12ozProphet

Delancy Streeeeet… this story cant be beat!
So, yesterday the Guitar Center on Atlantic and Flatbush had Kool Herc, Jazzy Jay, Theodore, and damn near every other Original Hip-Hop DJ in the house (although,  for a place that supposedly specializes in audio equipment, the sound was kinda wack and they had constant “technical difficulties” but…whatever, I aint complainin’ cause it was free.) Anyhow, Grand Mixer D.St (no typo) was the host and master of ceremonies for the evening, and me and my man Fabel were talking and we both referred to him as D.St (not DXT as most of the world knows him) at the same time. Fabel reminded me that he got his name cause he used to hustle 3card Monte down on Delancy St. and the story goes that when they first pressed up Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”, they misspelled his name with an X. Now that record caught fire and introduced the world to scratching, so when they wanted to book D.St, they had to keep calling him DXT in order for heads to recognize.
Well that got me thinking about Bill Laswell, who produced that amazing record, and Laswell got me thinking about Bootsy, and Sly & Robbie, and Shinehead, and Maggot Brain, and Ram-El-Zee, and so on and so on and so on. I realized that Laswell is like the Kevin Bacon link between all my favorite artists. I got to remembering some of those crazy projects Laswell put together in the late 80’s- early 90’s with like 6 fuckin’ electric basses, an upright, and a tuba and Grand fuckin’ Puba. Was I just that dusted back then, or could such madness really exist?
Well, that’s why the Good Lord in His Infinite Wisdom created you-tube. It’s all there… “Material”, “Praxis”, (although I still haven’t found one NASTY joint off the “Rhythm Killers” album called “Bank Job” or something like that) pure insanity. Sometimes the result was just cacophony, like if evil Candy Ravers kidnapped George Clinton and force fed him bad designer drugs for a week or two… But when it clicked, Hoooo-Doggy!
And you know what?  If I had had all the time and money to assemble my Dream Team in a studio that’s probably what I would have wound up with.

If you are bored try it sometime, pick ANY major musician of the 20th century, google their name and Laswells in the same search window.  I doubt it will take six degrees to link ’em. 
(Mick Jagger? The Ramones? Miles Davis? Horace Andy ? Hendrix?  Waaaaaaaaay too easy. You gotta go into like NONA Hendrix or Fuckin’ Tommy Chong to find even one degree of separation.)

GrandMixer D.St (before the X)

Peep my man WEN TC-5 in the background

What whiteboy would dare attempt a Gregory Issacs cover? Only Red Man…and then only w/ the Taxi crew behind him.

Moon Shots! Plam! Plam!