Paying respect to Frank White, who was on TV Christmas Eve 1993 in NYC.
Back when 555Soul was the place for Mixtapes and Rock & Soul was rocking. Jeru had come out that year and the first Wu-Tang track was out. Slaughterhouse was my album, Souls made the anthem of the year and Flex’ radio show was the shit.
As i reminisce about the cold winter of 1993..
This Advent calendar Door is a special one and this album is a faint memory of the winter 93/94 is pent in New York City with my halfblood cousin Dominik. So it must be fate that i produced these pictures of my mental memory lane with one of my favourite musical partners also called Dominik. Must be my subconscious at work.
But nonetheless, we tried to capture that rough and rugged feel, that you could feel all over town and in every gritty dirty little sidestreet and corner you saw. It was that early 90’s New York. Babylon 5 was on TV, we watched Christopher Walkens King Of New York on Christmas Eve and went down to some of the most bizarre and grimey places, that are simply not around anymore. There was a liveliness that you do not have in NYC anymore, and musically it was the time when Acid Jazz crossed over into Hip Hop, and that rough and rugged sound of Nas, Mobb Deep didnt exist yet. It was more the era of Supercat, Gang Starr, Jeru, Triple 5 Soul Mixtapes, Masta Ace and of course Krs-1’s first solo “Return of The Boom Bap”. Queen Latifah, Naughty by Nature, Onyx was huge and Tupac Hoodies were sold on every corner. Early 90’s Dj Premier was the man on the street and Wu-Tang had just come out the summer before with the Protect Ya Neck/ Method Man 12″.I will never forget how much i thought of my brother and recognized how connected i am to him, an ocean away… as well as that New Years Eve show at Union Square, where Krs-1 & Wu-Tang played their first show. I remember running into the RZA a few years back and telling him that and the look on his face was like a man who just went all the way down memory lane. That show was legendary. And here is the kicker,besides being the only 2 white guys in that place, we bootlegged & recorded the whole effing show ;) …But that’s an upload for another time.
It was a time before Puff, Biggie, and the rest, it was jazz, soulful loops, breaks, with solid drum break, proper mellow vibes, fender chords, live basses and the amalgamation of the hip hop state of mind and music of days long gone by – just like these days are by now. You had your roughest gear on and tried to find your way during that christmas blizzard, that made the Empire State sway from left to tight.
The songs each tell a story that happened and that feel i had back then.