The Wildstyle Story #25: The Hardrock Alliance!


I’ve mentioned the Hardrock Alliance (originally known as Hardrock Posse) throughout these stories, so I feel I should give some better context. After being inspired by the House Rockers Nation in Fort Riley/Junction City, KS, started by DJ Pill and Sheik, I wanted to eventually form my own organization once I moved to North Chicago. However, my plans were temporarily sidetracked when I moved to North Chicago and came to realize that for the first time I wasn’t the only and/or best MC in my age group, as there were a handful of talented MCs active (Doc Rock of Fresh City, Jammin’ JG, LA The Mutilator, etc…), with more popping up all the time. However, I never felt as if I had to be the leader of anything, but I was also always willing to step up if there’s a hole needing to be filled. At first I didn’t see that need, so I was open to join up with others and see where things went, which is what led to the formation of Rose Productions courtesy of Hard Dissin’ Deftone.
However, once Maxx and I started investing in the home studio and becoming known around town as producers, and perhaps especially as owners of a Roland TR-808, the idea of forming a crew was reborn, and I don’t know if the name Hardrock came from LA or me, but I’m pretty sure it was one of us. Initially, like most crews of the time, circa 1988, we were going by Hardrock Posse, but somewhere soon after, I started phrasing it as Hardrock Alliance, which I think was largely because I preferred the options it gave to be rhymed (or soft-rhymed) with (EX: defiance, guidance, mindless, try this, etc…)
D.B.I (Def Boyz Incorporated) were our first inductees. Essentially, I was the primary talent scout, and I guess you could say Hardrock Alliance was my baby in that regard. I went to a talent show at Neal Elementary School some time in 1988, and there were two groups that caught my attention. One was Fresh City, who were arguably the most prominent Hip Hop group in the area circa 1986–1987, but by this point, their lead MC, Doc Rock, had moved away to Cali to pursue a recording career, eventually renaming himself, Shakespere the Word Slayer of His Majesti, as I have noted elsewhere in the #WildstyleStories series. The remaining two members of Fresh City, Vontrell and Reckless, partnered with some MC, who I believe was just visiting from New York, and gave an excellent performance! I remember thinking it was too good to be at an elementary school talent show. I have a couple particular memories about their performance. The other group was from Waukegan, with three or four MCs on stage, showing great energy and showmanship. But, perhaps one of the most notable things was they were using their own original production, rather than rapping over instrumentals. They only had the toy Synsonic Drums and some basic keyboard playing skills on a cheap Casio, but I could hear the potential. I approached them after the show and told them we should connect, learning they called themselves D.B.I aka Def Boyz Incorporated.

I say “three or four” MCs above, because Mic B was the last MC to be added to the group, and I can’t remember if he was there on stage when I saw them, but I feel like he was.The first time they came by the Rage Cage it was set up at Maxx’s grandmother’s house, and it was definitely all four of them then. It was in ’88 and we only had the Roland 505, some cheap mics, and a tape deck. I programmed beats for a song called “The Strong Survive”, and Maxx programmed the beats for “Hear The Def Boyz Rock”, and Maxx did all the cuts for both. Not long after that, they recorded a song called “Streets of Terror” at Studio M on their own, which the studio produced for them with a Korg Drum Machine, and the lyrics spoke about the rising gang violence in Lake County. When I got the Roland TR-808, and after Wildstyle had already gone to Talent Investment at least once, they came to us with an idea for a song called “Beat The Rock”. They wanted Maxx to flip the vocals from LL on “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”, where he says, “Rock The Beat (with your hand)” to say it in reverse. It is essentially a song paying homage to Maxx’s scratch skills, so Maxx and I produced it, programming the 808 and working together to come up with a bunch of phrases and sounds for him to scratch throughout the song. The next song we were supposed to do was called “Put The Mic Down”, which again was produced the same way with Maxx and I, but this was also done before we had the 4-track and other equipment, so Maxx and I did the instrumental at the Rage Cage, and then one day I brought my Sharp GF-575 tape deck and my cheap mic to my guy Zeke’s house, the four MCs from D.B.I recorded the song directly to tape, sharing one mic. Essentially like a live show in his living room. There were a couple other songs that we worked on that never got fully completed. One was called “RAGE”, which was a crew theme song they put together, and was recorded at the Rage Cage at Foxcrest. It was the only time I tried to use the bouncing function of the 4-track to get more multi-tracks, and we never fully finished it, but I have a 95% complete version of it, and I think on that track it’s actually their real DJ doing the cuts, DJ Ice. I also produced a song called “I’m A Blackman” for them that never got recorded, and there were a handful of other song ideas we had.

However, one of my favorite tracks related to D.B.I is a solo song by one of the members of the group, who was originally known as MC Lee. He changed his name to ALB III at some point, which were his real name initials but he flipped to mean, Another Leader Born and the “III” became the song title “3 Times Wiser”. Initially, I was producing this on my own and I had programmed a 808 beat, and I wanted to layer that with some extra percussion. At the time, we had a couple of those Simon Harris breakbeat records. In fact, his records were pretty critical in some of our early productions, both for the scratch sounds/phrases and the bonus beats. For the song “3X’s Wiser,” I was trying to blend the “Dopin Drums” from volume 4 of the Simon Harris “Beats, Breaks, & Scratches” series, which was the breakbeat from LL’s “Smokin’ Dopin”. But, DJing was not fully my thing yet, so I was struggling with the blend, but Maxx happened to walk in while I was attempting and like what he heard, so he hooked up the blend, and then he took over and added the other musical elements. One of the reasons this is one of my favorites is because of the organic way Maxx and I worked together, this wasn’t the only song we worked on this way, but I think it was one of the first where we really had that joint creative chemistry as producers. This is the one that made me think we might be able to have a career as a production team if nothing else. Once he added the other elements, I spent time thinking about the arrangement, and put some time in all the patterns and drum drops, and then, we had a finished song. I remember we were all proud of this one; Maxx, ALB III, and I. Our homeboy Black Man Raymond had a ’79 Cutlass with a nice sound system, and he drove me around and let me test this out in his ride until I got the mix I wanted. We planned on doing more demos with ALB III, but he was away at college around this time, and by the time he came back, Wildstyle had broken up and I had moved to Atlanta.


I honestly don’t remember which group came next, as it seems like once D.B.I was down, things started to grow pretty quickly from there. Perhaps the only other thing of note, D.B.I was the only other group to have the crew jackets like Wildstyle (and also my girlfriend at the time, Michele Wilson had a jacket too). But, I was taking this Hardrock Alliance plan seriously. I even drafted up a Handbook, a few different versions actually. It explained what the crew was about, our goals, what we could offer groups, and things of that nature. And, as I noted in the Mcdonalds (a.k.a My Office) story, the idea for the Handbook and some of the other things I applied to Hardrock came from experiences working there. So, with those aforementioned tools in hand, I was ready to build.




Lethal Weapon: I went to high school with John Young aka J-Roc. He was one of the coolest cats I remember from school. He had that pure B-boy essence, particularly rocking the fresh gear with an East Coast flair. He had a great sense of humor and a rather dynamic smile. He was also a bit of a true hardrock. I believe he got expelled from school from knocking out a teacher…a one punch drop, which was the talk of legend around the way. One day, circa 1989, I was walking through North Chicago and I hear someone say, “Coooolie!!” He had this distinct way of saying my name, that was easily distinguishable. Even when I randomly saw him years later, perhaps a decade after all this, he greeted me the same way. Anyway, this day he was calling me from either his front door or a window at his house. He told me that he had a rap group, Lethal Weapon and he gave me a copy of the tape, and told me he wanted Wildstyle to provide some 808 beats, as he had heard our “Goin’ 4 Self” demo. I told him I would check out the tape. I LOVED that tape! It’s still one of my all-time favorite Lake County rap demos. It’s three-song that they recorded with Maurice Houston at Studio M; “Murder”, “Murder Intrigue” and “This Is A Rhyme”. The group was J-Roc (John), Dezie D, and DJ Blaze. Blaze is one of the key premiere DJs out of North Chicago. He was really active on the mixtape scene back in the 80s and 90s, and that’s still my dude! I didn’t really know Dezie very well. In fact, I believe the first and only time we had a full conversation was when he came to visit Michelle (who I was dating at the time) at her best friend, Angie’s house. I don’t know if he knew were dating or not, but I happened to also be there that day and I was the one that opened the door, and it was literally right after John gave me their tape. “This Is A Rhyme” is a Dezie D solo song, and it’s a dope joint. So, when I open the door and he asks for her, we have a bit of an awkward conversation, but it didn’t seem like a big deal, and we were both respectful to each other, and then I switched the topic to the Lethal Weapon demo. The thing with me is that I wasn’t ever the jealous or insecure type, and Michelle had already told me that he was respectful to her, so there wasn’t any need to make an issue out of it. He didn’t trip about me making my point on the matter either, and he definitely was a street cat, but I think there was a mutual respect based on our Hip Hop connection. So, instead we quickly talked about their demo, and I told him I was looking forward to going to the studio with them. That was the last time I ever saw him I think. When it came time to go to Studio M, J-Roc was solo and I don’t remember if we ever discussed why, so I don’t know if it was because of that situation or not. However, in my ’89 calendar, I have several different dates listed to work for Lethal Weapon, including some sessions for Dezie D solo work, but I don’t remember any of those sessions actually happening, and Maxx and I only definitely only recorded one song for them, but I also know we planned some songs that never got done, such as “Playboy” and “Ain’t It Good To Ya”. Regardless, I was a fan and I was looking forward to doing more music with them. As for J-Rocc, he sort of disappeared on me after we did record one track together, produced by Maxx and I, which was just a theme song for him, “J-Rocc Rock”.



Chapter 2 (Treach JC and Blackman Zeke): I originally remember Treach JC from being one of Wildstyle’s chief competitors at local talent shows. He had a group called Most Illinest B-Boys with the main MC, Richard Ray, and Treach JC on the turntables and the mic. They always had tight routines and a whole lot of personality. I particularly remember this song called “Soda Pop” they would perform. They are one of the first groups in the area that I heard that I thought were dope and polished, but I never really approached them to do anything. However, one day, I was walking home from work and this Camaro is creeping along side of me, and I’m peeping out my peripheral vision. I know that there are a number of people, including gangbangers that I’ve had words with, so I’m thinking I’m about to get jumped, so I do what any sensible Black man in the ’80s might do, I reached in the small of my back for my nunchucks. But, before I unleashed the fury, a voice from the car asked, “Are you the 808 man?” At this moment, Rap and music was not on my mind, so those words meant nothing, so I somewhat aggressively, but also confusingly asked, “WHAT??!!” He repeated his question, and I repeated my response, so he says, “Do you have a Roland 808 drum machine!?” I’m like, “Yeah”. He’s like, “Get in the car”, and for some strange reason, I did. He told me that he was managing a rapper who needed a 808 beat, and he was basically fast-talking me. It was a bit of a strange scenario, but I agreed to do whatever he was asking, pretty much just to get him to stop talking. I don’t think I made the connection right away that he was talking about Treach JC, as I think this is right around the time he started using the name J-Bird, so it took a second for me to connect the dots. I eventually learned that the Camaro driving fast-talker was named Gary, and he was trying to be Bird’s manager, but that didn’t really work out for long, and the story of Gary is a whole other situation that I’m not even going to try and tackle here.


As for Bird, he had already done a demo under the name Chapter 2 called “On The Beat Now” as a soloist, as Richard Ray wasn’t really active anymore. At this time, Bird had Captain 2 Fresh as his DJ who was already a local legend, so I was down to collaborate. I remember seeing them perform “On The Beat Now” at Shimer College, when it was in Waukegan on Sheridan RD. In fact, I’m pretty sure I let the borrow my microphones to do that show.

Next, and my brain is a little fuzzy on the exact timeline here, but around this same time, Zeke came to office (MCDs) with some handwritten lyrics and he asked for some beats. I kept the lyrics to review later and got his phone number. He had an abstract style that wasn’t like anyone in the area. Wildstyle was abstract in our own way, but Black Man Zeke was more De La Soul than Kool G Rap, as his song, which he gave me the lyrics to, “Phunky Phrase” suggested.
That’s where the memory gets blurry, it feels like those two separate connections occurred and then next thing I know, when J-Bird came to me with his first song idea, “Life In The Fast Lane”, Black Man Zeke was now a part of Chapter 2. I programmed and technically produced the song, but J-Bird definitely brought the bulk of the ideas to the table, including the main music samples, and all the vocal samples, and I merely put everything together and added some additional flavor to the pot. It’s a pretty catchy track, but it never got fully completed, as Zeke never gets his full last verse delivered properly. Soon after, Madd Maxx produced a track for Chapter 2 called “A Different Type of Science”, but it wound up being a Black Man Zeke solo song, which is also not fully completed, but Maxx kills it on that one in terms of the production, using a Jimi Hendrix sample to great effect! In any event, Chapter 2 didn’t last very long, but I continued working with BMZ as a solo artist, and with his group, the 40 Thieves, until about 1993. And, J-Bird and I have continued to work together every since on a variety of projects, such as mixtapes, radio shows, Caught In The Middle Magazine, throwing events, and now at Rhymesayers.
D.O.P.E (Deadly Organized Poetry Experts): Then going by 2 Deff, one of the MCs for the group came to my office (MCDs) and gave me a demo tape that he had done himself with DJ Dread (the group’s DJ) using a Boss drum machine, a cheap keyboard and the turntables. I dug it, so I remixed a couple of the tracks and invited them to join the crew. Soon, after I met the other MC that was down with them, Flex MC and he was dope as well. This was the first group that I kept to myself to work on. It was like my secret project. I think I simply liked our process. They were really productive and would record a good amount of material on their own and then give me the tapes. I’d pick my favorite songs and remix them, and they would have a slightly higher quality demo. Over the course of about three years (1989–1992), I produced pretty much an album for them, and they made a couple albums worth of material on their own, and I still have all those tapes! I thought they had a lot of potential. However, they both joined the military and moved away. I lost track of 2 Deff, who actually quickly changed his name to DMF (Dope Mutha F**ka), early into our recording time. Around ’92 he went to the Air Force and I lost contact with him, but I’m still connected with Flex on social media, but we never did any further recording once DMF moved away.
I still remember when DMF came to me that first day at MCDs, he told me that he was giving me the demo because he was a fan of mine in high school. I was a senior when he was a freshman, and he said he would hear me rhyme, and also hear stories about me. And, perhaps the best memory, he told me how he would see me come to school with my Radio Shack mic around my neck and he would know that was a day I was planning to battle. Yep, I used to take my cheap Radio Shack mic, and wear it around my neck like a necklace and rap into it…plugged into nada damn thing.
Rhythm Mafia: They were the last part of the original incarnation of the crew. It started with S.P.O (Supreme Poetical Orator) after he came to me in 1989 and told me he was MCing now. I knew him from being the comedian in High School at Highland Park, so I was expecting something like Bobby Jimmy or Biz Markie, which I thought would help diversify the crew. But, nope, he was influenced by Def Jef (“Droppin’ Rhymes On Drums”) and Master Ace (“Letter To The Better”), and was on point from day one! He had great lyrics and a near-flawless delivery. Madd Maxx and I both produced a bunch of demos for him between 1989–1992, basically up until he joined Rubberoom. But, in the late ‘80s, he soon added L.O.D (Lethal On Delivery) and Twice Born to his Rhythm Mafia family, which was their own crew, but they represented Rage Productions. That said, as they were coming in the picture, I was letting the Hardrock thing slip away and starting to simply call the crew RAGE Productions.

DJ/MC Reese: He was an Army GI who was originally from the East Coast. He was a character, always animated. He reminds of the kind of dude who would relate to Schoolly D, personality wise. He was an active DJ, but he also rhymed. He wanted me to produce for him and we worked on some things but never fully completed anything. He wrote a song called “Mah Confession” that I went to his house and programmed an 808 for, and the plan was for me to take that home and finish the track. We even had scheduled studio date of 9–5–89 to finish it, but it never happened for some reason. He also asked me to write him a song, so I did, but we never did anything with that either. He was definitely an active DJ on the Lake County scene at that time though.
Vicious Diadora: One of our Hardrock Alliance members, Black Man Zeke, told me there as an MC I should hear. I had been talking about diversifying the crew and he had a young woman named Shareema, who went by Vicious Diadora aka Vicious D, and she went to school with him at Waukegan West. We arranged a meeting at Zeke’s house, Wildstyle come over with the Roland TR-808 and a mic, and hooked it up to the boombox and let her kick some rhymes. She was dope and had a nice style! And, I immediately asked her to join the crew and told her we would produce her a demo. The only music I have from her is the practice session with did at Zeke’s house, which actually later became the home of the Rage Cage Studios from 1991–1992, and she did a couple rhymes over the 808. But, we had a few other things planned for her “Queen of Destruction” demo.
As far as why never officially recorded together, I don’t know for sure, but I always suspected that she may have been leery of coming to the apartment of a bunch of dudes. And, I get it. It’s no secret that guys have always tried to sell women on the idea of “making music”, but actually had something else on their mind. But, for me, it was really about the music, and I wish we would have recorded some things. I liked her style.

And, that was the primary members of Hardrock Alliance (1988–1990), but we had a few other people that we were trying to build with that never fully materialized. Frost was from North Chicago and a few years younger than Wildstyle. In ’89, he gave me a tape of some acapella verses of his and talked to me about production. He was dope and I wanted to work with him. He had a style that was smooth, but with an aggressive touch, sort of like Big Daddy Kane, as I remember that was the thought that came to mind back then. And, the fact we didn’t work together became an important lesson for me. After I heard his tape, I was hype to produce him a track right away, so I just dug through our crates of some new records we had added to the potential sample stacks and got busy. However, somehow in that process I didn’t think about him as an individual, I simply made the best track that I could. It had a real abrasive Heavy Metal guitar as the main sample, and I was excited about it and gave him a copy. BUT, even after I thought about it, I knew it didn’t fit his style. So, he wound up connecting with a producer that better fit his style and we didn’t work together, and I wound up taking that beat and doing a solo song to it called “Bit Of Intellect”, which is one of my favorite demos I did back then (circa ‘89/’90). Years later, Frost changed his name to Reo (his real name is Mario), and put out his own single independently in ‘95, and even came to my Time Travel Radio show to promote the single and rhyme on the air. Additionally, there was my guy Allen Mallory, mister funny man from High School, and we talked about doing some stuff, including me writing some lyrics for him. We did record one thing circa ’88 with him just talking trash and telling jokes over an 808 beat.
Beyond that, in my 1989 calendar, I would always list the priority groups that I was planning to work with in studio that month on each page. Those lists always have the same main names of the artists above, but a few others are listed that I don’t think I ever worked with, and some I don’t remember who they are; Lady Slayer, Dangerous D, Peace Corp, and Da Guillotine. The only one I recognize is Da Guillotine, which was Vernon from Rose Productions, because he was writing me letters while he was away in the Navy about his plans to come back and do some music, but it never came to be.
I suppose the only other “group” that could be considered is our (almost) dancers. Black Man Zeke and his partner Black Man Willie were supposed to dance for Wildstyle at some show, it was either Fiesta Palace or St. Nicholas Hall. They were actually were supposed to be joined by my girlfriend at the time, Tracey, and her cousin Tina, who worked with me at MCDs, but at the last minute, someone, or all of them, had stage fright, so that idea was scrapped at either the day of show, or maybe the rehearsal…but I remember it happening at the actual venue.


But, we also had our official/unofficial entourage that was down with us, but weren’t artists…
Perhaps the best example is the long time homie, whose name has popped in several stories, Eddy “Choice” Barber was definitely around for a lot of this. And, he is one of the only people in my life who I’ve maintained contact with as I’ve moved from place to place. Once I left Fort Riley, KS, he came to visit me a few times in North Chicago/Waukegan, including his time living with Maxx and I in Foxcrest Apartments for the full Winter of ‘89/’90. Black Man Zeke and I also went to visit him in around ’93 when he moved to San Antonio, TX. As noted elsewhere, he was originally my partner in rhyme in the 3D Crew back in KS, and he (along with our DJ Jeff “DJ Quiet Killer” Snyder) kept the crew going when I moved away, renaming the group Phase 3, and adding the homie Eddie Love as the Human Beat Box. But, shortly after he put the mic down, but he always had that B-boy essence and he always had a great ear, so he was someone whose opinion I trusted, and we were close like brothers through all of these times and beyond. I could fill a book with stories strictly about our wild adventures. I always like to tease him for always changing his name. It’s like he had a new one every Summer, so let me give a shout out to the ones I can remember; Burning Hot TNT, Moe-T, Choice, Ace Dizog, etc…, but he now goes by his middle name, Calvin, but I still call him Eddy (in person) or Choice (in Rap stories).



Also, this same time period is when Sean Bankston, mentioned in Extended Family story, was in consideration to be the group’s manager, starting off with getting us some West Coast contacts. Also, Nelson was a young cat who was hanging out with a lot around this time also. He used to work at Sunglass Hut in Lakehurst and we’d go visit him there also. He was also supportive of what we were trying to do also, and he had a sense of humor and flair for the dramatic that fit in with our eccentric personalities quite seamlessly.


I eventually retired the name Hardrock Alliance once the original members all went off on their own or stopped recording (EX: Wildstyle, D.B.I, Lethal Weapon, Chapter 2). Immediately after, I started building a whole new crew circa ’91 and just used the name RAGE to represent for the crew. One day I’ll tell the stories of; Savage Intellect, Black Man Zeke, Black Toast, Brain Leakage, Undaground Soulution, Mad Freaka, Rhythm Mafia (S.P.O, L.O.D, Twice Born, Cueball, Detanator, Thawfor, Zulu), Ispi and Mental Blokc…


