John Doe / 1200 Hobos

One Year Later...

2012-01-16T00:17:00.019-05:00

My “Nowhere to Run” video was released a year ago today. It probably has more listens than the CDs I’ve put out over the last few years. People have asked me questions about it (and still do) but never quite fully understand what I’m talking about when I answer – sample clearance, mixtapes, beats, jackin’ for beats, hip hop references, etc. When I get the blank stare, I kind of wrap it up quickly. But I felt compelled to explain it in detail here. Frankly, I think those who read this blog would understand.

The original idea for this video was supposed to be the intro for my next CD, the one after The Last Amateur. The overall concept of the entire came from Danger Mouse’s legal issues from releasing The Grey album and the arrest of DJ Drama. I thought to myself, “I’d never get caught. I would take off running!”

The skeleton of the intro was to be composed of Ghostface’s “Run”, Cappadonna’s “Run”, Kool G. Rap’s “On The Run” (both versions), Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”, K-Solo’s “Fugitive” and some movie dialogue from the movie Primal Fear.

Because of the whole running thought, I wanted to also use N.W.A’s “100 Miles and Runnin’” but it didn’t seem to fit, as it was far more up-tempo than anything else I was planning to use in the intro.

So while all these ideas were milling around in my head, I found myself recording less and less because of the daily pressures of my job. Then I got laid off.

When I was issued my blue work uniform at my current job (10 days after being laid off!), I laughed to myself and thought of the "100 Miles and Runnin'" video.

A couple of weeks later, it was announced that Scribble Jam was being cancelled indefinitely. I shelved the idea of another CD and decided to put together a video as my music project instead.

I didn’t know what to use as the base for the track at first – I ended up using “100 Miles and Runnin'" because I had ideas in my head of how I wanted to flip the concept of the track. I remember seeing the video sometime after I had bought the album on cassette (!). The running scenes in the beginning of the video looked so hardcore and intense. I wanted somehow to replicate that intensity, but in a way more relatable to me.

I started with the beat – I had a copy of James Brown’s “Give It Up or Turnit Loose”, but it was really staticky and didn’t sound very good looped up. Plus, I was going to be inserting verbals from the N.W.A song, so I wanted the levels and sound to be consistent.

There was no open beat in “100 Miles and Runnin’”, and I didn’t have the 12-inch (was there even an instrumental for this?), so I looped up one bar from the intro (you can actually hear remnants of the siren over the beat) and laid down 48 bars to tape.

Started going through the actual song, listening closely to all the inserts that Dre used. The one sample I couldn’t find was the multiple stabs at the end of Dre’s first verse. I kept thinking it was from an MC Lyte song, but my search was fruitless.

I hesitantly called Dibbs and he snorted and referred me to Kevin Beacham, whom I wasn’t able to get hold of. And to be honest, I only tried once, because it felt like such a stupid question to ask.

A few lines from other songs that I incorporated:

“Gotta go…” and “Started packing the Gucci bags like I was going on a world tour” (the “Award Tour” sample insert just came to me – yes, I realize it’s “Award Tour” and not “a world tour” haha) from “On the Run”

“Do me a favor, don’t try to catch me…” from “DWYCK”

“I leave clue after clue, but they can’t catch me yet” from “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted"

There was one really dope line from Main Source’s “Fakin’ The Funk (original version)” that I really wanted to use, but it just didn’t fit: “When the shit hits the fan / I never run and never ran / ‘Cause that’s not part of the plan…” Maybe I'll use it somewhere else in the future.

So I mapped the beat out and composed in the same manner I do my mixtapes:

My brother-in-law Dante and my homie Aaron agreed to help out by filming some of the initial running scenes. I had a rough storyboard (really rough, don't laugh), but those scenes would be filmed later:

Dante's brother Glenn is a professional film editor who lives and works in New York. He was going to be in Cincy for a few days during Thanksgiving, so we scheduled some time when we could shoot some scenes if he wasn’t doing anything.

We spent about 4 hours shooting the work/running/driving scenes. I was honestly exhausted after all the running I did. The McRib scene was breaktime!

In a nod to Eazy’s Compton hat, I wore a black and white Cincinnati Cooperstown New Era, with the Olde English "C."

I went up to New York a couple of months later and Glenn and I edited the entire project together, second by second.

Kind of funny - I never liked the title "Nowhere to Run." I have this habit of being somewhat linear with naming things: Most track titles on my CDs are movie titles, my CD titles are references to book titles, and my blog posts are either song titles or lines from songs (the more recent ones, anyway).

Glenn was right about to finalize the file and said, "What's the title?" I thought of the Martha and the Vandellas insert and it happened to be a movie title, also.

Now I feel like I've explained everything without cutting it short.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be uploading a new track soon.

Note: Someone had mentioned to me (what up Forty!) how cool it was to have put my "mad-scientist chemical self" in the video. One of the motivations to do this project in the first place was to show that not all DJs are jet-setting, globe-trotting, up-in-the-club superstars. Some of us are regular guys with jobs and normal lives - who happen to be DJs.

John

And I'm a Nikehead, I make tapes that excite the feds

2012-01-04T20:49:00.004-05:00

With all the hype in the past couple of weeks about the Jordan XI retro release and the upcoming release of the IV in February…

I couldn’t believe that these were still boxed in my basement. I should probably just get rid of these at this point, they've been worn to death and are over 10 years old.

On another note, I've been spending time in the studio working on another short track. I hope to post it up here soon.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

John

Might not know what I’m talkin about…

2011-12-27T00:26:00.010-05:00

Years ago, before Dibbs blew up and became a Rhymesayers affiliate, we used to do a radio show together weekly at WAIF-FM here in Cincinnati. We also used to hit the record shows and garage sales on the weekends looking for vinyl. It was during one of these times when he had the idea of doing a “Tapes Skills Techniques 98.”

The original 1200 Hobos tape, “Tapes Skills Techniques” was a huge influence on the way I approached putting a mixtape together. And to this day, it still is. I hadn’t released any material yet back then, so I was geeked at the possibility of working on a mixtape with Dibbs.

We never got around to doing it. He started doing a bunch of out-of-town gigs and then before you knew it, he hooked up with Atmosphere. He was never in town much after that and I rarely saw him.

I recently thought about that concept we talked about, and wondered what it would have sounded like if we recorded it back then. Being as I don’t keep up on current music, this was a great chance for me to pull out some classic favorites of mine and give it the treatment.

This is what I think the first few minutes might have sounded like:

The “Mad Izm” part from the original “Tapes Skills Techniques” mixtape was one of my favorite parts ever, especially the use of the line, “I’m doing it for the love so now I’m doing what I want…” which is exactly how I was feeling when I started recording this.

I pulled out the Channel Live 12-inch and really listened to the song, the way I listen when I’m working on a CD. So many dope lines from them and from KRS.

For “Mad Izm” – I wanted to cut up the Black Moon record for the chorus, but in a different way, since I don’t really spark the izm. I ended up cutting “…all we do is spark…the type of ill shit to make the mind feel tight…”

Backwards, going into “Mad Izm” I used “I Gotcha Opin” and then preceded that with the remix. The vocal intro is DJ Red Alert, who was on the vocal intro for the original "Tapes Skills Techniques" mixtape.

Going forward from “Mad Izm” I used “Pain I Feel” by Blahzay Blahzay. I always wanted to cut that “pain I feel” phrase off of “Looking At The Front Door” but I didn’t want to follow with the Main Source song, as I’ve used it in some form on my previous mixtapes.

I gravitated towards the line “without skills you better check for your own survival…” and while recording the TV track (there is no instrumental for “Pain I Feel” on the 12-inch), the words “…you know who is it…” came out which was perfect for the next insert which was…

“The freshest DJ from the state of Ohio, I remember winning battles, cutting up Survival…” from Tha Alkaholiks’ “Let It Out.” Yes, I know that Dibbs used this line already for the first Hobo tape, but he also used “Mad Izm.” Who would even remember at this point?

After E-Swift's couplet, went into Annette Peacock’s “Survival” which was sampled by J-Live for “Braggin’ Writes” and then follow it with “Braggin’ Writes" cut up.

I always thought about ending a mixtape or a piece with J-Live’s “…but you best believe I’ll have the last laugh…”, so I did. But I still wanted to include lines from the flip side of “Mad Izm”, which was “Reprogram.” Nice lines in there, too. I found a spot for them over the Annette Peacock drums toward the end to wrap it up.

It took a little under a month for about four and a half minutes of recorded material. I have no idea how I ever finished 60 minute projects this way.

Why did I type all this out? I saw some article online recently on how to make a mixtape. It explained how to select your songs and mix them in the right tempo and then how to edit it using software. I always thought there was more to it. I guess I’ve just been wasting my time all along!

On another note, today is my born day, and I’ve never made a big deal about it (because it’s so close to Christmas), but I wanted to give this out as a little something for those of you who take the time to check out my blog. Thanks for reading!

John

Mostly the voice (or not)

2011-12-14T21:30:00.013-05:00

I was at the post office yesterday and the clerk asked me, "Are you a DJ?" For a second I was slightly embarrassed, wondering where this random middle-aged woman had seen me DJing.

And then she said, "...because you really have a good radio voice..."

I laughed and said, "Oh no, I'm not a DJ or anything like that. I'm actually a chemist."

Believe it or not, I never really told people outside of my music circle anything about my involvement with music. Especially when it came to work, I kept DJing separate from my job. At my previous job at a corporate laboratory, some of my coworkers were so damn nosy about me, probably because I didn't tell them much about myself.

This was when I recording The Last Amateur, so I was staying up late into the night, working in the studio until about 2:30 in the morning. Did I mention I had to meet up to carpool at 6:30?

So I would understandably be tired and fall asleep in the car if it wasn't my turn to drive. Of course this led to a barrage of questions:

"What do you mean you go to bed at 2? Are you watching TV? What are you doing? Why do you go to bed so late? What do you DO?"

And then when I started bringing boxes home from work to mail off extra records I sold on eBay:

"What are all those boxes for? Oh, eBay, huh? What kind of stuff are you selling? Records? Do people still buy those? Do you have a lot of records? Oh, you collect them. You know, if you were a good DJ or something, you could start your own business. Wedding DJs make good money!"

After that comment, I felt that I had to say something. I mentioned that yes, I did DJ, but I didn't really go into detail.

So the questions from more coworkers the next couple of days:

"So I hear you're a DJ? What clubs do you DJ at? Are you DJing at a rage this weekend? (seriously, she called it a "rage" instead of rave! haha) Do you do weddings? My sister's turning 18 next month, are you available? Will you DJ the Christmas party? You make CDs? You should bring one in so we can listen to it..."

Those might be normal questions for a DJ, but I'm probably the furthest thing from a club/party DJ, which people just don't understand. And even though I've played out many times (usually showcases or performances with MCs), I've never even DJed a wedding. And I shuddered at the thought of my coworkers listening to Popular Fallacies.

I don't know what it is, but I feel awkward talking about DJing to people who aren't hip-hoppers. Especially now, since being a DJ is nothing special anymore.

Just a ramble of a post. My apologies for not posting any music yet. Still working out the kinks.

Oh, and like most people, I can't stand the sound of my own voice.

John

Back in the lab

2011-12-01T00:22:00.003-05:00

As you might have guessed, I haven't been recording anything in awhile. Since I have a regular job and a life outside of DJing (as well as friends with no involvement in music), the drive to work on music sometimes just isn't there anymore.

I went into the studio a few days ago just to scratch and started thinking about the first 1200 Hobos tape (which was a huge influence on me). Before you know it:

Just like old times. The pens and composition books came out, Post-It Notes, records all over the floor...

I hope to have something to share in the next few days.

John

This is for the homie...

2011-10-25T19:53:00.004-04:00

If you're reading this, you've probably already heard the news about my friend and crew-mate, Mr. Dibbs.

Dibbs was recently diagnosed with cirrhosis and needs assistance with his medical expenses.

If you can contribute or help out in any way, check here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/PayItForward2MrDibbs/231083543618198

(for some reason, can't insert the link above correctly)

Stay strong, Brad!

John

We got too...too...too much pizza...

2011-10-03T21:23:00.014-04:00

As you might be able to tell from some of my previous posts, I'm a huge pizza fan. I can put pizza away like nothing, I've actually gone through a whole large pie in one sitting. And on top of that, I tend to eat really fast.

I've recently become aware of some pizza challenges in the Cincinnati area. The first one I heard of was at a place called Ramundo's in Mt. Lookout. Their pizza challenge is a 28-inch two topping pizza, two people, 10 minutes. Mathematically speaking, if I could finish (with another person) 3 16-inch pizzas in 10 minutes, then I would give Ramundo's a try. After a pre-training session, I figured it would be impossible, at least for me.

Then one night, my wife and I found this pizza place in Sharonville:

And I saw this on the back of the menu:

My wife said, "I bet you could do that challenge, you eat so fast..." Almost everyone I asked to partner up with me was on some "Oh, I can only eat like two pieces of pizza" type-response.

A couple of weeks later, my brother Mikey was the only one agreed to step up to the challenge with me. I called ahead to get the order in and on my brother's suggestion, took a shot of Absolut before we headed to the Roc.

Here we go:

First slice, nice stuffed pie, tasty crust, lots of cheese, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and ham:

T-minus 28 minutes:

T-minus 20 minutes, believe it or not:

A customer came in to pick up an order heard us ask for the time left.
"Are you guys doing the challenge? Oh yeah? 20 minutes to go? (Looking at what's left on the table) You totally got it!"

T-minus 8 minutes. I hit the wall and had to stop. I had 3.5 pieces. Mikey had 2.1. I told the guy behind the counter to stop the timer. I was done.

The agony of defeat:

Could have showed you this pic and told you we beat the challenge (leftovers are boxed up out of frame), but the looks on our faces say otherwise.

If you're ever in the area, see if you can do any better.

John

PS> Tried to put some links in, but Blogger was acting funny when I tried to do it. Go to sharonvillepizza.com for more info on Roc-A-Fellas.

ATL

2011-09-15T20:14:00.024-04:00

I'd never been to Atlanta before, and that's where I've been for the past few days. My wife wanted to get away from Ohio for awhile and we ended up here.

We were signed up for the CNN tour our first day here. I was able to find some treats to feed my addiction in the Braves clubhouse store on the first floor:

I've always been a fan of MLB fitteds in different colorways, so grabbing these two was a no-brainer, especially off the clearance rack. Score!

Found the New Era Flagship store on Luckie Street and they had an amazing selection of fitteds - NHL, MiLB, the standard MLB ones you find at the mall, and their alternates...but when I saw this one, I had to cop it, even at full price, an Atlanta Black Crackers Negro League fitted:

The only other Negro League New Era I've seen is a Hilldale Giants, which was broken down by fellow blogger Howfresheats.

*old man alert* Don't know if I'm just being uptight, but should the staff have been playing explicit versions of songs while customers were in the store?
I was bombarded with "b*****s s**k my d**k" and "to all my n****s, my m*********n n****s" ad nauseum for the whole time I was in the store. Would you have been surprised?

Went to the Braves/Marlins game later that evening:

I'm so used to eating Subway when I go to a Reds game, but we weren't sure if we could bring food into Turner Field. This hit the spot, though:

Braves won 7-1, McCann and Uggla had a great game.

Next day, went around Little 5 Points district:

Whoooohoooo! Records!

Found some 12-inches I didn't have and Stetsasonic's first LP:

and then:

Whooohoooo! Pizza! Again!

2 pepperoni slices, one traditional, one Sicilian, both delicious:

As you might be able to tell, I've got a soft spot for pizza (insert big belly joke here).

Later that evening, wanted to check out something other than Applebee's or Wendy's for dinner so I hit up this spot:

Fried whiting, mac and cheese, collard greens, cornbread...on some now you see me, now you don't:

And yes, I'm fully aware of the irony of washing this meal down with a diet Coke.

On the way back to Cincy, I had to stop here for lunch, as we don't have these in Ohio:

All in all, a nice break before getting back to the blue collar grind.

John

Rock The Bells

2011-09-02T20:37:00.011-04:00

So I went to my first Rock the Bells show here in Cincy this past Wednesday. It was Mobb Deep (with Noyd) and Raekwon w/Ghostface (and Cappadonna).

The show opened up with Moxy Monster and his crew - I've performed alongside him a couple times in the past, I believe. It was good to see him on stage doing his thing. Shout out to Moxy for the shout out from the stage!

Alchemist came out on the decks right before the Infamous M-o-b-b and Noyd hit the stage.

With a mixture of bangers from The Infamous ("Survival of the Fittest", "Eye For An Eye", "Right Back At You"), and some other significant burners (Burn, Got It Twisted, Quiet Storm), Havoc and Prodigy set it off. Of course they ended the set with Shook Ones Pt.II, but I was hoping to hear "Party Over."

All in all, a great set by Prodigy and the H-A-V-O-C from the QBC, "...puttin' cowards where they supposed to be..."

Next up was Raekwon and Ghostface with Cappadonna - what a blur. Rae and Ghost ran through so many songs, I can't even remember. Rae came out to "Incarcerated Scarfaces" and he and Ghost went back and forth on a huge chunk of OBFCL.

In my opinion, Ghost totally stole the show. This was my first time seeing him live, and he just had so much energy, it was unbelievable.

All this being said, it was great to get out on a Wednesday night for a show like this.

Oh yeah, and after the show, Ghost threw a bottle of water to me from the stage. Thanks, Tony!

John

3000

2011-08-27T23:03:00.000-04:00

My video project from earlier this year finally hit 3000 views! Thanks to everyone who checked out my video and a bigger thank you to those who had some basic idea of what it meant.

I was a little bit surprised at some of the questions and comments people asked me about it:

"I don't get it."
"So...you were running to McDonald's for the McRib?"
"Yeah, I saw the video. It was cool, you just running around in the plant."
"Were you going to your gig in New York?"

And the worst comment/question I got:

"I saw your video, that was cool. Who did the scratching?"

I would have to guess that these people didn't bother to listen to the track while watching the video. I put the track together very similarly to my CDs, so I thought that the verbals I dropped and the phrases I cut up should have explained it a little bit.

The whole thing was open to interpretation, but the concept was loosely based on "100 Miles and Runnin'" and what I would do if faced with getting caught for any kind of mixtape/sample issues.

My boy Rubox had the best interpretation of it here.

John

Scribble Jam: In Memoriam

2011-08-14T20:52:00.004-04:00

I was in the studio working on a track last night when I realized this (2nd weekend of August) was Scribble weekend - or used to be. Thinking back now, they all seem to run together.

Shout out to all the people I've met at Scribble over the years. Thank you for your support!

John

Back in effect, how's that...

2011-05-22T21:28:00.004-04:00

I got a call last month from a friend and fellow DJ, Apryl Reign, who is the DJ instructor at Elementz here in Cincinnati.

She asked if I'd be interested in doing a turntablism display for their monthly DJ workshop, and I agreed to it. DQ from the Animal Crackers and I had put together something for a similar event last year, which ended up falling through. We got together a couple of times and reworked the original routine.

It was great to see people interested in scratching, and asking all kinds of questions about it. Can't remember the last time I got my nerd on about DJing!

DQ and I started off with a Q & A scratch over "Rockit" and then talked about cue points and looping, and then simple tricks like strobe patterns and a few body tricks mixed in. Had a "99 Problems" routine that I really wanted to show, but the right needle kept skipping...arrrggghhh. People asked questions all through the workshop, which I enjoyed answering.

Even though I don't use any digital DJing systems, as far as scratching goes, the movements will be the same as on vinyl...I guess until they invent a program that scratches for you.

John

Finally did it...

2011-03-10T21:06:00.004-05:00

People kept asking me about it, so I finally did it. I signed up for Facebook - not really familiar with it yet, so bear with me.

John

I Believe That's Me

2011-03-09T23:39:00.004-05:00

If you're reading this blog, then you probably have some idea what I'm about musically. I like to take songs apart and put them back together. Sometimes I think I'm being funny. Maybe I'm not.

I rarely share this kind of thing with people in my everyday life, just because no one ever seems to know what I'm talking about.

On the way home from work one day last week, my iPod shuffled to this:

Now of course, everyone remembers The Symphony, that's a given. But The Symphony Part II used two different beats in the video for some reason: a piano-driven hip hop beat and a heavier jeep beat. If I remember correctly, the version on Marley's House of Hits had the piano beat straight through. So when I saw the video, I thought, "what the hell is that other beat?" Eventually found the jeep beat version on a 12-inch.

As far as the song, everyone came off, but I always thought that G Rap had the hardest verse (and the dope-ass Lench Mob pullover with the St. Ides crooked I logo on the sleeve!).

Thought it would be funny if someone cut Kane's "ahhh shit" from Ain't No Half-Steppin' with his line from Part II, "...made to fit, 100% legit, as soon as I hit..." as the bridge to it.

Here's what I came up with:

Even though G Rap had my favorite verse, I just used his intro and ended up using some of Craig G's and Kane's verbals. And the piano beat sounded better to cut to, in my opinion.

These are the kind of things that end up on my mixtapes (ugh, I hate using that term, though...). I'd like to think that one day I'll do another one, but we'll see.

John

Bragging Rights

2011-02-28T23:54:00.004-05:00

On a whim, I sent in a pic of part of my fitted collection last night to Strictly Fitteds for their Braggin' Rights feature. It got posted almost immediately - check it out here.

And a thank you to all who've check out my "Nowhere to Run" video. I appreciate all the comments and feedback.

More to come later.

John

Live from (West) New York

2011-01-16T22:49:00.030-05:00

Spent the weekend in New York working on a video project with my cousin (well, my brother-in-law's brother) Glenn.

Our plan was to work all day Saturday editing as we had already filmed and collected all the raw footage.

On Friday, Glenn had to work, so I went with him into the city and just wandered the streets looking like an Eskimo. It was cold!

Found Turntable Lab, but it wasn't open for another 2 hours or so. I remember selling boxes of mixtapes to them a few years back.

Think it was on Broadway where this Lids store was, but I honestly didn't want another Yankees or Mets fitted, no matter how many of these I hadn't seen before:

Not sure what street I was on, but I happened to turn onto 4th Street and saw the New Era Flagship Store:

The flagship store was really dope. I passed up a Phillies (with the Liberty Bell logo) and a Pirates (pirate and crossed bats) custom to get this Baltimore Orioles fitted, which I just had to cop:

We met up that evening with my friend Ray, a fellow Cincinnatian, and had dinner at Five Napkin Burger:

Ready, aim...

Killed it!

Walked around the city after dinner:

Me and Glenn:

Me and Ray:

Ha, even did the tourist thing and had a street artist sketch me:

Next morning, had a Sage Hen breakfast sandwich and hash taters at Silver Spurs:

...and then on to business.

After working through the day, stopped at Brooklyn's Pizzeria for garlic and pepperoni pizza and a stromboli (both were excellent, by the way):

By the time I left for Cincinnati the next day, the video was already uploaded. Enjoy!

If you like the track, feel free to download it here:

Note: There's an extra 16 bars at the end if you'd like to do your own running!

John

Merry New Year!

2010-12-31T22:33:00.002-05:00

"Happy New Year. In this country we say 'Happy New Year'."

"HAHAHAHA!!"

I haven't updated my blog since October, so here is an end of year wrap-up. Once again, four days post-bornday on the eve of yet another new year, and I'm spending the night at home updating my blog.

EDIT:

I was going to upload a bunch of pics from my phone - but none of it was really music-related, so I decided not to. Plus, I have a new music project that will be finished in about two weeks, so look out for that. I will keep you posted as the project gets closer to being completed.

Merry New Year!
John

Steppin' to the A. M.

2010-10-05T22:38:00.007-04:00

My apologies for not posting any music lately. Here's my first full-length mixtape from 2000, The A.M. Sessions (While You Were Sleeping).

This was the first project I recorded which was exactly 60 minutes long. Every CD I put out after this cassette was recorded in the same format: continuous and 60 minutes long to mimic a 60-minute cassette. I'll probably do one more, like a Popular Fallacies Part III (or The Last Amateur Part II if you know what I'm talking about, haha). Enjoy!

NOTE: I never released this on CD. Some CD copies (maybe about 20) were pressed up by DJ Shiro and sold on the Audible Objects website years ago, which were legit, but if you have a copy of The A.M. Sessions, it's most likely a cassette. A lot of the cassettes were sold through Turntable Lab.

John

Let's take a trip

2010-09-06T22:20:00.027-04:00

Seems like I haven't posted in forever. I haven't really had any excuse, just either busy with work, or didn't have the time. I'll try to post more often, and I will include some musical treats soon.

A couple of months ago, en route to Sandusky County, OH, saw lots of this:

And these:

Before finally seeing this:

The job site set-up was pretty easy. As always, the mission was to find a good spot to eat once we got to the hotel. There was a restaurant in our hotel, but the sign stating "Tonight Specials" threw some of us off:

My co-worker Roy was questioning why the viggie (yes, it says "viggie") lasagna was only a dollar less than the prime rib and what was wrong with the grilled salmon to be cheaper than the meatless lasagna. I couldn't get past wondering what was being "serverd" in the "resturant"!

Roy, Tonya and I decided to find a spot in town to eat - we found a Chinese buffet that was decent and entertaining at the same time.

Had to be up early, so didn't get into much after dinner.

Next day on the site was uneventful, just really busy.

Crazy seeing something like this, but it's not the worst thing I've seen.

The next week en route to Genesee County, NY:

I remember seeing this sign when I was going to Connecticut a few years ago - I always thought that the "Welcome to New York" sign would be more major.

We were actually going past Buffalo...

...to the town of Batavia.

Once we got to the hotel, I dropped off my bags in the room and backtracked to Buffalo to hit up the New Era Flagship Store:

I arrived with 20 minutes to spare. One of my co-workers whom we call "Subway Bill" rode shotgun on the way to Buffalo, and kept wondering where the nearest Subway was. I think he asked three or four times on the way to Buffalo and twice while we were in the New Era Store. I felt rushed and I think I may have completely walked past the downstairs part where all the markdown and clearance fitteds were. Damn you Bill, I should have dropped you off at Subway on the way to the Flagship Store!

This was pretty cool - a 5950 motorcycle in the lobby of the store:

I honestly didn't see anything there that I wanted to pick up, so at least I grabbed some of these on my way out:

Stopped at a local mall on the way back to the hotel, because I knew there just had to be a Subway in the food court so maybe Bill would stop wondering where Subway is.

Found a Lids there that was clearing out the 2009 FB Twisteds - I have so many Yankees fitteds, but had to pick one up since they were discontinued, not available anymore online, and were only $12, if I remember. Got the grey one to the right of the 30% sign.

Turns out there was a Subway in the food court as predicted, but I went semi-native and got a Buffalo chicken cheesesteak instead:

Got back to the hotel around 8pm, and went to this spot with my boss, Mike:

They had a burger challenge, which consisted of being inducted onto the Wall of Fame if you finished a 10 lb. burger in an hour...or something like that. Roy was there either last year or the year before, and made it on to the Wall of Shame, haha.

Next morning, hit the job site and split the 8 hour driving duties on the way home. Uneventful, as far as work goes.

And my apologies, no cool pic of me on a forklift this time, haha.

John

Heel up, wheel up, bring it back, come rewind

2010-06-02T20:56:00.002-04:00

Here is a snippet from my first tape called Kjeldahl Determinations: 1200 Hamburgers (ugh, what the hell was I thinking?). It comprises the first 6 tracks listed above.

Thanks to Dibbs for the assistance on it. Keep in mind, this was done in 1998. I first posted this on MySpace, but I figured I'd post it here for anyone who might have missed it.

John

Packing the Gucci bags like I was going on a world tour...

2010-05-16T22:03:00.029-04:00

A lot of you might not know this, but I do not DJ for a living. I'm an environmental chemist who knows how to scratch. Sometimes I even put out CDs!

I get to spend a lot of time on the road for hazardous waste projects. I do a lot of traveling, sometimes to big cities, but mostly smaller communities here in the Midwest. The work is always the same, but everything else is a lot of fun.

Marietta, OH. Oldest city in Ohio, but couldn't find much to do the night before the job.

Ended up at the local Applebee's where one of my co-workers, Kelly, decided to order the 2 meals for $20 (which also came with an appetizer) for his meal. Couldn't believe he ate most of it in one sitting. I opted for the steak and shrimp.

Dessert seemed a little overpriced so a group of us went to the Super Wal-Mart and bugged out at how big their bakery section was. I don't live near a Super Wal-Mart in Cincinnati, so that might have been the first time I've seen a Wal-Mart bakery section that big. My boss Mike and I decided to go half and half on this cheesecake (after deciding that a whole cheesecake and a whole German Chocolate cake each would be a little gluttonous).

I usually do a little more research on food spots to hit, but I was pressed for time before heading out here.

Somerset, KY. Kept reading this as "TourSexy.com"

I was pretty surprised to find this on the phone book in my room!

Ran out to a flea market with Kelly and Hawk, and tried to do a little record shopping, but it was mostly country. No breaks!

And this bootleg New Era (more like a Non-Era) was killing me!

I did, however, find a mid-to-late 1990s Charlotte Hornets New Era adjustable, which I picked up just for collector purposes.

Decided to hit up Hardee's for dinner since all the Hardee's restaurants in Cincinnati disappeared a few years ago. I had the Frisco Sourdough burger and the cheddar and bacon fries:

I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

Midway through the meal, I got a call from another co-worker, Roy, telling us to meet him at a car show down the street from the hotel.

Cool and all, but this is what really got my attention:

Deep Fried Twinkie, before and during:

Not sure whose idea it was (it wasn't mine, I swear) to stop at DQ on the way back to the hotel, since their Blizzards were on special (get the second one for a quarter!). Whereas the unnamed individuals with me ate both of their Blizzards, I actually donated my 25 cent Blizzard to my fellow lab rat, Justin.

Just the right (wrong) thing to top off a few hours of junk food. By the way, did I mention that we were in a dry county?

Next Day Bonus: And in case you think I didn't do any work:

But ask yourself: Do lab rats really belong on forklifts?

Part II coming soon!

John

Hard to Earn

2010-04-20T23:12:00.005-04:00

RIP Guru. Thank you for all the material you've put out, it has all been an inspiration.

Rest In Power.

John

How ya like me now? I'm gettin' busier

2010-03-30T23:04:00.006-04:00

I know I've been slacking on the uploads, been pretty busy lately with work and keeping up with the NCAA tournament (A huge thank you to Coach Huggins for beating UK! For those who don't know, I'm a University of Cincinnati grad.). Also, the studio is a mess, so I've been trying to clean up a little and get organized. Plus, I've been having trouble with my CD burner acting up.

There will be some more uploads soon, I promise.

Now, let's take it back to 2000:

Go Mountaineers!

John

Let Me Do My Job

2010-03-21T23:17:00.003-04:00

About a year ago I got laid off from a large corporate company. Fortunately, I was working at a different company two and a half weeks later, and have been much happier since.

I had a whole post describing my ordeal, but I'll just leave you with the short track I put together the week after being let go. I was understandably angry at the time.

"John vs. CorporateAmerica":

John

What their definition of "Classic" is?

2010-02-27T22:36:00.002-05:00

Shout out to Chew from Rapmullet.com for the review of The Last Amateur. Check it out here.

John

Dynamic Duos

2010-02-21T20:03:00.005-05:00

Once again from the studio vaults:

Here are 3 songs that I did scratches on for some Cincinnati-based MCs. I don't think a lot of people have heard these tracks, so I figured I'd share them with you. For the record, these songs are from the past 3 years or so.

"Safety" with CJ the Cynic:

I always thought that this was one of the hardest beats he rhymed on. CJ and I used to perform this song live when we were doing shows together a few years ago.

"Eventually" with Huntorprey:

I did the scratches on this song, but I don't think this version was released. From what I know, Ill Poetic did the beat for this one. Bububububu bow!

"Untitled" with Boogie Bang a/k/a Behn Grihm:

I'm sure there is a title for this track (Sorry Boogs!), but I can't remember. Boogs' flow is dope on this track. He did the production on this, too.

Any feedback is welcome!

John

Check It Out

2010-02-19T18:50:00.004-05:00

Busy in the studio working on a project - in the meantime, check out this Q and A with me on the Wake Your Daughter Up blog. Big shout out to Travis for the interview!

I'll be posting some tracks here in the next few days.

John

One 2 The Head

2010-02-11T22:13:00.007-05:00

Fitted Du Jour:

I'm a huge cap addict, I have been for years - from the Starter caps, Sports Specialties and Game hats (what they call snapbacks now) and eventually to fitted New Eras ("fitteds" not "flat-bills"). I wish I had kept a lot of the non-New Eras - I actually gave a bunch of them to Goodwill about 2 years ago. I even had all wool Diamond Collection fitteds I gave away (gray underbill, too!): Rockies, Phillies (1970-1991, pre-throwback), Mets, Pirates, Padres and Cardinals. National League stand up!

Also in the collection were the Mariners (gold "S" cap logo from 1987-1992), and who knows how many Yankees fitteds I've purchased and gotten rid of (hip-hop staple-related).

So most of my current collection are MLB5950s: On-Fields, Twisteds, Tonals, Bevels, Outlines, Cooperstown...nothing with huge-ass logos or tacky designs, my steelo is and always has been pretty basic. Since I'm from Cincinnati, a majority of my fitteds are Cincinnati Reds:

Who knows how much I've spent at places like Fan Fair and Sports Fantasy, and more recently in the past few years, Champs (Advisory Team!) and Lids (Lifetime Passport Club member!).

Here is a track I submitted for Lids' YouTube promo videos for their Fresh Goods Friday releases:

Maybe they'll still be interested in using it.

Bonus Beat:

Fitted Du Jour 2 (rocked this out to dinner with the family for my nephew's birthday):

John

Promises, Promises

2010-02-09T21:19:00.003-05:00

As promised:

Here are some old tracks I had in the studio, these tracks were all recorded more than 5 years ago!

T-Dawg's Needle Drop:

My homies T-Dawg and Authentic put together a mixtape (CD) called ADD in 2000 or 2001, I think. This is the spot I did for T...on the CD he actually prefaced my spot with a voicemail message where I was in the McDonald's drive-thru getting a value meal. I'll post that soon, too - I can't find the CD.

This I Dedicate...:

I think I recorded this around 1998/1999, when Pete Rock's Soul Survivor album came out. When I heard his verse on "Truly Yours" start, "This I dedicate to the mixtapes I hate..." I knew that I had to use that line for something! I was getting disappointed at the time with mixtapes...some were just bullshit R and B blends, some were battle record beats and "ahhhhhh" scratched ad nauseum, and some just had too much talking.

Thread It:

I did this for DJ Thread (of HDZ - Hoods and Headz). The track was completely constructed with his break record, Thread Breaks (of course, excluding "give it up for my man, John Doe!" which was my homie Bizzy Bizz).

Binary Compound:

This was the mixtape that Authentic and I were going to record years ago. I started it but never finished. I used whatever dope came in the record pool that I was in at the time: Wutang, Pharoahe Monch, Mykill Miers, Freddie Foxxx, Arsonists, Beatnuts...

If you'd like to download some of these, hit me up and I'll provide links. Not sure if you can download these tracks the way I've embedded them.

John

Two for the time...

2010-02-02T21:43:00.003-05:00

As promised, here are the two pieces for the Upper Playground Promo Mix CD that never happened. The CD was actually supposed to be done by DJs AstronoMar and Smack a/k/a Shorthand of the FLJRKS from Seattle. I was just going to have a guest appearance, but I also ended up putting together a short intro for it.

The Intro: Shout out to Frank for the vocals!

My 2-minute cameo:

Enjoy!

John

Back...Caught You Looking For The Same Thing...

2010-01-31T23:33:00.002-05:00

A little update:

In the studio the other night, I came across a mixtape I started with DJ Authentic from VA (now San Diego). Can't even remember when I started it, early 2000s maybe? He was going to do one side, and I was going to do the other - we were still thinking in terms of cassettes, haha.

There's about 3-4 minutes of freaking some WuTang, Mykill Miers, Freddie Foxxx, Beatnuts, and Arsonists beats. It still sounded pretty good to me. I'll polish it up and post it soon, as I don't think that Authentic and I are going to be releasing a cassette anytime soon.

There are some other things I'll be posting up soon (hopefully in the upcoming week):
A little turntablistic track titled "You Know the Place"
Two tracks from an Upper Playground promo CD which fell through - one is a 2 minute cameo with me cutting up phrases as usual, and the other was the intro to the CD, with a co-worker of mine named Frank on the vocal tip.

John

Believe It Or Not...

2009-12-31T23:10:00.002-05:00

...I'm spending a quiet night at home with my wife this New Year's Eve.

I've got some thoughts I'd like to share, but I'm going to organize them first before I present them.

A Happy New Year to those who see this.

John

Maiden Voyage

2009-12-27T20:58:00.000-05:00

Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening all:

Welcome to my blog. I've been slacking on doing this for awhile, but what better day than my born day to start something I've been putting off.

I thought about sharing some of my ideas on hobbies of mine - record shopping, fitted collecting, sneaker hording, food (eating and cooking), typo spotting, grammar, chromatography and of course, scratching and mixtapes.

Keep checking from time to time. I would like to keep this updated with pics and projects I'm working on.

More to come.

John