Nardwuar The Human Serviette vs Nardwuar vs. Bushwick Bill
Nardwuar: Who are you?
Bushwick Bill: My mother’s child [laughs].
Nardwuar: You are Bushwick Bill.
Bushwick Bill: Yeah, I’m Bushwick Bill, how you doing [laughs]?
Nardwuar: Bushwick Bill, welcome to SXSW, Austin Texas, where you do not live.
Bushwick Bill: No, I do not live here, but it is where music lives, so I guess technically I am living here.
Nardwuar: Bushwick Bill, right off the bat, I wanted to ask you about this particular record right here, First Priority, Basement Flavor [Nardwuar hands a LP to Bill]. What can you tell the people about it?
Bushwick Bill: About First Priority? Are you talking about MC Lyte, Mom and Dad record label with Audio 2 and the rest of these characters?
Nardwuar: Indeed, yes, Michie Mee from Canada.
Bushwick Bill: Well, really what I like about this record right here, personally, is that it shows diversity and flavour. And if you think about it, Audio Two, 50 Cent just sampled them three years ago and went platinum again on that beat, and so did Mary J Blige sing on the same beat that Audio Two did, Milk is Chillin’. So the beats off this album have been multi platinum since this album came out, with other artists rapping over the same beat.
Nardwuar: Bushwick Bill, you started as a dancer in New York, at the Swatch Watch competition?
Bushwick Bill: Yes. I am a breakdancing genius. [Laughs]. Actually, when I was younger, I was into grafitti, breakdancing, and DJing, and then later on found out I could rap. But I am part
of the 5 elements of hip-hop, as far as breakdancing, producing, DJing and writing grafitti, yeah, it’s all the same.
Nardwuar: What were the dances? The Jerry Lewis, the Pee-wee Herman, the Smurf. What were the dances?
Bushwick Bill: Yeah, those were all of the dances right there, including the original moves that we would make up during breakdancing, you know what I mean? Like the headspin into the windmill, you know what I mean? It’s just, now that I am older, I feel all those pains in my joints [laughs].
Nardwuar: Bushwick Bill, the early days of Bushwick Bill, the Rhinestone Wrangler. You worked at the Rhinestone Wrangler. What was the Rhinestone Wrangler?
Bushwick Bill: [Laughs]. Well, first it was the Rhinestone Wrangler, then it was the Thunderdome, but I was a busboy with DJ – rest in peace – DJ Lonnie Mack. The biggest act back then was Captain Jack and DJ Lonnie Mack, and Lonnie Mack got me a job there, and I was a busboy. And every time I would finish cleaning up the glasses and stuff around the club that people were finished with, and they would put on any beats from New York, and I would get out there and start lockin’ and poppin’ and doing the Smurf and the Jerry Lewis and the Pee-wee Herman and you name it.