The Wildstyle Story #1-The Bio Part One (Formation)
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Before living in North Chicago, being that my dad was in the army, our family was stationed at Fort Riley, KS as of 6–1–84. Although I had started rhyming a few years before moving there while living in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart Germany, it was in Kansas that I first started to record songs, do live performances, and compete in Rap battles/contests. My group at the time was the 3D Crew (Eddy “Burnin’ Hot TNT” Barber, Warren “MC Capri” Curry, Kevin “MC Coolie” Beacham, and Jeff “DJ Quiet Killer” Snyder), and our original DJ/mentor was Anthony “DJ Pill” Pittman. Even though the group was relatively short-lived, and MC Capri had to move away fairly early on, we still had a rather solid thing going in the Fort Riley/Junction City area, and were starting to build a name after winning two of the biggest Rap competitions in the area circa 1985. Our plan was, even though I was moving away, to still continue working on songs together. Initially we maintained that course by mailing tapes and lyrics/letters back-n-forth, trying to complete an album demo to give to record labels. But, that plan was short-lived, as the times weren’t really very conducive to that method, particularly for some fifteen/sixteen year-olds.
After that, my next thought was to go the solo route, so I would spend large amounts of my time at home and also in both my typing and computer class, working on lyrics for a potential solo project, writing about twenty songs circa ‘86/’87. In my 3D Crew days, and for a few years before, I was going by the name MC Coolie, and sometimes for some extra flair, MC Coolie Love. But, my style was shifting to be more battle-minded, and less harmonizing and party rhymes, inspired in ‘83-’85 by (though some of these artists also did still harmonize) Lil Rodney Cee, T La Rock, Crash Crew, Treacherous Three, Fearless Four, UTFO, MC Tee of Mantronix, Almighty 3 MCs, LL Cool J, and soon after moving to North Chicago, a key inspiration was local MC Doc Rock of Fresh City. So, I wanted to reflect that evolution in my name, and that’s when I attached the additional title to the moniker, The Amazing MC Coolie. I thought it was a decent and simple way to update my name, but not change it. And, when using only the initials, it sounded less Old School, a la AMC. In any event, that idea came to me upon writing a song called “It’s Amazing”, which was about my style of rap. But, that whole plan eventually shifted course once again when I met Vernon Manor in 7th period, Mr. Edgeworth’s Practical Algebra II class, my Sophomore year (1986).
Vernon Manor was a cool kid. Everything he did had to be cool. His laugh, his walk, how he spoke, his overall style, how he positioned himself in a seat, and my mom never talks about Vernon without mentioning how he would exit a car, with his hand nearly touching the ground, and sort of smoothly falling at the car, but then smoothly springing up. He had a flair for the dramatic. I think we started off simply talking about Hip Hop, and eventually he revealed to me that he had been messing around with some lyrics, calling himself B-Boy Rock. Although I’m not sure if he mentioned that to me before or after the first time I kicked a rhyme for him (as well as Mike “Ice Mike” Baldwin and Darwin), which was in class on 3–13–86, then on 3–26–86, he kicked a rhyme for me for the first time as well. As for B-Boy Rock, he definitely had a West Coast flavor (Ice-T was one influence), and his taste often leaned that way, but he also had the soul of an East Coast B-Boy (Just-Ice was another favorite of his). We decided we would work on something together, and without much imagination for the title, we started a song called “Partners Of Rap”, which was decent. But, we soon followed it up with a better song called “To The Max”, where he changed his name to Hard Dissin’ Deftone aka Def-T.
However, early on, Vernon also told me about two other friends of his that wanted to make music. Les Anderson aka L.A. was a tall mixed kid (mom Black/dad White) with a red curly fro, freckles, a somewhat wild sense of humor, and a personable blend of shyness and confidence, all making him very likable, a simple quality I think that most of our classmates would agree on. He also had some decent Human Beat Box skills, and was partnered with one of the OG MCs around the way in the Lake County scene (North Chicago, Waukegan, Zion), Jammin’ JG, whose style had a bit of an Old School flavor with some New School type Punchlines, including a dash of humor . L.A. and J.G. had routines, some of which they recorded to tape, including a classic cipher session while sitting in a car in Zion, IL with an MC named Lil P and the legendary Doc Rock of Fresh City, the latter arguably being the reigning Rap champions in the area at the time, along with Waukegan’s MC Council. Point being, L.A. The Mutilator, was already rhyming alongside the local greats of the time, and doing more than holding his own.
Vernon’s other friend was Shannon Hamilton, who was living in Kenosha, WI, though he spent his adolescence moving around alot. He was born in Waukegan, but also spent time before high school living in North Chicago and Oak Park, Chicago. He met Vernon when they both were about five years old because their mother’s were friends, and they went to kindergarten and first grade together. Vernon eventually introduced Maxx to L.A. when they were much older. But, Maxx also went to North Chicago High School as a Freshman, then he left for some time before briefly coming back to North Chicago High School, and then moving to Kenosha. That in mind, I’m not sure when I first met Maxx. For the longest time I had assumed I first met him when Vernon, L.A. and I went to his house and Kenosha. But, Maxx has a vague memory of us possibly meeting in the parking lot of North Chicago High School, specifically remembering that I had (my dad’s) “Big blue van”, and upon hearing him say that, I was able to see a spotty vision of that memory.
Maxx originally tried his luck as a Breakdancer, but “I sucked at it,” he tells me. So, in the early to mid 80s, he went to a club with his sister, Tanya, because she was connected to many local DJs, and after seeing the response the DJ got that night, particularly from the girls at the club, Maxx decided he wanted to DJ. He knew he already had a knack for the technical aspect of things, so he was confident he could figure it out. At the time, he was a very skinny and socially awkward guy, and he theorized that DJing would help people see past that.
Now an aspiring DJ, largely inspired by DJ Cash Money and Jazzy Jeff, he got a cheap belt drive turntable, which wasn’t suited for scratching, but it was what he could afford He also didn’t have very many records, but still, he didn’t let that stop him for starting to build his skills, making it work. He also had a toy Casio keyboard that had some preset beats in it. In his early stages, he was going by the name DJ Flawless, which he doesn’t remember for sure, but he thinks L.A. gave him the name, and I would eventually learn that the name wasn’t an act of random chance. Shannon was essentially a perfectionist, and even better said, he was far more prone, and comfortable with, logic than emotion. In fact, I’m quite certain he is where I eventually picked up the habit of approaching life that way for many years. I think it was always a small part of me, but it was the cornerstone of his personality, and it was beneficial and intriguing, as well as daunting at times. For one basic example of how his mind worked, whenever he was coming to my house so we could practice, he would always give me an odd time that he would be there, such as 7:47 PM. After he did it a couple times, I finally asked why he always gave such a specific time, and he started to go into detail, “Well, the train arrives at 7:13, and it’s an eight minute walk to the bus stop, followed by a 16 minute ride, and…”, and I cut him off after I heard enough to be satisfied and amused. But, even though at times it could be frustrating as well, I found that I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could become that precise with my arrival to places, or planning the completion of any task, and I learned that thinking that way could actual help me to be pretty accurate in estimating my arrival or completion time, or simply maximizing productivity. To this day, I still often think and communicate like that to people, and now I’m the annoying and/or amusing one. Oh, and I should mention, that Shannon generally always arrived at his suggested time within a minute or two at most, and when that was the case, he generally had a reason why if I was willing to hear it, or dared to ask it.
However, I’ve jumped ahead of myself. Meeting L.A. was obviously easier because we three MCs were all in the same school, but we didn’t really start connecting to rhyme together until maybe the end of our Sophomore year or maybe that Summer, but it’s possible that it really all started to fully come together at the start of our Junior year in the Fall of ’86. In fact, when that school year started, all three of us had 1st period gym class together, where we would often bust rhymes to show our skills, both to each other and to anyone else was curious to listen. As for L.A. specifically, once I heard him rhyme the first time, I knew I wanted to join forces. Besides, Doc Rock, L.A. was definitely the best MC I had heard in the area. From there, we eventually arranged a trip to Shannon’s house, but somehow I get the impression we weren’t auditioning him to be our DJ, but he was auditioning us to be his rappers. In any event, Vernon and I had at least one class together, and also the same lunchtime, plus, we had a little bit more freedom after school, as I believe L.A. had a job before both of us, but also his parents were more strict. That in mind, the three of us never had the time to write a song together. So, for our first trip to Shannon’s house, Vernon and I recorded “To The Max” to the aforementioned Casio Keyboard beats while DJ Flawless did some impromptu cuts. And, then L.A. did some of his most famous lyrics acapella, namely his “Lyrics and Vocals…” routine, which I still have mostly memorized word for word. It was a good first session and we agreed we should continue working together, as well as working to get better. That first session took place on 1–10–87.
As for a group name, Def-T, suggested Rose Productions. I remembered pausing when he first said it, not knowing how to take it. Perhaps I was even waiting to see if he was joking and testing me, but he held steadfast, wearing his trademark smirk on his face, waiting for my response. And, the more I thought about, the more I liked it, or perhaps he merely jedi-mind tricked me with his demeanor. But, as we talked about it, it did occur to me that there was something special to it. I knew that people often looked at flowers as soft and not “macho”, but I always liked challenging the status quo, including gender roles, as well as breaking the rules on what was expected of me. But also, a rose has sharp thorns and can cut, and it’s also what is presented in times of death, so they have this darker side as well, which I thought was perfect for the brutal battle style of rap we were going for. When the conversation was all said and done, we were Rose Productions. It wasn’t until some time later that I learned that the idea was inspired by his Barber, an older gentleman, who would give him some jewels about life and so forth while he was getting styled-up, and his name was Rose, so the group name was a bit of a tribute to him also, even if L.A. and I didn’t necessarily originally know that. I actually found that to be pretty funny when I learn about it later.
However, Rose Productions didn’t last long, and a couple factors played into that. One, Vernon’s cool nature, was also about being very laid back, and that didn’t always lead to being focused on a Rap career, including practicing, and he also understandably had a variety of other interests. For me, rap was everything. I was ready to put EVERYTHING to the side that I didn’t NEED to do for music. Vernon was also more in touch with the street life, certainly more than the rest of us. He had a whole other group of friends to drink, smoke weed, and run the streets with, which wasn’t really L.A.’s or my style, though we weren’t beyond getting a little wild in our own way. Plus, Vernon was also really indecisive about things. We actually made a few practice tapes circa 1986/1987 and there are several cases, perhaps on every tape, where him and I are having a small debate (or a larger one) because I don’t think he’s taking things seriously enough. BUT, to be fair, I’m arguably taking it too seriously, so it was an unbalanced contrast. However, one example specific to him being indecisive is that he couldn’t stick to a name. He was B-Boy Rock, then Def T, then Dark Arsenal, then Da Guillotine, and that was all in the span of a year or so. I’ve worked with a few artists who had that same problem, and consistently every artist who couldn’t stick with a name, also didn’t stick with recording music very long.
Then, a ridiculous incident that happened on 4–12–1987 became the breaking point. During my high school days, my dad had a blue and gray conversion van, and I was allowed to drive it. In fact, I got up and drove my parents to work every day and then drove the van to school, so we basically had a Rose Productions mobile. I remember for several months in 1986, everyday I’d pick up the crew, Vernon, Darrell, L.A. (sometimes), probably Chris Smith would roll too, and I think Coop would roll with us occasionally, etc… and we’d ride to school listening to Just-Ice “Gangsta Of Hip Hop” on repeat, getting about three listens in before arriving to school. Anyway, on the aforementioned date in April of ’87, an event occurred that lead to my dad’s van incurring some minor, but noticeable damage, due to some irresponsible shenanigans involving some of Vernon’s other crew, and that lead to some discussions of the frustration about that and other things as well. I don’t recall there being a specific decision about us not being in a group together anymore, but I think that naturally happened right after this event. Also, about a month before this, L.A. and I had started getting together fairly regularly to write, and Vernon wasn’t around, so after that van damaging event, the focus merely shifted to the two of us, and Vernon didn’t really stick with the MC thing anyhow. However, the three us still remained close friends, far beyond the incident.
Not only did Vernon not remain with the group to record any songs, as far as I know he never recorded any songs on his own, so his whole rap career is captured on those few practice tapes and typed lyrics that I still have. However, he had the raw energy, a great voice, quality writing, and overall personality, to where he could have been a pretty lethal MC if he wanted to go that route. He wound up joining the Navy after high school and that had him out of town for a while, so he wasn’t even really around when Les, Shannon and I were fully active as Wildstyle. He definitely was around for some of it though, but most importantly, it’s likely none of it would have never happened if he hadn’t been the force to draw us all together. So, if there is anyone worthy of this Wildstyle “Cause 4 A Riot!” album to be dedicated to, he’s certainly one of the highest candidates that comes to mind, along with Shannon’s family, which I’ll dig into later.
WRITER’S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of approximately thirty stories that I plan to release daily, with this being the first one. This Wildstyle series is to celebrate the 30 Year Anniversary of what should have been their debut album. Pre Order for the limited edition cassette of their demos is at the top of this story, and information coming soon about its availability on streaming sites!
