Forrest Webb, one of the founding members of an Ohio-based B-boy group called the IllStyle Rockers, is on a mission. Along with his co-founders Dre “Live” Borders, Dome “FX” Cameron and Bobby “Blaze” Wolfe, he is determined to bring respect to an aspect of Hip Hop culture that seems grossly overlooked in a culture that has become predominant in a global way. Cool Cleveland columnist Vince Robinson caught up with Webb to get his perspective on the state of hip hop and the role that his group is playing in preserving a vital art.

Webb explains that the term “B-boy” originated in New York in the '70s when a DJ named Cool Herc spawned the phenomenon of extending the percussion section of popular records by using two turntables. In anticipation of the break, Cool Herc would call out certain dancers to perform during these breaks, hence the term B-boy.

Cool Cleveland: What would you say is your motivation and your partners’ motivation?
Forrest Webb: The main motivation is just the love of the dance and love of the culture. B-boying has never gotten the full recognition it deserves. It’s kind of like...fighting for its right place. You have rappers who are making a million dollars, DJs that are getting $5K to do a gig, but B-boys are not making that much money. The whole reason why hip hop blew up is mainly because back in the (day)...when it first went on a worldwide level, the graffiti and the breakin’ which were the visual elements, were the most noticed elements at the time. You didn’t have to see the rapper. You could hear the DJ, but you didn’t have to see him. And the turntable sorcery back then was not as technical as it is now. B-boying and graffiti kind of pushed hip hop to the forefront. Then by '85 rappers started going gold and platinum and rappers were on the forefront; this whole thing about image became more important instead of identifying with the culture. They placed emphasis on the rapper, so dance kind of went on the back burner. Graffiti went on the back burner. From that point on, hip hop was mainly identified as rap.

Breakin’s a big movement world-wide. Our motivation is to do our part whether it’s locally, nationally, regionally to get this dance recognized the way in needs to be recognized. We still fight with classically trained people or people who don’t know nothing about hip hop. They think we’re just a bunch of street kids who don’t have any business skills, so we fight for that kind of respect among our peers in the dance world and in the world of entertainment.

You mentioned the struggle that you have in terms of getting the recognition you deserve. What are your feelings on the state of Hip Hop?
Radio Hip Hop sucks. Period. There’s not one song they play on 107.9 (WENZ-FM) that I can actually say I like. When I was young, and the people who came before me, when they were young; hip hop was more of a progressive art. It was something to fight out against the establishment, against institutionalism...and it’s just funny that today hip hop has gone from that progressive element to totally being programmed. A lot of it lacks creativity these days. A lot of MCs don’t even use dancers [break] in their shows and their videos. Their shows suck. They come to their shows and they can just pop in a CD and rap, where, back in the day you had to have a DJ. You had to have a stage show. There’s no stage shows; it’s horrible. But then you have your underground movement, you have your breakin’ conventions and your DJ competitions, so there is a thread of the real essence being practiced...but on the overall scale when you’re talking about what the overall society views as hip hop which is what they see in the music videos and on TV, it’s horrible.

In essence, it has gone from breaking to scantily clad women in music videos.
Yeah, pretty much. They can pay a girl $500 to dance half-naked in a music video. Why can’t they pay some breakers to come in a video and pop-lock and do some footwork and freeze?

Obviously there is somewhat of a demand for it. You mentioned you are going to different parts of the country with what you do. Can I interpret that as interest in B-boying and hip hop, the true essence as you see it?
We go to a lot of the b-boy conventions, the competitions and whatnot, but we actually have a show called Same Spirit, Different Movement. It’s a theatre piece and we're touring right now. We pretty much try to emphasize all of the elements of hip hop dance in it, the original elements. Our main crowd is a white, theatre-going crowd, but you know, we still go to those jams where we get down and get our hands dirty. It’s not like we’re selling out in any way.

What do you see as the future of this particular segment of hip hop?
Well, breakin' is always going to be here and it’s up to us as breakers individually because a lot of us, whether we rap, DJ, break, do graffiti, have to sharpen up on our business skills and in promoting ourselves. A lot of times you have a lot of people who don’t actively participate in the culture. They may be mere spectators or just somebody who appreciates, but they go like they’re spokespeople for this dance and for this culture, when they’re actually not. So we have to control our own destiny for the future. To almost, in a sense, take back what is ours. But, we’re always going to be here and it's just a matter of getting this thing on the right track, you know...the right people controlling it.

The IllStyle Rockers are networking through conventions and other events resulting in videos circulated to an international audience. This month they'll be appearing at the San Francisco Hip Hop Dance Festival, and in December they’ll be off to Washington D.C. making an appearance at Dance Place. They will also visit Seattle next year and host an event called Soul Survivor in the Cleveland/Akron area in March 2005. http://www.IllstyleRockers.net

Interview by Cool Cleveland columnist Vince Robinson
Image by Illstyle Rockers

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