Uncle Al

Before Uncle Al’s untimely death in 2001, he made a lasting impact on the city as a pirate radio broadcaster and producer. He had a record deal with Joey Boy Records, and put out seven full-length albums and more than ten singles in only five years through the Joey Boy subsidiary On Top. Joey Armada and Allen Johnston ran the labels, manufacturing the vinyl next door at Joe Armada Sr’s Caribbean Records pressing plant. Now a realtor, Joey says, “I helped Uncle Al financially in starting his underground station, which did very well. He had to move a few times. They kept trying to shut him down. But if you drove through the ghetto you would hear him on the air. The other stations didn’t like competition and they’d get him taken off. He would pack up and move, and then move somewhere else again. Al knew what the street wanted. We tried to get Al a major deal but he wasn’t interested. He just liked to be a DJ in town and have his home crowd. He didn’t like to travel, just stay home and party.”

According to local cops, Uncle Al was killed in a case of mistaken identity. A Jamaican pirate broadcaster thought Al had stolen his transmitter, knocking him off air. He showed up at Al’s front door, knocked loud, and when he answered, shot him at point blank range. DJ Bass still feels the loss of his close friend. “Me and Uncle Al was tight,” he says, “he used to live in my house. We came up DJ’ing together. Man. He died at my house. He was renting it from me. We all had stations. Me, my brother, and Uncle Al. We all rolled together. All that music. And we still got all that music. Eerything.”