Mikey Dee Of ‘The Infamous Main Source’, The New
Music Seminar ‘Showdown’ with Mele Mel and more.
By Troy L. Smith
Winter of 2007
Let’s talk about that night at the
New Music Seminar when you and Mele Mel went head up!
Mantronix from Sleeping Bag
Records
told the owner Will Socolov that they should enter me in the New Music
Seminar competition because I was a battle rapper which is how he found
me.
Right.
 So I had to go through the preliminaries and battle this
cat name Mr. X who was from Queens like me. He had a record out at the
time were he says “you know I drink Old Gold.” I dusted him off in
the first round. The next day it seemed like I had to go against every
one that was there. It was like 40 different rappers there. You had King
Sun,
Bango from Cleveland and he was ill. A lot of emcees were
there even M.C. Search. So they just paired everybody up. Big Daddy Kane
was there too but he wasn’t in the actual contest.
What about Just Ice?
Nah he wasn’t there, even though he was on the label he
wasn’t there and he had a real problem too with how that situation
went down with me and Mel.
What!
 Yeah it was crazy I had to tell Just Ice to chill and let
that go.
Just
Ice felt that whole situation was f---ed up. See me and Mele Mel
wasn’t even suppose to battle. Bango was the last dude that I battled.
After I beat Bango that made me the champion for 1988. Mele Mel was the
champion from 1987 so the only thing we were suppose to do was a
demonstration which was me and him perform together!
Right.
But Mele Mel turned the s--- into a battle and that was
because he didn’t like the way it went down or what ever. Plus he felt
I was a young n----- from Queens, this that and the other. Blazy blah.
So who did he want to win if he
didn’t want you to win?
I don’t know but you know Mel, he was walking around
with that chip on his shoulder. So he felt that he deserved that Belt.
So he turned it into a battle.
So lets take this slow, you took out
X and Bango what happen to the other guys like Search and etc?
Well I forgot who knocked out Search but he was the only
white rapper that was in there. Mr. Magic threw water on Search.
Why?
Just that hating s---, straight hating!
You serious?
‘Ah White boy what are you doing here!’ That type of
thing.
Damn
And that was ill because me and Search was kicking it
when we first got there because he said he was from Far Rockaway so I
said I am from Queens too. But with Mele Mel like I said we weren’t
supposed to battle it was supposed to be just a demonstration. But he was
hating too, “Queens is in the house” yeah right what ever! He
thought he was the man he thought he deserved the belt. Although he won
he felt he got jerked from last year or what ever.
O.k. let me ask you this. The night
before when you and X were going at it, was Mel in the house and was he
walking around watching like a panther or something and maybe talking
that talk?
Nah I didn’t see Mel but it wouldn’t have made a
difference because he wasn’t ready no way, because I was hungry as
hell at that time. So back to Mel he was like, ‘if you are a real
champ then you will battle for that belt.’ I was like ‘nah I am not
going to battle you for this belt. N----- I just won the s---! I’m
taking it home to Queens and then I am going to rep this!’ But the
crowd started to amp it and they were like ‘Go Mikey, Go Mikey battle
him’. So I looked at his belt and my belt and slammed my belt down on
top of his and went in. Do you know this dude had the nerve to do push
ups while I rhymed!
Right I heard.
So I had the people clap to his push ups while I rhymed
off the rhythm of his push ups and I tore his ass up.
Do you remember any of the rhymes
you used that night?
I said something like:
Why ya’ll all figuring out what I am saying
I am going to step ahead
So therefore I am slaying
You ya rhyme biting
Boring unexciting
Too late to go home and do your own
writing
Dirty street roaming
Wack ass showman
Coming to the party
Big no hair combing
Fake gold wearing
Mikey Dee fearing
I call you out to battle
You play hard of hearing
Your ill legit
Bull s---
Counterfeit
And when it comes to hip hop
You are the pit of emcees in the place
So listen to daddy as I prepare
To get on your case
Take one step back
Because you ain’t a contender
I will have you down on your knees and surrender
To the undisputed King of my division
With one half rhyme I will blur your vision
Make you take a standing 8
But do worst
I will fake two rhymes and win by a TKO in the first!
You half ass flaking my rhyme faking
Come around the way
And all your s--- will be taken
That’s right homeboy now I am done snapping
Address me as the new Mike Tyson of Rapping
Undefeated brother!”
Damn kid, I wish we would have had
the tape of that night. (I have the show but not the whole show. Tape
200.) But this is a plus you hitting us with that rhyme from that night.
Did Mel have a clever response to
your rhyme?
 He said some slick s--- like that’s why my c—is all
over your girl friends breast or what ever. That was the only punch line
I really remember but after that it was a rizzy. (Rap, the end.) Because
the crowd was booing him you know what I mean! I didn’t need any
music. On my second go round I just totally demolished him. But the ill
s--- about it is as I was doing my second round rhyme Caz was standing
behind us as well as the belts. Caz picked up both of the belts and when
I finished he handed them to Mele Mel, even though the crowd already
knew who won!
We
didn’t even go by the judges or nothing like that we went strictly by
the crowd and I had them. And so Mel walked off with the belts. He
pushed Big Daddy Kane down the stairs as he was coming through asking
Mel ‘yo, what are you doing’ Mel mushed Jackie Paul who was a rep
from Tommy Boy Records
and just waltz out of the
building.
I didn’t have anybody with
me that day from my hood just me and my D.J. Quest but I gained a lot of
love after that. I had dudes that were from the Bronx ready to step to
Mele Mel because it was a terrible move on his part but I stopped all of
that because I felt if ya’ll do something to him it is going to
reflect on my career. I rather he walked out and we finished that battle
another time some where else. So after all of that occurred Tom
Silverman of Tommy Boy Records who ran the New Music Seminar competition
said just because Mele Mel did that we are going to make Mikey Dee a
bigger
and better belt. Two weeks later I got the new belt. Then I saw Mele Mel
at a club I think it was the new Disco Fever up in the Bronx and I was
walking through there in my new belt over my shoulder.
What!
And he couldn’t say anything to me. I had my D.J. Quest
with me and a couple of my cats from Boom Bash this time.
I know you are cool with both Caz
and Mel today but when did it start getting better between you and them?
 Well me and Mele Mel never really spoke after that
because I was disappointed and I really didn’t want no parts of him
because it was f--- up. Him and Caz were guys I really idolized. But one
dayI was doing an album with Main Source and I bumped into Caz in the
studio and I said do you remember me and he didn’t until I sparked his
brain about the thing that went down at the New Music Seminar and then
he bugged out and then he apologized for it and then that is when I let
him know that he was one of the few emcees I idolized and it was a
heartbreaking experience for me.
Right
I told him I can’t give him the same respect that I had
because of what went down. But now everything is cool.
Ain’t life something, today you
and Caz are rocking together off that Hush Tours around Queens!
Yeah that’s my dude today, that’s my man. And I have
spoken to Mele Mel over the telephone we have gotten everything taken
care of, it’s a done deal. In fact I went to one of Mele Mel’s
performances recently at one of these clubs in Brooklyn called Triple
Crown.
Glad to hear that
But do you know that the crowd tried to amp that. (Troy
starts to laugh.) But it wasn’t that type of party I just went up
there and spit my s---, that all.
So what did he say to you last night
when ya’ll seen each other for the first time?
Nah it was all love, we slapped hands, he said
“what’s good man” and “go in there and rip it down!”
That New Music Seminar was located
at the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan?
Right on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
How did your team and the label look
at the situation?
My team had a party for me the next day on the roof of
Sleeping Bag Records which was like on Broadway and Columbus Circle. In
fact Cold Chilling Records was right next door to us.
How did you do the next year at the
New Music Seminar?
It was sabotaged because I came up there and I had to
battle Lord Finesse. Lord
Finesse
is my dude today but at that time I didn’t know him. The judges gave
it to him and it might have had to do with him being a newer face and he
was up and coming plus he had a lot of fans in the crowd. So they gave
it to him. Not the belt though, Lord Finesse later got knocked out also.
Kid named
Freshco won the whole thing.
Alright, lets talk about L. L.
Cool J. I know the two of you grew up together. Give me those early days
and how he later made ‘I Need a Beat’ and you some what retaliated
with ‘I get Rough’ because you felt he bite your style?
 Well
I went to Springfield High School and he went to Andrew Jackson High and
we had a mutual friend named Mellow Gee. Him and L. L. were cool and they
used to run together. So he told L about me, letting him know that I was
from Laurelton Queens and I was nice with mines and he in return told me
about L. So me and L.L. was supposed to battle. Back in those days
Flavor Flav from Public Enemy used to have this company called Black Spectrum and they used to have parties at this roller skating ring called Roller Castle out at
Elmont Long Island. We chose that place because it was like a neutral
ground for us. So me and Cool J who didn’t go by that name at the
time.
In fact he called him self Jay
Ski at that time. So we agreed to meet at Roller Castle and do the
battle. Before we got to the actual battle we compared notes and I
notice how similar he sounded to me. In fact his boys and my boys
noticed the similarities in how we spit and the tone of our voices. So
after that instead of battling we went on stage together and free styled
and rocked it together! The crowd loved it. After that we exchanged
numbers and he started coming around my way. Mind you, this dude
wasn’t wearing no Kangol or nothing like that. Nor lifting no weights, nothing like that. He used to come around with a head ban around his head and a baseball bat
looking like Bam Bam from the Flintstones!
What was the deal with the baseball
bat?
L.L. was one of those guys that was always picked on back
then. He would have on those tight ass shorts, a head ban and a baseball
bat. It wasn’t like he was wielding it but he would have the bat just
in case the dudes from around his way would chase him down or what ever.
So why would cats ‘bring it’ to
him back in those days?
Well if you knew Jay back then he
was very arrogant and one of those obnoxious type of people, his style
at that was just bananas when it came to dealing with people proper.
So he started to come around my
way and during that time I had a group called the Sensational 5, my name
at the time was Playboy Mikey Dee. My other partners in the group were
Loveable Lil Bee, Lover Boy T.C. Ever loving Kid Ice and Romantic Lover
Snow. So L. L. who was known as Jay Ski, said he was going to change his
name. So he changed it to Cool Jay or Cool James or whatever. I said, if
you are going to be running with us you are going to need a nick name or
something in front of it. At that time we had a d.j. who’s name was
Ladies Love Butch Kid. But Butch Kid got locked up. So I took the name
from Butch Kid and gave it to Jay. I said why don’t you be Ladies Love
Cool Jay!
 Now what I have read and heard is
one of his boys gave him that name, I believe that would be Cut Creator
or Bob Cat!
Well for one, the
Cut Creator that he is running with is not even the original Cut
Creator. The original Cut Creator was from Corona Queens where Kool Gee
Rap is from. But even if you check say ‘VH1’s Behind
the Music’, he says my name when he speaks about the naming of L.L. He
says my name and then the Merrick Blvd sign and all of that. Even if you
check his book that he wrote, ‘ I make my Own Rules’, check page 9,
paragraph 2 he says he got the name from Playboy Mikey Dee! Also I have
to let you check my up coming documentary were he gives me 20 minutes to
a half an hour camera interview.
I am glad we cleared that up. Now at
this time in his early days were girls actually digging him like that?
Yeah girls were feeling him and I guess you can say
because he was running with us.
Slowly me and him branched off
and started doing our own thing. I guess a little of me started rubbing off on him because he came out of those
tight shorts and head bands and started wearing Kangols and Puma warm up suits. I had the Air
Jordan suits I had them all. Plus I wore a Kangol to match all of my
suits.
So how long did you and him rock
together?
About a year and half and then his grand parents moved
him to Florida and that was because he started really acting out. I
remember when he got kicked out of Andrew Jackson High School, he was assigned to go to this private school Christopher
Roberts. Same school Tichina Arnold who played Pam on the T.V. show
‘Martin’. Only problem,
L wouldn’t go there either. The school was right around the
corner from my house, so
every morning he would be waiting on my steps for me to come out. After
awhile my grand mother wouldn’t even wake me up. She would make him an
egg sandwich or what ever and tell me when I did get up Jay is on the
steps with his rhyme book waiting for me so we could write.
You a funny dude
No that’s my word.
So at that same time you weren’t
going to school either?
Hell no! I was bad as hell!
 Well after reading your bio I saw
that you started to go all over town and try and battle the top cats.
Where did you get this confidence because Kool Moe Dee was the only cat
I heard was going all over seeing cats? Moe would go to an emcee’s
block and stand in front of their system and as the emcee would rhyme
Moe would stand up front damn near in their face with his arms folded
and shake his head smiling or whatever as if to say “no n----- you is
wack you can’t f--- with me.”
My thing was this, the first time
I stepped into a park…. see we used to do everything in front of D.J.
Johnny Quest front porch or on tapes. The first time I stepped into a
park and somebody challenged me and it was my turn, after that it was a
wrap! Plus I had a crew of n------ that was putting them extra batteries
in my back. Plus we were drinking Old English 800 at that time so
nothing could stop me then. You feel me? So I didn’t care where I was
at, the first thing that would come out my mouth where ever I was at was
“o.k. who is the baddest rapper around here.” We would even go to
their crib and I would call them out and we would battle!
Give me some of your battles.
Well for one I remember a kid name Vitamin D tried to
come at me and me and my younger brother M.C. Lotto. He bought his man
Vitamin E. they were from Farmers Blvd near Merrick Blvd. It was like
the border line of Spring Field Gardens. Vitamin D today is a Music
Lawyer. I also battled Kwame.
How did you catch Kwame`?
He came out to a park jam at Baisley Park here in Queens.
He was running his f------ mouth with the f------ polka dots on. He
rhymed and talk s--- about “this is his park” and all of that. He
wasn’t even from around Baisley Park. Kid wanted to rock polka dots so
I tore him a new ass hole. One time me, Quest and my other man Vincent
went to Corona Queens to visit Vincent’s stepfather. So we were in
Corona and we stepped into a store to buy some Old Gold and I started
asking cats who was the baddest on the mic around here. They said Cool
Gee.
Kool G Rap?
Right but they didn’t say Kool
G Rap they just said Kool Gee. So I was laughing because that reminded me of Cool Jay. So the
dudes that told us that Kool G was the nicest, took us to his crib. Soon
as we got to his crib we went out it. Me and him battled right in front of his mothers’ house before he even made records. We
went rhyme for rhyme to the end and nobody won. All six of us were
standing there two of his homeboys and two of mine. We are homeboys from
that day on and what’s funny about that, he has a step son that is my
first cousin, now that I think about it.
What was the deal with M.C. Shan?
I went to Queens Bridge looking for him.
How did that go down? Did you catch
up to him?
 Nah they ran us out of there. It
was like 20 of them n------ from Queens bridge and only 3 of us. (Mike
starts laughing.) But Shan heard because I left a mark. We never got a
chance to battle because we got cool after that. But who ever was out I
got at in Queens. I use to taunt RUN
DMC all the time. I used to go with Runs cousin and she had a birthday party and he came down
there and at the time the record Sucker M.C.s was out. At the party I
got on the mic did my thing and when I finished he said I was
‘alright, what ever’! But he had an attitude like I wasn’t s---!
So I was like ‘yeah, alright, what ever’. I told him at the 231
party they are rocking right now ‘I will battle you in front of the
whole park’. He said ‘alright soon as my man D comes we will be
right there.’
So you might have had to face both
of them.
I was ready. I am sure I would have f----- them up. Of
course they didn’t show so I blazed them on the mic any way.
So who was your hardest opponent?
That would be L.L. Cool J
So you still would see him after he
started getting big making records?
Yes, that’s my man.
He still would come to the crib.
No I am talking about seeing him
again on the mic!
Well we would take sucker shots
at each other on wax! But other than that he still would come to my
crib and enjoying dinner and breakfast and all that
With grandma!
You know that word up and it was vice versa with me. I
would go to his crib all the time.
So what were some of the tracks
where he spoke about you?
 He did a joint
called
Breakthrough
on
the
Bigger
And
Deffer
Lp
that
went :
Knuckle heads spreading gossip all over town
L. L. this, L.L. that
Soon as I walk in the place….
He said don’t you know you just a worker and your boss
is my man.
That’s when he was running with Tommy Montana (Major
Player.) and he thought I was hustling for him. But I was the dude Tommy
Montana was trying to put on as far as the music is concern.
Did you ever go up to Harlem or the
Bronx to see cats on the mic or Staten Island to see the Force M.C.s ?
Nah, I heard
through the grapevine that Dr. Rock was a 2nd or 3rd
cousin of mine. Today me and Stevie Dee are real cool. I can’t
remember everyone at the moment but I battled a lot of dudes. I had Kid
and Play fearing me.
But you never bought it to them?
Nah, but we have preformed together. I was running with
the Clientele Brothers and we rocked with the Cold Crush Brothers at
this club and Kid and Play performed with us also. Kid and Play wasn’t
even Kid and Play they were Quick Silver and the Super
Lover M.C.s. We rocked at this
tennis court here in Queens. I was a beast when I was young.
So where were you born?
I was born in Laurelton, Queens. Jamaica, New York. Over
on Merrick Blvd 220th street.
So who were some of the other
entertainers that came up around your neighborhood?
You had the Lost Boys, Onyx, G- Unit.
What about Rat and Monkey from the
earlier days?
Rat and Monkey was from the 40 projects with Grand Master
Vic and Bumpy Knuckles Freddy Fox. Pepa, of Salt and Pepa. Her and I use
to go to school together. She was Sandy then at Springfield High School.
What about the Lost Boys?
Me and Mr. Cheeks battled a few times. In fact he tried
to play me on one of his records! He had this song out called Keep It
Real. He said:
What you think I am some sucker
Mikey Dee try to dis me
Crack head mother f-----!
Quite naturally, I had a problem with that. We had a
harsh conversation about it but 2 weeks later there was a remix and he
took it right out of there..
So what made him come out like that?
 One of the home boys had a club
up on Farmers Blvd near Murdock, and I just came back from Florida.
So I went in there and we were making a tape or what ever and this dude
came in there named Top Cat. He came in there popping this Mr. Cheeks s--- and all this
South side s---. He even was saying I ain’t s---. I been away too
long. So on the tape I said f--- Cheeks, F--- Spank G, f--- Grand Master
Vick, F--- all them South Side n------. And that tape surfaced so that
was why Mr. Cheeks tried to bring it to me like that.
So it was valid for Mr. Cheeks to
try and bring it to you like that!
Yeah basically!
So how is that today between him and
you?
Me and him is real cool as usual. That’s my man. It was
just a misunderstanding; you had the middle man amping s---.
So when did you really get
interested in hip hop?
When I was in junior high school 231.That is when I got
interested. My older brother Eddie O.J. started the Clientele Brothers
and he had all the Cold Crush, Treacherous 3 etc. tapes. So when they
would be practicing it got me open and I started writing rhymes in 231.
Who was the hottest dudes out other
then your brother and his crew?
There was Mellow Go and the Rappermatical 5 and the Professional 5
they were both very good. I battled them too.
What about D.J. Divine and his crew
The Cipher Sounds and Infinity Machine.
I knew about him and D.J. Goede
but I couldn’t get into their clubs because I was too young. But they
used to have this spot out here
called Olympia Palace and Sweetie Gee was like the Don King of hip hop
over here. He use to bring all of the talent out here from all over and
I was able to get into those because they had a lot of hip hop contests.
Speaking of Sweetie Gee, I just got
a couple of tapes of him and he is really good. Alright what was up with
the Milk Farm?
Ah man that was like the spot
that was like Pop and Kim’s. The Milk Farm was across the street from
the Pop and Kim’s and right in the back of it was a parking lot and we
use to go back there and have what we would call a cipher and all the
rappers would get down for theirs. Me and Boom Bash used to come through there also and
have war games.
Describe the war games as if I
don’t already know!
Well like the Zulu Nation would have the Apache Line
where the dude has to walk through the middle of it and take that beat
down.
Similar to the Movie Education of
Sonny Carson.
Exactly, but this was an all out wrestling, boxing type
thing you can go all out long as you don’t hit any one in the face or
nuts!
Nah I dig you we used to do the same
thing, we would body blow and slap box to the face at the same time.
Right! War games! Now Pop and Kim’s was like the Statue
of Liberty of Laurelton. That’s where everybody, I mean Run and all of
them use to come up there to cop bears and we would kick it right in
front of the store.
Did you do any performances in
Harlem?
Yeah I rocked at the Apollo as well as the Victory 5
movie theater right down the block from the Apollo.
How did you get on the mic at the
Victory 5 because they are always opening and closing through the years?
Well during the time they were open, I got on an open mic
and did my thing. I had a manager at the time named Robin Harrison and
he plugged me into that. I even rocked at the Cotton club.
Now how did you and your DJ Johnny
Quest get together?
Johnny Quest is a childhood friend. He only lived down
the block from me. When I was first able to come outside of my gate and
you know walk to the corner and what- ever Johnny Quest was the first
person I met. We went to the same schools together so we walked to all
of them together. Around 1978, his older brother gave him some equipment
for Christmas and we both wanted to be the D.J. but he had the
equipment. So we choosed it out, you know “odds evens say shoot.”
And he ended up having the d.j. job and I was the rapper.
How nice was he on the turntables?
Was he trying to see other D.J.’s like you were trying to see other
rappers?
Quest is incredible and he used to taunt people, Red Alert can
tell you best!
Why do you say that?
At the New Music Seminar he went at Red Alert told him
“Red Alert eat dirt what ever!” Quest also went at Marly Marl and
Mr. Magic. Quest flipped out on Mr. Magic. On one of our songs “I Get
Rough” Quest was cutting and Mr. Magic said something slick and we
went up to the radio station the next week and got an apology over the
air
 from
Magic.
Damn kid, you was banging on cats
like that?!
Yeah basically, I be trying to tell people we were doing
this way before Suge Knight! Hanging dudes out of windows.
Ah man (Mikey Dee starts laughing.)
But back to Quest, he is bonkers. Me and him are working
on something now.
Tell me about somebody he went
against and took him out.
Do you know Grand Master Vick?
I know of him, had the opportunity
to talk to him too. Seems like a nice guy.
He was one of the hottest dudes out at the time. Well, we
were at a Baisley Jam and I took out two of his emcees and I am not
talking about Rat and Monkey I can’t remember their names right now.
But Grand Master Vick called out Quest. Vick was back spinning with hand
cuffs. To top that Quest took the beer or soda six pack holder ring, and
put them on his wrist and started back spinning and spinning around at
that same time and destroyed him.
Was the same Dr. Shock running with
you the same Dr. Shock that ran with the Force M..C.s?
Yes. Michael Thomas he is the same one. The Force had Dr.
Rock and Dr. Shock.
How did you get on with the Symbolic
3?
 They used to be The Symbolic 4 but lost one and became the Symbolic 3, they were
all girls. They used to come to all my park jams and
I started talking to one of the girls and her name was Sha Love. When
they were making the movie Krush Groove, I went over as an extra and while there I pumped this tape
that me and Quest made that was all over Queens called “Here’s
Johnny.” That was how I
met Dr. Shock. When he heard it he took it to Arthur Armstrong who then
became my manager. Armstrong asked me if I knew any female rappers. I
said “yeah I am dating one right now and she has a group.” I started
writing stuff for them and I wrote myself into a couple of their joints.
Him and Jerry Bloodrock were the owners of Reality Records and they had
Doug E. Fresh and Slick Ricks
"The Show" out at that time and they wanted
an answer to that song and they wanted some females to do it. And it
wasn’t nothing against Doug or Rick it was just an opportunity. Jerry
Bloodrocks whole thing was “I might as well put the answer out on my
own label and keep this money in house.”
So did Salt and Pepa already have
their record the Show Stopper out?
Ours was out first, Salt and Pepa came out about 4 months
after ours. We ended up doing a show with them one night in Baltimore
with those two records. They
did their thing, we did our thing, it was like ‘what ever’.
How did Doug feel about you and this
record?
He really didn’t like it. Doug
used to tell people “He would be
alright if he stopped dissing people.” He said that because every
record I would come out with I was dissing somebody because I didn’t
care and that was just the art of battling “come on lets go!” But me
and Doug E. Fresh got to talking and me and him became cool. Slick Rick
didn’t like it at all though. He did not agree to anything we were
doing. Through all that I never talked to Slick Rick nor met him. I know
that he was on the Mr. Magic show one night and Magic asked him about
that and he dissed Symbolic 3 and Salt and Pepa and said they was a
bunch of pigeons. He wasn’t feeling it and he was tight about it. But
it wasn’t our fault. That was Jerry Blood Rock! He was the owner of
the label.
What was going on with you
personally that you were dissing so many cats? Did you ever think about
that and did you ever think about some body bringing it to you something
terrible? You know the
saying ‘there is always somebody tougher then the next man’!
There were cats that would try
but I was on top of my game at that time, I was always prepared for a
battle any time! I used to walk around with notebooks
filled with rhymes! Like ten note books and I would battle from store
front to store front corner to corner. Then I started getting tired of
doing it in my own hood and I said lets venture out to some where else.
Lets do it on the train, lets do it where ever.
So after the record ‘No Show’
did anybody come at you?
Nah the only people that came at me on wax was Mr. Cheeks
and L. L.! Man cats wouldn’t even make tapes about me.
Damn ain’t that something, but
what about somebody like Chuck Dee, Rakim etc?
Chuck Dee was my boy. Flavor Flav
had a radio show called WBAU in Garden City at Adelphi
College. I was Flavor Flavs first live performance and I went on their
free styling without cursing and all that. Flav introduced me to Chuck
Dee and we became real cool. Dr Dre from Dr. Dre and Ed Lover show also
had a radio station up there on Monday nights and I was one of his first
emcees as well. Never ran into Rakim at that time.
I feel you on all that, but what about cats like Kool Moe Dee or…
Moe was a person I looked up to.In fact, I bumped into him at one of the New Music Seminars before it
got real wild and them West Coast cats started fighting up in there. But
me and him became cool also.
Now how did you and your man Rahzel
get so cool?
Rahzel was a
rapper and he used to run with a crew called The
Ever-loving 5 emcees. They had a record out called ‘To the Max’. In
my freshmen year of Springfield high school I just finished rocking the
summer park jams and all that and I already built up a reputation and
Rahzel was already in the tenth grade or what ever and I was coming in
as a freshmen and he called me out to battle.
Right.
So we battled in front of the school and it was jam
packed. I let him go first and I am real humble but this was actually
the element of surprise. Because
when it was my turn it was a whole different story, I tore his ass up
and 3 weeks later he was the human beat box man.
So you saying he changed his whole
style?
Yeah he changed his whole style after that battle. But me
and Rahzel is cool because after I got with Paul C, I went back to
Rahzel and we did a couple of joints together where he beat boxed on my
joints.
How did you get on with Paul C?
 Will Seville from the Clientele
brothers told me that he had an ill white boy for me to meet. Paul C used to live in Rosedale which is like one town over from me. He use to live
on 147th and 226th street in Rosedale. Will
Seville took me over there to meet him and this dude Paul C was funky
with his beats. I was like wow. After that he stayed in contact with me.
He would call me and say “yo I got this new beat come over” and me
and him started recording. From that place, he moved into this studio
called Twelve Twelve in Jamaica, Queens. He used to give me and Johnny Quest free studio time, and he would do all the
beats and Quest would do all the scratching and I would do all the
rapping. Arthur Armstrong heard our material and he got us a deal which
included Paul C. I was the first artist Paul C ever worked with as far
as wax. After he worked with us he started working with Super Lover M.C.,
Rakim, Queen Latifah he was really about to blow up. Then his untimely
death happened.
Were you still running with Sleeping
Bag Records when you started doing work with Paul C?
Paul C was before Sleeping Bag Records. But he did
‘Coming in the House’. That was our first single on Sleeping Bag
Records. With Paul C that was how we started Mikey Dee and the L.A.
Posse. L.A. Posse was only Paul C and Johnny Quest.
Was Rahzel apart of the L.A. Posse?
No he wasn’t part of that. The first label we had was
an independent label called Public Records and it was smaller then
Sleeping Bag Records. That’s were we came out with I get Rough and My
Telephone. Once that label went out of business we got an offer from
Mantronix. Mantronix stepped to me and told me he liked my stuff and got
me set up with Sleeping Bag Records.
Was Arthur Armstrong your manager
all through your career?
Yes until I left Sleeping Bag Records. Then we broke up
and it wasn’t just over money and dates but he was trying to be my
father instead of my manager. I was like “you bugging now!”
What does that mean?
He was trying to put in too much
input and then trying to get credit on the records. Like if he gave us a
title for a record on the record he would put Executive producer Arthur
Armstrong and I am like ‘…come on you only gave us the title. You
didn’t put no work in to this.
Plus you’re not putting your money into this. Walter Sterrup, the owner of Public Records is. How you asking for writer’s
royalty’s for a title?’ We were really blind to it at that time. We
were just real hungry to make music and we were from the hood and a step
beyond tapes, so we let him run everything and he was getting all the
bread. I mean I didn’t hold it over his head because just last year me
and my younger brother did something with him and the name of the
project was called Ambush.
How did that whole situation go down
with the passing of Paul C?
The story with Paul C is still
untold but basically he used to live in the basement at his
moms crib and they had one of those doors like a store front were you
can go down stairs into the basement of the store. He had one of those
in the back of his mother’s house and it was said that that was left
open and some dudes came down there and shot him 3 times in the face and
didn’t take anything. First they were trying to say Super Lover Cee
had something to do with it because he was staying with Paul Cee and he
had a beef with Paul Cee. And on the strength of that they came looking
for him but that wasn’t it. Then they tried to say it was his wife who
was Black tried to set him up. But he was shot 3 times in the face and
he had a close casket funeral. What’s crazy about it is his wife still
hits me up on my space.
Who were all the guys he took care
of musically?
So many. But he did ‘Do the
James’ by Super Lover Cee. He was working with Rakim, Queen Latifah,
Ultramagnetic, King Sun.
There were so many people.
So he really was on the come up?
Yeah he was about to blow up and he was a white boy that
was the illest. He was really doing it and he was real good people to
me.
How did that situation go down with
him and Rahzel reworking that beat box sound?
Yeah, they engineered a song I did called ‘Dawn’ but
if you listen to ‘I get Rough’, it’s off the ‘Break House’
beat, but we didn’t sample it. If you listen to the baseline that is
actually Rahzels voice.
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