Craig Solo

Above is a picture of myself with Slum Village and J Dilla taken outside of Fat Beats back in 2001 by Yomandu, a local photographer who says ‘puz’ a lot.

This is the flyer for the Fat Beats Amsterdam 7 year anniversary party which took place on Sunday October 12th 2003 at the Bitterzoet.

DJ’s on the night were J Rocc, Shortkut, Edzon, Victor Crezee (now of Patta who previously worked for Fat Beats) and myself.

Amir of On Track was also in the house alongside born again Christian DJ Jab.

Another dope party, however, following the gig myself, Jab and Amir got kicked out of a taxi back to my apartment after I got into a fight with the taxi driver over Dutch Hip Hop. If I’m correct he was bitching about Brainpower being a sellout for a record he made called ‘Daansplaat’. When I defended the MC he decided that I was being rude and forced us out. Jab wasn’t too happy as he had to carry a crate of 60 records for about a mile.

Great night though.

On June 23rd 2002 I organised an event featuring Madlib and Peanut Butter Wolf spinning at the now defunct Mazzo in Amsterdam for Fat Beats. It was Madlib’s first appearance in Amsterdam.

Madlib was cool but Wolf was moody. That may have had something to do with him expecting to stay at a hotel instead of my apartment or It may have had something to do with us taking a 13 strong crew out for a meal that was so bad that we skipped the bill.13 of us ran off in separate directions, however in the confusion I left the posters and flyers advertising the gig on the table at the restaurant. 

10 minutes later a group of police were standing outside of the Fat Beats record store. Luckily nothing came of it and the party was a massive sell out success.

Although it was a DJ only gig, after heavy persuasion and a few drinks, Madlib performed MHB’s from Quasimoto’s album ‘The Unseen’.

Later that evening back at my apartment I accidentally wallked in on Madlib whilst he was getting ready for bed. Luckily he still had his socks on.

Above is the flyer I designed for the event.

Here’s a gig I organised back in May 2003 for Fat Beats at the Melkweg with DJ’s Edzon and Vic who now run and work at Patta. The event was sold out!

Piet Parra designed the flyer.

This picture was taken back in 1999 outside of Fat Beats Amsterdam. Where were you?

Too Tall, Big Daddy Kane, TLM, Edzon, Parra, and Myself

(Taken with Instagram at Singel 10, Amsterdam, NL)

From the mid 90’s to the early millennium there was one mix-tape king in Amsterdam - TLM. Second in line to the throne was DJ Edzon whose B Boy Connections mix-tapes influenced pretty much everyone in the Amsterdam DJ scene today. From 99’ to early 2001, I lived with Edzon, sleeping on his couch, not because I was broke and had no where else to go but because I had no money and couldn’t find anywhere else to live. During that time I was fortunate enough to witness the making of a classic, Edzon’s  B Boy Connections 6 mix-tape - possibly the most famous one to date. With BBC 6 (not to be confused with the soft rock UK BBC radio station BBC 6) Edzon put more effort into the making of the cassette than Dr Dre did when making “The Chronic”. Sleeping less than 2 hours a night, Edzon would constantly mix records and write down ideas in a confidential note book secretly named “Project 6: B Boy Connections Mix Tape ideas”. The tape also featured 5 guest MC’s, which was supposed to be 6, but I dropped out at the last minute due to rappers block.

Above: The 5 MC’s - Gee, Dre, Parra, Suez (Holland’s answer to Rakim) and Jeroen.

Once finished, the tape was quickly released and after 2 years, all 150 copies pressed we’re sold, making it the second biggest selling dutch mix-tape of all time. The biggest of course was TLM’s classic “Always in Yellow” which went triple yellow (The equivalent of Gold in mix-tape sales)

Above: TLM, Craig David and white rapper Brainpower

Although still going strong, The crew B Boy Connections, whose original members were Edzon and Don Ron, is not what it used to be. Jigga Gee the MC, became third to be inducted into the crew at a ceremony which was held at the dutch royal palace in Amsterdam a.k.a Edzon and Nica’s house. In 2002 DJ lil Vic (formally known as DJ Minister) got the chance to mix on the Hip Hop 120 radio show. If Vic made no mistakes during the mix he automatically became a member of the crew, and after practicing for 48 straight hours, he went live on air, cued the first record and made a mistake. Luckily, Edzon was reading sportweek magazine and not paying attention, so Vic became the fourth member. But following that, it all changed. Edzon got shafted in a presidential coup by a fifth member who, for my own safety, shall simply be known as “Mr X” and the crew began to grow out of control allowing anyone to join as long as they would drink babies blood, feast on the meat of virgins, sign contracts with the heading “No one leaves B Boy Connections Alive” and allow the new leader to sleep with their wives. The crew has grown so big that they have just set up a new HQ in Waco, Texas.

But even with the new crew changes in place, no one can take the classic BBC 6 Mix-tape away from Edzon, the 148 people who brought it and the 2 people that stole it without the cover.

Above: Edzon and Don Ron as featured in the A-ha music video ‘Take on Me’.

Edzon went on to become the Al Bundy of Amsterdam, selling footwear in Patta with Gee and Lunatic Rapping Brother Buddha Palm aka Tim.

*This was originally written for my old No Bones in Ice Cream blog back in March 2008.