Yo this tape has to drop now no more waiting. I wanted to interview Dopestyle about it, but I fucked up and asked way too many questions in a bum rush of a myspace correspondence, and the man is just too busy to fulfill all my off-the-wall fanboy curiosities, so in an effort to just let you hear the fuckin thing already, I'm just gonna drop down what I asked him, and what he was kind enough to respond with, and then let you hear the tape that changed my life and see what you think for yourself.
Yo Dopestyle I know this is a long ass list of questions, but I've been coveting this album for a long time, and I've often wondered about these very questions. And I want to give this review the Wax Poetic treatment so to speak... When I got your tape from Tower… for the first time I realized that I could make a tape and sell it if I wanted to… this shit is a classic to me…. Please copy this to a word file and take some time every now and then to answer these questions in a different color text, I'll bug you periodically to remind you to finish, but no rush… if you need a scan of the liner notes, let me know and I can send it to you… same goes for the music. Thanks for taking the time bro I hope it's not to painstaking.
First off, the name: Why "EPA's" Parental Advisory? Was there already a Parental Advisory so you had to signify like US Bombs UK Subs?
Who was the crew responsible for putting this project together, the liner notes seem to be shrouded in mystery and misinformation?
Story behind the mystery? Who did the beats? The cuts? How many actual mcs were involved? How many djs? Who did the dope ass cover art? What records did you use to create the beats?
Dopestyle=Capital C?
Fatal MC? (where is this guy now? He smokes "Hyperkaotical")
Mern? Myron Dove? (Engineer?) (who did all the dope echo effects on
the vocals?)
DJ MWR???
Rick (Scratch DJ?)
Who is DJ Pussy Whipped?
Did the legendary pause tape maker Rodney (maybe Ronnie) P. who used to work at Whole Foods make the pause mix at the end of side two?
I've heard rumors….Is that Ronnie Kreg mentioned in the liner notes?
In the liner notes… Why'd you have to put your boy Big Trev on blast and say he'd been in high school for six years?
How old were you guys? Were you still in high school? How did you get the knowledge at such a young age to know how to release an independent tape?
How "real" was Condom Records?
Was there ever a time you could call (415)- 326- FUCK and a guy named Dicky would answer?
Where was your "studio"? What equipment did you guys use to make and record your music? What was the atmosphere like when you were recording this stuff?
You mention East Palo Alto artists like Totally Insane and Chunk in the liner notes… could you run down a list from your memory of artists from EPA that inspired you around the time that Parental Advisory hit the shelves at Tower in Mt. View… 1991? Right? Groups that came out or groups that didn't, who do you remember from that time?
What East Coast mcs (or mcs in general) were you listening to at the time? Were you guys like listening to a lot of 2 Live Crew and Ghetto Boys, and local shit in the 2 Short vein but also fuckin wit
battlestyle mcs like epmd, kane, krs, rakim, chuck d, biz markie, etc… you kind of encompassed the attitude of a time rather than a certain genre using all those influences cohesively, and you throw it
together, put it down, with a "let's Just go for it'/one-take-jake attitude like punk rock
and DIY, fuck the polish. This is what I got most out of your tape as a kid, and what I tried to make
Sacred Hoop be like too. I definitely think Sacred Hoop's "Bring Me the Head of Sexy Henrietta" is the inbred sister tape to EPA's Parental Advisory, the dusted bums from the otherside of the freeway some five years later influenced by what you put down. You definitely gave us that spark of courage that we could do it too, thanks, man.
That started as a question anyway.
Also in the liner notes it says that MC Sway put y'all on the right track (I'm assuming this is the same Wake Up show/now on MTV Sway)… Did you have his Flynamic Force record back in the day? What do you think of it now?
How accessible was the larger more mainstream hip hop world to you in EPA in the early 90's as an independent artist from a relatively small town?
How did MC Sway get y'all on the right track?
Drop some science about the EPA/Whiskey Gulch scene in the late 80s/early 90s… what is like to come up in that area at that time? Was that when you discovered punk? Talk about your love of punk rock or music besides hip hop…
What was up with Giorgio's Fresh Gear Shoppe or Salon or whatever, was that a front for some drug shit? Did you ever shop there? What'd you pick up? Who was your former style teacher Alonzo?
Did you ever go to shows at Club Afrique or Pena Moi?
What kind of impact did Rated X (Captain Crunch and them)'s regional 12" hit "Be Cool To Your Girl" have on EPA? Was it cool to hear something from your small neighborhood on mainstream radio? How
important was it at the time to put EPA on the map?
Have you ever seen or are you aware of the straight to VHS movie that Capn Crunch (Now C-Funk or Prohoezak or whatever) and Ronnie P made called "EPAttacks!"? Do you have a copy of it? It was like horror and rap dedicated to the memory of Whisky Gulch.
Did you know Captian Crunch? Was Flavor Flav really his cousin? Is that how y'all got that Son of Bazerk "J-dub's Theme" record (Y'all sample: "Never thought the beat could be FATAL" on HyperKaotical) so early?
Would you call EPA's Parental Advisory West Coast Son of Bazerk? The lyrical styles are not necessarily similar but the hardcore lack of abandon is… was any of this project freestyled off the dome?
Sometimes the whole project seems like freestyle sessions pause-mixed together….
What ever happened to that "FUCK DRUGS" shirt wearin' guy that used to patrol University Ave.? You mentioned him in the liner notes… What is his story? He was a boxer right?
Do you know anybody in the Blood Brothers Motorcycle Club? Do you know any history behind the Midtown Hogs? You mention "G-Town" in "The Cum Song" are you from the Gardens? If you are please explain that neighborhood to the not-knowers…
When you shout out Lil Nation in the liner notes is it Lil Nation from CPO? Did you know him?
How were college radio stations like KZSU and KFJC valuable resources for your music?
How did that early peanut butter wolf 12" with you and Subcontents and other Peninsula and Southbay cats come about?
What about Dopestyle 1231? Who was involved in that ? Tom C. on production right? And Kut Masta Kurt put it out on Threshold right?
Care to expand on the masturbation theme that seema to be prevalent throughout side two of Parental Advisory and even spills over into the liner notes with "Fuck you we'd rather jack off instead?"
How important was it for you guys back then to be vulgar and kick "Profane Reality" to test the status quo?
In the first, song you say "I live estraperous (sp.?), something of a vagrant…" What does "estraperous" mean?
In another lyric you say, "Niggas said PA wouldn't come up/ those same niggas now they wanna run up…" growing up did you feel that the whole Bay was really riding the jock of East Palo Alto… how much has EPA been bitten in the history of Bay Area Hip Hop and Hip Hop in general?
Please tell the story of getting kicked off the talent show at Ravenswood HS back in the day as mentioned in the liner notes…
How many shows did EPA's Parental Advisory play? Was there ever a tour? Are there any other live stories to tell?
In "Eskimo Pep" you mention confronting another emcee who is trying to claim the same name as you…is that a true story and how big was mc battling in EPA in the late80s/early90s? What gear where MCs wearing at the time? Explain what a "mob hat" is/was? Do you still have that Dopestyle hat?
In "A Nigga Named Dopestyle" you speak of another emcee as not having the 'man-child-ity'… what does that word mean? is this another made up word like estraperous?, how important is it as an emcee, or a human being for that matter, to invent your own verbage (like estraperous, man-child-ity, hyperkaotical, etc.)?
Have you always liked emcees that showed an expansion of their vocab and used big words to serve fools?
In the same song you also say, "The shit I'm kickin' is really black literature…" could you expand on this idea and does that model kinda fit into how you see yourself as an artist?-> like, is that like really what you've been kickin all along?
In '89 I remember a rap talent show during halftime of a Foothill JC football game, and Uni (fresh out his Suzuki Samauri with his curl whipping) threw his rope chain to the winners, I saw the same kids
rockin it to high school the next day and then Uni came and got his shit during lunch period… Did you ever rip a contest at Foothill? Do you remember the Uni I'm speaking of?
What happened to the group? Was it always going to be a one project thing? Or did yall actually have a falling out? Did the album mentioned in the liner notes "Killing, Rape-ing, and Pilligin" ever come out? Was it ever recorded? Are there unreleased EPA's Parental Advisory tracks floating out there somewhere?
At what point did You go into the Navy? Were you ever even in the Navy? Like I said I hear rumors? Did you go to college? Where?
What are you doing now? What's up with Japan?
Recently on EBay I saw EPA's Parental Advisory going for $210 US from someone in Japan? Did you see that shit? Was that you selling it? What do think about a tape you made so long ago now being worth that much?
I ain't sellin' mine, thanks for your continued genius, g.
Luke Sick And here's what the man himself wrote back:
hey Luke Sick,
sorry i've haven't gotten back to you...and it's been AWHILE...i'll try
and get these questions to you completed in a few weeks...i don't
mean to be a flake and thanx for the interest...it's just that my
schedule is madd-hectic...first off...i work 7 days a week, i record
music every other week, i rehearse 4 days a week, i perform out
on occasion, and i still try to get out & socialize a small tidbit...
everything is going really good rite now...just completed a group
album with a friend of mine in LA...we got cameos from killah priest, c-rayz walz, holacaust, lmno, casual, zion i,
and a few others and it looks like it will be coming next year on a
pretty decent, reputable, well-known indie rap lable...so far
everything is going along smoothly with our lawyer...BUT WE'LL
SEE...you know how this business goes....you can't be sure of
anything until it's ALREADY DONE....then rite now i'm working on my
solo lp and i'm getting opio, ill bill, holacaust, and mf grimm for it...
next month i'm getting a verse with killah priest....i'm really digging
your new stuff as the "GRAND..."
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND...
dopestyle
I hope you love the cum song ep as much as I do.
Here's the Wikipedia entry you get when you type in Flynamic Force:
