Shine Magazine Original B-Boy Series: JoJo Torres

By Lisa Dumas
Co-Editor

JoJo (top middle),The Nigga Twinz, and
GrandMixer DXT

JoJo Torres may not be a household name, but he's not stressin' it. This original b-boy from the west side of the Bronx was breakin before most of today's newjacks were born.

"I feel like this. You have to know your history if you want to be a b-boy. But if you don't know, I can't get mad at that. I can say I'm JoJo, I'm the founder of Rock Steady Crew, and that's where I stand with it. That's it."

One of the first Puerto Rican break dancers to ever hit the floor, JoJo started battlin' other b-boys around his way at the age of nine. Then, as a teen, he proceeded to turn what started as a four-man crew into an unstoppable force in the b-boy community that grew to have a membership almost ten times as deep.

"We were the Untouchable Four B-Boys. Me, EZ Mike, Peabody 170th and Jimmy D. We did some damage in battles for a little while and then people wanted to get down with us, so we started thinkin', 'Hey we can have a bigger crew than four members.' But we had to change our name cuz' you can't have more than four b-boys if you got the Untouchable Four B-Boys."

After that it was a wrap. In 1977 they named their crew after the song "Rock Steady," added more dancers, and kept the art form rockin' at a steady pace just like the record said.

"I was like the mentor of the group cuz' I showed everybody how to dance. The people I ran wit' didn't know how to dance. So one by one, I taught somebody, I taught somebody, and we just kept dancin' in groups and then the group kept gettin' better. Some people were good in gymnastics, some were going to karate school at the time, and you put all that together--you make somethin'--some type of art form."

With clean sneakers and dope gear, the newly-formed crew publicized being fresh. And they continued to jump on whatever opportunities came their way, battlin' for both money and respect. The more battles they won, the more people wanted to get down with them. Before they knew it, the original chapter of Rock Steady Crew had grown to 32 members, including present-day Rock Steady frontman Richie Colòn, aka Crazy Legs.

"Crazy Legs was the last member to get into my chapter. Back then, he was the type of b-boy that we used for bait. We used to send him out and someone would serve him, then we would know who was good. Then we'd have somebody we knew could take that person out. What we seen in Crazy Legs, in order for him to get into Rock Steady, was that he had that determination. Crazy Legs kept comin' back, kept comin' back, kept comin' back."

Rock Steady continued to dominate the b-boy battle circuit for two years, but in 1979 break dancing in the Bronx began to die down. So when Crazy Legs asked for permission to start a Manhattan chapter in 1981, the original crew members gave him their blessing and went their separate ways.

"B-boyin was around for about three or four years straight. You could have about four good years of dancin' and then it died out. When it died out, it really died out. There was more rappin' and a lot of other things goin' on. That's why they give Crazy Legs a lot of credit, cuz' he still continued dancin'. He kept b-boyin' alive. And now that it's been re-invented again, look how popular it is. You can't see a commercial that doesn't have someone doin' the backspin, and I made that move up."

When the b-boy craze began to fade, JoJo left the Bronx and went into the job corps for a year and a half. By the time he returned, the original Rock Steady members were nowhere to be found and the Manhattan crew members were already on tour. With Crazy Legs ordained as the new Rock Steady president, they had taken what started in the streets of their Bronx neighborhood on the road, and given the rest of the world their first taste of breakin.

"JoJo was the original vice president of Rock Steady. He, Jimmy D and the other original members set the foundation for everyone that came after," Crazy Legs said. "I'm lucky that they did that. They created something that I felt was exclusive and that I really wanted to be a part of."

And, although his name was largely forgotten as the new crew carved its niche in the world of hip-hop, JoJo is happy today with what he calls "ghetto-celebrity status." He still keeps in touch with Crazy Legs, the current Rock Steady Crew president, and will even attend the Rock Steady Crew 27th Anniversary event this year. So for those so-called b-boys who don't know his name, it's still all good.

"If anybody has questions that Crazy Legs can't answer, the next nig*a is me. And it doesn't go beyond me when it comes to Rock Steady. Nobody is gonna answer questions about what happened to first generation Rock Steady but me. Nobody can change any stories, nobody can say anything, cuz' I was there and I know exactly how everything went down."

Currently JoJo resides in upstate New York, has two sons and two daughters, and works as the head chef at a family-entertainment and sporting-events facility called the First Arena. To this day, he wants only the best for Rock Steady. He says he takes pride in the fact that Rock Steady has survived and flourished throughout the years, and he still has love for his crew.

"Rock Steady can't get no bigger than it is right now. I hope that it stays big and always continues as a dominant force in the b-boy community."

JoJo with his two sons, Junior Torres, 16; and Jacob Torres, 14.

For more information on ROCK STEADY CREW visit:

www.rocksteadycrew.com

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