Beginning in the early 1980s, the owners began hosting private party nights. Referred to by many as the "
Studio 54 of roller rinks", these parties thrived for several years. Then, as the popularity of skating began to fade, the space was revamped into a dance club in June 1982 by
Ruza Blue whose idea it was to transform the roller rink into a dance club. The Roxy hosted a party for the Olympic gold medal-winning
USA Ice Hockey team in
1980. Ruza Blue, nicknamed "Kool Lady Blue", produced the first multi-racial, multi-cultural
hip-hop dance clubs in New York City. She was the founder of Club Negril (1981–82) and The Roxy where she showcased elements of hip hop, plus more for the first time downtown in a nightclub environment on a regular weekly basis; this was where true hip hop first gained recognition. Her clubs featured a mash up of all musical styles from early hip hop, electro, funk, soul, disco, rock, punk, dub and
electronic dance music.
Jon Baker, the future founder of
Gee Street Records, worked the door. Hip-hop pioneers, including
Grand Mixer D.ST Jazzy Jay and
Afrika Bambaataa began DJing there and Kool Lady Blue sponsored breaking or b-boy/b-girl competitions featuring the
Rock Steady Crew, Graffiti Artist Murals, Emcees like
Fab 5 Freddy hosting the nights and she even had the idea to book
Double- exhibitions by The Fantastic Four local
American Double Dutch League champions and added Double Dutch to the hip-hop equation at Negril and The Roxy. Musicians including
Madonna,
Run DMC,
Kraftwerk, Shannon,
Malcolm McLaren,
New Edition,
Kurtis Blow,
The Beastie Boys,
Yello,
Dead or Alive,
Cher,
Bette Midler,
Whitney Houston,
Liza Minnelli,
Chaka Khan,
Donna Summer,
Cyndi Lauper,
Jorge Perez Evelyn,
Grace Jones,
Yoko Ono,
LL Cool J,
Lisa Marie Presley,
Gloria Gaynor, and
George Clinton and the
P-Funk All-Stars all performed at the Roxy. The site of many "dance floor tests" by recording artists, producers and remixers, the club's notoriously discerning, racially mixed clientele and cross-cultural ethos was considered the ideal crowd to inspire on the dance floor. It was here that DJs first played the test record of
EBN-OZN's white rap/spoken word "
AEIOU Sometimes Y" in 1982, the first commercially released record made on a computer in the United States. Kool Lady Blue's Friday nights at The Roxy played a huge role in the evolution of hip hop and electronic dance music and are integral to hip-hop history. She was also one of the first to promote hip-hop culture on to the world stage. The Roxy hosted one of New York City's largest weekly gay dance nights,
Roxy Saturdays, promoted by
John Blair Promotions, which featured many famous DJs including
Junior Vasquez,
Manny Lehman,
Hex Hector,
Victor Calderone,
David Guetta,
Frankie Knuckles,
Paul van Dyk,
Offer Nissim,
Hector Fonseca and
Peter Rauhofer. During the late 1980s, it was operated under the name
1018, and was closed down in 1989 by the
New York City Office of Midtown Enforcement as a nuisance, based on allegations of underaged drinking, drug sales, and violence. ==Closure==