Friday, August 15, 2008

The Dope Poet Society



 That was our first group.  

  Bursting straight out the slums of Beverly Hills. 

    We used to do little shows at rich girl's houses when they're parents would go out of town for the weekend, setting up shop in their living room,  rapping over pause tape beats that I used to make with my homey Ecto's karaoke cassette machine. (he's the one cheezing with the off-shaped jew fro)  

We had typical this-is-my-first-demo names for songs like "expression is the weapon" and "positive vibe".  

  Shit was hot.   
 
Being that they were my older brother's click, I was always the youngest, and as you can see by my midget-like appearance, the smallest.    

Maybe its the Notre Dame Sweatshirt or those dumbo ears , but it looks like i'm holding it down for all the hip hop Keeebler elves across the world.  

 Yo, remember when rocking overalls and letting the straps hang was fresh?   (Terrible trend in retrospect.  Please no hipster revivial)   Or what about when you'd have one strap on , and let the other one hang?   Im trying to remember who really made that look famous, or if it originated on the east or west coast.    Someone help me out. 

That was around the parachute pants era ( another trend that should be burned and buried). 



  It was me, DJ Shalom (you can laugh now) holding down two plastic aiwa belt drive turntables and a karaoke machine ( the original 360 instant replay machine)

On the the imaginary 'air' mics were the devastaing sounds of  Ecto AKA Loveboat to my left,   Kairi AKA Kid Kai (ohshit Kai was early on the 'kid' thing) holding it down with the hooflattop that ruled in 89,  my big brother Neil aka Boy Wonder uptop with the bootleg gucci tee,

And the there was Jubin.  

To this day i still think about Jub, and how nice he was.  He was FAR more advanced than any of us at the time. 

First of all, off top you can see the MC Serch resemblance.  Yo I even think we got the 3rd Bass fanclub adress off their album once and sent a pic of Jubin, in hopes that they'd recognize and maybe use him in a video as a young Serch.    That was his nickname.  Serch.
  
He was of Persian descent.   This was around the time when rocking X hats and African medallions was in, and it really wasn't that fresh to be a white rapper. 

  I remember he had some rhyme where he proclaimed, "im Asiatic, from Iran".   
  
We were all fuckups for the most part.  6th grade, just starting to smoke weed, doing grafitti,bad grades,  just being idiots.   

But not Jubin.

He was like the smartest kid in the whole school.   And when we decided to do the group thing, to most of us it was just another fun thing to do, just clowning, trying to get girls attention.   We'd probably get bored eventually and move on to something else like kids always do.  

  But Jub took it serious.    

Ill never forget we all slept over at Jub's crib one night, and I remember seeing this chart on his wall, like a calender that was written in his father's handwritting.  

  It was like an ultimadum!

  It had one date marked on the calendar that said on it something like " if you don't complete this music project by this day, you must move on"

  I couldn't even comprehend it.   Dude we were in 6th grade.      He was the man.

 When i think back, the way Jubin was, and the way his parents were on top of him about relentlessly achieving whatever his goals were, it stuck with me.    Cause that's how I am now with myself.    

   Needless to say, The Dope Poet Society had a short run, and over the years Jub went his own way, as we got older and kept fucking up more, I guess he and his parents realized we we're not the right group of kids for him.    I still see my brother, Kai and Ecto to this day, but I haven't seen or heard from Jubin in at least 15 years. 

  Heard he ended up being a huge doctor who makes way more $ than  the remaining members of DPS combined.   


 I mean he was super intellegent, but he wasn't no square either.  He was hop 100%.   

I think about the homey all the time. 

  

25 comments:

Adriano said...

welcome to blogsville alc

Anonymous said...

that rangers gear is ridiculous

Anonymous said...

dope ass story man!

Unknown said...

Yeah that one strap shit was Bel Biv Devoe. Moms refused to let me stoop to that level of fasion.

Anonymous said...

oh to be young again, very touching

Anonymous said...

man, i hope u'r boy Jub see's this. not to rub it in his face, but to see that his discipline rubbed off on u and how much u obviously appreciate it.

cool story ALC!

Anonymous said...

Were these the early beginnings of the Whooligans? I got that 'Put Your Hands Up' 12", shit was fresh :)

P.N.* said...

thanx for blogging...your stories/posts depict so much imagery.

u truly have one of the coolest blogs and u just started!

btw that pic is so hip hop ; )

T.E.F.L.O.N. said...

Al, this blog is dope homie... keep it up, the shit inspires me. i've always wished i could grow a jewfro haha!

rearviewradio said...

good stuff.
thx.

Anonymous said...

Dope post. I think I might adopt Jubin's ultimatum method.
BTW, I think the overalls thing was big with house music ("the brothers with the freaky hair cuts").
I remember getting caught out there by some white trash who attempted to jump me, calling me nigger (I am white, mind you)and saying "because you wear overalls with one strap and a paisley shirt".
To think that these dudes even knew the word paisley is baffling enough.

jglc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jglc said...

yo alc, it's great to see you join the ranks of blog-ville..... now when some rapper is Rick Ross'd (see how that has become a verb now??) by the internets, you too can feel their wrath (ha ha).

no kidding, your drops have been real proper thus far. introspective and thoughtful shit. Keep it up homey (but keep it movin in the studio first!! priorities.)

Slim Pickens said...

dope ass story al....its crazy how people can grow apart like that, but childhood memories last forever

check out me and my boys blog see what u think
getonpointplz.blogspot.com

blog is sick by the way! keep em comin!

slim

Anonymous said...

The scenario is that we have a white male from an affluent family in Beverly HIlls who thinks that his lyrics on the song "Different Worlds" will give him a pass.

Most whites idolize American blacks, and will do anything in their power to adopt their swagger.

Whether its a "wigger" tryin to walk with a bop and make certain hand gestures when they talk..

Or even a barbie doll blond who tries to 'drop it like its hot' and smack her ass on the dance floor.

Back to the point, as it was in the beginning - The BLACK MAN is life and through Albert Johnson, the "alchemist" as received the gift of life. Before this acceptance by Mobb Deep, he was a struggling beat-maker who felt his life was bland, and lived mostly in his mental fantasies of being a part of the street life, considering that it was the direct opposite of his upbringing (just like niggaz in the hoood fantasize about gettin money)

Alan Maman soon spent time around Prodigy who was his "initiation" into the fringes of the Black experience, and subconciously absorbed the body language and general rhythm of his new "soulful" buddy.

This is why certain white girls' voices change up after they been ran through by several brothas...

Interlude: Remember how Scott Storch was originally a humble pothead keyboard player for the Roots and all of a sudden he's looking like an albino wax statue of Diddy..

Back to the show in progress: Of course Alan is going to canonize Albert - after all, Prodigy is the one who truly put the batteries in the Alchemist back.

In other words, the longer Alan goes without seeing Albert, he begins to feel his "whiteness" coming on strong, and secretly craves contact with a BLACK MAN to give him light.

khal said...

i remember i thought i was the shit in '92. i had the ill '92 Olympic Dream Team t-shirt, with all the players in a goofy caricature, i had the ill black bulls cap, with the rhinestone on the bull, and i had my overall shorts that i def let one strap hang from. you couldn't tell me SHIT!

Unknown said...

Yo didn't Lisa "Left-eye" Lopez do the suspender's trend you were talking about? Then when Arrested Developement came out they were bumping that style along with them one hit wonder kids "Crucial Conflict"? Them back in the barn smoking on "Hey" looking N**gaz

FISHBUCKET said...

Hey man, just came across your blog, good to see you back online. hit me up if you still wanna do some work on your site...

Hell Yup! said...

YO! -is the cat sitting next to lil' Kai the dood tht drove your Jag to and from the CRAZE BBQ in the Valley last Fri night?

POST SCRIPT: DID U FOOLS MAKE THE CODE U HAVE TO TYPE IN TO PUBLISH COMMENT 'JEWOP' OR IS THIS SOME CRAZE JEWISH COINCIDENCE????

Anonymous said...

WOW - THIS SITE CAME AND WENT REAL FAST !!!!!

KIND OF LIKE THE SALES FIGURES FOR H.N.I.C. 2 !!!!!!

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Anonymous said...

NICE STORY..

YOU SHOULD WRITE ABOUT WHEN AND HOW DO YOU HOOKED UP WITH EVIDENCE!
AND POST UP SOME OLD SCHOOL PICTURES WITH YOU AND EV...

PEACE

Genius the Architect said...

Haaaaaaa, yo, the overalls wit the 1 strap hangin?!!! Yeah, thats midwest shit all day! I think Bell Biv Devoe had it though, but thats crazy you brought that up. But naaaaaah Al, you gotta find ya boy man. I'm just now runnin into all my dudes from the old 'High Concept' crew (we swore we was better than 'ABC' the 'Another Bad Creation' rap group). Anyway yo, get at em' man. I'll be workin wit you soon, till then, 'Heroes on Drugs' Sept. 3rd @ the Knitting Factory, NY.

Peace,

God Tzu

Ulague said...

since I'm iranian myself...all you gotta do now is turn around his place and tell him you're a hot producer. you back in..
it's sort of like that with most iranians and iranian parents..and the beverly hills branch of us is just waaaay too crazy.

Anonymous said...

I got people like that too. I think everybody loses friends along the way but only a select few lose the closest friends who they grew and experienced everything with. I made a video 4 my niggaz cause I don't feel like we on it like we used to be. It's like some of have grown up and realize the importance of life, while others struggle with the reality of being an adult. I feel were U comin from Alchemist. Check the Video out www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPGZWn3cNRM

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