Nico: Well these days I call myself a‘freelance Hip Hop practitioner’- Hip Hop as in the culture - and more specifically as a B-boy (breakdancer / Hip Hop / Streetdancer) and Writer (Graffiti / Aerosol Artist). Covering 2 of Hip Hop’s art-forms as it were.
from the video and they just looked so cool and got so much respect from all the other cats. I always seemed to be the last one to know what was happening so I would go study the video on Top Of The Pops for it’s 2 min airplay and try emulate whatever I could remember.
Indira: Nice one. How did you get into Hip Hop culture?
Indira: So self taught until you went to breakdance classes?
Nico: Through the music to begin with... listening to the likes of Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Tribe Called Quest and many others through mix-tapes at school and a few years later I found a breakdance class and I guess the rest is history.
Nico: Kind of... there was a guy at Youth Theatre who was a few years older than me. There were only 3 of us guys going at the time so he kind of took me under his wing... He was into Hip Hop and DJed and did a bit of dancing too so he would show me a bit and lend me CDs of ‘real’ Hip Hop... the underground stuff and American imports that just weren’t getting airplay in the mainstream (UK) at that time... He really gave me a grounding and a fascination for all this “new” music and lifestyle.
Indira: What drew you to Hip Hop? Why Hip Hop; why not metal or indie or rock? Nico: I guess the music just spoke to me... I had listened to pop, rock, indie and all that chart stuff as kid and through my teens... but when I discovered Hip Hop it just automatically made sense and I found myself jumping about all over the place like a mad man... I was watching the backing dancers on Top Of The Pops and going “I want to able to do that” - this all pre-MTV and internet so info and airplay of anything decent was always rare in the early and mid 90’s. Vanilla Ice had just dropped “Ice Ice Baby” and all the older kids at school were doing moves
Indira: When did you decide to pursue dance as a job, or a career? When did it occur to you that you could? Nico: It all just sort of happened as I went along. I guess I had the right level of enthusiasm and dedication and the door opened and I had stepped through years before I really realised this is what I do now. I was being taught by Allan Irvine who also happened to have a dance company