TOWN LOVE is an online art museum dedicated to celebrating the vibrant past and present of Northwest Hip-Hop. You can browse by artist or browse by year.

This gallery page is organized to highlight the creative work of

Released: 1985

As you scroll, items are sorted from most recent to earliest.

A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Documentary Break Dance

1985 was an exciting year for hip-hop music in the Pacific Northwest. The year prior, breakdancers and rappers had taken over the Seattle Center for the KOMO Summer Break b-boy event. South of Seattle in Portland, an artist named Vitamix was making rapping and scratching tapes, some of which made it to the editors at The Rocket music newspaper published in Seattle. The Sub Pop and Lip Service columns in The Rocket both included reviews of several Vitamix efforts in the early ‘80s.

Meanwhile, Richard Peterson was a Seattle trumpet player who had released one LP in 1982 called Richard Peterson’s First Album. That record included traditional sounding covers of standards such as “My Sharona” by the Knack and “Sunshine” by James Taylor, but Peterson also took a step into modern music with a solid disco cut called “Death Valley Disco Days.” In 1985, Peterson released Second Album, with a bunch more standards.

Second Album also includes a modern song, a hip-hop track called “Documentary Break Dance,” which is a collaboration between Peterson and Vitamix. The song also credits famous writer and composer William Loose (1910-1991). Interestingly, Loose created library music and musical cues for film and TV, and released an undated record called Documentary Underscores. I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Vitamix had this record in his collection and used it to help create “Documentary Break Dance.” But this is just a theory until it’s either proven or disproven.

The vibe of “Documentary Break Dance” is very Malcolm McLaren-ish to me, and it reflects the fact that rap music was still searching for new directions and sounds. Run DMC had presented the most minimal possible example of rap, with just a drum machine for many tracks, while other early groups like Whodini and Newcleus tried to put more melody into their work. “Documentary Break Dance” is clumsy and unpredictable, sort of like the raw abrasion of Herbie Hancock’s 1983 hit “Rockit.” Vitamix drops some traditional early-era raps such as, “Well my name is Vitamix, now check me out, I’m in ‘Documentary’ to rock the house. I’m rappin and scratchin in a real loose style, Vitamix here to put your face in a smile.” Rap in Seattle was still finding its way in 1985, and experiments like “Documentary Break Dance” doubtlessly helped to inspire others in this genre. Written by Novocaine132

Documentary Break Dance was created in and features appearances from:

Did we get it wrong? It happens. Send us an email and let's get it corrected right away!

A film about Northwest hip-hop from

I Just Love My Beat

You could write a whole book on the importance of this record to Seattle music. Released seven years before “big butts,” it was the first record from local label NastyMix, started by radio DJ “NASTY” Nes and artist Sir “MIX”-A-Lot, in partnership with Ed Locke, the business guy.

NastyMix sold more than 45,000 copies of this record, kicking off an empire over local rap that lasted almost a decade, and launching Mix into the stratosphere. Also note that this record was “written, arranged, programmed, performed, produced, and engineered by Sir Mix-A-Lot.” The man did it all himself.

Here’s how influential local music magazine The Rocket reviewed the record when it was first released:

Mix-A-Lot’s vinyl debut follows almost a full year of hype, both within the mighty Rocket‘s pages and on K-FOX’s hip-hop show, Fresh Tracks with Nes Rodriguez. Whether these four songs justify the media overkill is debatable at best. But they do prove that within the synthesized confines of West Coast hip-hop, Mix-A-Lot can definitely hang.

The “Home Side” recorded entirely in the bedroom of Mix-A-Lot’s south-end apartment, includes “I Just Love My Beat,” and the surprise radio hit, “Square Dance Rap.” Where “My Beat” is standard West Coast fare, along the lines of L.A. Dream Team, “Square Dance Rap” uses electronically sped-up smurf vocals to poke some fun at country rednecks.

The studio side is notable mainly for “Let’s G (Watch Out)” where the “synthesized digital beat” is set to “Erotic City” styled “pone rock.” (This review originally appeared in The Rocket and was written by Glen Boyd.)

I Just Love My Beat was created in and features appearances from:

Did we get it wrong? It happens. Send us an email and let's get it corrected right away!

A film about Northwest hip-hop from

He's Got The Beat

“Whiz Kid will always be the Godfather of Northwest hip-hop,” wrote Glen Boyd in The Rocket magazine in 1987. With such high praise, it’s surprising how little anyone seems to know about the music of Harold McGuire and his contributions to the earliest days of Tacoma and Seattle hip-hop.

Whiz Kid was a native New Yorker. In 1981, his notorious quick cutting and scratching won him the very first DJ “Battle For World Supremacy,” organized by Afrika Bambaataa. The attention landed him a European tour with Phase II, a record deal with Tommy Boy, and a spot in the orbit of Soulsonic Force. His first solo record, 1983’s Play That Beat Mr. DJ, featured MC G.L.O.B.E. His swift cutting and scratching debut sold more than 250,000 copies, making it an early massive rap hit.

While Play That Beat was racing up the charts, Whiz Kid’s military wife Betty was posted to Fort Lewis, and the McGuire family relocated to Tacoma.

In 1983, Whiz Kid was a big-deal hip-hop star living in our midst. He quickly became active in our flourishing early NW scene, organizing Tacoma’s first Battle of The DJs (at Fort Lewis) with locals Galaxy, G-Man, Roots I, and Roots II. He headlined The Rocket’s 50th Issue Bash in November ’83 and performed at numerous other events throughout the region.

Whiz Kid’s second Tommy Boy release was 1985’s He’s Got The Beat. On the cover, it features his son wearing a Seahawks tracksuit, no doubt a nod to his time in the Northwest. The song is an ode to breakdancing and DJ culture, praising hi-top sneakers and b-boys from the street. Vocals from singer Sabrina are set against a beatbox backdrop with plenty of scratching and mixing trickery. There’s both a vocal and instrumental version. It debuted on the front cover of Billboard, describing Whiz as a “breakmaster and DJ supreme.” Spin magazine similarly praised the song’s “sinister cutting.”

By 1987, Whiz Kid was back in the Bronx, battling DJ Jazzy Jeff. Not long after, Seattle rap label NastyMix signed Whiz Kid to a two-record deal, releasing his follow-up singles Cut It Up Whiz (1989) and Let’s Get It On! (1990).

He's Got The Beat was created in and features appearances from:

Did we get it wrong? It happens. Send us an email and let's get it corrected right away!