Where it all started

The first rap cassette that I ever purchased turned out to be the Bangin on Wax album back in 1993. I first saw them on the Maury Povich show. From what I can remember, I believe Big Wy, Little Stretch, C-Note, Sin Loc, and Ronnie Ron were some of the members on the show. Go figure! The funny thing about that is, Maury is still on TV to this day with the same show. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. After the commercial breaks, they would play little edited snippets from the album. I remember saying to myself that I had to hear that album. Prior to this, I had already been introduced to some of the West Coast rap legends such as NWA, Ice-T, Too Short, Above the Law, Spice-1 and from the South Geto Boys, 8ball & MJG, and UGK.

I finally scrapped together around eleven dollars and headed down to a music store called Music Plus which would later become The Warehouse. To this very day, Bangin on Wax is still one of my favorite albums and I can play the whole thing through which is a rarity. Nowadays, you’re lucking if you like 4 songs on a given album with exceptions. Even though the subject matter was explicit, I enjoyed listening to both sides and hearing their stories. I grew up very close to Compton, Watts, and South Central so I could understand some of their hardships.

From this album, more Bangin on Wax albums were put out, including full Bloods & Crips solo albums as well individual solo efforts.

To name a few of the albums:

Tweedy Bird Loc – 187 Ride By & No Holds Barred

G –Len – Woop Woop

Fo Clips – Eclipse

Young Soldierz – Self Titled

Relativez – (Several albums)

Green Eyez – High Blood Pressure & Me against the World

Ver-C-Tile – I'm a Hustler

Another little know fact is that Crips member Genuine Draft from the first album ended up becoming Domino and had some radio hits in the early 90s.

Unfortunately, a lot of the members have passed on or are locked up. However, there are some members that are still active in the rap game and are still keeping with the music.

Big Wy & Suga Buga as the Relativez @bigwy & @richboybuga

OYG Red Rum 781 @OYG_redruM781

Sin Loc- Who just released his album Smell the Smoke & See the Fire @og_sin

Tweedy Bird Loc – I believe he is still around somewhere in Compton

This cassette would be the first of hundreds more that I started accumulating over the years. Eventually, I turned to cds, but I still have a lot of my original cassettes.

dpgmarine