In the late 80's and early 90's DJ Tony-A of Hi-C fame would sell his mixtapes at Torrance's Roadium open air market. He would get freestyles from the all the west coast locals like Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Tone Loc, JJ Fad etc. I guess the demo version of "I'm Your Puppet" blew up off of one and got radio play and turned Hi-C imto the star he was on the west coast back then. He just recently re-released these mixes which you can cop form his website: Tony-A.com. Do it, they're fucking rad.
Here's a lil heat from some of those tapes...
Hi-C Freestyle/Intro
Hi-C - I'm Not Your Puppet (Demo Version)
Eazy-E Freestyle/Intro
Tone Loc Freestyle
Which brings me to my bullet point. While listening to the Hi-C mixtape, I noticed a track by Rodney O & Joe Cooley called "Say It Loud" to which I think we can attribute the birth of Hyphy!
Rodney O & Joe Cooley - Say It Loud (1990)
You'll hear what I'm saying when it hits the 0:45 mark.
4 comments:
Thanks! Those oldskool mix tapes are remastered on CD! Thanks for the links & the samples!
dj indio
DOPE SHIT, MIKE!I just stumbled on this post. I remember running into Tony A back in the early 90's at Groove Time. Dude was carrying a stack taller than him up to the counter. Word to Half Price Tuesdays.
Too bad they never really did much after "I'm Your Puppet". Those Roadium tapes were legendary.
Anyone know where I can get these mixes on CD? If you do email me please Boonya2@yahoo.com
If any of you are looking for this stuff, my close personal friend, who I speak to every day, is Tony's brother. We have this stuff up on ebay now. 4 different Roadium tapes that were pressed to CD from the original tapes by Tony, including 88 Boom N Bass. Check it out.
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