Mile Long Boyz new CD marks journey from roots

Four guys are standing at the intersection of two well known borough streets, South Seventh and Eden Avenues. For them it's their hood, and they are about to Break out -- or in their case, "Breakdown."

The Mile Long Boyz, Highland Park's own grassroots hiphop band, is about to release its first album, Walk A Mile in Our Shoes, and has been enjoying exposure on Youtube with their new video, Breakdown. For more than three years, HPHS seniors Altier Haskins (vocalist) and Ashton Burrell (rapper), and Haskins' older brother Kenny (Terrik), a Middlesex County Community College student Kenny (Terrik) Haskins, have been putting their hometown on the music map.

On June 29 they will appear at the Carribean Palace, on Hamilton Street in Somerset. A previous showcase at that location attracted about two thousand participants. Closer to home, borough councilwoman Elsie Foster Dublin is helping them arrange a graduation party at the Senior/Youth Recreation Center during the month of June, where the group can entertain.

In Breakdown, an autobiographical sequence follows the Mile Long Boyz AJ (Altier), TCI (Ashton), and Reek Havoc (Terrik) through the south side. Bored with video games and the high school life, Reek Havoc suggests they spend the night with friends at a party at Rutgers.

In real life, Altier and Ashton are about to graduate and both will attend Felician College in Lodi, New Jersey. So the late night raid to a campus party seems the perfect segue into the collegiate world.

Their manager, Kenny Haskins, is also in the video. Wearing hoodies, leather jackets, their own logo tees, and some chains, the group readies for their debut at Rutgers, picking up a Mercedes Benz and a Bentley under a 'No Parking Any Time' sign.  AJ, TCI  and Reek Havoc 'break down' the Rutgers party scene in style, with The Cave afterschool center at the Reformed Church of Highland Park standing in as the perfect dorm party room.

"We couldn't have accomplished so much without the help of David Rush, a Miami rapper who is signed up with Pit Bull," Kenny Haskins said.  "He's helping the boys learn the tricks of the trade and as much as possible about the music business."

During the past two years, The Mile Long Boyz, since their showcase performance at Highland Park High School in February of 2008, have been performing in the area with the help of borough council president Elsie Foster-Dublin. They performed at that well attended concert for the Rec Department's Friday Night Teen Center and have been performing before live audiences ever since although lately they have been concentrating on their album.

According to their father, the boys are becoming more familiar with studio equipment, mixing albums, writing, and getting their videos on UTube.

Their father is no stranger to the music business and in the early 1990s, released an album, Powerful Impact. But in fact, the Haskins family, who have made Highland Park their home for decades, have been performing here just as long.

On May 23, 1955, for the borough Recreation Department's annual Hi-Lite show, 'Memories Through Magic,' four great-aunts of the Mile Long Boyz sang and danced. The night also included a performance by their great-uncle, Ronald Haskins, who made his career with the H.P. police department, eventually rising to be Middlesex County's first black Police Chief.

A photo of the great aunts appears in Jeanne Kolva and Joanne Pisciotta's Highland Park - Borough of Homes.  Four young girls in maryjanes, bobby soxes, and white dresses with big red hearts, singing and dancing on a Highland Park stage at the Irving School.

"The past three years the boys have been doing rap, ballads, and dance have been a preparation," Haskins said. "They're learning the basics of the business before we sign to a major label."