Oakland, CA based Hip Hop Slam is a mixed media company with a record label, radio show, videotape series and website. Today the focus is on turntablist music, but since forming fifteen years ago Hip Hop Slam has given love to all areas of hip hop with an emphasis on the Bay Area and West Coast. Founded in 1986, Hip Hop Slam was born out of the first Bay Area radio rap contest produced by Billy Jam in September of that year on KALX radio, Berkeley. "The response was so overwhelming... we received about a hundred rap demo tapes for that contest, and this was at a time when there were only a handful of commercially available Bay Area hip hop releases such as Too $hort's first single, that I realized something very major was bubbling under in this exciting new music so I decided from that point on to dedicate myself to promoting/archiving hip hop, especially from the Bay Area," said Jam. Consequently "Hip Hop Slam" became the name of the radio show on KALX produced by Jam with DJs such as Rhymeo Rob spinning. Later DJ G-Spot joined the line-up until 1990 on that station. After the show got into trouble one too many times with station management over "content" (curses) it moved to KUSF in the beginning of 1991 where it lasted until 1994 when it got kicked off the air: again over "content." Next stop for Hip Hop Slam was the Fuck The Bullshit 90-minute mixtapes series that soon after became the Pirate Fuckin' Radio 90-minute, no-holds-barred, micro-radio broadcasts which lasted up until 2000. In January 2001 Hip Hop Slam began broadcasting Scratch Attack on KPFA, the first all scratching DJ radio show. "Hip Hop Slam" was also the name of the video TV shows that broadcasted on various Bay Area television stations originally in 1989. In the mid-nineties Hip Hop Slam published the first ever exclusive Bay Area hip hop magazine No Joke, later renamed Strivin'. Also throughout the nineties Hip Hop Slam produced numerous hip hop concerts and in February 1995 launched the West Coast's very first jungle/drum'n'bass club. Hip Hop Slam the record label was formed in 1998 and has consequently dropped close to 30 releases (records, CDs, videos). For a full listing of these releases go to “The Label” page on this site, or visit such sites as www.turntablelab.com or www.thegiantpeach.com where they can be purchased.