Closed session kid. Here's a mix of some (not all) recordings and artists I'm into these days, mostly cutty Bay Area locals, and if not I'm sure they're cutty local somewhere. Here's somewhat of a track list (I don't know all the song titles so I left em off):
Jazzy Jay, Afrika Bambatta
Foul Mouth Jerk, TopR, Conceit, Merkulson
Grand Invincible
Beird by Son Tiff
Fist Fam, Ville Boyz
Brainsick Mob
Richie Cunning
Six Feet Deep
Fuck MCs
Dave Dub and the Sutter Cain Gang
MF Doom
Fog
Rec League
Eddie K, Brandon B, Thug E Fresh, Fay Dog, MC Oroville
I discovered this 12" through my buddy Ken Prank (locals may know Ken as a record swap regualr as well as the mastermind behind the killer punk/hc label Prank Records). I snagged a few cheap lp's off one of Ken's recent set sale lists and he warned me that they were not in the best shape. To make up for that and the fact I was paying for him to ship them 20 miles, he said he'd throw in a rap 12" he'd found a bunch of sealed copies of at Goodwill. It "isn't a heavy," he told me, but I still curious to see what it was as Ken digs for records in the Bay harder than most dj's and producers I know (if you put an ad on craigslist with the word "records" in it, you can almost guarantee a response from Ken). I wasn't sure what to expect, but when the package arrived and I saw the DFTC 12", the cover hit me like a ton of black bricks: a dope line drawing of a b-boy with a gun to the head of a fat pig cop. Damn! What a sick cover! I flipped it over to see who drew it and low and behold it was Dug One TMF. I glanced over the credits and none of the names rang any bells except for Ken Lee being the mastering engineer. I threw it on and the first thing that popped in my head was PARIS. MC Mike P., "The Mex In Effect", was obviously feeling P-Dogs black empowerment vibe and flipped it Mexican style for DFTC (Down For The Cause). From the Black Panther samples to the tempos to Mike P.'s cadence -- Paris. "Bring It On" is an uptempo call for revolution: "This is war / and I'm in it to win it / I'll drop the mic and grab a gun in a minute". The 808 on this is relentless and I can't help but imagine that co-producer J-Spina was using a Nissan minitruck as his monitor speaker when laying this down. And the drums hit hard, really hard. The kick rhythmically knocks a wheezing robot in the chest, apparently hanging on just to bust a fresh rhythm scratch and let everyone know that, while the revolution will not be televised, it will indeed test the engineering of various imported chassis rolling Vogues up and down Mission St. The flipside, "Laws Are For The Rich" is a bit slower and has more of a Public Enemy with it's Bomb Squad style production. That fucking 808 is still there, booming like a mother fucker, upsetting uppity neighbors all over the 415. "Go ahead and call the cops on me and my boys for beatin' out my Maxell copy of this 12. I got my 9 stashed in my Kangol under the seat." At least, that's what it sounds like the song is telling me. And check that breakdown out, this track megamixes itself! So after wiping the drool from my chin, I set out to google this lil guy. I was already bugging because there is no date printed anywhere on the sleeve or label (I'm guessing 1991), but when I discovered there wasn't even a discogs entry for this I was further intrigued. In fact, the only mention on the web I could find was an old Hip Hop Slam post by Billy Jam which mentions "writer/emcee Michael Perry (formerly of DFTC)" as author of the childrens book Turntable Timmy. Suddenly I flash back to the last bookstore job I held (working for one of the biggest assholes I've ever had the displeasure of working for) where I was consistently trying to stretch three hours of work into an eight hour day, the only male working in the store, trying to down out the menopausal crying and ex-husband phone calls of my worker who sat behind me. One day I was doing some mindless data entry at my desk when I overheard "...and the artwork was done by Doug Cunningham, a local graffiti artist." My ears pricked up and I started eavesdropping on the conversation. Turns out it was Michael Perry (aka Mike P.) trying to hustle his book to our childrens book buying mess of a human. I waited till he was done with his pitch, she agreed to buy a few books and got up and introduced myself. I told him I overheard him talking about Dug One and Q-Bert to which he responded, "You write?" We chopped it up for a bit before and Mike was mad cool. I wished him luck with his book and went back to my desk, realizing that I just let my annoying ass coworker in on some shit we typically keep secret. I wish I would have been hip to this DFTC 12" then. That would have added a bit of extra irony since the owner of the store was a filthy rich former attorney who probably grimaced the minute he saw the Turntable Timmy books The Mex In Effect had just snuck in through the back door!
Pilot Rase writing rhymes in the motorhome studio circa 1997.
Warrior Paint is a previously unreleased demo by FTA.
FTA - Full-Time Artists-Four-Track Anthems. In order on this jam: Unbreakable Combz, Triangulum, and Pilot Rase. They all rap; they all do production. I think they made this in early Two-Triple-Omega. A perfect example of Milpitas' contunued legacy of demented skillz, fly tags, and intricate pieces.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: GURP FEST 2010, FRI. DEC. 17th @ CLUB 6 SF
In the last couple of years, the “crud coalition” (as the late great Killa Sha would say) known as GURP CITY has become the most talked-about wild bunch in San Francisco Hip-Hop. Bringing music fans from all over the country to Club 6 in the Tenderloin District, GURP FEST 2010 focuses on reunions, big names in the scene and fan favorites from around the Bay Area and beyond.
This year’s fest promises to incite total ruckusness: Headliner TOPR has curated what is undoubtedly the strongest lineup to date, and has also expanded the event to include more scratch and megamix DJs than ever before. Beginning 9:30 PM FRIDAY DECEMBER 17TH @ CLUB 6, GURP FEST will blister San Francisco with the wide range of local and distant styles that rap and DJ fans have come to expect from “The City In A Bottle,” a.k.a. GURP CITY, check the logo, relly.
The fest culminates on Saturday night at Gestalt on 16th Street in the Mission District for DJ Toph One’s 40th Birthday Bash, where GURP CITY MCs and DJs will “cut heads” in an off the cuff crew session, dive bar style.
The festivities actually jump off TOMORROW NIGHT: Dec. 15th Wednesday at this party featuring other local legends and up and comers- Bored Stiff, Gas Mask Colony and Spank Pops:
Here's Gurp City's latest under TopR&FMJ's Gurp City South logo - Foulmouth Jerk featuring Artifacts - "Back Up On The Scene." TopR on the beer spit up cameo!! Beat produced by Cutty Bang.
The story as I know it (and I assure you I'm wrong) goes something like: Marz made this mixtape while still in high school in Millbrae to capitalize off the local noteriety he received after crushing some soft duck at a lunchtime DJ battle in the school's courtyard judged by DJ Disk. Marz has this battle on VHS tape and I hope this encourages him to digitize this footage and upload it to the inna-webba-nets. BUMP SPACE TRAV!!
I mentioned this briefly in last week's post and I finally got the master last night, uploaded it and now G.I. is off to SXSW! Enjoy and feel free to respost:
THE LOW BUDGET / NO BUDGET SAGA:
Some point and time around Summer 2009: Earlier in the year I had just been mowed down by a lady driving a brand new Infinity while I was riding my bicycle to work. I sustained a broken elbow, which meant I could not work and the next few months would be consumed with physical therapy, surgery and more physical therapy. I was unable to DJ, unable to play shows and was essentially going insane having been deprived of ability to create noise, an obsession that is typically insatiable even with two good elbows. I had a lot of time on my hands and not much to do. I got my cannabis prescription. I reunited with my homie MC Stinkweed who I had previously worked with in the Shadow People and Shed Dwellaz and introduced him to Luke Sick. Stinkweed was out of work and Luke was working part time so my house became the weekday hangout spot. One day we entered the studio and emerged with “Brain Exploder” which served as the catalyst for this comp. I hit up some of my beat making homies (T.C. Bonelocs and G-Pek) to see if they were down to contribute a couple beats with the plan being to record and release a compilation as cheaply as possible and give it away for free. I invited a bunch of MC’s to come through and rip the tracks and the result is what you are now listening to. Of course, nothing is easy. During the course of the project the motherboard in my Mac needed to be replaced, the hard drive with all the sessions on it crashed and the data needed to be retrieved and two of the MC’s featured were locked up (Tizoe DaVinci is still locked down as I type. Keep your head up homie!). So enjoy and feel free to share this with all your friends. I ended up putting a lot more time and money into this than I planned but the original intent was to give it away for free and that’s just what we fin to do!
Aight chill,
DJ Eons One
625/ UM/ AS/ Gurp City
3/16/10
It's no secret the blog has been mad slow with the updates recently. For a minute we were able to hold down a weekly post, but that seems like ages ago. I feel like we straight up fell off on posting. Truth be told, Smooth Triumph and I have been pretty busy putting together the latest Grand Invincible album, "Cold Hand In The Dice Game" which is available now from ZeroFriends. We also put together a limited collector pack for the ultra nerds which you can get here. The video above is one of the songs off the new album. We've also been working hard on the forthcoming "Low Budget / No Budget" compilation which will be available for free download very soon. Stay tuned!
I also wanted to drop links to stuff a few of our rellies have been working on. 2010 we fin to give y'all a dose of the mega-flex:
Eddie K just dropped a new album called "Future Spit" which is available through Gurp City Digital. Grab it here.
The Machete Vox crew just released a new Z-Man ep for FREE called "Show up, Shut Up and Rap". It should also be noted that Eddie Def scratches on 3 of the tracks! Errry!
Gus Cutty of the mighty Fist Fam has also unleashed a new blog aimed at collecting all press releases, show announcements, etc. from our growing crew of Bay Area DIY hip hop groups. Simple and straightforward, I suggest bookmarking it for future reference. Gus also promises to get a podcast up and running ASAP. Check it out: fogbreaks.com
Bay Area refugee TopR Holiday now resides in North Carolina where he has found a new podium for his drunken philosophizing. Once again teaming up with partner Foul Mouth Jerk, the two MCs and a myriad of guests talk about whatever the fuck pops into their head on their weekly Worst Case Scenario radio show on Ashville FM. Check em out here.
And lastly, long time college radio DJ and ROBME supporter Japanic now has a page set up to archive past radio shows. He's got a killer Spiderman tribute mix he put together up right now. http://soundcloud.com/japanic
The Easy Rider Boys are back! Now under the moniker Contraband, Joe Dub, Alex75 and DJ Marz have just released their second 7", this time on Asita. This time they are joined by none other than Devin the Dude!! Marz produced the Devin track and it's a grimey, futuristic slap where Devin masterfully riffs about how we don't have to do anything any more in the modern world 'cause it's all electronic and done for us and Joe Dub comes rippin in there seamlessly as well like he was just adding his G knowledge to the convo for a laidback result that makes me wanna mix vodka and peach schnapps with Arizona Arnold Palmer. But on the Alex75 produced flipside Joe Dub really shines as an accomplished San Francisco MC (now residing in the middle of the Pacific) dedicated to the craft with rhymes that show that when dues have been paid... it really pays off. The man is a certified pro. For any serious Devin the Dude fanatic and anybody serious about indy Northern California/Bay Area rap vinyl releases this is a must have. A great record on the best format.
First, Eddie K and then Devin ?!?!!?! Who will be next? Blowfly? Actually I heard next up Joe will be releasing the legendary Ellay Khule/Rifleman (produced by CVE) 7" on his own Cali Classics label. I wholeheartedly salute these noble endeavors.
Recorded much earlier this decade, but never released, here's a Maxi-12" packed with raw underground hip hop power that hit the cutting room floor, but can now be released digitally like it was aged whiskey. Raw B of KUSF Beat Sauce (R.I.P.) cred is a minimalist beast on the MPC. He was raised by the old school and brought it to radio every week for the true heads to absorb. That's Bambatta sitting down in black peeping the vet's skills in the top pic. Respect.
For those keeping track, I gave a brief mention of the Wreck Shop awhile back on here. During one of my trips there I picked up an unassuming graffiti video called Malicious Mischief put together by the TMF crew. Little did I know how much of an impact that tape would have on my friends and I for the years to come. After seeing all the East Coast folks in Video Graff, it was nice to see some of the home team shining through our cathode ray tubes. Eventually it seemed as if I was the only person in my circle who actually owned a copy of the tape and most people who had seen it had seen my copy. I'd always wanted to run a post on it here, but being the luddites we are, I had no idea how to convert my vhs tape to the interweb. One morning while hazily sipping coffee I got the bug up my ass to search for it on youtube. Of course it's on there, right? So I posted a clip on facebook to have my homiecertone inform me "It's from your video!" So it's here that I present to you, the OG San Francisco graff video, MALICIOUS MISCHIEF (most of it, at least):
Nice intro montage of early-mid 90's Bay ish. These were the days, boyee! Seemed like the entire City looked like this. Then some mellow felon's let you follow them on a journey to play in the land of forgotten Munis. Peep the OG SF Derby.
WimFSC drops some science on the art of letters. Nice montage, so much history there. Then, the highlight of the video, UFO and Bum bomb a freeway sign during the day. I remember seeing that run and then to see it being done, during the day, in the video blew me away. "To the extreme," as Bum puts it.
The format of the footage of Bum and UFO bombing with the interview audio going is really dope. "Making your mark on the system" in the spirit of Koch's famous flub. Then we have a production that really sums this scene in the 90's, which included Twist, Dean, Bisaro, Dug, KR, etc. Cypher interview with some bombing footage. "The new wave is old wave." Another montage, some BART lurking, etc. And then, that's it. At least that's all that certone has up. Hopefully we'll have a chance to up the remainder at some point in the future.
I should also mention that the original beats were provided by UFO. Years later I would buy a DJ Marz tape at Cue's that included those very same beats as well as a UFO penned cover.
You might not have this one. In fact, I think it's kinda rare. I know it's dope. Executive produced and manufactured by the great Johnny LeMasters, who used to go under the moniker Sarge Shitface and once rode along with Joe Dub and Sacred Hoop to a legendary show in Chico that involved mushrooms and aluminum foil made jewlery, this piece of wax defines cutty. Around this time Mr. LeMasters (who culled his name from the hot-and-cold 80s Giants infielder) was also posing as a reverend and marrying unsuspecting couples in Golden Gate Park for cash. You hear him referred to as the "Rev" on Joe Dub's track, "95." Joey's self-produced track is best described by his a.k.a. Seabreeze, and I think the artistic vision of the record sleeve represents his migration from the San Francisco streets to the islands of Hawaii, but that's pure conjecture. I love how the back of the record gives the equipment used to make and record the songs and the locations where they were recorded in the liner notes.
The legend of low-fi greatness behind the Eddie K and DJ Marz track, "So Much Drama In The Industry" as I remember goes something like this: Marz was staying with this girl in Oakland, referred to as "Bubbles" in the liner notes. Marz made the beat on his MPC 2000, then plugged both it and a mic thru his regular DJ mixer, a Vestax, Rane or something of the like, with the "out" going into his Sony mini-disc player/recorder (remember those little pieces of digital heaven?). Marz played the beat out the MPC and Ed rapped along at the same time down to basically a stereo one-track all in one take. Straight Schooly D "PSK" styleee, fool! Legend has it they did it in one single take (that's why the liner notes say, "One Take Jake) and then Marz ejected the mini-disc, handed it to Johnny LeMasters and said, "Press dem plates, Sarge!" Okay, Marz probably didn't say that and LeMasters probably wasn't even there, but talk about on the spot talent, Bulletproof Space Travelers come thru everytime. If there's 300 of these out there I'd be hella surprised. See if you can find it. And was there ever an Easy Rider/02?
Look closely on the righthand edge of the back cover. Morgan Smail is listed as the Spiritual Advisor. Caddyshack heads know that's the kid that asked to eat his sister's steak fat, sucked down dead soldiers with cigarettes extinguished in them and puked thru the open sunroof of a Porsche. No wait, that kid's name is Spaulding! Who is Morgan Smail?
Here's another rip of a tape of a Drum show from sometime in 1996. Not sure on the month, but Mad Skillz was playing Club Deco in SF, anyone remember that show? Kevvy Kev goes for delf for a bulk of the tape playing lots of the hot 12"'s of the time. Dan Charnas strikes through with Chino XL who drops a bit about his forthcoming solo joint and plays what sounds like a cassette copy of "Waiting To Exhale". Whatever happened to the other MC's in Gravitation? I always thought the B side won on that 12". This all leads up to a freestyle session with Chino and Saafir which our homeboy Kurlee Daddee threw up on his blog here. Redwood tape heads in the house!
Outside takin’ a smoke break and… Next thing you know, up walks a West Oakland soldier in a burgundy lumberjack and beanie; it’s fuckin’ Saafir!, just 4 months into the release of his debut, “Boxcar Sessions” and fresh off the battlefield from picking Casual’s pocket at Crash Palace and cutting heads against Hiero with his crew on the radio, like an ancient warrior still bloody and fuming from the carnage. Had ‘Menace’ come out yet? Hell yeah, it had. Hobo Junction was so dangerous back then, cockiness and bravado with all the skill and innovation to back it up, Fondouglas just had to grab him for an impromptu and totally chaotic interview, and he was more than willing to oblige, jumping right into it with all the disrespectful vigor and arrogance required of a hungry MC on the come up in the grimey 90s. He speaks on all sorts of topics, with a ferocity and velocity that has to been seen and heard for itself, from doing time for poisoning his group home leader as an adolescent to explaining that his concept of respect hinges on who will fight next to him. I really like what he says about, “fuck fame; it’s all about skills,” and I think it’s hilarious when he says, “And Domino rolled up under a car,” and Kwanz chimes in “my boy did a rap about that.” Dang, Bay hip-hop was such a small world back then. I had to break it into two parts and sorry for the shitty quality, but the only person I could find to convert it from vhs for me was ThuggyFresh from SF’s booze-cartelGurp City, and he was black-out drunk from beerandrap.com's Pork In The Park and forcing me to shoot Jameson the whole time and blabbing on and on about how he wanted to go to the Mission Hill Saloon to beat up the bartender chick’s boyfriend. Yeah, right. To make up for that genius, I’m also upping my advance promo copy of “Battle Drill” b/w “Rock The Show (I Wanna Know)”-- the first Hobo Junction posse-cut on wax-- to remind everybody how raw the saucee general stepped on the scene and left everything in his wake demolished. Fuck it, I’m also throwin’ on the “Just Riden’” 12” (with the end-to-end DreamTDK freight on the back cover dedicated to HJ founder Plan B) and the bonus “Pull Ya Card” and album version of “Hype Shit” on the B, because this interview is just that… hype shit. Check it when Saafir explains why his style was too futuristic and over-the-head of the average rap listener back then, because everybody’s so “saturated with dank.” Now ask yourself: as we move full-fledged into the legal dispensary era, can we ever hope to be blessed with an original, and downright mean talent like Saafir again? I suggest you get stoned, listen to Saafir, and contemplate that shit, homey. You gotta love the chaos. BTW- My intention for posting this is NOT to rekindle any bad feelings for Saafir or between him and any of the people he talks about (it can come down just as fast as it went up if that's the case), but rather to document a primary source of Bay Area hip-hop history. Personally, I don't think Saafir should be held accountable, in retrospect, for any of these statements he made almost 15 years ago when he was young and making a name for himself, that's just how it was. I doubt Tyrell Biggs is still mad at Mike Tyson for saying he screamed like a woman, so I think we as well can all be for-the-moment-grown-ups here and take the highground (link will only make sense to FTA heads who were major HJ fans) and just enjoy this for what it is: a cool slice of the chaos that was our past and that hardcore attitude before anybody let themselves get called some lameshit like a 'backpacker' or worse yet a 'fashion-savvy, swag-havin' hipster.' And while we're on the positive tip, here's a bonus in-depth story of Saafir's career and life that was posted in 2006, proving a soldier's been tested in the flame (from jailtime for mobbing a stolen rental to fucking spinal cancer) and stepped from the ashes healthy, relaxed, and enlightened. Well worth the read right down to the part where an older, wiser, self-disciplined Saafir offers the interviewer lady (who naively compares the rapper's look to that of Morpheus in the Matrix and says in her article: "Listen to the first verse of 'Worship the Dick' and you'll feel as if you've choked on young Saafir's favorite appendage.") a Kleenex and says, "You got lipstick on your teeth." You gotta love the chaos.
A bevy of all kinds of hip-hoppers (not just DJs) came thru to represent in Q-bert’s catacombs of records that day. Here Kwanz (aka Dubstar now known as Rick Flare) an original member of the legendary Bored Stiff rap crew from the Lower Haight fresh off mentioning that he drops tons of acid on the song "Therapy" off the Bomb Hip Hop Compilation came thru to bust a freestyle with MC Chill (I think, please correct me if you know his real codename??) from the equally legendary TMC crew (rulers of Mission District bombing all thru the early-nineties and beyond; peep “Piece-By-Piece” for the full history lesson). The two street rappers had never met before that day, and I don’t know if I’m being a race-obsessed whiteprick for pointing this out, but I think Kwanz’s seemingly unconscious and casual tolerance of the Filipino dude’s liberal use of the N-word let’s you know it’s a ‘Sco thang, SF b-boys of all races (Bored Stiff itself is a good example of the Filipino, Asian, South American, Caribbean, Black, White, etc. melting pot the SF hip-hop scene was and still is) rarely tripped on that shit back in the nine-quad when real recognized real from 50 blocks away (folkers from other parts of the country used to trip hard on that shit when they visited back then, unless of course they were from NY). I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, I'm just saying that's how it was. But hey now, you Menlo Park breads don’t go gettin’ all loose-lipped with the racial epithets in your freestyle ciphers just ‘cause I said that, ‘cause these days most people assume yer fake from jump and you’d get snuffed on GP, besides drunk ass peninsula whiteboys never really got a pass anyway (firsthand experience speaking, ain’t that right Z-Man?). For writer heads: you might be able to do a “Where’s Waldo?” on other members from TMC [like Spie, who was also a member of TDK and did cover art for Q-bert's Dirtstyle records as well as various Hobo Junction releases along with MikeDreamTDK before he passed R.I.P.-- hint: this is foreshadowing for round 3 y'all!] and DJ MykeOne maybe?) poking into the frame for cameos, but I ain’t saying what’s what, those dudes still got burners running, and I don’t wanna get my ass kicked. That crew had a reputation ya know. Their name: TOO MUCH CRUSHIN’ didn’t just apply to “gettin’ up," you smell me?
DJ Fondouglas (formerly of Sacred Hoop) and good friend Todd Hurvitz (aka Hurb, recently a co-producer for the show Punk’d) shot this footage for a long defunct documentary project that never got off the ground way back in the hoodies and Tims days. Q-bert’s stoner jean jacket with the sheep wool lining means absolute business and nothin’ else. Also peep how DJ Disk has his old real-as-fuck, dirtstyle Gemini-mixer turned sideways so he can bust his line-switch in an up-and-down fashion. Watch the residue from Disk’s white tallcan of contact spray fly (remember that shit !?!?! fully bonk! I love fast as all hell, glitchy overused line-switch scratching, bring it back!!). Watch till the end, ‘cause shit gets faster than bathtub crank!
To further honor Spiderman, here’s a clip of one of his favorite local rap groups, Third Sight, performing their anti-social 12” single “Murder Death Kill” for the Fuck Pop Convention at Maritime Hall sometime between 2001 and 2002 (I forget when exactly). Third Sight’s onstage line-up at that point consisted of Jihad (lead emcee), Sir Limpdic (aka Fat Flash) and Palo Alto’s own Insomniac (as the back-up emcees), DuFunk (on production), and the prince of darkness himself D-Styles (from ISP/Beat Junkies/Gunkhole) on the 1s and 2s. Ken and Juan (Jihad the Roughneck) were good friends, and for a while Jihad (when between brief moments of actual employment) was somewhat of a fixture on the Monday Beatdown and always ready with a grimey 15 min.+ freestyle whenever Ken gave him the cue (anybody got tapes of that?). This performance is deadly and the 12” is even better. These long-dreaded brothers used to stalk Bay Area stages like ring-wraiths with lyrics culled from the minds of serial killers, and cheesy kool-aid-smiling, and all that jokey-smurf shit, was NOT part of the program. Watch how fast Jihad puts all that party-good-time shit to a cease when he steps on the set. Ken wasn’t around to see this performance in person, but his spirit is right there in the front row yokin’ up posers and punchin’ ‘em in the face.
I admit, I fell behind with working on the blog the past couple weeks. Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of ROBME and it kinda snuck up on us. I had an idea for a special megapost, but it became somewhat of a larger project than I anticipated so it will not see the light of day for a minute. BUT we do have some DOPE exclusive shit that will be dropping later this week. Just need to hook up the RCA's and clean the tape heads. STAY TUNED!! So in the meantime and inbetween time, I figured I'd drop some recent discoveries I made in the mess that is the ROBME archives.
First off is a an old flier from an Rob One appearance at Cat's Alley which was put together by the legendary DJ Stef and her Vinyl Exchange. Next we got a short interview with Kool Keith, TR Love and Kutmasta Kurt circa 1994 from a SF graffiti mag called Hole In The Ozone: In that same issue of Hole In The Ozone there was this cool stream of conscious page put together by DJ Sake 1: "Anyone who has the original colored sleeve Super Disco Breaks (Winley) is like my older brother." Amen to that. Then we have an issue of the Bay Area Hip Hop Coalition newsletter from September 1998. The BAHHC was a group radio DJ's united together to promote hip hop in the Bay. Check the calendar page to see just how poppin shit was back in 98. Damn...
Our good friend the Black Stamp has blessed us with another tape from his mysterious shed of analog treats. This time it's a 60 minute tape with 2 excerpts from a late 1998 episode of Spiderman's Monday Beatdown radio show which was on 89.7FM KFJC. For us heads in the Bay, the Monday Beatdown started your week off on right foot and I was a loyal listener. Spiderman aka Ken Hamilton's knowledge of music was deep and far beyond the typical college radio hip hop DJ of the time. Just check out this playlist that has Albert Ayler going into Boogiemonsters and Mystik Journeymen followed by Crass. Robert Goulet? It was Ken who first turned me onto the madness of Christian Marclay. Ken also worked at Cue's and other local record spots further casting out his net for the dopest cuts. Ken was killed in a car accident in 2000 and the airwaves have never been the same since.
RIP Ken Hamilton aka the Spiderman, May 14, 1973 - December 22, 2000.
Finally ripped the 2nd half of the show. I gotta say, we pulled out some great records for this one. The "rave cave" Luke referred to was a massive DJ set up some norms were erecting in the studio next to ours. They had it jacked into a live PA system inside the radio station and were BLASTING techno beats while we were live on the air. We had the door closed and the speakers cranked trying to hold onto our grimey mindstate. Jackie "No, I will not shake your hand" O. kept trying to throw us for a loop, but we pressed on. And on and on because those jokers couldn't get their show together to start on time so we got a few extra records in. Unfortunately the tape ran out, but you can peep the entire playlist here and you can recreate the missing audio if you are so inclined.
Any Bay Area rap radio show tapes - 1980's thru 90's Brainsick Mob 12" Marzette Watts - Marzette Watts & Co. LP Phil Blunts - They Don't Really Love Us 12" Pitch Black - Analyze the Progam 12" Reggie Reg - Da Junkys Son 12" Slum Brothers - The Sure Shot 12" Troubleneck Brothers - Back to the Hip Hop 12" V/A Lost 'N Yonkers 2xLP
Closed session kid. Here's a mix of some (not all) recordings and artists I'm into these days, mostly cutty Bay Area locals, and if not I'm sure they're cutty local somewhere. Here's somewhat of a track list (I don't know all the song titles so I left em off):
