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...."

'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.