April 15th, 2010
So when I moved to Park Slope, BK in the summer of 1995 with two friends who happen to be 2/3 of the Vinyl Reanimators production team. So as you can imagine it was a house full of records and me trying to study for grad school…lol! Those were some good days man. Everybody was coming thru the crib: Stretch Armstrong to EDO G. This is also the time that I meant a good friend still to this day: Frank Strattman co-onwer of Groove Attack. Around this time L Tha Head Toucha recorded the indie classic “Too Complex” in our crib. EDO G recorded his “Dedicated” EP and L Fudge recorded his first Rawkus single there too.
In 1996, I was STRUGGLING after I quit grad school and I needed a job bad! So my roommate Sean C reccommeded me for a position at the newly started Fat Beats Distribution. It took me a minute to work there but I started january 1997 as sales rep. I brought in to bring ‘domestic’ retail accounts to further our sales. By the way, many of the now classic indie hip-hop 12″ were only being really sold overseas in Japan and Europe. Anyway, I worked hard and was in 1998 promoted to basically the ehad A&R and head of distribution for Fat Beats. Man we everyone from Big L to DITC to KRS come thru the office. I got to be real good friends with Lord Finesse and Minnesota as well. This also the time Kon and I started the On Track series…
more laterz
April 13th, 2010
so people know me from kon and amir, but most except for close family and friends know so much more. so i guess i will drop a few gems…
so i was born in dorchester, mass. in an area known as four cornerz. this is the same area where guru and ray dog aka ray benzino were born and grew up. people wonder about my name but it comes from being born in the nation of islam..my father was in the F.O.I. and all. i went to the ‘univ of islam’ as a kid and study my ‘lessons.’ i even went with my mom in 1974 and we went to see elijah muhammed speak at temple #2.
really got into records because of my mom and dad. mom loved mahalia jackson and my pops loved be-bop and all things jazz. my brothers and sisters loved their disco and funk…so music was all around me. even with hip-hop i grew up with some boston legends but we never looked at them like that back then..people should know shawn p ( know he was one of the illest beatboxers ever), damo dski ( OG gangstarr member) and i were in the 4 and 5 grade together, my man wyatt and born bakim from the boston breakers, etc. the list goes on. I remember going to the 1st fresh festival in the early 80’s at the providence civic center and bugging out that i was seeing whodini and utfo perform. i wish i still had my poster and tee shirt from that concert!!! seeing the beastie boys perform and then being pissed a group i had never heard of Public Enemy come out with sirens and fake guns yelling the revolution will not be televised…lol!! hip-hop has been apart of my life for a long ass time. also remember seeing ll cool j perform at the lee school community center when he had only like two songs out and being like boooo!!! seen rakim get stepped to at chez vou skating rink in the mattapan section of boston by mad cats demanding his gold ropes!
i was also a sports fanatic and played almost every sport in high school or at the neighborhood community center. i went to high school with jeremy roenick and tony amonte. jeremy just retired and will most likely be the hockey hall of fame. i played basketball so both the hockey team and basketball team shared the same bus to some games. my close family friends the dixons had a son that played running for the baltimore colts. actually, one year in the summer he and doug flutie invited a bunch of us kids from the hood and some kids from the burbs to football camp. man listen, some cat from the burbs was like nigga and that set shit off. a miniature race riot…lol!!
once i got to college at brandeis univ. i got serious with academics and was working towards going to grad school. got accepted to grad school at the univ. of colorado at boulder where I had rashaan salaam and mike westbrook in my class.you may remember rashaan won the heismen trophy that year in 1995. i was a TA for that year..let me tell you those brothers had it made the school did whatever they wanted. i tried to fail some samoan cats from my class cause they never came and the head football coach (who was the head of the promise keepers group) came to my class like “if you wanna continue to have a scholarship and be in grad school here then you better pass them.” i also met and am still friends with oliver hudson aka goldie hawn’s son. went to LA that year and met his sister kate hudson to have her hit on me…i was like not going there she was 13!!! also met the two daughters of quincy jones at one of my other boys crib out in LA…
then i left univ. of colorado to come to the new school in NYC in the summer of 1995. where i had classes with my man vee bravo who helped start stress mag with ket the graff artist. also met my homegirl cedra walton who is cedar walton the famous jazz pianist. around this time i also met and befriended my man adam mansbach.
more to come later
amir
April 12th, 2010
yo yo what up world! so this is my first time blogging and it’s about damn time that i started! don’t really know what to say or where to begin first, but i will definitely be blessing people with stories and photos, music, and just all around observations. i wanna give a big shout to my homie kon, reeve hohlt, and eddie almedia.
first story:
back in summer of 1997 or 1998 when lauren hill was working on her first solo lp, a good friend of mine derek prosper who worked with lauren asked if i knew anyone who can sing. so i thought of my homegirl denise raspberry. so we took a beat up ass van to south orange , nj to lauren’s house so she can audition. i got a chance to meet lauren and let me tell you she was dumb small!! like her feet were like that of a lil’ girl!! so i get there and kweli is there chillin and we already knew each other so it was all love. we go in the back yard chillin while my homegirl is going over the vocals with lauren. they kept going over the vocals for the shit beautiful beautiful zion…to the point where kweli and I wanted to shoot ourselves. kweli was killin me with the jokes all day…anyway, my homegirl almost made the cut but the second audition she got mad nervous. by the way, that audition was at chung king studios. i have been truly been blessed in my life to meet people and be in the right place.
amir
