Restaurant and club owner Billy Dec grew up in Lincoln Park in the 1980s at the height of the break-dancing craze. And so in between seeing who could “jump over the highest bush in Lincoln Park,” or who could “capture the wild animal” (no one was really ever successful) near the Lincoln Park lagoon, Dec and pals would set up their cardboard on the ground and bust some funky moves.
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“We used to go to the little parks like Jonquil [Playlot] or up and down Clark [Street],” Dec said. “We would bring a big gigantic heavy boom box with like eight D batteries, which is what we spent all of our money on. And we’d have little mix tapes that we’d copy off the radio.”
So what exactly did Dec listen to?
“Herbie Hancock’s ‘Rock It’ was the one we had routines to. Oh yeah.”
What was your signature move?
“I had lots of moves and they might have been all really bad,” he said. “The only one I can say was my signature was the serious face I made while doing it because I took it very seriously. There was definitely a lot of robot, which I bring back every Saturday night on the dance floor if you’re lucky. Somehow the robot just resurfaces beyond my control.”
In the summer when it was time to cool off, he and friends would go down to a water fountain near the fire station at Armitage and Larabee to play running bases in the water.