iSound

Courtesy of Peanut Butter Wolf (Stones Throw Records) - Back in 1993, I was living in San Jose and part of a very small, yet dedicated hip hop scene that had to travel to San Francisco to be a part of any kind of organized event. The Wake Up Show with MC Sway was just starting to get it's rep on commercial KMEL, The Bomb was a magazine and not yet a record label, Gavin held yearly hip hop conventions attended by all, and I was in a group with a rapper Charizma that had just gotten signed to Hollywood Basics. It was a jazzy, smooth time for hip hop with artists like Gangstarr, Tribe, and Lord Finesse getting equal time in our tape decks. More so than signed groups though, Charizma and I continuously bumped our own shit and the "blue tape" by fellow San Jose group Homeliss Derilex in my Ford Escort. We called it the blue tape because the covers were made at Kinkos on fluorescent blue paper. We couldn't believe a group with that sound actually lived in San Jose, let alone the...