My name is Danny a.k.a. Serch 138 from LA (Los Angeles). Let me start by telling you how I got involved in the Hip Hop Culture. It was about 1983 or 1984 and a movie called "Breaking" came out. I went to go see it with my family and some friends at the Mann's Chinese here in Hollywood.

When I left the theater I was so hyped and inspired to go out and do something creative and to have some fun at the same time. After seeing that movie my friends and I went home and started practicing some moves. Breaking finally started popping up everywhere in the streets of LA. As time went on we got really good and decided to start up a little crew which ended being a dope crew. At the time I was living in South Gate. I could remember the dope times we had battling and just getting busy at the park just for fun. Some of the dopest breakers and poppers from back then in my area were Jeep-Jeep, Popcorn and Pop-N-Taco who would occasionally show up to Pop because his brother lived across the street from the park. Some people that inspired me back then was Run DMC, who is still one of my favorite group to this day, Nucleus, Planet Control, JonZun Crew, Whodini, Globe and The Wiz Kid, Afrika Bambata, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel just to name a few. All the old Rap which would probably be called Gangsta Rap today by people like: King T, Bobby Jimmy, Mixmaster Spade, Ice T and so on! They would just talk about what was really going on in their lives and what they had lived; which I think is dope cause Hip Hop is a way of life, not just some trend or some tool to be used to make you popular and cool. But anyway, I continued breaking from about 1983 until 1985 or 1986. I remember buying two different color laces and making the checkered patterns on my converses. I could remember the practices we would have in my friends garage. Those were some dope times but unfortunately they started to die around 1986. Then a terrible thing happened, my dad died in 1987 which threw me off in many ways, we moved to a city called Downey. There was nothing I could do except move on and become either weaker or stronger from this incident. I chose to become stronger and moved onto the next positive and fun thing which was skating. I got pretty good at it. But like everything else it started to slowly fade away around 1988. I was in 7th grade I think at this time. There were a few Rappers at my school that I used to kick it with. It's strange but one of the Rappers who I would talk to a little bit every now and then happen to be DJ Quick and his friend Darrias. Every one of those Rappers were good and would always have their little freestyle sessions. They would talk about how someday they would be famous and I guess they really wanted it cause it came to pass. So then I got caught up in some madness and chaos for some reason or another which I really don't want to get into or remember. I just went off in the wrong direction for a while but made it back on the right path and am still here for some reason. But the funny thing is that I had held onto my old breaking tapes, videos, posters, books, etc. and never quit listening to my tapes no matter what stage I went through. I just always enjoyed the music and liked listening to the messages that they were putting out. I came to find out that Rap is one of the greatest forms of expression.

Around the middle of 1989 I had met a guy named Hex. He was living on the next block right around the corner. He always walked by and one day he stopped to talk to me and my friends. He started telling us about these Big Burritos from the GREEN BURRITO that he like getting. So every time we would see him we would call him the "The Burrito Man." But anyway, he told us that he was an artist and invited us to stop by sometime and check out his art work. I was the only one who took up his offer. I went to his house and that was the first time I had really seen Graffiti Art. That was my introduction to the next element of the hip hop culture. I had just started High School and met some kids that were into this type of art as well. Hex was my inspiration to get involved and as we started kicking it more, he slowly taught me the trueness of Hip Hop which was staying positive, keeping peace among each others, respect and most importantly expressions. We ended up becoming good friends which I never thought would happen cause I was so young. We got along really well. I also started getting involved with the kids at school and we started up a crew. We found ourselves a yard to start practicing. Some of the crews from my area back then were KCA (our crew), SDD, KCC who would be considered tagbangers today, UTI, and the list goes on. I had met another graffiti artist name Wise1 who would just write WE for his initials most of the time. This guy was dope and had pieces up all around the neighborhood. He was another inspiration to me. I met another kid in High School who actually liked my music, which was all the old breakin' music which I had never stopped listening to. We got along really well. We would talk about the former breaking days and start to practice our moves again. There was a dope little skating ring down the way that everyone would go on the weekend; it was called Skate-O- Rama. We used to go there to meet chicks. There was a little corner where people would dance and where we would dance with the chicks we met. But we started practicing our breaking moves and people would trip out, kind of but after awhile they caught on to it and started practicing with us. This was around 1990 and house music had started coming in. There were a lot of crews like Brand X, Parson Age, Tribal Connection and all kinds of different posses. They called themselves Groovers. They would mix a little bit of breaking with some other crazy but really dope moves. This opened the door even more for me to bust my breaking moves that I surprisingly still had and even got better. So Grooving and Breaking were starting to be big around that time.

I continued to kick it with Hex and started to get to know a lot about him and his Art. He had battled some guy (Slick) who held the record as the top Graffiti Artist in the whole scene. Hex ended up winning. So he now held the Record. But his guy wanted to battle again. Hex invited me to go watch and help with the battle. I ended up going all three days with him which is how long it took for them to finish their murals. I was able to help out and learned a lot more about the culture. I was actually living it! I also met some of the top Graffiti Artists in LA. The TV News was there everyday along with a big crowd of people to watch and support. They ended up doing a half-hour special on this battle and I got interviewed for the special which I thought was cool. After the battle we celebrated at Hex's Studio. He had a big building with a studio where he worked for some guy painting and silk screening. It was a dope spot. It had murals painted on all the walls (Conart). Time went on and he got a lot of recognition from the battle and we started to become good friends. I ended up moving to Orange County in 1990.

Around that time Hex decided to open up a Hat Shop for his girlfriend who went by the name "Omega". I kept in touching with him the whole time after I moved. Omega was from a crew called UTI and she was one of the dopest female graffiti artist around. She also had other skills like sewing and making hats. I was barely getting to know her at this time and she seemed really cool. The shop slowly started changing. More stuff was added like shirts that Hex drew up, necklaces and then it just became a full out Hip-Hop shop. It became LA's very first Hip-Hop shop and that was the name. It was located on Melrose in Hollywood.

Hex asked me to go to work for him, so I took the opportunity. During the time I worked there I got educated on the culture, met a lot of cool people with skills and just had all kinds of fun. This opened up the door wide for breaking to come back in and it did come back stronger that ever, we had Break contests, Rap contests and all kinds of functions. People were coming from all over the world to visit our shop. Hex had connections all over on the West Coast and the East Coast. He knew Crazy legs from the original Rock Steady Crew on the East Coast (the crew from the movie Beat Street in the blue vests when they were battling in the Roxy). They talked and decided to start up as west coast chapter of the Rock Steady Crew. So we had a meeting with all the people who were gonna be members including me. I met a lot of cool old school people like Crazy Legs, Handy Man (the cripple guy who broke in the movie breaking) fresh from the original LA breakers, Curtis Blow, Zulu Gremlin whom I became pretty good friends with and many more cool individuals. We took pictures and they ended up coming out in URB Magazine back when it was free.

I was living it and getting fully educated. I was still living in Orange County where my friends and I form school had a dope crew going on called "The Hip-Hop function."  We rocked lots of parties, went to lots of big events, met lots of cool people and just straight out had lots of fun together. That's just some of the positive things I got out of living hip-hop. That's what it should be like today instead of us hurting each other or hating each other, acting tuff and being negative. Anyway, the whole scene lasted from about 1992 until 1994 or 1995 when it started changing. The scene started dying and everyone was turning negative. Hex decided to close the shop around the end of 1994. I had just graduated from High School In 1993 and went straight to ITT Tech. I had bought myself a car, was working at Knott's Berry Farm and everything was cool. I was just doing my art, going to school and ended up getting a cool job at an upholstery shop installing stereos. I eventually quit going to ITT. It wasn't something I really wanted to do after all. Then I got really sick. I started going to the doctors and they couldn't tell me what was wrong with me for two years. So I kind of stayed out of the scene, secluded and sick. I started kicking it with some negative kids in my apartment drinking and smoking cause I basically gave up. I thought there was no hope because they couldn't find out what was wrong with me. I went to a nutritionist who said, my kidneys and liver weren't functioning right and all that drinking did not help any. She told me to take vitamins and started me on a special diet. I got 50% better right away. But when I went out there back in the scene, no one recognized me they way they used to and everything was different. I just started doing my own thing. It's been 4 years now and I am still sick and fighting it. Around the middle of 1997 I moved out to the Valley where I met a cool record producer who is big in the scene. I also got involved in working for a company that films movies and tv shows. I started silkscreening T-shirts for a clothing line I started. I help put out an educational magazine on the culture with a partner of mine about every 2-3 months. I'm starting to get more and more involved in the scene which I encourage all of you to do. I'm 23 years old now and thats about where I stand. I'm planning on opening a clothing shop but only time will tell.

So as you can see Hip Hop is something you got to live in order to understand it, which is exactly why so many people don't understand it. It becomes a way of life after a while mostly because it's a way of expressing yourself. It's not something you just get into to be cool and to fit in or something that just lasts for a while. It's a lifestyle! There's no need to be fake. Just be yourself, stay real, practice your skills, follow your dreams, goals, plans, and never be afraid to express your thoughts and ideas or you will just be limiting yourself to what you could do. Get involved, educate yourself and most importantly make sure you have fun. As for me I put God before everything. He's played the lead role in this whole thing and will continue cause I acknowledge him and praise him for what he gives me. I thank him and praise him because he makes me who I am with the skills I've got. Just remember Hip Hop plays in lives, but there's no Hip Hop heaven. Just something to consider and dwell upon. Anyway that the short version of my life story and my involvement in the Hip Hop culture. I got lots of plans and goals that I hope to fulfill with a lot of work. I can't accomplish them alone.

So if you have any comments and would like to learn how to accept Christ, have any suggestions, contributions, or ideas I am always open to hear them or help out in anyway I can. If you got skills I might be able to use you for something or hook you up with the right people so you could come up. Just remember, it takes collaboration to make things happen! Stay true and Keep It Real.... Peace!

 
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