Star and Buc Wild. Couldn’t control these cats, even with Dallas Penn on deck. In a rare interview, Star shared his past, how he was an actual street pimp in New York City in the early 1980′s, how he went to war with a handgun against a Dominican chick armed with and uzi and got sprayed up, his cocaine and mescaline fueled days, how he pimped MTV, Hot 97 and Power 105, why he has no issue with Big Tigger, how he’s never been impressed with Howard Stern, his love for DJ Vlad, what his hate is really about, how he doesn’t know who the fuck Just Blaze is, how someone who doesn’t fux with Hip Hop became a Hip Hop icon and more. This was too much. Dig in my cousin.
Legendary New York live rap promoter Peter Oasis, who founded LiveNDirect with Zvi Edelman, shares some of his memories of his long career as a party supplier…
Robbie: What was the first show you ever promoted?
Peter Oasis: Fifteen years ago, the first rap shows that I ever promoted were Dutchmin, who were on Dolo Records. My first show was Dutchmin and another crew called Kukoo and Da Baga Bonez, who ran with Mista Sinista. After that I hooked-up with Joe at Fat Beats and we put together a showcase for the record shop. At the time there were underground shows, but there weren’t mega underground shows, and this one show that we did featured all the Fat Beats artists that they were distributing and selling at the store on 9th street at the time. Company Flow, The X-Men, J-Live – he’s awesome, he’s one of my favourites – The Cracker Jax, Rob Swift‘s group. That was the first 12″ that Fat Beats ever put out on their label. From that show I made relationships with a lot of those acts, and as I moved-up and started booking bigger names I took a lot of those acts and had them open up for bigger shows. For instance, Non-Phixion came back and they rocked at Tramps with Run-DMC and Large Professor. I still have an allegiance and a real loyalty to a lot of those acts – those were the first acts I knew, way before anything. We all started out together. (more…)
Big Fun In The Big Town director Bram Van Splunteren shared his VHS collection with the Acclaim crew recently, one of which featured this Q&A he conducted with O’Shea in his Jherri curled prime while on tour in Rotterdam.
Some of the best stories in hip-hop come from the local talent that never made the step into the record game. Queens native Geechie Dan shares some memories about his experiences as a local MC and hanging out with a young LL Cool J and Mikey D in his prime.
Robbie: When did you start out?
Geechie Dan: I started rhyming around 14 years old, back in 1983. I was a sophomore going into Junior High School, into the eleventh grade. By that time i was already listening to Zulu Beats on WHBI, I was listening to World Famous Supreme Team show, I was listening to Mr. Magic. I found a station on the FM dial – 90.3. I couldn’t get in stereo, but I got it in mono. I was flipping through the dial and I came across a hip-hop station, a college radio station called WBAU – Adelphi University. The disc jockey at that time was Bill Stephany, who was one of the producers for Public Enemy and started Stepsun Records. What attracted me to listening to him was he used to play the whole beat – he used to play the breakbeats. Back on my old Cold Crush 4 tapes and my Zulu Nation tapes, Funky 4 tapes and those Harlem World tapes, T-Connect tapes – they used to play the breaks, but they used to cut the breaks up. He was playing the whole record of that break on his show. He was playing the whole record of ‘Impech The President’, the whole record of ‘Substitution’. I’m like, ‘Damn! This is how the whole song sounds!’ So I started listening to him, and as time went on, from the tapes that I had – like I said,the Zulu Nation tapes, Cold Crush tapes, Harlem World tapes, T-Connection – I started emulating the way they used to rhyme. So I was rhyming in my basement, listening to the radio station and listening to my tapes. So I was taping his show and then l’d go back and rhymed off of the break beat that he was playing the whole song to. Emulating Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee and Tito from the Fearless 4 and L.A. Sunshine – that was one of my favourite artist’s back then. Zulu Nation – MC G.L.O.B.E and Pow Wow and Donald D. (more…)
Amongst the seemingly never-ending open bar events which consumed much of my time and liver capacity while in New York City last month, the highlight from a musical standpoint was spending the better part of an afternoon as a guest at the legendary Lord Finesse‘s home studio in the Bronx, thanks to the homey Chaze from the GRIM Team. ‘Ness blessed us with some of the music from his forthcoming project with O.C. called The Alumni, which you might recall was the title of the group that Finesse, O.C. and Large Pro were forming, but it turns out that the Live Guy With Glasses wasn’t a big fan of the name so it’s being used on this album instead. I was a little concerned when he mentioned that it was a combination of samples and live instruments, but as soon as the eerie beats leaked through the studio monitors it was clear that this was some serious next level D.I.T.C. material. He has a guy add bass, drums and keys to his samples and chops but it’s so tightly put together that it sounds like all samples…shit was crazy. (more…)
The first of a six-part series from the Internets Celebrities showcasing New York City from a different angle. Please note: anybody who doesn’t go into the water at least up to their waist is fronting!
Directed by: Casimir Nozkowski
Edited by: Dino Ostrowsky
Music by: Bless-1
Producers: Robin Oye, Jesse Wilson, Cornelius van Gorkom
It was a big night for non-progressive rap fans in New York, with the first Mobb Deep show in over three years popping-off live and direct next to Times Square. Would Capone sneak in and attempt to hit Prodigy with a bar stool, Keith Murray style? Or would a live rendition of ‘Shook Ones’ lead to a number of drunken brawls in the crowd? The third, and most likely scenario of course, was that none of the above would happen and it would be a uneventful rap concert in the ‘New’ New York, where even the corniest white rap fan could dance around like a moron with no fear of getting smacked upside the head by a less happy-go-lucky audience member. (more…)
