About

PRESERVING THE SOUND OF HIP-HOP RADIO

craig@randomrapradio.com

Fundamentally, we are attempting to celebrate Hip-Hop and its vital importance as an art and youth culture, via the broadcasts, and therefore the recordings that were made throughout the 80s and 90s.

Random Rap Radio is an independent archive of rare Hip-Hop and Rap radio shows, preserving broadcasts, interviews, live sessions, freestyles, DJ mixes and other sounds from the days of way back. Before streaming, podcasts and YouTube, these tapes were the only way to capture a radio show: Hearing a brand new song for the first time/ a world premiere, an interview, a freestyle or an entire night’s broadcasting could exist on a single cassette – and when that tape disappears, so does the recording, and the experience.

Whether you’re a young head discovering the classics, an old head searching for a favourite show, or simply someone who remembers sitting beside a cassette deck waiting to press RECORD, welcome to Random Rap Radio. These recordings don’t just document the music. They capture the news broadcasts of the day, the accent, slang, adverts, station jingles, club listings, record shops, gig announcements, phone-ins, mistakes, arguments, jokes and general madness that made Rap radio what it was.

Over the years, there have been some great music blogs dedicated to sharing classic Hip-Hop radio shows. They’ve played an important role in getting these recordings back into circulation, but file-sharing sites aren’t necessarily built for long-term preservation. Links disappear, servers close and entire collections can vanish, potentially taking huge amounts of cultural history with them. Like our good friends at Hip-Hop Radio Archive, Random Rap Radio is on a mission to give these broadcasts a more permanent home, before they disappear.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Craig Leckie, an Irish writer, London transplant since 1992, and lifelong obsessive when it comes to documenting and preserving culture. For more than 20 years, I’ve been writing for Sneaker Freaker, digging through the archives and chronicling the history of sneaker culture – or trainers, if you’re on this side of the Atlantic. The principle has always been the same: unearth the stories, preserve the artefacts, and make sure the history doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. RRR applies that same philosophy to Hip-Hop and Rap radio. These broadcasts are an essential part of the culture’s story, capturing the music, the voices, the local scenes and the moments that helped move Hip-Hop around the world. Yet much of this history survives on battered cassettes, recorded by fans in bedrooms, kitchens and anywhere else we could grab reception, and often decades ago. One lost tape, one neglected collection, one degraded recording at a time, an entire slice of cultural history risks disappearing. This Rap reportage deserves better than a precarious existence on a file-sharing site or a YouTube upload that might vanish tomorrow, and usually sounds like it was recorded in an empty shipping container. RRR is about restoring, remastering, documenting and preserving these broadcasts, giving them a proper home where they can be discovered, heard and appreciated for generations to come. Radio is part of Hip-Hop’s history, and I want to restore and remaster the tapes, document what they contain, and preserve these fragments of Hip-Hop history in a format that can still be heard decades from now.

Preservation, however, has an awkward habit of preserving everything. It does not allow history to be conveniently edited according to our present-day preferences, nor does it require us to pretend that the people who helped create it were without serious flaws. Afrika Bambaataa and Tim Westwood are obvious examples. I am aware of the serious allegations and legal issues surrounding their behaviour over the years. I do not condone that behaviour, and neither do I wish to celebrate it or pretend that it didn’t happen. We’re concerned with documenting the history of Hip-Hop radio, rather than reconstructing that history entirely around the subsequent actions of the people who happened to be standing at its centre.

Westwood’s role in the early-Eighties British Hip-Hop scene remains part of that history. His radio programmes provided an audience for artists such as Run-DMC at a moment when Hip-Hop was still regarded in Britain as something unruly and incomprehensible. The broadcasts helped bring dozens of American artists to British listeners and, in doing so, helped create an audience for a culture that would soon develop a life of its own. Some of the kids listening went on to become DJs, dancers, writers, graffiti artists, collectors and musicians; others simply bought the records and carried the music with them. Either way, the broadcasts became part of the cultural infrastructure through which British Hip-Hop developed. That influence is worth recording, even when the subsequent history of the person behind the microphone is considerably harder to celebrate.

There will always be people for whom the allegations become the only acceptable way of discussing the individual, and who feel compelled to raise their voices above anyone attempting to discuss the wider cultural history. That is their prerogative. It is not, however, what I am doing here. If your principal interest is in complaining about what RRR chooses to preserve, you can stand on a motorway bridge and yell at the clouds for all I care. Please don’t contact me. Please don’t comment, just “Go do something less boring instead.”

Some people are like a terrier with a toffee: once they have got hold of something, they seem determined to worry and moan about it indefinitely. I have little interest in joining them.

History is rarely as clean as we would like it to be. People can make important, even transformative contributions to a culture and subsequently do things that are morally and profoundly wrong. Recognising the first does not excuse the second. Nor does acknowledging the second require us to erase everything that came before it. RRR is not a rehabilitation project, nor is it a courtroom. It is an archive. Its purpose is to preserve the recordings, establish their context, and keep the evidence of what happened available to anyone who wants to listen. You refuse to listen ? Good for you. Stroll on.

Another aim of RRR is to trace how Hip-Hop spread and to provide the regional and historical context around the recordings. From Mike Allen, Dave Pearce, Jeff Young and Tim Westwood in the UK to Dee Nasty in France, to Ron Nelson in Canada, Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito, Kool Red Alert, Super Producer Marley Marl, Julio G, Sway, Tech & Revolution in the US. These broadcasts document the DJs, stations, artists and scenes that helped move Hip-Hop from local neighbourhoods to a worldwide culture. The archive is still growing, and every recording helps. There are thousands of missing shows, missing dates and undoubtedly thousands of cassettes still sitting in lofts, garages and cupboards. If you have old Hip-Hop radio recordings, please contribute tapes to the project or get in touch. Spread the word, help preserve the recordings and, most of all, enjoy the music.

If you have any of the shows listed below on cassette or digital formats, get in touch.

US & Worldwide…

Afrika Islam & Donald-D – Zulu Beat Show WHBI NYC
Awesome2 [Special K & Teddy Tedd] – WHBI/ WNWK NYC
Butterman Rap Attack – Baltimore
Chuck Chillout – WRKS [Kiss FM] & WBLS NYC
Chuckie D [and various Public Enemy members] – Spectrum Mixx Show WBAU NYC
Clark Kent – WKCR ‘The ”We Can Do This” Show’ with Pete Nice/ WBLS & Various NYC
C.M. Famalam Radio Show – Cucumber Slice & Stak Chedda [Bobbito & Lord Sear] WKCR NYC
Colby Colb – Power 99FM Philly
Dee Nasty – Radio Nova & RDH Paris
DJ Rob One, EMZ & Gone One – Fly I.D. Show KCSN Cali
Doctor Dré Operating Room – WBAU NYC
Fab 5 Freddy – The People’s Beat [Medgar Evers College Radio] NYC
Funkmaster Flex [DJ Underground Bandit] – WQHT/ WRKS NYC
Ghetto Style DJs – WJHM? Miami
Go Go Dave & J The Sultan [Dave Mays & Jon Schecter, ex-Editor in Chief at The Source Magazine] 95.3 WHRB Boston
Greg Mack – KDAY LA
Halftime – WNYU NYC
Hank Love & DNA – WNWK NYC
Kid Capri – WBLS NYC
Kool DJ Red Alert – WRKS 98.7 Kiss FM/ WBLS/ WQHT HOT97 NYC
Lady B – Power99FM / WUSL 98.9 FM Philly
Lady B – WHAT AM Philly
Marley Marl – Rap Attack [w/ Kevy Kev and Chilly Q] NYC
Marley Marl – WBLS/ In Control [w/ Pete Rock] NYC
Marley Marl – WBLS/ Future Flavas [w/ Pete Rock] NYC
Marley Marl – WQHT HOT97 NYC
Martin Moore & DJ Mayhem [Club 89/New York Live] – WNYU NYC
Mix Master Mike [Mike Maserati] & Mimi Brown – Rap Digest Show WDAS 105.3 FM Philly
Mr Magic – WHBI [Disco Showcase]/ WBLS [Rap Attack] NYC
Nasty Nes – KKFX [Freshtracks] & KFOX Seattle
P-Fine – WNYU NYC
Pete Nice and Richie Rich – WKCR NYC
Prince Ice – KMEL San Francisco
Ron Nelson Fantastic Voyage show – CKLN Toronto
Silver D – WBLS NYC
DJ Stretch Armstrong Show with Bobbito & Lord Sear – WKCR/ HOT97 NYC
Sweet G – Magical Touch WHBI
Sydney & Paris City Breakers Radio 7 – Paris
Takagi Kan – Major Force Tokyo
Underground Railroad – WBAI NYC
Vandy C – WNYE NYC
We Came From Beyond show- WXLU NYC
Wildman Steve & DJ Riz – WBAU NYC
World Famous Supreme Team [Se’ Divine the Mastermind & Justice Allah the Superstar] – WHBI NYC

UK…

Chad Jackson – Piccadilly Radio Manchester
Craig Strong – Trent FM Birmingham
Dave Pearce & RJ Scratch – Fresh Start to the Week GLR Greater London Radio
Delroy Briscoe – Sky Community Radio London
DJ 279 with Big Ted – Choice FM London
Dr Strange – ICR Inner City Radio/ Lethal FM Leeds
Jeff Young – Big Beat [Friday nights Radio One] London
Leaky Fresh & Owen D – Out to Distress Rap Show – Manchester
Mark Ross – WNK London
Mastermind Road Show [Herbie and Dave] Invicta/ JFM
Max LX and Dave VJ – Kiss FM [Wednesday nights] London
Mike Allen – Capital Radio Hip-Hop Show [1984 – 1987] London
Mike Allen – National Fresh [Syndicated versions of the Capital show 1986 – 1987] London
Paul Dodd [Electro Show] – JFM [AKA Jackie FM] 102.8 FM/ 103.3 FM
Richie Richs Rap Academy – Kiss 100 FM London
Roger Johnson – Powernite FM London
Spinmasters [808 State] – Sunset 102 FM Manchester
Stu Allan – Piccadilly Radio Manchester
Stu Allan – Bus Diss [Key 103 FM] Manchester
Steve Wren ‘Rap Attack’ – Choice FM London
Tim Westwood – LWR [1984 – 1985] London
Tim Westwood – KISS FM [1985 – 1987] London
Tim Westwood – Capital Rap Show [1987 – 1994] London
Tim Westwood – Radio One 1st Show – 12 October 1994 UK Nationwide
Tristan B [Roadblock – 3 hour Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio Bristol] Bristol

Pioneers/ Influences…

Diamond 2 [Chep Nunez/ Charlie Dee Diaz / Omar Santana] – WNWK NYC
Hotmix5 – WBMX NYC
John Luongo – WBOS Boston
Latin Rascals – WKTU NYC
Shep Pettibone – WKTU NYC
Cameron Paul – KMEL San Francisco
Jeff Mills [The Wizard] – WJLB Detroit
Jeff Mills [The Wizard Minimixes] – WDRQ Detroit