The Story Of FRESH So Far...

I'm on the air with my new show each and every Tuesday night, courtesy of Mi-Soul, from 11pm - 1am

           

  The Fresh Stuff

1st Show...

2nd Show...

3rd Show...

4th Show...

5th Show...

We Gon' Rock 'Em Man....Cos We Got The FRESH Stuff!!

That's what you get when you lock into http://mi-soul.com every Tuesday night from 11pm - 1am.

Nohing but the FRESH stuff...classic or brand new...it's always F.R.E.S.H.!

If you missed Tuesday's Freshness...here it is again for you to listen to and press rewind if I haven't blown ya mind!

The Fresh Stuff - 18th Feb 2014

Are We On The Air...?

Yes! 

It's been a while, but I'm happy to announce that I have a new station to call home.

Come join me weekly for 2 hours of my most favourite music on earth....HIP HOP!

I'm right here http://mi-soul.com every Tuesday night from 11pm - 1am

Here's my debut show... The Fresh Stuff - 11th Feb 2014

                                                         

I Can't Believe How Dope I Am!

                       

12:48am Feb 15th...My man Tony Rotton aka Blak Twang hit me with the message "Tim Dog dead for real??!!"
A minute on Google confirmed it all. It's sad. Rest In Peace Tim Dog.
While I'm up I feel like I should write a little something about my memories of the man that had the killer verse on the Ultramagnetic MC's classic 'Chourus Line'. It's a record I remember well. I'm pretty sure I first heard it on Westwood's Capital Rap Show and I'm also pretty sure that I bought my copy from Reds Records in Brixton.
Tim came in HARD on that song...."AHHH ISSSHT!!!!" I can remember dissecting the whole tune virtually line by line with my boy Taiweed. Back then we'd talk about every dope hip hop release and give them all our own critical beatdown. I can remember dj Pogo cuttin' the hell out of 2 copies almost every time he was on turntables, radio or club. He'd do double-ups of the James Brown grunt on there and totally destroy that shit! I remember lending my copy to my boy T Hakeem and him giving it back months later with food filled  fingerprints on it!!! I can remember Max and Dave releasing the 'Dope Jams' compilation album and featuring it on the line up of dope jams! I can even remember rhyming at Notting Hill carnival and spitting some combustible flow pattern, and having DJ Jay (Trouble Rap) come up to me after to tell me how dope I was and that I sounded like Tim Dog on Chorus Line! Those were great days I tell you. Great.
A few years later I was settled into my gig co-hosting Choice FM's flagship hip hop show 'Friday Night Flava' with dj 279. One of his scheduled guests that particular Friday night was none other than Tim Dog himself. This was probably around 94/95 because 'I Get Wrecked' with KRS1 had finished doing the rounds. He came into the studio and was surprisingly cool and humble for a man that almost singlehandedly started the East Coast/West Coast beef!
He was pretty funny too and to be honest seemed a million miles away from the Bronx N***a he was on those classic tracks even though he was promoting the Snoop Dogg diss 'B***h Wid A Perm'. I guess a few days after that meeting I found out that he was due to do a few shows too while he was out in Europe and UK dj legend Cutmaster Swift was lined up to spin for him. The crazy part was that Tim Dog had no copies of his own records to perform with so I was asked to loan my personal copies of Tim Dog's records to Tim Dog for his tour! How dope is that! 

"Whoooo, hot damn I'm great. I'm on the Chorus Line...."

It's A Demo... 

                                         

I really, really thought I'd take this blogging thing more seriously. I had dreams of detailing my whole hip hop life online in words, pictures and sound.

But...

I lied to myself! Well not exactly lied, but I definitely convinced myself I'd be posting way more stuff than I actually have. 

The comments and feedback so far has been positive and for that I'm thankful. I guess it means there are a few folks out there that give a sheeeet about what a hip hop head like me is rambling on about!!!  So a big Thank You to y'all that have stopped by and blessed me with a comment or two.

Well, I'm back on it for a minute now. Why? I'll tell you why. The other day while I was giving my music room a bit of reorganisation, a cassette tape hit me right in my forehead!
I flung it into the cassette deck and what did I hear coming back at me in full Dolby noise reduced quality?
'Break The Connection', a 1990 bedroom demo recording I did of a verse that I ended up using on PD3's 'Breaking The Silence'. 
I put it together with a pause button loop of the outro from K-Solo's 'Fugitive' (I didn't have the Grover Washington original back then!) and rhymed my ass off for 60 odd seconds! Listening to it now, I still marvel at my wordplay and flow. If only Rakim knew how close he came to getting dethroned by me!!
Basically, it was a diss aimed at Hip Hop Connection magazine. I'd won the 1990 DMC UK Rap Competition in March of that year and didn't get featured in the mag until 4 months later. I had no idea about 'lead times' and all that other publishing nonsense. I won a national rapping competition so interview me and print it! They didn't! So I was mad and did what any self respecting rapper does and dissed them. It's full of subliminal shots and sly metaphors. I'm pretty proud of it. My crew at the time was Black Gold and we were gonna do a full track dissing the hell outta the magazine but alas, that never made it to the 4 track recorder!

Grab it and have a listen...

'Break The Connection' 1990 Bedroom Demo

                          

PUT YOUR WEIGHT ON IT!

Yo! It's been more than a little while since I was a 'Chubby Kid' thanks to diabetes and my 2 kids, but never mind all that real life stuff, I'm about to go back in time for '1 NIGHT ONLY' with my man, the Super Rockin' Shortee Blitz!

SUPA DUPA FLY has pulled out al the stops to make hip hop's biggest reunion happen!

We are going to get busy at Plan B in Brixton on Saturday July 7th.

If you ever listened to our show on Kiss 100 from 99 - 08 then you know how the Chubby Kids used to get down...

STRICTLY HIP HOP!!!!

Holla with your requests for free entry on the guestlist...

itssupadupafly@gmail.com

facebook.com/supadupaflylove

twitter.com/BigTeddyTed

facebook.com/TeddyTed

djbigted@hotmail.com

                            OVER:LOAD

 This is a brand new night that I'm involved in, launching on June 29th at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. It's gonna be a dope night of music with some friggin' GOOD dj's and live acts...
                     
Dixon Brothers...Motive...Emily Rawson...Bakery Boys...Banditsu..

Get involved and hit me up for guestlists. I want to see you there!!!!!!!!

facebook.com/overloadus

twitter.com/overloadus

facebook.com/TeddyTed

djbigted@hotmail.com

twitter.com/bigteddyted

THE KING ASIATIC NOBODY'S EQUAL

&

THE INHUMAN ORCHESTRA

It's going down with Kane and Biz! I hope you all got your tickets already because it's gonna be a BIG night for hip hop in the capital.

Peace party people, haha see ya later.......

"We're Comin' Correct Nowwwwwww.....!"

This is the legendary Mc Mell 'O' with my humble self on the 1's & 2's. We put it down in the Swiss city of Zug over the weekend and I think they were feeling us!!!

EXTRA EXTRA shout out to the fellow big men in the game Dj Marga & HuntKillBuryFinn aka Katch 22! They stormed the stage and set it off with some CLASSIC London flava. Mad respect!!!

None of it would have been possible without the massive Hip Hop love from Positive Pressure aka Dino & Adee & Roger (I think) who showed us nothing but respect and it was a pleasure to come out there and rock for heads that deep into the original London sound!
I was even signing copies of MY records...and those are RARE!!!!

Enjoy...

"Rip The Damn Stage Like I'm On A Rampage!"

It's 2012 and I'm ready to hit the road, the decks and the stage! 1st stop is with hip hop's live show legend Ty. Come check me out keeping the beats tight and the adlibs tighter on the 27th January at Hootananny, Brixton. Don't say I did'nt tell you!

I'm trying to get a whole lot busier on the decks this year so keep an ear and an eye out for me!

Watch this space...

"Now It's About That Time For Us To Say..." : RunDMC Live On The Roof At Foot Locker In London 2000 (Part 2)

Here's part 2 of my footage of RunDMC rocking on the roof. It's crazy because you had to be on the roof of the building opposite to be able to watch it! I'm almost certain it was the last show they ever did in the UK. I still get a little emotional when Jay shouts to me across the rooftop at the end of the performance. R.I.P. JMJ.

"Wish I Could Bring Pun Back..."

Here's something I put together for my Kiss show after the passing of Mr Rios. I tried to play with as many of his guest verse accapellas as I could find and swap the beats around to make it more than a regular quick mix. No multi tracking either, just turntables and a minidisc player for the editing!


"....Dead in the middle of Little Italy, little did we know that we riddled some middle man who didn't do diddley...."

"Now It's About That Time For Us To Say..." : RunDMC Live On The Roof At Foot Locker In London 2000 (Part 1)

I almost forgot I had this! Part 2 coming soon...

"It's Jazzy Jazzy, His Name Is Jeff..."

Just a little something I found in the stash.

Full version coming soon...

"I'm 'bout To Set Up Shop And Drop This Next Degree..." : The Large Professor Interview

Here's a special hip hop moment for me when I got to interview The Live Guy With Glasses aka Extra P aka The Large Professor back in November 2002. He was over here to do promo for the '1st Class' album plus a one-off live show in London. (I have the footage of that too...)

Extra P with Big Ted & Shortee Blitz On Kiss 100 (6 Nov 2002)

Representing Is Illmatic...(Part 1)

Let me take you back to 1994. The year that one of hip hop's most celebrated albums dropped like a bomb on all of us who love this shit! Illmatic by Nas is one of those albums that is just damn near perfect in every sense. Lyrics & beats matched together so effortlessly it's ridiculous. At the time when this momentous piece of work was nearing release, I was co hosting the Friday Nite Flava with dj 279 on Choice FM. I remember that we had a sampler cd from Columbia records that Big L's "No Ends, No Skins" & "The World Is Yours" amongst some other joints. We played that track week after week ahead of the album coming out. I remember one week in particular 279 asked me to dial a number and ask for Nas himself and prep him for a phone interview. I was nervous as hell, but I called the number and spoke to this dude that kept saying "word, word" in his now legendary QB whisper! Man, I was talking to Nas - WOW!!!!
Well, that was amazing enough for me at the time, until a few weeks later 279 tells me we have the man himself coming to the show. WHAT? Nas? Here? Yep! He asked me to speak to a couple of my rhyming friends and invite them to the show for a freestyle session with Mr Nasir Olu Bin Dara Jones! Oh shit...It's on!

All I can say is click the link and listen to what went down during that freestyle session nearly 17 years ago!
I was rhyming with Nas! Yeah, I still get excited when I think about it!
Extra Super Dope props to Stickz, Sniper G - The Assassin, and of course dj 279.

1994 Friday Nite Flava Freestyle Ft Nas, Stickz, Sniper & Big Ted

'Tim, I Got It On Tape' : The Westwood Story. Part One...

The Brrrreak To The Beat. The Version Excursion.

Man, when Tim Westwood had the Capital Rap Show way back when, if you were real about hip hop and living in London you did nothing but listen to that show. Every Friday Night. Every Saturday night. Religiously. I can't begin to count the number of tapes I made from recording off that show. The exclusives. The freestyles. The interviews. Damn, even the jingles! (Ultramag MC's and Chubb Rock spring to mind for some reason). Please believe that I was an avid listener.

One particular Saturday night while tuning in, Tim launched into his legendary 'break to the beat' competition. In his words "This is where we play a break, and you've got to name the rap based on that break." Simple tings for me. I was, and still am, into breaks and samples and all things like that. So, Tim throws on 'Fat City Strut' by Mandrill (off the "Just Outside Of Town' album) and I hear these horns start blasting at me... My Jedi-like brain starts to match the horns to the hip hop and 0.5 seconds later I have the answer. I dial the number - whatever the hell it was - and I get through! I'm actually speaking to Tim Westwood! I pitch my answer to him... and it's the right one! Damn, it just keeps getting better. "Ahite den man" he says, "You're the winner. We gonna go live. Stay right there." I stay.
He puts me on hold and I can hear the show through the phone and through my radio. This is mad exciting! He comes back to me and I'm live on The Capital Rap Show! "What's your name and where you calling from?" he asks. Now, I can't quite remember what I said at this point due to the fact that Jeopardy was an emcee pseudonym I was messing around with and I may have used that instead of Big Ted. I actually have this moment on a D90 somewhere, and I will find it and post it one day. But anyway, I say whatever I say as my name and then Tim says "What's the answer my brrorr?" He spoke like that even back then! 'To The Listeners' by Eric B & Rakim I say, all breathless and excited! "Yeah man, that's the right answer, do you want to big up anyone?" Of course I did. I had my mentaI list of homeboy shoutouts all prepared. I start to name my crew Black Gold (Cuttin' K, T Hakeem & Knewborn) and my extended crew The Pryme Rhyme Masters (Sniper G The Assassin, FX, Charlie D & Principal Mark. Check out 'Discipline' on Kold Sweat Records. DOPE!) but I totally forgot to shout out my homeboy Phillip aka Taiweed! I'm so sorry bro. To this day I still feel kinda bad about that. Me and Phil used to talk hip hop to death back then when we worked at Savacentre. He even mentioned the fact that I didn't say his name to me at work!
Anyway, a few weeks later I got a package in the post with Public Enemy and LLCoolJ vhs video tapes. Proper tings with a case too. I still got 'em. (I think the LL one has an episode of the Cosby Show I taped on it though!)
Thanks Timothy.

Yo! Bumrush The Show! : The Free Ticket Story

The Def Jam Tour 1987

Public Enemy. LLCoolJ. Eric B & Rakim.
They were all coming to London. Hammersmith Odeon. Three of my favourite artists. Three nights in a row.
I HAD NO MONEY FOR A TICKET!!!!!
So, I had to have a plan. I tried asking the parents. NO! I tried asking my older brother to buy me a ticket. NO!
I'll have to get a job then. What job is going to take me on and pay me in time to get a ticket for this show...?
Step in my man Scott at number 9. He tells me that his brother Barry can get me a job at.... wait for it.... Hammersmith Odeon! No way! "Yeah man, he works there as an usher" What? Can you believe it? Where do I sign up? I went down there and sat through what I swear was the simplest interview I have ever had.
"Do you mind working late?" Nope. "Are you okay with talking to people and showing them to their seats?" Yep. "Do you mind clearing up the bar during the intervals?" No problem. "When can you start?" Today! Now!! "Congratulations. The job is yours!" To be honest if they asked me to shovel elephant dung til midnight I'd have said 'Hell yes'.

I went to work about 4 hours EARLY every day that the tour was on. I watched LLCoolJ sound checking. I watched dj Bobcat sit on his record box and polish his gold chains. I watched Eric B walk around in his Dapper Dan suit and a neckfull of jewellery. I sat with a small crowd and listened to Chuck D talk about life, the universe and everything. I got autographs from Flavour Flav and Terminator X. I was so gassed at just being there. I took pictures of the shows, especially when LL brought on his massive boom box. Flashing LED's and everything! I still got them somewhere. They will be posted eventually. The dopest part of it all, besides walking around the venue just before the doors opened and seeing hundreds of people dying to get in, was the the fact that I actually GOT PAID to watch a show - 3 times - that only weeks before I couldn't even afford a ticket for!
In fact, if you listen closely to the live show inserts on the 'Nation Of Millions' album, you'll hear me screaming 'I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'

Just Hangin' Out : The Large Professor Story

How should I start this? How should I begin?
Okay, for all you hip hop vinyl junkies like me, here's the one about how I got my hands on a copy of the 1st Main Source 12" 'Think'.
Back in 94/95 I was at Cutmaster Swift's house one evening, a bunch of us just chilling watching him practise and make beats. The phone rings and Swift starts talking away to somebody on the other end of the line, after a while he says "Dionne says wassup" I'm like, "Dionne?" Swifty says "Dee 2", Oh okay, I getcha. I jump on the phone "Hey Dee, how's it going out in NYC?" "It's cool, things are moving. A bit slow, but it's still better than being in the UK! I'm coming over for a visit soon though. I'm actually at Paul's house right now working on some music." "Paul who?" I ask. "Large Professor Paul" she says. I gotta admit I was little shocked at how casually she dropped that reference to the man who produced the classic Breaking Atoms! After being silent for the respectful amount of seconds, I get what alcholics often refer to as 'a moment of clarity' and ask her for a favour. "Dee, since your coming over (and I'm always looking for a way to get my hands on classic hip hop music) can you ask 'Paul' if he's got a couple copies of 'Think' spare?" I heard her call over to him and make my request and get a muted "word, no doubt" in reply. "Thanks for that Dee, see you soon, Peace." I swear, less than 6 weeks later I see Dionne coming towards me while I'm spinning at Flava Of The Month down at The Boderline and she hands me 2 sealed copies of 'Think'.

Bonus : "My Name Is The Large Professor, You Got A Problem...?"

Hi, My Name Is... The Big Ted Story

"How'd you get the name Big Ted?"

I still get asked that question. Like I ain't been around long enough yet for that to not STILL be a real question anymore! No matter, I guess if folks are asking then they're interested. Well, here goes with the full truth and nothing but...

I take you back to south London in the 80's for this one. Battersea to be specific. Plough Road to be right and exact. I was headed there with Gary, one of my fellow hip hop enthusiasts and school bodypopping crew members. (man, I wonder what happened to the rest of Street Level???) He was taking me to meet some of his non schoolfriend hip hop heads. I can even remember my absolute favourite joint at the time was 'Hip Hop Beat' by The Rapologists. Dope!

Now, before I get into this part, I'd like to set the scene a little bit. This is the 8o's. Hip Hop is still pretty fresh over here. I knew I loved it, I knew it loved me. But I was still working on how to show it. So, at this point in my life my style was a little wack-ish! I had wanted the 'wet look' hair style but my Mum was NOT having it! She said I'm not allowed to spoil my hair with that. Instead, I had what back then was called a 'dry perm'. It was a treatment that came in a beautiful little glossy cardboard box with beautiful black people with beautiful black hair staring back at me on it. My mum performed the duties as hairdresser and turned my tight natural curls into a big floaty afro! Not what I wanted, but hey, you don't say that to a Jamaican mother if you value your lips!!!

Back to Plough Road. Gary and me roll up to a bunch guys laughing and joking on the street corner and he calls to one of them. Gary says to me "This is Michael." Michael looks me up and down for a split second (no doubt clocking the floaty 'fro) and then says "Wassup Big Ted!" The small crowd erupts in laughter! From that moment on I have been forever known in hip hop as Big Ted. The Michael who gave me this life changing rebranding would later become known to a generation of heads as MC Mello.

Michael, Moomin, Mello, you will ALWAYS be my hip hop father!

Gary, you get a big thank you too!