Kid 'N Play Kick It With The Breakfast Club For Throwback Thursday
The pair speak on their legacy, dance moves and more.
Kid ‘N Play were trailblazers for the way they transformed from a Queens-based hip-hop group into global, multi-media (movies, cartoons) ambassadors for the culture. For Throwback Thursday, the pair visited The Breakfast Club to reflect on their dance routine, movie legacy and more.
Check out some highlights below and watch the full interview.
On Their Dance Routine
Play: It was just a part of the culture. The Charleston was two people doing it in front of each other. It’s a way to explain it to people quickly; for dummies.
Kid: We tried to customize it, so that we could rock it. Not having any idea that 20 years later….
Play: But it’s interesting how things come out of stuff out urgency, because when we first starting going on the road we weren’t getting paid enough to bring the dancers who would dance for us. And six degrees of separation, we have girls named Bad and one of those girls was Salt’s sister, who used to dance behind us. But we couldn’t afford to bring them on the road and still had to incorporate the dance with the rap. And another good group we worked with was a group called High-Hat, who now works with Missy Elliott. She gave us little things we could do and the dance just birthed from that.
On Kid Cutting His High-Top
Kid: I always felt like you wanted to stay ahead of the curb. When I first started rocking the high-top it wasn’t initially popular. I just looked really odd. People would laugh at me in the streets. But I knew I was getting a reaction, so I was like alright lets keep rocking it. At that time, it was tough and competitive coming out of the New York scene, so we needed every advantage. If that set us apart, like, Oh, yeah, them two dudes, light skin dude and the dark skin dude, the one with the high-top.
Play: That’s when they couldn’t get our name right, they would call us Sid and Clay.
Kid: It blew up, obviously. It became a thing, so I never wanted to get stuck with it. I wanted to move ahead. When we did the movie “Class Act”—
Play: We had a huge fight.
Kid: I decided that was the movie I wasn’t gonna wear it anymore, I was gonna wear twists, dreads, what have you. And that’s when Warner Bros. said we’re gonna sue you if you change your hairstyle. So we compromised, so I started in the movie with it and that was 91 and I never looked back.
On The Birth Of The “House Party” Movie Series
Play: Reggie and Warrington Hudlin always wanted us to do the movie. It was their first movie. We would run into them and they’d always give us updates. We got a big meeting. I didn’t really believe them, because who is Kid N’ Play to do a movie. And plus after Run-DMC did “Tougher Than Leather” I didn’t see much of a future in it. So I was outvoted by [Kid] and [our manager] Herbie. But they had a meeting with New Line Cinema.
Kid: We just read and did some improv stuff and, to be honest, I thought we sucked. So, there goes that movie stuff.
Play: But they wanted to hedge their bet. And I can understand that as business, let’s get some people that we can guaranteed a hit. So they’re thinking Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. But Reggie and Warrington always wanted us, that was the deal. What happened was, when we left that reading, we went downstairs, it was around lunchtime, one of the VIPs went with us cause he was leaving for lunch. It was also lunchtime for kids in school and we got mobbed. Cause we were hits with our videos and our music. They, on the 20th floor, weren’t aware of that. And Warrington Hudlin told us the story that that’s how it made things work. Plus, the back story was Will and them were reluctant to take them up on it because New Line Cinema was suing them for the record “Nightmare on My Street” because of they Freddy movies.