Many narratives have a protagonist and antagonist which often makes for a great story. St. John’s Polo Posse: Gave Rise To A Nation combines both to share a hard-hitting untold story about an influential moment in time. Author/Clothing Designer El Gara Gayn, gives us the comprehensive and raw story of how one of the most notable boosting crews formed in NYC in 1986. The explosive book details their contributions to music & urban fashion as we know it today.
Beginning with six original founders of St. John’s Polo Posse, only one, G Lyte, is still alive living in Brooklyn, NY. The other members were either deported to the Caribbean, in prison or passed away. Just kids at the time, most who grew up in inner city neighborhoods survived on instinct. They either succumbed to poverty or became drug addicts or drug dealers. The St. John’s Polo Posse chose the latter and by the time stories of NYC boosting culture were being told, they were in prison unable to tell their stories.
El Gara Gayn is a Haitian-American savant who has conquered the odds across multiple happenings – from thrice death to prison and ultimately escaping the spectrum of a capitalistic system. He has established a system of self healing with an aim to guide youth subjected to similar circumstances, while he continues to push his intellectual prowess within the fashion industry and divinely ethereal worlds.
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Up until now many have only heard about the Lo Life project and its founders, who ran in the same circle as St. John’s Polo Posse later. However, there were many crews before them, including: St. Johns Polo Posse, Izod Posse, Shower Posse and many more. El Gara Gayn sheds a little light on many crews in his book, but focuses on his crew’s story. Did you know that in 1986 boosting/shoplifting was actually called g’ing? These are some of the details that have been lost in translation, but El Gara Gayn’s book takes us through a very vivid time warp and reads as an uncut tale of a complex culture of urban Robin Hood like proportions.
Check out our sit-down interview with El Gara Gayn and CLICK HERE to read St. John’s Polo Posse: Gave Rise To A Nation.
What is St. John’s Polo Posse and who is responsible for the idea behind the concept?
Three of the six original members of St. John’s Polo Posse lived in newly built buildings on the block (1284 and 1288 aka The New Buildings), while the others were already living in the area (The Old Buildings). The hood used to call us The New Building Kids. Ironically, when a new building is built, the blueprint calls for the first stone to be laid in the north east corner – the corner stone. As we started to seek our own truths as youths, we proved to be the foundation for St. John’s and Troy ave. Through our journeys, The New Building Kids set a pact to define themselves as something greater, we first came up with Ralphie’s Boyz but it didn’t really fit. Then we tried Polo Boyz and that didn’t fit either. We ended up agreeing to Polo Posse; G Lyte, Miz-Lo and G Life). Then G Lyte had a grand vision to rally The Old Building Kids, with that Bullfrog, Baby Bull and Franky Boo joined – established in 1986 that’s who officially makes up St. John’s Polo Posse.
In the book you mention G Lyte a lot and in this interview you speak of G Lyte. Who is he?
G Lyte is me. Back then that is what everyone called me the G stood for Greg which was my birth name.
Throughout your book, St. Johns’ Polo Posse: Gave Rise To A Nation, you speak about very specific events and memories that only a person who was there could know about. What’s one of the most important events that occurred back then?
The 80’s was the crack era, so it’s kind of hard to forget anything from then a lot of us were going through trauma and didn’t realize it; crack cocaine was ripping through our culture and families. So these lads: G Lyte, Miz-Lo and G Life had been affected directly by the krack era which is an unforgettable time. I have a part 2 coming in this series. I declare that time as the age of The Kracking (a mashup between Crack and The Kraken, an infamous sea monster from The Clash of The Titans). We in fact were not the only kids g’ing (boosting), but at that time we started to notice the effects that crack was causing and we made a conscious effort to not succumb to the drug and also confronted this gap inside our culture of shoplifting. We codified ourselves with rituals to combat this onslaught and we fought against those in the neighborhood that wanted to allow The Kracking to conquer them – if you wanted to smoke crack, you could not boost with us. We donned uniforms and codes of ethics, these were our unwritten rules:
-Must wear Ralph Lauren, head to toe
-Leaders had to boost the most exclusive and expensive badges, flags and crowns that Ralph Lauren had
-If one member didn’t have one, we all had to pitch in and get him or her right
-No heavy drug use, which included crack, cocaine and heroin. Weed was cool.
-You had to bathe, groom and wear clean clothes
-Never herb (bully) your peers
-Never give our boosting location to any other group
What was understood never had to be said, we all moved with ethics
What events do you feel cemented St. Johns Polo Posse history?
I mean in current times, I’d say the way that other branches pushed the culture that we created. Most don’t know but as most of our members died or started their prison passages, these new branches ran with the general ideal in 1988 without giving us our just due. If we are talking about the early 80’s, then I have to say when drug lords started copying our style and the girls that were attracted to them praised the Polo Posse instead. We had such an impact in Crown Heights that we would get on the mutha train (4 train at Utica and Eastern Parkway) and adults would actually honor us with shoutouts when we walk through the train on our way to G aka boost.
What events do you feel kept you locked out of street fashion history?
A branch without its root is bound to fall. The way I look at it is like this: what we did was inked on people’s hearts and souls. My name might not be prominent but the movement itself is a mere shadow of what we set off. Like Jay-Z said best, “there’s only so long fake thugs can pretend” – my clothing line El Gara Gayn will show who really always had it and never lost it when it comes to creativity and fashion sense.
It’s recorded that The Lo Life’s started in 1988, they’re being documented as the originators along with Ralphies Kids. But you’re claiming Polo Posse started in 1986 and earlier. Why did you wait until now to tell your story?
Lo Life isn’t the same as Polo Posse! Lo Life and Ralphie’s Kids both claim the same year, 1988. There was a drawing on St. John’s and Utica that had the Ralphie’s Kids dated in 1988 and that’s cool but Polo Posse was in 1986. That year is when we officially became Polo Posse, made RL a uniform, and had our most successful mia (mission), October of 1986 to be exact. The Mets were playing in the World Series and all of the Herman’s and Macy’s (Kings Plaza) employees were more focused on the game than worrying about a couple of kids g’ing. G Lyte and Miz Lo went bonkers in those stores. On the way home, G Lyte had to go to Flatbush, so he took the 2 train and saw a group of guys calling themselves the Izod Posse. At that moment, Polo Posse was officially born. G Lyte stood up to them and let them know that he repped Polo Posse. The Polo Posse wasn’t for everyone, just because you wore Ralph Lauren didn’t mean you were a member and still doesn’t. Whereas, Lo Life is a loose group with no rules or order – you just wear Ralph Lauren and get a seat at the table. Also, at that time G Lyte and Franky Boo were together every day from late 85-88. It would make sense that Ralphie’s Kids was in 1988 because we didn’t see or hear of them before then. The main reason that I dropped the book now is because it’s a vehicle to use to reach our youth and elders at this very moment of the haves and have nots, it’d like the 80’s again in 2023.
Why do you think Lo Lifes never mentioned St. Johns Polo Posse or any forefather that gave rise to the street fashion nation of boosters before them?
I mean that’s ironic because they always use Franky Boo’s name and flash his pictures. Franky Boo told them on a interview with Ralph Lo and Darky Dark from Politics As Usual YouTube show that before Lo Life or Ralphie’s Kids it was the Polo Boys! As I said earlier a lot of us started getting involved in activities aside from g’ing and we either went to prison or died. Aside from myself, Franky has been in and out of prison for sometime. In fact, he’s currently serving a prison bid. Before I started writing the book and developing the El Gara Gayn (clothing line) we reconnected, so once I started writing it I let him know that I wanted him to have the opportunity to tell his story and be a part of the clothing line. Franky isn’t just a name or photo. He’s a real person who really had an impact on a culture and neighborhood. He’s also one of my good friends and we share childhood memories, not just g’ing. In the St. John’s Polo Posse” Gave Rise To A Nation” book, he has a transcript interview and might even be a part of a larger story in a book as part of the series that I am putting out. He also has a hoodie as part of El Gara Gayn’s Kookie Monstaz series. We all have interesting and very important stories that play a part as the origin story to a very interesting urban movement, albeit all of the Lo Life clout.
Other than St. John’s Polo Posse being the originator of the street fashion culture, what distinguishes it from Lo Lifes?
Polo Posse has always been about exclusivity of self, not just exclusive Ralph Lauren wears. We were experts in the art of g’ing, and we had a decorum about our swag! We didn’t wear just anything, we didn’t sell our exclusive Ralph Lauren apparel. Our apparel was our weapon to fight the demons of that era. We deem ourselves as saviors, not just thieves that were fronting to look preppy! I guess if I knew what I know now, I was sort of like a creative director not a petty thief because what we wore truly dictated what rappers and drug dealers at that time would wear.
Did rappers inspire style or did St. John’s Polo Posse inspire the style that rappers began to be known for?
That’s a fact, rappers didn’t inspire us in the 80’s, as far as fashion was concerned. Don’t get me wrong, rap music was inspiring. But to us we didn’t like their choice of clothing style. For instance what would I look like wearing Lee’s in 84 or 85? Or even adidas? That was wack in that time period in our hood. At this time I was in IS 390 and we had a song that we sang to the Tears For Fear track “Shout”: “Shout Shout, Lee’s are played out. These are the jeans we can do without, take em off!”, then we would snatch the Lee patch off your jeans. This is something that the culture doesn’t really talk much about, because they weren’t really wearing the shit that was lit they were more than likely a part of the wack Lee’s wearing crews or simply they wasn’t there! To be legit you had to have Guess or A.J.’s Denim, and either Bally’s, Etonics, Ocean Pacific, Power or Patrick Sneakers – if you had these, you had the butters at the time. Sheepskins and leather goose were wack in 85, if you want to keep it live! The coats at this juncture were Polo Goose, Pacific Trail, CB, Profile Gortex and of course Gerry-G and you better not have come on the Johns with a Triple Fat Goose or you might not make it off the block alive! Just joking, we would just cut your Triple Fat Goose Up, because it was wack to us.
Recently, one of the Polo Posse founders, G Life passed away. How has this affected the movement?
Damn, the first and true Goya bean. In this day and age I guess that’s politically incorrect, but back when we were kids, being called Goya bean was like a medal of honor and although we lived and ran in a circle of blended races with many hispanics – G Life was the only Goya bean because hoods was kind of segregated like Black Americans, Black Carribeans and Hispanics didn’t vibe together. We were all really close with G Life, so it hurt like hell when we I got the news about his passing! No holds barred, he was the flyest booster of all times too – this is an NYC booster fact. G Life and Miz Lo was the catalyst to all the next generation that became Lo Life, I was in prison for that wave but G Life and Miz Lo accepted these people who just ran with the narrative and didn’t include them in on any monetaries. His wings keep getting longer every time I think of him and what he did for the culture and those that rep it til this day.
Franky Boo, he is a prominent and consistent figure in the Lo Life and boosting culture. What is your affiliation with him?
Franky Boo and G Lyte, actually. Those two were special on St. John’s and Troy Ave, period! We would war and then be friends the next minute and dare anyone to try and oppose our United stance! Word, Franky Boo used to pick me up at 7:30 am every day! Quiet as kept they even jux Dj Scratch back in the day during one of those early morning runs – word! These two still have the hood under pressure, #FreeFrankyBoo
Your clothing line El Gara Gayn, how was it inspired by your Polo Posse movement?
EL’GARA-GAYN is a holy name that was given to me by the great spirit and St. John’s was the beginning of our holy pilgrimage in life. There is so much to take from this that it constantly inspires new designs every day. Like our P’Roses & P’Skullz hoodie collection – a true Rose that grew out from the concrete jungle of Crown Heights Brooklyn.
What does El Gara Gayn mean to fashion?
Let me give you this jewel then, of the 12 jewels, clothing is one. In order to make a hood fit you must contour measurements. The word GAYN, means holy form. So all our pieces stem from a holy but humble origin within our life’s struggles. This is what we share with the world – Fashion For The Soul.
