The Wake Up Show
djnikoless
236 Posts
In the last edition to my radio saga...Anyone have and/or care to share any wake up show thoughts, memories, etc...First off, I never heard "the Wake Show". Well, the only one I have is the Heiro Vs Hobo Battle but that's not a representation of the weekly show obviously. Even thought it was syndicated in Chicago for a while it was on a station that didnt get a good signal where I lived. Hmmm...that sparks a question, Was it the first syndicated rap show??Anyway, I just know from the word of mouth/legend and the freestyle volumes.Here's some of my thoughts and things I'm curious about:-Artists they debuted or were instrumental in breaking: Bums, Motion Man, Ras Kass, Chino XL, Juice, Eminem, Crooked I-Classic Moments Hobo Vs HeiroJuice and Supernatural (after the battle freestyle)-Key Characteristics of the show??? What made them unique...-The Staff: Sway, King Tech, Joe Quixx, Prince Ice, DJ Revolution, Carmelita
Comments
Haha, the Joint! Last night, I hooked up my old tape deck and was listening to an old Joint show from '95. I was put up on a lot of music through that show.
Somewhere buried in my garage, I've got a mixtape that I put together in '95 that strings together a bunch of highlights from the 10 o'clock Bomb and Wake Up Show programs back when they were on KMEL only. Most notably, it's got some really tight Noggin Nodders (Motion Man's group) promos that have never made it onto any of the Wake Up Show releases.
As far as the Wake Up Show in syndication, recall how Aceyalone, Mikah 9, and Abstract Rude would thoroughly wreck the hell out of that spot whenever they rolled through.
Also, recall my San Antonio ace Mad One blowing that shit up as an unknown on a pay phone, only to end up holding down the weekly freestyle crown for like 8 weeks straight.
Some of the best things about it were:
-them accidentally playing the explicit versions and stopping and starting over.
-starting each show with "another wake up show classic" (said in that funny announcer's voice). They would play an original that somebody had sampled.
-Kut Masta Kurt playing originals
-Dan Charnas doing the spoken word reinterpretations of big rap songs. He did "Hypnotize," "Brooklyn Zoo," and maybe another one.
-freestyles (which at times would go on for too long, way too long)
-Joe Quixx. Joe is the man. He was the one who cut up Impeach the President for that Redman/Biz Markie "to the tic toc" freestyle that they played on there.
-other great djs they had on there: Prince Ice and Revolution were regulars. Others always stopped in: Babu, Rhettmatic, Homicide, Aladin, etc.
-at one point they got really large and had 1-900 numbers. You could call in and listen to Dj Revolutions history of scratching, where he went year by year and did the scratches that came out that year. They used to do contests for free stuff and you had to call the 900 number, but people would always call the regular line and say "I can't call 900 numbers, I got a block on my phone" and they would say something like "you need to get a pocket full of quarters and go to a pay phone."
-towards the end of my listening days they started doing the live connection with Marley Marl in NY. They'd sync it up and do the show together, even having emcess in the NY studio battle the emcees in the LA studio. There was a Blowed versus Wu-tang battle at one point. I think it was mostly Michah 9, Aceyalone, and Ab Rude against some of the lesser known Wu off shoots.
-they would throw in a bunch of old stuff and that show actually introduced me to a lot of stuff that I grew to love. Nobody else was playing T-La Rock's "This beat kicks" at that time. Not that I knew of.
-The theme song was classic. I wish i still had that freestyles LP that had it on there. It was a good line up. I can't remember everyone, but it was Chino XL, Organized Konfusion, Lauryn Hill, Dred Scott, Shyheim, Saafir, and a bunch of other people I am blanking on.
-they did a thing called "slept on cuts" that was pretty dope. They picked their top 10 slept on cuts. A bunch of people did it. Sway, King tech, Carmelita, etc.
The 10' O Clock bomb was Sway's thing on KMEL. it was just him and it wasn't the same as the Wake Up Show, but it was still pretty dope.
lots more stuff. It was a great show.
You sure Joe Quixx wasn't regularly on there with him?
We always went to The City to see shows, particularly between 92-98 and, to me, those were the classic of times.
Two standout moments quickly off the head:
I went to see Hiero, Liks, Tribe and De La at The Warfield and some drunk cat was on top of the speakers and tried to fuck up the show. Basically, this dude got Tim Boots to the grill and whereever else. Moments later (it seemed like) we were driving home and Tribe and De La were on KMEL talking about what happened and why they did what they did. Classic moment.
Another classic moment was when Supernatural went on KMEL and freestyled his ass off. First time I heard him do the underwater thing and impersonate other rappers. Not sure if it was after a show? Some friends saw him at a Gavin at the DNA so I know it was not that time. Another classic moment.
Of my understanding KMEL is now run by Clear Channel, hence, it sounds like other radio stations out there. True?
KMEL was extremely unique back in the early-mid 90s. Good good times out in The City.
I meant King Tech wasn't hosting with him. I can't remember if Joe Quixx was on there all the time.
I liked it when Kevy Kev (of KZSU Stanford "The Drum" fame) filled in for Sway. Dude always had jokes and was more likeable. Him and DJ Positively Red (Pos Red) had a dope show called "Danger Zone" on Wyld 94.9, some years after 10o'clock Bomb went away.
And I don't think Joe Quixx was on 10o'clock much. I recall Prince Ice was though.
The DJ special in like 1996 with Q-Bert, Shortkut, Babu, Rhett, and Melo-D, was one of my fave shows I taped, as far as Wake Up Shows. That was right before the ITF competition got big. So long ago.
Another memory was when they dropped Colored Section's "Bomb MC". Fools were on the jock back then. Some one hit wonder shit right there.
yup
-first time i ever heard "breaks"
-cut chemist doing a set where he dropped that sergio mendes break, annette peacock, doug lucas, and other bugged jazz blaps
-hearing shortkut, q-bert, babu, roc raida, sinista, melo-d, rhettmatic, etc all get down
-hearing revoloution fuck it up many a time.
-A.T.U. (yes rashied) sonning the shit out of Cappadonna and I think Ghostface.
Another cool memory I have about the Wake Up Show: I remember before getting involved in radio myself, I called up the Wake Up Show for a contest. They used to have a music collage of classic hip hop cuts???like 10 or 15 where you only got a short second of the track. They would take calls and give out prizes to the first person that could name all the joints. I called in and rattled off all the artists and tracks aside from one??? of course they clowned me on the air. Since the contest call ins were pre recorded and played the next segment I was able to get it on tape???. I probably still have the old cassette somewhere. I also remember Motion taking down my address for some consolation prize. Anybody remember Motion???s alter ego when he did the prank calls???
I stopped listening to the Wake Up Show in ???95 when my own radio show was scheduled opposite Tech and Sway???I know??? brutal time slot to have as another hip hop show???. I always knew when The Wake Up Show was bringing the heat too. I would get a couple of callers phoning in to try and give me the play by play of the incredible freestyle session they just heard on KMEL and The Wake Up Show??? I always found this amusing..(at least they tuned into me after they got their interview/freestyle fix from the gods)
I really do miss the pre syndicated days of the Wake Up Show and that whole vibe on KMEL during the early to mid 90???s. Looks like I will be digging through the cassette boxes this weekend
M-SMOOTH
They used to tape using two studios at KMEL-- one for Sway, Tech and other people they put on mic and one in which Joe Quixx was set up with turntables, a mixer, DAT, reel-to-reel, etc.
Usually Beni B and I would just bring Joe Quixx a bunch of breaks and current samples to play and kick it with him in his studio, but a few times we ended up chopping it up on air with Sway and Tech. (Thankfully, we were about the only guests I can remember who didn't get pressured to freestyle....) Joe was (and is) really knowledgeable about beats but Beni and I always had a ton of stuff he didn't have or didn't know.
Scattered Wake-Up Show memories:
- KMEL's studio was in a more-or-less regular office building and had a single security guard at a desk on the ground floor. If your name was on their list, you could bring a large crew and just take the elevator up. Around the time of the Gavin Convention each year, the show was crazy because basically any rapper who had a record coming out within the next few months would be in town and trying to get on the air. The office and studio would be packed with dozens of promo people, rappers and weed carriers with basically no security and nobody monitoring what was going on. It was really exciting to be around but in retrospect I'm pretty amazed nothing crazy ever jumped off there.
- The night of the Hiero/Hobo battle, Beni and I went up to the studio but it was really thronged because each crew had brought a lot of people and then there were also tons of young Berkeley-Oakland rap dudes who weren't in either crew but were trying to spectate, stir shit up or get attention for themselves. We saw what a zoo it was, gave Joe a pound and turned around and drove back to Berkeley.
- One time Erick Sermon was being interviewed and Joe was playing Lonnie Smith's "Spinning Wheel". As soon as he was off-mic, Sermon ran up on Joe, offering him a $100 for the record and, when that didn't work, begging.
- The Wake-Up Show always had a lot of guys from the crew around-- Evo, D-Wyze, etc.-- who were mainly answering phones and stuff like that but sometimes got on air. Franzen was also always around; he was about 15 and always getting punked so I was really impressed that he stuck it out and made himself into a major host there.
- One time I brought Joe a copy of Art Blakey's Buhaina so he could play the sample from "Excursions" but he cued up the wrong song and was playing some random jazz record on-air for about 90 seconds waiting for the loop. I was mortified at the time but in retrospect I feel like it was awesome both for how "live" their show was and how much leeway they had to play whatever they wanted.
- I remember seeing somebody hand Joe a reel-to-reel of a brand new record and watching him use a razor blade and tape to edit the curses in the space of like 15 minutes while doing all the regular stuff he had to do-- playing records, listening for cues from Sway and Tech, etc.
We were going up to hang out about once a month until Sway, Tech and Joe moved down to LA to do the show from KKBT. I never really listened regularly after that.
Oh, also:
What up, Mike! It's been about a dozen years.
Nah man. I was in Berkeley, listening on a broken stereo in my man Anthony's house.
But I'ma tell Mic T you said that. haha.
Gosh, now why on earth would anyone assume I was talking about Mic-T?
b/w
I distinctly remember being at a house party in Berkeley and watching him try to kick it to my girlfriend right in front of me. I would have checked him but watching him get shot down was more fun.
That's funny - I saw that happen a lot too but I was still in high school at the time.
"Getting at a 14 year old..." revealed.
Holy shit.
When I moved back to the city I taped the Tupac interview. Got to dig that one out.
The biggest response was always to things that had been sampled on records people loved but which nobody knew the source of (e.g., Tom Scott's "Today", Lou Donaldson's "It's Your Thing" or Les DeMerle's "A Day in the Life"), especially if it was for a brand new rap record. This was still (mostly) before sample clearances for everything began appearing in the credits, so back then the only people who knew what records had been sampled were those who were digging like crazy.
One time after we played Marlena Shaw's "California Soul", someone high up from KMEL (Alexander Mejia maybe?) was hounding Beni to put it on a DAT so the station could play it regularly. I can't conceive of anything like that happening these days.
I was able to find a few 1994 shows from here: http://rekordzonwheelz.blogspot.com/search?q=wake+up+show
Still trying to find 1990-92 shows though
i think some kid named Nas kicked that joint off... ;)
Thanks for giving me an outlet. I could go on for days and days.
Next time I see Joe I'll ask if he has any old tapes.