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Discography / Videography

LATEST RELEASES


DISCOGRAPHY/
VIDEOGRAPHY

Releases #01–05

Releases #06–10

Releases #11–15

Releases #16–20

Releases #21–25

Releases #26–30

Releases #31–35

Releases #36–40

Releases #41–45

Releases #46–50

 

The Shiggar Fraggar Show! Vol. 2

LABEL: Hip Hop Slam
RELEASE #: 11
RELEASE DATE: November, 1999
CATALOG #: HHS-009
FORMAT: CD

 


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This remastered CD features the turntable orchestrated session recorded May 8th, 1995 for Hip Hop Slam's Pirate Fuckin Radio series. It features DJs Qbert, Shortkut, Disk, Shiggar Fraggar, and emcee UB. "One of the more fascinating documents of turntablist aesthetics you're likely to find... the very rawness of the shows is what makes them so compelling. If turntablism ever attains the popular mythos of 40's bebop or 60's rock'n'roll, The Shiggar Fraggar Show may go down as the nineties version of Live at Minton's Playhouse or Bob Dylan's fabled Basement Tapes," wrote hip hop journalist Oliver Wang. Meanwhile Hip Hop Connection wrote: "Solid evidence for the 'turntable as instrument' argument... when you can appreciate the years of practice put in by these guys and visualize their dexterity on the decks it makes for an interesting sonic experience. Untold amounts of vinyl are utilized in ways not thought possible." Note that, unlike volumes 3, 4, and 5, there is no video version for this or the previous Shiggar Fraggar volume (1).

 

Various Artists
Pirate Fuckin' Radio 100

LABEL: Hip Hop Slam
RELEASE #: 12
RELEASE DATE: April, 2000
CATALOG #: HHS-010
FORMAT: CD

 


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Pirate Fuckin' Radio has turned 100. Five years of low-watt, battery-powered, indie-as-fuck, hip-hop slam rebellion, flying below the FCC scanner and above the city's power structure, uncensored beat-banging airwave anarchy—Is it just a coincidence that Pirate Fuckin' Radio arrived the same time as the Zapatistas emerged triumphant in indigenous Mexico's Lacandon Forest?

To Irish punk-turned-turntable provocateur Billy Jam, the end of a shining college radio career was the beginning of a free radio mission. "In 1994, I got an advance release of Public Enemy's new album Muse Sick-N-Hour Message which I played in its entirety on KUSF without bleeping out all the curses," he says. Oops. End of show.

But when Jam met international pirate radio avatar Stephen Dunifer and his chief technician Captain Fred, the leaders of a bedroom station in the Berkeley Hills on Sunday evenings, destiny was sealed. "Captain Fred told me that micro-powered radio would be the perfect home for Hip Hop Slam—a place where the art of hip hop would no longer be censored or tampered with in any way."

Under the FCC-free slogan, "Fuck The Bullshit", Jam revived Hip Hop Slam. "Taking example from something I'd seen the folks at Maximum Rock-n-Roll do I started dubbing off these Pirate Fuckin' Radio shows onto cassette and mailing them to any stations that would rebroadcast them." The show was "picked up" across the country, including stations like San Francisco Liberation Radio, Free Radio Santa Cruz, Steal This Radio (NYC), Pirate Radio Seattle, KBUD (Mendocino, CA) and 808 The Bomb (Miami).

Free Radio Berkeley was finally forced off the air by the FCC in June 1998. "In a show of good faith we decided to give the FCC time to create a low power radio service for local communities," says Captain Fred. "They don't care that we have no access to the media, which has been bought up by huge corporations. They don't care that freedom of speech has been sold to the highest bidder in government sanctioned auctions." The Free Radio Berkeley crew's push for legal low-power station is still being discussed in the sterile halls of federal agencies.

(For more information, see www.fcc.gov). Many of the former FRB volunteers can now be heard on the new Berkeley Liberation Radio (104.1FM). Hip Hop Slam continues on D'z Nutts, the rap pirate station in Vallejo, CA.

On March 13th, 1996 Jam organized a whole day of Pirate Fuckin' Radio—the first hip-hop event of its kind-broadcast from the oily scaffoldings of an auto shop two doors down from San Francisco's DNA Lounge. On the club stage, the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, The Coup, DJ Shadow and Latyrx and the Conscious Daughters were broadcast worldwide via transmitter and over the Internet. "I wanted to make the point that there should be an all rap radio station that plays uncensored music", says Jam. He succeeded. FCC vans cruised up and down 11th Street all day and night, but never found the signal source. Another victory for the little guys.

In truth, there's nothing like the rush of a good pirate radio broadcast. Free radio is the sound of the edge, skirting outside society's rules, penetrating inside your private space. "No censorship, no commercials, no silly rules," says Jam. "It's total artistic freedom—the way radio as an art should always be!"

This CD, a document of Pirate Fuckin' Radio's 100th anniversary show, captures the best of Hip Hop Slam's five fuckin' great years on the illegal pirate airwaves. Enjoy it, get inspired, and go do it yourself.

written by Jeff "DJ Zen" Chang and taken from CD's liner notes

 

Various Artists
Pirate Fuckin' Video 100

LABEL: Hip Hop Slam
RELEASE #: 13
RELEASE DATE: April, 2000
CATALOG #: HHS-011
FORMAT: VHS

 


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This one-hour video is an attention grabbing hip-hop/DJ themed VHS companion to the Pirate Fuckin Radio 100 CD. Many, but not all, of the video tracks corresspond with the CD version. Included are he live orchestrated turtablist tracks from the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and the Space Travelers, plus new interpretive video versions (with lots of graffiti/DJ still shots) of the CD tracks by Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Marz, Drum'n'Bass Army, and DJ Sushi. Also included is a condensed video history of the Hieroglyphics, a classic, rarely seen Kool Keith video, an interview with Doug Pray (director of documentary Scratch), live Live Human, DJ Disk vs. Finger Bangerz, and an out-take of Qbert from The Shiggar Fraggar Show! Vol. 3 ("Qbert Rocks The Bells").

 

The Shiggar Fraggar
Show! Vol. 1

LABEL: Hip Hop Slam
RELEASE #: 14
RELEASE DATE: May, 2000
CATALOG #: HHS-015
FORMAT: CD

 


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Featuring DJs Disk, Qbert, Shortkut, and the mysterious bag-headed Shiggar Fraggar this first volume (recorded in March, 1995) when the Piklz were still widely known as the "West Coast Rock Steady Crew DJs." This was also the first time that the mumbling, moonshine-swilling Shiggar Fraggar had been heard since his introduction to the world on Qbert's 1994 release, Mannequin Mind Caffiene Via The Reanimation of Cobwebbed Breaks. Joining the lineup is San Jose DJ Sly T and several other studio guests. This album is dedicated to the memory of slain Bay Area graffiti artist Mike "DREAM" Francisco (1969-2000) and a portion of the proceeds from this CD have been donated to a fund set up in his infant son, Akil's name. Wrote Rolling Stone music editor Jason Fine: "The Shiggar Fraggar Show series is some of the sickest, most inventive, freeform turntable music out there—rugged and weird, with moments so far out you don't know what you're hearing but you wonder what's next."

 

Live Human
Monostereosis

LABEL: Hip Hop Slam
RELEASE #: 15
RELEASE DATE: October, 2000
CATALOG #: HHS-013
FORMAT: Double Vinyl & CD

   


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Live Human composed of DJ Quest, cover artist/bassist Andrew Kushin, and percussionist Albert Mathias are a non-categorizable trio who appeal to a wide variety of music fans: they are as comfortable performing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival (2001) as at a hip hop show back in their hometown of San Francisco. Formed in '96, they have released several albums including this one which has been called such things as "Groundbreaking" (The Wire) and "Hip hop science to move your body to" (NME).

 

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