In the spirit of Black History Month I would like to share my personal contribution to Black History. On February 27, 1988 I promoted the 1st Rap Concert on the Campus of Edinboro University entitled "Tri-City Explosion", with the help of the Minority Students United(MSU) campus organization. 1988 was a special year in Black history. Jesse Jackson was running for president, Public Enemy lead the Hip Hop movement with a message of black pride, Spike Lee hit Hollywood hard with his movie"Do The Right Thing", and I met Bobby Seals, co-founder of the Black Panther Party when MSU brought him to Edinboro as our keynote speaker for Black History Month. At no other time in my life did I feel the obligation to support the Black Movement and let my voice be heard as a young black man. In 1988, Hip Hop was not a genre, but a movement. Hip Hop still thrived in the underground and those of us who were soldiers in the Hip Hop army preserved the integrity of the art form with deadly accuracy.
The story of the "Tri-City Explosion" Black History Month Concert began in 1987 when I met the crew, in Rochester, New York, that would become my Crew in this Hip Hop journey. CJC Productions was led by the dopiest producer, at the time, in our hood, Freddy C. Back in the day rap music originated in some roughest neighborhoods of the inner city. The same rang true for us in the "ROC". We represented "Hudson & Avenue D", "Goodman Ave", "Central Park", and "950 Norton Street". This is where we drew our inspiration for the lyrical content that would form the sound of rap music on the Eastside of Rochester. CJC Productions had a strong stable of MC's which featured The United MC's, Moski, Def D, Doc Smooth & DJ Red B-One of Ill-A-Mision Posse. I can remember my first visit to their homemade studio in Freddy C's garage that was equipped with the classic 808 drum machine and an M-1 synthesizer. I started out as a determined MC, "K6 the Killa", but my career as an MC was short lived. After being kicked off the mic on several different occasions, I decided to become the promoter of our crew. Some of my contributions to the CJC Productions music catalogue were "Yeah Nigga", "Pop the Truck", and "Kick Dat Azz", all of which were vetoed by the producer. My philosophy has always been... "Get in where you fit in".
In 1988, I was on a football scholarship and I had just completed my senior campaign as an Edinboro Fighting Scot. This left a huge void in my campus life. One day I found myself sitting in the student union with my best friend and former teammate, Bill Clark, when we notice a bevy of beautiful young black female students heading up stairs to a Minority Students United meeting. Of course we followed them to that meeting. We sat in and was moved by what they had going on. As it would happen they were having elections for new officers the next week. We put our names on the ballet and I became the treasurer and Bill was voted vice-president (not bad for only attending two meetings). One of my duties as treasurer was to create fundraising opportunities. Rather than having a bake sale, I decide to put on a concert with a $250 budget. There's was doubt in my mind, I could pull it off. On a break from school, I returned to Rochester and presented the idea of doing a Rap concert on the campus of Edinboro University, in the heart of Western Pennsylvania, 20 miles away from Erie, PA to the Crew. With my enthusiasm about project, I convinced them that I could make it happen. At the end of the break I returned to campus and went to work. Working in my favor was that from 10:00pm to 2:00am on campus radio station WFSE the student DJ's played Hip Hop, which was the only station in the county that did. It's a fact, in 1988, Erie, PA got their Hip Hop from us, Edinboro University. I played the CJC Productions collaboration demo on the radio for about 3 months and the rest is "Black History". The buzz hit the city of a Hip Hop concert coming to campus. I reserved the Memorial Auditorium on campus which held about 700 people and on the night of the show we had an estimated 850 people in the audience.
The line-up was the Black Magic, an R&B group from Cleveland, OH, opened the show, Moski & Def D, the United MC's, and Ill-A-Mission Posse (Doc Smooth & DJ Red B-One) headlined the event. One the highlights of the show was the United MC's remix of the James Brown classic, "I'm Black and I'm Proud". Being Black History Month, that song drove the crowd into a frenzy. The Hip Hop portion of the show put CJC Productions on display and we did not disappoint our audience. At the height of the event, Ill-A-Mission took the stage. They opened the show with a blistering display of turntablism by DJ Red-B-One. He was a certified battle DJ tested in the streets of Rochester. His legend was reinforced by his mixed tapes, FM187 (Fast Moves 1st in 87) WRED. DJ Red B-One was ahead his time in that he had mixes and guest MC's on his mixed tapes. Not many guys did that in '88 in our town. When Doc Smooth hit the stage, he took off his jacket revealing a fake 357 Magnum handgun (I guess he was channeling his inner Gansta). I was positioned at stage side with head of security, an off duty police officer, which went ballistic when he saw Doc Smooth's antics. After an earful from our student advisor, Larry Meredith, I convinced the police officer not to shoot him with his "real" gun. Ill-A-Mission Posse ended the show with an unforgettable performance that left the crowd with their jaws dropped. The after-party at Miller Research center was crazy with Erie, PA's best dee jay, DJ Buggy.
Although the 1988 Edinboro University Black History Month concert was my brain child, there's a lot of people I would like to thank for making this event possible. First, I would like to thank CJC Productions for introducing me to real Hip Hop and allowing me to be a part of the movement, Ill-A-Mission Posse for being the force behind my success in '88, DJ Red B-One for his life long friendship, watching the back of a square college boy from the wolves, and inspiring me to be the Juggernaut I became in the Hip Hop community, Doc Smooth for co-signing me and my ability to the rest of the crew and being one my best friends in high school, James Scott (JPS1) for being my assistant at the night of the show and holding me down, my ex- football teammates for their support as security, our student advisor Larry Meredith for his words of wisdom and his firsthand account of the "Black Power Movement" of the 60's which gave me a true sense of self, Lil Ronnie for telling me that I sucked as an MC, the Sixth Street Hustlers for holding us down at local shows and making sure our "hood pass" was always valid, Edinboro University for giving us the resources to make it happen, MSU for electing me treasurer, and the young women that lead me to the MSU meeting. 'Nuff said.
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