Continuing my talk with “Super Rapper” T La Rock, we discuss the origins of his name, working with Mantronik, bootleggers and unreleased recordings. T is currently developing a biopic called ‘The T La Rock Story’ with “a very powerful producer from Hollywood” named Bonnie Timmerman (who was the Casting Director on Man On Fire, Carlito’s Way and State of Grace to name a few) as well as working on new music.
What’s the story behind your name?
T La Rock: That’s the thing, I was asking my brother about that. I’ve been ‘T La Rock’ for so long that it escapes me. I try to think real hard, ‘What made me say La Rock?’ I was ‘T La Rock’ when there was only three MC’s that was with Flash, put it that way. [laughs] There was only two ‘La Rocks’. People ask me was I the first ‘La Rock’ and I say, ‘It’s a toss-up’, because there was one other ‘La Rock’ – and this is way before Scott La Rock, ‘cos you know Scott La Rock actually got his name from me. We knew each other – in other words, I knew Scott, I know Scott’s brother, I know Scott’s mother, I know Scott’s cousin – so I knew him. He just was hanging around me all the time and one day he just added the ‘La Rock’ and said, ‘You got a problem with that, do you?’ I said, ‘Nah! Ga’ head’. Not many people know about that.
Who was the other ‘La Rock’?
There was another one who was with Kool Herc, and his name was Coka La Rock. But the thing that was funny about it is his name was pronounced two different ways – ‘Coke La Rock’ and ‘Coka La Rock’. We didn’t know each other. The way I came up with the ‘La Rock’ had nothin’ to do with emceeing. That was from breakdancing…well, dancing, rather. We didn’t call it breakdancing back then. (more…)
T La Rock is so entrenched into the history of hip-hop that he actually attended Kool Herc‘s first parties. After nine years of deejaying, breaking and emceeing locally in The Bronx, as well as introducing his brother Special K of the Treacherous Three to rap, T finally decided to take the next step and begin his recording career. The result was a song that would prove to be one of the most influential b-boy records of all time.
Robbie: When did you get the bug to have a piece of wax out there with your name on it?
T La Rock: Around 1983 is when I decided to go professional, when I hooked-up with Rick Rubin. My brother Special K was the one that actually introduced me to Rick. He was supposed to record a record with Rick Rubin but he couldn’t, because he was signed with Sugarhill Records and Treacherous Three. So my brother told me about this guy Rick Rubin, says he wants to put out a record, he wants to start-up a label, so I was like, ‘OK’. I met Rick Rubin, he was in NYU. He hadn’t gotten with Russell [Simmons] yet. When we first did ‘It’s Yours’, Def Jam wasn’t even a label yet. I think he was actually runnin’ ‘em out of his dorm room. It was ‘Def Jam Recordings’ – almost like a production company. It was still a record company but it wasn’t that official yet.
It was on Streetwise first, right?
That was later on. After we recorded it we hooked-up with Arthur Baker. I think we initially started-out with Streetwise to try to get distribution, and wind-up actually putting the record on there. Everybody gets confused and they say, ‘How come everybody keeps saying LL Cool J was the first record on Def Jam when I bought ‘It’s Yours’. That was on Def Jam!’ It’s just that Def Jam wasn’t a full label yet. If you have an original copy of ‘It’s Yours’, you will see ‘Def Jam Recordings’ on it.
Is it true that you had a falling-out with Def Jam and they tried to get LL to take your spot?
No. What happened was – here’s a record I made, ‘It’s Yours’…huge! One of the biggest records ever. I’m doing two or three shows a week, making anywhere from $800 to $1000 a show – which was a whole lotta money back then. I still kept my job working at the pharmacy when ‘It’s Yours’ was on the radio, getting’ airplay. Now after a while ‘It’s Yours’ finally dies down, I knew nothing about royalties or anything like that. I’m new to the music business. So everybody’s sayin’ to me, “Wow, T. I know you made a lot of money’ and I say ‘Yeah’. I’m thinking they’re talking about from the shows, but they were talking about from record sales! So I went to Streetwise and said, ‘I want a royalty statement’. They gave me a statement – you’re gonna love this – saying that we owed them money! [laughs] In other words, tryin’ to say the record didn’t make sell enough to recoup to make back the money! So that was like a complete, total turn-off, and I had gotten a little mad with Rick because at the beginning I never knew what deal went down. Keep in mind, this is my very first record deal. I knew nothing about the business. (more…)
If you’re not checking The Meaning of Dope you’re missing out on the best source of original rap footage out there right now. This in particular caught my attention – vintage footage of the ever-elusive Joe Fatal, who also appeared in Main Source‘s “Just Hangin’ Out” and Kool G Rap‘s “Erase Racism” videos.
Just got off the phone with Fuc That (who used to be in a crew called Street Smartz in the 90s) and he was telling me about his new shit. Considering he was only 17 when he dropped the classic “Ain’t No Burna”, he’s hardly over the hill these days. Look out for his Half Man/Half Beast mixtape on Stand Out Music.
So I get an email today from a guy from Underground Hip Hop dot com letting me know that the Kidz In The Hall gave Unkut a fair amount of airtime in this new video. Amusing to say the least. As I’d originally mentioned in the post, I only really included them to make up the numbers. They make decent enough music I guess, if you’re into that kind of shit, but there’s really no excuse for rocking canary yellow cardigans unless you’re Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Anyway, cheer up fellas – you only polled thirteen votes!
No doubt you’ve been following Prodigy ‘s antics in recent times. In between his usual antics, “Field Marshal P” has gone and followed-up the surprisingly enjoyable Return Of The Mac with H.N.I.C. 2, which I assumed was gonna be a pile of steaming horse shit. Turns out it’s one of the most entertaining records I’ve heard in a long time. Let me break it down:
1. The Cover – Not only do we get a bunch of Streetwear P‘s posing in various garish outfits, but he’s added little hand-drawn syringes, pills, bottles of booze and even dice!
2. The Booklet – Lyric Book P kindly included his complete lyrics for your reading pleasure: “Yo P I can rhyme/ 50 Cent did it, I can do this shit too/ But you not 50, he a individual”. Say word.
3. He calls himself “a handsome shooter” and describes himself as “the skateboarder, surfboarded, snowboarder”. Surfboard P is gnarly, broseph!
4. Claims that he was in the car when his pops robbed a jewelery store when he was eight years old. It’s unclear whether or not he was driving the getaway car himself.
5. Includes a bonus “Spanish” version of “A.B.C.” which is just certain lines translated and spoken by some robot voice.
6. The Beats – Alchemist and Sid Roames deliver some seriously dope music, which reminds me of a 70′s horror flick (in a good way).
7. Responds to lyrical shots from Nas and Jay with: “You thought something sweet? Believe Jay if you want/Ga head beleive Nas or whoever you choose/You come on over here and you gonna see the truth”. That’ll learn ‘em, right?
8. Halfway through “Young Veterans” it sounds like he’s rapping underwater. That’d be another first for this trailblazer.
9. Includes a prison yard photo of his pops, which is so ignorant that it it wins.
10. Despite the fact that Illuminati P can barely string two words together and hardly even bothers to actually rhyme during many verses, this shit is nuttier than anything Ol’ Dirty ever did. Straightjacket P for the win!
New Marcy from the latest J-Love CD. I need to type up that interview I did with J, who disses the fuck outta “all you bitch-ass bloggers” all over this new joint.
During the prime years of the mighty Rap-A-Lot label, there were no less than five songs released that related to school. Was this part of some sort of community service agreement? It could be argued that the Geto Boy‘s song was nothing to do with school, but it includes Willie D‘s teacher Miss Elaine, so that’s close enough. It’s fair to say there are some mixed messages here – to hear Raheem and 2 Low (who was still in school when he made this) tell it, the school yard is nothing but good times and sex rhymes. But then Willie D admits that ‘School is a drag, and sometimes you’re teacher gets mad’, while he had previously ‘beat his teacher down with a gun’ on that Geto Boys shit. Big Mike and 3-2 of the Convicts cut straight to the chase and let us know what they think about getting a worthless ‘edumication’.
Even though Rap-A-Lot Records is closely associated with Houston’s 5th Ward, most of the groups on the early roster were originally from New Jersey or New York, which resulted in some interesting blends of styles. The Def IV’s Nice & Hard album is a perfect example, as it introduced an upbeat, sample-heavy sound that was light-years ahead of the usual Texas slow-flow of the era. DJ Vicious Lee breaks down his time with the crew and his later work with the Geto Boys and Gangster N-I-P.
Robbie: I had the Def IV record back in the day and then I found the CD the other day and it had two extra songs.
DJ Vicious Lee: Oh OK, so you had the wax version and then you got the CD? “Buggin’ Out Time” was a Lonnie Mack DJ record. The CD’s been in my car ever since I had it. Cee lives in Manhatten – The Prince EZ Cee, now he’s DJ Peter Parker. Him and Wiz live together. Now Wiz produced the music to “Get Busy”.
The credits said “Produced by Doug King and James Smith”, and then co-produced by you guys, but I know that the credits on records are not always a true representation of what happened.
Exactly. My name is nowhere on Geto Boys We Can’t Be Stopped album. They got me good on that one.
So what was your involvement with that?
I did the entire pre-production, in the beginning.
That was a great album.
Yeah. That was the first one that Rap-A-Lot had go platinum. The first platinum album they ever put out. (more…)
Anyone in the New York area with plans tomorrow night…cancel ‘em:
Tuesday June 10th
S.O.B.’s Presents:
TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF KL (SCREWBALL)
featuring:
CORMEGA
BLACK POET
NYGz
SCREWBALL
w/ SPECIAL GUESTS:
MARLEY MARL
DJ PREMIER
PETE ROCK &
QUEENSBRIDGE CREW
Doors: 8pm
Show: 9pm
Admission: $10 Advance/$12 Day of Show
It seems these days that hip-hop’s shining stars pass away too young all too often, leaving behind only music and memories for the hip-hop community at large to mourn. Another day, another fallen soldier. This March, KL aka Kamakazee from Screwball, one of our favourite NY crews, has passed away after an asthma attack. We’d like to send our condolences to his family and friends.
We will be celebrating his life and music with a concert featuring Cormega, NYGz, Black Poet, Marley Marl, Pete Rock, DJ Premier and many many more. Come out and support hip-hop music, culture and life at S.O.B.’s on Tuesday June 10th.
Looks like there are some hurt feelings out there. Some humorless prick over at The Chicago Reader attempted to lick some proverbial shots back at ya boy after I shat on his hometown heroes.
The hack that put this piece together makes several incorrect assumptions – primarily that I give a shit. He also seems to have issues with who I did/didn’t include, but since I didn’t spend a great deal of time researching the post I guess it’s my bad that I don’t know who Spank Rock is. There’s also some mention of “homosexual panic”, which sounds like something that you might experience during your first night in the bing. The funniest part of the whole thing is the idea that Unkut Dot Com is a “high-minded blog” that criticizes “mainstream rappers”. Elsewhere, there’s a blog post by some kid called Corey listing six reasons why my article was pure evil. Good times all round, really.
It’s fair to say that the internets have not been kind to rappers. While DJ’s and producers have been able to use the new avenues to their advantage, most MC’s just end-up playing themselves when they get online. It all started with message boards, where ‘underground’ rap dudes trying to kill time until Fat Beats opened up would attempt to defend their reputations against anyone who posted about how shitty their latest 12″ was. This always ended with the said rap dude getting PWND pretty badly, making me wonder why they even bothered. Come to think of it, I seem to remember one of the dudes from Cannibal Ox getting snuffed by someone from a message board related dust-up. Call me old fashioned, but I preferred it when rappers just made records and lef tthe extra commentary to the shout outs on the back of the album. We’ve just listened to you flap your gums for 40 plus minutes already, no one needs to read you blog about it (other than hardcore Stans). Having endured painful blog entries from Lupe and Joe Buddens, to name just two – it’s fair to say that MC’s suck at blogging. As for emotional rants on MySpace pages? The less said on that topic, the better.
Not that I want to stereotype all lyricists as being retarded at writing online – both Prodigy and Bun B have produced some quality keyboard insanity, but for the most part it seems that only people who don’t get the chance to say their piece on record that are capable of making worthwhile posts. Stretch Armstrong and Just Blaze = good. Phonte and Naledge = not so much.
On the same topic, ?uestlove – who also considers himself spomewhat of a rap scribe – breaks down the creation of his okayplayer site in the new HHC:
“I started OkayPlayer because my partner, Angela Nissel, was desperately tryin’ to talk me out of gettin’ a jeep, without havin’ a license first. Back then, rappers bought vehicles and just had their boys drive. I thought, ‘Okay, Biggie had an SUV and had Lil’ Cease drive it. So I’m gonna put down money, get an SUV, and get one o’ my boys a suit. And that’ll be my car.’ And she was like, ‘This is the stupidest thing I ever heard, Ahmir!’
“Basically, Angela said, ‘You should invest in your future. If you’re gonna squander 11,000 dollars, at least put your future behind it.’ She told me we needed our own website where it’s built every day, with good graphics, where we can communicate with our fans.
“As they were buildin’ the site, I was in turn goin’ on every website just lookin’ for how we could stand out. How could we be different? And whenever I went to the black websites, I didn’t learn anything different. All I learned about Lauryn Hill was that she lo-o-o-ves reggae. The most I learned from the Tribe Called Quest website was that it had a recipe for Tip’s Famous Spaghetti Sauce. Meanwhile, the Beastie Boys were leakin’ new material to their fans every week; Courtney Love would be arguin’ with and talkin’ to fans on everyone else’s site, and Michael Stipe was communicatin’ on a weekly basis on REM’s site.”
So it cost him 11 grand to make a message board and some site pages? That’s the old site too. I shudder to imagine what they dropped on the upgraded version. I mean, it has Flash and junk. Shit must’ve cost like a quarter mil, minimum. No wonder The Roots are always touring. I would’ve gone for the jeep, personally. Especially since he was going to get a weed carrier to drive him around!
While the debate rages on about how tight you can wear you’re jeans in rap these days, I’ll just stick with my collection of Blaq Poet songs. It’s not progressive, innovative, cutting edge or ground breaking in any way, which is just what you need sometimes.
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