Taking another stroll down memory lane, this is a repost of the article that got RST started back in 2002. It takes a look at the history of national R&B roller skating events, how they got started, some of the key figures who got the wheels rolling, the successes and difficulties they faced, etc.

Read more in: The Genesis of National Skate Parties.

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BLACK RINKS

Another rink has been added to the Black Rinks listing; a rink that was on the brink of being shut down in Baltimore but has weathered the latest storm and remains open:

Skateworks
Whitehead, MD
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RST ROLL

Updates have been made to the RST Roll listing for adult R&B sessions in:

Colorado
California

and a new listing has been added for

Maryland

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COMMENTS

Readers have commented on the following topics:

DJ Big Bert Lopez

Baltimore Rink Faces Closure

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PRIVACY

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Another rink that appears to have a large Black customer base is being shut down after reports of violence, unruly teenagers causing disturbances and a number of lawsuits. Skateworks, in the Baltimore area is co-owned by four partners including Barney Wilson who can be seen in this BTV video discussing the controversy surrounding his rink.

This photo from the Baltimore Sun shows teens in the parking lot after a Friday night Skateworks session.

In an Apr. 21 Baltimore Sun article, Wilson seems to hint that racial stereotypes and biases could be behind the efforts to shut the rink down. The article states:

….Wilson, the rink’s co-owner, said that “predetermined attitudes” might be partly responsible for Skateworks’ troubled reputation.

“There are not too many situations in Baltimore County where large groups of African-Americans congregate and then let out all at the same time,” he said. “I don’t think the county has another black-owned business of this size.”….

In Skateworks Negotiating for Its Life, another Sun article, the financial problems the rink is facing were outlined, including a number of legal actions brought by former customers.

….The rink has been sued at least 10 times. Five of those suits resulted in judgments against the rink’s owners, four are pending, and one was dismissed.

One of the pending suits was filed last summer in Baltimore County Circuit Court on behalf of Travis A. Baxter, 26, who was hit by gunfire and injured on Feb. 20, 2009, outside the skating facility. Baxter contends that Skateworks had inadequate security and a history of police calls. He is seeking $10 million…..

Baltimore area skaters, is this rink worth saving? Have you skated at Skateworks and, if so, what were your experiences? Do re-enforcements need to be brought in to rally behind the rink owners and help them weather this storm?

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“It’s not what you play, it’s how you play it.”

DJ Big Bert

DJ “Big Bert” Lopez (DJ BB) keeps skaters rolling on the West Coast and has done so for more than two decades. The passion, love and respect he has for his craft sets him apart from other deejays who-for one reason or another-do not have the same level of success at being able to please the majority of their crowd and provide a satisfying roll for skaters in their own local areas.

Big Bert, 48, resides in Rancho Cucamonga, California with his wife and family and regularly deejays three adult sessions in that state: Thursday nights at Skate Depot in Cerritos (8pm-1am), an “oldies but goodies” session every Saturday at Skate Depot (10pm-2am), and the weekly Sunday set at Skate Express in Chino (8pm-1am). He is also host of the yearly “Back to Cali” Memorial Day Weekend skate event in Los Angeles and listeners can also tune in to his Old School internet radio show every Monday.

He told RST that when he began deejaying the Thursday night session last fall, the average crowd ranged from 30-60 skaters. Now, with few exceptions, more than 700 are packing the rink every week. In this in-depth interview, he shares some of the secrets to his success, how he became a deejay, a brief mention of his work with the L.A. Dream Team back in the 1980s and how “paying attention to your crowd” is one of the primary things a skate deejay needs to be mindful of.

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— How it began —

(RST) – Big Bert, how long have you been deejaying and how did you get started?

(DJ BB) – I’ve been deejaying now for about 30 years. I’ve always had a passion for music so in elementary school I played in a band, in junior high and in high school I was also in a band. It was always just the love of music. When I used to go to bed at night, I used to go to sleep with the radio on. I always had a thing for music.

(RST) – What instruments did you play?

(DJ BB) - Growing up I had clarinet, in middle school I went to tuba – which is the bass horn – then I did some of the drums. I even went as far as playing trumpet.

(RST) – When did you actually start hitting the turntables?

(DJ BB) – I’m always embarrassed to say this but I started doing the turntables when I was real young and I started playing the blues. It was a friend of mine, she used to live in New Orleans, my best buddy …. his daddy deejayed at a bar for the weekends … so his son and I used to tag along with him and that’s when we started deejaying because we was tall, we wasn’t supposed to be inside of a bar but, during that time, they was allowing us to come in. We used to help him set up and deejay, so that’s basically how I got started.

(RST) – That was before you were 18?

(DJ BB) – Way before I was 18…. maybe about 15 or 16.

(RST) – When did you get your first gig of your own?

(DJ BB) – The first event that I deejayed was my birthday in my backyard in New Orleans when I was 18. That was the first time I did something, it was my own party in my backyard. After that, basically I’ve just been doing roller skating rinks. I’ve been in the roller skating game now for 29 years.

(RST) – Were you a skater before or did you just have a knack for deejaying that you were able to translate to the skating rink?

(DJ BB) - I started skating out on the street. I used to have the little metal skates, when you going down the street sparks were coming off the wheels cause they were metal. I skated in those and then I skated in the tennis shoe skate. Growing up in New Orleans we used to go to Skate Country on the weekend ’cause you know you had to wait for the Black night, the Black night used to be over in Gentilly on Saturdays and then over across the bridge in Gretna, it used to be on Sunday. So we used to try to roll Saturdays and Sundays.

(RST) – So you were born and raised in New Orleans?

(DJ BB) – I was raised in New Orleans but I grew up in Cali. I’ve been in Cali since the age of 18. After high school, that’s when we moved to Cali.

(RST) – When did you DJ your first skate session?

(DJ BB) – It was in 1981 at World on Wheels.

(RST) – When you compare deejaying that first session to what you’re doing today, what are some of the comparisons you make?

(DJ BB) – There isn’t any because I still have the love of music. From the very first time I started with music up until now, nothing has changed. I still look at everything to me as a challenge … I always look to see what it is that I can do to improve myself and to better myself. Every time I touch the turntable it’s like the first time.

— Keys to Big Bert’s success —

(RST) – You’re known for being able to give a quality, good roll for skaters at a session. What are some of the things that set you apart from deejays in other areas who have consistently, for many years, been unsuccessful in that effort?

(DJ BB) – The first thing when it comes to music, it’s like when people hire me to go out and deejay a gig they always ask me, “What are you gonna play?” I always tell them “I can’t tell you what I’ma play.” First of all, I don’t ever go into a venue and have an agenda because, honestly, I don’t know what I’ma play. From that first song that I play and the vibe that I get from the crowd and how they’re rolling is how I’m gonna go ahead on and make the night. The one thing that I do very well is, I pay attention to my crowd, I let my crowd guide me.

It’s the same way if you’re married or you’re dating. It’s up to the man to really get to know his woman, know her likes and dislikes. Well, in a four-hour session or a three-hour session, you don’t have that much time to really get to know your crowd, their likes and dislikes but what you have to do is really pay attention to them. If you have the music on fast and then all of a sudden you start losing people, that means people are getting tired. Even though they’re having a good time, they’re getting tired so that means it’s time for you to slow it down – hit em with some hard slow jams where you’ll make everybody want to go back and skate to those songs and then, you know, once they’ve caught their wind again, what you want to do is hit em hard again or either go into a special.

What you have to learn to do is pay attention to your crowd and I think one of the most important things is, I love taking requests. I always take requests because when I get stuck as a deejay and I’m like, “What am I gonna play next?” and then I go back to what was asked of me from the customer, then I go ahead and play it. Normally – my session that I deejay goes from 8:00 to 1:00 in the morning, so I take requests all the way up til midnight. After midnight, usually that last hour I don’t take requests.

— Should requests be played? —

(RST) – That’s interesting that you bring that up because some event organizers have said it’s unheard of for a skate deejay to take requests because if a deejay’s really getting his job done, he shouldn’t have to get requests from the crowd. So you would tend to disagree with that line of thinking?

(DJ BB) - Here it is. If I go someplace and I’m paying $10, $12 to get in, first of all you have to look at the fact that if I’m traveling to an event, I probably had to get airline tickets, get a hotel and then I have to pay to get in. I feel if I’m going to an event and I know I may not hear my song, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me going up to the deejay and say, “Later on, if you get time, could you play this song?” And I think the deejay should be more than willing to take that request.

One thing I do every time I deejay, at the end of the night I always tell my customers that I appreciate them and I always tell them [that] without them, there’s no me because if you don’t come out to support me, I don’t exist. Therefore, I have to listen to my skaters, I have to be in tune with my skaters. I come out of the deejay booth, I shake people’s hands, give the ladies hugs, I thank them for coming out to the rink. If they got a request, they’ll come to the deejay booth and talk to me. One thing I want to do is let everybody know that I’m approachable, you can come and talk to me because it’s your session. It’s not my session. I’m just a deejay, it is your session cause if you stop coming, I have no job.

(RST) – What do you do in situations where a request is made that maybe isn’t really a skate song, do you still find a way to work that in anyway?

(DJ BB) – No. I have those a lot but I always tell them, I always make sure that I’m pleasant and I say, “That’s not really a skate song ”. And I say it personally, ’cause a lot of times I like the song and I tell them, “That’s something you should listen to in the car or while you’re at home cleaning up. If you can think of something else that you would like to hear other than that song, I’ll be more than happy to play it.” So I always give them an option to think about something else but then sometimes, what I do, if you ask me for a request this week and you get there early next week and let’s say we maybe just have 20 people inside of the building. I’ll go ahead and play that request that you asked me for last week. I usually remember what people ask me for.

We had a young lady at the skating rink last night, it was just two people from New York and I probably had 30 people in the building during that time cause it was just three minutes into the session. I told her, “Welcome to Cali, I want to introduce you to our style. I know you guys like to skate to house music,” so I played two house cuts for them before the floor really got crowded because we don’t skate to house but she appreciated that so much. All I try to do is make everybody feel welcome. It’s always up to the deejay, the deejay runs the whole show.

(RST) – Would you say there is a formula to the way a skate deejay has to go about what he or she does in the booth? You can get all kinds of requests but do you just play requests any and everywhere or do you have a certain kind of flow that you go with?

(DJ BB) – With me, I know when someone comes in and says, “Hey Bert, could you play this song?” I [say], “Sure, no problem.” I might play two songs, three songs, five songs before I get to that request but what I do is I try to work that request in. I wait ’til I have that flow going and then I just work the request in. If it’s slow, they have to wait ’til I slow it down. If it’s something fast while I have that fast groove going, I’m gonna try to work it in. I always try to work it in. Working it in isn’t a problem. If you’re a deejay and you’re good at what you do, you should be able to work it in. My motto for deejaying has always been, “It’s not what you play, it’s how you play it.”

— What about ego? —

(RST) – Have you seen cases where ego has played a role in, positively or negatively, affecting a skate deejay’s reputation?

(DJ BB) – Everybody has an ego, no matter how you look at it, we all have an ego but you have to learn to put ego aside and my thing is yes, I take criticism but if you have 400 people in the building, all 400 is not going to be happy but when people go skating, sometimes people just had an argument with their significant other, some people had a hard day at work, some people’s car probably broke down, some people are probably thinking about how they’re gonna pay the rent. We never know what’s going on through a person’s mind. Sometimes a person can come skating and no matter what you play, you’re not gonna get them in the mood because their mind is someplace else.

Your job is to try to satisfy the majority. As long as you satisfy the majority, if you don’t satisfy those five or six people, maybe ten people, then the job was done but those ten people that didn’t enjoy themselves is criticizing you. You can’t do nothing but accept it ’cause when somebody comes in and says, “Bert, you know what, I didn’t like the music you played tonight.” [I say], “Well, what do you want to hear?” When they tell me what they want to hear, I play what they want to hear because once you play one person’s request, you got a friend for life cause all they want to do is just know that you’re paying attention to them.

(RST) – What’s one of your most embarrassing moments as a skate deejay?

(DJ BB) - I don’t think I have any because every time I deejay, and I hate to say it, but when I deejay, I’m an ass. Really I am. I try to be the life of the party. Every time I go into a situation where I’m going to deejay the first thing I always do, I always go some place, have a good meal, a nice drink, mellow myself out and then – it’s like preparing for a fight. When I walk into the rink, I mean business, I’m going into that booth and I’m going to make it happen. My plan is to make you sweat. That’s how I look at it, that’s what works for me… Trust me, every time before I deejay I still get butterflies, I still get nervous ’til I play that first song, then after the second song they start going away, then I start getting into it, then the crowd and I, we get into rhythm and we get going.

(RST) – What’s one of your most satisfying or memorable moments as a skate deejay?

(DJ BB) – To be able to see people walk out of my session and they’re sweating. That’s the most satisfying thing I could ever get, that means I’ve done my job.

(RST) – So you get that memorable moment over and over?

(DJ BB) – I get that every week. As a matter of fact I’ll be getting some of that tonight. I do an internet radio show every Monday from 6 pm to 12 midnight. I Ustream every Monday and I love it because I get to interact with people. I do old school, neo soul, I do a little bit of everything so as we chat back and forth, people usually put in requests. I play the requests, we start talking about it, about the good ole days and everything else. It’s cool.

(RST) – Have you ever experienced people who’ve tried to work against you because they didn’t want to see you have the success that you’re having?

(DJ BB) – Well, can’t nobody rain on your parade ’cause your success is your success. The only thing is, as a deejay you always have to learn to really be humble. I don’t put myself above nobody, I always look at it as me and you is on the same level. I’m just here to do a job, you’re here to skate. I’m no better than you so I don’t allow things to go to my head and I would never do that. Throughout my whole life I enjoy people, I enjoy skating, I enjoy playing music.

In 1986-87, I used to be with L.A. Dream Team so I’ve traveled all over the world, I used to get out on stage and perform so I’m used to working the crowd, I’m used to being in front of people but my main thing is I love entertaining and I love to see people have fun.

— Club DJ vs Skate DJ —

(RST) – What’s the difference between deejaying at a rink versus at a club or house party? We’ve seen instances where some deejays are successful in the club arena then they try to go into skating but aren’t able to translate that success to the rink. What are some of the differences between deejaying clubs versus rinks?

(DJ BB) – From my experience, I used to do dances but I don’t do them [anymore] because I feel more comfortable at a roller rink than I do at a club. When you’re at a club, it’s almost like you’re playing snippets of songs, you’re always constantly changing the music because you’re trying to keep people out there, trying to keep them bumping, trying to keep them hyped. When you’re skating people really don’t want you to cut the song short because they’re waiting for their part to come on so what the people are trying to do is hear the whole song but you can mix the song at the end.

A lot of club deejays, all they do is they come in [the rink] and don’t pay attention to the crowd because they’re trying to play it just like they were at a club which skating isn’t like that. Skating has its highs and it has its lows, you know like when people first come into the rink, you want to play some mellow music because everybody don’t stretch but you don’t want somebody to just come in and start going fast around the floor without stretching and [end up] hurting themselves. Some people look at roller skating like going to the gym, you gotta stretch first before you get out there so I like to warm people up. Once I warm them up, then you can start speeding em up and once you get them up there you can break them back down but at the club, everything is fast and I think a lot of deejays really don’t pay attention to the crowd. At the club, you don’t have to pay attention to the crowd if everybody’s on the dance floor. Roller skating is different, you really have to let the crowd guide you as the deejay.

(RST) – What would you say, there are situations in some cities where deejays have been in the spotlight at the rink for 10-20 years but just aren’t getting the job done. Do you think there’s ever a time where deejays should consider that maybe it’s just time for them to move on?

(DJ BB) - I don’t think it’s the deejays place to say it’s time for him to move, I think it’s the owner’s responsibility to tell the deejay, “Hey. We’re not getting the numbers that we used to get, maybe it’s time that we do something else or try something else.” But here’s my thing. The rinks that I’m doing now, I don’t expect the rink owners to make me fliers and get out and promote me. I make my own fliers, I distribute my own fliers, I hit everybody on Facebook, MySpace, whenever I go someplace I’m giving people fliers, letting them know where I’m deejaying. It’s my job as a deejay to go out and promote myself and try to bring people in but a lot of deejays because they feel like, “I’m getting 200-300 people”, they feel as though they’re gonna constantly come in but if you’re not getting out, you’re not promoting and your crowd starts decreasing, then you’re there looking around like it’s the owner’s fault but it’s not his fault. I feel if the deejay’s getting paid to do a job, the deejay needs to go out there, he needs to promote and market himself, make sure that he’s bringing folks into the skating rink.

— Future plans —

(RST) – What are some of your future plans and goals?

(DJ BB) - Right now, I’m just enjoying everything, to be honest. I’m real humble. I had to call the guy from Seattle this morning and thank him for the opportunity of just hiring me and allowing me to come out in Seattle and deejay. I got back home yesterday and had to go deejay the other rink but today when I went on Facebook I had so many requests to be my friend from a lot of people in Seattle because they enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed the comments they wrote. I took a lot of pictures with a lot of people because folks had a good time.

One of my California folks was saying, “Bert, we get this all of the time. The way I look at these people is like they don’t get good music all the time.” He was saying we really have to learn to appreciate what it is we have in our own backyard because sometimes you may think that you’ve got it bad but you don’t have it bad as somebody else. Sometimes you have to take and appreciate the things that you do have and I think if the deejays were a little bit more considerate and learned to pay attention, things would be better. It’s like a kid, if you have a newborn baby, that baby can’t communicate with you so you have to be able to learn the different cries, the different whines and everything else to know what is wrong with that baby….. As the kid gets older and they communicate with you, sometimes what we do is, we’ll be quick to say “Go sit down,” or “There’s nothing wrong with you”.

We have to learn to heed what it is that people are saying to us because once we lose our job, then it’s too late. I just think that everybody has to learn to be able to take criticism and I think everybody has to be able to learn to take folks’ requests. The more requests you take, the more you talk to people, the more you’re pleasant to people, regardless if you don’t play their song, they’re still gonna be cool with you and they’re gonna like you because they’re gonna like your personality. That’s like walking in front of an angry mob. If you’re walking in front of an angry mob and you’re angry, you’re just gonna make matters worse but if you’re calm, you can defuse a situation by being calm.

I’ve traveled to a lot of different skate parties and the one thing I have noticed is a lot of deejays really don’t listen to their crowd and don’t pay attention to the crowd. My only advice to the deejays: be a little bit more open hearted because I really think everybody should take into consideration that when people travel to a party or to a rink, it’s not just going to the rink and paying $8, 10 or 12 dollars … it’s about preparing yourself mentally to go. It’s about the drive that you gotta take there, it’s about the gas that you have to spend to get there and then the money you have to spend once you’re there. You have to learn to take into consideration that there’s a lot of preparation that goes into skating, it’s not just about the skating but I think sometimes we don’t look at all of the expense and everything else that a person pays or has to go through just to go to a rink.

You’re giving up your time to come and hear me, therefore I should be able to give a little bit of myself too and that’s only to take your requests because if you were able to come out and drive to support me, I have to show you that I appreciate you too and I don’t think that it takes anything out of you to take a person’s request. I really don’t.

(RST) – Any final words?

(DJ BB) – I just appreciate you calling me and interviewing me. I think the more we can do for roller skating, the better off we’ll all be.

(RST) – Thank you.

© 2010 Roller Skating Today

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Another addition has been made to the list of rinks under Black management:

Millennium East End Arena in Austin, Texas

The large youth entertainment complex where the rink is located is operated by the city and includes  a cafe, movie theater, bowling alley and arcade. Visit Millennium’s website for more information.

The complete listing of Black owned and managed rinks is found on the Black Rinks page.

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