Until 1981, it was difficult for a white, downtown audience to experience live rap music or see a break-dance contest, because these activities took place well inside the ghetto, where few whites were willing to travel. However, as the popularity of break dancing spread, it became apparent that whites would flock to any club associated with hip hop, as long as a club was located below 96th street in Manhattan. On Second Avenue around the corner from the original Fun Gallery was a small basement night club called Negril, which had been unsuccessfully trying to cultivate an audience for Jamaican music. Ruza Blue, a concert promoter from England, and Michael Holman, an independent film and video maker from California, began throwing hip hop parties at the club on Thursday nights. Herc, Bambaata, the Treacherous Three, the Cold Crush, the Rock Steady Crew, and other hip hop celebrities began appearing at the club, which catered primarily to a white audience – although there were always plenty of Bronx b-boys to give the place an authentic flavor. The Negril’s greatest moment came the night the Rock Steady Crew battled the Floor Masters, a crew from the Bronx later known as the New York City Breakers. For the first time the audience got a taste of the competitive nature of breaking. Rock star David Byrne and painter Francesco Clemente began frequenting Negril, which, because of its small, intimate dance floor, often seemed more like a private party than a night club. Much of the intimacy was lost when the operation was moved to the Roxy, a cavernous roller rink on West 18th Street. However, by 1982, the downtown hip hop seen had gotten far too big for the tiny club Negril.
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