EP13 - Foundation Music w/ Earl
This month’s show was inspired by several conversations following the sad passing of Dave AKA Trugoy of De La Soul. Upon lamenting the loss of some of our hip hop heroes in recent times, I find solace in transporting back to the golden era that was not only core foundational to our music sensibilities, but also responsible for shaping my identity to a large degree. Hip hop is profoundly encompassing, from its raw creative spirit, a culture of vision and voice, and connecting dots between eras through recontextualization of sound. To a generation of us, this is the genesis of a lifelong musical journey.
Looking back, I can’t overstate the impact of terrestrial radio. Beginning with the groundbreaking 106 KMEL in the late-80s, then discovering a paramount college radio circuit in the Bay and later in LA throughout the 90s. These shows were portals to transcendence and mind expansion to a nocturnal adolescent. This episode is about foundation music and an ode to the magic of radioland — fine-tuning the dial to finesse a fuzzy signal, cracking open a fresh TDK cassette and the unmistakable sounds of inserting a tape into the deck and pressing record, calling the request line asking the DJ for B-sides you’ve only seen in The Source, the rousing feeling of first hearing the og sample to a track you know, and experiencing the thrill/embarrassment of hearing your own voice on the air answering a trivia question to win tickets to an 21+ show…just gotta find an ID now.
– Earl B.
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