STAY THE COURSE……..

So it was June 1988 and I was finally done with Rich East High School and I was glad. Not that I  did not like Rich East but it was just most of my friends went to other schools including the only women I ever dated while I was in High School Colette Taylor, she went to Bloom. With that said I was a C student and with me giving up sports for music I basically gave up all the scholarships I had been offered and I could not get into school for radio because of my test scores. I was in Lincoln Mall in Matteson Illinois one afternoon and saw there was new record store opening up and they were looking for help. I filled out a application and about two days later a man by the name of John Swanson called me for a interview and I was hired the same day. I thought if I want to be a DJ it only makes since I work around music because working at Red Lobster or Pizza Hut was not going to get me closer to my goal. Record Town opened up and music was at a all time high. Bobby Brown was king and MC Hammer was the man and every kid wanted to see New Kids On The Block. John Swanson was my manager and he was a crazy Guns and Roses, Metallica metal head while I was a Chicago House dj who had a ear for hot rap ( NWA,PETE ROCK,EPMD,ECT). We had such a good relationship cause he taught me heavy metal and I taught him rap and to this day I have so many heavy metal groups in my music selection you would not believe it. After about a year John was transferred and I became manager at age 20 and that’s when I started playing and selling my own mixtapes out of my store. Tuesday was new release day and a young Def Jam representative named Chilly Q (whpk) was putting up posters for a new Slick Rick Cd when I gave him a copy of my latest mixtape. That weekend he called me and told me about a new club opening up called THE ULTIMATE located in Harvey and told me to come check it out and meet the owner who was looking for a hot DJ. I was introduced to the four African Armenian owners and it was Belige Falkner who gave me a chance to try out on Friday night. I showed up in my cross colors (haha) and about 4 creates of records that Friday and met the DJ who was spinning before I was to go on. His name was Jay Allen and I just remember him telling me he just played the song I was playing and nobody would dance and NOW the floor was packed and how did I do that. I did not know what to say I just said I just do my thing. At the end of the night I was hired and I would be playing Thursday through Saturday. So now I was running a record store and I was the top DJ in one of the hottest clubs in Chicago. I still have over 3000 picture’s from my days there. Now that I was in the club I knew it was time to make moves I found myself acting a fool. I was buying breakfast for 20 to 25 people after the club closed at Denny’s I was getting four to five hotel rooms across the street where I would take the after party. Drugs and Liquor was basically free and available whenever I wanted it, but good thing for me was my high was my music and sexy women so I did not fall victim to any substance abuse. I then became the host of exotic Tuesday where I would bring out on the stage there or four exotic dancers and when I say Tuesday was crazy I mean it was NUTS. I was in heaven. Ball players and artist like Arron Hall, SWV, R Kelly were always in the house. I was 21/22 and things were really starting to happen for me and I soon killed my Break-dance DJ name Vicious V and became DJ “V”. It was simple but everybody called me “V” anyway. As things snowballed I got a call one day about a radio job and you will never guess who it was…………TO BE CONTINUED

FRIDAY 2/27/09  1030 DISCO MIX   http://www.sendspace.com/file/gq2yy9

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1988!!!! WBMX TRIBUTE MIX INCLUDED PLEASE LEAVE YOUR FEEDBACK!

 

LeRoy and Karen Blackful those are my parents. My father was probably the closet thing I had to a best friend and wherever you seen him you would see me. My father grew up in Chicago Heights Ill and went to Bloom High School while he was there he was a outstanding football player and wrestler. My father went on to Eastern Ill University where he was introduced to my mother. As the son of a blue chip athlete I grew up around coaches and sport trainers and it was pretty much determined that I was to be this big time sports star. I started wrestling for Rich Township Wrestling at the age of Nine and was drinking protein shakes by the time I was twelve. My father by this time was coaching wrestling and football at Harlan High School and I would travel with his teams in the summer during the summer league. I found myself in states like Nebraska, Dakota, Kanas and Iowa and with the sport of wrestling pretty much dominated by the white man I really got a interesting  look at America. I can remember my father taking his wrestling team to Nebraska and trust me none of those kids would have ever went to Nebraska on there own. My biggest lesson I remember from those trips were that in Chicago we are used to seeing black people weather rich or poor in the hood or the suburbs you can go anywhere and see a face that looks like yours but in the states I visited  the only black people those people saw were the ones on the talk shows UGHHH I used to get those looks when we all went out to eat at Sizzler as if they wanted to yell out “hey homeboy”or “whats up cuz”but the good thing was after they saw how disciplined we were and that we were serious and no threat to them or there community they were some of the nicest people I ever met. My father was a great coach he touched so many lives and his wrestling teams won city championships year after year and if you were a member of Coach Black’s team then you were a winner. So by the time I was sixteen I had two state championships for freestyle wrestling , placed second in the IKWF and had gone to the Jr Olympics, Prairie State Games,and The AAU Nationals but I was getting tired. I was starting to make a name for myself as a DJ and I wanted to date girls I was sick of working out. It was sophomore year during the summer and while working out I tore my knee up and it took me 4 months to get it back to normal but during that time off I realized that I was tired of sports and that being a DJ was my true passion. So with scholarships on the table from Howard, University of Miami, and Hawaii and had to look at my father and tell him I QUIT I am a DJ and I am good! HAHA trust me I told him that with my eyes closed waiting for him to knock my teeth out but he sat back and said “Son if that’s what you want to do then go for it and go all the way because I don’t want you coming back to me a year from now wanting to go to school because it wont be there” with that said I said dad trust me I am a really good DJ. My father was transferred from Harlan to Orr High School on the West side of Chicago and I continued to travel with my father but now I was seeking music knowledge and buying records. I was the DJ for my Prom and the sock hops and everybody’s house party. I still had my radio with me and I gave out mixtapes to everybody I could, before I knew it the year was 1988 and High School was over and thank God. I did not like Rich East at all most of my friends went to Rich Central or Bloom. So lets go to Broadcasting school where do I sign up. UH OH PROBLEM!!! Mr Blackful your test scores are pitiful and you have no money sorry kid maybe you should go to the ARMY. OHH NO What am I going to tell my dad, how can i get on the radio without a degree, hell I am not a dummy but screw that A.C.T. test what does that have to do with me talking or mixing on the radio……..TO BE CONTINUED!!

AWWW SHUCKS FARLEY WBMX TRIBUTE MIX  2/20/09  click and paste

http://www.sendspace.com/file/82wzei

1985 INCLUDES MIX 2/13/09

Well I could not have picked a better time to become a DJ. In 1985 with House music becoming the signature sound of Chicago and everybody wanting to throw there own party business was good, then along came the whole Break-dance craze. New York electro records starting making there way into the mix. Songs Like Hip Hop Be Bop by Man Parrish, Pop Goes My Love by Freeze and I want It To Be Real by John Rocca became major songs on radio stations like WBMX. Then came Din Daa Daa and White Horse and the culture of house music was getting another sound along with Disco and Garage sound . I admit for a hot minute I used to Break-dance and I was Ok but the night I and my cousin Reggie Fleming, Sherrod McClendon, and JO JO went to Glenwood Roller Rink for the big Break-dance battle showed me that I need to stick with the mix. We were popping and locking and I was spinning on my head and we knew we had won the battle until a group of dudes from Chicago came out onto the floor in full parachute gear and kicked our ass like we were Electro Rock from the movie Breakin. I quickly gave up my head bands and spike wrist bands and took it back to what I do best mix. In my neighborhood there were some really good Djs that had it going on. DJ Pierre aka Scratching Pierre, Rock-in Reggie who was off the hook back then and Jam Master Jay who is still mixing to this day. I would go here them play all over the south suburbs at places like Glenwood Roller Rink, Star Flier Rink, The Oval Rink, The Comfort Inn, and Celabration Station and they never disappointed. Before I wanted to be on the radio I wanted to be those guys and I became a student of there craft. As house music grew Djs like Farley Funkin Keith and Steve SILK Hurley used to come out and Dj with them but those guys always held there own and  always made me proud cause they were just as good. It seem like over night Djs popped up all over the place brothers like Hula Mahone aka HOT HANDS , Glen aka Dr Jack and Marc Traino all started to make noise but in Park Forest/Beacon Hill Chicago Heights I was getting party after party and Vicious V was becoming household on plugers in the south suburbs. As a freshmen at Rich East High School I started doing mix tapes for everybody in the school and to this day many friends of mine from High School still have those tapes (Derrick Bell). Even though I hated Rich East it did have one thing that I liked it had a Radio Station WRHS and that started my love for the microphone. I used to host a show with my classmate Eddie Baking Berkhimer and we basically tried to copy WBMX it was low budget but it was very fun maybe one day I will post one of my shows from High School I still own a few. I knew right then and there I wanted to Dj for the rest of my life BUT my parents had other plans…………..TO BE CONTINUED!!

1030 MIX 2/13/09  MELODIES MIX  http://www.sendspace.com/file/hkvnjz

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1984

 

It was 1984 I had spent a summer buying records and recording mixes from the Hot Mix 5 off of WBMX 102.7 FM. Like most of us the Saturday Night Live Ain’t No Jive Chicago Dance Party was must listen radio. Even when I had things to do I had to make sure I was recording the mix so I could hear it later.Host Armando Rivera always respected the mix, he never let people give shout outs or talked about some nonsense over my favorite songs the most he ever said was ‘B M X”. Of course I was a huge fan of Farley FUNK IN Keith  and later when he became the Jack Master. I still have hundreds of mixes from 1984, 1985,1986. My father used to coach at Harlan High School in Chicago and I started going with him to work when I did not have to go to school and it was there that I was introduced to WKKC 89.3. It was a whole new culture of house music and I had to find a way to get more. Growning up in the south suburbs I could not get WKKC on my radio until I learned if I ran a wire from my radio around the copper pipes in my bathroom I could here it. Dj s like Walter GET DOWN Brown, Bobby Q Bobby, Loyd Jackmaster, Pink House and others all were major influences in my career. Bobby Q Bobby had a show on Sunday afternoon that really open my eyes to more of the Chicago House culture. Bobby would always talk about the clubs and parties that went on the night before and always played music you always herd in the mix but never as a full song it was a history lesson every week. I also found out about the record stores I needed to be shopping at like IMPORTS ECT, LOOP RECORDS, GRAMOPHONE, METRO MUSIC ON 103RD,ECT. My hunt for music now was a bike ride to Chicago Heights to catch the 352 Halsted bus that would drop me on  95th street from there I caught the train downtown to go shop. It was a all day thing but I had records Dj’s in my neighborhood wish they had. Now it was time to throw a party so I talked my parents into letting me rent the rec center gym for a 8th grade house party. I invited everybody in the school and I can remember starting my set off with White Horse by Laid Back and it was ON! Friends of mine Tyrone T BONE Harper, Jimmy KEMO Loyd also helped me out through the night. I maybe had 30 records but we had a ball and that was the start of my DJ carrier. Now it was time to show my skills against other DJs around my way…………..TO BE CONTINUED.