Todd Terry's Gangbanger Starting Block

US house legend Todd Terry chatted to Skrufff this week about his teenage years
growing up amidst Brooklyn's notoriously violent street gang culture of the 80s and
admitted that he only narrowly escaped being sucked into gang life lock, stock and
barrel.

"In everybody's life I think you receive a wake-up call and I received one, maybe 22
years ago, an incident which forced me ask myself 'Do you want to live or do you
want to die?" said Todd. "That's what happens. And how you respond to that wake-up
call determines how you lead your life."

The hugely influential New York house star, who recently agreed a summer residency
for Milk 'N'2 Sugar's new Ibiza parties at El Divino, said his childhood was
dominated by the gangs he grew up around in Brooklyn, which saw him obsessed with
defending his local gang's turf.

"My big dream when I was growing up was to own my block, that's how we were brought
up. I'd think I'm just going to rep (represent) my block and nobody better come up
on my block or they're gonna' get shot. That was the mentality of how we were
growing up," he admitted.

"We were going to deal drugs and gang bang, but only on our block, and we were going
to run this block and the whole world would know of our block and not mess with us.
That was the mentality, silly as it may be. It was a power thing. We'd control our
streets and the cops wouldn't do anything to us because we knew what we were doing.
That was the mentality, but of course, it doesn't work, though you don't find that
out until you get a wakeup call," he mused.

Todd said his childhood experiences mean he's still respected when driving through
neighbourhoods like Coney Island and Bay Ridge ('they know what I've been through
and they were happy to see one of their people make it') and added he has no regrets
about choosing music.

"The new path I chose was not to be involved with those so-called people because
those so-called people were not about to go anywhere; guns, drugs and whatever else
they could get their hands on, doesn't turn into anything," he said.

"You can only make so much money drug dealing, even if it's $20million you still
can't have it because you're not going to make it all the way through. I don't know
any drug dealer or gang leader that's lived it all the way through without getting
caught or in trouble. The odds on that type of lifestyle are about a half out of
ten. Whether it's the mob (mafia), drugs, prostitution, whatever it is, I've never
seen that person make it through, so I went with the odds that I'd seen people in
the music biz make it through, so this was what I should get into."

Todd spins at the opening night of Milk 'N' 2 Sugar's new weekly Sunday parties at
El Divino, kicking off on June 25 alongside Cassius and CJ Mackintosh),

http://www.mn2s.com