DJ Tim Mixtapes!!! (Pirate DJs - SF)

As I stated in the Coming Soon post, DJ Tim's mixtapes were important for me. All throughout the 90s Tim's tapes were sold at the dopest spots (Union, FTC, Fat Beats, Beat Non Stop) and were always packed with the newest, illest records as well as really good exclusive freestyles. I am very pleased to be the guy who gets to present these to the internet as they were a big influence on my style. These tapes were HUGE for my friends and I. I've met lots of other folks who loved them as well. However, in this day of everything ever being available via Google search I was shocked to find that nobody had uploaded any of these! I had a couple of the tapes lying around but it was my search for their existence online that ultimately led me to to the man himself.

Here are some words from Tim Wallen aka DJ Tim:
"Really, who would pick up a tape by DJ TIM? I know that wasn’t the coolest of DJ names by any means. Obviously it was what was ON the tape not the DJ’s name. Jeru kind of nicknamed me Timo & DJ Mind Motion kept calling me that but I just stuck with DJ Tim.
I did try to put together a great package though. It was like putting together a mini album. Good graphics/matching tape color…lots of good stuff on it. Mind Motion designed my logo and I had a couple really good graphic artists (Themba & Guthrie.) Too many mixed tapes back then were just slapped together. I would collect a ton of new songs,advance tapes,dats,test pressings, promo only stuff/exclusives what ever I thought I could use… Then it was like a puzzle. I would have way more songs than I needed then slowly narrow it down to what worked and I could fit on there. I figured most folks have A.D.D and wanted to hear a ton of new stuff so many times I would only put a verse or two and then on to the next song.
After a trip to NYC I usually would be ready to make a tape after lots of shopping & visiting labels A&R folks. No one was really doing tapes out here at that time so I found a niche and filled it.
I would go up to Harlem & 125th or Brooklyn Fulton St to buy other mix tapes at least once a year. I was way more into NYC/East Coast style rap. My favorite mixtape DJ by far was DOO WOP. He could rap great, put a ton of exclusive freestyles out and he had a good ear for the music they freestyled over & what songs he put on his tapes. His raps were kinda funny in a way... He had a sorta sarcastic/chip on his shoulder/smart ass lyrics. I wish he would of put out a full album of him rapping.
I started off making tapes in 92 & 93 then stepped it up in 94 and the best years were probably 95 to 97 although I kept making them till 99.
I was lucky enough to have access to a lot of the best indie labels through my work first at an independent distributor (CRD.) We carried: Tommy Boy, Wild Pitch, Profile, Next Plataeu, Island labels like 4th & Broadway, Delicious Vinyl and many more then later @ Capitol & V2 records. I owe lots to those folks and many more for hooking me up with some great stuff… Like Benny B and other SF DJs. I also owe a great deal to Mind Motion here in SF who let me open some of his DJ gigs. He did my logo & we did a tape together too … and of course his buddy Ivan who hosted most of my tapes. Ivan sounded way better on the mic than me… With him and all the drops I had the tapes never got too boring."


DL:DJ Tim - The Nod Factor 95 - Side A (Summer 95)
DL:DJ Tim - The Nod Factor 95 - Side B (Summer 95)




DL:DJ Tim - Uncut Raw - Side A (Winter 95)
DL:DJ Tim - Uncut Raw - Side B (Winter 95)



"Sway who is on MTV now but was on KMEL at the time hosted my 97 Mentality tape. (posted below)
For my job I had to travel to lots of spots on the west coast & out to Denver and on those trips I would make time to search out the record stores or little boutiques that sold mix tapes & get em to carry mine. That also really helped get em out there. It was a a hustle but a fun one. I had some dude in London selling my tapes. This was way before email & the internet. Lots of phone work too.
I tried to put some west coast joints on the tapes here & there but what I liked and wanted to hear most was NY stuff. I would never put radio stuff on there because what is the point? You would be sick of anything that was on the radio or even a big club song didn’t need to go on a tape. Tapes are for discovering new music not playing the hits..at least that was my philosophy. Giving light to under appreciated stuff. Some of the stuff on there makes me cringe now but others sections & songs of the tapes I still really like & will crank up when listening. I did em on a little Tascam 4 track. I had a sampler that I used mainly for my drops that I bought from Dan the Automator (He lived up the street at the time.)
My CD player in my truck broke recently and I started listening to old tapes, mine and others, and it brings back memories of another era for sure.
I still can’t believe how I got all these guys to come out to my little house in the Sunset District to do freestyles @ my house. MCs like: Mobb Deep, Jeru, Lil Dap, MOP, Black Moon, Helter Skelter, OC, Xzibit, Masta ACE and more."


DL:DJ Tim - 97 Mentality - Side A (Summer 97)
DL:DJ Tim - 97 Mentality - Side B (Summer 97)




DL:DJ Tim - Droppin Jewelz (1998) - Side A (Summer 98)
DL:DJ Tim - Droppin Jewelz (1998) - Side B (Summer 98)



Thanks Tim for sending me the tapes and trusting me with this post. And thanks to my friends Daniel, Talal and Ed who came and picked me up at the house (I was 16) in the Eddie Bauer Edition Forest Green Explorer with Tim's Nod Factor 95 tape in the deck.