Author Topic: Random, lesser known, and rarely known facts, + rumors, about L.A. Rap + culture  (Read 4242 times)

No Compute

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-I don't remember the story, but I remember readin an interview sayin that NWA somehow linked up at The Rodium, a large outdoor flea market in Gardena/Torrance. This is the same place that DJ Quik used to sell his underground tapes around LA.


This is the story:

"The beginning of the end of life as we know it occurred here, on a beaten patch of asphalt out in the vast, flat no man's land of greater Los Angeles.

The beginning of the end came unannounced. There was no salute, no blast of trumpets or heavenly choir. It came in the sunken heat of summer at an abandoned drive-in movie theater called the Roadium.

A grand arched gate that, in its day, promised entry to whatever secret kingdom Hollywood could conjure graced the Roadium. By the summer of 1985, though, the drive-in, its dreams and innocent magic are relics of a long-gone past. The dull blur of south county towns the Roadium served--Torrance, Lawndale, Hawthorne, Gardena, Carson and Compton--are staging areas in a decade-long descent into what feels at times like a war zone; and at times is. Street corners are outposts in a new crack economy; boulevards battle lines dividing endless variations of Bloods and Crips, usually from one another, always from themselves.

With the drive-in theater gone, the stuff of dreams has been traded for just plain stuff. The Roadium's arch now frames an open-air bazaar piled high with cheap Chinese toys, one-size-fits-all Sri Lankan socks, used car batteries, secondhand tool chests, last year's Barbie dolls and canned peas with last week's use-by date. The Roadium is a swap meet.

The first thing you notice are the people. The place is so jammed you wonder how they ever got along without it. At the moment, the biggest crowd surrounds a little stall just inside the old arch. Kids are lined up two, three deep along the perimeter of the stall, whooping and hollering. A lanky Japanese guy, whippet-thin and wired, presides behind a homemade plywood table in the middle of the noise. The table is stacked high with records, LPs and those 12-inch singles that disc jockeys spin. He's got more of the same displayed on a 20-foot-wide pegboard behind him.

He's got so many products that some days, days when the heat is so thick you could lean against it, the table legs sink an inch into the melting asphalt.

The whole place isn't much bigger than a walk-in closet, and it's hot in every way imaginable. The air's an oven, the kids fired by the desire for the new.

"Yo, Steve. Whatcha got?"

"Stevie, Stevie, whatcha got new, man?"

Steve Yano is the man of the moment, an East L.A. guy who has somehow swapped a career as a high school guidance counselor to become the uncrowned king of a swap meet music underground. He has turned his table into the hippest, hottest record store on the West Coast. He's got everything--all the new East Coast hip-hop, the best old-school R&B, all the L.A. dance jams, that locking-and-popping stuff you see on "Soul Train." He has stuff nobody else has, stuff nobody else has ever heard of. He has stuff so new it doesn't even exist yet (not officially), stuff with no labels, no packaging, just the stamp of the new.

It is the new that tugs at the ears of the man who will deliver the beginning of the end of life, as we know it. He's a little guy, 5-5, 5-6, tops, with the slow swagger of a hustler fat on house money. Steve Yano remembers him showing up that first day at the Roadium, going through piles of 12-inch singles. Big piles.

"He looks 'em over, stacks 'em up. Then says, 'I'll take these.'"

The guy has maybe 20 records in front of him. Yano is used to kids buying one, maybe two at a time. These are not rich kids. They wouldn't be at the swap meet if they were. Yano thinks this guy is scamming.

"All those?" he asks.

"Yeah," the kid says. He's got a high, squeaky voice that makes him sound even younger than he looks. And he looks about 13. He picks up one of the 12-inchers, a cut from some local DJs called the World Class Wreckin' Cru.

"Where you get that from?" he asks.

The question doesn't even register with Yano, who still can't believe the kid has money to buy all the records he has in front of him.

"All of them?" he asks.

"Sure," the kid says, and reaches down in his sock. He comes back up with a roll of cash. He peels the bills off. Bam. Just like that.

Then he says: "Tell Dre, Eric says, 'Whassup?' "

With that, Eric Wright turns and walks off with a stack of records half as big as he is. Yano, of course, tells Dre nothing. Dre, Andre Young, a member of the Wreckin' Cru, is one of the hottest young DJs in L.A. He doesn't need to be bothered, man. Not with this kid anyhow.

Wright comes back the next weekend, asks about Dre again, wants his numbers. He's polite but persistent and comes back every week. Yano finally asks Dre if he knows a homeboy named Eric Wright. And damned if Dre doesn't.

"Next thing I know," Yano says, "those guys are on a three-way call with me at 2 in the morning. Eric wants to open a record store. I tell him, 'Don't do it. It's a bad business. I can show you how, but don't do it.' "

Eric has money--street money, dope money--and wants to go straight. Dre, meanwhile, bugs Yano, who knows every low-level somebody in the record business in all of Los Angeles, to start a record label. Dre wants a place to put out his own music.

In time, these dreams merged and came true. Eric went into the record business, all right, not with a corner store but with his own label and Dre was on it. Soon that label, Ruthless Records, sent out into the world some of the weirdest, funniest, saddest, maddest music anybody ever heard. Out of that little swap meet stall came the partnership that rocked, then overran the record business.....


-Word is that Detox was actually finished back in 2003, and that Dre really didn't produce many of the songs, but that he mixed them and added his touch to them all. I hear that the reason it didn't come out is because of somethin behind the scenes with the cats that really did all the beats, who are producers that are known in the rap game but not the ones who may have been expected, such as Scott Storch. I think it was regarding money that Dre was going to pay for their work on the album. I can't certify this as being 100% true, but the person who told me is definitely connected with many people in the game, including Dre.

That would have been horrible. If this was 2003 it was probably around the time the all got in The Source talking shit about Dre stealing credit.
 

R-Tistic

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very good read. btw, when is murs's album coming out? does he still live in Mid City or did he move outta the hood?

and do u still talk to the bws camp?

The one with him and 9th is comin out this year, and I think he has somethin else droppin this year too. He stays somewhere in Orange County now. Where is mom stays is actually a decent neighborhood.

I still talk to everybody on the B&W side of the camp, but I haven't talked to anybody who's part of the new BWS (Game, Phat Rat, Jerzey Devil, Cyssero, Techniec, Eastwood). I talked to Fase a few times and went over there a few times when I was in LA, and I did a track with one of their artists named Lawless. I might put it up on the net this week.

ABN

i thought everybody knew that BD´s not from Compton? when BD was on the BWS forum like a year ago he said that he was from SC and that most of his famlily was from the Swans but i don´t know. some peeps has said that he´s from Inglewood but i´ve never heard anyone say that he´s from Compton.
 

ABN

very good read. btw, when is murs's album coming out? does he still live in Mid City or did he move outta the hood?

and do u still talk to the bws camp?

The one with him and 9th is comin out this year, and I think he has somethin else droppin this year too. He stays somewhere in Orange County now. Where is mom stays is actually a decent neighborhood.

I still talk to everybody on the B&W side of the camp, but I haven't talked to anybody who's part of the new BWS (Game, Phat Rat, Jerzey Devil, Cyssero, Techniec, Eastwood). I talked to Fase a few times and went over there a few times when I was in LA, and I did a track with one of their artists named Lawless. I might put it up on the net this week.
shit you need to hook up with Tech coz on the real, Techniec will shit on all of the B&W artists even when he´s having his worst day on the mic.
 

Addicted To Cake

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very good read. btw, when is murs's album coming out? does he still live in Mid City or did he move outta the hood?

and do u still talk to the bws camp?

The one with him and 9th is comin out this year, and I think he has somethin else droppin this year too. He stays somewhere in Orange County now. Where is mom stays is actually a decent neighborhood.

I still talk to everybody on the B&W side of the camp, but I haven't talked to anybody who's part of the new BWS (Game, Phat Rat, Jerzey Devil, Cyssero, Techniec, Eastwood). I talked to Fase a few times and went over there a few times when I was in LA, and I did a track with one of their artists named Lawless. I might put it up on the net this week.

does  phat rat really have beef with brazil & wilmington? in the dvd didn't they show him living their? and why didn't G-Ride join game?  and are they really broke like Fase claims?
 

Mygla

props... this was a good read...
 

-Sarkastic-

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Props man, good read  :)
 

Capo Di Tutti I Capi

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very dope read 8)Maybe you could post some more?maybe something about Suge..
 

King Tech Quadafi

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who was the rapper that got jacked by the 30s?
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

- Lewis Carroll
 

Tha G In Deee

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Hittman2001

-Word is that Detox was actually finished back in 2003, and that Dre really didn't produce many of the songs, but that he mixed them and added his touch to them all. I hear that the reason it didn't come out is because of somethin behind the scenes with the cats that really did all the beats, who are producers that are known in the rap game but not the ones who may have been expected, such as Scott Storch. I think it was regarding money that Dre was going to pay for their work on the album. I can't certify this as being 100% true, but the person who told me is definitely connected with many people in the game, including Dre.

That would have been horrible. If this was 2003 it was probably around the time the all got in The Source talking shit about Dre stealing credit.

Quote

Thats probably why mel man, neff-u(Ron Feemster), and Big Chuck left the label

R-Tistic, could you elaborate more on this?  Or is this all you know?
 

R-Tistic

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-Word is that Detox was actually finished back in 2003, and that Dre really didn't produce many of the songs, but that he mixed them and added his touch to them all. I hear that the reason it didn't come out is because of somethin behind the scenes with the cats that really did all the beats, who are producers that are known in the rap game but not the ones who may have been expected, such as Scott Storch. I think it was regarding money that Dre was going to pay for their work on the album. I can't certify this as being 100% true, but the person who told me is definitely connected with many people in the game, including Dre.

That would have been horrible. If this was 2003 it was probably around the time the all got in The Source talking shit about Dre stealing credit.

Quote

Thats probably why mel man, neff-u(Ron Feemster), and Big Chuck left the label

R-Tistic, could you elaborate more on this?  Or is this all you know?

Well yeah, I definitely heard that Neff-U was one who did a lot of the beats on there. I am sure I'm not the only person who knows about it, and I am sure that somebody else possibly on here knows more about it than I do. Also, I donno if the album was finished as far as the rapper's verses bein on there, or if it was just the beats were all finished.

R-Tistic

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very good read. btw, when is murs's album coming out? does he still live in Mid City or did he move outta the hood?

and do u still talk to the bws camp?

The one with him and 9th is comin out this year, and I think he has somethin else droppin this year too. He stays somewhere in Orange County now. Where is mom stays is actually a decent neighborhood.

I still talk to everybody on the B&W side of the camp, but I haven't talked to anybody who's part of the new BWS (Game, Phat Rat, Jerzey Devil, Cyssero, Techniec, Eastwood). I talked to Fase a few times and went over there a few times when I was in LA, and I did a track with one of their artists named Lawless. I might put it up on the net this week.

does  phat rat really have beef with brazil & wilmington? in the dvd didn't they show him living their? and why didn't G-Ride join game?  and are they really broke like Fase claims?

I donno if he has beef with them, but I am nearly positive that he's not fuckin with them, at least as far as bein sided with them. I heard that the post that said "fuck Fase" and all that was fake, but I donno if it was or not. He was livin in one of the houses on the block....him, Jerzey Devil, and Game all lived there at different periods of time. There was actually a time where Jerzey Devil and Phat Rat weren't on the best of terms, and Rat was talkin bout puttin NJD off of BWS. I donno what made certain people decide to side with Game or not, but I know G-Ride was talkin the most negative shit about Game on the BWS board. I don't really think they are "broke" meaning like no money to do anything at all, but they probably aren't ballin anything major. They still got a full studio at the spot, and they still have 100% full security as far as havin cameras around all premises. G Ride and Fase got some hooked up Magnums with suicide doors n all, G-Ride's is silver with "G Ride" on the plate and the BWS seal on the front of it, and Fase's is black.

Hittman2001

-Word is that Detox was actually finished back in 2003, and that Dre really didn't produce many of the songs, but that he mixed them and added his touch to them all. I hear that the reason it didn't come out is because of somethin behind the scenes with the cats that really did all the beats, who are producers that are known in the rap game but not the ones who may have been expected, such as Scott Storch. I think it was regarding money that Dre was going to pay for their work on the album. I can't certify this as being 100% true, but the person who told me is definitely connected with many people in the game, including Dre.

That would have been horrible. If this was 2003 it was probably around the time the all got in The Source talking shit about Dre stealing credit.

Quote



Thats probably why mel man, neff-u(Ron Feemster), and Big Chuck left the label

R-Tistic, could you elaborate more on this?  Or is this all you know?

Well yeah, I definitely heard that Neff-U was one who did a lot of the beats on there. I am sure I'm not the only person who knows about it, and I am sure that somebody else possibly on here knows more about it than I do. Also, I donno if the album was finished as far as the rapper's verses bein on there, or if it was just the beats were all finished.


What about mel man?  did he come back to the aftermath?
 

Addicted To Cake

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very good read. btw, when is murs's album coming out? does he still live in Mid City or did he move outta the hood?

and do u still talk to the bws camp?

The one with him and 9th is comin out this year, and I think he has somethin else droppin this year too. He stays somewhere in Orange County now. Where is mom stays is actually a decent neighborhood.

I still talk to everybody on the B&W side of the camp, but I haven't talked to anybody who's part of the new BWS (Game, Phat Rat, Jerzey Devil, Cyssero, Techniec, Eastwood). I talked to Fase a few times and went over there a few times when I was in LA, and I did a track with one of their artists named Lawless. I might put it up on the net this week.

does  phat rat really have beef with brazil & wilmington? in the dvd didn't they show him living their? and why didn't G-Ride join game?  and are they really broke like Fase claims?

I donno if he has beef with them, but I am nearly positive that he's not fuckin with them, at least as far as bein sided with them. I heard that the post that said "fuck Fase" and all that was fake, but I donno if it was or not. He was livin in one of the houses on the block....him, Jerzey Devil, and Game all lived there at different periods of time. There was actually a time where Jerzey Devil and Phat Rat weren't on the best of terms, and Rat was talkin bout puttin NJD off of BWS. I donno what made certain people decide to side with Game or not, but I know G-Ride was talkin the most negative shit about Game on the BWS board. I don't really think they are "broke" meaning like no money to do anything at all, but they probably aren't ballin anything major. They still got a full studio at the spot, and they still have 100% full security as far as havin cameras around all premises. G Ride and Fase got some hooked up Magnums with suicide doors n all, G-Ride's is silver with "G Ride" on the plate and the BWS seal on the front of it, and Fase's is black.

how do those dudes make money then if game aint giving them shit?  do they have jobs or do they slang rock?