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History
lesson: Do you remember back in the early
90's when Hip Hop was only on cassette and only
in your walk man? When you used to get soo
frustrated when you turned on the radio and
could only hear Dance Music with corny DJ's
talking fast as hell trying to act "not so
urban"? When everyone was saying "No one wants
to hear Rap music on the radio, it's not even
music, they don't even use instruments"
Well in
March of 1993 LA's own 105.9 "Power 106" wanted
to give it a try so then PD, Rick
Cummings recruited the 2 brothers
from Bakersfield CA named Eric and Nick Vidal
aka The Baka Boyz to move to LA to test out the
waters. If you grew up in LA then you remember
the then slogans were "Pure Energy" and "Dance
Now" with the format to match. Hip Hop was no
where to be found except on the underground
scene, at house parties and back when the
original KDAY was one but for the most part,
mainstream radio was too scared to let Hip Hop
in until the Baka Boyz brought it.
When they
arrived in LA the Baka Boyz were put on the air
to do a 7pm-12am night shift where from 10pm -
12am on Friday Nights they were able to play
"Real Hip Hop". Their very first guests that
they had on the air where B Real of Cypress Hill
and Son Doobie of Funk Doobiest, the 2nd week
was Ice Cube...Week number 3 was the House of
Pain and the list just grew on from that point
making this new show the place where Hip Hop now
had a home on commercial radio.
After the
first month on the air this Friday Night show
was still a show without a name, so they ran a
contest. They took callers idea's to come up
with a name for the show and this is where the
name was born. Although the callers name slipped
Nick's memory he told me that Eric V liked the
name one listener gave him and it was "Flava
Fridays", The brothers flipped the title a
little bit and came up with "Friday Night Flavas".
The Winner was awarded with a "Def Jam Catalog"
for his contribution to naming the industries
most successful and respected Hip Hop show to
date.
With the
streets of LA was buzzing like crazy about this
new show and these 2 DJ's from Bakersfield that
were bringing it and bringing it right Power 106
started to take Hip Hop more seriously and
shortly after the success and response from the
show the station let it's doors open to Hip Hop
and the station dropped it's "Dance Now" and
"Pure Energy" from the slogan and thus spawned
"WHERE HIPHOP LIVES", sounds familiar huh...Yes
my friends this slogan that was biten like a
move from Beat Street was invented in LA, at
Power 106, by the Baka Boyz and it came from
"Friday Night Flavas"
From this
point on Power 106 was now "Where Hip Hop lives"
it's sister station, NY's Hot 97 was atill
playing dance music and not giving NYC, the
birthplace of HIP HOP any kind of love. Nick
recalls telling Steve Smith, the consultant for
the station "You need to start playing Wu Tang
Clan and other Hip Hop artists, their music is
chaning the face of Hip Hop and it is working
for us here in LA". Imagine that, LA Radio is
showing NYC's Hot 97 how to break "Hip Hop
Music" in the very place that gave birth to it.
So once again, Friday Night Flavas paved the way
for Rap to get on New York City Radio and you
never would have known this until now.
The show not
only gave birth to Hip Hop on the radio but it
also made way for Power 106 to build the very
foundation that it sits on today, how you ask?
Let me run a facts passed you. 1. EMan, the
current Music Director of the station was
discovered by the Baka Boyz in 1995 when they
ran another contest for local DJ's to send in a
mixtape with the winner to be added to the Power
106 "Power Mixers" rosters that already included
DJ Enrie, Humpy Vission and Tony B as they were
strictly Dance and House DJ's.
One month
following EMan being added to the list the Baka
Boyz came back home and recruited the 2 next
best secrets in Hip Hop, Mr Choc and DJ C Minus
aka the Almightly Rough Nexx. Yes more DJ's from
Bakersfield coming to the rescue and helping Hip
Hop gain it's ground in Los Angeles. With Choc
and C Minus holding down the "overnight shift"
at Power for a little of a year then they were
asked to come join to "Friday Night Flavas" show
to hold down 2 hours. You see the show was
becoming so big for the station that they
extended the 2hr slot to a 4 hr slot. So from
10pm-12am the Baka Boyz rocked the turn tables
with guest DJ J Rocc of the World Famous Beat
Junkies, then the last 2 hours (12am - 2am) was
given to the Rough Nexx to do there thing as
Nick and Eric trusted they could since we all
came from the same cloth.
By this time
if you knew anything about the music industry or
had to work records WE ALL KNEW that no matter
what happens you had to book your artist
promotional tour to land in LA on a Friday so
that they could walk in the doors of the " First
and Most Respected show in Hop Hop" and if you
didn't then it was just not going to happen. You
had to see the Baka Boyz and the RoughNexx on
"Friday Night Flavas" or you just simply didn't
know what the fuck you were doing. Bottom line.
At some
point in the summer to come KPWR decided to cut
off all of the specialty shows for the summer
and Flavas was off of the air for a few months
and during this break once again everyone was
upset. Hip Hop's first show was gone and the
listeners let it be known that they wanted their
show back on.
While KPWR
was trying to figure what to do with itself it
seemed like a no brainer, bring in more mixing
because it made for more inter-action with the
listeners and it kept them listening longer.
Along with the idea Eric and Nick helped create
a slogan that was going to change the face of
the mix show and it's place in the music
industry from Coast to Coast. Do the words "Cali
Caliente Mix Weekend" mean anything to you? Well
if you live in the West Coast or have visited
you most definitely have heard that phrase and
yes it was made up by Nick V while he was in my
car in Oakland talking on the phone with the
Consultant trying to come up with a game plan
and a name for this new "mix show" theme that
Radio was trying to test out, again.
So once the
name was in place the specialty shows were
coming back and in that line up with the "Return
of Friday Night Flavas", damn I remember this
soo vividly because I made up "The Return of
Friday Night Flavas" shirts to pass out to the
streets and homies of the crew. If you have one
of those shirts hold on to it because it's a
classic.So a few months later was the official "
Return of Friday Night Flavas" and upon it's
return to the airwaves came a classic show with
Jurrasic 5, Dilated Peoples, B.E.P (before they
popped), Tha Lixx and Shaq (O'Neil) feat Jay Z"
all performed to show their support for the show
that created their radio careers. To support the
show that created Power 106's success and little
did they know it would get soooo BIG. Speaking
of Big, yes even Big Boy and Fuzzy were
discovered on Friday Night Flavas. Big was then
the body guard for the Pharcyde and used to call
up and talk ideas with Nick and Eric. He even
had a segment added to their show called "This
Be It or Frisbee It" where they tested out new
records with the listeners to see if they likes
it or not.
Once Big's
relationship got closer with the Baka and Fuzzy
made his debut from working at Warner Bros to
jumping on Friday Night Flavas as a guest with
Mr Choc and C Minus they were then introduced to
the Bosses to give them a shot on the air. So
the foundation of this stations success was
built on "Friday Night Flavas' and the crew that
created it. Whether anyone will ever admit to
it or not The Baka Boyz founded this show that
introduced LA to Mr Choc, C Minus, Fuzzy, E Man
and Big Boy as they all came from this show. And
we can even trickle over to when the Baka Boyz
discovered Tito as he was the janitor of the
building and when they invited him read the top
songs of the day in his broken english to making
him the #1 slot in his time.
After the
departure of the Baka Boyz in 1998 and with
little to no credit for them building the
foundation that Power stands on today the show
was officially handed down to Mr Choc and C
Minus by Eric and Nick and then with their
blessings came the change of the name and the
new additions to the show. 1998 was there year
that the officially called it "The Fantastik
4our Show" with Mr. Choc, C Minus, Turly Odd and
DJ J-Rocc. LA was able to live on with the show
remaining true to itself, the cast being that of
the most respected DJ's in the History of Hip
Hop. Mr Choc and J Rocc are still holding it
down for the World Famous Beat Junkies, Truly
Odd has been holding down Hip Hop since the
college radio days in the early 90s, to the
Heavyweights Record Pool that gave birth to all
of the DJ's the run the streets/clubs of LA now
and C Minus, Hip Hop's first DJ to bring the
sound of Rock an Hip Hop together years before
Limp Bizkit was cool enough to play on Power 106
and as a matter of fact it was C Minus that
brought them to KPWR's attention and eventually
got records added into rotation like Limp Bizkit
and Linkin Park. Shit this was year before Jay Z
was even thinking about rapping for a Rock
group.
Shit,
although the Bio is written up one way the TRUTH
BE TOLD Eminem, Americas BIGGEST Rapper was
discovered on "Friday Night Flavas" and this is
the real. Back when he was on a small
promotional tour from Vegas to LA, I was asked
by his then manager "Zues" to set up a few radio
visits and the first stop was "Hip Hop Site"
with Warren Peace in Las Vegas and the 2nd was
"Friday Night Flavas". After DJ EMan dropped the
"Phone Tap" beat for him to freestyle on the
phone rang and Dre's people reached out to Fuzzy
to make hapen what we all know is history. So
regardles of what anyone says, bio or
not...Rappers like Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, B.E.P,
Jay Z, Wu Tang and Eminem where all given their
shot on this show and then everyone else
followed. This show was home to the Hip Hop
Kings and Queens of our Culture. This show
created a lot of Rap and Radio careers and this
show built the very foundation that allowed Hip
Hop to be tested and accepted by the Radio
Industry and this past Wednesday this show was
put to Rest by the very station that it built.
It is this
show that until the very last show was able to
showcase true and raw Hip Hop like no other. ask
any commerical. underground or independent rap
group out and they will let you know that it was
an HONOR to get your records played on this
show. It was an HONOR to be let upstairs to be
interviewed. It was an HONOR to be an HONORARY
member of this family. P-4 is legendary, the
stairway is classic, the sessions out front
until the Sun came up where some of the best
times we all had. This show was more than just a
slot that KPWR gave some DJ's to play some
records, it was the HOMEBASE for LA's truest
HipHop DJ's.
I know the
guys would love to BIG UP everyone that
supported the show from the day the doors opened
to the day that they closed. If you never heard
of this show then you do not understand how much
this hurts the true family of this show. I know
for a fact the list of honorary members will now
feel homeless because we have no place to call
home anymore.
Make room
for another 50 Cent record now that the last Hip
Hop show is gone, yes they even played his
records before he got shot, back when Irv Gotti
was DJing for Mic Geronimo way before they would
become enemies. Eric V Nick V Mr Choc C Minus
JRocc and Truly Muthafuckin Odd.....WE WOULD
LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR
US....
I can speak
on behalf of Kelly Woo, Ray Tamara, Jenn
Norwood, Rod Edwards, Minus, MONA LISA, the Fat
Beats crew from Vermont Ave, Tommy Gun, Mong,
Bigga B (REST IN PEACE), Chace Inifinite,
Krondon, Jay Are, MC Serch, Beni B and Peanut
Butter Wolf when I say Thank You to all 6 of you
for what you gave us.
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Little known
fact, as many years as these 6 dedicated DJ's
have been supporting your hometown records,
breaking new artists, making some into Multi
Platinum Rappers and never having a Friday Night
off in over 10 yrs you need to know that 4 of
them did it for free. No one else in this game
is more dedicated to the support of pure Hip Hop
then the Fantastik 4our. They kept it Raw, Pure
and Hip Hop. From 93 until 05
The Last
interview was O.C so I guess "Time's
Up.."....times up
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