{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/9z9086555x/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Ralph McDaniels Oral History (2022)"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eRalph McDaniels is a DJ and co-creator and host of Video Music Box, the longest-running music video show in the world. McDaniels was born in Brooklyn and moved to Queens when he was eleven. He attended LaGuardia Community College, simultaneously working as a DJ for the club Encore in Jamaica. After leaving Encore in 1983, he began working in radio and created Studio 31 Dance Party, a television show that would eventually become Video Music Box. Through his work with Video Music Box, McDaniels has directed over four hundred music videos, co-produced feature films and documentaries, and documented and preserved the history and evolution of hip hop. He now works in outreach at Queens Public Library as Hip Hop Coordinator.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this interview, McDaniels reflects on the founding and evolution of the Encore club, which opened in 1979 on 89th Avenue and Merrick Boulevard. McDaniels was a DJ at the club and was heavily involved in its operations from its inception, watching it grow from an abandoned building to one of the largest clubs in Queens catering primarily to Black visitors. He describes the inspiration the club took from clubs in Manhattan, the experience of seeing a club be built from the ground up, and his observations of the surrounding area, including the Central Library. He explains how as the club became increasingly famous and lucrative, it began to move away from the original vision and the quality of the artists began to decline, leading to McDaniels quitting in 1983 and pursuing a career in radio and television. He shares his impressions of how the club changed after he left: it changed names several times, the clientele and management became increasingly driven by greed, and the surrounding area became increasingly violent.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/search/browse/45909"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2022-03-11 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Video"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Ralph McDaniels (Interviewee)","Natalie Milbrodt (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["1979-1980s (temporal)","Jamaica, Queens, NY; Manhattan, NY; Brooklyn, NY (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eRalph McDaniels is a DJ and co-creator and host of Video Music Box, the longest-running music video show in the world. McDaniels was born in Brooklyn and moved to Queens when he was eleven. He attended LaGuardia Community College, simultaneously working as a DJ for the club Encore in Jamaica. After leaving Encore in 1983, he began working in radio and created Studio 31 Dance Party, a television show that would eventually become Video Music Box. Through his work with Video Music Box, McDaniels has directed over four hundred music videos, co-produced feature films and documentaries, and documented and preserved the history and evolution of hip hop. He now works in outreach at Queens Public Library as Hip Hop Coordinator.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this interview, McDaniels reflects on the founding and evolution of the Encore club, which opened in 1979 on 89th Avenue and Merrick Boulevard. McDaniels was a DJ at the club and was heavily involved in its operations from its inception, watching it grow from an abandoned building to one of the largest clubs in Queens catering primarily to Black visitors. He describes the inspiration the club took from clubs in Manhattan, the experience of seeing a club be built from the ground up, and his observations of the surrounding area, including the Central Library. He explains how as the club became increasingly famous and lucrative, it began to move away from the original vision and the quality of the artists began to decline, leading to McDaniels quitting in 1983 and pursuing a career in radio and television. He shares his impressions of how the club changed after he left: it changed names several times, the clientele and management became increasingly driven by greed, and the surrounding area became increasingly violent.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/296/170/small/thumbnail_296170_1761769268.jpg?1761769325","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - mcdaniels_ralph_20220311_edit.mp4"]},"duration":3118.04,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/296/170/small/thumbnail_296170_1761769268.jpg?1761769325","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/296/170/original/mcdaniels_ralph_20220311_edit.mp4?1761768257","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3118.04,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Full Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: All right, now we're recording. So this is Natalie Milbrodt. I'm here with Ralph McDaniels. It is March 11th, 2022, and I wanted to talk with you, Ralph, about the Encore Club and get a little background on that area. And I'm hoping that we can just put the same Creative Commons license on this that we do with usual Queen Memory interviews, which is a Creative Commons NonCommercial attribution license. Does that sound all right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2.0,32.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yes, we can.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=32.0,33.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Okay. All right. Thanks, Ralph. Okay, so first of all, tell us just, was it called the Encore Club, and tell me about what this place was.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=33.0,46.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, so my friend Price his name was, his last name was Price, Elmer Price said to me, I don't know, I can't remember the year. I feel like it was around '79, 1979, and he said, we're going to open up this club and it's on Jamaica Avenue, near Jamaica Avenue, and it's going to be a big place for you that you can DJ at. Because I had all of these parties that I was doing in some of his smaller bars that were just packed on Friday and Saturday night. He says, you need a bigger place, Ralph, and then we're going to get you a bigger place. So I said, all right, fine. And so we went to 89th [Avenue] and Merrick [Boulevard] and there was a, I think it was a YMCA [Young Men's Christian Association] or a Boys and Girls Club, and it was just abandoned and it just was horrible. I was like, this is it. I said, okay, this is a lot of work. So he was in that business already. He kind of knew how to just do construction and things like that, so it was no big deal to him. And he cleared out the place. We went in.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=46.0,116.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: I was excited about what the sound system would sound like because this is the eighties, this is the disco era, and we wanted to create something like what we had seen in Manhattan. I was going to clubs, I was starting to go to clubs in Manhattan. We wanted to create something that was compatible to what was happening in Manhattan, and we had to get the same people that did the sound, [the architect and the design]. And we wanted to create something that you don't have to go all the way to Manhattan. You can come right to Queens and go to this super club in Queens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=116.0,154.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And that's what we did, and we treated it like that. And it was called Encore, and I don't remember why we called it Encore, or Price called it Encore, but it was a guy named Price, Elmer Price, and John White, who I later lived in one of his buildings in Brooklyn, and that was the beginning of this club called Encore. And all of these people came there. We really, really were trying to be compatible with what was happening in Manhattan. And I remember one night Eddie Murphy came there, and this is when Eddie Murphy was on Saturday Night Live, so it was a big deal. And he hung out—Eddie Murphy's from Long Island—and so coming through Queens, you got to get to Manhattan. That was the idea, okay, Eddie Murphy stopped here and he didn't go all the way to Manhattan. He hung out with us all night. And I remember that was a big deal for us.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=154.0,215.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: I think for me also—currently today in 2022, there is a municipal parking lot there that you pay to park in right next to, right across the street [from the library]. But one of the reasons why we wanted to have that location is that back then you didn't have to pay the parking in that parking lot, so it was like free parking for the club. And the owner, Elmer Price was like, this is great, 'cause now the people that come here, they can park here for free and come right in the club. So that parking lot on any Friday or Saturday night was jam-packed with people that were going to the club and it was free parking, and it was a great idea. It was always difficult to find parking anywhere, especially in the Jamaica area, even back then. But this was super important that people could go literally park right across the street, come to the club, and then leave and go right there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=215.0,277.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And I remember the opening part of the club, which the entrance was on 89th Street, I mean, I'm sorry, on Merrick Boulevard, right on in the corner. And it was like he wanted to create in the daytime a little lounge where you could eat and have drinks. It was a bar, and so you could have nothing heavy, burger or something like that, maybe some fried chicken wings or something like that. And the club part, the back part of it was closed at that point. So there was just the entrance, really, was where you could eat and have drinks.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=277.0,315.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And then in the evening, the club would open and music would be playing, and literally we'd have 2000 people in there and it'd be jam-packed on a Friday or a Saturday night. And as this is like '80, '81, '82, by '82, it's super popular right now. And everybody's coming, people from—I'm seeing famous DJs that I know come in to hang out, and I've never met these people before. I just knew their names. And I'm like, we're hot, we're the name thing. And people would go, in Queens you go to the Encore, in Brooklyn you go to—we were in the circle now of things that were happening.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=315.0,367.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And you had to dress up. That was one of the things that Price and John White said, look, we want people to dress up, look nice, come with your girlfriend, or guys wear shoes. And we didn't get quite—now at the same time, hip hop is starting to happen as well, but hip hop is happening in the parks and hip hop is happening in some type of hall or something that you can rent. It's not quite in the discos yet. And I remember mentioning that to Price, and he was like, nope, we want no hip hop in here, those guys don't want to get dressed up. And I was like, all right, okay. And so we had artists there, soul artists, disco artists that would come and perform and awesome nights that the same experience that you could get in Manhattan, you were getting in Jamaica, Queens. And it was fun. We created something from nothing and it all of a sudden became a place where people would go in the boroughs and they came from all over. It was pretty awesome.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=367.0,451.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: I know that you and I have talked before about the scene that was happening, who was coming to these clubs, and you talked to me about how you had DJed for vogue contests and stuff. So was there an overlap with LGBTQ communities coming to the club or was it more all straight people?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=451.0,472.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Encore was more straight, but in that time, the community that were going to clubs—some of the gay clubs that we went to as well were—what's the name of that place? The Garage was a main place for great music, one of the best sound systems. In fact, that's why I based the sound system for Encore off of that spot, the Garage, because a few of my friends that were dancers frequented the Garage, and they would say to me, Ralph, you play great music, you have to go to the Garage. And then I'd be like, okay, let's go. But on Saturday night is quote unquote gay night, and Friday night is mixed. They mix it up. So I was like, okay, well—they were like, well, we'll go on Friday night, we usually don't go on Friday night, but we'll go because you're coming [laughs] on Friday night. And I said, all right, whatever. And so once I saw those clubs, that's where I based a lot. I think that John White who went with me as well, we based everything on those particular clubs. And the music was incredible, and the crowd was incredible, and the dancers were incredible.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=472.0,558.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: We couldn't duplicate that, because that crowd wasn't going to a straight club in Queens, but a lot of those great dancers were from Queens. So they might come to the Encore early and be like—because the Garage [wouldn't be open until 12 at night], it would start [12 o'clock] at night and go till the morning. When you came out of the Garage, it was people going to church. So it was based upon a lot of that. So there was some cross-references there. A lot of musicians that were from Queens. Queens has a host of incredible musicians that have been very successful. They went to Encore and then became big superstars or just hung out there when they were not on tour or something like that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=558.0,618.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: But yeah, I think when I was working with—what's the girl's name that did Paris Is Burning? Jennie something [Jennie Livingston, corrected by transcript editor]. That was a little bit later, that was the end of '82. And I was working at a roller skating rink, which [unclear] in Manhattan. John White, one of the owners, bought a roller skating rink, but it was in Manhattan. And he said, look, can you play on Saturday night, but you don't have to start till 4 AM. And I was like, what is it? He's like, it's a ball. And I was like, what do you mean a ball? What are you talking about? And he's like, well, it's group of guys. And they come and they do different runway shows and different theme parties and what have you, and it's mostly gay guys. And I was like, all right, I'd already been going to the Garage, so [unclear] was no big deal to me. So I was like, yeah, all right, no problem, let's do it. And that's when I met the guys who were really the foundation of what the balls were all about. And that's what Paris Is Burning—the same people that were in Paris Is Burning, which really kind of opened up that whole scene, that underground, sub-underground scene in New York, 'cause nobody knew about this. It's like 4 AM in a roller skating rink in Harlem. Who knew that this was what was going on in that club, but some of the, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, all of that was all over the place.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=618.0,724.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Okay, so the Garage, where was the Garage, then?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=724.0,727.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: The Garage was on King Street in lower Manhattan, I think it was 95 or something-5, King Street [84 King Street, according to the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project. Corrected by transcript editor], right near the Holland Tunnel, not too far from the Holland Tunnel. And it was just this office building that they built this club in on the second floor, or it was a factory or something, on the second floor. It was a super club and everybody went there and everybody performed there. All of the big names like Diana Ross and all these people performed there because it was just the crowd that was the best crowd in New York.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=727.0,772.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: And that roller rink wasn't the Roxy, it was a roller rink that was in Harlem, or no, you said in the Bronx?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=772.0,776.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, it was in Harlem. The roller rink was in Harlem on Broadway and 135th Street. It was called Roller Rock. It's a supermarket now. I think it's like a Pioneer, one of those type of places. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=776.0,796.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: All right. So back to the Encore, you were saying that there was really not—there weren't a lot of other clubs like it in Queens. Was there anything else that was close to that and was it also in Jamaica?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=796.0,810.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Oh, okay. So yeah, there was super clubs, but they were more like discos. So people don't know Steve Rubell and the guys who opened up Studio 54 really came from Queens and they were doing these parties, but it wasn't for Black folks to go, it was more like Danny Disco type of places. But it was a cool crowd and they had great music and they really took that whole scene, and that's how they started Studio 54. But that was starting to fade out. That particular scene by this time, '82, and there was no—most of the Black clubs were smaller. They weren't as big. Encore was the biggest of all of them. It was bigger than anything that was in Manhattan where a group of Black people went to go dance and party. It was bigger than anything in Brooklyn. So when you walked in there and you saw 2000 Black people dancing, dressed up, and I'm playing Chic, Good Times and Kool \u0026 the Gang, This Is Your Night and all these records, and it's like, whoa. It looked like it should be a white club, but it's a Black club and there's all Black people there, and it is like, this is amazing. Anybody who walked in there just was blown away that this was happening in Jamaica, Queens because nothing like that existed.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=810.0,915.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Did you all have live music ever, or was it always DJing?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=915.0,920.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, we had live music. We did have, on certain nights, jazz night, 'cause jazz was a big thing in Queens, a lot of great jazz musicians and great big scenes, so wasn't hard to get some of the musicians that might not be on the road with the big names to come in and want to do some sets or put together an ensemble of friends that they wanted to do some shows with. And so we did have that on a regular basis. You can walk in and just—especially in the lounge, the first part of the club, and great musicians, great vocalists. I'm trying to think of who else we had in there, big names. But a lot of the big disco groups or soul disco groups, I call 'em, were performing in Encore.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=920.0,976.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Encore for me was—it was literally my baby. And as it became—this was like, now you really feel, understand what it is to be in a real situation. We are really part of this, of something that is making a big impact on not just Queens, but the whole city. And as people start to make money, people start to change. And so when I started working there, it was just me, John, and Price. And as time goes by, Price is making more money, John's making more money, so you don't see them as much. You have a manager that comes in and that manager has an idea and some other people coming in and they're promoters and they have an idea. And so to me, the original idea that Price and John wanted, which was to be a super club that can compete with clubs in Manhattan and anywhere in the tri-state, now we're starting to go away from that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=976.0,1045.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: So I felt like it wasn't as [progressive]. The artists that we were bringing, it wasn't as great, weren't as good. We were like, no, you can't, that's not somebody that we would have at Encore. And people didn't see my vision. And eventually they talked Price into like, well, Ralph's not going along with the program. And he's like, what's going on? And I'm like, I need more money and I don't want to do this night anymore. And it became one of those things where we were all—not always arguing, but we just didn't see each other on the same page.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1045.0,1083.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And eventually I left and I said, I'm leaving. And I can remember that night clear as day, because I had all of my records that I had had for the last two years in that place. And back then we carried crates, milk crates, and each milk crate has, I don't know, 50, 40 records and I had to pack out. I had to take all of those records that night because I was pissed off and I had to take them out at that moment. And I told my friend, I was like, we're getting the records and we're taking 'em out tonight. He was like, all those records? And I was like, yes. He said, why do we have to take them out tonight? Because we're not coming back here tomorrow [laughs]. And so I'm taking, I can remember, I don't know, must've been like 25 crates.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1083.0,1124.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Now where am I putting all these records? I have a Nova, Chevy Nova, at the time, and I said, we're going to take 'em outside. And so we took 'em all outside and they were sitting on the sidewalk right by the parking lot and I put—maybe I could get 15 crates in my car. And he was like, what are you going to do? I said, you stand here and I'll be right back. And I drove to my mother's house and I took those crates out, and I came back. It took me like 45 minutes, maybe longer. Maybe it was an hour, I don't know. And he was standing by the parking lot waiting for me to come back. Then I came back and we put the rest in the car and that was it. And Price was like, why are you doing this? Why are you taking this so seriously? And I was like, because I don't want to do this anymore. And it was like a relationship. It was like, nah, we're not doing this no more, man. And that was it. And I said—I felt it the next weekend, because I had literally dedicated two years of my life to that. And the next weekend when I wasn't going there is when you feel it. You're like, this is what I do on Friday and Saturday nights for the last—and so that was like, that's it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1124.0,1207.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: But it was also growth for me because I wanted to DJ in Manhattan. I wanted to DJ in—I realized we could build something in Queens that looks and feels like Manhattan, but it's not Manhattan. It's not the Garage. It's not Studio 54. It's not all of these other super clubs that are popping up in Manhattan. But it was the closest we could do at that time. And I don't think—I mean, maybe there are—there probably have been other clubs that have come along, but at that particular time, there wasn't a lot of places in Queens where you could go and hear great soul music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1207.0,1245.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And then later on it got to the end of '82, '83, that's when hip hop starts to really start to come in. So you got—I remember Russell Simmons going to me, Ralph, man, I want to do a party in the Encore. And I said, he's not going to do it. Price is not going to allow hip hop in here. And he was like, what? Man, it's hip hop, it's popping, I got Run-DMC, I got my brother, and this is before Run-DMC has a hit. And I'm like, he's not going to do it. He's like, who's in charge? And I'm like, this is the guy. And he would be like, I don't want to talk to him. I don't have nothing to do with that hip hop stuff. And I'd be like, yo, man, we got to do this. And so eventually it became hip hop night at the Encore and hardcore hip hop night for real. Because that's what the audience wanted. And by that time I was already gone. I was in Brooklyn and I was starting to DJ in clubs in Brooklyn. Hold on one second. I'm sorry.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1245.0,1311.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: I got to say that I have this picture of you in your Nova riding low—[laughs]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1311.0,1316.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Do you know how much [that weighed?]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1316.0,1317.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: 15 crates of albums would be super heavy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1317.0,1320.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Super heavy, right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1320.0,1321.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Yeah. I'm old enough to know what a crate of records feels like.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1321.0,1323.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yes [laughter]. And I'm crunching them in, squeezing them in as many as I could. Yeah, and so that was my divorce from Club Encore [laughs], and I've seen pictures after I left of amazing parties that were happening there. And it was really the birth of hip hop at that particular time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1323.0,1354.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And I was—it's funny because I'm known as the hip hop guy, but I would claim really before hip hop, which is more like disco because people who really know about hip hop will tell you disco birthed hip hop. And because it was all of these little break parts of the record that we didn't play the whole disco record, you just go right to when the drums come in, and that's where we got hip hop from. But people just think that, oh, hip hop just came, it couldn't have been associated with disco. I'm like, well, it was. It was just some of those songs were just slowed down. It wasn't even worth dancing to, it wasn't like Saturday Night Fever or nothing like that. It was just slowed down.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1354.0,1399.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: So I went to Brooklyn and I started doing my thing out there and eventually started to [do a] show Video Music Box when I got out of college. And then that changed everything. So it was something that had to happen because there are people in Queens that I see today who are 60 years old who were there when I used to DJ at the Encore and go like, man, you shoulda just kept DJing. And I'm like, no, I'd be dead if I kept DJing [laughs]. And I was like, I couldn't be in a club every Friday or Thursday, Friday, Saturday night drinking and whatever living that you're doing, and it just wasn't going to work. So whatever happened is what was supposed to happen. I was supposed to get pissed off that night and I was supposed to leave, and then I started doing stuff in Brooklyn, and at the same time I was going to college and eventually got a job working at a TV station, and that's what was supposed to happen.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1399.0,1461.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So you didn't have any, I mean, it was before Video Music Box, but you didn't have any kind of video thing going on when you were at Encore?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1461.0,1471.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: No. There's a guy though, who's a very good friend of mine, who did. In fact, he's one of the first people that I ever saw with a camera, a video camera. He had his own video camera. His name is Sam Lee. I don't know, did I put him in—okay. So Sam Lee still exists and he tells me that he has all this—he used to be in the basement of Encore with his camera recording whatever they were doing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1471.0,1496.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Sometimes we'd have fashion shows downstairs and they would have—or you could have your own private little birthday party downstairs in the Encore. So the main floor was where the general audience went, and then they eventually built this other thing. It actually had another name, and you could enter from 89th Avenue, and you could have your own private party down there if it was—whatever, you could bring your own cake and that kind of thing. They didn't want that food and all that stuff upstairs. So you could do that thing downstairs and then if you wanted to come upstairs, it was fine, but you couldn't just do it all with the food thing upstairs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1496.0,1536.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And so, Sam Lee for years tells me, yo, what should I do with all these tapes? And I'm like, where are the tapes? Let me see the tapes and what format are they in? I mean, unless you transferred them already, you got to do that part first. You might as well get it digitized in some way. And because he has to have—this is before I even thought about picking up a camera. He has to have some amazing stuff. And I remember he would have his tripod set up and he would just be rolling. And his name is Sam Lee, and he comes on my Instagram Live on qplnyc, and I'm like, Sam Lee, it's time to tell the story. Sam Lee has to be older than me. So I'm like, come on, bro. Before it's over, let's do it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1536.0,1588.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Yeah, let me know if he's looking for a place to store that footage, because I think the library would probably want it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1588.0,1593.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1593.0,1594.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Make it available to people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1594.0,1597.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And he was the kind of guy, like all of us in the beginning, we just rolled and we just rolled. We never stopped rolling. The cameraman would say, should I stop now? No, don't stop. I never knew when something was going to happen. And that's how I got a lot of great content is that back then you could just pop in a two hour tape or a 90 minute tape and okay, we got three of those, so at least we got four and a half hours, almost five hours worth of stuff. Just roll, don't stop, zoom in, zoom out, don't stop and make sure the audio sounds decent. And that was it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1597.0,1637.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And so some of the greatest content is just whatever that was, it just happened. We didn't know when it was going to happen. We didn't know who was going to be a superstar on the scene. It was just like, oh, that guy became somebody, and at the time he wasn't anybody. But now you all of a sudden you have this rare footage of Tupac or Biggie Smalls, and it's like, who knew that this guy—or Jay-Z, definitely nobody knew that he was going to be [unclear], but here he is, some skinny kid rapping in the back.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1637.0,1678.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: If any of the names of any of the musicians who came to play live ever spring to mind, like those jazz musicians or other people, then please name drop if you can.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1678.0,1690.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, there's a bunch of guys, the younger guys that were in Queens, Marcus Miller might be one of them. And he played—he was an artist by himself. I think he was signed to Arista Records, but he played with Michael Jackson and people like that. He was a big time deal, but he had a bunch of friends that also did the same things.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1690.0,1716.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: But I think that Marcus was one of the guys that was the younger crew that was coming up, that was revered as one of the top musicians. And so if he came around, that would bring the vocalists. Tom Brown, he has a record called Funkin' for Jamaica, which was a hit record on the radio. It was a funk record, but it was all put to—a lot of jazz musicians and he plays a horn. But that particular song was made, seemed like made for the radio, and it is called Funkin' for Jamaica, and it was the theme song of Jamaica, Queens at the time, and still is with some people, and still was in rotation on—you listen to an R\u0026B station somewhere, not even in Jamaica, Queens, in wherever, in Japan or in Germany, and they're playing Funkin' for Jamaica. And he mentions, I'm going down to the mall. Oh, I'm going to see my man Jet.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1716.0,1787.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: There was another club in Queens, it was on Hillside [Avenue] and Parsons [Boulevard], and it was called the, what's the name of that club? Oh, the Renaissance. And the Renaissance was [hot]—we wanted the crowd that the Renaissance had. They had that upscale crowd. You got to understand that Queens is middle-class Black folks in St. Albans, and in Hollis, and Cambria Heights, and Laurelton, and these are Black folks that both people work and the largest group of middle-class Black folks in America living in that area.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1787.0,1842.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: So they want to do the same things that white folks do. They want to go to places where they can eat certain foods or drink certain things. And so they're creating these things in Jamaica, Queens or in the Queens area, southeast Queens. And so they had a club, the Renaissance, which is really like—you had to be known to get in there. It was almost like the Studio 54 for Black people. But it was small.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1842.0,1873.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And my friend was the DJ there, [DJ Elai Tubo], and that's how I got in. This is before Encore in the late 70s or '79 maybe. And I became friends with the owner there, [Jet Proctor]. And then eventually I just started to meet all of these cool musicians and photographers, and they all lived in Queens because that was the place to be. A lot of them were jazz musicians in St. Albans. And then a lot of them were just guys that played in funk bands because James Brown lived in Queens as well as Count Basie and all these other, Duke Ellington, and just an array of different incredible artists. And they needed somewhere to go. They wanted to eat certain foods. Because they traveled, these people traveled the world, they know good stuff, and they, okay, we got to create it right here in Queens. So if it was on Hillside Avenue, if it was on Jamaica Avenue, if it was anywhere in that area, these places started popping. It was almost like Williamsburg, how Williamsburg became what it was, like, we have to create something. 'Cause there was nothing in Williamsburg when people first moved there. They had to create their own thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1873.0,1959.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: I think it's telling that you said it was so great that there was a parking lot for people. People were driving cars. Because there's also the bus depot that's right across the street, but that's not what you mentioned. I mean, I don't know if people were coming by the bus, but I'd be curious about what that immediate area was like, because I think those houses, those three little houses would've probably been there, and the library would've been there, right? But the library was, I'm sure, closed at the hours that you guys were open at the Encore.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1959.0,1990.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, at night the library was closed, but still the library was there. We used the library during the daytime. We all knew the library because, like you said, the bus depot was there. So if you went to high school—I went to high school outside of Jamaica. I went to Bayside High School, so I had to go to the bus terminal to get to where I had to go. And then when I came back—I mean, I had a library in my community, South Hollis was probably the closest one to where I lived at, but there were more girls at the Central Library, so you went to that [laughs]. South Hollis was quiet, but Central Library was popping [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=1990.0,2044.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: I think that's still the case, which is why we've got a really busy teen library. I think it's the same draw that it used to be. Some things never change.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2044.0,2051.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yes. So yeah, you would go to—then the other thing, of course is the mall. The mall was everything. And people came from all over, not just Queens people, they came from everywhere because, for whatever reason, the stores in that area were just great. There was a Macy's there. When I was a kid, there was a Mays behind the parking lot on the other side, towards Jamaica Avenue.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2051.0,2088.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And my mother used to buy all of our school clothes there. We would go in the Mays, and I remember it because at the time, we had to go to this section called [Husky]—because I was chubby and it would be the husky section. I was like, I hate that word. Why do I have to be husky [laughs]? When can I get out of the husky section [laughs]? But that's where you went and that's what—and Jamaica Avenue had all these stores. Gertz. I didn't know at the time, but those were big stores, and you could go to one and go to another, and it was compatible with whatever was happening in the rest of the city. Nice stores.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2088.0,2139.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So were people in that pedestrian block there? Was it still a pedestrian block in front of Colosseum Mall? And were people selling the mixtape cassettes when you were working at Encore, or was that a little after?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2139.0,2154.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Mixtapes came a little bit later, like, on that level where you were selling them out in the open. There were DJs that did it, but they did it within the club, and the guys would be like, you're selling a mix? And they were like, yeah. But it would be super expensive to get it. It wasn't like 5 dollars or something like that, it'd be like 20 dollars. People would come to me and like, yo, Ralph, can you make me a cassette of your set that you're going to play tonight? And then we could only do one at a time. So we put one in and then go like, here, man, and somebody give you 20 bucks for that, or 20, whatever it was, which was a lot at that time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2154.0,2199.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So somebody has some bootleg cassettes of your DJ set?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2199.0,2205.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, I had a friend of mine, I have it, I don't know where it's at, but I maybe have digitized it somewhere of, well, it wasn't at Encore, it was at the Blue Ice, which is the same place that Price owned before we went to Encore. And I was like, you serious? You have a tape of that? And I was like, lemme hear that. It was pretty funny [laughs]. But it was all like these—that was definitely before hip hop, so it's more like soul disco records.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2205.0,2239.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So the hours, you said that they'd be open at Encore during the day too, that it would just be a bar that people could come in and—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2239.0,2245.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2245.0,2245.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: —have some lunch, and—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2245.0,2245.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: It would open, let's say, two o'clock in the afternoon, and you could go in there and ideally they'd have a grill and maybe you could get some fries and a burger or something like that, or if you wanted a sandwich or if you wanted some fried chicken wings or something of that nature. Nothing too heavy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2245.0,2271.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And there would be people that would come from shopping and just go hang out in there, and there'd be a jukebox in there. In the front of that, there wasn't no DJ. There was no DJ in the daytime, it was a jukebox. And that was a big deal, the jukebox, because the jukebox was run by the mob [laughs]—the vendors. And the vendors, anything that you had to put a quarter in, that was a big deal. So they wanted a piece of that, because they were part of the scene at the other place we had, the Blue Ice. So they had the jukebox. Back then you had a cigarette machine as well. So they would be part of that. And then eventually any kind of vending machine, I mean, games, like, what do you call that hockey thing? Whatever, anything that you had to put money into, they were in charge of that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2271.0,2341.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: So they probably had a couple of them in there, something in there. But that was all run by, it was known, by the mafia, make sure you pay your bill. And that's how they got a piece of that action. Every week guys would come and they'd open it up. You didn't know who they were, they just came and they would [unclear] and that was it. And they'd put their money and then they'd leave.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2341.0,2366.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So they'd restock the cigarettes, pull out all the money, and then be on their way?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2366.0,2370.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah. And they'd be on their way.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2370.0,2373.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: And then what was it like at night? Did you guys have a bouncer who was making sure everybody was dressed up enough? And did you have a line outside or do people just come in?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2373.0,2382.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, so the line would usually go down 89th Avenue, and we'd have a line that was just, you could literally walk out of the parking lot, get on the line because all you had to do was cross the street. And you usually have a super line going all the way down the block. And there were multiple bouncers outside. There was double parked cars on Merrick Boulevard. People just trying to just hang out in the front, jump out and say, hey, I'm on the list, or whatever that was. That was going on.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2382.0,2427.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: People even parked in the bus terminal, right in the front of the bus terminal on the Merrick side, because the bus terminal wasn't as active late at night, wasn't as many buses coming in that ran that night. And so some people parked right there and just hung out and just looked at people coming in the club. There was a hot dog stand outside, and that guy would be outside all the time. And he'd be selling just the usual New York hot dogs type of thing. And I'm trying to think of what else was—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2427.0,2474.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: How was the club policed?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2474.0,2478.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: The police. Well, there's a precinct, still to this day, right behind us. And I don't remember seeing the police too much there because a lot of the security that we had were ex-police. And so whatever was worked out was worked out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2478.0,2505.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Later, after I left, it became very violent over there. A lot of shootings. But this is now—I blame it on the young guys who were the crack dealers, because it was just a violent drug. It was different from in the eighties when people did coke. It was now a violent drug in the early eighties, and people were getting killed every day, just somewhere in that area. And it was like, what? What's going on? What's going on with these young people? But it was just a different, it was so much money being made, and that's why it was a problem. And everybody wanted to control it. And there's video of these guys, the Supreme Team, Fat Cat, and what you call 'em, Supreme, and they're at this big extravagant birthday party at the Encore, but that's later after I left. That might've been like '84 or something, I don't know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2505.0,2580.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And they had all of these big hip hop artists there that they wanted to—and they had money. These guys were millionaires, young guys, and they're buying champagne. And I remember when they first, when I was towards the end of me at Encore, these guys were just starting to get their thing going. And it was the first time where I saw young guys buy all the champagne in the club so that this way, nobody else is drinking champagne but us. And that's what they would do to just show off. And they would come to me and be like, Ralph, they would request songs and give me 20 dollars to play a song. And I'd be like, all right, no problem. You can make money, more money off of them than your salary [unclear] messing around with these guys.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2580.0,2633.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: But it was—people got beat up for no reason. There was violence that went along with that whole scene, and it was starting to get a little crazy. I remember packing my records one night, I was getting ready to leave and I hear this sound. It sounds like a gunshot, and it sounds like it's in the same room that I'm in. And I look, and Encore was, oh, the inside of Encore was all mirrors. So I'm looking at the mirrors and it's helping me see who's behind, where people are at. So I see somebody moving around and there's literally a shootout going on in the main room, and I'm the only person in the room other than them, because I was packing my records up. And I'm like, I know, I built the club, this is only wood that I'm standing behind. And I'm like, I'm going to die. They're going to shoot right through the wood and mirror.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2633.0,2697.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And I'm like, I have to get out of here, but I don't want to surprise the guy and walk out. I don't want to be part of what they think. I'm like, what do I do? I literally was stacking crates because they won't go through vinyl [laughs]. And I was kind of creating a little fort around myself, but that's when I knew it was time to go. And that was it. I was like, okay, I'm going to die in this place. It's not going to happen, and I have to go.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2697.0,2731.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So that was part of what led up to the night with the full Nova.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2731.0,2735.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah. Because I felt like we were, the quality, we were allowing certain things to happen that we didn't in the beginning, because people wanted more money. It was about greed. If we do this, we do that, we'll make more money. But the quality was going down and I saw it. People were just bad. And I mean, it wasn't bad to some. It was great to other people. They loved it [laughs]. But to me, I just—wasn't what I envisioned when I first went there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2735.0,2771.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: It seemed like the drugs changed too. I mean, those disco folks were probably not doing crack. I mean, it wasn't even around then, right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2771.0,2782.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Totally different thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2782.0,2787.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: So just to get the timeline right, in '79 you guys opened the club and it was an abandoned YMCA or something.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2787.0,2795.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2795.0,2796.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: And then in '82 was kind of peak popularity. And then by '83 it kind of shifted and it was like Supreme Team, Fat Cat, and then you were out of there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2796.0,2808.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah. And they changed the name too at that point. Oh man, I can't, it was like every week to me or every year it was a different name—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2808.0,2817.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2817.0,2818.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: —after that. Yeah, so it was Crystals, it was—somebody knows every name of that club. I can't remember it. But I was like, what? What is that? And they were like, oh, it's the old Encore. And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, it changed.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2818.0,2833.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: That's why I can't get people to recall it too.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2833.0,2835.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, the Encore was the beginning, maybe like three years it was Encore, and then it was all these different names. There's somebody that I know, well—Keith probably doesn't even know it as Encore, he knows, probably knew it as something else.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2835.0,2853.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: He referred to it as Encore.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2853.0,2856.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Oh, he did? Oh, okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2856.0,2856.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: He says that it was in 1983 or 1984 when he was 13 or 14 years old that he was there and he remembers Supreme Team and Fat Cat being there. And he was like, these guys had so much money. And I think he was talking about it, like, he saw that Russell Simmons had a lot of money and LL Cool J, and that these guys had a lot of money and he's like, which way do I want to go? I think those felt like the two—you could either do that or you could get a job with the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] or something.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2856.0,2886.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And some people did. And later on I was like, they're like, well, I'm retiring. And I'm like, wow, what, how did this happen? Keith chose the entertainment world. I chose the entertainment world for a very long time. And some people were like, no, I'm going to get a job driving a bus. And now they go on vacation every week [laughs] and I'm just like, maybe I should have chose driving the bus, but nah, I had fun.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2886.0,2921.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Well, now you're working at the—now you're a state employee and [unclear] your pension. Another 20 years and you'll be able to retire.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2921.0,2929.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: That's right, that's right, that's right [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2929.0,2932.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you want to say about the club or anything about the people who were there, that whole team that used to be there?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2932.0,2949.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: No, I don't think so. I think that everything that I've mentioned is—I always look at it from an insider's position because I literally built it and worked there and I watched it go from nothing. And then that was it. I left and I never really came back as a patron of the place. I've seen videos later on. I really just kind of was like, nope, that's it, I'm done. And that was it. And I think that it was a great opportunity for me because I really never saw a club be built from the ground up. I worked at places, but this was literally nothing in the beginning. And that was it. We were, yeah, that was it. It was just a fun thing to do. And I look back and now I go, yeah, it was part of my life. It was an important part of my life.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=2949.0,3019.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: And then I went to Brooklyn and the Brooklyn clubs were the closest to the Garage. I really wanted to get to that crowd. That was really what I wanted because they enjoyed certain types of music, which I didn't play in some clubs in Queens. And Brooklyn was closest thing to getting to Manhattan, club-wise. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to start playing, doing clubs in Brooklyn. And that was the thing to try to get to that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3019.0,3049.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: And one last question. How old were you when you first started working at the Encore?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3049.0,3055.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: I must've been—I was definitely not—18? No, no, 19 maybe?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3055.0,3063.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3063.0,3063.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: Yeah, I might've been 19 because I graduated—it was like my first year of college, because I remember I was going to school, I was working at Encore, I'd be tired, I would go to college. I went to LaGuardia Community College first for two years, and I'd be tired. I said, don't ever work on Mondays. I mean, don't ever have class on Mondays. I just was like, yeah, all right. That was how I'll get around it. So that's what I did. So I just never had class on Monday, so I could sleep on Monday. And then just went from there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3063.0,3112.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: Thanks, Ralph.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3112.0,3113.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ralph McDaniels: All right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3113.0,3114.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170/transcript/85897/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natalie Milbrodt: All right, so I'll stop the recording.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/162655/file/296170#t=3114.0,3118.04"}]}]}]}