- talk about the perfect meal to share with my homies as we get down to some business. - beautiful. - amazing. - so good. - all right, y all, i m so glad you made it here to the special restaurant home. i brought you here because you all represent different aspects of my life, and i wanted to share because you know, latin people, we don t get our flowers. we don t get our dues like we deserve. to me, sergio represents broadway. and legendary rapper fat joe and tony, they re all about hip-hop. and aida, she s the comedy world. we dive in, starting with something that seems like it s pretty basic what we call ourselves. but it s not that simple. for years, the words hispanic, latino, and latina were most common. now, some younger folk in particular are gravitating towards a new term, latinx. but not everybody is on board. - latinx. are you for it or against it? or you prefer other terms? - i don t really know really what it is. - that s honest. - i kinda moved to the beat of my own drum
and i would hear [subway passing] so that s how i learned how to write cause i used to have to make up my own stories. my parents were immigrant parents, so i had to earn all my christmas presents. i had to read the encyclopedia from a to z. otherwise, i wouldn t get my bicycle. so i got my bicycle, and i brought it out here. and i got jumped by this kid named johnny. he had my same name. anyway, that was my life growing up, but it made me who i am today, right? manhattan was like oz, you know. it was there. it was something to achieve. it was something better. you know, it was someplace but it was close enough. you know what i mean? you could always dip your toe into what wealthy people and people who had privilege you saw it. and you could smell it and taste it and go, god, you wanted it so bad because you could mingle with it. you just couldn t, you know, get into it. now, jackson heights was not an easy place to grow up in, i gotta tell you. but it gave you character.
- and of course, big record. - no more rolling with an entourage unless it s pun and the terror squad - i got something here. mellow man ace had this record. - oh, i know that record. [hip-hop playing] - check this out, baby [rapping in spanish] - yo. - last night, you didn t go - [rapping in spanish] - that was hot, yo, when that song came out, it was revolutionary to my ears because it was like, oh, my god. there are latin words and latin artists. - yeah. - it s hip-hop. you just felt included. - that record hit. - you felt like, oh, my god, i have value. i m important. i don t know. it was big for me. - that record hit, bro. - right now, you re just a liar a straight-up mentirosa today you tell me something - y manana otra cosa - my brother made this beat, dzilla. - ohh. - all right, you got some raps for this, bro? - i might.
the rap battles were on. everybody s competing cause there s too many turntables around, and that s how rap begins. it s incredible. - like i said, we couldn t afford the equipment, and as soon as the lights went out - everybody had equipment. - we went right for their dj equipment, bro. - hmm. imagine that. [beatboxing] - you know what hip hop did, bro, it brought us all together, kept a lot of kids off the street. and it gave kids, like, an interest, a hobby. - right, right. - it was art, or - something to rechannel all that young energy, yeah. - yeah, you know. - in a positive way. - kids had nothing to do. and then all of a sudden, they see somebody else breaking. they spend hours a day just trying to learn that move. - so like i said, we didn t create hip hop, but we were there. and crazy legs and the rock steady crew helped propel a whole new dance form. and joe conzo, another puerto rican, helped document the entire movement.