Nearly 40 Years Later, ‘Strong Island’ Pioneer From Central Islip To Share Hip-Hop Legacy At LIMEHOF

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — Nearly four decades after JVC FORCE’s “Strong Island” helped give Long Island its own hip-hop identity, one of the group’s founding members, AJ “AJ ROK” Woodson, is preparing to share the group’s legacy at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF) as part of a Black History Month celebration on Feb. 28 at 1 p.m.

LIMEHOF will host Strong Island Forever: Legacy, Longevity & the Return of JVC FORCE at its Stony Brook location at 97 Main St. The event is free for members and included with a general admission ticket purchase for non-members.

“Welcoming AJ ‘ROK’ Woodson to the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame is a powerful celebration of hip-hop history and Strong Island pride,” said LIMEHOF Vice Chairman Tom Needham. “His legacy with JVC FORCE helped put Long Island on the rap map, and this is a rare opportunity for fans to hear his story, meet a true pioneer, and experience living hip-hop history up close.”
Woodson, a Central Islip native, will speak about his music career, the impact and legacy of JVC FORCE and their famous anthem “Strong Island,” as well as his personal comeback journey returning to the stage at age 60.

JVC FORCE comprises Woodson, B-Luv (William Taylor), and DJ Curt Cazal (Curtis Small). The group came together in Central Islip after Woodson returned home from Mount Vernon, where he attended high school, and attended a party where he rhymed back and forth with fellow member B-Luv.

“B-Luv and I were rhyming back and forth that night, and everyone said how good we sounded together,” Woodson said to Patch. “The next day we met up, I joined the group, and we started working on routines and demos.”

JVC FORCE is among the classic 1980s Long Island hip-hop groups. During that era, hip-hop credibility was centered in New York City’s five boroughs, and Woodson said Long Island artists often were not recognized as coming from Long Island.

“You almost had to be from the five boroughs to really be respected,” Woodson said. “Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn — that’s what people focused on.”

He said JVC FORCE’s “Strong Island” helped give Long Island its own hip-hop identity.

“We’re told our record was important because it gave Long Island an identity — the same way ‘South Bronx’ did for the Bronx, or records did for Brooklyn,” Woodson told Patch. “We represented this region, and people credit us for putting it on the rap map. We weren’t the first group from there, but we made an anthem for the island. When we came out of the studio, we knew we had something. But I’d be lying if I told you we knew we’d still be talking about it 38 years later, and that it would be loved all over the world. It became bigger than us. It inspired younger groups to represent Long Island and not act like they were from the city.”

“Strong Island” eventually grew beyond music, Woodson said, noting that businesses across the region now use the name and that the phrase has become a broader cultural identity.
“If you Google it, there are at least 12 businesses named ‘Strong Island’ something — tire shops, stores — nothing to do with hip-hop,” he said. “It became this identity adopted by the whole island.”
Woodson said early narratives attempted to portray Long Island artists as “soft” compared to borough artists, describing them as suburban and clean-cut. He said he did not feel disrespected by those portrayals and embraced his background.

“Back then, there was an article on us that tried to knock us, saying we weren’t from the projects, that we cut the grass and listened to our mothers — that was supposed to make us look soft,” he said. “But we did cut the grass. That wasn’t an insult to me. There are urban areas in Long Island, too. We just had to be creative and distinctive to stand out.”

He said JVC FORCE is often left out of conversations about Long Island hip-hop because they did not have a music video and lacked major-label backing, crediting fans for keeping the group’s name alive for nearly four decades.

Woodson officially returned to the stage in 2024 after being invited to perform at the Urban Matterz Festival in the Netherlands. He said health challenges initially required him to change his lifestyle, and preparing for live shows meant relearning decades-old lyrics and training physically to regain breath control and stage stamina.

“I had been working on my health — I had some incidents, was overweight, out of shape,” he said. “I had to change my lifestyle. Then this opportunity came up and gave me the incentive to get in ‘show’ shape. That’s different than regular shape. I had to relearn lyrics from songs we hadn’t performed together since 1991. We rehearsed intensely. Ralph McDaniels brought us on at Eisenhower Park before Rakim performed — 12,000 people. That gave us the warm-up before going overseas. We’re back open for business.”

Woodson described moving from being a music fan to a performer to a journalist documenting hip-hop, and now returning to performance and potentially creating new music. As a lifelong writer, he began reviewing albums from a rapper’s perspective and eventually wrote for publications including The Source, Village Voice, and others. He later founded Black Westchester, a community newspaper covering Black issues in Westchester County, focusing on advocacy and local politics.

“We’ve helped push accountability,” he said. “I work on better police-community relations and serve as vice president of the Mount Vernon NAACP over criminal justice.”
After his talk on Feb. 28, Woodson will sign autographs and pose for photos. Copies of his books and JVC FORCE T-shirts will be available for purchase.

Woodson said being invited to speak during Black History Month is an honor and acknowledged that JVC FORCE’s place in Long Island hip-hop history gives him hope that their recognition may one day lead to Hall of Fame induction.

When asked about his legacy, Woodson said everything begins with “Strong Island,” which launched his career, and credited his partner B-Luv for helping sustain the group’s resurgence.

“I have to shout out B-Luv,” he said. “There was a point I thought this was over, but he wouldn’t let me give up. I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference, inspired the next generation — through music or activism — someone who left this place a little better than they found it.”