BARTENDAZ
Keep it Moving If someone were to ask you to name your most prized possession what would you say? Would it be those $250 shoes in your closet? How about the car in your driveway? What about the shiny piece of jewelry you love wearing? If any of these or other material things came to mind before your physical well-being...READ ON. The recent untimely deaths of Adam “MCA” Yauch, Nate Dogg and Heavy D caught people by surprise. The ongoing medical issues of DJ Kool Herc, Rick Ross, the Hip Hop nation and world in general are further warning that the state of our health should be of great concern. BARTENDAZ/Giant Thinking Inc. is a non-profit organization looking to inspire selfempowerment and impact lives through the principles of physical, social and moral excellence. It’s CEO & founder is Hassan Yasin aka Giant. We recently caught up with the scientific link behind the movement, Dr. Goodbody aka the Athletic Alchemist. Pull up and have a drink. Words by Will Loiseau
Will: When did you become a member of the Bartendaz? Dr. G: I’ve been a member of the Bartendaz for the last six years. Why do you call yourself an athletic alchemist? That’s a great question. Alchemy is the ability to transform your base metals to a higher form. Basically, I use athletics and movement to transform my lower self into my higher self. The alchemist is a title that alludes to that ability to bring about our higher selves by using our lower selves being our physical bodies. When you study history and look back at certain things like tai chi and yoga you can see that the Bartendaz is something new and at the same time it harps back to those indigenous movement systems. Those systems tie in to the ability to use your body as an
instrument for a higher purpose. Every year we seem to be losing members of the Hip Hop community and the population as a whole due to preventable causes. Why is health and fitness an ongoing problem? It’s because of the images that we see especially, when we think about Hip Hop. Your readers should know that the founder of Hip Hop, DJ Kool Herc is actually a member of the Bartendaz as well. He told the CEO and founder Hassan Yasin aka Giant and me that health and fitness was the fifth and sixth elements of Hip Hop that kinda got forgotten. Break dancing or B-boying was a part of that athleticism. Now when we fastforward and look at the way Hip Hop or rap music is packaged to the mass media, people are over-indulging in things that are