Rock Rubber 45s (2018) - full transcript

This dude in Portland
was like,

"I do custom designs
for Nike and Adidas."

He wanted to do
a 89 Tec9 joint.

I was like, "That'd be dope,
but that's the last film."

Like, "You need new shit."

Let's do the Rock Rubber 45s.

Yo, will I play like Kyrie?

What did you think about
that trade, though?

I don't give a fuck.

- Yeah?
- I just want to play ball, yo.

Basketball is my life.
Music is my life.



Sneakers is my life.

I used to beat him

in basketball
at West 4th all the time!

Oh, my man,
he talking mad smack now.

I got my shorts on underneath.
I'm ready for you.

- You sure?
- I do, I do.

So you're capturing
the movement,

and then we're not wide
at that point.

We're, like, tight on...
you still want to see

that it's a party

and everybody's
having a good time.

I was like, "Yeah, I want
to do a documentary about you."

It's funny, now he's doing one
about him-fucking-self.

♪ Here we go ♪



You're a hip-hop legend
and you're a renaissance man.

Legend, the legend!

From way downtown!

The man who wrote
the first-ever article

on sneaker culture
all the way back in 1991.

- Bobbito Garcia!
- Ah! He got the magic!

He got the magic already!

And then Bobbito Garcia

I was a fan of you
on "NBA Street."

Ooh-ooh!

Now, if someone were to do
what he's doing,

you'd be like,
"Oh, look at you

doing the Bobbito thing."

You know what I mean?

- 27 jobs on his resume.
- Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I'm surprised
that he's not Jamaican.

Y'all make some noise
for Bobbito!

♪ Rock Rubber 45 ♪

♪ Rock Rubber 45 ♪

♪ Rock Rub-Rubber ♪

♪ Rock, Rock Rubber 40 ♪

♪ 40, 45, yeah ♪

What does Bob do?

I am simultaneously a DJ,
a ball player,

a TV and radio personality,
a writer, an author,

an announcer, a coach,
a filmmaker, a shoe designer.

- I mean, you've done it all.
- My friend Bobbito Garcia,

Kool Bob Love,
aka Cucumber Slice.

Oh, you guys know him?
All right! Yeah!

DJ Cucumber Slice.

I still don't know why
or what the fuck

a Cucumber Slice is.

Kool Bob Love,
Cucumber Slice.

He's a hip-hop DJ
and a street basketball legend,

just to name
a few of his talents,

but though his skillset
may borrow

from African-American culture,

Bob Garcia's a Puerto Rican
who's embraced his Latino roots

and has been on a path
of self-discovery.

My dad was born in Ceiba,
Puerto Rico.

My mom grew up
in Barranquitas,

which is in the middle
of the island,

in the mountains.

I was a hillbilly,
a real jíbara.

I drank hot milk
straight from the cow.

So when we got here,
the first word that I heard

in English was, "Shut up!"

My friend Annie said, "Oh,
I want you to meet somebody.

Ramon, this is Ramona."
Ramon and Ramona.

People used to act
as if we were a dance team!

So I had three kids, and I ws
happy with three kids,

and I thought I was never
gonna have another child.

Six years later,
here comes Bobby.

Bob showed up.

Thinking, "What do we do
with this thing?"

I used to have to
clean up after him.

At age seven, my sister
took me to a record shop,

and I bought my first record.

It was a group called
Brother To Brother,

a cover of "The Bottle"
by Gil Scott-Heron.

♪ See that black boy
over there, running scared ♪

♪ His old man in a bottle ♪

Truthfully, the lyrics
meant nothing to me.

I was too young to even
grasp the political nuances.

What was gained on me was...

just the presence.

♪ Hot peas and butter,
come and get your supper ♪

It'd be like 25, 40 kids
in the backyard with a belt.

So if you didn't get back
to home base,

they whipped you
with the belt.

It was a sadistic game.

I don't even know
why we all played it.

You were the one
that introduced me to hip-ho.

Hip-hop blew up
in my section of the Bronx.

My whole summer was full of
going from parks to parks

and following the music.

♪ A lemon to a lemon ♪

♪ A lemon to a lime... ♪

- ♪ Can't get the girls... ♪
- ♪ Off my mind ♪

- ♪ They call me up... ♪
- ♪ At 9:00 a.m. ♪

- ♪ Asking me, can... ♪
- ♪ We do it again ♪

- ♪ Yes, yes, y'all ♪
- What?

♪ You don't stop ♪

How the fuck
do you remember that?

What?

I didn't really feel
a great sense

of being Puerto Rican,
'cause I didn't speak Spanis.

I went to the island
to visit family with my mom.

I went to go play baseball,

and I was playing
with these kids.

He says, "Ma, ma, ma,
I got a new nickname!"

and I said, "What is it?"
He was all excited.

"I had so much fun,
and they're calling me Gringo.

My new name is Gringo!"

Tell me about my dad's
love for basketball.

He started
playing basketball

in Puerto Rico on the beach.

Dad got an invite to play
professional

for Los Cardenales
de Rio Piedras.

That was his dream,
but his parents had split,

his mom moved to New York,
and she made that call.

"Mon, I need your help
taking care of these kids."

My father lived
with a lot of regret.

Part of that was on account
of the split-up of his parents.

He arrives in the midst
of tension,

in the midst of prejudice,
the midst of ignorance,

particularly against Boricua.
One thing he did to address

that was there was
a night league in Joan of Ar.

Dad noticed that there was
a lot of segregation

with the teams,
and so he came up

with this idea
to pull everybody together:

"We're gonna have one squad,
Afro-Latino,

Afro-American,
Irish-American."

Not only did they
win the tournament,

but there wasn't one incidene
of violence

that whole entire season.
So Dad was a visionary

in terms of using basketball
as a social tool,

but coming to New York,
it broke him.

You know, Dad never drank
in PR playing ball every day.

He started drinking
when he came to New York.

Bob's father would often
come in late

with all his musician friends,

and it was just like
a live recording session.

I would get to the 11th
or 12th floor.

Before we even got
to the 13th floor,

and I could hear the music,
and forget about it.

Once the elevator opened up,

it was like you were
in a concert hall.

♪ ♪

Countless albums that could
have been released from 13-I.

There's like a catalog
of music in the walls.

Our upstairs neighbors
used to bang on the floor:

"Ha, ya, ya!" and my dad
used to be like, "Shut up!"

- "Shut up!"
- He used to take

a hammer... bonk,
bonk,

bonk... and then the plaster
would fall in his face.

Yo, it was hectic.

Latin music had just a negative
connotation for me as a kid,

'cause it was so connected
to the smell of alcohol

and dudes smoking cigarettes
in my face

and crazy musici...
I remember there was

one of his musician friends

that literally, the dude was...

he might have been
coked up.

Maybe he was hallucinogenic.
I don't even know

what was going on
or who that person is.

Yo, he picked me up...

Physically held Bob
over the railings.

Dangling me over
the handrail.

It wasn't a safe environment.

So this is the type
of people that I felt

that I had to guard against.

I thought everybody
lived like that.

My dad would bring, like, dudes
off the street who had no home.

We have no background on them.

Yeah, we gonna share
some liquor,

but doesn't mean you bring them
up to your crib, you know?

So...

People are always like,
"Yo, Bob,

you're a renaissance man,"
and I'm like,

"Yo, talk to my mom,
see how many jobs she has."

Sewing and doing hair
and crocheting, babysitting.

I worked on Wall Street!
I used to interior decorate.

I did whatever I had to do
to make money.

The more my husband partied,
the more I worked. Get it?

From the time that I was
let out the house

at nine years old,
I was unsupervised quite often.

I had a lot of freedom.
I was able to be independent.

My parents trusted me to do
the right thing, because I did.

But, on the flip side,
I fell in the space sometimes

of being around some older kids
who were stronger than me,

four kids, like,
"Yo, we gonna fuck you up

if you don't smoke weed
right now."

Do I want to fight?
Nah.

I think when Bob
came on board,

he would have gotten
immediate respect

just by virtue
of our connections

and the protection
that we would have provided.

Between school, between home,

all the hard rocks used to
hang out in between the trains

and between buildings.
There were two Puerto Rocks.

They'd be like,
"Yo, you fucking white boy!"

"Uh, I'm Puerto Rican."

Between friends, I had stole
the ball and did a layup,

and I missed it,

and I smacked fire
out my face, blah!

Between family, between... I got
so used to being smacked,

I even hit myself.

Between... I'm not saying

everybody bullied me,
of course.

No, I don't think
that he was ever bullied.

That whole, like,
Christian, like,

turn the other cheek...
I adopted that so hard

that when I started
getting bullied...

"You want me to drink
hard liquor

"when I'm 11 years old?

"I'll vomit afterwards.
Do I have a defense?

No, because if I say no,
I'm just gonna get fucked up."

So I fell in line,

and I started doing,
like, stupid shit.

The worst of it was
when it got to my body

and the violations
of my person.

I guess the low point
of my childhood is...

being in a situation where

I was about
to be sexually abused,

and being at that point where
so much had already happened,

like this whole fucking shit
rolls downhill,

and not really knowing
what was going on,

not really even
knowing what...

taking my pants down

and bending over meant.

When the incident happened,
I didn't really have

the wherewithal
or the mind to be like,

"Are you fucking crazy?
Fuck out of here.

You're not gonna take advantage
of me like that."

As I got older
and gained perspective,

that's when it really became
a nightmare, you know?

Like, "Damn."
Like I just...

♪ ♪

Pump, pump fake.
Pump fake.

Head fake. Pump.
Jab. Jab. Step back. Jump shot.

Yeah!

My whole family played ball.

Dad was very proud about
the way he shot a basketball.

My brother Ray played
in the Rucker.

You passed on your
Holcombe Rucker T-shirt to me,

and that was like, "Ah!"

- My brother Bill played ball.
- We were out there

until all hours
of the day and night.

Fingers were cracking.

And all of a sudden,

that shit
motherfucking clicked, yo,

and I caught the fever
like nobody's business.

All the people who bullied me
on the block,

they wasn't into basketball.

"Oh, word? Cool. So y'all
keep on doing your shit.

"I'm gonna go fucking
play ball, yo,

That's my safe space."

I sucked.
I was whack, yo.

But there was a dude
at the Goat.

We could see you practicing
your dribble. It was like,

"Yeah, little Bobby
on the sideline."

Little scrub.

While the big boys
were playing on the A basket,

little Bobbito
was over here on the B basket.

But the one thing I always
appreciated about you

was that I knew you had
a tremendous love for the game.

Whatever mistakes Bobby made,
I'd be on his ass,

"Bobby, why you turning
the ball over?

I'm over here, Bobby!
Pass the ball!"

Over the years,
you got better.

This asphalt right here
charged up my mind so much,

I couldn't contain myself.

If you in this park,

you on the back of one
of the biggest giants

that ever played the game,
that's Earl Manigault.

Kareem once donned you
the best guard

that he'd ever seen play
in New York City.

He was calling it
the way it is.

A lot of people say
I'm the one that created

the epidemic of guys
going in the air.

Earl Manigault's the guy wo
could double dunk...

literally dunk the ball,
catch it,

and dunk it again.
Ridiculous!

You wanted to live up to what
Earl Manigault represented.

I remember one time
I caught a little fire,

and I stepped off the court,
and Earl looked at me,

and he's like, "Nice jumper."

Oh, my god,
Earl Manigault thought

that I had a good jump shot.

I'm playing ball at the park,

I'm playing ball
at Central Baptist,

I'm playing ball at Stone Gym,

I'm sneaking into
Riverside Church,

I'm sneaking
into the McBurney Y

'cause the lady had
poor eyesight,

and I used to hop the train,

and I used to sneak
on the bus.

I can't do anything

without having
a basketball in my hand,

practicing my jump shot,

waiting for the fucking light
to change,

anything,
anything to play ball.

"Yo, word?
You playing ball in Bed-Stuy"

Everybody's telling me,
"Don't go to Bed-Stuy.

That shit is do or die.
In 1980? Homeboy, you crazy?"

No. I'm wearing
some bummy sneakers,

'cause I don't want to go hoe
in my socks and get vicked,

and I'm going to
Bed-Stuy to play ball.

I was cutting school
like a bandit.

I failed seven classes, yo.

And if I don't get
my grades right,

I can't play for the team.

So, "Yo, get
your shit together."

And all of a sudden,
I meet Darryl Roberts,

who's older than me,
who's bigger than me,

but doesn't want to bully me.

You went under your bed,

and you pulled out
this sneaker,

and you had put color
on sneakers,

and I remember it wasn't
long after, people were like,

"Yo, Bobby, how did you get
that color on your sneakers?"

You know? And you were like,
"Yo, I painted it."

Lovely, lovely soul.

He puts me on
to the ABC program.

It was a program
that took kids

who grew up
in our neighborhood,

who wouldn't normally
have the chance

to go to a boarding school.

When you introduced
the idea to me,

it was like, "Get me the f...-
out of here, B!

Like, where do I sign up?"

When I got to Lower Merion,
being in the context

of a predominantly
white affluent student body,

whoa, I was fucking shook, yo.

There were kids coming
to class in the morning

with, like,
Rolls-Royces, Mercedes-Benz.

BMWs, $100 button-down
shirts.

Coming out of these couple
hoods, it was crazy.

We had the ABC house,
where ten of us lived,

all students of color.
I was very fortunate.

Pop singer, soul singer,

diva Patti LaBelle
was my host parent.

I would go to her crib
once a month,

and they would cook for me

and they would take me
to the movies.

- I did feed you, didn't I?
- Oh, yeah.

You were quiet,
but you weren't shy,

and at that time,
my home was your home.

When I got to Lower Merion,
I had such poor self-esteem

from being bullied
and being abused,

and I just felt
academically inadequate.

That little break,

that little reprieve
where I could go to the crib...

Giving you a better space
in your head

with an even
family environment.

I just wanted to do it.
You had it going on.

When I started playing ball
and getting good grades,

it was empowering,

and so my esteem
and my confidence grew.

Wesleyan is the super hippie
liberal college

everyone warned you about.

Wow.

I'm meeting people
from South Africa.

I had never even left
the country at that point.

But on the Latino side,

there was only seven
in my freshman class,

so I was kind of like this
loner trying to find my way.

You showed up on campus, b-boy,
Gazelles, hat to the side!

I'm loving the campus,
going to parties, having fun,

not really going to classes.

My second semester, wound up
on strict academic probation,

and in the midst of all that,
I try out for the team,

I get cut from varsity,
and I get put on the JV squa.

I came to all
the basketball games.

It was clear the coach
was really

focused on
a certain type of play...

classic passing, no boogie.

As your friend,
but also as somebody who knew

how good of a player you wer,
it was kind of painful

to see you
not make the varsity.

From 1980 to 1987,

I played ball every single day
with one goal in mind:

I wanted to play
college basketball,

and it was deprived of me.

You might have been
too good.

A lot of times,
coaches are fearful

of being able to contain
the New York ball player,

because New York ball players
come with style, grace...

But more than anything,
they come with attitude.

I get to junior year,
I go out for the team.

I'm going hard.
I'm playing great.

On the bulletin board,
there was a sheet.

I'm looking for my name,
I'm looking for my name,

I'm looking for my name.
Nah.

Like...

If it was me,
I would have quit,

but you love basketball.
Like, that's what drove you.

Basketball was your thing,
so you were like,

"I'm gonna play.
I'm gonna play regardless.

If they don't see how nice
I am, I'm going to play."

Spring break my junior yea,
I came back to the Goat,

and that day I was killing!
Hong! Hong! Hong!

And that's the day
that you came up to me,

and you were like,
"Yo, Bobby, I think you ready,"

and I was like, "Ray,
what are you talking about?"

I got to a point
where I realized,

"Wow,
Bobby's good enough to play."

A month and a half later,
I'm playing pro ball.

I'm getting free food
in the morning,

rice and beans.

I was in paradise, B.

It was very competitive.
At one time, was ranked

in the top six in the world
as far as basketball.

And that was the first game
that the coach started me.

And my father showed up drunk.

He was stumbling
in the stands,

and we were in the middle
of a huddle,

and I didn't speak
Spanish back then,

so the entrenador
was talking to me:

"Yo, Bobby,!"

And so I'm listening
to the coach.

I don't know what he's saying.

I'm seeing my father like,
"Robert Garcia! Robert Garcia!"

and I just... I
couldn't concentrate.

I checked into the game,
and Willie Melendez,

the starting point guard
for the national team,

he was guarding me,

and I just pulled
from 30 feet.

No. Yo, it missed the rim,
it hit the backboard.

It's like it played
in such slow motion,

because it was like,
"Aw, man, I just blew it,"

and the coach subbed me out.

But, you know,
he handled it great.

He realized he was only
a kid then,

and he had to be professiona,
and he was.

I just remember the smile,
the passes.

Senior year, I'm like,
"Yo, I just played

"pro basketball.

"You can't tell me
that I am not

one of the top ten ball players
in this school!"

After the second day
of tryouts,

coach pulls me to the stands,
and he said,

"Congratulations.
You made the team.

"But I'm gonna tell you
right now,

you are not gonna get
any playing time this season."

In my head, I was like, "Yo,
I just battled eight years.

You can't tell me
I can't earn playing time."

So I was like, "Nah, coach,

I'm gonna play,
I'm gonna be supportive."

You had made the varsity
that year,

but you were
at the end of the bench.

Early on in the season,
we had an away game.

Seconds to go, call a timeout.
Everybody gets in the huddle.

I'm like, "Yo, let's go,
let's go, let's go, come on!"

And Coach says, "Shut up!"

It's not so much that
it hurt physically.

He just did not like you.

For some reason, something
about you set him off,

and that was just his moment
to be like,

"You've been here
for four years.

"I can't get rid of you.
If this doesn't do it,

I don't know
what else can do it."

The team talked about it
for days,

"Yo, Bob's not quitting.
This guy can't break Bob.

"He's trying to,
and Bob is just like,

'I'm here.'"

I just got to stick around
for the last home game, yo.

If I can make it to that,

I can finally get
some quality burn.

So I call up my father:

"Dad, all the seniors
are guaranteed to start.

This has been
a 25-year tradition."

And now my father
had never seen me play sober.

My father shows up
and he's sober,

and I see him,
and I'm like, "Yo!"

I'm on the layup line,
I'm touching the rim,

yo, I'm clapping boards,
triple slaps, reverse layups.

I was so amped up, I'm like,
"Yo, I'm gonna start!"

The buzzer sounds:

"We want to congratulate

senior Robert James,
starting center!"

"Yay!"

"Want to congratulate
Brock Ganeles

"and the rest
of the starting five,

Leroy Darby,
Ed Googe, Pete Alberding!"

"Yay!"

I'm like, "Yo."

And we were all like,

"Why isn't Bob out
on the court right now?"

Why did I not start
that game, yo?

Why? Like, why, yo?

Yo, that shit killed me, B.
That shit killed me.

The worst moment... I mean,
I'll never forget.

I don't believe you played
at all that game.

The next day in practice,
I'm blocking people's shots,

I'm ripping
whoever I'm guarding.

I'm not running any plays.
I just went nuts, yo.

You destroyed us.

After the practice,
I was hyperventilating.

I went to the stands,
and you came up to me, B.

You gave me a hug,
and as soon as you hugged me,

I started crying, yo.
I was like, "Damn, man."

I was like... you know
what I mean?

It's all good, man.

- I'm Puerto Rican.
- Right.

A term of endearment
that fathers

- call their sons is papito.
- Yeah.

Y'all came to the crib
and heard him

calling me papito,
and then you...

Right, thought
it was Bobbito.

So I'm coming out of college,

people are calling me
Bobby Nice,

but now I'm hanging out
with Pete Nice,

who's on Def Jam Recording.

And now for the prime
minister, Sinister P.

Nice.
Nice, nice, nice.

I'm like, "Yo,
people are gonna think

"that I'm sucking him off,
like,

oh, that's Pete Nice
and my name is Bobby Nice."

I was like, "Kill that."

Like, so when y'all started
calling me Bobbito,

I just ran with it.

I think I came up with two
of your nicknames.

You did.

♪ Bobbito is the
edge of king ♪

♪ The king of swing,
doing everything ♪

♪ Ring-a-ling
on the cellular phone ♪

♪ That means I got
to go home ♪

♪ 'Cause my girl Chantel
is gonna stiff this bone ♪

Chantel hated that line.

I remember
being high as fuck.

I just remember
going like this:

"Kool Bob Love. That's my man."

I remember it went
in succession.

It was Bobbito, and then
it was Bobbito the Barber.

He cut my hair,
and he zeeked me.

He left me with one sideburn.

That was the last time
he ever cut my hair.

His clippers were deadly.
No joke.

Oh, yeah, I was giving you
the lineup.

I still got the scar, kid.

Coming out of college,

I graduated,
came back to New York,

and literally the next day
after coming back,

I'm working at a bone store,
you know what I'm saying?

- Like...
- That bone store

used to freak me
the fuck out.

I was so scared of that store.

You would take me back
with the maggots

eating the brains
and cleaning the skulls,

and I was like,
"Yo, get me out of here!"

Welcome to Maxilla
& Mandible.

Henry Galiano
is the sole proprietor

of probably one of
the most unusual businesses

you could imagine.

My cousin grew up
in Spanish Harlem,

interned at the Museum
of Natural History,

found a love for paleontolog,
and then he took that love

and made it into a business
without compromising himself.

That's a foundation lesson
for me,

and yeah, I mean, you and Pete
used to come by the store.

I had my wild hair.

Bob had, like, a Ben
Franklin ponytail, straight up.

Dante started out
at Def Jam Rush

as a messenger and quickly
moved up the ladder,

and by the time I met him,
he was doing A&R at Tommy Bo.

He pulls out De La Soul,
"3 Feet High and Rising,"

unreleased,
un-mastered cassette,

and yo, we sat there
and were stunned,

and at that point the light
bulb went on in my head.

I was like, "Yo, I need to do
what he's doing."

I didn't share that
with any of you, though.

I just kept that to myself,

'cause I never wanted
y'all to think,

like, I was rolling with y'all

because I wanted to get on.

We had Russell
and Lyor's ear,

so it was easy to say,

"My man Bob could really
do something. Put him on."

They were like, "Yo, we're
gonna pay you $5 an hour."

Crazy.

And boom, I started working
at Def Jam.

- ♪ Def Jam ♪
- ♪ There you are, man ♪

♪ Damn it's public ♪

It was like us
against the world,

'cause we were out to prove
not only the label,

but the genre could actually
stand toe to toe,

whether it was the pop world,
the rock world.

We gonna be
a spectacular thing

instead of a spectacle.

Chuck would always say,

"I got to tell
the people what they want.

I got to tell them what it is."

- ♪ 1989 ♪
- ♪ The number ♪

- ♪ Another summer ♪
- Get down!

♪ Sound of
the funky drummer ♪

♪ Music hitting your heart
'cause I know you got soul ♪

- Brothers and sisters!
- Hey!

We went from a label
to being a institution.

- ♪ Giving whatcha getting ♪
- Fight the power!

Fight the power!

I started working at Def Jm
as a messenger,

and I took it upon myself

to just do
whatever Def Jam needed.

So one day,
Carmen hears me on the phone,

and I'm talking to somebody
for mad long, 15 minutes,

and she's, like, ready
to reprimand me, like,

"Yo, you supposed
to be running errands."

And then at the end, I'm lik,
"Yo, you got

"that new 3rd Bass record?
Word... oh, you gonna play it?

"Oh, word!
Those are my peoples,

and whatever you can do,
push it. All right, cool."

Carmen pulled me
into the office, she was lik,

"You know what, Bob?

You got a full-time job
as a promotions rep."

I was like, "Oh, shit."

♪ Real
sucker never played me ♪

♪ Off the mix
don't you forget me now ♪

♪ Know where they from, when
they cock 'em, I throw 'em ♪

♪ There's no sticking
or ticking ♪

♪ Everything that my brother
owes ♪

♪ Hard ♪

Radio formats,
especially in New York,

had turned their back
on hip-hop.

College radio's role
was to fill in the blanks

and to fill the appetite,

and you built the radio aspect

of Def Jam
to the real element.

I said, "Yo, I want to get
Bobbito's job.

"That's the original guy.

I want to get his, the first
one in the building, his job."

And nobody will ever do
what you did.

You didn't know
you were a pioneer.

You were just a fan
of the music.

When Def Jam expanded
to Rush Associated Labels,

I loved hip-hop too much to be
on the phone with stations

and asking them about records
I couldn't attach my name to.

- Right, right.
- My head is not in this.

I can't do this just for
the money, so let me step off.

I never looked back, Serch.

'93, I left,

and I've been
freelance ever since.

When I left Def Jam,
I was making $35,000 a year

with a $10,000 expense budget.

Damn, Russ.
Why you think I left?

When I left Def Jam,
I think I only quite honestly

made maybe $5,000
that whole year, period.

Like, struggling.

I didn't really care
if I was broke or not.

I was living a life
that I wanted to.

This is the second show me
and Stretch ever did on KCR.

Thank god for the radio show.

And then over here
I got all the freestyles.

I got Redman rhyming live
in Springfield, Queens.

That blew up Redman.

At that point, me and Stretch

were crushing the airwaves.

You could tell when people
came on

the "Stretch and Bobbito Show,"

it's not just a freestyle,

it's a fucking MRI scan,

'cause this word sparked thi,
and it went to this,

and the dudes were mad open
at, like, 3:00

in the morning
on your show.

Like, that's the good shit!

♪ Ain't no limit on
the ground I'll be breakin' ♪

♪ Unless it's sacred,
then the land is forsaken ♪

♪ I don't need spirits
basking in my dwellin's ♪

♪ Angry ghosts, they're like
Mount Saint Helens ♪

So this is 89.9 FM,
"The Stretch Armstrong Show,"

hosted tonight
by Beep Beep Bop.

Beep bop

Goes, goes.
See you.

We've been doing
the radio show

for 3 1/2 years
for no compensation,

but it's led to other things.
Like, I host a lot of events.

This is
the Nuyorican Poets Cafe,

and my name's Bobbito.

All these bohemian folks
going into this place to sit

and listen to poetry
with a three-piece jazz band.

That old illy ill shit,
keep that mental in check,

you goddamn cockroach motel,
boric acid...

And it was poets and rappers.

Fellas, hold on
to your girls.

'Cause if you can do this
with your mouth...

We have a special guest
tonight.

I'll never forget
this night, ever.

I was like, "Yo, we shouldn't
be the Roots. Let's be..."

- Lesbian Sex Scene!
- When you said it

to the audience,
there was, like, no applause.

I was like, "No, guys,
it's really, like, us!"

♪ Words get bigger
that's word ♪

♪ Speaking at Nuyorican
we going third ♪

♪ See, Bob, you can't do
Puerto Ricans and blacks ♪

♪ Speak of the facts ♪

♪ This town is much deeper
than whites ♪

Nuyorican,
you got everything.

You got people doing poems
in Spanish,

people doing poems in Hebrew,
people singing they poems.

♪ ♪

You would go to All That

and see just
the greatest voices.

♪ Old Man River
knows my name ♪

♪ And the reason you were born
is the reason that I came ♪

I'm cooling, I'm grooving,
gots no need to gripe.

I just flicks my Bic
and lights a damn pipe.

♪ ♪

It's one thing to get
on an open mic.

It's another thing to get
on an open mic,

and Bobbito's behind you,

and Bobbito's listening
and meditating on your words.

It meant the world to do well
in front of him, every month.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
All That event

really created
this foundation

for what becomes
Def Poetry Jam.

Not your harem girl,
geisha doll, banana picker,

pom pom girl,
pum pum short coffee maker,

town whore, belly dancer,
private dancer,

La Malinche, Venus
Hottentot, laundry girl.

And I meet ten
of the performers

who wound up
winning a Tony Award.

Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.

I'll say, like, five or six
of them come in, they're like,

"Yo, the first time
I ever performed in life,

you brought me on stage."

And I'm like, "Yo,
I didn't remember all them."

I was like, "Word?
Dope, yo, good lookin'!"

For those who didn't know my
poems off the top of the head,

good night and be safe

and thank you.
Good night.

Basically we all came up

right
in that building over there,

and this is the Goat.

This is also
the Rock Steady Park.

You've ever seen how hip-hop
took off,

it's because when we all
migrated from the Bronx,

and we all started
hanging out here,

and from here
we took it around the world.

To you, it was the Goat.

To us,
it was Rock Steady Park,

and to the drug dealers
and tecatos

on the other side,
I don't know

what they thought it was.

For the brothers that
ain't here,

that passed away, brothers like
Buck Four, Kuriaki,

and the rest, we gonna have
a moment of silence.

This is the Rock Steady
Crew's 16th anniversary.

Crazy Legs, my man right here,
the president.

This is a celebration
of hip-hop,

all facets of hip-hop,

and this
is Rock Steady Park, yo.

This is where we grew up.

You came to me, "Yo Bob,
help me book

"some of the artists
that are popping on you

and Stretch's show,
like Mad Skillz..."

♪ And get down
with the king ♪

Step up, boy...

- "Organized Konfusion."
- ♪ Crush, kill ♪

♪ Destroy, stress ♪

♪ Crush, kill,
destroy, stress ♪

You can't touch that,

'cause there were 5,000 peope
out there

who did not leave...
it started raining...

and not only that,
people kept on breaking!

Me and Ken Swift were doing
a routine in there.

And we were dumb.
We had a metal stage,

and we were like,
"Keep going!"

And it's lightning happening.

Right here.
Absolutely... right here.

'Cause all hip-hop
right there.

You know what I'm saying?

All of us in here.

Bobbito
and Stretch Armstrong

definitely be keeping it real
in the hip-hop community,

and I remember the way
you came to my attention

was a piece you had wrote
in "The Source" magazine

about three, four years ago
about sneakers.

Harvard University
had a radio show,

and Jon Shecter and David Mays
were the hosts,

and they thought, "Why don't we
just put our top ten records

and maybe some interviews
and some record reviews?"

And they did
a four-page newsletter

that they used to photocopy.
They called it "The Source."

We were actually quite
a small company at that time.

Our whole identity
was based around

covering artists and music.

Bobbito had a reputation,
even back then,

for being a guy
that knew more about sneakers

than almost anybody else.

There was a pair
of Air Force Ones,

white upper
and a chocolate brown swoosh.

I painted the upper
burnt orange,

and what I did
was I took a razor blade

and I cut the threads off
the swoosh

and ripped them off.

Killed it.

Bobbito would be
the perfect person

to write this article
about sneaker culture.

Turned out that that was
the first article

about sneaker culture
in media history, period.

Without even realizing it,

we kind of kick-started
a whole genre.

And that opens the door
for all of sneaker media.

The toothpaste was out
of the tube, basically.

Why did you hook up
with Nike?

'Cause I think the Nike
commercials are phat.

They heard about
the "Source" article

I did a couple years ago,

and then it just so happened
that a friend of mine

that I knew from around the way

from back in the day

started working at Nike.

It was my very first day
at Nike,

and we're on conference call
with Wieden+Kennedy.

I asked the team
to go to New York

and start looking
for people to interview.

There's a voice who says,
"Yeah, there's this guy."

Bobbito Garcia.

"We should get in touch
with him."

They started asking me
about sneakers

and about basketball
in New York,

and I just started
dropping scientifics on them.

Our whole shit
was always to have sneakers

that no one else had,

and if other people
had the sneaker,

then it was to have it
in a flavor

- that no one else had.
- Right.

And if it meant
painting our sneakers,

if it meant going on
sneaker missions for, like,

two days,
on a weekend,

all throughout the Bronx
and Brooklyn and Harlem...

Bob had a wealth of stories.

The Iowa Hawkeyes used

to have their franchises

with a yellow stripe,

and on the back,
it didn't say Nike.

It said Hawkeyes on the back.

You know how many heads
in New York

were fucked up over that shit?
I'm being dead ass!

- How do you sell them?
- Put them in, like,

the mom-and-pop stores, right?

Do limited runs,
limited editions.

Bobbito's video gave me
the idea that he should be

our producer, my cultural DJ.

He should lead us
to the people that he trusts.

I bet him $45 that I could
dunk 30 times backwards.

Then I dunked 30 times...

And after I got my money,

I gave him six more.
I gave him his money's worth.

This set of communications
was about respect

for New York ball

and respect that this is

the church of basketball.

From 1994 to 1997,
I did 40 Nike ads.

When somebody dunks,
you can say,

"Oh, he boofed it, yoked,
yummed it, yammed it on you."

I flushed it on you, money!

- I flushed your money?
- No, no,

"I flushed it on you, money!"

I flushed it on you, money.

But those all mean
the same thing.

- I flushed it on you.
- Flush.

- Flush.
- Flush.

- Flush.
- Flush.

You didn't own a typewriter
or a computer.

I didn't.

So you would hand in

your Sound Check columns
handwritten,

and we would have
to retype them.

Fucking annoying.

"Vibe" was founded
by Quincy Jones.

His vision for this would be
that it would be hip-hop,

but it would be R&B,
and not just the music,

but the culture.

You're playing Ray Allen's
girlfriend?

Mm-hm.
Little chickenhead girlfriend

with yellow nails.
Word is bond.

So basically, I'm gonna
play this shit,

and however
you want to respond.

Okay.

When I became
assistant editor,

one of my responsibilities
was the Sound Check column.

At first, it was presented
to me like, "Yo, Bob,

"we want you to play records.
You select whichever you want.

You interview
whoever you want."

Yo!
I interviewed Chaka Khan,

and she was acting wild diva
when I walked in, like,

"What is this for?
Oh, we got to take a photo?"

But the beauty of the column,
I play her Rotary Connection.

That's Minnie Riperton's
first group.

It disarmed her.
She was like,

"Rotary Connection?
I used to go to their shows."

The whole column foundation
for me was to evoke emotion

out of the music
that I shared with them,

and it didn't matter
if they knew the title or no.

The pictures
were always crazy.

My mom used
to make fun of it, like,

"Yo, Bobby,
can you just do a nice face?"

I'm like, "Nah, Ma,
I got to..."

You were like,
"Nah, that's part of it."

Yeah.

Oh, my god, look at my tits.

Oh, my god.

They're so supple.

- I'm gonna play you something.
- God. Is this a Sound Check?

Do you know this song?

And just listen to it
for a little bit.

- Okay.
- Yeah, enjoy.

Is this when you played this
for Michael Jordan?

Yeah. I have a lot to say
about this moment.

You got me on this one.

I don't listen to rap at all.

It's a cat named Rakim.

He's basically your equivalet
in the rap world.

- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah.

- What's his name again?
- His name is Rakim.

I remember being
so personally heartbroken,

because as a diehard
hip-hop fan,

here's this legendary athlete

who obviously has been
so inspirational.

To find out that he wasn't
a fan of hip-hop...

that was shocking to me.

I just remember thinking,
"Oh, my God." I was just hurt.

This is the beginning
of the end.

They started being like,
"We want to enforce

in your contract that you hae
to play top 40 music,"

And at that point, I was like,
"Well, then you should

just get somebody else
to do the column."

They didn't renew my contract,
and I was happy.

"E.T.'s Boogie"
by the Extra T's.

Busta Rhymes
sampled that for... that song.

I forget the name of it,
but you probably know, right?

I know you know it.
You a digger.

This is my record collection.
Not as big as people think.

I had a key to your crib
for what, a decade?

"Money, you got a fucking
thesaurus of music in here.

Why are you not DJing?"

This is my father,
Ramon Garcia y Su Charanga.

And then this is rare.
This is a dub plate

of a live Stevie Wonder
performance.

And you were like,
"Sometimes I find myself

being frustrated by my lack
of technical ability."

Oops. I'm changing the beat.

What the hell is going on?

How you doing?

I'm failing my DJ test
right now.

Spinning in New York
was intimidating to me,

because I looked up
to Stretch as a DJ.

Watching Stretch on a weekly
basis and being amazed

by how fluid his blends were
and how tight his cuts were,

and...

I couldn't help
but be influenced by it.

Then I'm starting
to get little gigs.

I want to announce a vinyl,
Raida and Sinista.

- And Bobbito's DJing too.
- I'm actually opening up.

I'm not DJing though!
I'm just gonna play music.

And I'm on the same bill
with Roc Raida...

Who's the DMC world champion,

and in the other room
is Louie Vega.

And then the next time
I'm spinning, it's Clark Ken.

Step with the join,
Clark Kent.

It's been a long time.

I said, "All right,
I'm gonna show you

"two simple drills.

Let's talk about this again
in a week."

And you called me three days
later and you were like,

"Yo, I got it! Listen to this!"

♪ ♪

Remember I said
if you make out

at the door,
you could get in free?

No, no, no,
I came up with that.

- No, I came up with it!
- No, you didn't.

♪ ♪

In '97, I got my first
major residency

at a spot called 2i's.

Oh, my gosh.
With the blue neon lighting?

August 2nd, 1997,
I got a call

right before I was about to DJ.

Oh, maybe it was, like,
the promoter calling me up,

whatever, whatever.
It was my sister,

and my sister
don't never call me,

so I was like,
"Heidi, what's up?"

And she was like,
"Bobby, Dad just died."

And, um...

and I was like... "What?"

She was like, "You have to
I.D. him tomorrow,

'cause I'm blind
and I can't do it."

So I was like,
"All right, cool."

Thank you.

I was like, "Holy shit,
what am I gonna do?

I got to DJ, and now I'm late."
The phone rings again,

and I'm like, "Okay, maybe
it's another family member."

I pick up the phone.
Who is it?

Of course, Rosie Perez.

Shining light, you know?

Fashionably late,
calling me up at 11:10, like,

"Yo, Bob, you need a ride?"
Like, "I was supposed

to be there
at 10:45, Rosie, but thanks."

I drove so fast
over the bridge,

and all I kept thinking
was what a brave soul you are.

I wasn't gonna call
another DJ

at that point to be like,
"Yo, can you sub for me?"

My father loved to party.

I couldn't do anything
that night.

I wasn't gonna go
to sleep anyway, so I was like,

"Yo, I'm gonna go play records,
do what I love to do."

It was shocking,
'cause it was sudden,

but it wasn't surprising.

I'm thankful
that my last words to him

were that I loved him,
because I did, I loved Dad.

I mean, you know,
we all had our issues with him,

and I had my issues
with him drinking,

but in a weird way,
like, it was almost a relief.

And there were people asking
me what was wrong with you,

because you weren't social.

I remember telling everyone
that you had your period.

I swear to God.

Do you remember what I said
to you about your father?

- No.
- I said,

"He would want you to do
what made you happy."

Right now we're off
to my store.

It's a central location
for the hip-hop community.

Foot Work is just a physicl
manifestation of Bobbito.

- It was, like, this big.
- Yeah.

It was kind of incognito,

'cause you could
easily walk by it.

You heard it was there, and you
walked by it eight times.

Not just a sneaker store,

'cause you'd come up
on the old vinyl.

All the graffiti magazines,
markers, laces, fat caps.

If you're in hip-hop,

you need to go and get
something from Bob's store.

That store became
a cultural hub.

The vision of both stores
in New York and Philadelphia

is to provide to a customer

who has a mindset of not
looking like everyone else.

I was his first employee
there.

Bob was the consummate
small business owner,

very mindful
of every single penny.

At that point, there were
no sneaker boutiques.

If you went to a shop,

they had sneakers
just thrown up on the wall.

I put my joints with
floodlights and wood shelves.

Sound familiar?

Having a sneaker
store myself,

the first person
I would credit is Bobbito.

"Oh, you can do that? Oh shit."

This home video shows
the scene outside the

Reed Space store on the Lower
East Side yesterday.

Kids were piled up
against the fence

like it was a soccer game.

Really, Foot Work was
the precursor to my store,

Reed Space, to Mort
on Eldridge, the A Life.

I had lost $60,000 between
the two stores in four years.

Plus my dad had died
two years before.

Plus me and Stretch
had split up.

Plus "Vibe" magazine
had kind of ran its course.

I mean, yo, it was like...

- Everything was falling apart.
- Smack, smack, smack,

smack, smack, smack.

Like, and here I am,
the one thing

that I was holding on to that
I had made myself was closing,

with nothing
I could do about it.

2000 came along,
and it was time

to put the thinking cap on.

"Okay, how are
we gonna move forward?"

We went through that last
year of the 20th century

taking all these hits
and damn near forgot

that this DJ machine
is still rolling.

Amandla ngawethu!

The movement for ending
apartheid at Wesleyan

was powerful
because of the number

of South African students
that were there...

people who were really
giving us information

from their experience here
at this point in 1985, 1986,

when massacres were happening,

just extraordinary violence
was taking place.

People will no longer sit
back while the oppressors get...

Amandla! Amandla!

That really led us into

some really
dramatic actions on campus.

About 100 students
were arrested.

I was one of those.

- What do we want?
- Divestment!

No justice, no peace!
No justice, no peace!

We needed people providing
the support to those

who were gonna be sitting in.
You were one of those.

We've only just begun!
We've only just begun!

We've only just begun!

In 2000, I got invited
to be the first

U.S. hip-hop personality to
ever perform

in post-apartheid
South Africa.

That momentous day back
in 1994 when all South Africans

voted together as one nation,
that was six years ago.

The result was the election
of Madiba into power,

so to celebrate,
Bobbito the Barber,

he's here tonight
all the way live

from New York.

What can people expect
tomorrow night, man?

Come expecting
the unexpected.

- I bought a lot of records.
- Give me one surprise.

I just want people
to come with a open mind.

Come out to the dance floor.
Come ready to jingle.

We get to the Metropolis, and
there's 1,000 people inside.

DJ Blaze is playing,
"I'm an African,

I'm an African,
and I know what's happening."

The crowd is like this, B.
I can't wait to DJ for them!

I'm walking up to
the DJ booth,

and the promoter, he was like,

"It's 70% black and 30% white.

"This is the most integrated
party that we have ever seen.

They're here for you."

I was like, "All right. Bet."
I get on the mic, and I'm like,

"The whole root of hip-hop
is the beat.

"It's the drum,
which comes from Africa.

I'm not gonna play
one rap record."

It's inherent if you down
in hip-hop to be progressive,

so keep your mind
open to everything.

I'm playing Afro-Latin,
breakbeat,

some hard funk, Afrobeat.

So the next day, these two kids
run up on the car,

roll down the window.

One of them grabs my arm,
is like, "Welcome home."

I'm looking at them like...

Having protested apartheid

and seen the massacres
and knowing education

wasn't available
and this existed for decades,

you know, I always envisioned
going to South Africa

and meeting hurt people,

disgruntled, upset, militant.

What I experienced
was so polar opposite that.

It was like the warmest,
most beautiful people

that I'd ever met
in any country.

Tell me, how's it feel to e
in South Africa, man?

The wealth and warm spirit

from every single person
I've encountered out here

so far has just made it
a really wonderful experience.

Come January 2001,

I get a gig
at a new club

called A.P.T...

And the whole shit flips.
No sign outside.

You even walked
into the building

and you still didn't know
if you were on the right spo.

"I thought you said it was
on 13th Street, son."

The neighborhood was super
derelict... prostitution, drug.

It's the Meatpacking District.

Once you did find it and got
behind those closed doors,

you had stepped
into another world.

Again, we appreciate
the open-mindedness.

We love everybody
coming down to A.P.T.

every Monday night,
where it's free!

Opening night there,
there's, like, 30 people.

I knew every single
one of them,

'cause they were
all my friends.

Second week, 50 people.

Fifth week.

You come on Wednesdays.

Now I'm getting 500 people
on a Monday night.

Floating through a room tht
only held 89 bodies legally.

A.P.T. was my favorite,
favorite,

favorite, favorite, favorite,
favorite, favorite.

I would change my flights
around

- so I could make it there.
- I mean,

the name says it all.
I felt like

we were going to
your crib or something.

Welcome to my party, Gary.
Thanks for coming.

You are you, brah.

I mean, if you're spinning,
we go. That's what it is.

The way he rocked
the club... I say club;

it was like
a little fucking spot.

Somehow people danced.

It was Mos Def, and he's
coming to check out Bobbito.

It's like, "What the fuck?"
It's like we're mind-blown.

It was just so fly
it was disgusting.

I saw the group of DJs

that were watching
what you were playing,

but then I saw
a group of dancers

that were working the floor
with the baby powder.

You'd play some obscure
salsa stuff.

Afro jazz and jazz
and funk and soul.

Sometimes it's house,
hip-hop.

Rare groove, rock.

You'd play a certain jam, and
the whole crowd would go, "Oh!"

Oh!

We had hard rock dudes

standing on the side
of the wall singing all nigh.

He would take you
on this ride,

and I would walk out of there
talking about it,

and talking about it
the next two or three days.

It was a goulash of music.

♪ Can bring you
to the power ♪

We're gonna travel
to the moon right now.

♪ And its glory
to your mind ♪

Learning all these differet
kinds of sounds, it's like,

"Oh, I get to feel
different things

and move different ways."

As a dancer coming up
in the city,

it was a place for me
to discover how I moved.

Coming from a ballet
and modern background,

I didn't have experience
to discover

what the connection
between the DJ and a dancer is.

Anyone could go to the hot,
trendy party

at the trendy club
and hear the hot record

that was on the Hot Five
at Five at that time.

A.P.T. was about knowledge.

You had to know
about that party.

You had to know that music.

Oh, my God, do you remember
that time at A.P.T.?

I was so pissed off at you.
Halloween night,

my friend, Bobbito Garcia,
he was like, "Please?

"Oh, we're gonna be at A.P.T.
Everyone's gonna dress up.

Please?"

Why did you put me
on blast, yo?

Why? What?

I did not tell you
to come to A.P.T. in a costume.

Yes, you did. Yes, you did.

So then I get to the club,
I walk in, nobody's dressed up!

- You said it was a...
- No. I would have said...

Bobbito Garcia,
you're a liar!

- Yes, you are!
- No, you fibbed!

Yes, you are! -
You fibbed

- on national TV!
- I did not fib!

And I'm going through
the club like this:

"Excuse me, pardon me.

Excuse me. Pardon me."
And I wanted to leave.

I was mortified.
I couldn't dance.

Bob hollers out the window,
"Yo, Ramon!

There's this Nike event."

- Boing bang bang.
- Boing!

"They're giving away
free sneakers."

I was like, "I'm there. Done."

Bob did dribbling... he would
always do this dribbling

where he would dribble and
then he would sit on the bal.

- This is Bobbito.
- It was like his move.

He'd sit on the ball and would,
like, try to play you.

He sits on the ball
and he loses his balance

and falls...
Feet go up in the air.

- And then you win.
- That moment changed my life.

However, you lost.

One of the results of the
Boing Bang Boogie

was that Nike decided
to invest

in creative basketball.

Nike Freestyle...
top three all-time

basketball commercial
that we've ever done.

We shot in L.A.,
New York, Toronto.

We got the best ball handlers
that we could find,

and Bob was actually
one of them.

From the East Coast,
West Coast,

cats in the league,
male, female,

streetball legends,
breakdancers.

Didn't matter.
It was all good.

If you could play,
we were looking for you.

Freestyle.

Anything that was coming out
that was pushing the envelope

as far as creativity and moves

and making people
look at basketball

in sort of a different way,
I was all about it.

I don't think anybody knew
just how profound

or how prolific
this ad would be.

Because of Freestyle's
success, you exploded.

All of a sudden, there was
this whole phenomenon

of trick basketball.

It got so popular
that we ended up

actually going on tour.

We got to the airport
in Taipei,

and the passport agent
couldn't speak English,

but started mouthing
the freestyle commercial,

like...

and he was
shaking his head.

You and I started
doing shows

as the Nike Freestylers,

but real small.

We were basketball players.
We weren't tricksters.

So we had to learn.

You were already
a choreographer,

a professional dancer,

and then we were joined
by playground legend...

- Yes.
- Jack "Black Jack" Ryan.

We formed a crew,
Project Playground, aka...

PPB!

- Are you boys ready?
- Yeah.

- Oh!
- Okay.

We did so many NBA arenas,
so many colleges.

When I'm thinking of tricks,

I'm thinking of, like,
a sport,

so I used to think
of swimming..."Oh,

I'm going swimming!"

Then sometimes Ramon, he woud
just start whipping it,

whipping it, whipping it.

We'd feed off of that.

He got a move,
then I got to try to top tha!

We would be doing a show,
and the NBA players

would either be coming out
of a timeout or at a halftim,

and they'd be watching us.

Oh, I done known Bobbito
for a while now.

Yeah, he know all them
tricks and stuff.

Can he put a ball
in a hole though?

That's the question.
That's the question.

Dallas Mavericks brought us
back for the playoffs.

The place was going bananas.

♪ ♪

I went out there
and I stood on a chair

and I spun a basketball
on my baseball cap.

♪ ♪

That shit was dope.

The camera people
kept getting in the way.

That crowd was
cool too, right?

Yeah, he got him standing up
like this, yo.

- Word?
- Yeah!

We would go back to the
locker room like,

"Yo, we may not have
made it to the NBA,

but at least we got the respect
at what we do."

Scottie, I know you don't
play ball anymore,

so if you throw the ball away,
we won't be mad.

I'm still a good passer.

I played with Michael Jordan.
He shot it all the time.

We all scrambling, the game
was getting tight,

it was hard, bang, bang.
Next thing we know,

the ball goes up,

I turns around,
Bobby's running,

John is doing his
slo-mo movement,

and he goes up, he catches it,
and he bops it on my mans.

Boof! And he puts all of
his jewels on my mans.

Like, like,
it's like some cartoon.

Ugh! The whole crowd went,
"Ah!" It's ugly!

- Ah!
- That's probably the hardest

I've ever been dunked on
in my life.

- It's beautiful.
- I am a basketball veteran

of New York.

Bobbito, he shoots too
many air balls.

Get you... he'll lay on...

Now see mark.
See Mark.

I've never won any trips,
I've never made any MVPs,

I've never made any All-Star.
Meanwhile, anywhere I went,

your fucking ass
was there to bust my ass.

How you doing? See you later.
Have a nice day.

I played in all
five boroughs.

I watched you embarrass
so many people.

First thing we think,
"Oh he's a little guard,"

so we didn't think
you could dribble.

Man, you would shake somebody.
Then you got that smile.

It ain't like your smile
is heartwarming.

It's like,
"What are you doing?"

- Cash!
- Bobbito's good people.

Don't try to play him one
on one in ball though,

because you'll pay a bad price.

Bobbito's mentality was
every game, all the time,

on the court, every play.
That's the love of the game.

We getting crowded up
in the roof, boy.

Hi, up there! How are y'all?

All right! Whoa!

Richie Adams!

We grew up first generation
of people who played ball well.

And wanted our sneakers
to speak volumes

about what type of ball playr
we were

and what type
of person we were.

We just wanted to wear the
sneaker that nobody else had,

so you could get that comment,

that sort of blessing
on the train,

"Yo, my man,
where'd you get those?"

And that became
the title of my book.

Bob sent me a proposal
for a book of poetry

called "Bugged Soup,"

and while I loved the poems,
it was not exactly right.

In 2000, I was approached
by a young woman

by the name of Dana Albarell,
and she had this great idea

for me to write a book
about sneaker culture,

and I told her,
"Nah, you crazy, yo.

Ain't nobody gonna read
a book about sneakers."

It was becoming
its own culture,

and I knew he was
the right person

to share that
with a much larger audience.

Just recently, I finished
my first draft of a book

that will be coming out next
year on Testify publishing,

and it's on the history of
New York City sneaker culture

from 1960 to 1987.

- Sneakers.
- Yeah.

In the late '90s, early 2000s,

there was a lot
of misinformation.

It bothered me,
and I was like, "Okay, well,

"let me put forth a document
that sets the record

straight for the dark ages."

The author of
"Where'd You Get Those?"

an encyclopedia
of sneaker culture.

Say hello to Bobbito Garcia.

These are those
mighty moments right here.

He had every kick alive
in here, man.

The attention that we paid
to our shoes was weird,

and then he made it okay
for the average kid

to be a little
more enthusiastic

about shoes than regular.

It's the foot game almanac
right here.

You know, he came off to us
like a sneaker guru.

If I wrote a book about
shoes, there'd be no writing.

I'd just put pictures,
because he said everything.

- It was unmitigated success.
- This is an amazing book.

It's really a classic book
on footwear, on fashion,

on urban life,
on hip-hop, on basketball,

and most importantly,
on sneakers.

When I got into AND1
when I was 18...

The Professor!

I was introduced to guys
like Taurian Fontenette,

aka the Air Up There.

Somebody threw him
a full-court alley-oop, righ?

And he jumped, he hung,
and, like, waited

for the ball to come to him.

It's like he waited,
he took a nap,

he did all this in the air.

The AND1 Mixtape Tour at
that point was at its height.

The viewership
on ESPN was crazy.

Bobbito!

You got your shoes on?
You gonna play some ball?

I'd like to, yeah.
I got some sneakers in my bag.

You invited me
to play in Puerto Rico?

This is my homeland!

They're like,
"Yo, you want to run with us"

and I'm like,
"Nah, you know what?

Let me run with Puerto Rico."

Lo dejó pegao,
bloqueo, donqueo!

I'd rather play
against the best.

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

♪ Yay, freedom ♪

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

♪ Ya-a-a-a-ay, free, free ♪

♪ Got to be free ♪

♪ Oh, got to be ♪

You did your thing that game.

♪ Oh, got to be free ♪

♪ Oh freedom ♪

♪ Said free, free, free ♪

♪ Got to be free ♪

♪ Oh freedom ♪

♪ Well ♪

♪ Whoa, oh, oh ♪

♪ Freedom ♪

- ♪ Yeah, freedom ♪
- ♪ Freedom ♪

♪ ♪

I grew up off that Bobbito
and Stretch Armstrong.

I'm 40 years old
playing defense out there

against dudes half my age, man.

For me, playing pro ball
in my homeland,

that's one of
my greatest achievements.

I would say, like,
majority of my friends

who I've spoken to about it
in confidence

were like, "Yo, you know what?

That motherfucking shit
happened to me too as a kid."

I didn't tell anybody about it
until I was 25.

Nobody knew.
I got to the age of 40.

On my birthday I was like,
"Yo, you know what?

"I don't want to carry
this shit into my 40s.

"Like, I'm tired of waking up

"out of fucking nightmares
thinking,

'Oh shit, this person's gonna
take advantage of me.'"

I actually hit up the person.

I was like, "Yo, you know what?
We gonna sit down."

And that shit took so much
fucking mental preparation

to hit him up,
to sit with him,

to give him a hug upon... you
know, I mean, whatever.

He was a kid too,
you know what I mean?

Maybe the shit happened to him.

How the fuck did he know how
to do that shit at that age?

And the buggedest shit
happened, yo.

He was like,

"Damn, yo, I've carried
this shit my whole life,

and it's been
a fucking burden."

And he was like, "Thank you.
Yes, I'm sorry, but thank you,

"because you are way stronger
than I've ever been,

to give me an opportunity
for forgiveness."

And for a long time,
I had forgiven him anyway,

but just in my head,
and that's how it ended,

and ever since then,

I have not had a nightmare
or dream or nothing.

It's like, yeah,
I was mentally, physically,

and sexually abused as a kid.
I stand on it.

Kool Bob Love,
Cucumber Slice.

This is an unfair advantage.
We grew up in this park!

Bobbito with the fancy pants.

Bobbito!

Bobbito!

Three, two, one...

Hey!

What's your favorite
sneakers?

In 2004, I founded

a playground basketball
magazine called "Bounce."

Early on as editor in chief,

I was getting my hands
on all these great stories,

one of which was a program
called Hoops 4 Hope.

They're based in Zimbabwe
and South Africa,

and they use donations
of sneakers, basketballs,

and uniforms as a means
to draw kids to their clinic,

where they teach them
basketball skills,

life skills,
and HIV prevention.

We strengthen their minds
through playing basketball

so that they grow up to be
what they want to be.

Two years later,
started doing

a TV show on ESPN
called "It's the Shoes."

This is the first worldwide
exclusive TV program

about sneakers.
Oh-oh!

They were fake Cons.
We called them M.O.s.

M.O.s?

M.O.-tations.

I told the executive
producer,

I'm like,
"Yo, we're about

to go interview
all these millionaires."

I used to tie my hand
behind my back, my right hand,

and I used to dribble
with the left,

dribble with the left,
eat with my left,

try to write with my left.
I was ready, man. I was ready.

I used to brush my teeth
with my left hand.

And I didn't really want
the show

to reflect "Lifestyles
of the Rich and Famous"

through the lens of sneakers.

I wanted the show

to have some
type of community giveback.

To own a pair of shoes,
it's every kid's dream.

And so we decided to get

all the artists
and personalities and athlets

that we interviewed
to sign a pair of sneakers

that were auctioned
for Hoops for Hope.

There's a word called
ubuntu.

It is a term that is used in
Africa to really mean sharin.

Tonight, we're gonna honor

a man who exemplifies
what ubuntu means.

They raised so much money
and had so many sneakers

donated
that they actually were able

to erect a court
in Harare, Zimbabwe,

and they dedicated it
in my name.

I've never been there.

I've met players from Zimbabwe

that have told me

that the court is really hard

to shoot a jumper on,

so I'll be there in September.

In 2010, I finally had a chance
to visit the court.

Mind you, I had been
doing sneaker donating

to this program
for, like, seven years.

Flew to Harare.

They picked me up,
took the van to the court.

There was 80 kids there.

This real spiritual
connection going on.

So I started giving my clinic.

Okay, next person, go!

Teaching them dribbling drils
and jump shot drills.

One motion, shot.
Crossover, crossover.

Okay, you guys try it
without a basketball. Come.

Yo, when I looked down
at one of the coaches' feet,

and I'm like,
"He got on some hot sneakers."

And they looked
so familiar, yo.

And then I realize,
I'm like, "Yo,

those were mine."

I had donated them five,
six years prior.

They got passed along,
passed along, passed along,

and then he had worn them.
And when I connected that,

here I'm on the other side
of the world,

this dude has a pair
of sneakers that I once boxe,

along with 15 other pairs,

and he's joyously
coaching kids...

those are my favorite
pair of sneakers.

Our living room
was a musical heaven,

and in the middle
of the living room

was the turntable
and the records on shelves.

"Innervisions" was an album
that I had heard my dad play.

He's talking love and world
and living in the city.

♪ A boy is born in hard
time Mississippi ♪

♪ Surrounded by four walls
that ain't so pretty ♪

I'm just like, "Yo, you are
my boy, Stevie."

Stevie's music brought me
into manhood.

His messages represent
the universal language.

Bobbito gave me a list:

the fundamental records
for any DJ.

One night I was DJing and,
I didn't have many records.

I told her, "You could spin
a whole entire set

with just Stevie Wonder albums
in your crate."

We just started playing
Stevie Wonder back to back,

and people... the five people
that were there...

were, like, really into it.

But I was like, "Yo, let's do
a Stevie Wonder night,"

and it was a hit.

I mean, the place was packed.

Spinna and Bob were like,
"Let's do this.

Let's really do this,
make it happen."

And then
the rest is history.

Keita, my wife, we decided
together

to make this an event.

I remember there was a line
down the block.

Okay, player?

It's 4,000 people in there,
man.

Crazy good time.

Something... miraculous

happened that night
during "As."

I came in with it
at the height of the record

where he's like...
♪ We all know ♪

♪ We all know ♪

♪ Sometimes life's hate
and troubles ♪

You took out all the bass.

You said...

And then, when the...

and then you started
bringing in the lows,

lows,
and you brought it in,

brought it in, brought it in,
and by the time he was at... Oh!

♪ I'll be loving you ♪

♪ Until the rainbow ♪

♪ Burns the stars out
in the sky ♪

♪ Loving you
Until the ocean ♪

♪ Covers
every mountain high ♪

♪ Loving you ♪

♪ Until the dolphin flies ♪

♪ And parrots live at sea ♪

Yo, honestly,
it cracked my soul open.

I was like, "Huh,"
and I lost it, I hugged you, B.

I was like...
I was like...

"Oh, Bob, I love you."

It was a
international phenomenon.

You were constantly like,
"Oh, that's my jam!"

and then two hours later,
you were like,

"Oh, that's my jam!"

They kept that going
the whole night.

Then you started playing,
like, slow songs.

♪ Ooh ♪

Damn, only in movies
in the '70s

did they just stop
the fast song

to put a slow song on,
and I was like, "Whoa."

Show up at the Hammerstein,
it's a fucking zoo.

2,500 indoors,
and you're like, "Yo,

Stevie Wonder is here."

And his daughter came out,
and she was like,

"Yeah, so I got to go
in the back and help Dad."

And I remember
being like, "Err."

I had no idea whatsoever,

zero,
he was coming that night.

Vince sees him,
and he's like,

- "Oh, my God, oh, my God."
- The energy in the room

shifted when he started
walking through the crowd.

You felt it go like that.

All the coolest dudes
we knew, draws off, like,

"Woo, Stevie!"

And he sang something
about President Obama.

- Barack Obama.
- Barack Obama.

♪ Barack Obama ♪

- ♪ Barack Obama ♪
- Yes.

What artist of that stature
comes to a party

dedicated to them that
has 2,000-plus bodies in it,

whether he was
going to show or not?

As if you hadn't already
changed the game

with the event,

now for the ill cherry on top,

ladies and gentlemen,
Stevie Wonder is here.

♪ I need to do ♪

♪ All that I got to do ♪

People were taking dumps
on the dance floor,

like, peeing on themselves.
It was crazy.

It was crazy, man.

Wonder-Full was like
the great voice.

I just did
the Wonder-Full Party

for nine years.

Stevie Wonder just came
to the party three times.

And that whole black, brown,
all that kind of stuff,

that shit's got to stop.

That's got to stop. We family,
you know what I'm saying?

I wanted to leave right

when it was
at the height for me.

DJ Spinna, thank you for
everything you've done for me.

Bobbito, thank you, man.

I left the Stevie
Wonder party,

and I started making films.

Wow.

When I say
"independently distributed,"

not like we got a distributor
that's independent.

Like, we're booking
the theaters ourselves.

Why don't you frame it
a little bit tighter there?

There's so many
legendary figures

and there's so many
legendary stories,

and there's never
been anything

done like this before.

He talked about
the great players.

He had the average players
in it.

- He had women in it.
- You can keep up with a man

and you can get your shot off,

it'll be that much easier
when you play the women.

He had gay people
and straight people in it.

Everybody was in it,

but that's
what basketball's about.

What's up, everybody?

If there were a time capsule

that would collect artifacts
from a particular moment

in New York City in culture,
that movie ought to be in it.

Win by all means necessary,
you know what I mean?

That's what makes
the playgrounds

of New York so tough.

Basketball's about
the people.

It's not about the NBA.

It's nice to make it
to the NBA,

but the NBA
is not in your park.

I caught up with
the curators of culture

at a screening
for their new film,

"Radio That Changed Lives."

At that point in time,

your show was the most
important show in the world.

For me and Stretch,
our first time in Dubai,

first time in the Middle East.

Joining us to talk about
their new documentary,

"Radio That Changed Lives,"
with the iconic

Stretch and Bobbito.
Good morning, guys.

- Morning.
- Oh-oh!

The Stretch and Bobbito doc
got me right in my core.

Like, I was like, "Oh, shit."

That was the first spark.

From there,
things start happening.

Now I've gotten more cynicl
about hip-hop in general,

and it reminded me
of why I fell in love

with it in the first place.

It was the puppy paste.

You must learn.

Wow. I'm kind of speechless.

It's emotional for me
to be here, emotional for me

to be on this campus.

It was really, really painful
to be here at Wesleyan

and playing ball, so...

So to be here today,

showing this film
about basketball means a lot.

So...

Bob had this amazing smile.

He was one of the people
on campus that,

like, literally,
he would stop and say hello,

and his smile
would make your day,

and no matter how bad
you were feeling before,

it was like Bob just smiled,

and now something shifted
in the universe.

I talk to my children
about you all the time.

- Word?
- Like, all the time.

There's only one person
in the world, with much love,

that I respect more
than Bobbito is my Dad,

'cause you just grind.

You're like, "This is
the things I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna use basketball,
I'm gonna use hip-hop,"

things you love, and you're
gonna have fun with it.

I think you'd have
become president.

I'm not laughing.

I'm kind of happy
you did leave,

'cause it gave me
the opportunity

to become president and CEO.

That's my man.
You know.

So, thank you, Bobbito!
Shout!

Really laid the blueprint
for sneaker boutiques

as we know it now.

I always refer back
to Foot Work

as the elder statesman,
if you will.

It was ahead of its time.

Once we started
embracing fashion,

it gave a whole new category

for the ad side
of the company to go after.

"The Source" magazine became

the number one
publication in music, period.

Advertisers were requesting
to be opposite your column.

Businesses then copied
what you did to make,

like, katrillions.

Oh, my God!

Check this: I graduate bottom
10% of my class.

Formal education
is very important.

Informal education
is the most important,

because what you can learn
in high school or Harvard,

it doesn't matter.
It's gonna be here.

But what you could learn
from your friends,

what you can learn
from your experiences,

from hindsight, from the
mistakes of others, is here.

"Where'd You Get Those?"
sold out

its first print run
within about eight weeks.

It continues
on its juggernaut of sales.

Readers keep rediscovering
this book.

You ever seen him dance?

I mean, it's just like,
"Yo, you don't care."

By the way,
someone had told me

he was a lousy dancer,
but he's a great dancer.

I had complete confidence
in myself

every single step of the way.

I do not fear failure
whatsoever.

That's not holding me back.

Que dice mi gente Boricua!

Soy Bobbito Garcia
de Puerto Rico

y tambien representando
Nueva York.

Que disfrutes la musica buen,
y gracias por venir hoy,

un día especial.

I'm always gonna be
considered an other

by all the communities
around me,

including my own community,

because now I'm not even
fluent in Spanish anymore.

I then embrace the thing

that is probably
most American,

which is a uniqueness
of identity,

an identity of one.

What you do a really
great job of

is encapsulating New York
as a part of who you are,

encapsulating Puerto Rico
as a part of who you are,

and saying that's the only wy
to really be authentic

is to truly be yourself
and say,

"I identify
with this and I take this."

You take the best of everything
and you remix it

until you are who you are.

What you did at A.P.T.
is a blueprint.

You were the first cat
that I saw

that just broke DJ rules.

That was the blueprint,
and I was just like,

"Yeah,
that's what I want to do."

Whatever you play,
whenever you play it,

for all the different artists
that you play their music,

I give you the highest degree
of respect,

so thank you very much.

A person that really
grabbed me by my shoulder

and just thrust me
into the DJ world

was this brother right here,
DJ Rich Medina, so, yo.

How many of y'all used to come
to the Wonder-Full Party?

My man here,
we were doing it together.

Give me a hug, man.
I love you.

♪ See ♪

I'm still someone
who really pays attention

to spiritual presence
on records

and how they speak to me
and how they potentially

can speak to my audience.

To impart some wisdom onto you,
just work ridiculously hard,

figure out what's missing,
and fill the void.

Hopefully doors will open.

If they don't,
then just rest assured

that, "Yo, I tried my best,"
and just move on.

I committed career suicide
so many times,

and each time, I was like,

"You know what?
I'm gonna renew myself."

And you did it. You did it.
You didn't have a manager.

You didn't have an agent
telling you,

"Oh, this is what
you should do."

You didn't have
a marketing plan.

You just followed
your artistic heart,

and that was inspiring,
and that was really big.

Wow.

Hopefully he passes
in 67 years,

like a lot of motherfuckers
will want to show up

and have a lot of good things
to say about him,

'cause he's just,
like... he's a giver.

Bobby, he's triple OG.

If you didn't have him
involved with it,

and you talking about sneakers,
it don't mean nothing.

He's the guy that changed

the way
that you looked at the game.

Sometimes you do things
with people in your life

and you say,
"Oh, god,

that was a great thing
that I was involved,"

and sometimes you say, "I wish
I could have done better."

But with you, I'm so happy
that I was involved,

'cause look at you now,
and I'm the reason.

Psych!

No, no.
You've come a long way.

You're a good person.
You're a good husband.

You're a good father.
You're a good son.

You're a good brother.

You're my little guy.
You're my man.

- Thanks, Mom.
- Yeah, I love you.

This is the court
that raised me,

this is where I grew up,
and this tournament

is now played
in four continents, 20 cities.

One, two, three...

Full Court 21!

And in 2017,
it comes to this.

The Incredible Hulk
has the lead.

Oh!

Somebody put that
into overtime!

♪ And I rock to the rhythm
that don't dare stop ♪

♪ My man Jorge,
rocking on the bongos, ha ♪

Oh.
Oh, my God.

Oh!

Big Poland with it.

What you gonna do with it,
Big Poland?

Oh!

This man has been playing
basketball

before some of y'all.

People would look at you,
and they'd go,

"Oh, you're
freewheeling and wild,"

but there was some kind of
meticulous planning nature

going on in there.

I always have had
maybe not a plan,

'cause I haven't... where
I've gone

hasn't always been chartered.

You've cobbled together
1,500 different things

into this amalgamation of,

you know,
now what it is, which is...

- Still undefined.
- Still undefined.

♪ said I'd
never get it ♪

♪ To pop and survive
but I'm alive ♪

♪ Ivy League
Rock Rubber 45s ♪

♪ Stereotype never thought
I'd break barriers ♪

♪ From the cocoa maybe you'll
flow the crate carrier ♪

♪ Broke your favorite
MC's career ♪

♪ Play various beats
crack jokes for neighbors ♪

♪ Hilarious ♪

♪ But when it got tumultuous
I rebuked the vultures ♪

♪ Embraced the culture from
literature to sculpture ♪

♪ Polygamist who infused
three loves to inflate me ♪

♪ Outlets power 45s
for fast break beats ♪

♪ Shoes inspire beautiful
grooves for the skate key ♪

♪ Without Kristi Yamaguchi
crossover moves to make me ♪

♪ A whole lot of ankles
got cracked ♪

♪ On the way to reaching my
goal where my soul sits at ♪

♪ Check on the fact
I'm the captain of the helm ♪

♪ And checking multiple realms
just getting started in film ♪

♪ Still standing, uh ♪

♪ Yeah, I'm still here ♪

- ♪ Still standing ♪
- ♪ I'm still standing ♪

♪ I'm standing ♪

♪ Standing, yeah ♪

- ♪ Still standing ♪
- ♪ Still standing ♪

♪ I'm still, yeah ♪

♪ Standing ♪

♪ You're still standing ♪

♪ Still standing ♪

♪ Now I've seen
some heartbreak in my life ♪

♪ And some burdens
almost broke me down ♪

♪ Once or twice ♪

♪ But I held on ♪

♪ Onto my faith ♪

♪ And I would never
change a thing ♪

♪ That brought me here today ♪

♪ 'Cause it helped me grow ♪

♪ And it helped me know ♪

♪ Which way to go
and which way to not go ♪

♪ And I'm so grateful ♪

♪ Yeah, I'm so grateful ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm still ♪

- ♪ I'm still ♪
- ♪ Still standing ♪

♪ I'm still standing ♪

- ♪ I'm still standing ♪
- ♪ Still, yeah ♪

- ♪ Standing ♪
- ♪ I'm still standing ♪

♪ You're still standing ♪

♪ Still standing ♪

- ♪ I'm still standing ♪
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ You're still standing
you're still standing ♪

- ♪ So grateful ♪
- ♪ Still standing ♪

♪ I'm still,
still standing ♪

♪ I'm so grateful ♪

♪ Still standing ♪

- ♪ Standing ♪
- ♪ Still standing ♪

Some of you in here
don't even know

I have a wonderful,
beautiful wife

that I love dearly,

and a 2 1/2-year-old

who's about to be three,
who's phenomenal, yo.

He loves basketball.
He loves to wear my sneakers.

He can already cut,
words to my mother, on beat.

That's more than you can do.

Oh, okay.