I started out as a b-boy I used to make my own pause button tapes until I saw DJ Rondike & Sondance from the Rock City Crew. Then my grandma bought me my first set of Technics SLD1's and a Gemini 2000 mixer and I never looked back.
What is/was your favorite digging spot?
There were so many spots in New York that are not around anymore, but I would have to say Jimmy's Music World. Jimmy's was the best. They had huge bins of LP's that were 5 for $1. Cats didn't have a lot of money back then so you could go in there and drop like $20 and walk away with a lot of stuff you never heard of before. I caught a lot of gems there.
Then there was Downstairs Records. That's where everybody used to go to get breaks in the 70's. One side of the store was all 45's. you could find anything in there on 45.
Then you had Bleeker Bob's. They were in the Village so they had a lot of different stuff in there,Rock,Jazz, they had everything. They just closed down last year.
Also,you had JR's, The Colony, Barry's Records. There were a lot of mom and pop shops too.
Share a cool digging story.
Back in the days I asked one of my boys who was also a DJ for the name of a certain break and he told me to find it myself. So me and my man F.G. took off to the record shop. When we got there I tried hummin' the song to the guy that worked there and he looked at me like I was crazy. There was this dude in there who was also looking for breaks and he asked us if we were looking for breaks and we said yeah so he told us he was down with Zulu Nation and he was a DJ. Then he said "follow me and grab everything I grab" so I did, and little did I know he had put me on to all the Bambaataa sureshots at the time. From that point on they started calling me little Bambaataa.
What dj/record collector do you admire and why?
Bambaataa because he always introduced something new at every party.
If you could meet anyone,living or dead,who would you meet?
James Brown. I would like to know what the hell he was thinking when he came up with those tunes. Songs like "Make it Funky". I wonder what ideas were going on in his mind. Can you imagine being in those sessions? The vibe had to be crazy! His horn sections were insane. Dj's like myself love "Funky Drummer" but that was his least successful record. Clyde Stubblfield said he hated that record. They left a show and went straight to the studio to record that song. James never gave those guys a break.
What are some "holy grails" in your record collection?
I have a few but I'll just name two.
1- Seven minutes of funk(with the bongos)45
2- Planetary Citizen 45
Louie Loo & Jazzy Jay
If you could be someone else for a day,who would it be?
Dj Whiz Kid. He was so ahead of his time with the cuts. He was nice.
What was your greatest dj moment?
When I rocked up in Kingsbridge with Kid Capri, I played "Rocket in the Pocket" and the place went bananas. Mind you this was when nobody knew what "Rocket in the Pocket" was.
For a shorter interview, this was still really dope. And mainly because you always manage to ask some of the *best* interview questions.
ReplyDeleteRecords are forever! Love the t-shirts.
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