Old Skool Interview....Here is a History Lesson with Africa Islam

[QuietTruth]

GREAT INTERVIEW...
Afrika Islam
Interview by DJ C Edited By Cee For (from website: http://www.urbanflavours.com.au/)
GREAT INTERVIEW...

DJ Cee: Tell me about the Bosco Mezko, ultimate beats and breaks.

Afrika Islam: Yeah, fusion beats. That’s the first record I ever did, I did it in my bedroom. Bambaataa asked me to make a plate, for the Zulu Nation, for what we had to do, and I did it on a pause button, on a cassette tape.

DJ Cee: And that’s how the whole ‘Ultimates’ and ‘Streets Sounds’ ame about?

Afrika Islam: Right, because we were playing plates, we were playing dub plates. They were kind of like a secret weapon. You could take all the records you had, and it wasn’t a matter of Pro Tools and all the technology they didn’t have then, you had to do what you had to do. It was either like splicing tape or pause buttons,
I chose to use the pause button, it was more accurate and accessible. So you got the first couple of dub plates coming from the ghetto style, but it’s lived on I guess.

DJ Cee: But when ‘Ultimates’ came out you guys weren’t happy?

Afrika Islam: I wasn’t happy, not necessarily ‘you guys’. Bambaataa was thrilled, because it was all his records. They were secret records to me, sorry, simple as that. Those records were secret, they were Zulu records. Those are the records we used when Flash battled Bambaataa who battled Herc who battled Theodore. When the Big 3, everything was on your records, your technique, so records were everything. So when they started coming out, I was happy only because we could get new copies and we didn’t have to use the originals, but I was totally sad that other sucker DJ’s worldwide, who wanted to get into the culture, were able to acquire records that we cut. And all of a sudden they were using them and they started going into the studios using them, they gave them to the world to use, and it wasn’t a ‘world’ thing, I believe.

DJ Cee: What were the big clubs in New York in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s?

Afrika Islam: The Black Door, the T Connection, the Bronx River Centre, the home of hip hop, the home of gods, Herc had a place called The Heavilow , and a lot of clubs, quite honestly, were outside venues. There was also Harlem World, the Celebrity Club, there was also the place that Malcolm X got shot, we actually partied there, the Autobarn Ballroom. We had Hip Hop parties there, and I had no idea I was on the same stage where he died. But you now, that’s where the parties were being done. Then they went further downtown to Manhattan from the uptown parties in the Bronx, like McGrills and then the Roxies . The Roxies as a club in New York City spun off by a lady by the name of Kool Lady Blue. That club was actually themecca that brought together Andy Warhol, Bianaca Jagger and Horstens , Keith Herring and Jean Michele Bastant , along with the graffiti artists that were going at that time, and the breakdancers like the Rock Steady Crew. It’s the place where DST meets Herbie Hancock. It was actually the home club for Madonna, so she came from the Roxies as well. So you know, Buffalo Girls, Supreme Team, it was the first place Run DMC played, the first place the Fat Boys played. It was about 4000 people, it was a huge roller skating rink that turned into a club on a Friday and Saturday night.

DJ Cee: The DJ’s, going back to the ‘70’s…

Afrika Islam: Going back to the ‘70’s, my forefathers, those that were pre- the word Hip Hop, like Grandmaster Flowers, P DJ Jones, Disco King Mario, and it was Kool Dee and Tyrone, there was also Love Bug Starski. Because all the style that Fatman Scoop has and basically what I took was really from Love Bug Starski coming out with that DJ rocking the mic stuff. There was Cassonova Fly which became Grandmaster Caz and the Cold Crush, of course there was Herc at that particular time. But I guess the biggest at the time were Grandmaster Flowers and P DJ Jones, there was also Reggie Wells, and these were R&B club DJs that took their sound systems to the park. (Beep of a mobile phone in background). That’s my Dad, that’s Afrika Bambaataa paging me, telling me I left somebody out.

DJ Cee: Tell us about your Dad, Afrika Bambaataa. And didn’t you program the drums on ‘Planet Rock’?

Afrika Islam: I programmed the drums on the 808 which he gave me, he asked me to do it off of a King Shorty record, which was a calypso record. And I just tried to get the feeling of what the calypso rhythm was, and I knew where he was coming from, that’s why the soca records that we were playing that were so uplifting and brought in this magical style, that’s where that boom, boom-boom-boom boom (beat boxes) came from, that’s calypso. That’s what happened. Now when it got taken out of my hands and you add in the synthetiser and King Arthur, Arthur Baker puts his funk on top of it, you get the match of that beat along with Super Sperm beat, along with Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans Europe Express’, I guess we put a little funk into Kraftwerk. But Kraftwerk was always a part of the Hip Hop culture, and people should always realise that. That electronic music from Dusseldorf, Germany affected us kids in the South Bronx, I guess we knew that they were funky and maybe half of the world didn’t understand it.

DJ Cee: What about your radio show in the early ‘80’s? Did DJ Red Alert used to work for you?

Afrika Islam: Well, I can’t say he worked for me but he was my assistant. It was called the Zulu Beat show, and it was the first Hip Hop show on radio, only because we played pure Hip Hop. What I did, I got on the air because of a guy by the name of Earl Chin, who was on a station called WHBI which was a language station. Different ethnic groups had their own shows on, so he put me on the air, it became the Zulu Beat show, I put on live Hip Hop like the battles between Kool Moe Dee and Busy Bee Starski, or the Cold Crush Brothers against Fantastic Romantic. I put on real Hip Hop, it wasn’t like I was playing Hip Hop records. I put on pure Hip Hop. Rock Steady Crew battling the New York City Breakers, the musicthat was being played, so that’s what I put on. And then a couple of Hip Hop records that were considered Hip Hop records, but just were breaks and some of our favourite records, like a fusion beat record, which was cut up and edited and made for radio to sound like a mix. Because at that time, radio stations had huge turntables, that had stop and start buttons, and the control centre looked like something out of a 1964 science fiction movie, with big knobs and everything.

So that’s what the Zulu Beat was, and we caught Mr. Magic by maybe three or four months before he got on the air. Now Mr. Magic was on the air but it wasn’t the Rap Attack, he was doing his show on the air but it was playing R&B. Mr. Magic was from Brooklyn, where it was much smoother and onto an R&B type feel, and we played raw Hip Hop. We’re from the Bronx, he’s from Brooklyn, that’s what happened. Yes, Red Alert was my assistant, he went on to do Kiss FM, Mr. Magic went onto do the Rap Attack on WBLS, and I went to LA to do Ice-T.

DJ Cee: What were the big radio stations in LA?

Afrika Islam: They had KDAY, it was full 24 hour Hip Hop and funk. They played everything from Zapp to James Brown, from Egyptian Lover, Unknown DJ, they played Lakeside, they were playing Shalamar, and they were playing all of that, plus the funk, the dancesongs that were more prominent, like the Lisa Lisa and Cult james, they were playing all of that on KDAY. I didn’t get there until the mid-‘80’s, but KDAY must have been on the air before I got there. They played all Hip Hop, all the time radio, and all elements of the Hip Hop scene, or Hip Hop music, the slow records, the fast records, everything.

DJ Cee: Electro?

Afrika Islam: Electro funk, booty music, people have different terminologies for it, but its all a part of Hip Hop.

DJ Cee: How did the West Coast embrace you, especially due to the cultural differences from coast to coast of the States?

Afrika Islam: Most of their records were based off of ‘Planet Rock’, so they took it like I was king. And I taught Egyptian Lover how to program, and everything he programmed after that was based on ‘Planet Rock’ anyway. The same thing with Luke and Marquis down in Miami, the 2 Live Crew, that’s off of ‘Planet Rock’ too. ‘Whoomp (There It Is)’ was based off it too. The uptempo records happen simply because it was in hotter climates, and when you have the hotter climates, people want to dance uptempo

It wasn’t until we did ‘6 In The Morning’ that we brought the beat down, but that song came with a rap that was about the police coming to your house at six in the morning to raid your house to take you to jail. It was about a guy named Larry Davis, which is a true story, the cops came to his house and he shot back. But Ice rapped about a story that was based partially on something that happened in New York City, so when the record came out, people assumed it was about Larry Davis shooting three police officers and getting away. Therefore, that’s how Ice got accepted. It was one of the first records that really had a negative connotation to it, like ‘We’re gonna beat the bitch down in the @#%$ streets’, noone said that, most people were shocked to hear that. Before then, everything was Doug E Fresh, The Show, Kurtis Blow, it was more happy records. The only meaningful record at that time was ‘The Message’, Melle Mel.

DJ Cee: Tell me about how you hooked Dr. Dre and Eazy E up with a beat machine?

Afrika Islam: They were the Wrecking Crew at that time, it wasn’t really Eazy E coming into this gangsterism, when Ice did it, then Eazy started shooting over to do it. I had a DMX (beat machine), I gave the DMX to Eazy, and me and Dre were friends because we were DJ’s. If you listen to the beats it’s kind of obvious, ‘6 In The Morning’ was ‘Dopeman, Dopeman’ which was ‘Gangsta, Gangsta’. Same beat. But that’s what friends are for, that’s just the way history is, but if I get credited for gangsta rap or if Dre gets credited for it, it’s the way the West Coast was. I saw it what saw it for. My team was Ice-T and the Rhyme Syndicate, Zulu Nation, and Dre’s team was, you know as he created, was NWA. You have the G-Funk and the gangsta rap that came from the West Coast, but you also have Too Short in Oakland that was talking pimp stories all the time. So he was down tempo at the same time, so it wasn’t just us. It seems like Master P took from the same mixing pot, and Sir Mix-a-Lot took from the up tempo mixing pot. So a lot of the influences, at least I had something to do with it because of the ‘Planet Rock’ aspect.

DJ Cee: What ended up happening with the West Coast community, is it united or are they just in it for the money?

Afrika Islam: At this point, this is the generation where Snoop has TV shows and Dre is a millionaire and living on his past merits, which is great, and they’re giving him a lifetime achievement award and he’s probably only 39 or something. You have Eazy E and Tupac unfortunately being dead. You also have two or three radio stations on the air that all play Hip Hop and R&B, you have Cube doing his movies, so it’s kind of set now. So you have people that have grown and diversified into different aspects of the business, because they filled places and voids that other people weren’t doing at that particular time. And then you have all these other artists that want to be recognised and want to get into the music scene. So I can say, collectively, they’ve done a great job in putting in the administration and making it happen, and there are just a lot of artists in America that want to be recognised, West Coast, East Coast and definitely down South. I give it up right now to the South, they have the image now, the light is on them. It’s from New York, it shined from there to the West Coast, and it shined down South, and that’s where it’s supposed to shine right now. It’s time for it to shine in Australia and Berlin, and Japan, and eventually those markets are shining themselves, so we want to welcome those markets into the world as well.

DJ Cee: Tell me about Flash and how he changed his name?

Afrika Islam: Well he was DJ Flash and then when he got together with the three MC’s, which was Melle Mel, Kid Creole and Cowboy, they were the ones as a unit who created this ‘Clap your hands to the beat, throw your hands in the air, somebody say Ho!’. They did it, they invented it, it was part of their songs, part of their routines. But if it wasn’t for them saying Flash’s name, he wouldn’t have been known, he would have been an unknown DJ. Even though he was DJing as DJ Flash and the Disco B, it was Flash and his partner that did all the parties. There’s a theory about the Grandmaster thing. It was because there was a Grandmaster Flowers, he was a big DJ that had a big sound system, he was from Brooklyn. There was another sound system, The Disco Twins, they were from Queens. Then it was P DJ Jones and he brought out his system. So Flowers and Flash played together, I believe, and that was where the Grandmasterthing came from. Either way, no matter how he got to be Grandmaster, he’s my Grandmaster, because he’s the one who actually taught me how to do the spinbacks and the pitty pats and the scratch, he taught me that.

DJ Cee: With your background and history, you should be up there with Flash and be as big as he is.

Afrika Islam: A I wasn’t into the recording and everything, as far as being a DJ, you know Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. I was the go-to man, Bam was the leader of the Nation and I followed what had to be done, and Ice was the leader of the West Coast Rhyme Syndicate/Zulu Nation, that’s my partner, and I had to make sure I had everything in order for the unit to run. Being second in command didn’t bother me, but sometimes I had to wear many hats and change positions, but the work got done. I can produce, I do have the Grammy’s, I do have the Oscar’s. I’ve been able to change different hats and do Mr. X with Westbam in Germany, which is techno and electro and bringing that back, I’ve been able to do something called the Black Pimps with Tyreed Cooper (?), who’s one of the greatest Hip House DJ’s of Chicago. I’ve done a couple o of things. I’ve teamed up with the big boys in Melbourne, teamed up with my boys from the Soul District. How can anybody be mad at the career that I’ve had? I’m gonna see my teacher, I’ll let him know ‘thank you very much’ in a humble way.

[Juronimo]

Great article, there's some history being spit there. This is one of the dudes we have to thank (along with Mixmaster Spade) for the birth and evolution of west coast hip hop.

[QuietTruth]

Great article, there's some history being spit there. This is one of the dudes we have to thank (along with Mixmaster Spade) for the birth and evolution of west coast hip hop.

Definitely!



Interview by Rap Industry
Another history lesson!

P: Introduce yourself…

MMS: Ah Yeah…This is Mixmaster Spade the OG Compton Godfather of Rap.

P: Why do they call you the OG Compton Godfather of Rap?

MMS: Cause I was the first one from Compton to LA that started this hip hop mixing rapping thing.

P: Who were some of the people that followed in your shoes?

MMS: You hear them all the time. Quik, NWA, Totty Tee King T, Coolio. All them. All the Compton rappers from the old school. I also helped CJ Mac. It was a few.

P: How did you come up with the name Mixmaster Spade?

MMS: I was in NY. I went to school there for a short period. One of the boys in the neighborhood was a DJ. I use to go to the park on the weekends. He worked at the park. So he use to bring his turntable and mixer to the park and back then they was just mixing disco and he would like to keep the beat and keep it going and then he showed me how to do it. This was back in 78/77. He showed me how to do it and I knew how to blend. He showed me how to do it. Really scratchin wasn't really out then but if it's in your blood you can really do it. When I came back home nobody wasn't really in to DJing like that. My grandmother was kinda of wealthy she gave me some money to buy a turntable and a mixer. I came home I said mom they not doing this out here and she said ok well just take your money and do what you want to do with it. So I went and bought me a gang of clothes. I was fitted. I was in high school fitted. Went over my friends about 2 years later. We was all pop lockers then. I use to go back and forth to New York wearing them out at Pop Locking. They couldn't deal with that we was locking and poppin and they was like Djing. I went to this battle of the DJ's thing one time. It was Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Theodore and Afrika Bambataa and all them kind of cats. DJ Hollywood and Starski them cats. I was poppin in another room and my buddy said man come on, the battle of the Dj's is about to start. Dj's? So I go upstairs with him and it was Grandmaster Flash rocking one turntable with a beat machine. I was like aw, man I got to get back into this. When I came back home this time I was like I'm finna get me some turntables and I went over one of my friends house and they had 2 turntables and a mixer. What y'all doing with this? Y'all don't know nothing about this and then I got on them and they looking at me like yeah….I start (scratching sounds). They said man they all in the room like this….How you do that? Man I been knowing how to do all this when I was living in NY. I use to go over they house every other day and then they messed up I asked them to let me borrow it one day and they didn't see their equipment for about a month. I was in my house every day all day just mixing my mom said boy if you don't come out that room and go get you something to eat. I said Ma I'm alright. One day I start taping my self just to hear me practice and some of my homeboys was like listening and they started stealing my tapes and they started selling them. They was like man dude gave me 20 bucks for that tape I said what? So I started making tapes and selling them. I had a shoe box full of them one time and I was like selling them for like 5 and 10 and I was getting around making a name for myself with these tapes. I met these drug dealers right and I had a shoebox full of them. I was on a mission. I had like 30 tapes. I'm use to selling like one to each person. Trying to talk them into buying them and they listen and once they listen they hooked and become customers forever. Man dude I been looking for you man. How many you got? I said I got about 3 or 4 different ones. He said naw how many you got? I said I got about 30 something. He said give me all of them. Give you all of them? I said man you ain't got no money to pay for all of these do you? He said man give me all of them and pulled out a big wad like this. He said now make me some more and gave me a deposit. I said oh it's on. I went straight to the house I was in the room making all kind of CD's (cassettes). Next thing you know I wasn't even looking for no regular people no more. I was like…Hey I got those Mixmaster Spade CD's tapes…tapes back then. It was history. Just to show you how far I go back me and my other homeboy named Vegas he DJ's now. He was a lowrider then he had a Vega. We use to go to the Workshop on Western. He had a 8 track player. I had some mixed 8 tracks tapes of me mixing Good Times on them. Now that's old. I had some 8 Tracks with me mixing Good Times and Roll, Bounce, Rock, Skate on them way back then.

P: When did you decide to become an artist?

MMS: Like from 78 to 79 to 80to 84. 84 I was like really into it. 84 the thing came down in LA everybody was on the corner making them dollars so I was like with them too making them dollars too and doing this. I went from making 2 or 3 tapes a day to making a half a tape a week. Cause I'm busy you know. So anyway I make a tape say a few lines. I still had the voice and everybody still loved it. So one day Totty Tee said man we finna go in the studio and make this record Batteram. I said y'all go head man I'll be through there. So I go through and kick it with them. Help them out. After that I kind of slowed up with that. I started back Djing with them. Todd said hey man come on man it's your turn to make a record man you started it. You might as well go on and bust one. I said yeah well lets do it then. Then we made Just Say No. Just Say No is a record like you know first came on the radio couldn't get it off the radio. Greg Mack will tell you no song was requested like that one I had them fairy tale rhymes too about Little Bo Peep and it was like straight home from there. I just took off.

P: Battleram was pretty much a LA record. It was a West Coast Record. That record was big out here. A lot of people didn't know what a batteram was.

MMS: You can't stop it baby. Battleram was tearing down people's houses. Everybody can relate to it because everybody was into the thing. The batterram was like a big issue around town then we came out with the song Batteram it was like ah they put it on wax then we had a street version. He had his little street version. I had my version and it kinda like pushed us and escalated us. We was always partners but we was just like doing our own thing. He was with this clique. I forgot the name of the clique. I was always by myself. I didn't need nobody I mix and scratch and rap all the same by myself. I had a couple of dudes that was with me like Grady G a few other ones.

P: Some people credit you for the singing type rap?

MMS: Harmonize rap? I take credit for that, That's in my soul.

P: Who are some of the other artists from Compton you seen coming up?

MMS: Back then…DJ Pooh, King T. I ain't actually did no work with Quik but we was affiliated like you know brushed elbows. .Eazy nem we always brushed elbows, talked, kicked it. Dre did all the songs for us. If you didn't know it, Dre did Batterram. Dre did Just Say No. Dre and DJ Pooh collaborated on the Genius Is Back. Pooh did You Better Bring A Gun.

P: What was the working environment like back then?

MMS: Call me man let's go…lets do it. It wasn't no money issue or none of that. We didn't really have no money. We the ones that paved the way for the cash to come in. We fought for that. Like KDAY was in there tearing down the walls for everybody else to come on thru…later.

P: How do you feel about that now?

MMS: I feel good about that but really the new school out here on the West Coast aint really like giving it to like the old ones that really paved and did the struggling for them.


P: When you went to other parts of the country how receptive was the audience?

MMS: We use to go up to Oakland. Really we was mostly West Coast and a little bit of the East Coast was accepted us. I got far as Cleveland back that way. I hear on the radio my songs and I hear some of the commercials of my song. So I know they was playing us back then. Texas, we used to tour Texas all the time. Back and forth up north and Arizona all just the West Coast really. Back in those days.

P: Who were on some of those shows with you?

MMS: Ok um, I did a show with Public Enemy, Too Live Crew. We did a West Coast vs East Coast in Denver.

P: How was that?

MMS: All the East Coast did a show one night and all the West Coast did the next night. They just called it East Coast West Coast.

P: You recently did a song with RBX and Soopa Fly and Suga Free…Dog House in Your Mouth is that true?

MMS: Yeah with Snoop?

P: Yeah, How's that working with Snoop? You being a pioneer and him being of another generation of rap?

MMS: That was the easiest song I ever did in my life. I just walked in there he said man give me some of that old school. I want some of the old flavor some old school and I'm like what? He said man just say anything. Good evening Doggpound…he was like yeah that's it. Come on lets go lets go. All he want to do is hear that (singing) I said hold on man I can do something better. I can write something right quick. "Naw naw, just do that" and Snoop wouldn't give me a chance. He like bringing new songs with old flavor, old lyrics most of his songs gotta a lot of my hooks in them. Do you want to go to the liquor….Do to ride in my 6-4. You know all them kind of hooks. He's an old school lover with the new school so that's how he wanted it so I gave it to him.

P: What do you feel the state of West Coast rap is now?

MMS: We still holding our own. We need some more unity out here. I don't see too much unity. Like in New York they support each other more. Out here is a little space. We can't really reach out and touch each other and collaborate and do things. Them dudes back East every time you look around they ….like up in the Bay everybody's on everybody's record. Down here in LA they all look scattered

P: Why do you think there's a lack of unity on the West Coast? Geographically cause we're spread out? Everybody in their own cliques?

MMS: Mostly everybody in they own cliques. You can say geographically. We had that mentality we grew up in cliques anyway. Like we got crips and bloods, neighborhoods and sets so we like that's your set that's my set. We already grew up like that out here. Aint' too much clicking clicking with other cliques.

P: What do you feel your contribution is to rap?

MMS: I gave West Coast a big head start. When I came out I was doing parties doing my thing. People was like what's that? What's he doing? What are you doing to the record? I was Djing a party in Watts. I didn't want to do the party in Watts. I'm kinda like I don't know about going over there. They be shooting and gangbanging over there. I went over there anyway. I told my buddy to bring my records later and he didn't bring my records so I had a few records new ones like so I had to make them longer than what they really are. I had to mix so I was in the kitchen. Everybody else was in the other room partying. So Rough So Tough which happen to be one of my cut records. I sat there running out of stuff to play. It's time for me to start mixing. I don't have too much more to play. I put my head down and the kitchen was empty. I put my head down start mixing got into it cutting and scratching I just happened to look up and the whole kitchen was full of people all over me. One of the dudes was like "aww go head homie get down it's cool do that some more." He was like do that some more. After that Mixmaster Spade was born where I was like I'm here. Like all my homeboys in the hood and everywhere was like where you djing at? They didn't really have no cars then. They was walking to my parties. They would walk I'm talking about miles.

P: King T Totty T…Were you one of the first people King T worked with?

MMS: Me and Totty T had a hit record Just Say No out and Tila had a record out a little bit after that on the radio it was Payback's A Mutha with DJ Pooh and my boy Scotty D was with them but he was also with me. He was like Spade man won't you do a song with my other little partners. Tila and Pooh wanted to hook up with me. So Tila and Pooh, King T came to my house instantly much love. I love all rappers. We all got together and went in there and done You Better Bring Your Gun in one day. It came out and that's how me and Tila became tight and Pooh. The next thing you now that's my clique, me, Tila, Pooh and Totty Tee but Todd really wasn't clicking so much. They was doing they own. I was doing my own. I ask Tila and nem to help me do The Genius is Back cause he owed me. I said man just do an intro for me. He started it off for me and I took the rest. Pooh did the beat along with Dr. Dre We had DJ Var on there… RIP.

P: Do you feel West Coast rap started to take a turn when Eazy E and NWA came out?

MMS: It took a big turn when they came out. That gangsta went to the mainstream out of the neighborhoods. They put it on the big line. We had it on the county and the state line like just LA to Texas line. When NWA came out with Jerry Heller and made them major boys put them up on the videos and the nationwide distribution and all that. They took off instantly. That's the advantage they had. And of course they had Dr. Dre.

P: What are you doing now? Are you still in music?

MMS: I'm just dibbling and dabbling. If you call me I'll come. I'm really trying to do a little project just a collaboration with a lot of artists. I'm trying to call it the Return of the Compton Godfather featuring myself and every other artists and a lot of top artists I know that owe me favors.

[Juronimo]

Why are people sleeping on this thread? This is our history right here.

[QuietTruth]

 

[makaveli11]

Propz on the interview. I read that interview from Afrika Islam before, but the MixMaster Spade was new to me. I enjoy that interview alot and I gonna be checkin out some of his mix tapes. These two guys were very influential in the birth of west coast rap.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

thanks for the interview

[ABN]

that´s dope