I'm in the process of moving and was going through my collection of old hip hop magazines and came across an issue of Rap Pages from August 1998 that had this pretty in-depth article about Seattle hip hop.
Even though it's almost 8 years old I figured some of you might be interested in reading it. Also, I'm sure some of you have this or read it when it came out, but I'm bored so I'm gonna type it up anyway.
The cover of the mag reads: "Hip Hop In Seattle: The West Coast Nobody Talks About".
The header of the article reads: "Emerald City... Seattle, the West Coast's other Bay Area, is a city that houses a population of resilient, dedicated, talented individuals who have exhausted themselves to make the local scene matter."
And here's the article written by Rachel Crick:
When spanning the global topography of hip hop, the city of Seattle hardly registers a latitude-longitude bearing for many heads because the recording industry has yet to gush over the local talent. Most associate the city with rain, Microsoft, Starbucks Coffee, Gameworks, the tombstones of Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix, Ken Griffey Jr., more rain and, of course, grunge music.
For many, sadly, Sir Mix-A-Lot was and is the only thing heads know about Seattle's hip hop scene. But, in the days since the death of grunge, the music scene has begun to garner attention from locals and national beat fiends alike. The fact is, however, Seattle hip hop beyond Mix-A-Lot is nothing new. Local clubs, graf and dance crews, magazines, artists and the whole lot have existed here for quite some time.
"The first thing I remember," recalls Conception Records owner Mr. Supreme, "is when Whiz Kid's record came out - Play That Beat - on Tommy Boy Records. He and his wife were living in Tacoma and she was also in a group on Tommy Boy, Sweet Trio. Then Mix-A-Lot started doing parties at the Boys' Club and he used to throw parties on Friday nights so the kids would have something to do. Then Vitamix put out a song which eventually got picked up by Profile. That was 1983."
"There was a lot of other groups," he reminisces. "School Boys, Dira Boys, Incredicrew, Powercore, Chilly Uptown. A lot of groups put records out. Emerald Street Boys, Funky Fresh Jazz, the Phantom of Scratch, Baron Von Scratch - he taught Mix-A-Lot everything he knew. He was one of the first DJs in Seattle, him and Sugar Bear. Then there was MC Class and Brothers of the Same Mind, which got "Unsigned Hype" in The Source, DJ Swift and Funk Daddy - he used to be called Greg B. He and Magic Owen were the Latin Lovers. There was Duracell, A.R.T. of Skill, High Performance and this girl named Ceia G. She's the girl with the blonde hair and acid-washed jeans in the "Eazy Does It" video. She was supposed to be on Ruthless."
No national media outlets exposed Seattle in the manner magazines and video shows did for Compton, New Jersey, the Bay Area, Atlanta and, recently, New Orleans. Even during the height of Mix-A-Lot's success, only a few artists for put on, like Kid Sensation.
"It's very simple in Seattle," states Kid Sensation. "There were a few local crews in Seattle in the beginning, and then there was Mix. Mix was the only one to break out of here, not only because he was the most talented, but because the right opportunities and the right doors happened to open up for him."
DMS, a talented three emcee crew, would beg to differ. "Ain't nothing against Mix, but the other brothers just never got heard," says group member Moe. "He was just the first one to bring the spotlight here," his partner D continues. "But you had so many brothers in their mom's basement doing songs."
Hip hop in Seattle then, has been in part the story of artists struggling to break free of the Sir Mix-A-Lot mold that has (ny no intention of their own) surrounded them.
As goes the history of many cities, much of the exposure to hip hop starts with underground radio. College radio station KCMU was home to Nasty Nes' Rap Attack in 1988. Nasty Nes and Shockmaster Glenn Boyd created Rap Attack to fill the void left by the loss of Nes' first mix show, Fresh Tracks, which aired from 1980 to 1988 every Saturday night from 7 to 9 p.m. on KKFX. Nasty Nes and the Shockmaster captivated audiences every Sunday night as the only rap show on FM stereo. Eventually, Shockmaster left Seattle to work for American Records. Upon his departure, Nes brought in Strictly Urban Promotions owner Michael "Mike C." Clark, and together they hosted Seattle's longest running college hip hop show. Other hosts have included Nes' wife, Baby C, Kutfather and B Mello.
Rap Attack provides a forum for local artists and DJs to be heard by the general public, as well as plays host to several specialty spots such as Mr. Supreme's Diggin In The Crates and a half-hour Mega Mix at the end of every show.
Aside from being a radio host, Nes had starring roles in the history of Seattle hip hop. Together with Ed Locke, Nasty Nes started Nastymix Records, whose most famous client was Sir Mix-A-Lot.
Another internal promotion of the Seattle scene through media outlets was The Flavor magazine. The Flavor published its first issue in 1991 featuring Cypress Hill on the cover. The magazine started a two-way education system by making the national scene more intimate with the locals and vice versa. It was truly one of a kind - unlike any other hip hop magazine. At first, publishers Alison Pember and Rachel Crick were strangers to the local hip hop scene, but their hunger for and knowledge of hip hop soon brought the scene in Seattle to a place yet unseen. Over a span of five years, the duo published a magazine that would grow to be home for a staff of 25 volunteers, generating a consistently groundbreaking monthly hip hop magazine that covered the nationwide scenes, both underground and commercial. The magazine closed its doors in 1996, but its lasting effect still continues in the local scene and beyond.
"To me, the highlight of Seattle's hip hop history was The Flavor magazine," says Supreme. "It was a good outlet for local stuff, but it was nationally distributed. Every time I go somewhere now, people still ask me about it."
"It was clearly influential," says B-Mello, Seattle's self-proclaimed number one tape-master. "I get people asking me to this day, 'Yo, what ever happened to The Flavor? That was my favorite magazine.' I think a lot of people didn't even know there was a scene here and it helped educate heads all over."
Walking through the streets of Seattle, you see murals painted by children. One wall depicts Ken Griffey Jr., another immortalizes Gary Payton. However, besides random tags here and there, the presence of graffiti is nil.
"In 1994 the city started cracking down and closing walls," recalls Bink of Bam Crew. "By 1996, they were all gone. Now police have successfully eradicated graffiti in the city," Bink continues. "There's no open forum, no yards, no walls, only commissioned pieces. People have started writing 'Victimless Crime' under their tags and I think that's a good thing. But graffiti isn't dead in Seattle; there are plenty of talented writers who still have the heart to go out and go for theirs. It just doesn't stay up as long anymore."
Still, the history of the city's graf scene is not lost on its participants, old or new. "One of the first writers to do graf art was Nemo," recalls Bink. "Then it spread to the south end, everybody was tagging. You saw names like DC3, Mr. Clean, DVONE, Rubik, Specs, Spade, Tazeke, Kadeone, the list goes on and on."
Supreme, however, remembers the first graf writers as Kouldone, Dad, DC3, Mr. Clean and Skee. "Skee was the king of bombing shit," stressed Supreme. "All city, all day. He was down with a crew called D2B - Down to Box. 'Cause they were real ill and would fight anybody and rob cats. He eventually killed a kid and did a six-year bid. I actually used to get mad equipment from these cats because they would do 'smash and grabs' at music stores. I had a collection of real ill-colored Pumas that no one else had and would end up trading a pair of sneakers for like, an 808 drum machine! There was also Shame, Duck, Spaide and D 2000."
Newer graffiti artists include Bam Crew, DVS, AOD, JCS, Tilt, Raze One and many more.
On the club tip, with a few exceptions, Seattle's club scene leaves a lot to be desired. Clubs that host hip hop nights are few and far between. Those that do support hip hop are constantly being challenged by violence, drunken stupor and a lack of respect that runs rampant amongst a select few knuckleheads.
DJ Riz has had steady hip hop nights at different locations within the city fo the past eight years. "When I first moved here [from Chicago]," remembers Riz, "we started doing James Brown birthday parties. You see, there's no holiday between Dr. King's birthday and Memorial Day, so we decided to have the first party of the year around James Brown."
With incidents at the James Brown birthday parties ranging from broken store windows to collapsing police horses to people being abducted and beat down, it's no wonder tht Riz put and end to the parties. "We was doing it because we liked people, not because we needed money or anything. We didn't want to see anybody get hurt. We didn't want to take that responsibility so we stopped. There was a period of time that the entire music scene in Seattle - particularly the R&B and hip hop scene - was nothing but knuckleheads. And knuckleheads just love to tear shit up. But I think that's pretty much over with now."
DJ Kun Luv, owner of Big Fella Sports Gear, who bills himself as Seattle's number-one DJ, is also no stranger to violence in clubs. "There are two types of violence at the clubs," says Kun. "You have violence that happens inside the club and violence that happens outside the club. The clubs need to do a better job on beefing up security, but some of it could be attributed to the DJs," he says. "We need to provide a calming environment. But people make their own choices. I think that saying a song incited someone to do something is a cop-out. People in the R&B and hip hop scene need to take responsibility for their actions and quit condoning the violence of others. This is a small scene and everybody knows who the troublemakers are. The clubs need to get together and have a club summit and get a blacklist going. It's a shame that the actions of a couple of people can almost shut down an entire scene. It's always the same people."
The troubled scene aside, Seattle is home to a small community of "true" hip hop heads. Conception Records and DVS Crew have hosted "The Foundation" for over two years, making it the longest running hip hop night in Seattle history, and with little to no violence whatsoever. MCs, producers, DJs, writers and B-boys and b-girls and beat fiends will always do whatever it takes to listen, promote and live real hip hop. And there is a definite buzzing coming from the streets of the S.E.A.
Aside from Mix-A-Lot, artists like Funk Daddy, Kutfather, Jake One, Source of Labor, Fourfifths, Ghetto Children, Diamond Mercenaries, Lil' Gene, Samson & Swift, DMS, Sharpshooters, Black Ceaser, Redwine & Kevin Gardner, Mobb Tight Hustlers, Therapeutics and Sinsemilla have made noise both locally and nationally.
Some notable exposure: Black Ceaser (formerly known as Foul Play) signed with Tommy Boy and has appeared on both the Nothing To Lose and Ride soundtracks. DMS were on the Shot Callin' Boss Ballin' compilation and were signed to D-Shot Records out of Vallejo, California. Kevin Gardner & Redwine and Funk Daddy have done production for E-40 and a host of other Bay Area artists.
Crooked Path has signed to Dogday Records. The Sharpshooters were signed to Shadow/Instinct and also worked with Ubiquity before starting their own label, Conception Records, with DJ and former Flavor editor Strath Shepard.
Artists like Source of Labor, the Tribal Productions collective, Lil' Gene, DMS, Wojak, Mobb Tyte Hustlers, Squeek Nutty Bug and Elite G's have decided to go the independent route. "My older sister Tracy encouraged us to be independent and do it ourselves," recalls Wordsayer (of Source of Labor and Jasiri Media Group).
"My sister was like, 'Why don't you do it yourselves? Invest your time, invest your money, get to what y'all are doing.' And we followed that lead. What we thought was, while we are learning the industry, we might as well be our own industry," he continues. "Most people use their limited resources and say, 'Okay, I'm going to mail this out and shop this anonymously to people that I don't know.' We decided to put a couple extra dollars in it, put a jacket on it, get a publishing company, send it off and get it copyrighted. That way it's yours, you own it."
The future seems clearer than ever for Seattle. But while the underground hip hop scene steadily creeps avove ground, it struggles to overcome several significant obstacles. "There is a big division as far as East Coast or West Coast flavor," says B-Mello. "But it's kind of changing. I don't know if it's for better of for worse, but I do see people getting into everything instead of being so pigeonholed."
"Everybody has a group, everybody has a label, everybody thinks they are the best, and there is a lot of hating going on," Funk Daddy explains. "Actually, that seems to be a little bit less; there seems to be a lot more unity now, although people still hate a little bit under their breath. There are a lot of people that are networking and helping each other out a little bit."
"The one thing that's bad about being from Seattle is that there's still not much going on," explains Strath Shepard of Conception Records. "There are no radio shows here. There's no industry here, so far as breaking a record in your own city, which is usually how it goes, that won't ever happen in Seattle. But that can be good too, because it forces you to be imaginative in making a name for yourself."
What's it going to take for Seattle to come of age?
"It's going to take people with goals and the discipline to reach them," Strath concludes. "Oftentimes, when people save up enough money to put out a record, they think, Oh, I have a record. Now I'm going to blow up. Really though, you should have triple the amount that it takes to press the record, if not more, so you can mail it to the right people and make the calls to promote and sell it, to make a presence for yourself and the scene. If enough people get it in their heads that that's what they're gonna do, then really, why couldn't they do it?"
He's made hits for E-40 and other artists of the popular underground ilk, yet little is known about Funk Daddy, who is one of the most talented musicians/producers in hip hop. Funk Daddy's first taste of local notoriety came when he, along with Owen McCants (MC Willin'), formed the duo Ready 'N' Willin'. Soon after he would make his first appearance on wax with Kid Sensation on "Back To Boom."
"When Kid hooked up with Mix, he needed a DJ and called me," Funk explains. "He brought me a song and asked me to put some scratches on it. He ran with what I did and that was "Back To Boom" which did extremely well for Nastymix Records."
In 1994 Funk Daddy met up with JD "J-SKee" Hill and Dion "Deelerious" Brown, who would later form the group Crooked Path. "I met JD while I was DJing at his brother's wedding. JD and Deelirious were in a group together already," he continued. "They asked me to join and we became Crooked Path."
Just a year before, JD Hill and John Hill (no relation) decided to start a record label. "John and I started Till Ya Tyte together," says J-Skee. "Then he got locked up. When that went down he had to sign off, but he'll still be a part of the company when he gets out. Till Ya Tyte was started because most major companies weren't interested in Seattle-area rappers."
That same year, J-Skee went to the Gavin Music Seminar in San Francisco where he met The Click's E-40 and D-Shot. "E-40 and D-Shot gave us our first break," explains J-Skee. "Up till then we were unknown in the industry. D-Shot gave us a distribution deal through his label, Shot Records. E-40 had Funk Daddy do three songs on his In A Major Way album. I thank God that E-40 gave Funk Daddy a chance to produce on his album. It was like receiving ten-thousand dollars and being able to go do what we wanted to do. It was because of E-40 that other people were interested in us. We really appreciated that."
Since lending his talents on In A Major Way, Funk's worked on various Mix-A-Lot records, produced songs for B-Legit, worked with N2Deep, Suga T, Neighborhood Kingpinz, Mac Dre, Kid Sensation and a multitude of Seattle artists.
And his projects with Till Ya Tyte have kept him more than busy. Crooked Path made its debut on Seattle's The Darkside compilation (on American Records). Funk Daddy released his first solo album, Funk You Right On Up, on Shot Records, and his second album, Funk Daddy Is Tha Source, on Sunset Blvd. But his main success has come as a producer.
"Funk Daddy, in my opinion, is the most all-around talented musician and lyricist locally. I'd say he's close to the top in Seattle," says Kid Sensation. "He funks it up with the beats, writes his own lyrics and engineers his own stuff. He can do the whole ball of wax. You don't find many people that can go into the studio, sit there by themselves and come out with a hit."
The Till Ya Tyte name is expanding since the label has agreed to a joint venture with the Bay Area's Dogday Records. "When I first started Till Ya Tyte, I went to any and everybody," says J-Skee. "What I respected about Jo (the owner of Dogday) was that she told me I shouldn't sign with her company, which at the time was Music People, because they weren't right for us. When Jo left Music People and started Dogday, she offered me a distribution deal - a joint venture. I respected her enough to do it."
In addition to Crooked Path, Till Ya Tyte/Dogday will be releasing Funk Daddy's third solo album, Underground Gold, F-Lee's album, Mo Murder Mo Problems, a compilation and an E-Dawg album. "The compilation is going to have a combination of Till Ya Tyte artists doing songs with major label artists," Skee explains. "I don't want to mention all of the artists because they're not all etched in stone, but I will say C-Bo and B-Legit are on it."
J-Skee and Funk Daddy are both looking forward to what the future has in store. Currently, Funk Daddy is working on several projects, most notably a compilation tentatively called Why Not Major. "There are a lot of artists in Seattle who aren't on major labels, and I think they have what it takes," he explains. The lineup for the compilation consists of J Boogie, Franki, Mississippi, Mr. Rosson, E-Dawg, Deelirious, F-Lee, Sampson, Two In The Chamber, Cool Nutz (from Portland), Silver Shadow D and L-One.
"In the next five years I see Till Ya Tyte putting out a lot of music," said J-Skee. "We're in the studio seven days a week. We have album upon album waiting to be put out. We have our own studio, we have no overhead. All we do is make music."
Even though it's almost 8 years old I figured some of you might be interested in reading it. Also, I'm sure some of you have this or read it when it came out, but I'm bored so I'm gonna type it up anyway.
The cover of the mag reads: "Hip Hop In Seattle: The West Coast Nobody Talks About".
The header of the article reads: "Emerald City... Seattle, the West Coast's other Bay Area, is a city that houses a population of resilient, dedicated, talented individuals who have exhausted themselves to make the local scene matter."
And here's the article written by Rachel Crick:
When spanning the global topography of hip hop, the city of Seattle hardly registers a latitude-longitude bearing for many heads because the recording industry has yet to gush over the local talent. Most associate the city with rain, Microsoft, Starbucks Coffee, Gameworks, the tombstones of Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix, Ken Griffey Jr., more rain and, of course, grunge music.
For many, sadly, Sir Mix-A-Lot was and is the only thing heads know about Seattle's hip hop scene. But, in the days since the death of grunge, the music scene has begun to garner attention from locals and national beat fiends alike. The fact is, however, Seattle hip hop beyond Mix-A-Lot is nothing new. Local clubs, graf and dance crews, magazines, artists and the whole lot have existed here for quite some time.
"The first thing I remember," recalls Conception Records owner Mr. Supreme, "is when Whiz Kid's record came out - Play That Beat - on Tommy Boy Records. He and his wife were living in Tacoma and she was also in a group on Tommy Boy, Sweet Trio. Then Mix-A-Lot started doing parties at the Boys' Club and he used to throw parties on Friday nights so the kids would have something to do. Then Vitamix put out a song which eventually got picked up by Profile. That was 1983."
"There was a lot of other groups," he reminisces. "School Boys, Dira Boys, Incredicrew, Powercore, Chilly Uptown. A lot of groups put records out. Emerald Street Boys, Funky Fresh Jazz, the Phantom of Scratch, Baron Von Scratch - he taught Mix-A-Lot everything he knew. He was one of the first DJs in Seattle, him and Sugar Bear. Then there was MC Class and Brothers of the Same Mind, which got "Unsigned Hype" in The Source, DJ Swift and Funk Daddy - he used to be called Greg B. He and Magic Owen were the Latin Lovers. There was Duracell, A.R.T. of Skill, High Performance and this girl named Ceia G. She's the girl with the blonde hair and acid-washed jeans in the "Eazy Does It" video. She was supposed to be on Ruthless."
No national media outlets exposed Seattle in the manner magazines and video shows did for Compton, New Jersey, the Bay Area, Atlanta and, recently, New Orleans. Even during the height of Mix-A-Lot's success, only a few artists for put on, like Kid Sensation.
"It's very simple in Seattle," states Kid Sensation. "There were a few local crews in Seattle in the beginning, and then there was Mix. Mix was the only one to break out of here, not only because he was the most talented, but because the right opportunities and the right doors happened to open up for him."
DMS, a talented three emcee crew, would beg to differ. "Ain't nothing against Mix, but the other brothers just never got heard," says group member Moe. "He was just the first one to bring the spotlight here," his partner D continues. "But you had so many brothers in their mom's basement doing songs."
Hip hop in Seattle then, has been in part the story of artists struggling to break free of the Sir Mix-A-Lot mold that has (ny no intention of their own) surrounded them.
As goes the history of many cities, much of the exposure to hip hop starts with underground radio. College radio station KCMU was home to Nasty Nes' Rap Attack in 1988. Nasty Nes and Shockmaster Glenn Boyd created Rap Attack to fill the void left by the loss of Nes' first mix show, Fresh Tracks, which aired from 1980 to 1988 every Saturday night from 7 to 9 p.m. on KKFX. Nasty Nes and the Shockmaster captivated audiences every Sunday night as the only rap show on FM stereo. Eventually, Shockmaster left Seattle to work for American Records. Upon his departure, Nes brought in Strictly Urban Promotions owner Michael "Mike C." Clark, and together they hosted Seattle's longest running college hip hop show. Other hosts have included Nes' wife, Baby C, Kutfather and B Mello.
Rap Attack provides a forum for local artists and DJs to be heard by the general public, as well as plays host to several specialty spots such as Mr. Supreme's Diggin In The Crates and a half-hour Mega Mix at the end of every show.
Aside from being a radio host, Nes had starring roles in the history of Seattle hip hop. Together with Ed Locke, Nasty Nes started Nastymix Records, whose most famous client was Sir Mix-A-Lot.
Another internal promotion of the Seattle scene through media outlets was The Flavor magazine. The Flavor published its first issue in 1991 featuring Cypress Hill on the cover. The magazine started a two-way education system by making the national scene more intimate with the locals and vice versa. It was truly one of a kind - unlike any other hip hop magazine. At first, publishers Alison Pember and Rachel Crick were strangers to the local hip hop scene, but their hunger for and knowledge of hip hop soon brought the scene in Seattle to a place yet unseen. Over a span of five years, the duo published a magazine that would grow to be home for a staff of 25 volunteers, generating a consistently groundbreaking monthly hip hop magazine that covered the nationwide scenes, both underground and commercial. The magazine closed its doors in 1996, but its lasting effect still continues in the local scene and beyond.
"To me, the highlight of Seattle's hip hop history was The Flavor magazine," says Supreme. "It was a good outlet for local stuff, but it was nationally distributed. Every time I go somewhere now, people still ask me about it."
"It was clearly influential," says B-Mello, Seattle's self-proclaimed number one tape-master. "I get people asking me to this day, 'Yo, what ever happened to The Flavor? That was my favorite magazine.' I think a lot of people didn't even know there was a scene here and it helped educate heads all over."
Walking through the streets of Seattle, you see murals painted by children. One wall depicts Ken Griffey Jr., another immortalizes Gary Payton. However, besides random tags here and there, the presence of graffiti is nil.
"In 1994 the city started cracking down and closing walls," recalls Bink of Bam Crew. "By 1996, they were all gone. Now police have successfully eradicated graffiti in the city," Bink continues. "There's no open forum, no yards, no walls, only commissioned pieces. People have started writing 'Victimless Crime' under their tags and I think that's a good thing. But graffiti isn't dead in Seattle; there are plenty of talented writers who still have the heart to go out and go for theirs. It just doesn't stay up as long anymore."
Still, the history of the city's graf scene is not lost on its participants, old or new. "One of the first writers to do graf art was Nemo," recalls Bink. "Then it spread to the south end, everybody was tagging. You saw names like DC3, Mr. Clean, DVONE, Rubik, Specs, Spade, Tazeke, Kadeone, the list goes on and on."
Supreme, however, remembers the first graf writers as Kouldone, Dad, DC3, Mr. Clean and Skee. "Skee was the king of bombing shit," stressed Supreme. "All city, all day. He was down with a crew called D2B - Down to Box. 'Cause they were real ill and would fight anybody and rob cats. He eventually killed a kid and did a six-year bid. I actually used to get mad equipment from these cats because they would do 'smash and grabs' at music stores. I had a collection of real ill-colored Pumas that no one else had and would end up trading a pair of sneakers for like, an 808 drum machine! There was also Shame, Duck, Spaide and D 2000."
Newer graffiti artists include Bam Crew, DVS, AOD, JCS, Tilt, Raze One and many more.
On the club tip, with a few exceptions, Seattle's club scene leaves a lot to be desired. Clubs that host hip hop nights are few and far between. Those that do support hip hop are constantly being challenged by violence, drunken stupor and a lack of respect that runs rampant amongst a select few knuckleheads.
DJ Riz has had steady hip hop nights at different locations within the city fo the past eight years. "When I first moved here [from Chicago]," remembers Riz, "we started doing James Brown birthday parties. You see, there's no holiday between Dr. King's birthday and Memorial Day, so we decided to have the first party of the year around James Brown."
With incidents at the James Brown birthday parties ranging from broken store windows to collapsing police horses to people being abducted and beat down, it's no wonder tht Riz put and end to the parties. "We was doing it because we liked people, not because we needed money or anything. We didn't want to see anybody get hurt. We didn't want to take that responsibility so we stopped. There was a period of time that the entire music scene in Seattle - particularly the R&B and hip hop scene - was nothing but knuckleheads. And knuckleheads just love to tear shit up. But I think that's pretty much over with now."
DJ Kun Luv, owner of Big Fella Sports Gear, who bills himself as Seattle's number-one DJ, is also no stranger to violence in clubs. "There are two types of violence at the clubs," says Kun. "You have violence that happens inside the club and violence that happens outside the club. The clubs need to do a better job on beefing up security, but some of it could be attributed to the DJs," he says. "We need to provide a calming environment. But people make their own choices. I think that saying a song incited someone to do something is a cop-out. People in the R&B and hip hop scene need to take responsibility for their actions and quit condoning the violence of others. This is a small scene and everybody knows who the troublemakers are. The clubs need to get together and have a club summit and get a blacklist going. It's a shame that the actions of a couple of people can almost shut down an entire scene. It's always the same people."
The troubled scene aside, Seattle is home to a small community of "true" hip hop heads. Conception Records and DVS Crew have hosted "The Foundation" for over two years, making it the longest running hip hop night in Seattle history, and with little to no violence whatsoever. MCs, producers, DJs, writers and B-boys and b-girls and beat fiends will always do whatever it takes to listen, promote and live real hip hop. And there is a definite buzzing coming from the streets of the S.E.A.
Aside from Mix-A-Lot, artists like Funk Daddy, Kutfather, Jake One, Source of Labor, Fourfifths, Ghetto Children, Diamond Mercenaries, Lil' Gene, Samson & Swift, DMS, Sharpshooters, Black Ceaser, Redwine & Kevin Gardner, Mobb Tight Hustlers, Therapeutics and Sinsemilla have made noise both locally and nationally.
Some notable exposure: Black Ceaser (formerly known as Foul Play) signed with Tommy Boy and has appeared on both the Nothing To Lose and Ride soundtracks. DMS were on the Shot Callin' Boss Ballin' compilation and were signed to D-Shot Records out of Vallejo, California. Kevin Gardner & Redwine and Funk Daddy have done production for E-40 and a host of other Bay Area artists.
Crooked Path has signed to Dogday Records. The Sharpshooters were signed to Shadow/Instinct and also worked with Ubiquity before starting their own label, Conception Records, with DJ and former Flavor editor Strath Shepard.
Artists like Source of Labor, the Tribal Productions collective, Lil' Gene, DMS, Wojak, Mobb Tyte Hustlers, Squeek Nutty Bug and Elite G's have decided to go the independent route. "My older sister Tracy encouraged us to be independent and do it ourselves," recalls Wordsayer (of Source of Labor and Jasiri Media Group).
"My sister was like, 'Why don't you do it yourselves? Invest your time, invest your money, get to what y'all are doing.' And we followed that lead. What we thought was, while we are learning the industry, we might as well be our own industry," he continues. "Most people use their limited resources and say, 'Okay, I'm going to mail this out and shop this anonymously to people that I don't know.' We decided to put a couple extra dollars in it, put a jacket on it, get a publishing company, send it off and get it copyrighted. That way it's yours, you own it."
The future seems clearer than ever for Seattle. But while the underground hip hop scene steadily creeps avove ground, it struggles to overcome several significant obstacles. "There is a big division as far as East Coast or West Coast flavor," says B-Mello. "But it's kind of changing. I don't know if it's for better of for worse, but I do see people getting into everything instead of being so pigeonholed."
"Everybody has a group, everybody has a label, everybody thinks they are the best, and there is a lot of hating going on," Funk Daddy explains. "Actually, that seems to be a little bit less; there seems to be a lot more unity now, although people still hate a little bit under their breath. There are a lot of people that are networking and helping each other out a little bit."
"The one thing that's bad about being from Seattle is that there's still not much going on," explains Strath Shepard of Conception Records. "There are no radio shows here. There's no industry here, so far as breaking a record in your own city, which is usually how it goes, that won't ever happen in Seattle. But that can be good too, because it forces you to be imaginative in making a name for yourself."
What's it going to take for Seattle to come of age?
"It's going to take people with goals and the discipline to reach them," Strath concludes. "Oftentimes, when people save up enough money to put out a record, they think, Oh, I have a record. Now I'm going to blow up. Really though, you should have triple the amount that it takes to press the record, if not more, so you can mail it to the right people and make the calls to promote and sell it, to make a presence for yourself and the scene. If enough people get it in their heads that that's what they're gonna do, then really, why couldn't they do it?"
He's made hits for E-40 and other artists of the popular underground ilk, yet little is known about Funk Daddy, who is one of the most talented musicians/producers in hip hop. Funk Daddy's first taste of local notoriety came when he, along with Owen McCants (MC Willin'), formed the duo Ready 'N' Willin'. Soon after he would make his first appearance on wax with Kid Sensation on "Back To Boom."
"When Kid hooked up with Mix, he needed a DJ and called me," Funk explains. "He brought me a song and asked me to put some scratches on it. He ran with what I did and that was "Back To Boom" which did extremely well for Nastymix Records."
In 1994 Funk Daddy met up with JD "J-SKee" Hill and Dion "Deelerious" Brown, who would later form the group Crooked Path. "I met JD while I was DJing at his brother's wedding. JD and Deelirious were in a group together already," he continued. "They asked me to join and we became Crooked Path."
Just a year before, JD Hill and John Hill (no relation) decided to start a record label. "John and I started Till Ya Tyte together," says J-Skee. "Then he got locked up. When that went down he had to sign off, but he'll still be a part of the company when he gets out. Till Ya Tyte was started because most major companies weren't interested in Seattle-area rappers."
That same year, J-Skee went to the Gavin Music Seminar in San Francisco where he met The Click's E-40 and D-Shot. "E-40 and D-Shot gave us our first break," explains J-Skee. "Up till then we were unknown in the industry. D-Shot gave us a distribution deal through his label, Shot Records. E-40 had Funk Daddy do three songs on his In A Major Way album. I thank God that E-40 gave Funk Daddy a chance to produce on his album. It was like receiving ten-thousand dollars and being able to go do what we wanted to do. It was because of E-40 that other people were interested in us. We really appreciated that."
Since lending his talents on In A Major Way, Funk's worked on various Mix-A-Lot records, produced songs for B-Legit, worked with N2Deep, Suga T, Neighborhood Kingpinz, Mac Dre, Kid Sensation and a multitude of Seattle artists.
And his projects with Till Ya Tyte have kept him more than busy. Crooked Path made its debut on Seattle's The Darkside compilation (on American Records). Funk Daddy released his first solo album, Funk You Right On Up, on Shot Records, and his second album, Funk Daddy Is Tha Source, on Sunset Blvd. But his main success has come as a producer.
"Funk Daddy, in my opinion, is the most all-around talented musician and lyricist locally. I'd say he's close to the top in Seattle," says Kid Sensation. "He funks it up with the beats, writes his own lyrics and engineers his own stuff. He can do the whole ball of wax. You don't find many people that can go into the studio, sit there by themselves and come out with a hit."
The Till Ya Tyte name is expanding since the label has agreed to a joint venture with the Bay Area's Dogday Records. "When I first started Till Ya Tyte, I went to any and everybody," says J-Skee. "What I respected about Jo (the owner of Dogday) was that she told me I shouldn't sign with her company, which at the time was Music People, because they weren't right for us. When Jo left Music People and started Dogday, she offered me a distribution deal - a joint venture. I respected her enough to do it."
In addition to Crooked Path, Till Ya Tyte/Dogday will be releasing Funk Daddy's third solo album, Underground Gold, F-Lee's album, Mo Murder Mo Problems, a compilation and an E-Dawg album. "The compilation is going to have a combination of Till Ya Tyte artists doing songs with major label artists," Skee explains. "I don't want to mention all of the artists because they're not all etched in stone, but I will say C-Bo and B-Legit are on it."
J-Skee and Funk Daddy are both looking forward to what the future has in store. Currently, Funk Daddy is working on several projects, most notably a compilation tentatively called Why Not Major. "There are a lot of artists in Seattle who aren't on major labels, and I think they have what it takes," he explains. The lineup for the compilation consists of J Boogie, Franki, Mississippi, Mr. Rosson, E-Dawg, Deelirious, F-Lee, Sampson, Two In The Chamber, Cool Nutz (from Portland), Silver Shadow D and L-One.
"In the next five years I see Till Ya Tyte putting out a lot of music," said J-Skee. "We're in the studio seven days a week. We have album upon album waiting to be put out. We have our own studio, we have no overhead. All we do is make music."
