DJ Supreme is known around the Birmingham area for his Classic Hip Hop Show on 107.7 FM. Every morning from 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m., Birminghamians and on-line fans are taken back to the '80's and '90's with old school hip hop music and history. Below he shares little known facts about Birmingham's Hip Hop History.The Birmingham hip hop scene seemed to lack trendsetters. I noticed this when I was an artist (yes, I did and occasionally still do rap) on the B-ham scene in the mid to late '90s. I officially arrived in Birmingham via Butler County, AL via Detroit, MI in '96. Prior to that year I spent 4 years at the University of Montevallo.
My first Birmingham hip hop experience was at a Luke (Campbell) show at Mama's and Sons where Legion of Doom was the opening act. Didn't get to see them perform because the members of the group got into an all out bar fight with a rival group.
While at UM I met and bonded with Patrick "S-Fly" Johnson. (His future wife also attended UM.) At the time we were still trying to gauge what our place would be in the hip hop world. His group was still known as Southern Comfort and hadn't officially become Red Light District. I was part of a group known as Joint Effort. They were working on "I Know" while I was crafting "Supreme's Lounge" (my first solo LP) in my dorm room.
Patrick and I pretty much forged a friendship that is still strong to this day and we reminisce about our humble beginnings in this game. Our triumphs always seemed to parallel each other. "I Know" became a Birmingham anthem long before the BA Boys (no disrespect). At the same time, I obtained a considerable amount of fans on the talent show circuit, namely Chris Coleman. He may not remember this but when we first met, I had won a talent show he was judging. I congratulated him for his appearance on KRS ONE's album that year. It caught him off guard because I don't think he thought anyone in Birmingham would appreciate that accomplishment let alone pay attention to it.
From there my demos were forwarded to folks like Kori White, B-Brian, and Dwight Stone and subsequently I ended up doing intros for those jocks. There was a time when I actually had an intro on every jocks show. 5 times a day, 5 or 6 days a week, my raps would be the first thing you hear before a DJ popped the mic. I utilized that recognition to secure a career in radio.
In '99, I realized it was time to fill the void, and The Eargasm was born. As Chris said, most of the emcees in B-Ham emulated what they heard from our neighbors in ATL. We didn't play that at The Eargasm. You either had to be original or get booed off the stage. That's how serious it was. I still take pride in the fact that The Eargasm was the only place you could get real hip hop culture. We had emcees and crews like The Metaphizx and Abstract Chemistry. We also introduced the city to DJ's like F/X, Heron and Rahdu, as well as b-boy crews like BMW Crew. It was a proving ground, a battlefield of sorts, and it came naturally. When we chanted "Who's next? Who's next?" and it was your turn to rock the mic, you better have all the showmanship, rhyming ability, and crowd control in your arsenal. Lack of any of this spelled disaster, but if you came with it, prepare for ghetto stardom. Just ask Attitude or R-Tist, two of many emcees to sharpen their skills on The Eargasm stage. Two emcees with styles all their own.
I often boasted that we were the "world famous" Eargasm, simply for the fact that out of all the national acts we featured (peace to Ishues, Lacks, and Onebelo) nothing made me more proud than when we got a visit from the New York City Breakers and they battled our very own BMW Crew. That was a memorable night and NYC Breakers enjoyed the experience.
I often dream of bringing it back like it was, but that will never happen due to the climate of the game right now. I attempted to bring back the Eargasm last year. I even got Akil The MC from Jurassic 5 to perform. No one showed up, only a few of my old Eargasm fans who were nostalgic for the old times.
I think the hip hop fans of today are so stuck on everyone sounding alike that they are numb to it. There was a term used back in the day for this cardinal sin: BITING. Back in the day biting was a serious no-no and if you were caught doing this the repercussions were often times severe. Nowadays it's commonplace to use each others sound, even rhymes. So much to the point that some of our pioneers like Busta Rhymes and LL Cool J succumb to this by having T Pain or The Dream on their records so they can be relevant to today's fickle hip hop audience.
I interviewed Biz Markie last year and in this conversation he recalled an incident where an emcee was caught biting and ended up getting robbed and catching a beat down. Maybe we as authentic hip hop practitioners need to go back to this type of severity, at least by addressing it. Nowadays though, you can't be critical of today's hip hop without being labeled a hater. Jay Z made a valiant effort by dropping "Death of Autotune", but it's sort of contradictory because he still works with Kanye West, one of autotune's poster children. I have yet to hear Birmingham's artists embrace the autotune trend, but give it time. Like Chris said Birmingham is usually late on everything.
For more info on the history of the career of Supreme, check out:
http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Supreme
also check out:
http://www.the-eargasm.blogspot.com
Remember when the DJ was featured in songs? Ever wonder where Missy gets her intros? Click here to listen to Request Line.
