THE LPS

The LPs are a collective of musicians and artists whose orgins can be traced back to the early 1980's. The Los Angeles art scene was fertile ground for the emergence of a talented performance artist named Severn " The Reverend Low" Haywards who captivated and fascinated critics and pedestrians alike with his bold antics. His most famous work involved staging his own death. Also an accomplished DJ, Reverend Low was omnipresent in various seedy Los Angeles nightclubs where he became known for his eccentric yet always funky sets. Low's Childhood friend Emerick Tackett was never far and could be seen arguing with the Reverend over what should be played next. Despite their disagreements they were feared all across the city for their well known treachery and furiousness in regards to their enemies. Low was legendary for his keen eye for talent and soon took a troubled young man named Brandon "Crackson" Farr as a protege. With a little encouragement Brandon took to the mike apprehensively and recorded the 1984 single "Creeping for Yoints". Although critically acclaimed, the single and the subsequent full length release " Creeping on ya Moms" were commercially unsuccsessful. Farr fell back into a dangerous spiral of drinking, thievery, drug addiction and peeping tomery. Thousands of miles away in Queens, New York, a young man by the name of J.J. Feinberg left for the bright lights of LA. Traveling by greyhound across the country he got into a tense altercation with a transient whom he accused of stealing his baseball cap while he was sleeping. The transient who went by the name of "Vince" assaulted JJ with a small blade and severely damaged his left hand. Racked with guilt, "Vince" accompanied JJ along the rest of his journey west seving as his right hand man. Once in LA JJ and Mike "Vince" Flaherty found themselves frequenting the same crystal meth dealer as Reverend Low. Low was skeptical of JJs claims to be the worlds most Grandmasterest DJ and challenged him to battle of wits and table skills at the 1989 Dance Master Open. The event was thrown by the nortorious and shady promoter Brent Bughdorf aka the Funky Gentleman. The event went as planned for most of the evening. The capacity crowd was captivated by an opening set from a young Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick. Then Sev step to the stage. His set started innocently enough, Sev delivered the famous battle scratch " I Rock Well... Ya Moms Smokes Crack.... J.. Still Express... Severin'." JJ's response was disastrous. His record skipped shortly after begining his routine and Flaherty got on a live mic and made a rambling and incoherent speech that would later be paraphrased to much better effect by Raekwon on Only Built for Cuban Linx. However at the time, Mike's accusations of copyright infringement and thievery of his alleged style were seen by the crowd as confrontational and paranoid. Mr Burghdorf, sensing disaster sent a B Boy name Jake Smith on stage. Originally hailing from Lithuania, Mr Smith was born Yacub Smythe. Taking an interest in Italo disco after moving to Madrid in early 83', Mr Smith found himself in a small but controversial pop locking crew called "The Foetastic Four" After taking the breaking scene over in Europe, the crew sought its fortunes in the states. But immediate fame and fortune were not in the cards. The crew splintered and Smith found himself dancing for such MC's as Bobcat and Justin Warfield. Smith began to slowly develop rhyming skills as he traveled from club date to club date with the different rappers. As far as his dancing was concerned mr smith was a pioneer. Credited as the father of the neo robotical style, Smith was coreographed the Super Bowl Shuffle as well as the lesser known Super Market Shuffle and the Back Street Bad Foot which he still peforms to this day. By 89' Smith was a solo act and was contacted by Mr Burghdorf to dance in between sets. Little did Smith know his destiny was about to be altered forever. As Smith Popped on stage JJ attempted to regroup and organize his records which had been kicked over by Flaherty as he was dragged from the stage. Smith began to flip ankles franticly in an attempt to entertain the crowd. Somehow all he managed to do was raise the ire of one Richard Rognlie who along with his close associate Ringo South, was in no mood for Smiths hijinx. The hostile crowd, led by Rognlie and South began to hurl bottles at the bewildered performers. Smith sensed that the only way to calm the crowd would be to disarm them with some of his rhymes but no sooner had he started then Rognlie and South took to the stage to respond. The alleged confrontation lasted several hours and left no one in the vicinity untouched by the humanity on display. The Reverend Low proposed that they all put aside their differences to help usher in a new musical era of peace and understanding. And thats how it went down.