As hip-hop culture started to take hold in New Orleans in the early 1980s, it wasn’t just the new music that was influencing locals. A number of young Black New Orleanians started adapting the dance styles that are integral to hip-hop history, forming crews, challenging each other and entering talent shows around the city.
The Hollygrove Creepers, formed by a group of teens living in and near the Uptown neighborhood, was one of the most active dance crews of the era. From the early-’80s to about 1990, The Hollygrove Creepers could be seen dancing at school events and concerts by early New Orleans hip-hop groups like the Ninja Crew, and they opened for touring acts, like Doug E. Fresh and Salt-N-Pepa. The group danced a style they called Bebopping, an Uprock-type of dance influenced by New Orleans traditions including second-line footwork.
As slightly older kids in Hollygrove, members Randy Harrell, Andre Carter, Reginald Saulny, Reuben Turner, Terrence McKenzie — who performed in Ninja Crew as DJ Baby T — Reginald Spurlock, Calvin Johnson, Damien White and Willie Smith preceded a lot of early New Orleans hip-hop groups. They acted like big brothers to a number of up-and-coming artists from the area, like Dion “Devious D” Norman, DJ Precise and Fiend.
Gambit spoke with Harrell and Carter about the Hollygrove Creepers and early hip-hop dance in New Orleans. This interview is part of a series reflecting on New Orleans’ role in hip-hop culture as it turns 50.
Gambit: What was your introduction to hip-hop?
Randy Harrell: Definitely hearing the music on the radio. That’s what introduced me to it. And after that, we kind of took off into the rapping, we took off into dancing in that era. We all grew up in the same neighborhood, so we kind of all knew each other and we would go to the high school dances and talent shows, and we got together as a group at an early age. We were doing shows at 13, 14 years old, even performing with big name artists, like 2 Live Crew, Salt-N-Pepa, Doug E. Fresh, LL Cool J. We did a lot of shows when we were young.
We had a rap group out of our neighborhood that cut their first record back when they were just 15 called the Ninja Crew, which was Sporty T, Gregory D and Baby T. And Baby T also was a Hollygrove Creeper before he got into DJing.
We won numerous high school talent shows and the WYLD (98.5 FM) talent show. It actually got to the point where we won so many high school talent shows they just started featuring us in the shows. We had to be special guests.
Gambit: Were y’all already dancers beforehand?
Harrell: Yeah, we were dancing, just doing regular hip-hop dancing before breakdancing came up. We were a group before [breakdancing].
We did this dance in New Orleans called the Bebop. That was the popular dance in our era. We’d go to different high school dances, and you know, just like they’re challenging in breakdancing, we were challenging Beboppin’.
Gambit: Could you tell me about how the group came together?
Harrell: We all just had a knack of dancing, a talent. We always danced, even before we met. We’d hear the records playing on the radio, and we would dance no matter what for — at the high school dances, in the neighborhood, in the backyard, house parties, anything.
So I got introduced to the Hollygrove Creepers, I wanna say I was in the 7th grade. I already knew all these guys, and we happened to be at a middle school dance one night, and they were out dancing and they knew me and we started talking. Then I was dancing and they were doing the Bebop, so they asked me if I wanted to join the group, and I was like, “Of course. That’s my neighborhood.”
Andre Carter: I came in, I think my 8th grade year. Reginald Spurlock was my cousin, and I had moved over [to Hollygrove] from the East. When I moved there, we’d go to the dances and I’d see him dance all the time. So I started participating and took a liking to it and joined the crew.
My cousin lived on the corner of Apple and Monroe (streets), across from E&C (Lounge). The whole group lived less than a block away from each other. Toot (Reuben Turner) lived across the street. Randy lived on the street behind us. And Terrence lived on the other corner. Reginald (Saulny) lived on the other side of Earhart (Expressway), and Calvin lived in Pigeon Town.
Harrell: Yeah, most of us were basically just one block apart, just going in different directions.
Carter: We all hung together. So, when a Friday night come, we’d go to this dance. And since we was all from the same neighborhood, when we see another group there, we’d challenge them to dancing.
Harrell: That’s how we became popular.
Carter: It was really for the ladies. You know, the girls liked it [laughs]. And then when we got to be good at it, we started saying, “You know what, let’s start rehearsing. Let’s start doing routines and outfits.” We started doing all that. And then breakdancing started coming around, and we had people in the group that did breakdancing, but we mostly was like pop and lock and street dances.
Harrell: We didn’t go too much into the breakdancing as a group.
Carter: When you see the dancers on the stage that perform behind the rappers and they have that choreography, we were doing that kind of dancing as a group back in the ’80s.
Gambit: How did y’all learn the moves? Were y’all coming up with your own moves or did you see other people doing it?
Harrell: We were our own choreographers. We did everything.
Carter: And before they were even doing tracks, like putting tracks together and switching songs and mixing, we were doing that in the early ’80s by ourselves.
Harrell: We would mix all our songs.
Carter: So when we’d do a move or do a flip or something like that, the music changed. We were doing it on cassette. We had rehearsal every day. Everyday we’d come home from school and would be rehearsing in the yard.
Gambit: Could you tell me about the other dance crews in the city that y’all would challenge?
Carter: They didn’t have a whole bunch of crews, but there were individual dancers. I do know one thing, there was a crew (Dragon Master Showcase) we would start seeing — and even not too long ago, they’d be out there by the French Market. They were a dance crew that would do a lot of flips and stuff and doing breakdancing.
But the reason we were so good is because we were good individual dancers, and we did shows. We didn’t just go up there and stand there while everyone took a turn. When we started getting to the point where we were winning every show and they started having us as guests, we knew we had to do a show.
We got signed by a record label and that led to us starting to do some tours. Once everybody started knowing us, we couldn’t do any talent shows. We won WYLD’s talent show. From that point on, all we could do was be a special guest somewhere.
We got with a manager (Melvin Foley, who went on to manage Big Freedia), and he knew people like Salt-N-Pepa. We was the opening act for these shows. So not only were we that good, we were so good that we were the opening act, and they asked us to perform again. We were doing twice every concert.
At this time, you got kids, 17, 18 years old doing concerts with Salt-N-Pepa. We had LL Cool J. We were doing Run-DMC. We were the opening act. It was great for us.
Gambit: Could you tell me more about what your performance would look like?
Carter: We’d always start our stage act with some smoke, some fog. And then we’d come out there with capes on, with a slow song, and then we’d kneel down and when the beat changed, we’d pop the capes off and have on jogging suits.
We’d be stacked in two lines, one in the front and one in the back, and we’d all be in sync doing the dances. And then at some point the music would change and we’d dance off that song before doing some flips. The flips would be in sync with the music — everything had to be on point. We couldn’t be behind [the music].
Harrell: When we start our show, we’d all basically be doing the same thing. Like Dre said, the front row might flip us in the air, and once we hit the ground, they’d fall back and we’d catch them and pop them back up.
Everybody had to be in sync and on time, because once the music started to change, we all did individual solo performances. Everybody had their own song they’d perform off of. Everything had to be on perfect timing.
Carter: That’s why we did so much practicing. We didn’t have the luxury of having a DJ that could scratch and adjust the music if you’re off beat. If you’re behind, it puts the whole performance behind.
Gambit: Could you tell me more about the style that y’all were dancing at the time?
Harrell: The Bebop was basically a lot of footwork.
Carter: We did a lot with hands and feet … You know at second lines, how they’re buckjumping? That second-line buckjumping, we were doing that kind of dancing. They’re some girl —
Harrell: Second Line Shorty!
Carter: Yeah, Second Line Shorty, and she’s buckjumping and dropping down and stuff like that. We was doing all that.
Harrell: Yeah, it’s very similar to what they’re doing. Only we were a little more of the hip-hop side of it. They’re dancing to the brass band, we were doing it with hip-hop beats.
Gambit: Whenever you had mentioned footwork, that’s something I wanted to ask about. Were there ways y’all felt like New Orleans was influencing the way you danced?
Harrell: Well, I would say Bebop was our own New Orleans-style of dancing. Other cities and states had their own dances. What we had, what we called the Beboppin’ originated here and was different than anywhere else.
Carter: But you know, with our style, when we was doing these shows, the fans and everybody everywhere we went, they were loving what we were doing.
Harrell: When we hit the stage, no matter who was on it, they loved us. They were wanting to see us again.
Carter: We were performing almost twice every time, but we were supposed to perform once every show. That’s just how good we was. We took our craft serious, and we refused to lose. Our reputations was based on that.
When we saw somebody at a dance, these up-and-coming people, they would be like, “Hey, I’m gonna challenge you.” So you form your circle and they’d step out and start dancing on you, and you’d hear the oohs and the ahhs, and you gotta go out there. You’re being challenged. And you have a reputation because everyone know who’s you are. We were the ones on the block, everybody wanted to take us out.
Harrell: It was a big deal in the city. Reputation around here was everything.
Gambit: Where did y’all go on tour?
Harrell: We went to Jackson, Mississippi, for a show with Doug E. Fresh. Shreveport with 2 Live Crew.
Carter: We had one with Salt-N-Pepa, too. Like I said, we were the young ones at the time. Our crew were the young bucks at the time.
Harrell: Yeah, we were only like 14-15 years old.
Gambit: How did what y’all were doing evolve over time? Did the style change over time or did the music change?
Carter: Yeah, the music was changing. When we were doing these concerts out of town, we wasn’t doing them with New Orleans artists. We were doing them with artists from New York, Miami. Our music that we used wasn’t New Orleans music. We were playing the top hip-hop songs out at the time, and we’re mixing them. We were mixing songs before other people were really doing that, and we were doing it on cassettes.
Each one of us had a special move. Let’s say somebody wanted to challenge one of us, and we knew that the guy who started the challenge was good with doing a certain move with his head, like bobbing his head. I knew that wasn’t my specialty, so we’d get Willie Smith to do it. Now if there was somebody who came there who had fast feet. Well, that’s what I do. I’d know I’d get him because that’s what I did. Each one of us did solos (during the show) and we’d do the specialty.
That’s what made our group so good. We all did something different. And we brought something different to the table.
Gambit: When did y’all disband?
Harrell: That’s a tough one. After WYLD (talent show) — let’s see, I graduated in ’86, and we were still doing shows.
Carter: I graduated in ’87. ’88 we were still going, ’89. I want to say ’89 or ’90.
Harrell: I would say around ’90 (we disbanded).
Gambit: As things moved into the ‘90s, were there still many people dancing like this in New Orleans?
Carter: Yeah. (Dragon Master Showcase co-founder) Countrie and them never stopped. They’re still going today. I saw him at the Zulu Ball, and today, people are still dancing like that. People still doing that footwork.
Gambit: Who was one of the first New Orleans hip-hop artists you admired?
Harrell: That would be Sporty T and Gregory D, the Ninja Crew. They had their first record deal when they were just 15, 16 years old, but they had been rapping since they were 12.
Carter: Yeah, they were some of the first from New Orleans at that time. Those artists, like Bustdown, Tim Smooth, Precise, Mannie Fresh, all those people came after Ninja Crew. Think about it now, Mannie Fresh got with Gregory D after Greg left the Ninja Crew. But the Ninja Crew (came about) after Terrance (McKenzie aka Baby T) left the Hollygrove Creepers.
If you had to say, “OK, where did everything start in New Orleans? How did hip-hop originate?” They’ll tell you it started with the Hollygrove Creepers and dancing. We were like a village. Everybody was always there — but not everybody danced. We danced and then you got all these other rappers, like Gregory D, Sporty T, they were all there with us.
Gambit: What was Hollygrove like at the time?
Harrell: A typical New Orleans neighborhood. We had a different upbringing.
Carter: You know, you had crime just like everywhere else. But we were the young ones and we had people around us who were older and wouldn’t let nobody do us [harm] because what we was doing and what they saw us doing. We had people who were protecting us from other elements.
We had bad people in the area, drug dealers and things like that, but we also had people who were protective of us and say, “Look, these kids aren’t about that. They’re just dancing and performing. Let them do them.”
Harrell: That’s how the neighborhood looked out for us. They knew what we were doing.
Gambit: Is there anything you want to add?
Carter: We watched bounce music come up. Lil Wayne was down the street from us as a baby. [The Hollygrove Creepers] had a meeting spot, we had a practice spot. We practiced together, we hung together and we went out together. And from that point everything started spiraling and spiraling from there.
Dion (Norman aka Devious) and DJ Precise and Fiend were over there by us, too. Black Menace. Full Pack. All these people were over there hanging with the Hollygrove Creepers.
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