No DJ group would become bigger than Ultra Wave, catering to a crowd too young for UJA's 21-and-over parties. "My grandmother lived on a street called Potomac Avenue, which is where we all grew up," Aaron told KCET. The two cut their teeth on a street in mid-city lined with single-family homes and lush green yards. The Westside is where Ultra Wave made a name for themselves and where both Aaron and Everett grew up. Unfortunately, before further plans could be made, Everett died of COVID-19 in January. Black people who lived on the Westside were considered a little more well off than their Eastside counterparts," Everett and Aaron recall in "Clap Clap Wave (The Ultra Wave Story)," a short unpublished retelling of the history of Ultra Wave that the co-founders worked on last year and shared with KCET. "The Westside during this time was what the Black community of Los Angeles considered basically, but not officially west of Western, north of Slauson, south of Olympic, all the way to the beaches. It was at Kingston 12 that summer in '85 when Everett began to notice the dance crews coming out of the Westside high schools. Everett and his lifelong friend Rick Aaron had already been throwing parties at high schools, houses and a club called Kingston 12 in Crenshaw for years under the name Ultra Wave. Straight Outta Fresno: How the Popping Dance Movement Empowered Youth of Colorĭuring the summer of '85, a DJ named MCG (Gregory Everett) caught onto this new scene. I looked like I was Eddie Murphy, Don Johnson and Rockwell all mixed in one." "We started wearing stuff like that in the 'hood," Legend chuckles as he reflects on his sense of fashion as a teenager. So now the Westchesters and the, Fairfax, they start coming into play."ĭuring the early '80s, aesthetics from the 'hood collided with the burgeoning punk, mod and ska scenes that exploded around the Fairfax/Melrose area and L.A.'s westside, resulting in high-top fades, Doc Martin creepers and "old man" suits becoming popular among Black youth. Those were the high schools for that time period. "Prior to that, all the dope high schools were in South Central like Manual Arts, Dorsey, Fremont. Board of Education decision led to schools in L.A. "So now you got Black kids in the 'hood, listening to Duran Duran,, all these songs," said 52-year-old Legend, a member of the Soul Brothers dance crew. During this time, teenagers like Thomas were being bussed from South Central to schools in the valley and L.A.'s Westside. Thomas was too young to go to the UJA shows but he danced to the music that they produced and went to 21-and-under parties that they influenced. | Photos courtesy of Rick "Rick Rock" Aaron and Gregory Everett. Gregory Everett and General Lee spinning and performing at Maverick's Flat in 1985. A typical dance party thrown by Ultra Wave. Rick Rock and Gregory Everett at Club Shomineh. Gregory Everett with two other friends flashing hand signs. That's how popular the DJs were at the time.įrom left to right: A group photo of the Groovers. East Coast hip-hop was just starting to take off but when New York acts like LL Cool J came to Southern California to perform at an Uncle Jamm's Army party, they opened up for the DJs. It was just DJs and this new dance craze," comedian and actor, Alex Thomas recalled during an interview with KCET. " locked down the sports arena, same place where the Clippers played, and it'd be maybe, you know, 10,000 people partying on a Saturday night with no performers. "It was fiercely competitive," Gid Martin - co-founder of UJA - told Red Bull. By the mid-'80s, there were dozens of these groups. "These guys were kids from the 'hood, who made a legitimate business, making more money than most hustlers in the streets," the rapper and actor Ice-T told Red Bull Music Academy in 2017. Fueled by a fast-paced, electronic version of early hip-hop, UJA began throwing parties at high schools and eventually sold out arenas. Led by a record store owner and DJ named Roger Clayton, Uncle Jamm's Army (UJA), was arguably the most successful dance promotion group that Los Angeles has ever seen. Young entrepreneurs who might have otherwise turned to the streets, invested in DJ equipment, assembled crews of promoters and began organizing parties for teenagers and young adults at houses, auditoriums, school lunchrooms, event halls, hotels and wherever else they could find the space. During the early 1980s, second to selling drugs, throwing parties was one of the most lucrative ways for people in the 'hood to make money.
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