Hip-Hop is a culture of movers and shakers, and if you’re a world-famous B-Boy from the Bronx by the name of Crazy Legs, you might still be moving and shaking after 30 years. AllHipHop.com was thrilled to run into Rock Steady Crew’s legendary dancer Richard “Crazy Legs” Colon at the 2011 CMJ Film Festival screening of Beats, Rhymes and Life, where he shared a little about why his “crazy legs” and crew are so important to the story of Hip-Hop culture:
Crazy Legs has witnessed his shares of Hip-Hop artists and drama come and go during more than 30 years and now being one of the only remaining original ambassadors for Rock Steady Crew. And, as he shared during Michael Rapaport’s question-and-answer session after the documentary about A Tribe Called Quest, he and his art are just one of many pieces of the fabric that makes up rap culture, especially in The Big Apple.
Crazy Legs, Brooklyn Bodega’s Wes Jackson & actor/director Michael Rapaport
“We have so many stories and double lives that we live inside the ‘hood, especially coming up in that time in Hip-Hop, from the whole crack era and everything else that was going on,” said Crazy Legs after the screening of the Tribe Called Quest film. “Your man that was your security might also have a spot on the block and might be pushing weight. Even things like the beef with Wreckx-N-Effect and Tribe Called Quest. I don’t know if you know how that story came to an end…a lot of people met up, and there were a lot of people hanging around a mosque with a lot of guns all around the area, waiting for something to jump off while this peace was being made.”
“It took quite a few people to bring that together, and a lot of us were there and ready for violence to protect A Tribe Called Quest. It was definitely a crazy situation,” Crazy Legs added. “I know [the film] was about them as artists, but there was so much negative sh*t that we grew up around. It impacts us very personally, and it explains why we might not want you to interview our mothers.”
