Who is this guy called Space Capital? My name is Roosevelt Williams. Born in Mississippi, and raised in
Chicago, Illinois West side Communities (Austin and Lawndale). Dance was one of my many ways of
expressing myself. I was this shy guy that had a lot of fire in me and dancing and sports were my outlets. I
never knew at This age ( 50 years old ) I would still be dancing and active in today urban dance scene. Well,
first off, I was doing urban dances all my life. From the Disco dances, to the Funk dances, Hip hop dances,
Jacking, robot, locking, breaking, popping, etc. I was always dancing. I started my journey as a dancer
watching the old musical that had Tap dancers performed on them. I always wished I was a tap dancer, and to
this day I know I would have been a good tap dancer if I would have gone that route.
I started Robottin’ in the ‘70s, it was fascinating seeing this dance. I liked the unreal look of this dance. I really
liked the Jackson Five performance they did back in the ‘70s when they were doing the robot off of the song
called Dancing Machine. I used to be in a robot and locking group in 1977 called the little puppets. I used to
watch the older guys in the community robot and lock, these dances was very popular in the mid ‘70s. One of
my favorite groups back then was the Puppets (Crescendo, Who is now the host of Street dance competition
event in California was a member of the senior Puppets group). They used to perform at many local locations;
I still remember their performance at the Austin Town Hall back in the mid ‘70s. They used to Lock, Robot, and
play music back then. It was like a band that danced, and it was very different to see, but it was also very
enjoying. Dancing was always the highlight of their performances.
I started popping in 1979 in Chicago, Illinois. I remembered seeing guys around my area popping in 1978. It
was a cool dance back then, because a lot of the cool guys used to do it (back then it was a large amount of
gangs members in this scene). I was already a good dancer (urban dancers) and I was interested in learning
this new dance called popping. I used to go out to the playground and watch these guys do this dance. After
watching them, I used to go back home and practice all the movements I saw these guys doing. I went on to
become member in a Popping and Breaking crew called the Chicago Cosmic Force. We were a mixed crew
with blacks, and Latinos, with an outstanding girl that popper and breaker. We battled and performed
throughout the Illinois area. I was also in a Jacking (people now call it House dancing, back then it was
considered Jacking.) dancing Crew called the Hydromatics. Some of the Highlights for the Cosmic Force were
our weekly performances on a local TV show. We also traveled to Mexico and toured and performed.
Hydromatics was more like a jacking group that party together and battle at the house parties.
After the Cosmic Force crew stopped performing I continue to dance. I danced for a little with one of the
members of the cosmic force (Kelo) as a tag team, we called ourselves double trouble. We performed and
danced together for a couple of years. Our highlights were dancing for the Illinois dance competition to perform
on the Dance Fever Show (this was a very popular national show in USA in the ’80s). We came in second
place and would have performed on the show, but the show was canceled. It was nice to come in second
place up against ballet, tap, jazz, and other dance styles.
I went on to perform as a solo artist until I had my first kid. One of my highlights as a solo dancer was
performing in the Rap Roots musical productions starring Red Foxx and Kurtis Blow. I stopped dancing for
around two years when I had my kid in 1989. I started back popping in 1993. I used it as a way to stay fit, and
feed my soul because I still liked doing this dance. I started doing solo performances again around 1994. In
1995 I supported then the most popular breaking site on the net called Cardboard only with the popping
questions. I was getting so many questions I started back then the first popping site in 1996 called
SpaceCapital Popping Page.
I went to California in 1997 and my mission was to talk to other older poppers and this is when my journey
started with interviewing and learning about the Popping scene from a California popper perspective. I ran into
Scooby at the Bboy Summit in 1997. I talked to him and did one of my first interviews. I also ran into a guy
name Fresh and we started working on creating the First dot.com breaking site called bboy.com. I never knew
this site would get so popular and become the leading site that got so much international media attention.
From this site I was interview by the Wall Street Journal, The Source magazine, and featured in New York
Times, New York Post, and many other national and international media and publications. I was invited to the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Hip hop conference in 1999 to talk regarding hip hop when it came to web sites. I
started working with international events like the Battle of the Years and London Break dance Championship. I
worked with Battle of the year to get Phaze II to battle in this event, and this is when Kmel became an
international dance force and winning best solo dancer at Battle of the Year. The following Year I worked with
London Break dance Championship, and arranged for Chicago Junk Wartz to battle in this international event.
In 2005 I saw the need to continue something that I started in 1996. Popping being the dance I’m more into I
feel at the time it needed to be a site online that focus on Popping. This is when I changed the name of my site
called SpaceCapital Popping Page to 4dapoppers.com. I wanted to continue the work I done on SpaceCapital
Popping Page but I didn’t want the focus to be on me. I still have all of the older articles and interviews plus
new articles and interviews. 4dapoppers.com is a site for the popping scene. It not about me, or any one
group, it’s a site that focus on the whole scene; a site that brings the truth about popping. I might not be in the
click or in circles because of making this stand but at least the younger generation will get this information and
the truth always outshine lies over a period of time. I’m here for the urban dancers not the politics. Over my 30
years in urban dances I have played many roles in these dances. From being a dancer, to Choreographed,
director, assistance coordinator, Urban dances Historian, Web publisher, and dance music producer ( I had a
breaking song I created featured in 2011 Red Bull BC One international event called ‘Tell me what you’re
gonna do’ Played doing the Morris v Taisuke battle.) . This is just a little bit of things I have done in this urban
dance scene. I’m just a guy that liked dancing and I flow based on my interest of dancing. I truly dance for the
enjoyment of the dance and to feed my soul. I’m a true dancer; I have been active in urban dances now for
over 30 years.