OCTOBER – Interview of the month – ICEY ICE

Icey Ice of New York City Breakers

An unforgettable journey! Through old-school hip-hop history, the legendary 2 Def Days of Hip Hop festival in Stockholm to a heartwarming reunion in Miami fifteen years later. Now almost exactly 40 years later we hear Corey Montalvo talk his story in this personal Interview.

Meeting Icey Ice in Stockholm, 1986

The first time I met Corey “Icey Ice” Montalvo was during the 2 Def Days of Hip Hop festival in Stockholm in May 1986. My friend Mattias Bäcklin and I had been Hip Hopers, breaking and dancing for about two years. We were just 17 and 18 years old, young, hungry, and completely immersed in hip-hop culture.

2 DEF DAYS of Hip Hop 1986

Meeting Icey Ice, Mr. Wave, and T-La Rock at McDonald’s on Drottninggatan the day before the jam felt almost unreal. These were the stars from New York we had watched hundreds of times in Beat Street . First at the cinema, then on VHS in Mattias’s basement. For us, this was more than meeting famous dancers. We were finally face-to-face with our heroes.

Later that day, we visited the practice space at Fryshuset, where they demonstrated their skills. There, we were blown away by Corey’s early halos and signature head glides, moves that helped establish his reputation as one of the pioneers of the era.

The following day, we arranged to meet the crew at an apartment in Stockholm’s historic Old Town and travel together to the festival. I still remember Corey demonstrating his incredible strength by performing freestanding handstand push-ups in the living room. As a result, that moment inspired Mattias and me to incorporate similar strength training into our routines for years to come.

Icey Ice and New York City Breakers – A Milestone for Scandinavian Breaking

At the festival, I even remember walking past the entire queue to enter alongside our idols. The atmosphere was electric.

Furthermore, 2 Def Days of Hip Hop became a landmark moment for Scandinavian hip-hop, bringing together dancers from Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Copenhagen. Many who attended still remember the legendary Sweden-versus-Denmark battle, featuring members of Stockholm’s IC Rockers, dancers from Gothenburg, and the crew Out of Control from Copenhagen.

Later, the American guest dancers took the stage alongside T-La Rock, showing everyone what breaking at the highest level looked like.

By 1986, Icey Ice had around six years of experience behind him. As a New York b-boy and member of the legendary New York City Breakers (NYCB), he was operating on a different level from most of us in Scandinavia. NYCB had helped bring breaking into the international spotlight through performances, television appearances, and the influential 1984 hip-hop film Beat Street. Before NYCB he was also a member of Magnificent Force and Floor Masters.

I also remember watching them perform the following day at Kungsträdgården in central Stockholm. With amazing Danish graffiti as the backdrop and T-La Rock holding down the microphone. These memories remain an important part of my personal hip-hop history.

When Breaking Faded in New York: 1988–1989

After returning home, Mattias and I kept in touch with Corey through letters and cassette tapes. To our disappointment, we learned that hip-hop and breaking were gradually fading in New York, and Corey was slowly stepping away from the scene. We also heard that other members of the New York City Breakers had moved on.

This became even more apparent when we travelled to New York in the winter of 1988–1989. We met Crazy Legs and Mr Wiggles who pointed to Kwikstep (Gabriel D. – interview with him coming up soon!) as one of the few dancers still actively keeping the culture alive.

It was a reminder that even the biggest names in breaking had to navigate changing times.

Reunited in Miami, 2001

Then, fifteen years after our first meeting, something unexpected happened.

In 2001, I ran into Corey again at a jam called Pro-Am in Miami. By then, he was living in Florida and had been invited by Speedy Legs, one of the newer members of the New York City Breakers, to participate in a panel and sell T-shirts.

Seeing him again after all those years was a genuinely heartwarming experience. The young b-boy who had inspired Mattias and me in Stockholm was now part of a completely different chapter in our lives, but the connection remained.

Looking back, the journey from that McDonald’s on Drottninggatan in 1986 to our reunion in Miami in 2001 feels like a full circle.

Sharing this story and reconnecting with Corey through this article and interview is a true blessing. Iactually finded out and find him through Poe One and that Corey hade liked my interview with Ken Swift on youtube! For me, Icey Ice is not just a name in old-school breaking history. He is part of a personal story about friendship, inspiration, and the people who helped shape my life through hip-hop.

Some encounters stay with you forever. This is definitely one of them.

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