RP Boo

Vivian Host

You've been listening to some Chicago footwork. That is because we have one of the heroes and pioneers of Chicago footwork sitting next to me.

(applause)

This is Kavain Space, better known to some of you as RP Boo, repping Teklife. How you doing today?

RP Boo

I’m fine. Glad to be here and to see you all and to be able to talk and give you a little bit of history about myself, as well as the music and where it’s about to go.

Vivian Host

Indeed, we have a lot to talk about and show today about the roots of footwork but let’s start with your roots. Where are you from in Chicago? Set the scene for us a little bit about where you grew up and what it was like in your household.

RP Boo

I’m a older cat. A lot of people thought I started young, but I started in my ’20s producing. My childhood days: I’m born and raised on the west side of Chicago. 3224 West Fulton, within that area. A lot of good times coming up. I moved to the South Side in the late ’80s. I was born to be like they said, “You that West Side kid.”

Life was good. Listened to music, listened to the radio, listened to gospel music. Had a lot of singers in the household. Moms go to church, sing gospel music. My father was a bass guitar player. He moved to Boston in 1977, around that time. Other than that, kids, we go run down the street, throw rocks at the bus, roll tires down the street, take big wheels, take the wheels off and create miniature go-karts. School was fine.

Other than that I used to always have this dream I’d see these commercials. I’d see these old funk bands. One day I say, I think it was the Earth, Wind and Fire on this commercial. The bell-bottom pants and the trumpet players in the background. I just looked and I said, “One day I want that to be me.” I wanted to be a person that always play the lead guitar, the bass, but that didn’t happen. Other things took place. In the days to come, only time will tell, but I didn’t know what was going to happen so, hey. The ’80s was good. Now I’m on the South Side of Chicago, permanently. Far south to where I’m very well respected. I could walk anywhere in the city I want to walk. I could be...

Vivian Host

Let me ask you something.

RP Boo

Go ahead.

Vivian Host

Because a lot of people in tracks and stuff talk about this South Side of Chicago. What is the significance of that compared to the West Side or the East Side. Were there a lot of DJs and producers living in the South Side? Is that where things were going on?

RP Boo

South Side is flooded with DJs and producers. I didn’t know nothing about them until I moved to the South Side. I only knew a couple of people that was out west, but it had a bigger scene because that’s where a lot of Chicago house surfaced and went to the South Side of Chicago. You got Terry Hunter, Emanuel Pippin, Lil Louis was out there, then you had Frankie Knuckles would go out there every now and then. A lot of the people that was out south was more house heads than anything. That’s where a lot of these DJs was coming in from, Mike Dunn. Oh man, the list goes on and on. Still right now today a lot of the big parties, house parties, are done on the South Side of Chicago. Still like that today.

Vivian Host

You weren’t really allowed to go to parties for a while, right?

RP Boo

Nah...

Vivian Host

How old were you when you went to your first club night or party? Tell the truth.

RP Boo

I was in my ’20s, actually I was in my ’20s. I didn’t do nothing in high school. I was just this kid that go to school, get good grades, come home, all the other kids would go out and party and have a nice time. I was just more focused on being a high school graduate and getting my diploma.

I think the first big party I went to before I started going to clubbing, that’s when I met House-O-Matics. When I walked into this party I was just introduced to the sounds of Deeon and Milton and the subs was hitting so hard. But when the kids walked past me, they just go find this circle and they just started dancing and I was hooked right then and there. I was like, “What is this I just walked into?” It was just something I never seen before and I never heard anybody talk about it, but I saw it first hand and I just fell in love.

Vivian Host

We’ll get to House-O-Matics in just a quick second. Before that I just want to say, you were listening to the radio, right?

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

That was your introduction to house music.

RP Boo

Radio was the introduction to house music, yes it was.

Vivian Host

What were you listening to?

RP Boo

I was listening to WBMX, the Hot Mix 5. One of the main people that was on that, his name was Keith Farley but they called him Farley Jackmaster Funk. Farley Jackmaster Funk was just brilliant on those turntables. That dude, once he get on, I don’t care who was on before him, when they hear Farley play, everybody bring out their tapes and press record. I don’t care if the radio station was talking along it. That dude played tracks and stuff that he made. He played Detroit house music, but his mixing skills and his scratching skill was just out of this world. I’m talking about jazz. I wouldn’t record nobody else but Farley. The way he played was just bananas.

That was the radio. But what made me go into it another way, I went to a party my cousins used to have. It was these two brothers named Chris and John. They had come out with the music same as Farley would play it, but the way they played it was just grimy. These dudes sound better than the radio! I said, “Now I got to do it.”

Vivian Host

Hopefully this works, I think I have a sample of Farley Jackmaster Funk from 102.7 WBMX. If this works this is from 1987. I guess you would have been about 15.

(music: Farley Jackmaster Funk on 102.7 WBMX / applause)

RP Boo

Yes, those was the days.

Vivian Host

I wanted to play that because of how loopy it is and how the samples are going, especially in that particular part, really reminds me of what later happens in footwork.

RP Boo

Yes, that’s a key role, and a lot of people didn’t know that my style was created off of that. That’s why you have the way I set my breakdowns to where my chemistry is, when I make my tracks. When I first started, if you started playing any other person’s track with the breakdown in blends it just create that chemistry but it was from those days. A lot of people like, “How did you do that?” I listened to the radio. I studied. I learned and put it in my music and it just came out phenomenal. It worked for me, it could work for anybody else but they wanted to go somewhere else. I stuck with the chemistry, and I left it that way.

Vivian Host

Amen. That’s 1987 but when you’re talking about House-O-Matics and DJ Deeon and Milton, that gets to be a little bit later. What year was it that you went to your first party?

RP Boo

I had graduated from high school in 1991, so 1992. I was like, “Let me do something now, I don’t have to stay in the house.” Mom was like, “You’re out of high school now, what are you going to do? You got a job, go out, do some things.” “Ohh, I can! OK, I’m gone.” I’m outside, but I was able to manage to go to work, party and enjoy buying new equipment, turntables. And it just started when I met House-O-Matics. The day I went to go tryout for them was the day of the beginning to where I’m at right now.

Vivian Host

OK, so what is House-O-Matics?

RP Boo

House-O-Matics was a dance troop of teenagers, South Side of Chicago that wanted to do something different. Couple of guys... well the president’s name was Ronnie Sloan, he had two brothers David and Dave. They danced a lot, Ronnie danced as well and he went to Gage Park High school. So a couple of guys that I knew that lived in the neighborhood used to dance for them. When they danced it was like... they would get about four or five guys, a couple of girls and they would come on the streets and go find people that they knew, knew how to dance and battle them on the street. And it was fun, but it was something to where, once the people in the neighborhood and other places started seeing them, they started coming in and House-O-Matics decided one day, “Hey let’s throw some parties.”

When they started doing their parties, that’s when they linked up with Deeon and Milton. And their first party that they did, they did it for, I think, two nights in a row. And they packed it! I’m talking about if the fire marshall would have came they would have shut it down. They packed it, and from that day on it was just history for them. They would go to different places in Chicago. South Side of Chicago, find like store front joints or halls, talk to the owner and do parties. But the word got around town so fast to the point that all you had to do was mention House-O-Matics and people was there. So I had got curious, I need to go find these dudes. And I found them, and man... Good times with them. Good times, built a nice bond with them too.

Vivian Host

So you originally were trying out to be a dancer? Right?

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

You weren’t intending to be the DJ? You were trying out to dance.

RP Boo

It was just for dance because my first actual time seeing them dance and perform at a... It was at a community college called Kennedy-King college. I was dancing with this group called Mega Move. So we getting ready to go onstage. The president of Mega Move like, “We’re not going to dance today.” We’re like, “Why?” So this one guy says, “That routine you guys do, that’s House-O-Matics’s routine.” So we was like, “What? How is that we get House-O-Matics routine?” Because one of the guys that used to come to show us, he was a member of House-O-Matics.

So the guy said, “Well we’re still going to do the routine.” House-O-Matics was at the... But when I saw House-O-Matics do this routine, you know how you go to this concert and the favorite person comes on and the kids just start screaming? When House-O-Matics did the first four moves, I jumped up and started screaming. I’m talking about, “What the… is this?” Every move that we did I saw it differently when they did it. Percolators, the way we did percolators it was cool to the people on the street. But they changed it, but you could still see it. I’m like, “Ohh my god, I gotta get in this group.”

And the track that they was dancing to, it was one of Deeon’s tracks. And it just fit... It was just something totally different. The dancing was on point, the track was on point. It was nothing like I have ever seen before. Man the House-O-Matics kept that reign from the day they started. I don’t know what year they started, but in 1998 a situation took part to where the group had to dismember for awhile. But up ’til 1998 no dance group in Chicago could even touch them.

Vivian Host

OK, so now were getting into the part of ghetto house and Dance Mania and Chicago house, kind of speeding up. Because like I said that must have been what House-O-Matics was dancing to. So maybe let’s hear just a little bit of this guy DJ Deeon that you were talking about. Possibly some other quick ghetto house classics.

(music: DJ Deeon – “Shake What Your Momma Gave Ya”)

(music: Cajmere – “Percolator”)

(music: Jammin’ Gerald - “Hold Up (Wait a Minute)” / applause)

RP Boo

Ohh man you just made me think about when I was on the turntables playing that.

Vivian Host

OK, so you try out to be a dancer and than the guy running House-O-Matics said, “Do you want to be a dancer or are you going to be the DJ?”

RP Boo

Yes it was... I’d say when I first started after we got into the dancing. Where we used to get our mixtapes done, I used to do a couple of them for the group, it worked out pretty fine. But then during these parties for House-O-Matics, it like I was the main DJ. Even if they brought in Deeon and Milton. Deeon and Milton might close out, but I would open it up. But it was like to the point Ronnie was like, “Hey, OK, what you want to do? I see you love to do your music. Just spin records or dance,” he said. “Because we need you to be in one place and just focus on that.” And he was like, “What do you want to do? Do you want to dance or do you just want to make the tracks and be the DJ?” It was an easy question for me. I was like, “I’m not fitting to sit back and keep dancing, I’m going to the music.” That was simple. (laughs) Hey, thanks for the ultimatum, but hey this music is where it’s at, I bought this equipment and I ain’t fitting to stop spinning no records for nobody. Hey this is what I want to do, so I took the opportunity and I ran. I’m still getting down now.

Vivian Host

You do, maybe we will see some of it tonight. When you play.

RP Boo

Oh yeah.

Vivian Host

You and Taye can have a footwork battle.

RP Boo

Hey, we’ll get down.

Vivian Host

I know. I’ve seen it. The reason that I think this is so interesting though is because you started off DJing for a dance crew and making tapes for a dance crew. And that’s a really important foundation, I think, of the footwork sound, is that it was something created for the dancers to dance to. And a conversation between you guys as the producers and DJs and the people who are on the floor doing the moves, which is not necessary true in all forms of electronic music.

RP Boo

It was our... The meat of that is basically our... when we was doing the mixtapes it was more of, the dance group president's asked us to put a tape together. Still include radio songs even if it was Madonna, some Prince, or Jagged Edge, the slow dance routines. And they would be like, “We know you got some tracks hidden around here somewhere. Throw some tracks in...” OK that’s an opportunity... As the tracks I was making over the years, could be put into this mix. But what happened, they changed it into more the dynamic of the footwork scene, is more of: after the performances was over, and if they have a afterparty, there wasn’t no more, “five, six, seven, eight, let’s do this routine.” No more. It was, “Let’s do this all night long for six hours. Let’s do this.” We played the ghetto house, played the booty house, and we were still able to see these kids pull out these footwork moves all night long. They might do a couple body moves, whips, but they just focused on the floor, and with that being said, after I started and the other DJs started doing it as well, when Rashad came in, we actually was feeding off these people, and feeding with them, so we had the opportunity to experiment.

We was with them, and as the week goes, the month goes, it was more of, “Man, that track is hot! That track is hot! Come on, man, we want some more!” When they thought that they was settled with that track, we’d throw another one on them, and every... It got to the point to where, when I walked through the party, even though I always had a nine-to-five, I could come in and play six or seven new tracks, and when I start off, I would play the new track right then and there. The kids like, “Why are you steady doing this to us?” “Hey, I like to see you move!” They just wanted more, so everybody just got addicted to it, and a lot of other DJs would say, “You see what you just started, man. These kids out here, they don’t want to hear nothing else. They just want to hear this fast stuff, what is it?” We didn’t have a name for it, we just played. We just played from the heart, and we loved to see them do their thing, and as they dance, it made us do more, and that was just our gift back to them, so they was gifted to us, we was gifted to them.

Vivian Host

Before we move on a little bit to the birth of footwork, I want to show a video. It’s from the House-O-Matics reunion in 2010, and you’re going to see Deeon at the beginning, this man you talked about, one of the pioneers of ghetto house talking, and also some different generations of dancers, so can we show it?

(video: 2010 House-O-Matics Reunion / applause)

I’ve seen talk to the hand before, but I’ve never seen talk to the shoe. I wanted to show that video because you’ve been talking about House-O-Matics, but also in the beginning, you see kind of the older Chicago house style of dancing, and then when that kid comes up in the striped shirt, you’re getting more into the footwork, younger, next-generation style.

RP Boo

Yes, and that’s the birth of it. That’s just how it started. That small footage was just it, the only difference, that was 2010. If it was 1996, 1997, the people in the background would have been dancing as well. That was just more of a, “We haven’t seen it in a long time! We getting old! We can’t do this.” Those who was able to still do it, they just did it.

Vivian Host

Well, respect. There were some people in that circle that were not young, that’s for sure. You’re DJing these House-O-Matics events, at what point do you decide to buy some equipment and make your own tracks?

RP Boo

Well, I actually started buying equipment in 1991 as soon as I got out of high school, but the decision to make tracks, it really wasn’t on my mind, because I had the gift to play the music, just… I don’t care who was back them days, even if it was Jammin Gerald, DJ Funk, whatever. If I had all their records, I could play it just as good as them, if not even better, but it was just about how I blend and make my sets. One day, after I had met DJ Slugo, it was more of, “Hey, we need a new mixtape made.” They say, “We going to get Slugo to make the tape. Go to Slugo’s house,” and I see this drum machine. This one young lady says, “How you make your tracks?” He pulled out the R-70. He had this small, I think Gemini mixer, sampler. He had like, I think three buttons on it, and he explained how he was making the tracks, so he actually demonstrated. I’m like, “That’s cool! Look like it’s kind of easy.”

A couple of weeks later, I was like, “Where did you get the drum machine from?” He go to the Guitar Center, and said about 500 or 600 bucks. I said, “OK.” Got my paycheck on a Friday, went to the Guitar Center that Saturday and went and picked up the R-70, and it came with no instruction manual, no book, and it was the last one, so the guy says, “We don’t have any more coming in that we know of, but we will sell you the display model. Do you want that?” “Yeah, I’m here.” Only thing I got was, they wiped it off and gave me my power packs and sent me home. I was just so glad to have it, and that’s when I just started making my tracks. That was like, late 1995, and I had some problems with it because I didn’t know what to do. I seem to press “record,” I hear the “click click click.” I didn’t know how to extend the bars, I didn’t know how to do nothing. It was just set on one bar, and I just started from that. The rest is history.

I wasn’t using samples at the time, then I had bought my sampler from DJ Deeon; the same sampler that he made some of his biggest hits off of. I just went to work, and the tracks I started making started making some attention. I was like, “Man, I’m getting the hang of this,” and even Slugo’s like, “Man, you got some nice tracks.” I was like, “Did I really think that I would make it this far in this amount of time, to the point where people said “You got nice tracks?” I was like, “I don’t know what it is, but hey, why stop?”

Vivian Host

You’re talking about the Roland R-70, is the machine that you had?

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

A lot of the sound of ghetto house, and even footwork, comes from not having a whole lot of sampling time, right?

RP Boo

Not a sample’s had. That’s why they had to make it what you could do with it. As long as it’s a funky beat or a nice dance tune, that’s what count. That’s the groove. The sample is something that people might use to- they say it’s a “cosmetic background.” It’ll spice it up a little bit, but before I really got into it, the West Side of Chicago was known for what they called “beat tracks.” No samples. It’s just, crazy, funky drum patterns and hi-hats, snares but it’s rhythmatic and it was just, people just drive towards it like filling in they bodies and just go to work. That played a big part, too. The west side was more beat tracks, the South Side was more samples.

Vivian Host

So, let’s hear one of your early tracks and then we can come back on.

RP Boo

Oh, let me see what we can find here.

Vivian Host

Yeah, go for it.

RP Boo

Let me see.

Vivian Host

You don’t want to play “Try 2 Break?”

RP Boo

Let’s go to “Try 2 Break,” yes. Oh, you could play it.

Speaer: Vivian Host

I have it.

RP Boo

I’m ready.

Vivian Host

Just put that volume up there.

(music: RP Boo – “Try 2 Break” / applause)

RP Boo

It’s stuff like that that drives me crazy. It’s being able to hear voices, a nice melody voice, a nice pitch, but if you could just slow it down just listen. You could do it to any song if that song has so much power in it, slow it down and you’ll find it. And, I could take that track in certain parts and with the remix I have done, and just throw it on a slower pitch and let it sit. And I could just hear things and that’s what drives me to do more for any track.

Vivian Host

Is that how you usually start off making tracks, is with the sample that makes you feel something?

RP Boo

I used to. Now, it’s just anything. It’s just, I could just be walking down the street and just hear something. Especially if it’s in songs that have a message or I’m like “Hey how did somebody miss that?” And already used it. And I be like, y’all don’t listen. You have to just listen, never close your ears to anything. You’d be surprised what you can do. And just even hearing somebody’s conversation you could do a nice track.

Vivian Host

Yeah, you’ve made a lot of tracks that are inspired by everyday life. Like things that people might take for granted. Like the ice cream truck. What happened with the ice cream truck?

RP Boo

I got that idea from watching Eddie Murphy. (laughs) Then once I seen I couldn’t help but laugh. I said, “You know what? I’m going to make a track off the ice cream truck.” And not knowing that this the same time Master P did his. So that’s why Ashley got that sample from off the Master P “Ice Cream [Man].” And once I found out it was just that open space I was like “Oh yeah, I got you now.” And I’m like “Let me try something different," and it happened. And people just fell in love instantly to that. That was just the beginning of my days.

Vivian Host

And you have a little girl who was your neighbor that you asked to do some vocals?

RP Boo

Yeah, Brianna. Yeah, I told her what to say, and same thing like Eddie Murphy say “I’ve got some ice cream and you can’t have none.” I just wanted to see a kid do it and it worked.

Vivian Host

That’s cool. I love how you’re incorporating everyday life, it’s not like you have to go find an orchestra sample or some really highfalutin' thing every time.

RP Boo

Well “Baby Come On” was one of the tracks that I really wanted somebody to be on it. Ask a young lady to be on it but everybody I asked, “No I don’t want to be on it. I don’t want to do no track.” So I just left it as is and it became a hit with or without.

Vivan Host

I want to ask about this other track called “Pop Machine.” So where were you working at the time you made “Pop Machine?”

RP Boo

I was working at a Quick Lube called Speedway Oil Change. I think I was there well over, like, eight years when I made the track. And how I came up with the concept... Right outside the door of one of the bays we always had a pop machine sitting there. And for years we went through a Pepsi and a Coca-Cola machine. But it’s like for some reason just this one day this guy goes to the pop machine and he puts his money in it. And he was like, “Hey man, what’s wrong with this doggone pop machine?” We’re like, “It took your money right?” He like, “Yeah.”

Like, “Did it have a gun to you? Did it rob you? Like you got jumped.” So I’m like, “Nah that pop machine we forgot to put a sign up there to let people know that it’s not working.” So I walked up to him like, “Man you probably have to walk over to it and just keep pressing the button like, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work.” And it just hit me. I’m like, “You know what? I’m a go on home. And I’m a go make a track called “Pop Machine.” I told my guy, I said, “Marlin, I’m going home. I’m a make a track called “Pop Machine.” Wait until you hear it.”

The next day I played it to him, “Like man you a genius,” he said. He like, “You was a genius.” And a lot of people loved the track. I never put it out, I’m looking to put it out real soon. But, it worked, this track just worked. I know you got it queued up.

Vivian Host

I do. So what did the guys at the oil change place that you were working at think about the fact that you were DJing and making footwork?

RP Boo

Oh they was very supportive. If I was doing like mix CDs they’d buy it. They would buy it. But they was like, “This just your gift.” Work 10 hours a day, go home, make tracks, go to sleep, come back the next day another 10 hours. So I was comfortable with what I was doing. It was just working and seeing the public come in I had great ideas to make tracks just watching people come through. I made like a good eight or nine different tracks just watching people come through in the surroundings of this place. “Pop Machine” was just one of them.

Vivian Host

Let’s hear it.

(music: RP Boo – “Pop Machine” / applause)

RP Boo

Yeah, I had to put the part about with the girls, because girls like to pop! Hey, I say hey, it work for them.

Vivian Host

Do you always have this much fun making your tracks or do you ever agonize over them?

RP Boo

I have a lot of fun. Especially back in those days. I used to catch myself making tracks and actually dancing while I’m making those tracks. I’m dancing, I used to get a little bit out of hand. I need to finish this track!

Vivian Host

You were dancing at work too, right?

RP Boo

Oh my God! Oh, man. I was now on 59th and Western. I was known for, “That dude is always dancing.” I used to wait for the CTA, which is our transit authority bus, to come and as soon as it stops, at the stoplight, and the door open, I just started dancing. Like, “What’s wrong with this dude?” Even the owner of the job like, “Somebody go get Kavain! He’s always outside dancing! Come on in here and work on the cars!” I always did it on my down time.

Same is like, with the CD cover Dude Off 59th Street? With the mask? I used to go outside with that mask on and just stand there. Just dance. They had this James Brown doll that you pressed the button and he started dancing and he played “I Feel Good.” I used to take it and sit on the bus stop bench. As soon as the people get off the bus, I pressed the button. “Oh! I feel good!” I be dancing with it! Da-da-da-da-da. Did this for years. For years. (laughs) I was just always a happy person.

Vivian Host

You’re lucky. Not everybody is that happy all the time. I want to ask you about another track that has a less happy story, which is this track that Slugo put out, but, it was actually yours.

RP Boo

Yeah. We could talk about it.

Vivian Host

First of all, this track, what’s the name? Wait, it’s “11-47-99.”

RP Boo

“11-47-99.”

Vivian Host

Why was it called that?

RP Boo

“11-47-99,” it was, well to get the story going... I was in the record pool, and Pharoahe Monch came out with “Simon Says.” Go to the record pool, and the guy normally has the records set out and he’ll be playing tunes. He was actually playing it. I was like, “Wait a minute. That got Godzilla in it!” I was like, “Do we get this record this month?” He was like, “Yeah.” As we was packing up two more other DJs from Chicago [came in] and one of them had radio clout. He was a radio DJ. The other guy was more of a track maker as well. I was like, “I’ve got to beat them to the punch.” I get home, and I was like, “It’s an instrumental!” I said, “Please let this have just this instrumental part, just the Godzilla music by itself.” That it did.

When I played it after I made it, it still had no name when I made it. When I made it, it was where I was at when I played it. The 11 stands for the eleventh month, which is November. 47 is a party spot where we used to play some of our biggest tracks, and just bang them. 99 is the year. So 11-47-99. That’s the name I gave it, and it stuck with it. Man, that track just changed, just totally changed the game. It just went somewhere to where, I didn’t even know it was going to go that far. I did enjoy making it, and believe when I play it, every time I played it I smiled. I smile big.

Vivian Host

That track ended up coming out on a label from Detroit, owned by DJ Godfather. Probably best known for being one the architects of ghetto tech.

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

Came out on his Databass label. It came out as DJ Slugo’s tune and not yours.

RP Boo

Me and Slugo, we was real good friends. Even with “Baby Come On,” “The Ice Cream Truck” and the other tracks, he was the type of person who would always try his best to look out for people. Dance Mania had just collapsed. We was aware that we wanted to push this to get it out on other labels and give other labels an opportunity. What happened was that after it came out, it did come out on a label where my name was announced on it. It just had DJ Slugo, the remixes. What had happened was that... We didn’t know that it took off, because I was at work. I didn’t go to Detroit. I didn’t go nowhere. It was Spinn, Rashad, Deeon, think Funk went, Clint, and when word got back, it was, “Hey, Slugo, he’s taking credit for your track that you did.”

I already knew that because Slugo asked me could he do a remix. “Fine, no problem.” I actually gave him my record so he could do it, chop his samples up. I was like, “Yeah, I know Slugo have a remix.” Word got back like, “No, it’s not the remix that he’s claiming. It’s the one that you actually did.” When I saw the label, and I saw the print. It was DJ Slugo’s remixes, but that wasn’t the remix. It was the actual track. He was able to put what he want because I had no access to Godfather. That’s when it just went, “No, I can’t do this no more.”

Slugo was not the only person that I had these problems with. I had problems with this with other people. That’s why I left and became D’Dynamic. Once I became D’Dynamic, I saw the falling of a lot of people because me, being able to sit back on the tracks and not come out until they press it, they couldn’t hear me no more. When I come back, the tracks that I left them off with, they were still playing it. I used to always come back with more heat. More heat. More heat. They’re like, “How you do it?” I caught on to it. I say, “You know what? It’s a dirty game out here, but you have to learn from it.” I was able to hold my head up high and say, “You know what? I just had to learn from it.”

What happened after that, and when I made the remix, the other one that you were asking me about? Oh, same sample. Just the same samples, nothing changed. I just reformatted the beat, and it took off as well.

Vivian Host

You put out this remix that you’re referring to on Classics Volume 1 on Planet Mu, some years later. I guess, 2015?

RP Boo

Mmhmm.

Vivian Host

This one is called “02-52-03.” What does that mean?

RP Boo

02, February. 52, I used to live on this street called Honore, 5200. That’s the 52. 03? 2003.

Vivian Host

Got you. I just bring this up, because the streets are important. We’ll be talking about...

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

Some streets in a little bit, but let’s hear this song that samples Godzilla.

(music: RP Boo – “02-52-03” / applause)

Vivian Host

So, as I seem to remember, that’s 2003. Around those times as you mentioned, Dance Mania, which was the premier Chicago, ghetto house, street house, label was sort of at the close. Ghetto tech was kind of going on to Detroit, but you weren’t in Detroit. You were in Chicago. A lot of people from the house scene in Chicago, especially ghetto house were like kind of trying to figure out what to do and what was next, because the label that they all had a home at was no longer, and what’s the next thing. How did it get from stuff that sounds like this to the more broken stuff that we know today as footwork?

RP Boo

After that started going on, even though we still had our – at this point in time, it was a young lady named Angelique, she decided one day she wants to do these dance troupe competitions. House-O-Matics went somewhere else. The up and coming footworkers started going into different dance groups. We were able to have them come to different park districts and have competitions against each other. What was going on, was I used to set up the majority of the sound systems for these kids. And always was able to play new tracks and we was putting out mixtapes and mix CDs at that time. Then it was this guy named Nick Parnell, we called Nicks the Man. He was just this phenomenal dancer that couldn’t nobody beat him, that was in the party, because he knew where he was going. It was good people that was up there with him.

Other DJs knew him through me because I used to be in this crew called Gutter Thugs. Gutter Thugs was like the top to come into, where the footwork crews had to go through us. Nick and other DJs were like, “We need to do something with this dude.” They would make track after track after track to try to throw him off. They just couldn’t. He would just listen. He say, “You know what man?” He say, “Pay attention to what we always do.” He would say, “They wait for the bass to drop, then they start dancing.” He say, “We then burnt them already.” 'Burn them' is basically, we know how to footwork, we could dance to anything as long as there’s a rhythm, there’s a pattern to it, we will always start off dancing. We didn’t care. As long as it has a rhythm to it.

I said, “You know what? I got an idea.” I’m going to make this track, and it’s not going to have no bass kicks. None. It’s going to be to the point to where you can floor. It was this guy named Derion. Derion used to dance for Wolfpack, and he was our first victim. Him and Nick started dancing. I played the track, it’s called “Plat Solo.” Matter of fact, I think it’s... I will play it next. “Plat Solo” was to the point, it just played. It was off Space Odyssey 2001. Reason why I sampled that was Ric Flair’s one of my favorite wrestlers. I had to use that against him. When we played it, Nick did it. I’m talking about, he covered the whole floor, but Derion was standing there and he gave me this signal, like, “When is the bass going to drop?” We got him! We pulled it off! We got him.

After that, I started making the tracks and I separated, it was no more form force. Took it, just gapped it. Made it to the point to where you could see us doing it, and Rashad caught it. Ugh! When Rashad caught it, the click grabbed it. Then other people started, then it became like hereditary. Then, after that I took away all the claps, and replaced the claps for snares. Snares and high-hats. That’s when footwork really got its sound, really got its signature. This is “Plat Solo.”

(music: RP Boo – “Plat Solo” / applause)

Vivian Host

I’m glad you mentioned DJ Rashad, may he rest in peace. When is the first time that you meet him? Rashad is the founder of the Teklife crew and the guy that a lot of people around the world first associated with the footwork sound. Tell me about the first time you guys met.

RP Boo

I met Rashad at this place called the Elk Lodge. There was an incident that took place that night. It happens every now and then, but after so many years, if a small commotion or a fight break out, we turn the music down. We seized the problem, make sure the police come in and conduct the business outside. This one night, this guy, we had an issue. The guy said, “Turn off the music.” OK, cool. Turned the music off. I’m standing there in front of the DJ booth, but right along to my left there’s a stage, to where a crowd of people came up to see over by here to make sure nothing else was going on. This one guy, Ronnie, was saying, “Turn the music up!” This one guy comes past, he say, “Man, listen here. If you turn that music back on, me and you going to have a problem.”

This dude looked like he could knock a brick wall down. I was like, “You know what? Uh-uh. I’m fine.” A crowd of guys come up on the side of me, and this dude just steps over my head, he looks at me and he says, “Hey man, could I get on?” Who is, somebody better get this dude! Because he don’t know, hey, we can’t start this music back up. That dude was Rashad. I didn’t know who he was. Until the next two weeks later. I started listening to him and I started hearing him. Not knowing he was already following me. He was inspired by the music we do, but Rashad already had access to radio stations and producing tracks.

With that being said, a couple of months later we moved out to the south suburbs, at a spot called Cavallini's. Rashad was DJing when I walked in. Rashad, he was wrecking, I’m talking about wrecking the party. Him and Spinn. Killing it. He was like, “Well, get on. I want you to get on.” I played like four tracks before the music got turned off toward to the end of the party. He’s telling everybody, like, “Man, this is the dude.” At that point in time, I was not RP Boo I was DJ Boo. He say, “If you can, next week, make sure you here early.” When I came the next following week, that’s when they got to see me. Rashad, this when I really first got to hear him. Those tracks that dude was playing, were like, I knew where the tracks were coming from, the samples that he was using, but he just had his own little twist to them that couldn’t nobody touch but him. I was like, “This dude is just nasty.” Anything that I did after that, even if it was a concept or what, he like, “Man, how you grab that?” He’d compliment it, and from that point on, man, we just had one of the greatest bonds, just producing tracks and just feeding off each other. I still remember that dude. “Hey man, can I get on?” Nah.

Vivian Host

Rashad and Spinn were pretty young when you first met them, right?

RP Boo

Yes, they were still in high school.

Vivian Host

They were what? 16? 17?

RP Boo

I think 16 or 17, yeah.

Vivian Host

You were describing, you were kind of like the big brother, since you were a little bit older than they were.

RP Boo

I would say it was like, ‘97, that put me at 25 years old. They was babies.

Vivian Host

Can we show a video clip? I have a... This is from later, this is from 2010, maybe it was filmed in 2009, of, Tim and Barry from London went to Battle Groundz in Chicago, and it’s a clip of RP DJing, and on the left you’ll see Rashad, and on the right you’ll see Spin, and, I think, Lightbulb from the Chicago dance crew of the era is also in this clip dancing.

(video: Battle Groundz Dance Clip / applause)

RP Boo

Yeah, that brings back memories. (laughs)

Vivian Host

What memories does that bring back for you?

RP Boo

Just being able to just see all us together, and listen to those blends, and that’s the beat of footwork tracks being played when you in Chicago. It changes wherever you go. Depends on who you are and what you do, but for me, it stays the same no matter where I go, but in Chicago, and like Spinn say, “You on beat.” Only time when I’m spinning, it’s the same thing. The way footwork tracks are being made today and after Rashad started networking with other people with drum & bass, it was more of a mainstream sound, and a lot of the guys came in after they started footworking, but when they get into those tracks that bring them back home to the organic of it, when Spinn says it all the time to those guys. “Oh, you got to dance on beat now! You got to dance to the source? That stuff you was doing before you heard this? Now we really fitting to see if it really works.” If you can’t get in line with this, it’s not that you can’t – not saying that they can’t dance; he’s telling them, “This is your format.” Once you learn the format, then come out, but if you have to go backwards, don’t just jump into it; study it before you get in. That’s what it does.

Vivian Host

What makes a good track that a dancer would want to footwork to?

RP Boo

Depend on the producer. It really does. I’m not the only one that does it. Traxman could do it every now and then. Clint could do it. Spinn could do it. It’s just what you have coming from your heart and what you want the track to deliver. My main approach is to be able to creep into your body, just the sounds. Good subwoofers, that sound to where even if you’re not focusing on it, but being able to have some type of melody to where it catches a person’s attention. If they can’t dance, one of my greatest things I like to see people do is ball they face up like, “What the... is this? What is this I’m listening to?” Not “what the” I don’t like it, but it caught their attention. That’s what does it. That’s just a start, and when people see the orchestration of the footwork is doing it, a lot of people learnt and got into footworking just because of that. Just that, “Hey, what is this? What did y’all just bring me to? Man, I got to learn how to do this! Is it hard?”

Once you learn it, footwork is – the basic, after you learn the basics it’s not hard, but it does take some time. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can pretend it’s you riding a skateboard and it fits in. You can do jumping jacks, you can do push ups, it fits in. That’s why I tell people anybody can do it, just don’t rush it, but it will come. That’s what the music does.

Vivian Host

It seems like you spend a lot of time with the samples and with them looping and figuring out ways where they can loop and say different things than they are. Like maybe the sample originally says – you seem to do a lot of telling stories through the samples that you use.

RP Boo

That’s the main goal, to tell a story. It’s like me orchestrating a scene, but just letting the music tell the story. That’s how it is, like when I did “What You Gonna Do” from Legacy, it was the same thing, telling the story. singing) I just took that, that was one of my favorite ones that I worked on. One of the last tracks I actually - When I first really, really got into it is when I did this track called “Under'D-Stat.” It was supposed to come out on Legacy, but we gave it the Japan version, but that’s when I really figured out how to work the R-70 with a Tascam trackboard, and channeled the different samples without putting it inside the sampler itself, and it just came out so beautiful and lovely. I’m like, “Oh, now I got it!” But this was like 2009. If I’m doing damage before then, I’m like, “Where is it going to go once I get what I really want?” It’s still so much new stuff to come and be orchestrated, and I still have certain ideas with certain songs that I would like to use to help enhance that, and that’s why I’m like, “Hey, if it works it works.” But I like to hear – I love to hear people talk about having a good time listening to the music, and that makes me want to do more for them.

Vivian Host

You’ve been making tracks since the early to mid ’90s until now, and you told me it wasn’t until you were 41 or 40 that you started traveling, DJing, playing this music. And things happen, like the fallout with Sluggo and other people around you started touring or getting bigger. What kept you going through all this time? Did you ever want to quit and be like, “Oh, well, I haven’t released this by now, so I’m just going to stop making music,” or “I got too busy with my work and my life,” or what were you thinking during these various points? Or did that not bother you?

RP Boo

No, I worked. And me being able to work – I worked at Speedway 10-Minute Oil from 1995 to 2010, so they gave me a good 15 years. After, I’d say, eight of those years was gone, I was, like, immune to work, that was it. My play time was just making tracks, but to be able to see Spinn and Rashad go out and travel and Rashad loved the tracks. I was able to still give him the tracks and I said, “If I can’t play them, at least I know they will get played.” That’s what kept me going and him actually giving me the reports back to say, these tracks they really doing their thing.

Afterward that’s when I got approached with the “Hey, would you like to be a part of trying to put your music back out through this label called Planet Mu?” I thought about what happened previous years, but I’m like, this being Rashad, I ain’t worried about them? Why? Because they was one of the main ones who came back and gave me the report and had to help clear it up about I was the original person who made the “11-47-99” and they always had my back.

Rashad was like, “Hey man, what you want to do?” I ain’t think twice I just went and the rest is history.

Vivian Host

Did Rashad also tell you that you were going to go on the road as a DJ?

RP Boo

He told me that he was always talking about bringing me on the road. One day he came back from off this tour, I think it was in 2009. He come back off the London tour, him and Spinn. Me and, I wasn’t married at the point in time but, soon to be wife was talking. I said, “I want you to meet Spinn and Rashad.” I haven’t seen them in so many months. Every time I see them, it was a big smile on my face because I was proud of the success and them going around the world. Rashad finally walks up. He say, “Hey bro, it’s time for you to go.” “What do you mean?” “They ready for you. We been telling them, now it’s time for you to go.” I said, “Rashad you know I got this job and you know I can’t go.” I say “But if I do have a chance, you have to let me know six to eight months in advance.” He was like, “I know.” He said, “That’s what I told...”

Rashad always had that brain. He already knew, let him know a year in advance. He said, “They waiting on you, bro. You got to go.” Believe me it sunk in my head. That’s when, when I had already did Bangs & Works Vol.1 and Vol. 2. I gave him this track called, “Area 72.” Nobody knew about “Area 72.” Nobody in the United States knew about this track. Rashad was the only person I gave it to. I say, “Play this while you out on tour.” He says, “OK, bro, I’ll play it.” He give me, sent me a text via email. “Hey bro, “Area 72” doing pretty good. It’s making a lot of noise.” I said “OK, cool that’s fine.“

Me not ever traveling across seas, he’s over in London with Tim and Barry. I’m outside walking downtown Chicago and my phone rings. The first call this guy Crossfire Watch-N-Witness. “Hey bro, you got to give me that, man. What’s up with that “Area 72?”” I just had to stop, I’m like, “What? What you say?” “What’s up with “Area 72?”” I said, “How you know about Area 72?”” Me saying next was, the title is right, but how did they hear “Area 72?” Me not knowing about, don’t watch that TV and the time that it comes on here in the States but the time you actually play.

Soon as I said, “I have to call you back.” Before I could hang up the phone another phone call comes in. “Hey Joe, it’s Traxman. I need that “Area 72.”” “How did you? What?” He said Rashad played it. “When?” “Just now bro, just now bro.” I didn’t see the tape until two days later and I saw it and he actually played it in its entirety and he stopped it. That was the first world premier of any track that was footwork made from another country that was never played in its own States. That’s when I got the... “It’s time for your album. Can you drop us a album?” That’s when I did Legacy. I’m like, you been waiting for four years, let’s give them an album.

Vivian Host

What year was this that “Area 72” dropped?

RP Boo

“Area 72” would’ve been 2009 when I made it. It just came out, here you go. “Area 72,” the reason why I call it that is because I wanted something different in what it had to say. The year I was born, 1972: my style, my flow, my works, my sounds are from. My last name is Space. I’m coming to Earth. I used everything that was inside of me. Lil Wayne had a picture on the XXL before, he stand on the moon. I looked at it I said, “I’m the only one that could stand on the moon. My last name is space, I’m a real space man.”

I incorporated all that. When I used the sample from Phillip Bailey on the “Easy Lover.” I was working at this home shopping center, Lowe’s. Every night at a certain time, the song come on. I’m just steady bobbing my head. I was like, you know what? I’m going to make this track. It worked. I’m talking about it worked. It worked to the point talking about, we need this track. It worked.

Vivian Host

Did you always have it in your mind that you wanted your music to get out of Chicago? Or for most of this time you were just fixated on what is going to make these dancers go or what is going to make people in Chicago go?

RP Boo

It was more about the inner city crowd, the people that’s dancing. When you don’t have people around you to motivate you, it’s like you trapped in the box. That plays a big part with people and I learned that through life. Once I became a person of inspiration to others, I said, this is what I want to do, inspire others to do it. I seen too many people trapped in this box. Nobody never thought that this was going to happen to where it’s at.

Some people don’t like social media, I could deal with it. The video cameras, the video blogs and all that, it helped. It’s called, understand the business. When you understand it, it’s a gateway to explore your creativity. Like they say, how do you extinguish a fire in a burning building if you can? You close all the windows, no air gets in, so it puts it out. That’s how music is.

If you want music to deteriorate, don’t put it out. Every seep hole I get, if I could see it. I consider me making the tracks in a building where there’s plenty of windows, but there’s really no windows, it’s just open air. It gets out and whoever it goes out to it grows with them. They where the source come from. It’s just that I want them to uplift it and take it as far as they can because I can’t do it by myself.

Vivian Host

How do you feel about starting to tour as a DJ at the age of 40 when a lot of other people who are DJing are maybe I have to quit I’m too tired traveling the world at 40. Every time I see you, you got a smile on your face, you look like you’re having a great time.

RP Boo

I love it because this is something that I never thought about. A lot of people will never get the opportunity. What inspired me to do more and more tours, when I went to my first abroad trip, I did Unsound in Poland. The guys that represent from Polish Juke came to support me. They had a conversation with me on, was it Friday night? Yes, Friday night. The guy says, “If we ever came to the United States and went to BGz on 87 street would that be a problem for us to come in?” I’m like, “No, why? Better yet, they probably ask you guys can we go back with you?” They guy tell me saying, we was just wondering because we here in Poland, some people can’t get a passport. You will never get a passport to go out of this country. He’s saying and that’s something that we always want to do, we want to see footwork for what it really is.

That right there, I sat back and I went to my hotel room and I really thought about it. I say, I never thought about it. I say, “I never thought that this was possible. I thought anybody could get a passport.” That right there made me think about people, I say, “If they can’t come see us, I’ll be glad to keep hopping these flights to come see them. Give them what they don’t see.” Nobody knew what was going to happen the next night. When I came back to Unsound to do my show, the guys were sitting front and center having a good time, but while I just turned the knob up at, I come from behind the turntables and there was enough room. It’s hundreds of people just standing there, the lights going on and off, and I say, “Hey, nobody asked a question and said do I know how to footwork?” I gave them a show. They actually saw foot working right there. I say, if they never see it again, here it go right here.

(applause)

Vivian Host

On that note, maybe we can see a bit of your video for “Bang’n on King Drive.”

RP BOO

Yes, roll it.

Vivian Host

Before you roll it, can you explain what is the significance of Martin Luther King Drive and why you made this video and who the dancers are in it?

RP BOO

Well, with “Bang’n on King Drive,” it’s a parade that goes on every year in the second week of August in Chicago that celebrates back to school to get the kids something to be encouraged about, giving them a good time, saying, “Here, we giving you something for the summer to enjoy, be motivated to go back to school, and have a nice time.” I’ve been doing the Bud Billiken Day Parade for years. I first did it in my first dance group with Mega Move in like ‘92, ‘93. I got House-O-Matic in late ‘93 and I did my first one with House-O-Matic in ‘94. Yeah, ‘94. When we was doing it, the guy Ronnie Sloan says, “Why don’t you try something? We going to try something different.”

The first great big part of history of “Bang’n on King Drive” that I started and it’s still going on right now today, I was the first DJ to come down that parade spinning vinyl on two turntables. Nobody ever done it before. Right now today, even the radio stations got DJs. That’s one of my legacies. My second legacy with that parade is that I used to come in and set up a sound system after I stopped DJing for House-O-Matic, but I always had what they call “that heat.” “We know you got something new, RP. Yeah, play it.” As I play it, the kids go nuts. “Hey, can we have that parade performance?” No, I just do this to test out the road, just go. One of my best times in the parade, I was seen twice on national TV in one day. Nobody ever done it. With two different groups. When we did our Fingers, Bank Pads & Shoe Prints with “Bang’n On King Drive” was done, that was actually, I think, third parade track. Like they say, three times the charm.

As Mike Paradinas say, “We going to do a video for “Bang‘n on King Drive”. Better yet, we already got it done.” No you don’t. No, you can’t do that because it means a lot to the people in Chicago. I say, “You make a video explaining about “Bang’n on King Drive,” you know nothing about the culture. You don’t know nothing about why this track was made. This track was made for a purpose. It was made for the people of Chicago to have a good time at this one particular day.” He said, “OK. We’ll try to get a budget for you.” We did. We got the budget, Wills put it together, and so it’s this group called K-PHI-9. K-PHI-9 used to be a group we used to dance against in the House-O-Matic days, but they resurfaced. The guy name is Marcus, the president of the group. What he wanted to do is start fresh with a whole new generation of kids. He had started off with nothing but young ladies. The work that he was doing with these young ladies and these young kids was just so inspirational to me, and when we had the opportunity to do this video, I invited to say, “Well hey Marcus, we got a video shoot for “Bang’n on King Drive”.” He was already familiar with the track and we told him we would like to ride on the float with you to get some footage. He’s like, “Cool, no problem.”

My wife was like, “How are you going to do the video? You need to do certain things to this video.” It’s the parade. You don’t have to do nothing but just press record. That’s it. It does its work and it did. When I seen that video, it did its work and after the video was made, every place I went to, people in different countries, no matter if they spoke English or not, they sung the song every time I played it. They sung it.

Vivian Host

It is an extremely beautiful tribute to Chicago, so let’s watch it.

RP BOO

Yeah.

(video: RP Boo – “Bang’n on King Drive” / applause)

Vivian Host

You know that video makes everybody want to go to Chicago like right now.

RP BOO

Yeah. You know what? We got something planned for that. When people do come to Chicago for those events, I would like to be a person to welcome them in and just really be there. Just say, “Hey, welcome to my city and enjoy the parade.” The parade is a beautiful thing and how I come up with the street names, that’s because it’s from the beginning to the end, from 39th to 51st, excuse me, to 55th. 39th is the entrance to where, once you cross 39th Street, you come in through 35th, but that’s where the bands and floats set up at. Once you cross 39th Street and Oakwood, you are in the parade. There is no, “No, no, we didn’t ...” No. You are in the parade now. You get to like 40th Street, that’s where the TV cameras at. Once you pass those TV cameras, now you got the world. First spot, 43rd. It’s like every major street from there, you have to stop and basically give a performance for the people because they was, “No, you gotta stop right here. You need to dance.”

Vivian Host

That’s the streets, the samples that you’re saying are the names of the streets.

RP BOO

When you get to 55th, that’s where you go out the park at. Once you out the park, it’s not like that no more, but it’s where I come from. Where they had seen the guys on the basketball court? You got the basketball courts, and you have the tennis courts. We used to go to either one. There used to be squads waiting and that’s where the battles used to be at. We used to be in there doing it. I’m talking about, people like, “The parade that way!” Nah. They that way. That’s how it comes, in the park, we about a song. It all worked out. It all worked out.

Vivian Host

Now that you’re traveling the world a lot and going to places like Shanghai and Poland and stuff, is it harder, your music is so rooted in Chicago and this dance history and the people that you’re around. How has it changed your music to be traveling all around the world and is it hard to not be in Chicago as much, because is Chicago essential to the music that you make?

RP Boo

Chicago’s where I just sleep at, when I’m at home. That’s it. I don’t think nothing else about it. The city is already embraced. Some people talk about, “Oh, we got to do this for our city.” No you don’t. It was already done, a long time ago. It’s been done. There’s nothing to prove in Chicago. Nothing. When I go out, the only thing that changes is if I hear something that I learned or I heard from these different countries or if it’s a track that motivated me. That’s different, so it’s growing outside of Chicago now. It’s growing in other countries. No matter if people don’t think so. Oh, it’s growing. It’s growing, there’s no limit to it no more. It’s just, do it. Be happy that you’re doing it. People that really love it embrace it.

The good part I like about it is being able to go to different countries that Spinn and Rashad didn’t touch. Or places that they didn’t go to or people hearing, “Oh, we heard Spinn and Rashad, now we get to hear you.” But they knew that Spinn and Rashad were like, “Wait ‘til you hear RP.” The response is to, “Hey man, what’s this? Hey Joe, how’d you do this? We ain’t never heard nothing like this! We know some of the tracks, but what is this stuff coming from?” The majority of it is like, classics and when I do play the new stuff, I announce it. They be like, “Wait a minute.” It constantly changes. That’s me. I don’t stay stuck in one. My root is rhythm, but the change of it is how the sample’s going to go or how I might say something and how I might throw it in and I might chop it up. Or make it just fly somewhere else. It’ll pan left, pan right. People like, “We’re not used to that.” Nah, get used to it, but when you do? By the time you catch up to it? I’m about another 20 to 30 years in front of you. Got to catch up. I’m loving it.

Vivian Host

This is my last question, and then we’ll open it up to the participants if they have questions for you.

RP Boo

Cool.

Vivian Host

What would you say is your main advice for young producers, either about making music or about being in the music business?

RP Boo

Put yourself in your music. See yourself at what you want to do. You got to have an audience. Imagine yourself in the audience, but knowing you back there. You know you want to have, I don’t care if you physically don’t know how to footwork, just as long as you know how to... If you could jump up and down, that works. Make your music the way you see other people having a good time to it. Make them be able to be happy that they want to dance and evolve with it, but the people that’s in your audience, they’re you. They are actually you. Just imagine yourself doing thousands of different things at one time, but you have control over it. Knowing that, “Hey, man I want more.” Focus on them.

One thing about this business that I learned – it’s two things. Either you’re going to do it as an individual or you going to do it as group. If you do it as a group, make sure the people that’s with you, that you all plan. You all got to have that same plan and that same vision. Somebody might be the front man, but that front man have to understand something else too, you can’t do it all by yourself. When you do it, don’t be disappointed if somebody comes knocking at that door, “We would like to bring one of the people out of the group to another level.” Not saying they’re going to another group, but they going solo. I have seen too many people break up because of that, but that’s the game. That’s the business.

Be able to license yourself, incorporate yourself. Be able to do your publishing, get your publishing situated. Get all that done. This is not a career. Lot of people think this is a career. What they think is a career, because they see the TV cameras, the media going. If you got a good label, you’re going to get the press. You will get press. I know people that does, that did have press, but didn’t use it. Now they out here hustling. They mad at the world, but [they had the] same opportunity I had. Answer your emails. Please answer your emails. Be on time. Be polite. Because no matter what, until the day you own your own, you still have to work for somebody.

There’s nothing wrong with being a servant for somebody else, because one day somebody going to be a servant for you and you have to be able to pass it on from generation to generation. If you happen to be one of those people, what we say, many are called but few are chosen. Just because you chosen, don’t mean you’re going to make it all the way. If you do, you might be able to be the person that gets the calling. There’s a difference between the calling, and the career. The person who gets the calling, is the person that a lot of stuff gravitates to them, without them even knowing, but other people will see it.

You have to be prepared to understand, if you open up something and there’s going to be people that’s falling behind it, there’s going to be people that’s going to be able to take it to another level, and get paid way more money than you do. They know, and the industry know that you are the source. That means you did your job. If a person, taking it out of hand and say, “Oh, this is my attempt to be better than the person who I got it from.” I guarantee they will fail, so don’t worry about it. Take it day by day. Don’t rush it. If it took me 21 years, 21 years, to finally where I get to say, “I get to do what I really want to do,” now the tour’s taking off. The average person, you tell them, “Hey, it’s going to take 15 years.” They ain’t trying to hear that! “What you mean?”

When the person opens that door, and it’s open? Me, Rashad, Traxman, Spinn? We opened the door. That door mean to what we travel. When we opened the door, all the other people have to do is just walk through it. Comfortably. We still have people who still don’t know how to walk through it comfortably. We just say, “Hey, our job is done. We opened the door. We know what we had to do.” I’m so glad that I was not the first person to do it. Believe me, I was so glad. What happened to a lot of people after me, was like they don’t want to hear nobody else no more. It’s like, I said, “Man, thank you.” That’s why I say it’s for other people to enjoy. That’s why I opened this door to say, “Go. Just go. Just go. Please go.”

Always have a positive attitude. Don’t be scared to put yourself in your music and don’t let nobody tell you that you can’t do it. You can do it. It might take you some years, might take you some months. Once you get it, that overwhelming season will come in, but don’t stop. Don’t stop until you can’t do it no more. I mean, you physically can’t get up. That’s me.

(applause)

Yes! Yes! Yes! RP Boo.

Vivian Host

We’re not done yet. That’s beautiful though, thank you.

RP Boo

Thank you.

Vivian Host

You want to play them a little bit of this exclusive track.

RP Boo

OK.

Vivian Host

While everybody gets their mind to the questions. You have a new EP coming out.

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

On November, in the end of November on Planet Mu. But we’re actually going to hear something that you hear in “Bang’n on King Drive” at the end, but it’s not out yet.

RP Boo

Yes.

Vivian Host

What’s it called?

RP Boo

This is “Earth Battle Dance.” “Earth Battle Dance” is not actually on the EP, but I will let you hear what it sounds like after it clips off the video.

Vivian Host

OK and after that we’ll do questions for the participants.

(music: RP Boo – “Earth Battle Dance” / applause)

RP Boo

That’s “Earth Battle Dance.”

Vivian Host

Exclusive. All right, well now it’s time to open it up to some questions.

RP Boo

Please ask questions.

Audience Member

Thank you.

RP Boo

You’re welcome.

Audience Member

Would you be willing to give us a demonstration, brief lesson in footwork.

RP Boo

Well, let me see what I can do for you. I wasn’t planning on doing anything. Let me see if I can find something around this joint. (hums) Yeah, I hums through a lot of stuff. Rashad. Yes. Better yet. Yeah I have to play some Clint, I like Clint.

(RP Boo dances for audience)

Yeah, I move around a little bit.

(applause)

Vivian Host

Thank you.

RP Boo

You’re welcome.

Vivian Host

Next.

Audience Member

Thank you for that. It seems like you get a lot of inspiration from non-musical things in the simple sense, like conversations or the every day world. Do you find your inspiration from other genres as well, or do you find yourself getting inspiration more from the non-conventional things, as I said?

RP Boo

Here’s the amazing part about what you just said about other genres. Before I can even talk about what a genre was, when I was playing ghetto house and booty house. It was a lot of techno going around, I go record shopping, hear these different types of dance songs but not knowing what genre they were listed under. Those songs was like, man, “This is some good stuff.” Other music always inspired me, always. I wasn’t into, not too much opera. But, I even used stuff from opera before. At point in time, actually in 2003 or ’04 I completely turned the radio off for good. That’s where a lot of my creative work really came out because that’s where the conversations come in at and I was like, it’s the best of both worlds. I looked for something on the radio that would be inspirational other than Michael Jackson. But it was just, started dying.

Audience Member

Have you turned, do you not listen to the radio?

RP Boo

No, I don’t listen to radio at all. Been turned it off.

Vivian Host

But you take walks a lot when you go to different cities for gigs. I was wondering if you get a lot of ideas in that process?

RP Boo

I’m searching, that’s why I walk. I’m searching because the ideas could come from anywhere. Hearing sirens, people laughing, kids playing. Different sounds. I just take it from there, or the song that’s on the EP called, “What Am I.” I was in Shanghai, China and I heard a rap sample with this sample in it, like you know what, I have to use that. My ears is just open, they never close. I’m talking about never close. You have to take advantage of your senses, use your senses. What you see, what you hear, what you touch, what you can smell. I don’t care what it is, use your senses, you can make music. From all your senses. Because it goes with you. It’s a part of you.

Audience Member

Hello. I’d just like to ask you if you’ve seen anything similar to footwork around the world and if you’ve been to Brazil or Rio de Janeiro where we have a really amazing...

RP Boo

Well, I haven’t been there yet, but I know the dance culture there is very serious. And I love it. I love it. I even seen people from South Africa actually comes and do it, and I was just like... It’s amazing.

Footwork to me, the way that people try to explain it, it’s nothing new to me. It just changed this shift in its full mentality of what it looks like. I look at old Gregory Hines videos, and I say, “You know what? These dudes was footworking for years.” The only difference between them and footworking now is the shoes. That’s it. And they was more energetic back then.

So I tell these guys, “Just be creative in what you do,” because tap dancing, Brazilian dancers, the people over in Lisbon, oh my God. And I just love to see these people dance. It’s rhythmatic.

It was here before we got here. That’s why I tell people, “Stop focusing on the money issue. Enjoy what you do. If you want to do it for the money, that’s you.”

But these different cultural dances, I love it. I just love to see it because they’re just nothing new... It’s from the heart. That is not nothing that was created to say, “Hey, look at me.” No, these are people that enjoy themselves and sharing their lives with people through how they dance, and I understand it very well.

Audience Member

While listening to your music, you get this feeling that’s very complex rhythm heavy, but it’s still very interesting and approachable.

I wanted to know what your approach is when you sit to think about rhythms and create while producing.

RP Boo

No, well I don’t think about the rhythm. It comes out naturally. That’s something off my first track I ever made, it was just there.

It took me a while to understand it, but I identify it through other people... and them taking these tracks or telling me this is something different.

It’s the same thing for me, it’s almost like my pops say, “You might not know how to read music, but it’s in you.” Some people have that gift. Then you can still go back and study it and really get a format of it. But it comes natural for some people.

I know how I want some bass patterns to go, but it’s certain things within that gap that the sample could become the rhythm and just shape it up. I have had tracks that was done like that before, and I’ll say, “Hey, if the sample is being the rhythm, I ain’t gotta put nothing else behind. I’ll just let it ride.” And I had that confidence, and it works.

Audience Member

Thank you.

RP Boo

You’re welcome.

Audience Member

Obviously footwork music takes a lot of its inspiration from other genres and anything basically. But I just wanted to ask, how do you feel about other genres taking elements of footwork and turning it into something completely new? Maybe at faster tempos or slower tempos.

RP Boo

Lot of people get footwork confused with... It’s not about the tempo. You could play the footwork sound that was created off of helping out the juke booty house or by experimenting, sped up. Then after Rashad left and went overseas, he was – Rashad was always the type of person that loved to network with other people. So that’s how the other subgenres started coming behind it.

I wouldn’t say you bite off it, but being able to say, embrace it. But what everybody failed to realize, you have to come back to Chicago. And the reason why it’s not in Chicago right now, because I’m traveling. Because I have had some bad ordeals go down with promotionals and promoters and people try to do parties that I would never let happen again. Until I set things back up... But you all will be able to see it. It’s something about having that one spot in Chicago to where you can just walk in, and I guarantee you, you will never hear nothing ever like it again unless you come back.

What it would do, it would enhance you to go out and motivate. Whatever genre you already in, I guarantee you, you don’t have to come out of footwork to make it happen. You’ll just be able to say, hey, it drives you to do more and better for what you do. And I guarantee you that when you play whatever genre that you was in that’s not footwork, I guarantee you that track is going to change. It’s going to change to where it might still be in that genre where you at, but I guarantee somebody will be like, “Something sparked this dude.”

That’s what footwork music does, it sparks. That’s our mission just to spark you to become better.

Vivian Host

Does it bother you if people who are not from Chicago, and not from the culture of footwork, incorporate footwork stuff in their music.

RP Boo

No.

It has to grow. It has to grow. It is so much alive. It is so alive. And that’s what they can’t take away from it. It’s alive. And we are actually walking around being able to tell people and talk about it.

It’s so alive to the point to where there will never be another one behind it like it. It is either going to grow or it’s going to... It’s not going to diminish.

But like I tell people about sounds, period. Sounds. You could stop dancing, but the sounds will always be here.

What I talk about with my music, and I learn by reading books and being spiritual because I do believe in a higher power, a spiritual person. When you walk outside the door, and the wind is blowing. You hear the wind blowing off the leaves. You hear the water splashing. Because life deals with air and wind. Whatever you hear, and it’s silence, that’s the earth playing back music. Period. That’s music. That was here before that came.

That’s music. You incorporate and you put yourself there. That’s why I tell people, “You can’t tell me, this genre better than that genre. This genre better than that genre. Nah.” Because at the end of the day as long as you take what you are blessed with every day to wake up and you got your hearing. You take that, and you enjoy life and incorporate it in everything that you do.

Don’t be afraid to stand up and be a spiritual being and let people know, hey.

They gonna ask you, “Why you like that?” “Because I’m spiritual.” You just don’t dump it on them and say, “Hey, I’m a spiritual being.” And they didn’t ask you. It’s the opposite. A person see what you do good and they question you. They always going to question your good. You will know by just hearing how they ask the question. And you just lay it on them. “Hey, I’m just a happy person. I enjoy life. And just pay attention to what’s around you.” You could put it in how you talk, how you fix your food, how you raise your families, how you play your music, how you make your music, and how you play your instruments. It’s all incorporated. That’s life.

(applause)

Audience Member

Hi. It’s really nice to meet you. Thank you for the lecture.

I’m curious now what you think about the evolution of the dance music in general and house music. And who are the artists now that make you feel like back in the days?

RP Boo

Good one. To be coming along with this music... When I did sneak into the radios, the only people that really made me just sit back and just say, “Man, this is some beautiful music” is when I first heard two different artists.

When 808 State did “Pacific State” that was like... When I first heard somebody play that in a mix I was like, “What is this? This is not no Chicago house. This is something different.” And I could tell that it was from overseas somewhere. And it was just so refreshing. It took me four to five years to find out what the name of that track was. But when I found out, that was when drove to... A lot of people didn’t know that I hid behind closed doors listening to that track. I didn’t know how to express myself to the public about those type of songs I like.

Then when Daft Punk came out, it was like, “Where did these dudes come from?” The enjoyment of it, and just listened to it.

What comfort me with music today is to go back and see my father and talk to him. That’s my source right there. He played bass for Prince for like six years. Even before that, just him and his conversations, telling me about music and how he enjoyed music. I really just loved to hear him talk.

I try to dib and dab into what’s happening today in the music worldwide. As long as it’s dance music, something you can mix this off of, not too much of going EDM nuts.

I like to hear other DJs play on my day off, but when I’m at home in Chicago it’s this white guy, his name is DJ Emanuel Pippin. He was one of the guys that fought to keep Chicago house music alive. And he took the bashers, the people criticizing him, the people telling him he wasn’t going to do nothing, but he fought for years. Right now today he’s one of the main people to go see in Chicago on a Sunday night playing disco, house, Chicago house, and playing it like nobody else could play it.

I still find myself going back. But if it’s something that could catch my ears due to I’m open, clean going to it. But so far nothing has changed within the past five years.

Audience Member

Thank you.

RP Boo

You’re welcome.

Audience Member

Thanks for the lecture, and I very much look forward to a set tonight.

Obviously drum machines are playing a very important role in your music, and in dance music in general. I’m just wondering, how do you feel about the drum machines or the gear you have, how they restrict or help you creatively?

RP Boo

The difference is, before the MPC Studio came out and the Cakewalks and the Ableton, we was limited. With that being said, I seen how the software has made things so open. But I still haven’t changed over to that format until last year.

I was just real good at what I used, even though I was limited, but I understood. Jammin’ Gerald would say, “Bro, whatever you doing, you don’t have that much sample time. But you killing the game with just a little bit of sample time. Nobody could do what you did.” He said, “You got a mark. Whatever you do to keep that mark going, keep it.” And he made me feel to where I was not limited with analogs and with the drum machines.

But then I learned with the drum machines that the sounds still are warm. They still pack that punch that everybody really wants inside the transfer from the mp3 files. Load up and then you can sequence the sounds, do whatever. It loses that warmth. So, I still stick with it because that’s all I had in front of me until 2014 before I got to MPC Studio. I stayed with the same thing. I’m like, “Let me try something else different.”

So with this new EP, our sound is not even on it at all. Everything on that new EP is all MPC Studio. But just like I still had that R-70, oh I still go back to it. Because that R-70 packs the most nastiest punch ever. Those tracks that you was hearing, majority of them, R-70. That’s why the bass... And anything out of the bottom of the R70 is the best. That was the last best drum machine that ever came out. So I thank Roland for that. Mm.

Audience Member

Thank you.

RP Boo

You’re welcome.

Vivian Host

Well, I think we’re good. Everybody give it up for RP Boo.

RP Boo

Thank you. Thank you.

(applause)