PappaWheelie

bruno

est malade
one of the nicest things about soulseek is running into handmade compilations. there are a billion dedicated to obscure synth-pop, for example, most of which is next to impossible to find in the real world.

of all these labours of love one stands out for me as the greatest, most obsessive: pappawheelie's. his compilations of miami bass are second to none, very meticulously thought-out. always with pictures, catalogue numbers, dates, context, a huge amount of work.

someone get this man a job at a label and let him sort out the miami bass thing once and for all!
 

petergunn

plywood violin
bruno said:
one of the nicest things about soulseek is running into handmade compilations. there are a billion dedicated to obscure synth-pop, for example, most of which is next to impossible to find in the real world.

of all these labours of love one stands out for me as the greatest, most obsessive: pappawheelie's. his compilations of miami bass are second to none, very meticulously thought-out. always with pictures, catalogue numbers, dates, context, a huge amount of work.

someone get this man a job at a label and let him sort out the miami bass thing once and for all!

that's my boy... he DJ's at Pure Fire sometimes... he's working on a book on miami bass... below is his reply to me noting i bought the "bass that ate miami" LP...


> the bass that ate miami- v/a (all of them are
> maggotron, i believe...) ....great record i remember
> almost buying on cassette about 500 times at the
> Record Town or Strawberries at various malls in the
> boston area when i was 11 or 12... never bought it...

Yep, all DXJ songs (unlike the sequel, Miami Bass Wars). Actually, this
compilation speaks volumes about Pandisc Records.

The long story:

In the 1970's, TK Records was pretty much the monopoly in Miami's urban
dance music scene, but in 1980, Bo Crane, a TK employee, decided to
leave
and setup a label named Palm Tree Records to compete with TK, as well
as
running Red Rooster Records for NRBQ.

Bo was the Dance Music Report editor (like Tom Silverman in NY who went
on
to found Tommy Boy). Bo also was the main man in the Florida Record
Pool,
resident DJ at Miami's version of Studio 54 (Honey for the Bears) and
he
managed DJ's around Miami.

Palm Tree Records went NO WHERE, and when TK went out of business in
1981,
another TK employee went on to help promote records produced by Pretty
Tony, which were actually just a front for laundering Sherman Nealy's
drug
money (Sherman and Tony were convicted around late 1986). As a result,
Jam
Packed and Music Specialists became the first real label to steal TK's
thunder, and Bo was just floundering.

Bo changed Palm Tree to Pandisc in 1983, and ripped off fellow BCA
member
Steinski by doing a James Brown megamix ala The Lesson. It faired okay,
but still didn't steal any TK/Pretty Tony thunder.

Bo was even was the first to step in and steal Clarence Reid from Henry
Stone as a creative source once TK fell, but Clarence was only
interested
in doing Blowfly material at this point. Bo employed hired guns to
produce
some electro knockoff tracks for Blowlfy, and setup Weird World Records
under his Pandisc umbrella for Blowfly, but still Bo had no real
creative
force for Pandisc.

In 1984, record store owner Billy Hines found a creative force in Frank
Cornelius (youngest brother of the Cornelius Brothers family), so he
setup
4-Sight Records.

In 1985, Joey Armada Jr. (son of Carribean Manufacturers owner Jose Sr)
found many Pretty Tony refugees, and hired them as the creative/promo
force behind Joey Boy/On Top/Jr/Treasure records.

Bo STILL was in business without a creative force. These other two
labels
figured it out...

By this time, DXJ and his Maggotron alias was bouncing around from
label
to label. He had done a record for Bound Sound, 4-Sight, Pandisc, Joey
Boy, and others, but he was not tied down. Bo decided to tie him up
under
contract in 1987 as the primary creative force behind Pandisc, despite
Electro being somewhat out of fashion by this point.

DXJ did "Welcome to the Planet of Bass" as a 12 incher that year, and
it
hit rather big. This song pretty much became a blueprint for DXJ's
sound
for the next 4 years, and Bo wanted to cash in on it by doing a comp
that
featured DXJ, no matter how new or old the songs were. The fact that
this
comp hit is a shocker. Much of the material was very out of date upon
its
release.

The lineup looks like this:

Maggotron - The Bass that Ate Miami: a 1988 Electro Bass 12" that was
actually not fully original. The foundation of this track is one of
those
1984 Electro Blowfly records, and DXJ just added 808 kick, lyrics, and
some non-sequitor sampling. Pandisc 12 inch #29.

Plamer Force Two - Another 1984 Blowfly track given to DXJ to recowork,
although, this was done in 1984 shortly after Blowlfy's version was on
the
market. Talk about maximizing your catalog. Obviously, highly inspired
by
Electric Kingdom and other apoctolyptic Electro tracks. I believe all
those Blowlfy electro tracks were produced by Joe Galdo (of Foxy),
Larry
Dermer (who went on to score Disney's Pocohontas), although they're
unredited and I've yet to track them down. Pandisc 12 inch #7. No bass
-
straight Electro.

Sonarphonics - Attack on the Planet of Bass: DXJ decided to diss
himself
before anyone else could, so he created a group that sounded exactly
like
Maggotron to diss Maggotron. This was Pandisc 12 inch #26, but this
concept should've come out on Weird World Records...

Maggozulu Too - Mix it Baby: DXJ's "DJ" track, whereas most DJ tracks
showcased cutting, this was was about mixing. It's probably a tribute
to
his days DJ'ing in roller skating rinks, especially considering most of
the songs featured are of the 1983 Electro variety, as opposed to the
1988
sp1200 driven sample-rap bass of the day. Pandisc 12 inch #25, maiking
it
produced in 1988.

Maggotron Crushing Crew - Bass Rock the Planet: Oddly, this is not an
Electro Bass track; just straight Electro. And for your MC A.D.E. fans
out
there, this is an ADE diss record, although it never calls him by name,
so
their never was any controversey surrounding it. DXJ had worked with
ADE
twice, and both were what I'd personally interpret as bad experiences.

1.) The 4-Sight version of Radio Mars by Maggotronics in 1984 (4-Sight
12
inch #2). MC ADE/Adrian Hines is the son of the owner Billy Hines, and
Billy felt Adrian was his ear to the ground, so Billy sent Adrian into
all
the recording sessions to "guide" the artsits/producers. Adrian's
guidance
on this track was to pound a beat on a table, telling the producer to
mimic that on the drum machine. The beat being played by Adrian that
day
was a recreation of Lookout Weekend, as that was the already hot record
that year. DXJ did his best to appease Adrian, then rereleased Radio
Mars
a year later on Jamron Records, minus Adrian's input. Adrian was about
14
years old then, and DXJ was in his late 20's I believe.

2.) MC ADE's Bass Mechanic: This beat was actually prodcued by DXJ
(although 4-Sight listed it as DJX or something like that). Being the
lyrics on the track come in before the first beat of the verse, Adrian
was
very confused each time they'd press play on the 808...so Adrian kept
telling DXJ to add beats to the beginning. This was of course before
the
sequences were linked. Finally DXJ got tired of trying to explain it to
Adrian, so he pieced the intro and verse one together to and guided
Adrian
where to begin his rap. Typical new jack MC behavior, especially
considering MC ADE was 16 at the time (1986).

So yeah, Maggotron's Bass Rock the Planet was dissing the fact that
Adrian
had to have help from everybody in the studio that day. Help with his
rapping in the vocoder (which can hide the identity of who's on the mic
at
any given time), his lack of beat making and scratching, and even his
weight. The title of this 1988 cut was a ripoff of The Megatrons (Amos
Larkins) Rock the Planet, which came out earlier that year. Not sure if
Amos was aware of DXJ's Maggotron alias when he did his Megatrons
record,
but it was a nice reverse nod. Amos went on to sell his final track of
the
80's to DXJ when DXJ ran Jamarc records in 1988. Pandisc 12 inch #19

And finally, The Third Degree - Say it Loud (I Like Rap and I'm Proud):
Obviously a hokey knockoff of the James brown classic. The Third Degree
was DXJ's main rapper, Smokey Dee, with DXJ and his DJ. For those in
NYC,
you can go to 96th street/3rd ave (roughly, the school where the Marx
Brothers attended), and take a look where Smokey Dee carved his rap
name
into the wet cement of the sidewalk way back before he moved to Miami.

The edits on this song are done by Dynamix II and Eric Griffin,
although
DXJ claims the edits were sketched out totally by DXJ prior to the
session.

This story is good...

Dave Noller, core member of Dynamix II shopped his 1st demo to Pandisc
in
early 1987. While Dave was in the lobby, Bo took the demo behind one
door
(without shutting it) and played it for DXJ. Immediatly, DXJ proclaimed
"I
can beat the snot out of that beat", so Bo decided to pass on Just Give
the DJ a Break.

Dave then took it to Bass Station Records, who signed him for a one 12
inch deal. However, the song was HEAVILY reworked by Eric Griffin (the
b-side is presumably all Eric Griffin under the Dynamix name). Once the
song became a MASSIVE hit, Bo wanted some Dynamix money...so he hired
Eric
and Dynamix to do edits solely to get the Dynamix name on a project.

Later, the owner of Bass Station was murdered by an opposing drug crew,
putting bass Station out of business. Bass Station's drug friend also
ran
a label and claimed the Bass Station catalog for themselves (Suntown
records), rereleasing Just Give the DJ a Break with edits. Needless to
say, neither Dynamix nor Eric Griffin were asked to do edits...Suntown
hired professionals (presumably the Bladerunners).

Politics...

For any of you in the NYC area who are still reading this, come to
Capone's this Friday for Mike Simonetti and myself acting as
"professional" DJ's. It might be my last.

221 N 9th Screet (Roebling + Driggs)
Williamsburg BKLYN

Joe aka PappaWheelie
Miami Bass History
 
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