I knew a lot of slick-talking dudes that would rhyme all the time. Everybody had a little rap somewhere. I remember Teena Marie, Blondie — Muhammad Ali was rapping. It was just the cool thing to do.

But it wasn’t until songs like “Buffalo Gals,” “More Bounce to the Ounce,” “8th Wonder,” “La Di Da Di” — these are the songs that started to really get me turned on to rap. Blowfly had a song called “Rapp Dirty,” and when we were in fifth grade my friend and I would wait till his mama left and we would just play “Rapp Dirty” and Prince songs like “Head.” The adults would try to make you go to bed when it was time to listen to those records.

I loved KRS-One. He had a lot of different styles, a lot of different techniques. And he had one of the coldest names ever when you broke it down: Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone. He was an in-your-face rapper who came with style and intelligence. “Criminal Minded,” “The Blueprint” — masterpieces. He’s just one of the best that ever blessed the mic.

My first group, the Stereo Crew, had a song with Epic Records that didn’t hit. I don’t know if we sold five of them. We got dropped after that single. There were local groups we looked up to that were way bigger: Uncle Jamm’s Army, L.A. Dream Team, the Wreckin’ Cru, King Tee, Ice-T, of course. Toddy Tee and Mix Master Spade, Joe Cooley, Rodney-O. They were all starting to make noise.

Me, Sir Jinx and K-Dee, or Kid Disaster, we was going around joining rap contests and battles. We could never get into the talent shows because they didn’t want rap music back then. It was a hobby. There was a little money from playing shows, but nothing to think that you could not have a regular job.

I went to a trade school called Phoenix Institute of Technology, in Phoenix, Ariz., and got a certificate in architectural drafting. I already had a hit record at the time — N.W.A had “Dope Man” out. Dre kept saying, “You sure you want to go to school?”

I got entrenched into the hip-hop community in Phoenix at the time. Artists would come through and perform at a place called the Celebrity Theater — Fat Boys, Doug E. Fresh, EPMD. They knew I had a hit record out, so they would let me kick it backstage.

I was going back and forth every other weekend because Southwest had a great deal — $50 for a one-way ticket. When I graduated, in September ’88, we was in the middle of making Eazy’s “Eazy-Duz-It” album.

This was dirty, underground, hardcore rap. Explicit lyrics. We all thought we would have records in the Rudy Ray Moore section, next to the Richard Pryor records. Who would play this? Who would make this mainstream? We were being told that we were fools for spending our money to make records that couldn’t get played on the radio. It was just a ridiculous notion. But Eazy didn’t care — he felt like if a hundred people played it, that was good enough.

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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
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