Blogging 101

I'm on the road again, but after reading your comments, I've decided to respond in the form of a post, rather than in the comments section to keep it simple.

Even though saying "what up" to an old friend in a post is as asinine as a friend sending you a message through myspace (when they have your three email addresses, you cell, your home phone number and home address), in this case I gotta make an exception. Actually wait, time to rewind, and talk about Dante Ross. Many of you know the deal, many don't- among other things, Dante was one of the most consistent, visionary and resourceful A&R/executive producers ever. If De La Soul, Brand Nubian, Grand Puba, Leaders Of The New School, Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, KMD, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Ol' Dirty Bastard or Everlast mean anything to you, next time you see Dante, give him a pound and tell him Stretch told ya. I can't imagine the list of artists that Dante wanted to sign but couldn't because of bidding wars that went the wrong way or other circumstances beyond his control. I know for sure that D intended to bring Cypress Hill to Elektra but it didn't happen for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe D will do a guest post here and kick the ballistics...??? He can tell you how he and Clark Kent had my back lovely when KRS's brother I.C.U. stepped to me at Soul Kitchen when it was at Wetlands. That was, ah, a slightly awkward situation- and the only time in my entire radio experience that someone wanted to settle a dispute with me by way of knuckles. It never went that way 'cause I.C.U. was just barking, and I don't think he wanted to have any part of Clark or Dante. Now if I can only find that "How I Could Just Kill A Man" demo D gave me. Oh yeah, Dante- "what up!"

Dante has a fresh NY-centric blog too: slamxhype.com/blogs/Dante. Check it out. Yo D, where is Unknown MC at??!!

Now, as far as whether old tapes can be digitized- the answer is...zzzzzz...YES you can. No way!!! Totally! But please stop asking me how. Ever heard of Google? Do some research people. If you get me your tapes, however--and I'm 100% serious about this--I will have them digitized, labeled and photographed and returned to you. The email to reach me about working this out is at the top of the blog.

Thanks for the tip on the OC demo people. I'll find something else. Any suggestions?

Someone asked about a "Step Up Front" remix. All I can come up with is that there was an alternate mix on the 12" but it wasn't a remix. I'm unaware of one, and rap nerds I know don't either.

Godfather Don demos- hell yeah. I never had them. That was all Bobbito. I'll get them from him.

And for those of you having trouble saving files, get your right-click skills up!

I appreciate the emails and comments about posting stuff about music I'm playing/feeling/making these days, but I wanted to keep this blog one-dimensional. Maybe I'll start another blog, after I finish knitting that purple parachute I've been working on with that lifetime supply of yarn I was always trying to give away on the radio.

It's A Demo, It's A Demo, It's A Demo, It's A Demo...Part 2

Demo time.

The Souls of Mischief demo that everyone was amped about was the undeniably classic "Cab Fare" which sampled the theme to Taxi but because of that, was a sample-clearing nightmare. But "Step To My Girl" was another gem that didn't make the album. It has a bitter-sweet, nostalgic vibe, and eptimomizes early Hiero, which was really unique from the start.

Souls of Mischief "Step To My Girl" (demo)


Here is KCR-superstar O.C.'s demo of "Step Into The Ozone" which got redone in a jazzier DITC feel for his classic and slept-on "Word Life" album. Both are dope, but I like the abstract feel that the demo has; I think it compliments the lyrics more.

O.C. "Step Into The O-Zone" (demo)


When Mobb Deep got their first deal at Island/4th & Broadway, it was off the strength of their demo, which they recorded as The Poetical Prophets. Like me, they were going through a transition in the name department. Hav and P were YOUNG here. You would NOT recognize them if I didn't tell you it was Mobb Deep. Their gimmick was that they were shorties smoking copious amounts of weed, drinking 40's and hittin' skins. Like the Souls of Mishchief, as soon as it came time to record their first album, they switched it up dramatically. In Mobb Deep's case, that also meant going through puberty, which meant they could finally at least attempt to be the grimeballs they purported to be on their demo. I've given the entire seven song demo to Prodigy on two occassions but both times it got jacked by someone. What I need is the post-4th & Broadway Mobb Deep demo "Paddy Shop" which is the one-song demo I brought to Loud Records to get them signed.

Poetical Prophets "Flavor For The Non-Believes" (demo)

What's In A Name (or Three)?: I'm On The Radio!

When I got on the radio, I didn't have a funky fresh dj name. I was just Adrian, or Adrian B. Zzzzzzz. Boooring. At the inception of the show, I was hanging out a lot with Claw and the graffiti legend SHARP whom I had met when I was in 6th grade through my older sister. SHARP had been calling me Skinny Bonz (among other more deprecating things). So I rolled with that, especially because SHARP was hip-hop royalty, having been one of the three artists to execute the Wild Style mural which became instantaneously iconic. Of course, after a few weeks, I realized that "Skinny Bonz" was not the move, especially since I was foolish enough to think that within time, I would develop a more muscular build. My main man Eli, founder of Zoo York, had been calling me Stretch, and in the dj-as-superhero/comic book character tradition, I added the "Armstrong". This particular show, which for some reason does not appear on the radio date log that Bobbito kept, is one of our earliest for sure (late 1990 most likely) because of the name confusion. Through the show, I'm refered to as DJ Adrian, Skinny Bonz and Stretch Armstrong. You'd think we would have worked that out before we got on the air, but at the time, we didn't believe that many people would be listening so it was not a big deal.

It's funny to hear how inexperienced we were. This is probably the most formal you'll ever hear Bobbito. He reads off the titles and labels of the records, and we even do a give-away of an album- on cassette no less. You'll hear radio drops from Erick Sermon, DMC, the comedian Doug E Doug, Jarobi and Busta as well as the aforementioned SHARP. These drops were all scrapped because they were pre-Stretch, and very early on I realized that without a producer, doing drops was going to be impossible, which worked out because not having them ended up differentiating what we did from others. We were still emulating radio as we knew it, rather than reinventing what it, which is what happened in time.

Funkmaster Flex, who had been djing on Kiss-FM, was our guest. Hot 97 hadn't gone hip-hop yet, and he was up at the show working his record "Fallen (And I Can' Get Up)" that he had put out with 9MM who had been a part of the Chuck Chillout's Deuces Wild crew. At the time, I wasn't doing much talking on the radio, and to my chagrin, listeners were understandably calling it The Bobbito Show. It was Flex that pulled me aside and told me that as the dj, I gotta talk more, otherwise I won't get credit for all the hard work I put and would be putting into the show. So I started talking (I sound mad awkward here...it's painful to listen to) and soon, I was a big blabbermouth. Yada yada yada.

Shout out to Claw, who was up at this show answering phones; to Flex for the words of wisdom; to Doug E Doug for the comedy; to Curious Jorge who was still a co-host; and to Sheets and Pillows. Some of you know about that.


Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito, WKCR, late '90 with Funkmaster Flex, part 1
Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito, WKCR, late '90 with Funkmaster Flex, part 2

Hip-Hop As A Hobby? Part One: Positive K

I first met Positive K in '92 when his independently released "Night Shift" (executive produced by Big Daddy Kane) came out. This had been the first offering from Pos since his stellar late 80's run with Frist Priority Records, where he played second fiddle to MC Lyte and Audio Two, but was clearly the best lyricist out of the camp. Most of the artists that came to the show in the early years were ust getting their start, and it was much less common for artists that had already had careers to pass through (though in the first month we did have The Jungle Brothers and 3rd Bass, and Ultramagnetic soon to follow). So naturally, we were amped to have Positive K as a guest on March 26th, 1992. He really murdered it that night. Sadly, I don't have the entire show, and it'd be great to hear the "interview" with Pos, but I do have the verses he kicked. I do remember, though, that Pos was one of the most laid back and friendly people I had met at the radio. It really seemed like he just didn't care- that he enjoyed rapping and bugging out, but wasn't really pressed about the music biz. He was non-chalant, and pretty much had a smile on his face the whole time. After "Night Shift" he entered into a commercially successful relationship with Island/4th & Broadway, and we all heard "I Got A Man" a million times. After that, I didn't know what had happened to him, that is until there was a Pos K sighting which provided a eureka moment. Ever wonder what DJ Polo was doing for G Rap if Dr. Butcher and Marley always did the cuts? Well, Pos K was seen with DJ Polo in a particularly notorious part of Queens where you can pay to play if you know what I mean. Then "Night Shift" made sense to me. Positive K didn't need to rap- it was just a hobby!

Gettin' Paid
Step Up Front
A Good Combination
I'm Not Having It
Night Shift
KCR Freestyle, 3.26.92
Grand Puba, Positive and L.G.

Lookin' For Me?

What up, what up what up? I know...I'm lame. I've been either out of town, sick, or my computers have been giving me grief. In fact, my head feels like it's about to fall off as I write this. It's been too long since I posted, but I'm thinking that the delay has had as much to do with my feelings about hip-hop, even though I blame it on circumstance. Doing this blog has been an interesting walk down memory lane, and has made me look back quite a bit. The real is that after 1995, when it was clear that the radio show that Bobbito and I did had turned into something meaningful to a lot of people, everything began to feel very routine, and hip-hop music started to become a case of diminishing returns for me. I have to admit that by 1997 I was kinda dreading it all, but didn't want to stop doing the radio because I still knew that at the end of the day, I was playing the best of what was out there, hopeful that things might change. There were some glimpses of excitement- but overall, my feeling never changed as much as I tried to make the best of the situation. When I finally left the radio (Hot 97, I had already stopped doing KCR) I was relieved, even though I wasn't given an opportunity to say goodbye, which was kind of insulting, considering the fact that most of the staple artists affiliated with the station got their start through my radio show on KCR. What was almost equally disappointing was seeing how little support I was given by these artists- not just while I was on the air, but when my show was taken off the air. It wasn't a big deal, because I was excited about turning a new page, but it just bugged me out how it happened with so little fanfare. Of course, it's entirely possible that by 2,000, what I was doing just paled in comparison to earlier times, and I wouldn't argue with that. So here I am, almost eight years later, waving the hip-hop nostalgia flag. I have mixed feeling about it. I'm as passionate about music as I ever have been, but my tastes are much more eclectic than many of you would expect. Still, when I listen to these old shows, I am reminded that hip-hop in New York from the 80's to the early 90's was simply the best shit ever.