Eric B – The Unkut Interview [Extended Edition]

Filed under: Interviews,Not Your Average,The 80's Files

Written by: Wednesday November 27th 2019,Filed under: Features Written by: Robbie This interview was originally conducted ten years ago, while Mr. Barrier was promoting a new rapper he was working with who none of us can remember. Since I was compiling some material for a Queens book idea that never panned out, I held back the best parts – namely, the stuff about the park jams in Queens and clowning Kool Herc’s sound system. Robbie: Who were some of the guys from the early days of Queens hip-hop that don’t get the credit they deserve? Eric B: There’s a lotta guys. There’s a group called King Charles, Dance Master, Infinity Machine. A guy DJ Vernon, The Disco Twin. These guys had sound systems that are bigger than the sound systems that we have in the clubs now – and they were mobile DJ’s. Names like Dance Master, King Charles, New Sounds, Infinity Machine – all of these guys had big, huge sound systems. DJ Vernon – Vernon Fertado – he’s the guy that I followed. Do you mean worked with him or you went to his parties? No, no, no. Actually, when I started out in the park I was down in the park carrying equipment for them, and learning the business and learning how to be a DJ. I got it from DJ Vernon, who played for a group called King Charles. King Charles was an old Jamaican guy with a big, huge sound system. It’s pretty funny, I laugh when they say, ‘Kool Herc was the Godfather of rap’ and all this stuff. I don’t see that in no kinda way. (more…)



King of the Beat – An interview with Pumpkin’s nephew

Filed under: Interviews,Non-Rapper Dudes,The 80's Files

Written by: Monday January 04th 2016,Filed under: Features Written by: Robbie Little is known about the legendary drummer/producer behind classic rap jams from Enjoy, Profile and Tuff City, so when his nephew Koolie Kookoo hit me up this past December I jumped at the chance to find out more about the great man. Here are some of Koolie’s favourite memories and anecdotes of his uncle. Robbie: What are your first memories of your uncle? Koolie Kookoo: I was born in ’86, but due to my research It’s almost like I was there. Pumpkin was a multi-instrumentalist. When he was younger – from going to school and all that – he just loved music. My grandfather had three sons – my father, another brother by the name of Mike and Pumpkin. They were all musicians, they all played some kind of instrument, but Pumpkin was able to pretty much master any instrument he touched. Drums happened to be his favorite instrument. Speed up to the late seventies, about ’77, ’78, Pumpkin used to practice with Funky 4+1. They were like the first group on Enjoy, if I’m not mistaken, and he did their very first record, ‘Rappin’ and Rockin’ The House.’ They used to practice at his garage in the Bronx. Pumpkin used to always have a crowd of people watching him in the garage. What was funny was there was a church across the street, and after a while the church people and the pastors just had no problem. As loud as the music coulda got? Pumpkin was just that funky. ‘You hear that beat that’s going on outside? That’s Pumpkin. He’s okay!’ Somebody in the Funky 4+1 told Bobby Robinson, who was the owner of Enjoy Records, about Pumpkin and Bobby Robinson actually came to the Bronx to see Pumpkin in the garage. That’s actually how he auditioned for him. All those red label records from Enjoy, anything that does say ‘Produced by Bobby Robinson’ or ‘Music by Pumpkin and Friends’? Pumpkin was solely responsible for all that music. He was their head producer. He was very young – when he got to Bobby he was at least sixteen years old.

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Non-Rapper Dudes: DJ Pizzo Interview [HipHopSite.com]

Filed under: Interviews,Non-Rapper Dudes,The 00's Files

Written by: Saturday November 07th 2015,Filed under: Features Written by: Robbie I did some work with DJ Pizzo this year over at Cuepoint, but previous to that I’d been a loyal customer of the main mail-order hip-hop stores, one of which was HipHopSite, which was founded by Pizzo and Warren Peace in 1996. He explained how the wild west that was the early internet allowed their new business to thrive and help introduce the world to a range of underground groups, as well as their involvement with classic remix projects such as The Grey Album and God’s Stepson. Ironically, the very same lawlessness that had helped the independent rap scene flourish during this period would ultimately become it’s very undoing. Robbie: How did you get started as a rap fan? DJ Pizzo: I got into hip-hop watching Yo! MTV Raps when I was a sixth grader. Then I found this college show, when I was in eighth grade, called Word Up. It was on KUNV at UNLV and this guy Warren Peace was the host. He was a freshman in college at the time and I was a kid in junior high, and he would be playing the b-side of the remix of the new Big Daddy Kane single that wasn’t out yet. It opened up a whole new [world] – because of the show, I was hearing all this music that was promo-only. Warren was judging some local talent show, so I went down there and met him. He told me I could come hang out at the show. I was the youngest person there, everybody else was in college, and I was always digging through his records and recording stuff to tape. Around ’94/’95 I was posting on rec.music.hip-hop. I started trading tapes with kids over the internet, which was sending cassettes of unreleased music to each other through the mail before there was file sharing. There was a kid who had an advance of De La Soul‘s Stakes Is High album, and another kid who had the Wu-Tang Clan demo tape, and another kid who had the Gravediggaz demo tape. All of a sudden I had all this unreleased music that Warren didn’t have, so I started playing those tracks on his show. Then he had the idea, ‘What if we started a website where we can post this unreleased music?’

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Ayatollah – The Unkut Interview

Filed under: Interviews,Killa Queens

Written by: Wednesday October 21st 2015,Filed under: Features Written by: Robbie Queens-born producer Ayatollah has laced tracks for everyone from Tragedy to Screwball to Mos Def to Cormega. We caught-up last week to discuss his early days on the come-up, auditioning beat tapes at Rawkus Records and a random Happy Days connection. His latest project, Box Cutter Brothers 3, is out now with Drasar Monumental. Robbie: What was your inspiration to make music? Ayatollah: My older brother. When I was younger he used to take care of me, and he was a b-boy. He was like my super hero. He listened to a lot of hip-hop, breakdancing and things like that. I admired him, he had a major influence on me – the way he dressed, the music he listened to – I just thought he was really cool. He would wear the sheepskins and the suede Pumas and Kangols. At school I was always into art, so after going to junior high school I got into the whole graffiti thing. Graffiti had a big influence on me making music. After the graffiti I got into the DJing. I started DJing from ’89. I bought turntables, I started collecting records [and] I started doing parties. I started battling other DJ’s, competition-wise. When I met Jam-Master Jay, rest in peace, was quite a major point in my life. Getting to ask him questions about DJing and Run-DMC – he actually took the time out to answer my questions. I met him at random in Queens, on 165th Street and Jamaica Avenue. It’s a huge shopping area for a lotta people on Queens. There came a point in my DJing career where I was like, ‘I don’t just want to play the records anymore, I wanna actually produce the records.’

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Afrika Islam – The Unkut Interview

Filed under: Features,Interviews,LA LA Big City Of Dreams,Radio...Suckas Never Play Me,The 80's Files,The 90's Files

Written by: Friday October 16th 2015,Filed under: Bronx Bombers Written by: Robbie Rising up through the ranks from the ‘Son of Bambattaa’ to the DJ at The Roxy and launching the Zulu Beat radio show on WHBI, Afrika Islam went on to release the very fist cut and paste record, help found the Rhyme Syndicate and produce the majority of Ice-T’s first four albums after moving to LA in what has certainly been an action-packed career. He took a little time out to reminisce before he headed over to Ice’s house to watch the latest episode of SVU. Robbie: How did you first get exposed to the culture? Afrika Islam: I was a member of the Zulu King b-boys, under Afrika Bambaataa. That’s how I came into the culture, from the floor up. Being a member of the Zulu Kings I went out to battle other b-boy crews across the city, representing the Zulu Nation. From there, my second step was becoming a Zulu Nation DJ – the first line – which would have been myself and Jazzy Jay and Red Alert and DXT. I was under Afrika Bambaataa – we all were – but I was very close to Afrika Bambaataa. Then I got named ‘The Son of Bambaataa’ because I was always under him and his teachings and what was going on in the Zulu Nation at the same time in hip-hop. That’s my roots of hip-hop – I was there as a DJ. There must have been a lot of competition to make it into that first line of Zulu DJs? My technique I took from those that were creating the techniques – Grandmaster Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore. That’s primarily where the technique we used came from, but being that I was with Afrika Bambaataa the main thing was learning all those records, because he was definitely the ‘Master of Records.’ Learning all those records was honestly what everything was about. Having all those records, the repertoire, most of these other DJs only had the ability to….even though they were technically incredible and the pioneers of what modern-day DJing is – Flash and Theodore – the repertoire of the records was the soundtrack to New York City. That was the soundtrack to hip-hop.

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Donald D – The Unkut Interview

Filed under: Features,Interviews,Rap Veterans,The 80's Files

Written by: Tuesday October 06th 2015,Filed under: Bronx Bombers Written by: Robbie Microphone King Donald D has had a long and varied career, spanning back to the park jam era, onto the downtown club scene, radio and then records, both as a member of The B-Boys and as a soloist with the Rhyme Syndicate. Now residing in Italy, Donald took some time out to detail some of his experiences during the formative days of the culture. Robbie: How were you first introduced to hip-hop? Donald D: Going to the parties, watching Kool Herc in the parks and Afrika Bambaataa in the parks. That was my first experience seeing these DJs out in the park. You were living in the Bronx at the time? Kool Herc used to play at a park called 129, which is not far from where I lived. Then I would go to Bronx River Center and watch Afrika Bambaataa throw down outside. All of this took place in the South Bronx, where it all started. How old were you at that time? You’re talking about junior high school when I was seeing these guys play. At the time we was going to a local place all the kids would call The Boy’s Club. We would go there basically to play basketball, swim. I had other friends who would become hip-hop legends and superstars, so you’re talking about at that time Easy AD, who became a member of the Cold Crush Brothers; you had Lil’ Rodney Cee and Jazzy Jeff who were part of the Funky Four; you had Master Rob and Waterbed Kev who became part of the Fantastic Five. There were a lot of these guys who were at the time unknown who became legends in hip-hop. We all would be playing basketball together as kids [chuckles].

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Pretty Tone Capone [Mob Style] – The Unkut Interview

Filed under: Harlem Nights,In The Trenches,Interviews,Not Your Average

Written by: Friday September 11th 2015,Filed under: Features Written by: Robbie

Pretty Tone Capone in the studio with Real Live, 2004. Photo: richdirection The infamous Pretty Tone Capone from Harlem’s Mob Style is about to return to the rap game. While I haven’t heard his new material yet, his work with the group and as a soloist has given us some of the most authentic street rap possible, as well as some amusing N.W.A. diss records. Tone discussed how he was born into the hustling lifestyle in Harlem, why Tim Dog almost got scalped and explains how drug dealers are the trend-setters that rappers want to be. Robbie: What can you tell me about growing up in Harlem? Pretty Tone Capone: Harlem was all about money. Hustlers and stick-up kids – everybody else was workers and people in the way. Young kids getting a lotta money – doing whatever we wanted to do, where ever we wanted to do it at – at whoevers expense. It was wild like that back then. Rapping was something we did for fun, after it took off, ‘cos the public liked it. We were the only – the only – cats that were in the studio having fun rapping. There were many real cats out here, but they wasn’t rapping. How old were you when you got involved with the street life? I was born into this here, man. I’m from a long line of gangsters. I’m from the hustling tree of Harlem, which is from the hustling tree of the world. Family members and all that, I was raised among them. I didn’t have to go that route, but I chose that route. I’m also very intelligent – I coulda been [a] top Goldman Sachs official or one of them [top] 500 company running guys. More or less I chose this life and I love every minute of it, regardless of the down pits and downfalls.

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Non-Rapper Dudes: Tom Silverman Interview [Tommy Boy/NMS]

Filed under: Great Moments In Rap,Interviews,Non-Rapper Dudes,Not Your Average

Written by: Monday August 24th 2015,Filed under: Features Written by: Robbie Here’s the complete transcript of my talk with Tom Silverman, who created the Dance Music Report and Tommy Boy Records in addition to co-founding the New Music Seminar, home of the MC and DJ Battle for World Supremacy. There’s a lot that I couldn’t fit into the NMS oral history piece from last month, so I thought it was worth printing in full seeing as though it paints an interesting picture of the Robbie: What was your first exposure to hip-hop? Tom Silverman: I went to the T-Connection to hear Bambaataa thing after learning about breakbeats in 1980, healing about this whole breakbeat phenomenon/b-boy concept in 1980 and wanted to find out about it. I called up Bambaataa and went to see him at T-Connection in the Bronx, and that’s how I first heard him and Red Alert and Jazzy Jay spinning the most amazing variety of music in a way that I’d never heard before. I just asked him if he wanted to make a record and that was kind of the beginning of Tommy Boy, when he said yes. To hear Kraftwerk and Billy Squier and Bob James and Cerone and The Monkees mixed in with normal James Brown and Sly Stone and all of this funk music was the thing that was the real revelation. And then to see how they cut it up and extended beats and found breaks and turned them into something more was just crazy at the time. Imagine seeing that in 1980 when no one had ever experienced it before? It’s like fire! ‘We’ve never seen fire before. What is that?’ When did the NMS begin? The commencement was 1980, it was a one day event that year. In 1981 we did it in a club venue and it became a two-day event. The place was called Privates, and for the first time we did an event, it was called ‘a DJ spinning exhibition’ where we showed people what was happening in 1981 with spinning. We had a guy called Jeff Broitman, who was a disco DJ, showing how DJ’s mix records in a normal club situation. Then we had a guy called Whiz Kid – who later made records for us at Tommy Boy – who was a quick-cut DJ from the Afrika Bambaataa school of the Zulu Nation. He was from the Bronx and he was one of the greatest masters of fast spinning. It was a DJ’s exhibition to show how they did it, and people were just blown away. Nobody had seen people cutting two bars back and forth between records before. Everybody started talking about it, the room was packed to the gills and people were so excited about seeing it.

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Street Life – The Unkut Interview

Filed under: Interviews,Wu-Tang Is For The Children

Written by: Thursday August 20th 2015,Filed under: Gatin' Staten Written by: Robbie

According to his MySpace caption, those are not Street Life’s boots. Method Man‘s loyal right-hand man and road dawg Street Life talked about growing up in Staten Island, makes it clear that he wasn’t feeling the last Wu-Tang album and hints that this might be the second last solo album from Tical. The Meth Lab is out 21 August. Robbie: Did you grow up in Staten Island? Street Life: Yeah I grew up in Staten Island, Park Hill and Stapleton. How would you describe Stapleton when you were a kid? There wasn’t that many guns out, it was just more fights and maybe a couple of stabbings. That was better than gunshots though. I was around twelve years old when I was in Stapleton, it was cool. Stapleton was my introduction into Staten Island, then I moved to Park Hill. I got most of my experience by growing-up in Park Hill versus Stapleton – Park Hill’s where all the drama unfolded at. That’s where the legend was born!

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