Sway and King Tech
(Part I)(http://www.b-moore.net)
Sway and King Tech have been the watermark for any up and coming artist. If you are anybody or trying to be anybody in hip hop, you make a stop at the World Famous Wake Up Show and earn your stripes. Some have passed with flying colors, and word has it, some have even been known to avoid the show. Everyone knows that you need that Wake Up Show stamp of approval; until you make your mark on that show you're just treading water. Sway and Tech gave the underground a voice when most wanted to dance around in shiny suits with pyrotechnics. Sway and King Tech are legends in radio; they paved the way for a lot of DJ’s who used their show as a blueprint. I had the honor speaking with both of them and they expressed concern over the current state, what being real really is, beef and who they are feeling right now. The Wakeup Show for many years, has been my audio heroin, so sitting down with two people I’ve admired was an honor for me. Trust me; it gets no realer than this.
B-Moore: How did you two hookup?
Sway: We had mutual friends, Tech was the break-dancer, I was rhyming then. We decided to form a group called Dynamic Force. We put out a record called We Want to Rock you on All City Records. It caught the attention of the biggest of the biggest record station in Northern California, KMEL. They started playing it against major meat records like Madonna. We started doing a 40 minute show and it got so popular the Program Director called us about doing the Sway and Tech Wake Up Show and now it’s the longest running hip hop show in the United States
B-Moore: How has radio changed since the time you two started?
Tech: Radio has and hasn’t changed since we started. What hasn’t changed is you still try to get the biggest songs in the country and the biggest artists to create hype. The labels with the biggest juice get their songs played. What changed for hip hop, the radio station would utilize dj's in a different way. ‘What’s the next guys that’s blowing up right now? We trying to get the buzz started on them.’ We would say Black Sheep, EPMD, Nas or something like that. Underground music is no longer the major focus of radio now. Now if it has any kind of underground feeling radio doesn’t want to touch it. Hip Hop has become so big, it’s basically pop now. The upside is everybody making a lot of money and moves. The downside the guys with the real skills and talent that’s rhyming get overlooked.
BM: Was it a big fight to get your show on the air, considering that your show wasn't the norm for radio at that time?
Tech: It wasn’t that big of a fight. We’re ex b-boys, poppers and all that. I come from that era, once you’re in, you’re in. If you’re a Muslim, you just fight for it. If you’re a Christian you fight for it. When I won the battle, they asked me to do the mix show. So I did it as raw as I could do it. As hip hop as I could do it. They came to me with the BBD’s Mariah Carey and I’m like nawww. I don’t listen to that. I’m into Pete Rock and CL, YZ, NWA, Ice Cube and whatever. Naww man that’s not really mainstream. I had original breaks from the Jackson Sisters. So right away we rebelled in a sense, but that rebellion led them taking a chance on us. Because it didn’t sound like normal radio.
BM: Do you think conventional radio can survive this major push that satilite radio is beginning to get?
Sway: I think Conventional Radio is routine. People are accustomed to routine. The fall back to conventional radio is the commercials and that it’s so political that the consumer now gets it. You know when you hear the same hit record played on every radio station across the country. As long as conventional radio is free people will keep in their routine. If you listening to radio, it’s depressing. It’s beef drama, scandal. That’s all that’s talked about.
Tech: Satellite Radio still cost money. But still today people will still be more comfortable with conventional radio. When you listen to conventional radio, you feel like you getting the same sh*t every single day. That even the radio jocks sound alike. If I went to LA it was different from the Bay. I’m from the Bay we helped create that. You listen around the country, they even start laughing at the same time, it’s not funny and there isn’t no one else in the room
BM: What was it like putting together, Back To Basics?
Tech: Putting Back To Basics together was great. It was our philosophy to give something back to the underground cats that we feel like had as much talent as the acts that’s blowing up. There’s a lot of acts out there, but the system isn’t designed to break new artists. The system is like a night club, and they own the VIP section. If you can get in there and be a Jay-Z or Ludacris then you there, you good. But nobody from VIP is coming outside to open that rope to let other cats come in because it will get too crowded. You have more mc’s than ever but less mc’s getting signed than ever.
Sway: It was refreshing when Tech called me and said, ‘we finished another song, let me play it for you’. Like “Enough Beef” for example, with Chino, Common, Canibus and Royce its like these dudes really care about their craft. They are not rapping to sell records. I told them, this isn’t about selling records. Put your heart into these lyrics; put your heart into the song. I didn’t want people to think that we’re doing this for BDS or sales. I’m not stupid I know it’s a business. But I think that’s a problem in the rap game. We only got 5 people doing millions now.
BM: How has the purpose of the mixshow changed since The Wake Up Show began?
Tech: The original purpose of the mix show was to have the hottest ado’s in your area break new artists. Break new talent from that area that you had connections with. We used to connect with Bobbito and Stretch back on the east coast. We used to send tapes back and forth. Now the mix show is controlled by the radio station itself. So they only want you to play the hottest records. Radio has changed its big business. They have a fear that a DJ will play something so underground that people will just tune out.
BM: How do you feel about this beef phenomenon that's been at the forefront of the music in the past few years?
Tech: I don’t think it’s a phenomenon, once you have street cats that make music; you’re going to have beef. They are street cats that rap. It’s always been like that. If I’m a street dude already, and you’re a street dude and you’re a rapper and I’m a rapper and you’re a rapper then it’s bound to happen. It’s going to make its way into our movies. But that’s just the way America is. We should have learned from BIG and Pac
Sway: Competition has always been healthy in hip hop culture, like when Kool Moe Dee battled Bizzy Bee is was a transfer of the guards. It was to up the ante. Hip Hop started to grow so when KRS-1 and MC Shan did it, it was a pride thing, but it was for the hip hop culture. Nas and Jay-Z was the last great hip hop battle. It was like Mosley vs. De La Hoya, it was a brawl, and then after that they shook hands. It was like ‘aight, you elevated my game, I elevated your game and kept it movin.’ As African American’s its deeply rooted issues that’s not apart of hip hop culture. Now these dudes shootin at each other, over what? If its street beef, don’t even bring it into the culture. It’s a joke and childish. True gangstas we all know move in silence. If you really want to do something about somebody you don’t like, you don’t need hip hop as a vehicle. Somebody has to go. It’s like I think it’s stupid, I think it’s stupid that these dudes battle mc back and forth on wax. They incriminate themselves. When dumb sh*t happens and they sittin in court, these what these attorneys do, read off lyrics that you do. Now he’s dead, now your lyrics indict you. That ain't street, that ain't gangsta, you shootin videos and doing magazine interviews. Battling is about competition, not street beef. When they take it beyond the perimeters of rap, they on they own. That ain't apart of the culture. Hell people don’t even know the difference rap and hip hop. Rap being apart of the culture of hip hop.
Part II: Coming on Monday (10/3): Sway goes off about rappers that are scared to be men and role models and Sway and Tech talks about the artist they feel and the ones who really have next.
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