This story originally appeared in XXL magazine in 1998.
COMMERCIAL FREE UNCENSORED RAP RADIO
As you drive east on California's Interstate 80 winding through the working class town of Vallejo, thirty-three miles northeast of San Francisco you'll notice how the signals to the more adventurous radio stations, usually located to the left of the FM dial, gradually fade away into noisy static. At this point the choices for some rap on the radio are pretty much limited to the two San Francisco high-wattage, commercial urban outlets, KMEL FM and WILD 94.9, unless that is you get lucky and happen to stumble upon the infrequent broadcasts of Vallejo's low-powered 91.3FM all rap radio station D'z Nutts. Broadcasting mostly evenings out of the bedroom of 19 year old "Mac Ran" (note: that many of the "pirates" interviewed for this story asked not to be identified by their legal names) in the East Vallejo home he shares with his mom and 16 year old sister, D'z Nutts is an illegal, low-powered, 15 watt pirate radio station that the Diablo Valley Community college student and his three high school buddies (19 year old Young J and 18 year olds Rick D'z & Weev Dogg) set up in January 1997 after their high school electronics teacher showed them just how easy it all was.
"Our teacher at Hogan High gave us our first equipment and then we bought our own equipment over the Internet for about $300 to get on the air," explained Mac Ran one recent broadcast evening from his blunt-smoke clouded, cramped bedroom/pirate radio studio. Besides the simple radio equipment, including the station's very compact transmitter which is about the size of a small brick, the crowded bedroom is packed with stacks of rap records, cassettes & CDs, and a drum kit that Mac Ran neglects now that he's gotten hooked on radio. "I wanted to be a drummer but when I saw Pump Up The Volume (the 1990 Christian Slater flick about a pirate radio high schooler) I really wanted to do radio," confides Mac Ran propped on the edge of his narrow single bed beneath walls that are plastered with posters of E40, N2Deep, B-Legit, and other heroes of his. Some nights up to a dozen people crowd into this small room but tonight it's just Mac Ran, Rick D'z and Weev Dog who's currently at the controls. Within a minute of Rick D'z segueing into hometown star E40's album track "Outsmart The Po Po's" the pager/voice mail starts to fill up with enthusiastic feedback. "We get about a hundred messages a night from people telling us they want to hear local rap, not that same ol' Top 40 shit on KMEL," shouted Rick D'z, lifting one ear of his headphones, as he cued up a CD track from Mac Dre; another Vallejo rap legend. "And everyone will tell you that they want to hear the music the way it was recorded, with the curse words."
Although D'z Nutts is a low wattage station run by inexperienced teens it has become the talk of the town in Vallejo with locals, who pick up the five to ten mile radius signal, referring to it as "our station" because of its unique and undying loyalty to the thriving local rap scene. "We just did up some fliers and handed them out at school when we first went on the air," said Weev Dogg. "But then word spread fast coz people started calling their friends and telling them to tune in to hear all this Bay Area and Vallejo rap shit. When people call they tell us that they tape all our broadcasts," he said. Even hometown rap stars such as The Click's D-Shot and N2Deep heard about the station and were so impressed that they stopped by the tiny bedroom studio. "Most people don't even think of us as a pirate radio though," noted Mac Ran. "They just think of us as the Vallejo radio station." Sometimes Mac Ran will wake up on his bed at three in the morning in "the station" to find everyone gone home and the transmitter still on playing a CD on "repeat" mode. Then he turns off the transmitter and the lights and goes back to sleep to be up early for school the next day.
COMMERCIAL FREE UNCENSORED RAP RADIO
As you drive east on California's Interstate 80 winding through the working class town of Vallejo, thirty-three miles northeast of San Francisco you'll notice how the signals to the more adventurous radio stations, usually located to the left of the FM dial, gradually fade away into noisy static. At this point the choices for some rap on the radio are pretty much limited to the two San Francisco high-wattage, commercial urban outlets, KMEL FM and WILD 94.9, unless that is you get lucky and happen to stumble upon the infrequent broadcasts of Vallejo's low-powered 91.3FM all rap radio station D'z Nutts. Broadcasting mostly evenings out of the bedroom of 19 year old "Mac Ran" (note: that many of the "pirates" interviewed for this story asked not to be identified by their legal names) in the East Vallejo home he shares with his mom and 16 year old sister, D'z Nutts is an illegal, low-powered, 15 watt pirate radio station that the Diablo Valley Community college student and his three high school buddies (19 year old Young J and 18 year olds Rick D'z & Weev Dogg) set up in January 1997 after their high school electronics teacher showed them just how easy it all was.
"Our teacher at Hogan High gave us our first equipment and then we bought our own equipment over the Internet for about $300 to get on the air," explained Mac Ran one recent broadcast evening from his blunt-smoke clouded, cramped bedroom/pirate radio studio. Besides the simple radio equipment, including the station's very compact transmitter which is about the size of a small brick, the crowded bedroom is packed with stacks of rap records, cassettes & CDs, and a drum kit that Mac Ran neglects now that he's gotten hooked on radio. "I wanted to be a drummer but when I saw Pump Up The Volume (the 1990 Christian Slater flick about a pirate radio high schooler) I really wanted to do radio," confides Mac Ran propped on the edge of his narrow single bed beneath walls that are plastered with posters of E40, N2Deep, B-Legit, and other heroes of his. Some nights up to a dozen people crowd into this small room but tonight it's just Mac Ran, Rick D'z and Weev Dog who's currently at the controls. Within a minute of Rick D'z segueing into hometown star E40's album track "Outsmart The Po Po's" the pager/voice mail starts to fill up with enthusiastic feedback. "We get about a hundred messages a night from people telling us they want to hear local rap, not that same ol' Top 40 shit on KMEL," shouted Rick D'z, lifting one ear of his headphones, as he cued up a CD track from Mac Dre; another Vallejo rap legend. "And everyone will tell you that they want to hear the music the way it was recorded, with the curse words."
Although D'z Nutts is a low wattage station run by inexperienced teens it has become the talk of the town in Vallejo with locals, who pick up the five to ten mile radius signal, referring to it as "our station" because of its unique and undying loyalty to the thriving local rap scene. "We just did up some fliers and handed them out at school when we first went on the air," said Weev Dogg. "But then word spread fast coz people started calling their friends and telling them to tune in to hear all this Bay Area and Vallejo rap shit. When people call they tell us that they tape all our broadcasts," he said. Even hometown rap stars such as The Click's D-Shot and N2Deep heard about the station and were so impressed that they stopped by the tiny bedroom studio. "Most people don't even think of us as a pirate radio though," noted Mac Ran. "They just think of us as the Vallejo radio station." Sometimes Mac Ran will wake up on his bed at three in the morning in "the station" to find everyone gone home and the transmitter still on playing a CD on "repeat" mode. Then he turns off the transmitter and the lights and goes back to sleep to be up early for school the next day.
