Wednesday, August 20, 2014

WICHITA HIP-HOP HISTORY LESSON #9 - SUPREME UNALTERED!!!



One of my favorite and one of the most talented groups to ever come out of Wichita, Kansas was Supreme Unaltered.  Comprised of Maine One, Rawkswell, DVST8, Sable and Smallhead.  From some of my early posts you may recall a couple of the names on here.  I had known Maine One and Rawkswell (Bboy Stealth) many years prior to the formation of the group. 


  I hadn't seen either of them for awhile and ran into Maine One one day.  He told me about his new group and how he met the other members.  I was able to make it to one of their early performances that was at the Shamrock Lounge on West Douglas.  It was pretty much a reunion of people who I had not seen in a long time.  Paturn and Kawshin some of the old Infinite Wreck Bboy crew members were there, as well as Crave One who was an up and coming DJ at the time.  The music was amazing!  I hadn't heard anything like it in Wichita for awhile.  Their music incorporated every aspect of hip-hop and hip-hop culture which we were desperately in need of during that time in Wichita.  


 Below are some of the album covers from their projects as well as the EP I bought at the performance from that night at the Shamrock Lounge. 



I haven't seen Maine One or Rawkswell in awhile, but DVST8 and Smallhead producing music and DJing.  The last time I saw the two of them spinning they were killing it opening up for Grand Master Flash at Riverfest.  Enjoy music above of Supreme Unaltered... and get ready because Wichita Hip-Hop History Lesson #10 is all about the Bboys of Infinite Wrecking Crew. ~ @RoyceOnTheRadio



Thursday, August 7, 2014

WICHITA HIP-HOP HISTORY LESSON #8 - DJ BOY-1-DER





I was going through some old cassette tapes a couple months ago, and happened to come across and old mixtape.  It was DJ Boy-1-der and his Neva Broke mixtape.  This was the soundtrack for the summer and fall of 1996.  One of the things I love so much about this mixtape is how it was mixed and the songs that were selected was exactly what you would hear at a party around this time.  I grabbed this tape at Music & More on 13th and Grove.  They always carried local mixtapes so when I was there one day buying some records I had to grab this mixtape as well.  Boy-1-der was another one of the DJ's that was really making a name for himself around that time in Wichita.  Between Boy-1-der and Kulayde, they had a monopoly on the hip-hop parties and clubs in town.  One of my memories was stopping by his apartment he had.  I want to say the apartment was on Central by the Keeper of The Plains, but I could be wrong.  Kulayde and I had stopped by to see him.  It was a one bed room apartment, and all I remember seeing was records everywhere!  This was someone who KNEW music and had it!  He had got some vinyl in a record pool and that day he gave me some promo records.  He also had great connects and Kansas City and was a link for the for both the Wichita and Kansas City hip-hop scene. 

Above is some clips from the Neva Broke mixtape.  He had his echo on the voice drops like all the mixtapes used to have.  He had a Players side (hip-hop for the guys), and a Honeys side (RnB for the ladies).  One of my favorite songs on this mixtape is the Donell Jones - In The Hood remix!  I still loe hearing it!  Also there is something else I want to point out on why these mixtapes and DJ's were so important.  If you notice on the cassette, the date says 8/12/96.  Which was when it arrived and Music and more... so this mixtape was about at least early August of 1996, if not July of 1996.  What is really important is Outkast hadn't even released there album yet along many other songs on the mixtape.  So unless you got the 12 inch single, this was how you were able to hear the song because it wasn't playing on Wichita radio... only on Rap City and Yo MTV raps.  This was how important the DJ's were.  Either at a party or on a mixtape, Kulayde and Boy-1-der would be the ONLY places you would hear music until an artists album dropped. 

Boy-1-der is still around and very much a part of Wichita hip-hop scene.  He doesn't go by Boy-1-der anymore though... you know him know as Rob-1-der!

Next week...  Supreme Unaltered. ~ @RoyceOnTheRadio












Sunday, July 6, 2014

RESPECT THE ARCHITECT TOUR @ LUCKY'S EVERYDAY RECAP!

Had a great time at this show!  This was actually my first time ever going to Lucky's Everyday!  If you are looking for a place to hang out, enjoy music, and vibe with the patrons, then this is the place for you!  Started off with Cleme & Thoreau Bixby.  They represented the local scene extremely well with their performance.  Next was Count Bass D out of Atlanta.  His funky and soulful tunes got a great reaction from the crowd.  Then Blueprint hit up next.  He started off with his sing;e "Go Hard or Go Home" to set the stage for what he was going to do.  All in all it was a great show.  Had a lot of fun.  Check out the visuals below! ~ @RoyceOnTheRadio













Thursday, June 5, 2014

***UPDATED*** WICHITA HP-HOP HISTORY LESSON #7 - A SPECIAL GUEST... BBOYPATURN!

UPDATED!!!!! - I happened to find some pix from Paturn's event!!!  Check them out below!!!!

Rolls Royce with DJ Carbon and Paturn in the background


Busting some of my Bboy moves!!!


DJ Carbon, DVST8 and Mix-a-myte rocking the turntables!

Time to hear some great stories from someone who has been deep in the Wichita Hip-Hip scene...  Bboy Paturn!  Enjoy ~ @RoyceOnTheRadio
 
 
Around 2002, I had spent most of the previous 2 years travelling to B-Boy events between Lawrence, Oklahoma and Texas. I really wanted to have the same kind of love here in Wichita that I seen many of my peers experience in these cities. Often times phone calls were ended due to “crews here we gotta go practice” In Wichita around that time you could count on one hand how many “B-Boys” there were as compared to the cats who learned how to windmill and that’s all they did.  There was myself, Kid Nouveau, Kawshin (and a hand full of the Floormasters crews specifically Tony among a few others) who would get down and every Tuesday and Thursday at Evergreen Rec up North. This was right after our friend Austin (who was one of the ILLEST b-boys in Wichita) started to concentrate on MC’ing and formed the group Supreme Unaltered w/ MaineOne, DJ’s DVST8 and Smallhead and guitarist Sable. Kawshin and I were also members of the group.
 

I met up with a cat named Diego who wanted to host MC battles. We had mutual friends (namely Antimosity) and he sounded like he had plan so we ran with it. The battles were initially held at Indigo Lounge (years before the Stevens Brothers took over) and were actually quite a sight. MaineOne if memory serves held out on top. His style has always been contemplated but very ferocious in nature. We held one more battle after as they were cancelled due to a large fight (Wichita just keepin it real AMIRITE) but that second battle IMO was more memorable to me as cats came out of nowhere killing. I first met Nathan Slimm that night. Bloody Hands came out did what Bloody Hands does. One of my favorite battles (and lines) came from a person who would turn out to be my best friend in Carbon. Carbon was unknown to many people largely due him being pretty focused on the Jungle scene at that time. He MC’d with his crew “Jungle Recon” with Crave on production and Dj’ng along with Gaia. They were there promoting there event and Carbon hopped on the mic and surprised I think pretty much everyone in the building that night. Carbon told Maine that he would “rip his heart out like he was Kano” which Maine triumphantly let him know if Carbon was Kano then he was Liu Kang.

                Fast forward about 2 weeks later I and the rest of the Supreme Unaltered Crew were hanging out at the Sig Ep house at a party. Our buddy Clockwork (Aaron Cathy) was a huge supporter and asked us to come out and rip some stuff for them. The party was huge. We ended up leaving momentarily to head out to this Rave we heard about from Carbon and crew. They advertised a breaking battle with cash price so of course we entered. I remember Crave spinning a jungled out version of the JB’s “Blow Your Head” while we got down and we were all shown a lot of love.
 
Around this time Diego and I decided we wanted to have a B-boy battle as we had made some money and of course had some connections to make it happen. The biggest piece to ANYTHING you do that involves hip hop has to come from the DJ. We already had DVST8 and Smallhead on deck (as they were crew) but Diego really pushed me towards booking Carbon. Honestly I was uneasy as he was a rave kid and the bboying at raves shit was cool back in the 90’s and we wanted nothing but funk and rap. At this point in time he was starting up the MC battles at Harry and Ollies so he told me to come check it out. I walked in full expecting the bar to precede its reputation. What I wasn’t expecting was to walk in and be blasted by Babe Ruth’s “The Mexican”. Just on the strength of that alone Kawshin and I set up a time to meet with him where we literally spent about 3-4 hours going through records going GO-rilla in his room.  (More on this another time but suffice to say we’ve been inseparable ever since)   

We named the battle B-sides. The reason is simple and most of all my music aficionados know… The ‘B-side” of the record usually contained a gem that was on par if not better than the actual single itself. Wichita has always been big on rap. Graff is really underground and it’s only been the past 5-6 years has DJ’ng gotten really big. So this was our B-Side. This was our gem. We had 1-1 b-boy battles and an emcee contest as well. Friends came from all over Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. We even had someone from Japan attend. Denise Neil wrote up an article on the event and we had somewhere around 200-250 attend outside of just the competitors. Highlight battle of the night belonged out Bezerk (from Wichita) and this kid from OKC E-Dub (S/O to the Playground Bulliez crew!) While they danced to the Jackson Sisters “I Believe In Miracles” they put on a full aerial onslaught most of us have seen but weren’t quite prepared for. E-Dub came out victorious but the overall winner of the jam was Bamm from Lawrence, KS (Buggin Out/Zulu Kingz). Participants included Ruk (Dallas, TX Rock Solid Foundation  Crew), Boogi (Tulsa, OK Rock Solid Foundation Crew), Kawshin (Wichita, KS Infinite Wreck), Hiro (Japan/Lawrence Buggin Out) JamesStilla and Huck Finn (Lawrence KS Buggin Out) Battles were judged by myself and Efre from Buggin Out Kansas City.

This was my first time throwing an event and I would definitely call it a success. Money wise we broke even but most importantly we started to get contacted about our sessions on Tues/Thurs. We started to see more kids come out wanting to break. It didn’t last long unfortunately. And maybe we’re to blame. As breaking in Wichita just never really took off. But for at least one day we got to do everything in Wichita that we had to travel to do in Austin or Oklahoma City. And I could not have been more proud.

 

Paturn1

Ferrigno Fresh/Buggin Out

 

 

PEOPLE CAME OUT TO SUPPORT WICHITA'S OWN XV FOR TORNADO ALLEY!!!

I had the pleasure of hosting Tornado Alley, XV's latest show that was at Rock Island Live 6/4.  Loved seeing everyone who came out to support with all the positive vibes.  I always had a great time walking around and taking pix capturing people in the moment.  Check the visuals of the event below! ~ @RoyceOnTheRadio