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.

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Tag: DJ Kamikaze

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Top 10 Songs

Throughout the ’90s, writer Novocaine132 extensively covered the Seattle hip-hop scene. You’ll find his byline on feature stories and record reviews in both The Rocket and The Stranger, and he contributed to the marketing of several Tribal and Loosegroove releases, too.

Over the past few years, he’s been posting a series on YouTube called Top 10 Songs where he digs deep into the work of a particular Seattle rap legend, surfacing the not-to-be-missed songs from their catalogs. Whether or not you agree with the specific choices, each video provides a great overview of each artist’s career and there are lots of audio samples so you can hear what each song sounds like.

He adds, “The project began in 2017 when I heard that Wordsayer had passed away. At the time I was retired from music and print journalism, and I was concentrating my efforts on documentary filmmaking. When Jon died it hit me very hard, and I had to evaluate my life and my work. He and I were good friends in the 1990s, and he inspired much of my work in the area of hip-hop writing. I made a Top 10 Songs video of Source Of Labor at the end of 2017 to help deal with the pain of losing Wordsayer. Then in 2018, I made one for Ghetto Chilldren, and it started to become a series. I named my enterprise “Overstanding Seattle” to give tribute and honor to Jonathan Moore, one of the most truly amazing musicians I have ever known.”

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The Revival

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. For example, check this great live document I slept on. The group is Seattle’s Beyond Reality, playing a hype show from way back in April 2001.

Back then, Source of Labor’s Wordsayer (also the business and romantic partner of Beyond Reality’s Kylea) used to put on a weekly hip-hop workshop and jam session at the local live venue Sit n’ Spin, called Sureshot Sundays. Every Sunday afternoon, the local hip-hop community would congregate at the cafe/club/laundromat(!) to spin, break, emcee, and just get together.

Being the shut-in hermit that I am, I regrettably never attended, although I used to try to screw up my courage every Sunday to head on down the hill from my apartment to the Belltown spot to get my muddy-ass beat tape heard.

However, since I was just starting out I felt like I’d be in over my head amidst all the “true” hip-hoppers…. like I said earlier about hindsight…

In any case, Sureshot Sundays closed up shop probably a decade ago now, but this release is a snapshot of what it must have been like. Kylea is joined on the decks by Topspin and Kamikaze, and Wordsayer joins on the mic here and there. Incredibly live and overflowing with solidarity and positivity (not to mention the stellar flows of Kylea), this album just makes me regret more not getting my burned-out ass down the hill to the Sit n’ Spin to be a part of it all. It’s a dope record, full of tracks never released otherwise, in professional sound quality.

Beyond Reality was supposedly set to drop a studio record in 2001, and as far as I know that never actually happened. Apart from a few early singles and compilation cuts, and the 2008 A Soul’s Journey CD, this is as close as you get to the classic BR sound. (This review originally appeared on the Bring That Beat Back blog and was written by Jack Devo.)

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Balance

S.O.L. is the embodiment of Northwest hip-hop. They’ve been staples in the scene here for as long as I can remember. Emcee/school teacher Wordsayer was at all the functions; I’d see him at every single show and battle. Since ’95 they’ve been puttin’ it down on wax, and I assume they’ve been around for longer than that. This is their third release, from ’96, and features DJ Kamikaze, emcees Wordsayer and Blahzay Blah, and beatmaker Negus I.

It’s a strange record. The songs “Balance” and “Galaxies” are fully represented with vox and instrumental versions (“Galaxies” has a remix as well), but there are snippets included of three other songs I haven’t been able to find anywhere in their full versions. “Easy” showed up in a different form on their full-length album from 2000, but the version found here, along with “Sailing” and “50¢” have long eluded me. Eight tracks of hard labor. (This review originally appeared on the Bring That Beat Back blog and was written by Jack Devo.)

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Source Of Labor

This cassette-only, four-song release marked the beginning of a powerful movement in Seattle. The art collective responsible was called Jasiri Media Group, and the most prominent musical group from Jasiri was called Source Of Labor.

When Source Of Labor was released, Source Of Labor consisted of the four members pictured in the cover photo. Two of the members, Jonathan “Wordsayer” Moore, and Upendo “Negus I” Tookas, met in Seattle in 1989, and then formed the group in Atlanta, GA with DJ Kamikaze. Moore and Tookas were close friends, but were not related. This has often been misreported. They returned to Seattle in late 1992, and connected with Igbnifa “Blahzey Blah” Fadoyamin in 1994. Source Of Labor in 1995 was the group’s first release.

Opener “Come With We” was the group’s first big single. It features an introduction of the group in the first line of the song, “We got two MCs (Wordsayer and Blahzey Blah), Pops (Negus) makes three, and Kamikaze makes four.” The song establishes the group as conscious with lyrics of positivity, and also includes some sprinkled old-school b-boy spirit in the form of bells from “My Melody” by Eric B & Rakim. Next is “20,000 Leagues Of Black,” which is a somber meditation. The lyrics reflect on the countless Black men and women who died during the passage to America. “At the bottom of the sea lay my ancestors’ bones,” laments Wordsayer.

Side B begins with “Charlie Says,” which is essentially a love letter to rap culture. The lyrics warn of the perils which await copycats and biters. After a strident horn intro, the tone becomes subdued as the group destroys all competitors over the rolling beat. The chorus says it all, “Charlie says I wanna be an MC; Charlie says I wanna be like you.” The last song “Tuff” is the most Caribbean-influenced track on the tape. It contains a Jamaican vibe with repeated calls of “Champion Sound” and lyrics about the fall of Babylon. My favorite line in the song repurposes the Roots “Proceed” lyric “Just think, what if you could just blink yourself away,” into “Just think, what if you could just read a book a day.” This self-titled EP was the beginning of a long and successful career for Source Of Labor. Written by Novocaine132

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Sureshotsingles Vol. 1

Seattle rap group Source Of Labor are true legends in the Seattle rap history books. The group first consisted of three members, Jonathan “Wordsayer” Moore, Upendo “Negus I” Tookas, and Joel “Kamikaze” Lozano, who all came together while living in Atlanta. Moore and Tookas were good friends who met in Seattle in 1989. They were not related, but Moore would often use the term of endearment “brother” describing Tookas. In fact, Moore’s mother Dr. Gwendolyn Jones confirmed that they were not brothers, and she told me that, “Jon considered Upendo to be his brother from another mother.”

Moore, Tookas, and Lozano returned back to Seattle in 1992. In 1994 they added their fourth member, Igbnifa “Blahzey Blah” Fadoyamin who had moved to Seattle from Chicago. The foursome dropped a four-song, self-titled EP in 1995, and Seattle noticed. While the iron was still hot, Source Of Labor struck again later that same year with a twelve-inch vinyl release. This one was called Sureshotsingles Vol. 1, and it contained two innovative new tracks. Also along for the ride was a remix of “Come With We” from the earlier EP.

The A-side is Quietly Resurrect, abbreviated as “Q.R.” Blahzey has the first verse, and the minimal vibraphone-based beat allows Blah’s booming voice to resonate. Wordsayer rhymes second, in a freewheeling verse. “I’m a child of the sun, I’ll make the coldest crew sweat,” he insists. The instrumental is included, and the Negus I beat transmits deep emotion through the subtle melodies.

Side B of Sureshotsingles Vol. 1 starts with the aforementioned remix of “Come With We,” done by the one and only Vitamin D from Tribal Productions. Vitamin completely reimagines the original beat, removing the Eric B & Rakim sample, and the lyrics are different in many places. But the biggest change is the addition of a verse by Erika “Kylea” White. Kylea and Wordsayer had met in May of 1994, and by 1995 they had become a couple. “It’s that ultimate crew with that ultimate sound,” she brags.

Continuing side B is a Kamikaze-produced banger titled “S.O.L. Control.” The celebratory vibe is infectious, and this song makes me want to smile every time I hear it. “We’re four bad brothers with soul control,” the MCs rhyme together. This is the ultimate party song to get people dancing. Trumpet work by Cecil Young on both “Q.R.” and “S.O.L. Control” adds depth and integrity to the recordings as truly live creations. This was Source Of Labor’s second release, and it showed a group on the rise. Written by Novocaine132

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