Eric Moore is a radio DJ and performer from Clondalkin who, from a young age, revelled in all things hip hop and rap.
Having grown up around the time the hip hop scene was still emerging in Ireland, Eric fell in love with a then underground music genre and culture which involved break dancing, disc scratching and rapping. Eric explains that in the 80s, hip hop was a "dirty word". During a time when MTV still didn't play music by black artists, hip hop music was far from mainstream in Ireland.
A young Eric might have been surprised to learn that a radio show he would soon present dedicated to hip hop and rap music would last an impressive 24 years and even make it onto RTE's regular scheduling. The Plastic Attack, a show which saw Eric chat to some of the biggest stars in the game, came to an end after over two decades earlier this month.
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The final show, Eric explained, lasted three hours rather than its usual hour, taking listeners on a journey through the story of the show and how it came to reach RTE Gold. Hailing from Clondalkin, Eric's journey is one of graft and unexpected success.
He told Dublin Live: "I come from a working class area in Clondalkin. It would have been quite rough in the 80s. The world was a smaller place back then. If you wanted to know about an artist, you would hope that a journalist would write about it in a music magazine.
"Or you might have gotten a glimpse of them on Top of the Pops. When MTV came along, they didn't even play music from black artists. For us, rap was a dirty word.
"It was only around the time Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer came around when it was the turning point when it became popular on radio. There was nowhere you could hear the music."
Eric's radio career was born out of a love for hip hop and started back in 1988. Just months after he got his foot in the door at a station called Smile FM at 15 years of age, all pirate radio stations had to shut down.
Ten years later, a friend of Eric's offered him his slot on Power FM playing hip hop and funk music. From that, Eric got "great gigs".
"I had a great knowledge of music by that point. It was the hottest show in town and we would get huge guests over," he said.
"I was offered a spot as a scratch DJ to open for all of these huge artists like Run DMC, Grand Master Slash and Public Enemy."
In 2011, Eric brought his show to RTE. He revealed: "I felt this vibe that as a hip hop DJ, you weren't a proper broadcaster.
"Of course I wanted to move to RTE Gold. I was going to be at the same station as Rick O'Shea and Larry Gogan.
"Larry was on two hours ahead of me, and he would say my name when telling listeners what was coming up. Just to hear him say that was amazing."
Since finishing up The Plastic Attack, Eric has shifted his focus onto his new book alongside Dublin publisher Gary O'Neil, Where Were You In Irish Hip Hop. The book is set to be a historical deep dive into decades of hip hop culture in Ireland, covering graffiti, break dancing, rapping and scratching.
"The book is a work in progress big time. It's photographic book that delves into youth culture in Dublin from 1950 to 2000," said Eric.
"We had to put loads of adverts out there looking for photographs from back in the day. It took Gary 10 years to do that."
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