Who is ze mysterious DJ Sureshot? Well here's the skinny.....
I feel that I was born at the right time (doesn't every one?) as I can remember life before computers, videos, dvds, the internet, when it all seemed a little simpler (cue Wu Tang Clan).
I discovered my first love, music, at an early age and used to play my Dad's disco 7" singles using my teddy bears as dancers (improvising by using the record player's plastic lid as the dancefloor ).
I soon got into other styles of music, ska, rockabilly. Although to be honest, the Top 40 in the early 80's was infiltrated with these styles so I didn't delve any further than commercial singles.
It wasn't until 1982 when my Dad brought home a copy of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5's "The Message" that I discovered 'rap'. This was about to change my life forever.
It all becomes a blur as 'hip hop' began to appear subliminally on my tv and sometimes over the radio waves.
Malcolm Maclaren's "Buffalo Gals" blew me away as this was the first time I heard and saw someone 'scratching' a record.
Channel 4 showed a documentary about New York graffiti writers called Style Wars which, to a young and impressionable mind, showed me what I could do with my life. Only, there were no trains - least of all subways near where we lived.
Started writing in 1986 using many different names through the years. Finally stuck with REPO136 (the 136 coming from my house number where I was born in Streatham)
Got my first turntables aged 17 after using a crappy midi hi-fi player from Tandy which was belt-driven, one turntable and had a large cylindrical volume 'knob' (oo-er!). These turntables were still belt-driven and still from Tandy but were an improvement, even though I had to improvise with a lump of Blu-Tack to hold the record as there was no 'start/stop' button.
It just made getting my Technics SL1200's even more magical a year later.
After that there was no stopping me, I progressed to a GEMINI MX2200 after seeing Jazzy Jeff and Cash Money in particular using them. I went through various mixers but up to this day still use the same turntables - what do you expect? They're Technics!
In 1991 I began production on a hip hop fanzine called JUICE. It was all initially made by me and later included articles from others including gig and record reviews, news, biographies and in one memorable issue a 3-page spread of the Juice DJ Posse. Who they? Did I not mention that this was the first hip hop mag to include a cassette tape crammed with exclusive dj mixes from dj's all over the globe? Mostly bedroom dj's such as Sakura, DJ Rich E, Beatdown, Bruno, DJ Vame (from Australia's established underground crew, Def Wish Cast) as well as many others.
(I had a bizarre email from an OSHH forum member recently to tell me that he had bought copies of my mag from a record shop in Manchester - The Ruf used to sell for me as well - and had subsequently sold them to a guy in Japan on ebay for £70!!)
My love for hip hop had never been greater. Unfortunately my love for a girl was even greater still and my focus could remain on one only. For the first time in my life, my music came second and the Juice empire folded.....
Through my magazine I met various people who would influence my life. One of these was Lazy Ace, a great lyricist and intense music listener who I befriended when he sent me his demo tape.
Andy ('Lazy') mc'ed in a very unique style (read: British) with no aspirations to sound American or even Transatlantic in his delivery. Instead he punctuated his rhymes with snatches of British reggae MC's lyrics which was a music he was a great fan of.
He introduced me to King Tubby and my experience of Dub was born.
We soon began making demo's of our own together on my 4-track and although crude, showed a spark of originality. Hey, we used U-Roy's "Tom Drunk" wayyy before Mos Def!
I'll eventually go through all my old tapes one day and mp3 them.
Another guy from the magazine contacted me called Kram. Laterly known as Relic, Kram was a graf writer who on our first meeting took me to the Hall Of Fame at Ascot. My eyes were opened and I never looked back. From then on it was regular trips up to London to see the graf spots such as Westbourne Park, going under the Westway (which is now a skate park) and seeing the last remaining markings of an original FUTURA 2000 tag (!)
To be continued........