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Rock Steady #3: Shaolin Breakbeats!!!

Kung Fu Grip! zine, in association with the TROY blog, brings you Mr. Wiggles' classic Rock Steady Mixtape #3: Shaolin Breakbeats. That's right, b-boys and b-girls, this vintage cassette has been digitized and donated to the web for your listening pleasure by the dynamic duo of dirt_dog and St. Paco. So download this baby pronto and prepare yourself for nearly one hour of old school martial-arts-marinated music, bad English dubbing, fight sound effects, and the ill mic skills of Mr. Wiggles and Ken Swift of the legendary Rock Steady Crew.

Mr. Wiggles – Rock Steady #3: Shaolin Breakbeats (1996)

Who loves ya, baby?

St. Paco, that's who.

Still rockin' steady, baby

Somehow, I forgot to provide a follow-up to my posts last year about the Rock Steady mixtapes that I put up for auction on Ebay (read about 'em here and here). At the time, I mentioned that one of the cassettes had been purchased by a dude named Sahin in Germany who'd been on a quest to find a copy of the first of those cassettes for sixteen friggin' years. Well, the story of Sahin's quest and it's happy ending – thanks to yours truly – was detailed in an interview in the Fall/Winter edition of Backspin (issue #107), Germany's oldest hip-hop mag. Shown below is a fuzzy cameraphone shot of the two-page spread that was proudly posted to Sahin's Facebook page.

Breaking and the New York City Breakers

If Spraycan Art, the book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, is considered the bible of graffiti, then Michael Holman's Breaking and the New York City Breakers might be the equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls of hip-hop–because copies of this publication are extremely effin' rare today. Released to magazine racks back in 1984, Holman's visionary trade paperback documented the short history of the Floor Masters, the b-boy crew that he would groom and rename the New York City Breakers. In the process, Holman explores the roots of hip-hop music, dance, graffiti art, language and fashion, and renders a vivid portrait of this vibrant culture in its incredibly defined infancy. Of all of the artifacts in my archive, Breaking and the New York City Breakers is one of my most treasured. As you can see from the cover, my copy is as tattered and torn as a thousand-year-old religious scroll. But since most modern disciples of hip-hop culture have probably never heard of, let alone seen this rare gem, it seemed like a good time to share a few of its pulse-pounding pages.

So sayeth

St. Paco

Rock Steady Break Beats Mixtapes

One thing that collecting can often give you is bragging rights. Whether it's comic books, baseball cards or vinyl records, the best way to show how 'down' you are is by showing off cool items in your collection that serve as tangible expressions of your passion or interest in a subject.

I consider myself an early adopter of hip-hop culture and have lots of stuff that shows just how long I've been down. The best examples are my records, but they're all back in Chicago. Well, I do have all my old school graffiti photos, but that's another story...

When I got my hands on a series of four Rock Steady Break Beats mixtapes produced by Mr. Wiggles of the Rock Steady Crew, though, they reminded me of the kinds of cool stuff that I have back in Chi-town. And it wasn't so much the music that did it, but the graffiti-flavored imagery on the cassette inserts and on the cassettes themselves.

These mixtapes were put out by Wiggles in the mid-1990s, which is when I bought 'em at the previously mentioned Style Rock Shop. I listened to 'em quite a bit, too, but it's probably been more than a decade now since I've felt the need. I have my old boom box in the closet, but whenever I pull it out it's usually to listen to even older cassettes of radio broadcasts from Chicago.

In the process of digitizing the inserts illustrated by Wiggles for this blog post, I decide that my Rock Steady Break Beats mixtapes would go the way of Ebay. I've got my memories and now some really good scans that I can use to document some of the cool items that I once had in my collection.

With or without 'em, I'll always be 'down by law.'

Rock Steady Break Beats Vol. 1

Rock Steady Break Beats Vol. 2

Rock Steady Break Beats Vol. 3: Shaolin Break Beats

Rock Steady Break Beats Vol. 4

Rock Steady Break Beats (Blog Remix)

I wrote the preceding post a few weeks ago, and actually did put the Rock Steady Break Beats cassettes up on Ebay. For, perhaps, pretty obvious reasons, Vol. 3 (Shaolin Break Beats) was my favorite of the tapes, and the one that I least wanted to part with.

It was actually the first one that I bought, too.

Well, I put all four of 'em up and only three of 'em sold. The one I liked most is the one that is still in my possession. I'll take it as a sign that I should keep it. Haha.

Best of all, though, the first tape ended up in the hands of a new homeboy in Germany. This guy had been looking for Rock Steady Break Beats Vol. 1 for 15 years! And it was indeed 15 years ago (1996) when I bought my copy. Anyway, here's a note from Sahin and a photo:

Hello Paco...

You cannot imagine how I am delighted with this mixtape !!! For me this tape means very much, because it was the beginning of my breakdancing time. After 15 years, I finally have it and I'm very happy about it. Thank you.

– Sahin

Sahin and his hip-hop Holy Grail

Perhaps even better than bragging rights, I think that the other cool thing about collecting is getting the chance to pass somethin' along to someone who values it even more than you do.

Rock. Steady.