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Exclusive: Greg Mack Breaks Down The History of 1580 KDAY

By: Timsanchez818Category: Features

No story about KDAY can be complete without going back to the beginning of where it all started and to do that you have to talk to the man responsible for putting together the format that would alter radio to this very day – Mr. Greg Mack. In the early to mid-80’s on an AM radio dial known as 1580 in Los Angeles, at a time when the music industry regarded Rap music as a passing fad, Greg Mack took a major step for street born genre by creating radio’s first Hip-Hop format. One could hear a rap song on the radio here or there or maybe on a Saturday night when programmers felt it was safe enough to play, but never could one wake up to the sounds of Run-DMC, The Fat Boys, and Whodini until 1580 KDAY made that all possible. In addition to being a force for Hip-Hop on a whole, KDAY was an outlet for local talent to shine as the station helped to create just about every West Coast star that came from the 80’s and early 90’s. In conclusion of our KDAY coverage of the past few weeks, AllHipHop.com sat down with the legendary programmer in a two part series to let him tell his story. Put on your reading glasses and get a Hip-Hop history lesson! You came to Los Angeles via Houston. First off, I was naïve to the streets when I came to Los Angeles. I’m proud to be a country boy and a lot of the rappers, gang bangers and people in the streets gave me a pass. They were like, “He doesn’t know he’s not supposed to wear Red or Blue so I’m not gonna whoop his a**.” When I first moved to South Central, I lived in mom’s backhouse. One day I was checking the mailbox and this lady came out and jumped on me because she thought I was taking her government check. I got her off of me and threw her over the fence. A crowd had gathered and I wondered what the big commotion was and they told me that this lady was my neighbor. I apologized and told her that I wasn’t trying to take her check and that I was only checking the mail. Later on some Crip approached me and asked me why I beat up his mom. He had a jheri curl and his hand on a gun. I had to explain the situation to him. Take us back to the beginning of your start at KDAY and how Hip-Hop became a music format for radio. I was a music programmer at Magic 102 in Houston so when I came to KDAY, I knew I could do the job. I did notice that everybody out here played their music loud, so if you wanted to know what everybody was in to, all you had to do was roll your window down and listen. I heard groups like Run-DMC and Sugarhill Gang and said to myself, “I think the people here like rap.” None of the stations would play rap except for a few times late at night. I met with KDAY managers Ed Kirby and Jack Patterson and told them that I would play the hits in rotation but I also wanted to experiment with Rap. They told me that I had to limit it to the night time and that’s how it started. Immediately with the first Arbitron ratings, they shot through the roof! After that they agreed to let me play a little bit of Rap in the afternoon, and then more as the kids began to eat it up. The record companies were p##### off at me because I was giving so much time to Rap when they were spending money on promoting their R & B artists. The major record stores were mad too because they weren’t carrying Rap – they thought it was just a novelty. The mom and pop stores and the swapmeets were making a killing because they were the only one’s willing to carry Hip-Hop. Even some in the community gave backlash saying that I was corrupting the youth by playing that music. I used to work with artists and actually made them change some of the lyrics for radio. I didn’t edit them or play them backwards. I had them go back in to the studio to change a verse. The argument was that even if you play a word backwards, the kids can still figure out what they were saying, and the artists would go back and change it. Even to this day I don’t understand why artists won’t do that anymore – just change the verse. Do it for the kids. You created the Mack Attack Mix Masters by taking local DJ’s from the party’s and clubs and putting them on radio. Where did this grand idea come from? I have a mentality of “there are no roadblocks, only hurdles.” When I came to Los Angeles, my sister told me about party’s that were being thrown by a crew named Uncle Jamm’s Army. I went to one of their shows at the Sports Arena and I could not believe my eyes. There were 8 to 10 thousand kids with nobody performing but the DJ’s. I had never seen anything like it in my life so I decided that I needed to get these guys to be a part of what I was doing at KDAY. I tracked down Rodger Clayton, the head of Uncle Jamm’s Army, and explained to him my idea of bringing them on to the radio. He told me that they didn’t need radio and that they were successful without it. I took that as a hurdle to my plan. The next Monday I had a meeting with people who were promoting their records and a guy came in by the name of Lonzo Williams who was promoting his group The World Class Wreckin’ Cru. I asked […]

AllHipHop’s Night With Michel’le: Exclusive Interview and Performance

By: Timsanchez818Category: Alternatives

Michel’le Toussaint is known in the music world as the naturally squeaky Minnie Mouse voiced woman that can instantly transform her singing vocals in to a strong and powerful thing of pure beauty. And yes, she’s the baby mom and former fiancée’ of Dr. Dre and the former wife of Suge Knight (although Michel’le has stated of late that the two were never officially married). Michel’le released her self-titled critically acclaimed and platinum selling debut album in 1989, which spawned several hits including the classic, “Something In My Heart.” Afterwards, Michel’le wasn’t heard much of in the music world outside of the stories and rumors in regards to her love life with Dr. Dre and later Suge Knight. Fast forward to 2013, Michel’le has reemerged and has broken the silence on her life for the past 20 years by being a part of the TV One series R & B Divas L.A. Last Wednesday, October 16, AllHipHop.com spent an evening with Michel’le as she performed many of her famous songs at Club R & B Live Hollywood in Studio City, CA. After the show, she sat down with us to give us an exclusive interview about some of the things that have occurred in her career and life over the past 20 plus years. And we have an exclusive taped performance of “Something In My Heart” for you to enjoy! Read below. AllHipHop.com: When did you discover that you could project your naturally high pitched voice to a powerful singing one? Michel’le: It was in the 2nd grade but I didn’t tell anyone. I thought it was spooky because it wasn’t normal. I only did it in privacy. I made sure that nobody knew about it. AllHipHop.com: When did you decide to let your singing voice be known? Michel’le: It was for Dr. Dre when I was a teenager. AllHipHop.com: It took you that long? Michel’le: Yes because I didn’t think there was any talent on my end. I didn’t know that I had the talent to make money with it. AllHipHop.com: So your parents, grandparents and other family members had no idea of what you could do? Michel’le: No and even if they knew, they were so busy trying to feed us and doing what they do. AllHipHop.com: So how did Dr. Dre find out about your hidden singing talent? Michel’le: By singing on the World Class Wreckin’ Cru’s “Turn Off The Lights” song. I filled in for the original singer that didn’t make it that night. That’s how he heard me sing. AllHipHop.com: It was all just by chance because you were the only female around? Michel’le: Yeah. They gave the lyrics and told me to sing. They didn’t tell me what kind of melody or anything. I made that up all on my own. I was only 16 years old. Dre just looked at me in shock and I was like, “Bye y’all.” I didn’t see him for months after that. AllHipHop.com: How did you end up even being at the studio that night? Michel’le: I was there with Lonzo, the head of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru. I didn’t know Dre yet but he was the engineer/producer. I was just hanging out. He heard me sing and he gave me that “whoa” reaction. Like I said, I told them goodbye after that and went home and got up for work the next morning. I didn’t hear from anybody for a while. AllHipHop.com: When did you finally hear back from someone? Michel’le: It was when I heard the song on the radio – I believe it was on KDAY. That was a few weeks after the recording session. My Dad heard the song and was like, “I think that’s you!” I told him that I didn’t think it was but then he told me it sounded like the song that I described about from the studio that night. I heard it myself and it was true. There was no paperwork or nothing. No check. No coins. What can I tell you? AllHipHop.com: Even to this day, you’ve received nothing from “Turn Off The Lights?” Michel’le: No but God Bless, because it’s done so much for me. AllHipHop.com: This led to you signing with Ruthless Records. Michel’le: Yes, I signed to Ruthless Records, thanks to Eazy-E. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzCuooE2xYs&w=420&h=315] AllHipHop.com: One of the signature songs from your Ruthless Records/ATCO album is a song that you sang tonight, “Something In My Heart.” It’s such a beautiful song. You had an interesting video for it with everybody dressed up in suits. Michel’le: Everybody was in it! The D.O.C, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E – it was a historic video. We filmed that on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. AllHipHop.com: Ice Cube used that video to diss N.W.A. in the “No Vaseline” song where he said that they looked like Bozo’s. Did you take any offense to that? Michel’le: No, I knew it was coming. That’s where music was going. We had infused R & B with Hip-Hop. AllHipHop.com: But you weren’t upset that he used your project in his diss song towards their group? Michel’le: No, I wasn’t upset and Dre wasn’t upset either to be honest with you. It was what it was. That was Ice Cube’s opinion I think, and that’s all it was. AllHipHop.com: But you found yourself in the middle of another diss song aimed at Dre when Tim Dog dissed you in “F*ck Compton.” Michel’le: I don’t even know who that is, still to this day. AllHipHop.com: You’ve never heard the song? Michel’le: I never knew who that was. People have told me but I’ve never addressed it because I don’t know who that is. I’m not hating, I’m just stating. We (Michel’le and Dre) were like, “Where is this coming from?” There wasn’t even an East Coast or West Coast rivalry at the time. Dre is above all of that. He’s a genius. He had a 5 year plan back then and it turned in to […]