[01:12:36] Speaker D: Or if you don't get success right away.
[01:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, they get really discouraged.
[01:12:40] Speaker D: And everybody.
[01:12:41] Speaker B: Kids like that dude.
[01:12:43] Speaker D: Like, if you're not.
[01:12:43] Speaker B: Put it right here. Put it right here. But buddy, like, no, you can't.
[01:12:47] Speaker D: Social media has especially like the Instagrams and the Facebooks, the instant gratification has like, it's, it's infiltrated. Like they're. So if they don't get the residuals that they want at that time, and if you're really about hip hop or you're really about any kind of culture, like I, I know I come from a BMX background and we would spend hours to learn one trick. So when I got into breaking spending hours, I mean, I spent five years trying to work on one combo. You know what I mean? Like, it's not uncommon to, to our world about, you know, for, for dedicating that kind of time. And I, I don't. I think with anything, the ones that want to do it, you'll see them in a few years. And the ones that don't. But I think it's easier for us. The older I get, it's easier to spot the ones that will likely not be around. I don't know if y'all see the same thing.
[01:13:37] Speaker C: Yeah, we've seen people come and go like over the years. Absolutely. Like big time.
[01:13:44] Speaker D: You don't want to be that, that dude. But like when they're talking, you can kind of see it that. It's almost like they're faking the funk. You're like, you want to be. I've gone to being like nicer about it. Like, yo, man, that's cool, man.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: I think one thing that the Internet and social media ruined was art.
I think, I think that. How so? Yeah, I think it's the, like my prime example right now, I think would probably be like the, the, like the, the bikini clad girls doing graffiti murals.
[01:14:14] Speaker C: And stuff like that for a while though.
[01:14:16] Speaker B: I know, but it's, it's like somebody who went to art school for it, like, you know, in comparison to.
Was naturally doing it. The guy who was naturally doing it is now getting the bad end of the stick because he was doing this for, you know, just his regular old compassion for it. These people do it nowadays just to get likes and clicks on the Internet.
[01:14:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:14:40] Speaker B: And it's kind of become to where people are more focused on the other stuff that they think, oh, look at, she's got her titties hanging out or, or this guy's over here, you know, doing this. Like, oh, look at that. Where actual guys who just. Or the other. That pisses me off is when they do the whole projection screen, when they project onto the wall and then they just go and outline.
Come on, grow the up. Yeah. You know that to me, that's just.
What's wrong. I'll give a. I don't give a. I don't care if I know you and I said something and you don't like it. I'm. I. I don't care. I'm sorry. I just. I don't like that. I think it takes away. I think it takes away from people who actually have talent.
[01:15:24] Speaker D: I think that because, I mean, kids.
[01:15:26] Speaker B: Can go out there and train a.
[01:15:28] Speaker D: Day a few years behind y'all.
[01:15:30] Speaker A: I mean, you can always just swipe away. You know what I mean?
[01:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah. That's why I said I don't really. I don't get on the Internet too much. Like, I don't really post anything.
[01:15:38] Speaker D: I feel like with y'all. I mean, y'all come from a generation where that stuff didn't exist. Yeah, I really don't kind of was the early.
[01:15:45] Speaker C: You hold to your face.
[01:15:49] Speaker D: You know, not too far behind. But one of the things that, like, for me, I feel like it's easy to get sucked up into that and get annoyed by like, all the. You're seeing. But I think for. For me, like, I'm okay, like, when it comes to, like, me posting stuff on breaking, I don't give a. If anybody, like, anybody outside, anybody who doesn't break or is not in the Texans breaking scene if they don't like my. My post on breaking, I could care less, dude. You know what I mean? The Texas B Boys and my. My crew, if they see it and they're like, yo, that's dope, then that's. Then I want. You know what I mean? And anybody else, I give two shits, you know?
[01:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:16:26] Speaker C: But the banana on the wall did sell for 6 million.
[01:16:31] Speaker A: Stay on Facebook says banana on the wall sold for 6 million.
[01:16:34] Speaker B: Hey, and he ate it too, I believe.
[01:16:36] Speaker C: You know what? If I paid 6 milli for a banana, I'mma eat it too.
[01:16:39] Speaker B: I believe he ate it. I think I. I believe he ate it.
[01:16:42] Speaker A: Thanks a lot, Joe, being in the chat.
[01:16:44] Speaker C: Appreciate you, Joe Beasy.
[01:16:47] Speaker A: Well, thanks a lot, you guys, for coming on the show. So how do you. How would you like to promote yourselves?
[01:16:52] Speaker C: Or hey, Almighty Public Zoo on Instagram, It's. That's the best way to know what we're doing. Not like individually know what we're doing, but like, as a group, what we're doing next.
Yeah. So if you want to follow us on that, if you haven't already, go ahead and do that.
[01:17:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:17:10] Speaker B: And it's.
[01:17:10] Speaker A: It's Almighty is two words. It's not. Because I was trying to search on some stuff, and it came up Almighty. I was like, yeah, Almighty.
[01:17:17] Speaker B: Oh, the Al Might. Yeah.
[01:17:18] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:17:19] Speaker C: So the. That way is like a religious thing, right? Like, and then there's all Marty, which is like a collective group of people that we're seeing or whatever.
[01:17:28] Speaker B: No.
[01:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So on Instagram, basically. On Instagram. That's good. You guys, you want to plug your personals.
[01:17:33] Speaker B: I mean, I know I'm a outspoken. Kills on all the platforms. Or I would just look up Indiana Walking stick and find my life story.
[01:17:41] Speaker D: Just put me on the public zoo IG and you can follow also.
[01:17:45] Speaker B: Also, shout out Craft crew Disco.
[01:17:47] Speaker D: Like, he said, I don't have a cool nickname, so I can't be like, yo, go follow Outspoken. Like, I'm just Isaac. There's a million. Isaac San, the one from Corpus, dude.
[01:17:55] Speaker B: He'S like, isaac, I got a funny.
[01:17:57] Speaker C: Joke I want to say, man.
[01:17:59] Speaker B: What is it? Trigger people go for it.
[01:18:01] Speaker C: He looks like he would be on the no Fly List this, bro.
[01:18:03] Speaker B: Damn, you were doing good this whole time.
[01:18:11] Speaker D: Wonder why he so quiet there. He's waiting for that.
[01:18:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he was waiting to use. He had that one.
[01:18:14] Speaker D: Well, first off, they got rid of that.
They got rid of that list.
He makes that joke. He comes in twice a year.
[01:18:26] Speaker A: Be like, let me know when to pull.
[01:18:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Now watch out for us. We got some stuff coming up. Thank you for having us out here today.
[01:18:35] Speaker D: He looks like the type of dude that would, like, search me and be like, hey, dog, you need your luggage? Needs to be checked.
[01:18:41] Speaker A: Checks luggage.
[01:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got the.
[01:18:47] Speaker D: He said he's like, oh, we checking his luggage.
[01:18:53] Speaker C: Trust me, it is.
It's random.
[01:18:58] Speaker D: I'm not even next in line. What the.
[01:19:01] Speaker B: They just pull them out of. Sir, you my sir right now. Right now.
[01:19:06] Speaker A: I got a question from G. Flo. What do y'all think about South Park Mexican in the charge? He was convinced what he do.
[01:19:12] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I remember that. That's. That's old right there.
[01:19:16] Speaker A: Where he doing that?
[01:19:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:19:17] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:19:17] Speaker B: Okay.
I'll tell you what. I don't. I. I'll just. I'll just speak of it on this G flow.
I don't know if he did it. If he did it, he did it. He's locked up. If he didn't do it, then they owe him some money. Funny, but I don't know if I haven't seen the video, so if there's no video, I don't know. But as far as that goes, I don't even listen to South Park. Mexico, man.
[01:19:38] Speaker D: I'm more of a chingle kind of guy myself.
[01:19:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I like a chingle.
[01:19:43] Speaker D: If you see this, follow me.
[01:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
Ramona Sparza. Just waking up and y'all already at it.
[01:19:49] Speaker B: It's a Mexican question.
Hey. Shout out. Shout out. Shout out.
[01:19:53] Speaker A: Freak, man.
[01:19:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he got sent home. He got sent home by me, but he took me home. Appreciate that.
[01:20:02] Speaker D: I thought you said you weren't pissing.
[01:20:05] Speaker A: The battle last night, Trip.
[01:20:06] Speaker C: Trip.
[01:20:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:20:08] Speaker A: Cool.
[01:20:08] Speaker D: Good.
[01:20:09] Speaker B: Good dude. One of our homies, too. He's looking.
[01:20:11] Speaker D: Oh, man, I like.
[01:20:11] Speaker B: Oh, man, he's a. He's a really good dude.
[01:20:14] Speaker D: He.
[01:20:14] Speaker B: He was behind the scenes in a lot of the stuff back in the day when we're doing battles and stuff.
He. He was in some of the Gulf Wars. He was making some of the music. He would just come to some of the freestyle sessions and stuff and hang out and whatever. Don't do that. Damn. I'm sorry. Freak. I'm disappointed with freak. Oh, damn. Oh, no. But, yeah, Trip, awesome, dude. Congratulations, Trip. I hate you, but I love you at the same time. It's all good, man. He. He. He did really good last night, man.
[01:20:41] Speaker C: Yeah, entertaining.
[01:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:20:43] Speaker A: So the battle wasn't rigged?
[01:20:45] Speaker B: No, no. You know, I hate when people say that, though. You know, I. I've been places where I'm rapping, and I don't even think I wrapped very great last night. I think. All right. I've been places where I'm rapping really good, and people just be like, oh, he wrote that. Oh, that's written. Oh, he didn't. No, he. He already came with that, like, dog. Like, don't be mad because I'm good at my craft.
[01:21:07] Speaker A: It's. Because it's easy to do that.
[01:21:09] Speaker B: Yeah, don't be mad at my craft. I've been doing this for over 20 years. I've been doing this since I was 14. Like. And this shit's just natural to me. So. So I may not say the best nowadays, but I'm still capable of using this thing up here to my best of my ability, and it's not going to end anytime soon. So y'all just be mad if y'all know.
[01:21:30] Speaker A: Well, thanks for coming on the show. We gotta wrap it up, you guys. Isaac John, Indiana Walking Stick, real quick.
[01:21:37] Speaker B: Let me finish this up real quick, just so y'all know, because everybody's always wondering. Indiana walking stick. My mom was in love with Harrison Ford when he came out as Han Solo in Star Wars. In 70, she was pregnant with me. Rest in peace, Mama. In 81. And that's when Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Star came out. So that's how I got Indiana Indiana.
[01:21:55] Speaker D: Man, what a way to close conversation started up.
[01:21:59] Speaker A: Stay tuned for some more episodes, you guys. Pub. My almighty public. Sue, thanks for joining. Yeah, we got some more episodes coming on. Stay tuned. Thanks a lot, you guys. Have a good one.
