BAY AREA DEMO PARADE TRILOGY 3/3: NEXT OF KIN

Copped this demo same time I got Charizma and PB Wolf's black and yellow demo with "Red light, Green Light" and all that shit on it (the one with the now famous black-n-white photo on the inside with Charizma holding up a picture of PB Wolf from grade school, they put actual developed copies of the photgraph in every tape case they distributed, I lost mine, I'm pissed that I just remembered that). Charizma was a regular guest on KSCU's Thursday Night Hype Show back then. Charizma was a cool dude. I remember them ripping a dope set at Longshoremen's Hall in SF for a Gavin Showcase that the Hype and the rest of the Bay Area College Radio Hip Hop Coalition had put together. He was hella mad after he got off stage, because someone had stolen the folding lawn chairs that him and the crew had brought on stage during their famous "Apple Juice Break" skit. He was like, "Damn, those are my dad's, he's gonna be mad as hell." I thought that was funny. I was really bummed when I found out he died. I always thought he was like the Bay's Lord Finesse. And we desperately needed one. I often ponder how different the Bay underground would sound if he was still around. I bet a lot more people than just me would still be Tim-booted up.

And yet few people know that Charizma made beats too.

Next Of Kin, consisting of rappers Hocus Pocus and Mojo Risin', and production crew the Harvest Children were Charizma's fellow skinz hittin' homies from Milpitas, the "suburban ghetto" that Matt Dillion's first movie, "Over The Edge," was based on, NetFlix that bitch, it's fully worth it. Milpitas means "little cornfield" in Ingles, therefore "Harvest" Children. I like to refer to Next Of Kin and Harvest Children as Charizma's DITC, so to speak. OK maybe that's stretchin' it, but I like this shit. Charizma's stand up bassline on the track he produced, "Home Away From Home" got some early-Show to it, and the horns that blast their way in follow suit. This can't not make you smile.

1993

Artist: Next Of Kin

Title: Tha Tricks and Tha Trade

One side:

1. Screw Yourself

2. Where the Buck Stops

3. Home Away from Home

4. Brothers Keeper

all songs produced by the HARVEST CHILDREN except "Home Away from Home" produced by CHARIZMA

Bless the dead.

Hope you enjoyed the trilogy, beg for more, I'll bring them out.