Later
I went to college and we stopped playing. One day he said that
he wanted me to check out his band, Abstract, because they wanted
to get rid of the drummer because he didnt play in time. I went
down there and met the guys in the band. He was right about the
drummer, he was way off time. I wasn't about to take anybody's
place or anything, I wasn't there to do that. I was just there
to observe. One time the drummer took a break and the band asked
me to play a song real quick. I knew the song already and once
I played the song, they told the drummer that they were letting
him go. The drummer said that he knew that was going to happen.
So I was playing with Abstract and we eventually established ourselves
in the area. We didn't get to tour a lot, but we played at CBGBs
and Continental. The music scene was much more exciting in the
early 90's. It seems like there was more of a movement because
we were part of the Black Rock Coalition (BRC). We joined them
because we were not the only cats doing this, there were other
black bands playing heavy hardcore shit and being real. So we
joined the BRC but there was a lot of politics with that so we
distanced ourselves from that. We were playing around [the city]
and blowing people away and my friend documented our shows. I
have a video tape of shows we did throughout the years in chronological
order detailing how we developed. We started out as a new wave
rock band from the late 90's into some heavy metal funk rock.
It was a metamorphosis over like 4 years.
Then there was this other band, Funkface, that I kept hearing
about. My keyboardist knew the guys in Funkface. My friend invited
me to a show, I think it was at a club called RedZone. I can't
remember name but it was somewhere near the Westside Highway.
It had five floors of music. I saw Funkmaster Flex mix there.
Flex was there spinning and this was the first time I'd seen him.
He had four turntables and it was packed. And I was like, yo he's
a wicked DJ.
My friend said Funkface is about the go on and he took me up to
the top floor. The club had reggae in the basement, house on the
first floor, hip-hop on the middle floor. |
