After long-term media exposure to b-boying, it can become a tendency to polarize b-boying history. There are the super-old interviews and originators from before people were even calling it “b-boying” or “hip-hop,” and then there are the fresh new cats who represent the future.

However, this interview with the New York City Breakers (who are shown above) from Bomb Hip-Hop (who got it from Subculture Magazine) is intriguing and insightfulbecause it comes from that gray area in the ’90s — an era whose history often seems to get overlooked because it fell in the gap between the more dynamic ages of Beat Street and You Got Served.

It really is amazing to see how in just over a decade, so much about b-boying has changed — as well as how little as changed.

Take, for instance, how London answers a question about b-boy music:

…We used to dance to James Brown or Apache. Those beats were somewhat fast, but now beats have slowed down. Now the average tempo is between 95 and 110. Back then, it was like 120.

Wait, what? A jam today without James Brown or Apache would raise more eyebrows. They go on to discuss the scene’s lack of foundation (a sharp contrast with the present, when b-boys complain that others are relying too much on basic foundation without being well-rounded) as well as their doubts that b-boys will ever “sell out” again:

…What’s happened is a lot of people in a lot of crews are gaining control of their own artistic views. The first time around people kinda got swept up into the storm and didn’t realize what was going on and went along with the flow. They said, “Hey, you’ll pay me to do this, sure, you’ll pay me to do that, okay.” They just went along with the program, but with us , we are more in control and have learned from our mistakes.

Ah, if only that were true. Then again, as Action points out, some gripes about newbie-b-boys will never change.

…It’s 1997 and the only thing that bothers me is that these kids are very repetitious.

Word. Click here to read the full interview.