VICIOUS V NEEDS SOME MUSIC!

 

It was 1983 I was in the 7th grade at Forest Trail Jr High in Par Forest Ill, and I just got my first set of turntables from a garage sale but I still needed a mixer. I asked for my birthday present to be a brand new DJ mixer. That year I got my first DJ mixer it was a realistic mixer from Radio Shack, it didn’t even have a cross fader just four knobs that went up and down but it was all I needed. I put the whole system together through a old Zenith stereo tuner. Now i need some records and not the 45 s my parents had I needed MY music and i needed the long versions. My first bit of luck was my neighbor Allen Wheeler who was DJ for a small station called WMPP located in East Chicago Heights. He was a Blues man but he always got records from Motown and Sugar Hill records so he used to give me those records cause he did not play that music anyway. Rick James, Tina Marie, and the Sugar Hill Gang were some of the first 12 records I owned. I can remember then going to the record stores (remember record stores) Record Bar, Jr Music World, and Musicland were the first stores I went to looking for records to mix. One Saturday afternoon I was at Lincoln Mall in Matteson and I was in a store called Record Bar, I wanted to buy my first 12 inch record so I asked the guy who was working that day what i needed and he handed me Rockit by Herbie Hancock, High Noon by Two Sisters and Confusion by New Order I bought them all ( 3 for 12.99) I still have all three of these records at my home. That was the start to a record collection that to this day is over 100,000. For the next few months I was in Record Bar every Saturday. I bought songs like Hip Hop Bee Bop by Man Parrish. Play That Beat by G.L.O.B.E, IOU and Pop Goes My Love by Freeze. As I built my music collection it was time for me to throw a party and show my friends what I have been doing locked in my room on Saturday and Sunday’s.My father bought me a BIG RADIO it was the type of radio LL Cool J used to talk about duel cassette two antennas and a leather belt to hold it on my shoulder. I was now making my own mixtapes and I wanted everybody to hear my work so I quickly became the kid with the BIG RADIO. I had a box of Tone master cassettes and about 30 batteries and I ready to make a name for myself but what name would that be hmmmmmmmm “I GOT IT” VICIOUS V alright  remember its the 80s   Its now 1984 I am in the 8th grade and its time for my first party……To be Continued

WHY RADIO

Why Radio?

I remember as a child growing up in Park Forest Ill  my father would come home from his job in the evening and he would basically take over the only 19 inch color television we had in our home. Unless I wanted to watch what he wanted my only option was to go to my room and find something to do but the good thing about that was the family stereo was in my room. It was there that I discovered the voices of Tom Joyner, Herb Kent, Larry LuJack, and others. I would sit on the floor and listen to there stories of  club nights, concerts or all the people they had a chance to meet and I told myself I want to do that job. I want to party and meet stars and stay up past 12am  (At 10 that was a big deal) I asked my parents for a tape recorder for my birthday so I could make my own radio shows. I used to record songs off the radio and talk in between them as I was on the air. My pretend radio station at the time was WKYXZ don’t ask that just what my 10 year old brain came up with. I also tried to interview any and everybody I could including the Postman, UPS driver, and Milk Man. I once placed my tape recorder under my sisters bed after she had got in trouble and my father came in her room a gave her a five star whipping and I got the whole thing on tape. I used it as a comedy bit for my little made up radio station and needless to say the kids around the way thought it was funny. My sister still wont let me forget that ( maybe because I still have the tape) Stations like WJPC ,WLS ,WMET,WMAQ and WBMX were all station that i grew up listing to. So bottom line was I wanted to stay up late and hang out with Rick James. HaHa. When I entered the 7th grade I got my first set of turntables from a garage sale and from there it got interesting. To Be Continued……….