Rock Steady Crew Member Frosty Freeze R.I.P.
Author: AF Duncan
April 7th, 2008
Wayne “Frosty Freeze” Frost, a member of South Bronx South South Bronx-based breakdance pioneers the Rock Steady Crew, passed away last week at the age of 44.
The first public faces (to mainstream American culture, at least) of breakdancing, the Rock Steady Crew were for a time the most widely recognized breakdance crew and some of the people most responsible for the popularity of the dancing style. To that end, they also helped push hip-hop and b-boy graffiti culture into the mainstream.
Frost toured the world with the Rock Steady Crew and other hip-hop artists, including Fab 5 Freddy, Futura 2000 and Kool Lady Blue.
Frost’s appearance with Rock Steady Crew in “Flashdance” spread the breakdance phenomenon globally, said Joseph Schloss, a visiting scholar in the music department at New York University. “He was one of the first B-boys that most people ever saw,” Schloss said.
Graffiti artist and close friend Zulu King Slone, who knew Frost for 15 years, said he was “like a walking hip-hop culture encyclopedia.”
As a member of the Rock Steady Crew, Frost also appeared in several movies on hip-hop culture, including “Wild Style,” “Beat Street” and “Style Wars.” He also appeared on the cover of the Village Voice in 1981.
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One Response to “Rock Steady Crew Member Frosty Freeze R.I.P.”
April 7th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Damn, that brought back some memories. I remember the Rock Steady Crew from Wild Style and hearing about one of them passing is terrible. Hip-Hop would not have invaded the ‘burbs without Breakdancing, plain and simple.