One of the pioneers of Hip-Hop in on the ground floor of the culture is Crazy Legs. The President of the Rock Steady Crew, Richard Colón has been am ambassador of breakin’, fashion, and the Hip-Hop attitude for more than 35 years. Crazy Legs appeared in Wild Style, Style Wars, and Beat Street, with a litany of film titles that have followed. From dance to theater to art, Crazy Legs is one of the most enduring figures in the culture.

The same week he appeared alongside GZA, The Roots, and Tom Morello on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” the 36-year veteran of the Rock Steady Crew spoke with AllHipHop.com’s co-founder Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur about fellow pioneers, and why credit ought to be shared.

“When you apply [DJ] Kool Herc and [Afrika] Bambaataa and The L Brothers and all that together and see what everyone was doing, I think it becomes a collective more than [just] one particular person but it’s just that Kool Herc does get praise from a lot of people,” Crazy Legs added, elaborating on a recent Facebook comment. “He plays a certain role and that role is very very important, I would never play his role down, but you have to look at everyone all around The Bronx and see what everyone was doing.”

Kool Herc, born Clive Campbell, is often credited with the creation of Hip-Hop in year 1973. Herc, a Jamaican-born DJ, prolonged the break in a record by using two turntables. Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The L Brothers, and others were also active at that time.

Crazy Legs added, “For someone to say, ‘Yo Hip Hop was this back then and it was meant to be this,’ that’s impossible because there was no agenda back then. It was like you write, you  DJ, you rhyme, you MC or you break. That’s how you were identified by the community — what was your element? Usually people did three elements. [Afrika Bambaataa] applied the Zulu Nation principles to Hip Hop and gave it a direction in 1982 because his whole thing was peace, unity, love and having fun. Then it became, ‘Okay what is Hip Hop meant to be from that point on?’”

With credit being an ongoing issue in many genres (Jazz, Rock & Roll, Punk), do you agree with Crazy Legs’ point?

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