Rap On Flint

FOR EDUCATORS & ORGANIZERS

 Transcriptions — Interviews from 08/10 Boys & Girls Club, Flint MI

Ira “Bootleg” Dorsey

00;28 — Born and raised in Flint, MI, 1973.

00;32 — I’ve been loving music all my life as a whole ever since i was a little guy maybe 6, 7 years old. I got into hip hop music preteen, 11, 12 years old. 

00;50 — for me the obsession with music started with the crush groove movie, the Definitely Jame movement, RUN DMC, LL Cool J, The Fat Boys, that started it for me. I started wanting the clothes, and after that I always had a story to tell, initially it started off just being a storyteller, then it transitioned into me making, writing songs for my entertaining my neighborhood buddies and everyone in my neighborhood at first.

1;20 — I never considered it being a career option initially. Then all that changed as time went on.

1;50 — I wanted the clothing, I was obsessed with the hip hop look, the imagery, the Gandalf jackets, the nanny goats and sheep skin coats, the Adidas with no laces, the chains, the chunk jewelry, the imagery of it. 

2;05 the big boom boxes, the Puma sweats. I was just obsessed with the whole culture of it. 

2;15 —I had been maybe 10, 11 years old when I got into the clothing because I could get it then, my mom would buy it for me at that age.

2;30 — When I was in the 8th grade I used to rap for my assignments in school, they used to grade me on raps, bc I wasn’t too interested in the books. But if you gave it to me and I could rap it, I was with it, I’d go home and study it and know all the details of the subject matter and everything so it started that way with me rapping in school. 

2;49 — And then I was popular back then as a teenager, 11, 12, I knew everybody in the city. I used to just walk around neighborhood to neighborhood and battle rap against guys and it started that way for me.

3;05 — I did excellent when they let me rap. I was an average student. I wouldn’t say I was a super student. But when they let me rap assignments I got As. 

3;20 —I went to Longfellow Middle School. After that it’s a whole ‘nother chapter in my life. After middle school I strayed and I went through a whole lot of things with the criminal justice system and a large portion of my life. But I got my education there. And life has been well. God has been good to me. 

3;45— A lot of people can’t say this: I’m 45 years old. And I’ve been through every single phase of the criminal justice system from A-Z. I’ve been on juvenile probation, juvenile tether, bootcamp, dope probation, [dort?] tether, I’ve been to county jail, state and federal prison, no other phases of the system you can go through, I’ve seen ever phase from A-Z. That made me the man I am today. I’ve got a clear understanding of what’s important in life. I appreciate the small simple things. It doesn’t take much me to make me happy, just the small things, like seeing the clouds make me happy. 

4;30 — Sometimes God takes you through things just to bring you out the other side a better person and that’s why I’m living, living the best me. 

5;29 — I was a delinquent juvenile. At the end of the day, I was raised in a single parent home, my mother did the best she could do, but I was infatuated with, you know, the street life. It came with gang banging. 

5;44 — I got involved with gangs at a early age, and that took me down the path of violence and drugs. And a whole lot of things that i’m glad that I went through because it made a better person today. 

5;58 — It helps me raise my sons, my sons are straight-A students, avoiding the drama, going to school. They play basketball. And that’s because I’m able to help them avoid the potholes that I fell in. So I’m proud of my past.

6;11 — Everything I went through. If I had to go live my life again I would choose to go through it all over again. From an array of crimes, from gang banging, I don’t think there was a crime I didn’t commit. By the time I was 14 years old I had like 27 felonies.

6;28 — from abroad robbery to everything, from narcotics selling, I dipped and dabbed in a little bit of everything but the serious life offenses really. 

6;39 — and I almost boarder lined those when I was an adult, I almost boarder lined on that when I was 19 I had like a few serious felony charges. But at the end of the day it made me a better individual. That’s not he man I am today sitting before you. It was a learning experience I needed to go through. And I thank God that I’m still alive after all the things I’ve been through, all the things I’ve seen and done. 

7;06 — its just truly a blessing to be sitting here with you today.

[Q] And you were in prison for how many years? 

7;13 — I did a few different bits, I did like 4 1/2 years in state prison, I did 3 years in federal prison.

[Q] And you’ve learned a lot?

7;21 — Yeah definitely, you couldn’t go through the things I went through and not learn a lot. And outside of that I’ve had another experience in my life that was so traumatic and life changing — I had a heart transplant in 2013. I had a full complete heart transplant and that changed my life. God has been keeping me here for a reason. That’s how I feel. Because it’s been so many times that I could’ve lost my life hundreds of times. And I know that he’s keeping me here for a reason, and that’s why I try my best to pass on my wisdom, knowledge and understanding to the young people and try to share as much about that role from high school to prison as as I can possibly share with kids and young people. Every time I get an opportunity to speak with them I do. 

8;08 — And just let them know that’s not a place they want to be be. That’s not a place for a human. Not if you want to — you know — and come out on the other side of that with your scruple still in tact is a blessing from God as well. Because a lot of my friends that came home ain’t the same men they were when they went in. 

[Q] Did you rap? Did you write?

8;30 — Definitely, wrote some of my best music in prison. My Death Before Dishonesty album I wrote that in prison. That’s when I won (?) gold on that album. I did that whole album inside of prison. Prison you know gave me a hunger. A different outlook on life that you would have to have been there or been to prison to express certain things I can express. Some people can’t express some things, because I’ve seen things certain people haven’t seen — that most people haven’t seen.  

9;25 — At the end of the day, when I wrote Death Before Dishonesty I was in Kinross Correctional Facility Kenslow MI up north. Like 2,500 inmates. It was a whole lot of people there from Flint, MI man, a whole lot of guys that I knew. Once I got there I knew a whole lot of people who were there. 

9;45 — Being in prison gives you a sense of understanding that you know yourself; you get to know your weaknesses and your strengths. You get to know your vulnerabilities. It put me in a place where music was just natural because there was a lot of guys there that was talented. A whole lot of talented MCs.

10;00 — so when I had the opportunity to hit the yard with those guys, we would you know  — and they would chip in and help me write stuff because they knew I was coming home, I had record deals you know at this time. I was affiliated with Sony Relativity at this time. And all the guys in prison knew that. I was on BET when I was there. I had a couple videos playing in prison. You know I was on the cover of all the magazines, The Source, while I was in prison,. So the guards knew me, the inmates knew me, the guys would come contribute to verses.

10;30 — And Big Snow, and Scottie, and it was a lot of guys there that you know used to sit on the yard and write with me. So I had a whole lot of input around me. So it was easy to create something incredible. I knew that people would feel the record when I got home and its still one of my best albums I ever made, in my opinion, solo, is Death Before Dishonestly. 

[Q] Do you stay in touch with them? Like Scottie? 

10;50 — Yeah in matter of fact he just on my facebook live while we was chatting. So yeah I stay in touch with all the guys man, especially the ones who are doing something positive and constructive today, if they resorted back to the old life I try to stay away from that because I know I’m vulnerable, easily tempted at times. So I try to stay around people with the same vision as me and same goals and ambition as I do. 

[Q] What are you doing now?

11;25 — Right now I’m doing a lot of community activism. I got the non-profit Dayton Helping Hands. We got Dorsey Community Revalidation is a non profit that my fiancee runs. We try staying active in the community. We do a lot of give backs, I feed the homeless on Sundays with the Flint Helping Hands pop-up tent they do every Sunday. 11;45 — I try to stay active and involved in everything I support all the basketball camps, try to help them buy jerseys, I do water drives, I try to be involved in every facet of the city of Flint. I love this city, this city gave me my career. It supported me through thick and thin, through ups, downs, lows, highs, they’ve always been with me and they’ve never left me. So I’ve got a solid fan base and I love the city of Flint. I love our current administration, Dr. Weaver and Dr. Pamela Pugh, they support everything we’ve got going on. It’s just a beautiful situation for me right now. God is good. I have no complaints about life period. 

[Q] Can you define rap?

12;35 — Rap is being able to compile words and thoughts into rhyming phrases. Rap is being able to express your innermost feelings and thoughts to beats and rhythms. Rap is being able to make people identify with where you at at that moment. When I make s song I want you to be in the same place that I'm at right there. No matter what the songs about. I’ve made songs about A-Z, but whatever i’m rapping about I want you to be their with me. Like you in the car riding with me. And that’s what music is, rap music is just expressing thoughts and feelings to beats. 

[Q] What did rap music start? 

13;15 — You know everyone says New York, man, the South Bronx. Hip hop has been alive way before then in my opinion, through the jazz movements back then and rhyming words in nothing new at the end of the day you just put different labels on it as time goes on. 13;40 — since slavery. The slaves were singing hymns and rhyming and it’s nothing new. Rap has been going on for years, since mankind was here. 

[Q] Can you describe Flint rap style?

14;00 — I’ve been speaking of Flint, Flint has that hardcore you know, truthful rap… there’s got to be some truth to it coming from Flint. We got our own sound sand beats. You know right now a lot of places around the country have their own sound, New Orleans has it own sound, LA, but Flint music is hardcore truth, unrelenting don’t flinch form the truth, if its real say it. 

14;30 — Back in the early 90s when I first stated off I rapped a lot about drug use and drug abuse and people weren’t doing it at that time in the early 90s it was rare to admit you had an issue with drugs, a drug problem. Nowadays everybody glorifies it but nobody admits to they have an issue with using. They don’t take the other end. I try to give to them from both sides. From having a drug addiction to selling drugs to people you know. It’s one of those things.

[Q] So how does Flint differentiate from Detroit?

15;10 — it’s a total different, a complete difference it’s like its from 2 different states basically. Detroit has its own original sound of music you know. Detroit as soon as the beat come on you can tell its a Detroit artist. At least I can. And when the beat come on I know its Flint, when I hear a Flint rapper I know he’s from Flint, I know it, it’s a certain cadence and delivery and push, and you know Detroit rappers have a melody to their music you just know it’s from Detroit. And you can tell by the lingo, the words, and the different ways they describe things. I can hear a rapper and just hearing how he describing something ‘oh he’s from LA’ or ‘he from Jersey’ you know you can just tell by the lingo and the slang that they use to describe certain words. 

[Q] So how do you know when somebody is from Jersey?

15;50 — Yeah because you hear that east coast “Boy, Son, God” you know you hear their little lingo, you know they’re from the east coast just off the lingo they spitting to you. They call a pistol a ‘biscuit’, and you can just tell by different ways they describe things. 

16;10 — West coast you know you got that feel to that west coast music, it’s all lingo, it’s all phrasing, and its all beats, when you hear an LA rapper you know by the beat you know if its one of those NWA, Ice Cube feeling records. It just comes with being around music a lot, if you’re around rap music a lot as soon as you hear song, it’s ‘oh wow, that’s something new from here, or that’s from down south, that’s from Atlanta” 

[Q] And what does Atlanta rap music sound like? 

16;45 — Atlanta rap is dope its original its got that big hook those big courses, they got that ‘Aye”  they got that party stuff behind their music so you know Atlanta rappers as soon as you hear it. And they got that smooth-player music too, that Texas, Pimp C, Bun B, UGK, you know. You could just tell Atlanta being as heavy, they got big booms, and snares and their music is real big. So you can just tell the difference. 

[Q] Where and when did rap music start in Flint?

17;20 — I would contribute rap. It’s a whole lot of guys, it’s so many men. I want to give a lot of love to the guys early rap music. You know you had guys like Took-N-Bone, N*** From the Park, back then you had Breed, Breed was the forefather of Flint music, at the end of the day, as far as rap goes, hands down. You had a whole lot of guys, you had Bo Day Bam, the whole Kid Brothers, Eric and Bam and his brothers. Those boys were real nice. 

18;00 — and you had Flint Academy talent shows and back then it was… music was everywhere. When it jumped off in Flint, late 80s, early 90s, then you had the Dayton Family of course. Our first international record in the 90s, 92-93, What’s On My Mind, and Flint was a beacon for talented rappers. Today there’s so much talent here. Back then though you had a diverse culture of rapper, you had storytellers, battle rappers, tag team rappers that would pass it back and forth to each other, you had funny rappers, dancing rappers, guys that dressed up in clothes, it was different, it was an exciting time, that was before the internet. They had the mom and pa tape stores where you could go in there and buy a physical CD. I tell my sons to this day y’all don’t know what it feels like to open a real CD. That’s why I still get hard copies of my albums. So can experience opening the CD, looking at the artwork. You get a moment in time with the artist when you open a CD and you look at his artwork and see where he from and you know… it’s just a different than now, with the internet it kind of killed that and took it from us. 

[Q] Flint Academy Talent Show

19;20 — Yeah Merrill Hood talent show, Merrill school and the Flint Academy were 2 schools here in Flint and they used to throw the nicest talent shows where everybody would get together. A week before you’d be looking forward to it, ‘oh I got to get something fresh to wear to the Merrill talent show’ you know. ‘I might run into so and so, and I’m in battle him if I see him. I’m gonna walk straight up on him, I got my rhymes ready. You had your notebooks of raps. It was an exciting time for me as a kid. Everybody was excited present their new lyrics that they just wrote. And we’d get to the Merrill talent show and the city would come out, it was nice. It was just Academy and Merrill Hood talent shows were the nice talent shows. Jam packed, wall-to-wall, full of teenagers and it was young music. And it was fresh. And at this time it was no violence attached to it, you could battle rap somebody and y’all laughed ‘you got me today, ill be back next week, gotta see you back here’ you know, it was that — it wasn’t no you battle somebody and you gotta worry about them shooting you at the end of the battle. It wasn’t that aggressive back then. Rap was about showing your mental skills and how sharp you were. And how quick you thought on your feet. If you could make up something on the spot and rap about his clothes or shirt and you know it was just about being creative, and that’ why I love rap to this day. It gave me something to do, it gave me a vehicle to drive my thoughts across the who country, now the whole world has heard my music, I’ve sold millions of albums, and I continue to be relevant to this day. And it’s a blessing.

21; 05 — It [talent shows] went up to when rap started to change and get bigger. Once it got bigger it got you know, big, when it got mainstream, real big in the early 90s it got real big mainstream. And that’s when my journey took off and I’ve been on the same record label most of my career. Sony Relativity we did like I want today close to 14 years. Our initial deal was with Atlantic Records with one of the biggest music moguls in the world, Sylvia Rhone, Black [?] at Atlantic Records we signed our first deal there and in-between there we did so many little small one-outs and that but we sold millions of albums and I’m proud to be a member of the Dayton Family. I love my brothers Matt (Backstabber) and Shoestring, they’re my brothers. 

[Q] Discography

22;25 — I got a lot of albums. So many to admit. You know we got maybe upwards to 8 or 9 group albums with maybe 4 or 5 solo albums a piece. All of them different chapters of our lives that we expressed. We did our first international tour in the states, we did all 50 states and that was an exciting thing. We went on a tour with ICP, Insane Clown Posse, out of Southwest Detroit, they taught us a whole lot about marketing and branding, because they’re geniuses when it comes to that. They taught us a whole lot. We really had an experience of engaging with all the artist. 

23;13 — I’ve really mingled and shook hands with I’d say most of the artist in the rap game, a large majority. A few of my idols I got a chance to mingle with like Tupac, and Ice Cube, Bun B, The Ghetto Boys, Scarface and Bushwick (Bill), all the 90s artists, because Relativity Sony, most of the relevant 90s artist was on Relativity Sony, Bone Thugs-N Harmony, Master P, Busta Rhymes, Redman, Fat Joe, so a lot of those people I had a chance early on in my career to mingle with a lot of those people and learn a lot of things from them.

[Q] Who other than MC Breed was really influential here?

24;00 — You got Top Authority, Dayton Family, MC Breed, early pioneers of rap here… now, it’s so many, but back then it was a handful. It wasn’t even that crowded and I think that’s a blessing for us because we were able to establish a fan base, it wasn’t as competitive back then. You only had a handful of rappers you know.  Like I said, Breed, Top Authority, Dayton Family, Jake the Flake, primarily that was it, that was making the albums pleasing to the public. 

24;35 — Underground you had like I mentioned earlier Took-N-Bone, Bam and (?) and a whole lot of Ski and Dre (?) you had a lot of guys that were underground. Talented rappers. But as far as pioneer rap music in Flint hands down I would say it was MC Breed. MC Breed was the godfather of Flint and still is to this day. I love Eric, he was a good friend of mine. Eric brought hip hop to life here. Without Eric, Flint would have never been on the international radar. Which he did with No Future in Your Frontin’ — after that it was just history. The record labels were checking for Flint and it was on and poppin.

[Q] When did you meet MC Breed?

25; 15 — When I meet Breed I was a young guy, I was a teenager. Breed used to perform in those talent shows I was speaking of, before we even had albums Breed use to beat box and he could sing. I was ‘like who is this dude wow’ he was an amazing dude and he was talented, he had stories, he was gifted. I knew he was from Flint so I always tried to walk up to him and find him and go places where he would be. But he was like a year or two older than me so I could never catch up with him. Eventually later in life I meet him and I had the privilege of doing a record with him that was one of my biggest singles. He let remix his song, No Future in Your Frontin’ Part 2. After that we were pretty much joined at the hip everywhere he was at, doing shows and communicating all the time. He was my brother. 

[Q] What made him so popular?

26;10 — He was talented. And he was a people’s person. He wasn’t one of those artist that would push you away — he was accessible.  He wasn’t condescending. He treated his fans with respect. And at the end of the day you had to love his music, his music made you feel good. You put a Breed album on right to this day and its gonna make you move, he just made you feel good. Any artist that can make you feel good, you’re going to love them man. 

27;10 — So Breed was a very talented artist. And his music made you feel good, great. When you put a Breed song on you gonna make the party come to life. Even your Aunties and grandmas is gonna dance to a Breed record. He was just a talented guy with a beautiful heart. I’m gonna miss that brother. 

[Q] Did you stay in touch with him? 

27; 30 — Definitely. I spoke with him the day before he passed. I live in Ann Arbor and he was doing a show in Ypsi. And I spoke with him the day before he passed away. We stayed in touched all the time because we communicated on future touring and doing shows together and things of that nature.

[Q] What did he say?

27;50 — Erik was always open, “I know you’re coming to support me tonight,” he was always that, “I know you’re coming out to the show,” this that. He was always just Breed, awls and a joke to tell, something funny to say. His smile was infectious, he was just the type to make you smile, just being in presence he made everybody light up. He was just an all around good dude, all the way around.

28;20 — every time I spoke to him he had something positive, “hey man you need to let my man mix you something” he always had somebody to introduce me to or somebody who could help me move forward with my career and my music.

28;35 — He always has some advice and constructive criticism if I needed it.

[Q] Did you know he was sick?

28; 45 — Yeah I knew he was sick, I knew of an incident on the basketball court with some issues with his kidneys so I knew he was sick and I knew he was dealing with that issue. But he was well, we was still moving around and functional. And he would never that type of person to tell you about problems and all that, every time you saw him he was upbeat and it was always something happy and fun it was never about some problems and nothing like that. 

29;10 — Yes it was something we talked about personally one-on-one at home or something like that.

[Q] Were you shocked to hear the news?

29;15 — Oh yeah definitely, it was a complete shock to me, it hurt me. I spoke to him the night before. So to hear the next day that he had passed was a real devastating for me. Real devastating, yep. 

[Q] Some of his music was political?

29;30 — I wouldn’t say political. Breed was more of a party feel good artist. Story teller. You know what I’m saying more of a tell you a good story, make you dance. Breed was a party artist. He was going to bring the club to life. But he was a club artist hands down, one of the best ever to do club music. And then a lot of the artist in the south would say the same thing I’m saying. Like he was good friends with Too Short, and with DOC and Jazzy Fae and Tupac and every artist from Atlanta, from Outkast to Ludacris, everybody loved Breed man. You can ask any artist you speak to and they’ll say Breed was my man. Definitely.

[Q] He was working on Ready for a Comeback.

30;25 — Yeah and I had the privilege of listening to something never released from him. He did something I don’t think no other artist had done. He did a country-rap album. And it was amazing, and when I heard it I said ‘Wow’ - because Breed could sing like and R&B singer, he could sing a whole notes, he didn’t need no autotune or none of that stuff, he could sing and hold a note for real. And he did a country album before he passed and I heard maybe six songs and I said wow, hit album. So when the people finally hear it just look for that bc he got a country album he was complete with and theres some amazing stuff on there. 

31;00 — and Breed stayed working, he never stopped working. Breed was always in the studio doing something. Music was in him, it wasn’t on him it was in him. 

[Q] When will we hear that album? 

31;13 — I’m going to contact his wife, Tasha Breed would probably know better than me. I had the privilege of hearing it so I know it exists, I heard it. It’s powerful, some nice country music. And he wasn’t struggling to make it happen. Sometimes you try to make a transition that far over to a genre that far away, it don’t sound authentic and it sounds fake. But he was really holding the notes and singing, he would talk about his Chevy and his dog and he was really country and I loved it. I can’t wait, I’m going to be the first person to buy it when it comes out.

[Q] Who else does country rap?

31;50 — Nobody. I’ve never heard it. Snoop did a gospel album. Country, that’s a genre rappers tend to stay far away from. Maybe a chorus or something, *sings* Not no full album full of songs. It was incredible to hear those songs I heard. 

32;15 — his wife contacted me. She’s still working with Netflix trying to tell their story, bring her story to film. I spoke to Tasha last night, she was in talks with Netflix trying to get something going on. 

[Q] Are Flint rappers today having trouble breaking into the music industry?

33;05 — The climate of the music industry now… is hard with the internet, it’s not a lot of major record deals floating around. I wouldn’t suggest anyone sign to a major anyway, but at the end of the day, right now with the internet being so wide open with music, it’s hard to get international status but you can distribute your own music now, you can be your own exec yourself, and that’s what I suggest to any artist, do it themselves now. And there’s a lot of challenge here but a united front would make it a lot easier for artists now. If a lot of artists came together, I wish I had of did it in the 90s, and me and Breed and Top Authority and Jake and all of us came together as one unit, if they did that now I think they’d have a better chance at doing some major things here. You know coming together as a unified force. 

34;00 — Doing things individually and competing against one another all you do is hold each other down. I see a lot of that going on, where there’s so much competition and not enough unity. I love and respect all the artist from Flint man, I support em any way I can, and you got to be humble enough to come to me and ask for the advice or the wisdom you know if you really want it, you know, it’s here. I got a lot of wisdom from Eric before Eric passed, a lot of things I can pass on to the people if they want it though. There’s so many talented artists here, you got Valley and Stacks and Pooh Bear Bear, Off Paterson (???), and you got the whole Greg Jocelyn and you got too many for me to name, you got my guy Ty and you got a lot of people, my nephew Parian and Mosley (?), I can go on and on and on, you got Taylor Mud, and Frank G & T the Super Producers, producing everything up around here, I know I’m forgetting a lot of y’all. Y’all gonna be mad at me. It’s so many, it’s so many.

35;15 — And I try to stay in tune with all of them and they keep me young. I listen to their music and they keep me youthful and I appreciate that. But Flint is definitely a place if you’re looking for some genuine, true hip-hop music, check for Flint, because its definitely here.

[Q] Any favorites, up and coming?

35;30 — I’m my favorite. I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t choose just one. I support them all, just know that. All of them have the potential to be major artists in my opinion. I just want to see a unified front, if they come together, they’d be more solid, it’d be a solid and united thing, and I think they’d get more recognition if they rode like the guys, you know like the guys from the Motor City Detroit, they come together, even though they’ve got individual projects and things, at the end of the day they come together and do a show and there’ll be no fighting and violence and you can come and enjoy the show. And I want to see that in my home town you know what I mean? The younger artists coming together and not worried about who up front or who most popular or who got the best clothes or cars or material things, I want to see them coming together to support each others music and the movement. 

36;25 — and trying to drive Flint together as a whole, not as an individual. To come together as a whole force and move Flint forward.  

[Q] Flint water crisis?

36;40 — It’s terrible. I mean at the end of the day, like I’ve said numerous times, if I as an individual would have poisoned another individual, I’d be in prison. I’ve been to prison for less crimes than poisoning 100,000+ people. And it’s no accountability, to the people that’s our leaders in Lansing. It should be a lot more people incarcerated by now. And I thank our current mayor and administration for fighting back for us and replacing lead service line and only 4,000+ have been replaced and there’s so many more left to do, but at least they’re taking the initiate to be out there fighting on the front lines and doing that for us and my mother and my nephews and nieces all live here and they still drink bottle water. I read a story in the NYT that said the children weren’t even poisoned here. So there’s so much misconception. If you really want to know the truth, come here. Come see that everybody still drinking out of bottled water in which they stopped the free distribution center so now people have to purchase water, so that’s terrible, a lot of people have to choose between clean drinking water and medication or food or bill money. And it hasn’t changed. It’s a lot of people on the ground that’s fighting for the recovery of Flint but we still need a lot of help. And if people want to know the truth, if you want to know the truth come to the source. Come to Flint, and get on the ground here. There’s a lot of organizations here you can be part of, you can come find me, I’ll take you and show it to you. And it’s a fight that’s been going on too long. It should’ve been a whole lot more intervention from our government, and our officials, to help us recover. 

38;23 — The EPA just left us here to die like I said in my song City of Lead, if you want to hear the true story of it I’mma pull up my song. City of Lead by Bootleg of the Dayton Family, you can go on YouTube and find it. It’ll tell you the story. And I saw the video for it, so you could see it. I filmed some of it for you. So you could see it. But the water crisis is still alive and it’s still up and people still can’t drink from the tap and filters aren’t helping, people are dying from legionnaires disease, my cousin was just the hospital with legionnaires disease, and luckily she recovered, and its people that’s in the hospital now, that they’re saying they got pneumonia, and different things, everything but legionaries, but at the end of the day that’s what it is — it’s sickness from water. And I stand by that. I’m on the ground here everyday, I’m in their houses, I’m in the North End, I’m rubbing shoulders with families, I’m paying water bills for families that need their water turned back on. 

39;10 — That’s another issue. People are paying water bills for water that they cannot drink. Where else in America …. We live in the wealthiest country in the world and we can’t drink water out of our taps here in Flint MI, it’s a shame. In the schools they can’t use the water fountains, It’s sings over the water fountains saying ‘Do Not Drink the Water’ in the public schools here… so the water crisis is far from over, we still need a whole lot of help in recovery. 

39;40 — Mental health issues is up high, because of association with lead. You got so many issues, systemic issues that came from the water crisis, not just from drinking it, you know but just from the violence is up so high because the people been poisoned. I want to see people held accountable in Lansing. Higher ups, not just the low people on the totem pole, want to see the Governor held accountable, because at the end of the day, the buck stops with him. And he and Ann Arbor, where I live, drinking clean water every day. I would love to see him bring his family here and live in one of these residencies on the North Side of Flint for just one week and consume the water, cook with it, bathe in it, and then tell me that it’s clean, then I’ll accept if you can come here for a week and drink in the water and bathe in it and eat off the water and then I’ll take your word that it’s clean, and nobody here trust the word. You could come here and scream it from the rooftops that the water is clean and nobody would drink the water here. 

40;35 — We’ve been let down. Why would we trust in the administration that lied to us initially? That’s that’s just how I feel on the water crisis. I could go on and on but that’s just the basic way I feel about it, I’m just angry, it hurt me to see my people here struggle and suffer. Tax paying Americans that pay taxes to the EPA, that was just let down, if this happened in Ann Arbor or Deerborn or any other wealthy city around MI, it would’ve ended right after it started, as soon as they got word of it it’d been over with. So we gonna keep up the fight though. We gonna keep fighting until all is rectified. 

[Q] Could you share some of your favorite lyrics from City of Lead?

41;25 — We’ve got lead inside the water, we’ve got leads in our guns. These politicians poisoning our sons daughters for fun. Washing my face and hands with nothing but bottled water and wipes to save a buck — Snyder’s administration ruined the pipes — and now we’re fighting for our lives and who can we trust? Problems these politicians ain’t trying to discuss. And then you wonder why we really vote — I’m keeping it real, if you’re not from Flint then you could never understand how we feel. Rachel Maddow broke the story now it’s worldwide news, I wish the government could walk a couple blocks in my shoes. So he could witness all this poverty and crime that exists, and all this hatred and racism we’ve been fighting against, City of Lead.

42;20 — I just want to say that rap music — I want to see it brought back, I want to see the arts brought back in the public schools, because music is a vehicle to help kids out of poverty and give them something constructive to put their energy into and rap can save your life, if you let it. And music is just a positive thing that want to give, you know and I’m going to do a program through my non-profit where we can bring kids into the studio and educate them about how to operate the boards and program and do beats and everything. And I just look forward to many more years of the rap game and thank you for having me. 

Transcriptions — Interviews from 08/10 Boys & Girls Club, Flint MI

Pharlon Randle

[Q] When did you first get interested in music? 

00;20 — Wow, I guess you could you say I’ve always been interested in music. I realized I had an ear when I was 9 years old. I took up trumpet lessons in school and I was able to go home and play that stuff on the piano the stuff thats I learned for the trumpet. So my mother was like you know what you’ve got an ear, you can play what you hear. So I was like ‘OK’ so I guess that was the first thing that gave me a clue of that ability to make music. 

00;50 — I would say 13 is when I really got serious about it. My dad bought my first synthesizer from the local Radio Shack. They had a Realistic Moog synthesizer, and one got that I got my first band at 14, Yours Truly, and that was it. 

[Q] So what was that band like? Who was in it? 

01;10 — Oh man, what was that band like… we were young, we were all between 14-16, we wrote our own music, we played our own music compositions, and everybody learned from everybody. It was me, myself, Corey Magby, who’s name goes as Desi Magby, Greg Melly, rest in peace Greg… Carl Wilson, R. ? Johnson, Baru B. ? , Alfonso Brown, Fletcher Reeves, Anthony Bird (?) 

01;50 — We were like the Earth, Wind and Fire or something. There was a lot of us. That’s who was in that band. 02;00 — It was funk, it was around that time when Ready for the World had just became a huge act. 1985 they had Oh Sheila, their first album came out and everybody wanted to put a band together, to become famous. Because Ray Farrell just went platinum. 

02;25 — We put a band together. If they could do it, we could do it. And that’s basically what was the spark for Ready for the World becoming huge in 1985.

02;40 — They were discovered at… well they played local talent shows, Northern, Flint Northern, North Western. I now Melvin Riley went to … the first time ever heard of Melvin Riley, who was the lead singer for Ready for the World, was at Flint Northern talent show, and Gordon went to Flint Northern. Talent shows were huge back then. That was a big way for the dancers, singers, bands to get noticed and the city really supported those venues at that time. 

[Q] Were you a performer at this time?

03;15 — Eventually, yes I was. Yours Truly, we were in a lot of talent shows. I would say we did, as a matter of fact, we hosted a show in 1986 called a Spring Fest, and we had a bunch of local groups from around the city, maybe 10 or 15 acts, but it was our show, and we got 3,500 people there, which was a lot of people for some group with no record label or deal like that. 

04;10 — Spring Fest was one of the shows that we actually put together ourselves, and we had bodyguards, we didn’t need bodyguards. But the DJs at the time, one group called Special Effects who DJ’d that show, they had pyrotechnics like 8 DJs, lights, fog machines, people were serious about their stuff back then. A lot of talent. 

[Q] How long did the talent shows last?

04;45 — I think I caught probably the end of it, because it was going on before you know, probably I’d say the 70s when I was a little rugrat running the streets or whatever. Maybe the 60s, 70s. I just happened to catch some of it in the 80s, 86, 87. And I was born in 1970. So when I reached my teenage years I was able to catch some of the talent show stuff, by 1995 you probably didn’t have any more talent shows, or not that many.

[Q] What happened to Yours Truly? 

05;25 — Well Yours Truly, we stayed together for between 1985 - 1988 then we downsized, because it was 8 of us you know, so we became Fo Deep in 1989. 

[Q] Progression with music after Fo Deep

06;10 — We brought out a record in 1991 which was very successful in Flint, Lansing, Saginaw, Detroit, the state of Michigan. We got heavy rotation and opened for Ready for the World for a couple of shows, in Lansing and Ohio. Actually the fist show we did we opened for Ray Farrell and Jose. Jose’s first single was out at the time, Forever My Lady, and we kicked their ass man. We tore it. But you know, we didn’t know what we were doing. We had a hit record but didn’t know what to do with it. And then we came out with our second single which was called Mother Nature in 1994. And the next year we disbanded, so we had a long run, I’d say 10 years for a band, that was pretty awesome. 

07;15 — Other people like DJ Psycho, he plays a lot in Detroit, he’s a very popular DJ, he was the guitar player in our group. Greg Nilly, Scurvy, who passed away but he had a hit record called The Flintstone Kids. His first video he had was, he was on his way in. Boom. Yep.

[Q] History with MC Breed?

07;55 — I meet MC Breed at Northwestern’s talent show. He was beatboxing and rapping. At the time I was a beatboxer too. For Scurvy, for Greg, we would try to battle or whatever. But we would run into each other at various talent shows and that’s how we knew Breed. And once we graduated, we was about the same age, but I would say about 1990, I forgot what year Ain’t No Future in Your Frontin’ came out, but MC Breed was everywhere. I was like ‘I know that guy, we went to school together’

08;37 — One of my good friends was a part of having some money behind that or whatever so we would always connect with Breed, go to Atlanta, hang out with him. Get in the studio, or he’d come to Flint, come to my studio, He brought Jazzy Fay to my studio a couple of times. I forgot what year they’d been working on the Saucy album. Or somebody may call him up for instance, Ready Ace I remember was working on his 3rd album and he called MC Breed, ‘Can you come through’ on this track that I had produced for him and he just came right by, laid a verse, you know like it was nothing. 

09;20 — But that’s how most of this stuff was, I brought the studio to his house before in Ann Arbor and we did some recording at his place. We’ve done at least 4 or 5 sessions recording songs. Some of the songs got released, I would say at least 2 or 3 never saw the light of day. Which is OK. I wish they would’ve.

[Q] What songs did get released?

09;59 — Ready Ace, I’ll have to send you a link to that album, I think you can buy a CD right now. I made a remake of Diana Ross Muscles, in the music, and made a hip hop version of it and that’s the song that he’s on. I can’t think of the name of that song, there were probably 5 or 6 rappers on that song. 

[Q] Songs unreleased?

10;35 — the first one I can think of is of my friend Chuck Nice, he had a good 10, 11 songs. It was awesome, the album was so awesome. Built the studio in his basement. Breed came over and laid a verse to this song, it was so funky. And then Chuck he had to go away for about 4 years, and I think that’s basically what happened with that. He never came out. 

11;10 — It missed his segment in time. I got a clip of it, it sounds good in the beginning but then it gets all distorted. Ill let you hear it.

[Q] Can you describe MC Breed’s music? 

11;28 — I would say we were cut from the same cloth, which is funky, funky. He has lots of funk roots in him. But his is geared more toward hip-hop, with his voice, the way he ran his words together. He sung a lot. He was able to reach inside of his soul and bring out what he was feeling, vs worrying about what’s going on out here or trying to sound a particular way. It was what came, it was soulful. It was funky. 

[Q] Beatboxing? 

12;20 — At the time I was doing it we had no idea who would become famous or whatever, we were just doing it because we loved doing it. We heard about Breed, we got this guy Breed who could beatbox  real good, and me and Greg, I thought I was the best beatboxer, Greg thought he was the best freestyle rapper, and we found out that he was good, and when we saw him in the talent show we realized actually how good he was because, matter of fact, he would host the talent shows, so he was a good MC just carrying the show along. That’s when I realized how good he really was. He was a master of ceremony. He was a true MC. He could carry a show, even if he wasn’t on stage performing.

[Q] It was just something inside of him?

13;13 — Yes, yes.

[Q] Were there winners at the end of the talent show?

13;20 — Yes, there’s always a winner.

[Q] Did Yours Truly win?

13;27 — Yeah we won a couple of them. We lost a couple of them. But we won a few of them. We were good. We were very good. Well, we were good, and we were young, so most of the older guys, you know. We were 15, 16, were doing what these old cats.. you know, and we were kinda like, I don’t want to say… I wasn’t arrogant, but a lot of the guys in the band was arrogant and cocky, so it rubbed people the wrong way back then, they didn’t want us to use their instruments or stuff like that, but yeah we were pretty good.

[Q] Would you say the roots of that music started with MC Breed in Flint?

14;18 — I would not say that, I would say its part of the roots of it, the first rap group I knew in Flint was Took-N Bone, my friend Greg he always tried to rap, Scurvy. There were a lot of artist back then, but Breed was one of the ones that shined. And he happened to be the first one to make it to that level of prominence. But at that time we were at the talent shows, nobody knew, it was just a lot of talent going at it, performing.

[Q] Took-N Bone, Scurvy were from?

15;10 — 1986, 87, 88. Actually Greg Nelly, he was in Yours Truly with us, he became scurvy. This was later on after he wasn’t with us anymore. 1997, 98, 99. Something like that.  

[Q] Since MC Breed, anyone like him to come out of Flint since?

15;45 — The closest thing of to MC Breed I can think of is… no, there hasn’t been anything like MC Breed as far as rap, hip hop goes no, the closest thing has been Top Authority, Dayton Ave, Ira Dorsey, that’s about the closest it came to MC Breed but still he was on another level. 

16;20 — He got endorsed by Chuck D. He said MC Breed was one of the best rappers at the time, and at that time, Chuck D of Public Enemy was like up here, so to get a co-sign from Chuck D was incredible at that time. Public Enemy was my favorite rap group. Wow, Chuck D said MC Breed.

[Q] Would you say MC Breed is a rap legend?

17;58 — I would definitely say he was a rap legend. He had one of the most popular songs, that one song, Ain’t No Future in Your Frontin’, even though it has samples from different samples of already legendary songs, that song was an incredible hit. We were on a trip to Cedar Point and we heard this car playing that, Ain’t No Future in Your Frontin’ just came on and we were like, wow, we know that dude, we know Breed! 

17;30 — and that was like a more bounce house, (?) what’s another hit record… Brick House, timeliness. So wherever you hear that song at the club right now the dance floor will be packed. He made a classic hit song.

[Q]  Saddam Hussein in video — was his music ahead of its time? 20;10 MC Breed influential? 

20;15 — Most definitely, ever rapper in Flint he definitely influenced in some type of way, even if they’re younger now, indirectly, they were influenced by someone who was influenced by MC Breed.

20;35 — I would say Dayton Ave, Top AIthority, the DFC, a group that came out from under his wing, but other people national like Jazzy Fae, when he brought him to Flint and we hung out.7890

21;00 — He was basically putting Jazzy on his feet, was the first one to give him a shot form what I understand, and a couple years later Jazzy is producing Sierra and this artist and TI and is up here as producer but that came from MC Breed giving him that platform and place to stay and all that stuff.

[Q] What have you done with your career in music? 

21;50 — Well my career has been basically, God, or the universe has had its own direction for me. I always thought I’d be in a funky band traveling the world, getting down with my band and hit records but it didn’t turn out that way. 1992, 94, the group disbanded, and my parents died in 1992, six months apart. I converted one of the bedrooms into a studio. So 1995 when the group broke up I became a part-time bus driver for Mt. Morris Panthers. What’s up Panthers. And I still ran a studio on the side. I would drive the kids to school, run my recording studio in-between, sporting events. Football game, studio. 

22;50 — So I would do the same routine between 1995 until I got married 2004, I got divorced 2007, then a friend asked me to show the kids what I do with music at her school, which was x. Becky Lee Jordan was the counselor over there. I said OK Becky, she asked like 10 times. So I volunteered and the principle said 'this is great we’ll pay you to come back’ 

12;30 — so the next month I drove to Kalamazoo, volunteered, did a song for the Kalamazoo Promise, which pays kids to go to school for free. Before I left they gave me money which wasn’t expecting. Did a summer program in 2006, out of the clear blue then all the schools were calling me to come to their facility and show the kids what I do with music. So I hired a team of producers and engineers, and I’ve been doing the same thing ever since. I go and teach kids how to create music, daily, with a team of producers engineers called Studio on the Go. And we go to 5 or 6 schools daily, and we also teach them video prediction and how to take picture sand stuff, so that’s where my music has went, my music has been guided to teaching, giving back, showing the youth of tomorrow how to do it.

[Q] How many students do you think you’ve touched? 

25;00 — I would say overall with the help of the other studio instructors that work with Bang Town, we do programs in GR and Kalamazoo, Detroit, I would say at least 15,000-20,000 kids. 

[Q] Can you comment on music talent in Flint? Different from GR?

25; 40 — What’s funny is that you go to these classes and there’s not much of a difference, you do see a difference where, Flint is looked at as a violent, downtrodden city, with no resources or whatever. But we forget that Flint has had a vibrant middle class, and there’s still remnants of that, there still upper middle class, there’s still lower middle class, still poor, there’s some rich, but you got to an environment like, not to talk about other cities, like Kalamazoo, they don’t have that middle class like we still kinda has, like Detroit still kinda has that remnant from the shops that was built in the 60s, but certain areas, its just like upper, lower. That middle is like. So when you go to the public schools you can see that disparity in the clothes or see certain things like kids in 5th grade can’t spell The or House or things you wouldn’t see if you weren’t in those classrooms. Like how did this kid make it to the 8th grade and can’t read. So we go to these programs and help them write lyrics.

12;30 — you see things, kids have to write their lyrics, then they don’t how to spell certain stuff but have to recite their lyrics on the spot so it helps with their reading, their confidence bc they have to recite their lyrics in  front of the classroom. i’ve had kids get up and start crying bc they were so scared and they fight through it, you know it feels like climbed a brick wall or one of those rock walls or something like that.

[Q] So it’s much more than teaching music?

28;10 — Oh it’s so much more. It’s funny that it happened at the time it did bc music programs were being snatched out at the time that it stated. So it was a need in Kalamazoo. GR. Everywhere, I’m just glad I’m one of the guys that’s been given the opportunity to do it.

28;55 — Charles Boike did that mural back there. I don’t know if he thought it was a joke to throw me up there, he said that’s you right there’, I was like, ‘No that’s not me.’ Once we opened the studio, Jaimee Gaskins gave as the approval to bring in some art and spruce it up a bit. We called Charles and he said ‘I’ll do it for free’ so he came and painted some stuff in this room. It’s a Charles Boike piece. 

Steven Metcalf aka “Kidd Blast”

Q. Where were you born? 

1;20 I was born in Chicago IL, Clint Co. Hospital 

Q. Where did you grow up?

1;25 - I grew up in CHiago, I was there until I was 9, then we moved to Flint, MI and I grew up here. 

Q. Where did you go to school in Flint?

1;40 - I went to junior high at St. Michaels, then I went to Powers High School.

Q. When did you get your stat in music?

1;50 - I started music interest anyway when I was little, I used to imitate Jame Brown, you know did the whole ‘James Brown impression’, one time they had a talent show at the IMA Theater in downtown Flint, and I went down there and I did the James Brown routine and I won $50 - so I took the $50 and took all my friends to A&W and I blew it on hot dogs and root beer - but that was my introduction to the business. 

2;25 - I’m still doing music but I really transitioned into film now so currently I just wrote two different pilots and one is called the Eye of Providence, which is about a code that’s in the Federal Reserve, and then the other one is a movie I’m currently working on is Trap House - Trap House is about a trap house, but it’s a haunted trap house. 

Q. What is hip hop to you?

3;35 - hip hop to me is a feeling — it’s not just rap music, it’s a culture, the clothing as well as the music, the whole thing, to me hip-hop is a culture, it’s not just rapping itself, rapping is only a part of it, but I think its more of a culture. Thats hip hop. 

Q. The “Midwest Sound”?

4;00 - So the Midwest is … Our sound is a little different than anyone else, I don’t think it’s as hardcore as the East coast was, especially back in the day, and then the West coast is more gangster-rap, that whole nine. I think our is more entertaining. I meant it’s more lyrical, we twist our lyrics. 

4;20 - For instance, Eminem, I mean the flavor that he brings, that’s why he is the man because his whole style is more entertaining. We tell stories, and within our stories we can also get grime-y too, but I think ours is more life, it’s cutting-edge because of where we’re from. With the car industry, and the crime, etc,  our stories are more stories… that’s rap from the Midwest. 

Q. How did Detroit hip-hop scene differ from Flint’s? 

4;55 - I think the Detroit hip-hop scene was probably a little but more hardcore than ours, I think ours again, we always told stories. I mean Bootleg and Jake the Flake and the Dayton Family - their first song, ‘What’s on my Mind’ back in the day, I mean that song was so dope but it also told the story about ‘What’s on my Mind’ and ‘Dayton Ave’ - the stories that I told, it was always stories. 

5;20 - Breed, he told stories y’know. ‘Ain’t no Future in Your Frontin’’ - well, why? Well because I’m from F-L-I-N-T: Flint. So, we tell stories, theirs is they tell em too but I they think their’s is a little more hardcore. 

Q. When and Where did hip-hop start in Flint?

5;40 - So where’d it all start at in Flint? To be honest with you, When: I think it was in the early 80s? And Where: I’m going to have to say it started with us. Because we were one of the first rap groups when I came out of the Navy — which is where I started rapping — then here, nobody was doing rap at all. And I used to go to Gong shows — they called them back then — and everybody else was dancing and popping and singing or whatever, but I was the only one rapping and I ain’t seen anybody else yet I been to more - but uh, I think it was started then.

Q. What compelled you to start Kidd Blast & the Task Force? 

6;20 - What compelled me to do it was, when I got out of the Navy. I still wanted to continue to get into rap - that was my ambition - so I decided “Well, let me start a group.” 

Because, at the time there was just DJ LA and Breed, myself. We started it so we moved from that to an actual band and rap band. But I wanted to start the group because I just wanted to be the best. I just wanted to be diversified, y’know, I wanted us to have the best of the best, and that’s what the Task Force was when we got together after Breed, we became the best of the best.

Q. Favorite/Inspiring artists at the time:

7;10 - Well of course RUN, I mean RUN DMC, then inspired me - Sugar Hill, the first time I heard the “a hip hop, the hippie to the hippie” I mean, I wanted to hip-hop - what else could you do to that? So we all imitated that, that’s what rap started for all of us. From there it was all who was hot then but I think RUN and Whodini were probably my biggest inspirations back in the day.

Q. How about today? 

7;50 - Rap today is a little different, it’s a lot of mumble rap, so to keep up with them I have to understand what in the hell they’re saying, which is kind of hard today. 

But Drake, love Drake. Drake is more down to what I’m doing or what I did you know, he can sing he can rap, the whole nine, he’s entertaining. Em - you got to give it up to Eminem. I think he’s dope. Jay-Z, you know. Most of the guys who are icons today, you know, love what they’re doibng, and recently Kendrick Lamar, Kendrick is dope, he won a Pulitzer so, “that stamp that he though” [?]. 

Q. When did you first meet MC Breed?

8;35 - I first meet Breed through DJ LA, Laron, and Laron I think that they went to the same school which was N-DUB, also known as Flint Northwestern and Laron told me about Breed came and then Breed was basically my beat box at the time because that’s all he did he didn’t know know how to rap. 

8;53 - So he just beat boxed and he was a young kid so he just started hanging out with us and eventually told us “Hey Blast I want to rap too” so he would come and I would take him in and show him the ropes on rap and he just got better and better and he stayed with me for literally a year and I took him to school ,bought him clothes, got his meals, taught him how to rap, stage presence, etc, and then from there he just blew up. Yeah.

Q. You told me Breed was an original member of Kidd Blast and the Task Force, and you just just told me he only lasted one year. Was it hard for the group when he left or how did you handle him leaving the group?

9;35 - Yeah it was kind of a natural progression. At some point it’s like going from the minor leagues to the major leagues, you know? He had to go, you know, the growth. He was ready to leave. We did all could do for him on this level. And when he went off to Atlanta and did ‘Ain’t No Future in Your Frontin’ on Ichiban Records and that blew up I mean it was time. I couldn’t see him not leaving us and I couldn’t not see him leaving Flint so it was no hard feelings I wished him the best.

10;05 - And then he came back and he was blessed to be able to enjoy the success that he obtained. That was a good look and it was a good look for me and my career because it made my name still relevant. 

Q. What made MC Breed as an artist and as a person?

10;25 - MC Breed as an artist, I think the fact that he was able to rap .. and when he started out beat boxing it gave him that syncopation, you know, that while chipping up his rhymes and the way he did his style you know was because of that and that’s what made him different,.

10;45 - and then as a person, he was just a fun-loving guy. Anytime, you know, he lived in Atlanta and I lived there and every time I’d come over we’d be playing the video games, he would play something new for me, I’d play something new for him, he was just always a fun-loving kid, AK just a fun-loving man, he was a good dude. 

Q. What brought you to Atlanta?

11.;10 - Music. What brought me to Atlanta was music. And the reason why was because Le Face Records, everything was popping as far as music, and even rap with Outcast and on and on and on, so you know I was currently working at GM and I got tired of them laying me off, and so I’m like ‘I’m out, the worst thing I can do down there is down there and work at McDonald’s” so I went down and started you know doing music there and it just kept going and that’s what got me there eventually - it took off a little bit. 

11;45 - The worst part about it was probably leaving the guys cause we’re like family, the Task Force. A few of them went with me but most of the guys had their own responsibilities but what got me there, was definitely music, to Atlanta.

Q. What inspired you to leave music for film?

12;10 - basically Atlanta, I mean we’re like #2 in the world, as far as film, we have 35% tax break, so everybody’s coming down there, they’re eating it up, and look at the major productions that are there. 

12;25 - They have Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, and Black Panther, all the Marvel movies, all the TV shows they have there, I wanted to definitely to make that move into that, and I always wanted to do acting in the first place, that was always my first love, music was kinda afterwords, so yeah I enjoyed it. And now yeah currently setting up things for new movies now.

Q. Do you use a lot of music or skills as an artist in regards to your filmmaking? 

12;55 - Absolutely, it’s kind of like the same thing. I recently directed my own first direction, Trap House that I’m doing now - and I was able to use what I learned in the studio - in music - and also giving directions as a producer in music kind of just transitioned over into being a director in movies. So I’m able to use that also when it’s time to put my songs in that trailer or soundtrack, I can use my musical skills with that.

Q. Hardest challenge in hip-hop career? 

13;40 - that was very hard to get the group together  - and moving from just Breed and DJ LA and myself, you know that was just 3 men, it’s easy to do just beat box and a DJ and a rapper bc we could get the chemistry together with the three of us, but when you move into to an actual rap band, there’s all the personalities in a band, that was hella… and then there’s also just getting the best people — thats’s why we called it the Task Force, because I wanted the best of the best, the best guitar player, bass plater, drummer and we was able to get that but I went I all the way to Grand Rapids  to get Ninja and to Lansing to get Cool LB and you know on and on, I just scanned the whole city of Flint to get the people I got and I felt like that we were the best of the best for a band, a rap band, the first rap bad. 

Q. Any stories to share?

14;40 - I think the biggest story I could share with you today would be the Raising Hell Tour, which we did in Saginaw, and it was at the Civic Center, and it was Run DMC, this was when everybody was at the beginning of their career, Run DMC, LL COOL J, Whodini, the Beastie Boys, the Music Hall of Fame Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, not Public Enema [??] but Public Enemy, they were all on the show, you know and some other group. But anyway we opened up for that. And what we had to do in order to pull that show off… it was hard, because they didn’t want us to upon up because they felt like “Ah you’re from Flint, you’re just this local group, what are you going to do?” And it was a sold out show we came out there and we killed it even though they unplugged the turn table for LA, they cut our time on stage, but we fell right in, we killed it, we was the opening act and from there we were able to do other shows  but that was probably one of the biggest obstacles was to get on that stage with the kings of rap, icons at that time, and still represent Flint and hold our own, we did good, that was a good day. 

Q. Free style rap?

16;05 - The one that always comes to mind was the one that I wrote about me and Breed and even though we were really close there were some things that went on during that time and I wrote a song called what goes around comes around… and basically it goes:

16;20 - “It started out at the beginning, DJ LA and me - to boost the crew we added you - and the 2 became 3 - now back in the day the as a sporting …. [?] no one spoke to you till you hooked up with the Kidd, people talked about you and they all asked me, “Yo why you waste your time with that brother, KB? You was the gang-bangin’est, coke-slangin’est boy in the hood, but to me it’s plain as tea (see?), you misunderstood. Thickety thorn always growing we were headed to the top, but when we got there we swore we’d never ever diggity-drop. But then we hooked up with your manager that played us close, but what we she didn’t understand was we was closer than most, it’s hard to believe you and me went our separate ways with all the shit we went back through back in the days, but as the blessing as a lesson every brother must learn, turn your back on the Blast, and you gonna get burned. Because what goes around comes around.”

17;25 - Breed, beat-boxing, when he first stated he boxed in school, he could do 3 beats at the same time, and hum a beat, and he’d start with the… *imitates beat boxing*

TASCAM_0295 – Leron Burrke, “DJ L.A.”

01;00 

Born and raised irhgt here in Flint, MI. 

I went to school at Flint NW High School, graduted in 1986. 

01;15  - Pretty much I grew up around music. My father’s a saxophone player so my whole life I’ve been around music,. Then as a young kid listening to the radio, started doing mitapes off the radio, then a friend of mine started DJing and asked me to be a opart of it, then from that point on it never stopped.

I’m definitely hip-hop without a doubt.

What was the music like growing up in Flint?

01;50 – the music scene was pretty cool. Everybody in high school wanted to be a rapper, beat boxer, DJ and so forth and so on. Different battles. So it was def pretty cool, def entertaining.

02;10 – in school I def participated in talent shows. And like I said a DJ all of my life so I DJd a lot of the parties there as well.

02;25 – im almost not even a fan of music now, its changed so much. I’m an old-school cat, so I like the old style of music as well. This so-called “mumble-rap” that’s out now – im just not a fan of it. At all. 

02;50 – I was pretty much a well0known DJ, so all of the sudden I know Kid Blast heard about me so we started together just me and Kidd Blast, then he wanted to just create the group so we went from there, and that’s how the Task Force started.

03;10 – We had a lot of fun stories after we started the group, as far as meeting, connecting and so forth and so on. It’s just rumors. You hear this person is good at rapping and good at DJing. But that’s how I fell into my spot as becoming the DJ for Kidd Blast & The Task Force. 

How did you and Kidd Blast meet?

03:35 – He came by the house when he heard about me. To check my skills, to see if I had what it takes to be a part of the crew.

Are you still involved in the music scene?

03;50 – I’m not heavily involved in the scene but my friends won’t let me get out the music business at all. So I still dip and dab and everybody that produces tracks and stuff like they hear what I think of the tracks as well (?) – like we critiqued what we did as well. 

Music artists who influenced you?

04;10 – Dr. Dre of course. Growing up here… out of Detroit, his name was The Wizard. So I tried to practice and be like. So you know as a DJ, by playing a lot of music, it makes you want to start creating music as well. 

How do Flint & Detroit hip-hop scenes differ? 

04:40 – Everybody raps and speaks of their community. We don’t know exactly how they was growing up and doing things in Detroit so we definitely keeping it just straight-up Flint. Talking and rapping about our experiences. 

Does the Midwest sound have a distinct sound to you?

05;00 – I would like to say we just like to keep it real. Period. Flat out. 

If I was distinguishing different sounds… of course in the south, they’re doing a lot of trap stuff nowadays… here its just more old-school hardcore hip-hop. 

Favorite memory? 

05;30 – of course. When we opened up for RUN DMC doing the Raising Hell tour, of course at the auditorium with thousands of people… biggest high in the world, definitely. 

I’m, of course, nervous every time I get on stage until I hear the screams then after a while you just shake that off and take care of business and do what you got to do. 

Story about mixer being unplugged:

05;55 – what it was, I had a brand-new mixer. Doing a big show like that you wanna go in there with some nice stuff so I bought a brand new mixer and they had a button for sound effects, then somebody pressed that button and then there was no sound coming in at first… then we had to get past that, you know, ‘never let them see you sweat’ … nothing stops the show … it has to go on.

< some conversation between Olivia & Burrke > “[RUN DMC] was our largest show”

06:30 – and we did shows after the fact. We were still together after for years but after we went out separate ways I still did music. Now im in florida. I work at a recording studio, we have an internet radio station. So I still dip & dab,

What brought you to Florida / Where in Florida are you located?

07;10 – I’m in Ft. Lauderdale FL, I’m with their Art Institute for Media & Business. So that was still from music as well. 

07;20 – I first moved to FL in 1988, then I left and went to New Orleans then I came back, FL kept calling my name. Plus growing up here in MI, you want to be in the heat where it’s nice and hot instead of the cold snow, its beautiful down there. 

Good stories from Flint?

07;45 – How I got into DJing, a good friend of mine, his name is Timothy Botley… I don’t know if I should curse or not in the mic…  so [??] wanted to teach him how to DJ on Orange Lane .. he asked me to come with him to learn how to DJ and I was like “That DJ shit is not for me” go on and have your business . Then I started becoming like a roadie for him, doing house parties, carrying the crates of records. Then I started liking and, and I asked him to teach me  how to DJ. And he said “I ain’t teaching you shit, you didn’t want to come when he wanted to teach me,” and I thought I’d keep watching and leaning and then when he stopped doing it for a period of time “I’d say let me borrow your turn tables for just a month, 30 days…” after I had his stuff for a month you never heard his name in DJ ever again. 

And DJing really saved my life, it kept me out of trouble. 

How did it save your life?

08;40 – you know growing up people doing a lot of stuff they shouldn’t be doing, out in the streets so you know. Def to me the biggest high in the world was being on stage heating people scream and getting props. And nothing beats that. 

What was the hardest obstacle you had to overcome in your career, and how did you face it?

09;00 < no good answer > “Just practicing your craft being the best that you can be.” 

Advice?

09;40 – Any craft in life you want to be a part of you have to live that craft. Period.

10;10 Redo: My advice for any DJs, anybody who wants to get into this, definitely live your craft, do it to the best of your ability, and definitely do research on the people that you love yourself and that’s how you get better in time, definitely. 

10;25 Redo – Hip-hop saved my life. Being a DJ, staying out of trouble. Falling into mayhem, it was definitely happening back then in the early 80s. 

Elaborate: 10;40 – During that time that’s when the crack epidemic became real big, and doing drugs and selling drugs and partaking in activities as such. So being a DJ, you know, behind the turn tables, I didn’t have to go get lost in the crazy mayhem. Without a doubt.