Yeah, it’s funny because everything intertwines. And at the time we didn’t have any DJ, the S1W wasn’t there, so we was just kinda like formulating the whole PE idea, if you will. And I kinda convinced him because I wanted him to be a part of it. So I came back and told him that we had just got a deal and did an album on Def Jam. He was working a job, so he wasn’t available for recording dates. If you look back at the early PE stuff, my brother wasn’t associated with it, because at the time we had stopped DJ’ing and actually were doing the recording thing. Oh god, it depends on who was actually doing what at the time. Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but I was wondering, how you guys divide your work when you work together? Your brother is credited as producer on that record and you as executive producer. We had a group called the Kings of Pressure, and we also worked with a group called the Young Black Teenagers. We developed and found Leaders of the New School, which was Busta Rhymes. Were any of these the people you would work with later, like EPMD or Big Daddy Kane?Īctually it wasn’t like Kane and them. We would record that and then mix that into our radio show. They would recite their rhymes over our beats. At the time there were a limited amount of records being made - we would find local rappers in the community and we would bring them in the studio and we would record beats with them. There were a few stations playing records, but it was never like a mix show like you see now live, like FunkMaster Flex and things of that nature. There wasn’t any rap being mixed as a party thing. Magic, who then came with The Rap Attack. Then that format was adapted by Melle Mel and Mr. When we did our shows we were the first ones to mix rap records back to back. I hooked up with Bill Stephney at Adelphi and got us hooked up so we could do our own radio show.Īnd this evolved into you producing the actual records when you got signed? And it’s funny because the policies for getting on radio at Hofstra were a lot more political than they were at Adelphi. Well, you know how it is with the Baptist churches, they have drum sets, pianos, guitars and basses, and as Flavor was in there all the time he started playing each instrument. His mom was a deacon and his sister was a reverend. So we was kinda like Public Enemy before Public Enemy. He was one of our DJs and I did more of the business stuff, and then Flav joined us.
And then later - and this is funny because everything kept evolving - later Norman came in. Yeah, me and my brother were DJs and Chuck was the MC. You started out as a DJ - Spectrum City, right? Chuck D was part of that? There is plenty here for the choir and the unconverted. But I am not, as Hank would say, a "tastemaker." It's 2005, an excellent time not to believe the hype. To me, Bomb Squad productions should spur the kind of endless, speculative discussions usually reserved for George Martin or Phil Spector records. With such prodigious influence, the lack of credit Hank seems to garner in the geeky audio realm that satellites the current recording industry is baffling. Shocklee and "The Bomb Squad" were able to carve the features of hip-hop in the late '80s and in turn, the face of modern pop music. After making contact with the man and trying to understand the very tip of his knowledge, it makes pristine sense that Mr. Whatever you might know or not know about Hank Shocklee, it's difficult without hearing him speak, to convey the abundance of energy, good humor and all-out love for music that wells up in every word he says. Sometimes it's too bad Tape Op doesn't offer an audio version of the magazine.
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