Hitting this spot as a kid was like (much later) finding out that other people started out making pause tapes! DJs were there, totally not a ‘they don’t know what they have, cheap scooping’
… (more) place. First, a wish list window of boomboxes, turntables, and mixers, fat speakers, all making you drool. Then past the electronics, like seeing the puppeteers behind the curtain of what would be (and soon was) the first Ultimate Beats and Breaks albums. Plus midtown’s funky for a kid being in the valley between skyscrapers with people fast walking, eyes straight forward, to their office jobs. Then ‘around the edges’ homeless, 3 card Monty set-ups (they got me for $20 when I kicked back on a school field trip and learned a valuable lesson about ‘multi-person act’ hustles), dealers, number runners, mob dudes, and sidewalk vendors with the Egyptian Musk. Rock and Soul was a place for DJs and producers almost like B&H was for photographers but without all the ads. Just looked it up on YouTube and they’re still going strong. Big up Rock and Soul!
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