I’ve heard that you were from Florida originally. How did you end up owning a record store in Atlanta?

I was born in Saint Augustine, Florida, and I graduated from the University of Florida, in Gainesville. After that I was headed to New York – I’d been interviewed by an advertising agency way back in 1977, and they sent me a plane ticket and 30 days to come up for my second interview. But I was broke, so I cashed in the plane ticket and thought I’d drive up there instead. Since I had 30 days, and I’d heard Atlanta was the “land of opportunity,” I decided I’d park here for a week or so and see what kinds of opportunities opened up. But college degrees were like a dime a dozen, and my car broke down. So I ended up having to stay here. And my pride wouldn’t allow me to call home to tell them my situation. So that’s how I ended up here. [laughs]

My major in college was advertising, but my first job here was as the manager of an Eckerd Drug Store, for quite some time. I was DJing on the side at the one of the popular clubs then, Mr. V’s Figure 8. But being in management took away a lot of hours of flexibility on the weekends, and people had begun to know me – I threw private parties and so forth. So I worked at Eckerd for maybe five years, and after that I figured, I’m putting in all these hours for them and doing better at the DJing, so I decided to open up a record and tape store. I loved music, so I started selling it.

When did you start making mixtapes?

I decided to start selling personalized tapes. Like I said, I was from Florida, and we just did that down there. We made little rhymes. At the University of Florida, my roommate was named Tender Lovin’ Tony, he was from my same hometown. And he DJ’d at a club in Gainesville and I started giving him breaks. And when I’d play the breaks, people wanted me to stay on and rhyme, because I always wrote poetry. I liked poetry and liked to make rhymes.

We wasn’t calling it rap back then, but I’d make rhymes – before I ever heard of Kurtis Blow or the Sugar Hill Gang. So when we started making these mixtapes, a lot of the players wanted their names in there, or a rhyme about them. So I might make a little rhyme saying something about their girlfriend or talking about how cool they were or whatever, and I’d put that on a personalized tape. The personalized tape went for like $25 and the pre-made ones went for, let me see if I remember – “For a nifty $13.50; and 60 minutes went for only ten, my friend.” [laughs]