Steve Yano and Rhodium's Hip-Hop Legacy

Drop that face Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby Gotta go make the cell look good So just for once After this, you wanna go up to Santa Cruz? You hungry? Yeah. Alright. I'm gonna buy you a beer. What's up, kid? You like my reels? What's up man, what you need? I need two. Let me see the money. Open it up. What you need? High C and K-Makes. Get the hell out of here man. It's my command, it's wiggle your- Hey Tony, drop that what, please? I bet. The tray and the place to be. Co-rock and shit with my homeboy Steve. After rodeo, get stupid dumb. Yo, don't think that you can get none of the tray. The motherfuckin' doctor, the bitch hopper. The sucker mother- Motherfuckin' stop up. I'm fucked up so don't mind what I'm sayin'. I'm just kickin' it with Steve, Tony, A.M., Susan. Yo, we can choose it. No shit to put in a mix. You know what I'm sayin'? We kick shit like who's in it and who's in it. That's a fact, and if your shit ain't in the mix, you know it's whack And that ain't no bullshit, I'm kicking facts on a serious tip Word up, Dr. Dre's in full effect, doing serious damage, boy Okay, I'm gonna drop a name. Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Steve Yano. Man, he was just a very special cat that I had a lot of love and respect for, you know, once I got to know him. Steve Yano, the king of the West Coast mixtape scene. Brilliant. Steve Yano, first thing that comes to mind. Business. Willing to help. Intelligent. Hardworking. Good person. Man, the sound of the West Coast music scene and the place where we all got our early hits. Record scientist. Ghetto record hood scientist. Cool motherfucker. Cool motherfucker. Back in the day, the swamis were poppin'. That's where it all started for me. The Vermont is where I first met Steve. From there, I began to buy music from VIP Records, as well as the Compton Indoor. But at the Rhodium is where it all happened for me. I'll share with us when and where you first met Steve Yano. Wow, Steve Yano, Steve and Susan. Wow, what a duo. What was special about Steve is how knowledgeable about, you know, not being black, you know, African American, how knowledgeable he was about the music in general, but especially underground music. He seemed to have a special love for it. And. Definitely played a major, major part on launching a lot of the independent recording artist careers back in the day. When I first met Steve, it was when Dre had moved with us. And Steve used to come bring the van, all the crates and stuff. Because he used to come to my house. A lot of merodium swap meet tapes was made at my house in the basement. And it's the same house. It's straight out of Compton house. You know, straight out of Compton. A lot of stuff happened at our house and Steve used to come there with Dr. Dre and make all the tapes and I'd be sitting there just kind of like America, what do you call it, straight out of Compton. That scene in Straight Outta Compton, Steve just had to be there and it would have been the same thing. I used to be at Audio Achievements, the studio that Dre and NWA and EZ used to work at. You know, I was just a kid around, and I used to see him come up to the studio, and he would bring Dre records and stuff like that that he would order from. So that's when I first got a chance to meet him. Man, I remember meeting Steve Yon. with Dre for the first time. We used to always go to the Rodeo Swap Meet, you know, like shopping for t-shirts and, you know, stuff before we would go do shows. And there was this little spot over in the tent. And this guy, My name, Steve Yano, had his little spot selling, you know, vinyl records and stuff like that. And we would go there and always pick up some records before we would go to shows. So Dre was like, man, you got to meet this cat, man. He like real, real cool. He wants me to do some stuff for him. And, you know, so I went over there with Dre. And it had to be like 1984, 1985 when I first met Steve. I met Steve Yano, man. Donald Pico. I was a... selling Z Rocks, one of my first underground mixed 12 inches. We called them bootlegs back then. And because I didn't know the record business worth a damn, I knew how to make them, I knew how to produce them. And I would sell them like they was dope. Because most records have a little ring on the bottom of it. Do not copy. Copying this product would be federal copyright. And anytime I saw the word federal at that point in time, I'm thinking FBI. Okay. Even when I saw Federal Express, I got nervous. Okay. I bought Pico. And I walk in with my little dolly. I drop off about 150 records to Saturn Records. And... Steve was in there, and I dropped off the records. Guy gave me the money, and Steve was like, hey, you guys sell these records? I acted like I didn't hear a word he said, kept on walking. I'm like, fuck you, I don't know you. An Asian dude in the record business? I mean, I don't know the fuck. I'm out of here, okay? So George, the guy behind the counter, says, hey, Lonzo, he's okay, man. He has the rhodium swap me. I'm like, okay, I don't trust none of y'all. Ain't none of y'all black. I don't trust none of y'all, okay? So I went by the swap meet, checked him out, and he was legit. I mean, look. white food and we were cool somebody come on to the studio shit have a drink got down to be a drink so we're hanging out in the studio the same studio we in right now and he came out hung out he would hang out sometimes you know and he got to meet Dre and yelling the fellas they invited him out to the squat meet and that's how I met Steve he became one of my best customers forever I was about 17 years old when I first heard a rodeo mixtape a friend from high school was actually playing the cassette on his radio I grabbed the cassette case and it said 85 Live. I continued listening to it. I heard about three or four songs playing around the same time. I heard cutting, scratching. I heard scratching coming in very quickly. I'm like, how is this guy doing this? You know, the mystery was, you're thinking that he's using four turntables, whoever's doing this. As it kept going, all of a sudden I heard Dr. Dre. The only Dr. Dre I knew was from the World Class Wrecking Crew. And then I heard the Rodeon. And then I heard Steve Yano and I put it together. Dr. Dre was actually doing tape for Steve Yano at the rodeo. From that point on, I wanted to talk and catch up with my old friend Steve and find out how he knew Dr. Dre. I would have to say it was like my senior year of high school, 1985-ish in there, 86 in there. Crazy D, who happened to be the only Mexican dude down with NWA at that time, he was also down from my neighborhood. So he'd go back and forth to mess with myself and the Cypress dudes. And then he'd go to Eazy and them and do all that. And I believe it was Crazy D who brought a tape over. And of course some 40s. You know D. Back then, toss back some 40s, play some tapes. I first heard of Rhodium Mixtape when I had the little chippers to go up and actually buy it. You know what I'm saying? I just started buying tapes. I started actually airbrushing t-shirts behind Steve's shop. Steve had the big one with maybe five or six booths, maybe ten booths. And I had one little one with my pops behind it. And I would airbrush t-shirts. And when I would get paid at the end of the day, I'd run over before it closed. and I'll buy them tapes and take them. it's home you know and we heard about this young kid from the harbor area named tony a and he was a dj homes and he was going in with the big with the big stars you know what i'm saying and he was like one of us going in and infiltrating inside of all these mcs you know what i'm saying and uh his name would ring around the hood and people were like oh yeah he's from wheelmaster blah blah you know so we kind of felt the connection of like man if he's out there we can do that shit and I think that's when I fell in love with hip-hop, man. You know what I'm saying? The first time I heard a Rodium mixtape, man, was that same old trip working. I was working in the corner. We were selling pants. We used to deal with all the ladies that wanted to come by these tight pants. That's when stretch pants was like the thing. But look, man, I walked back to the bathroom and I just heard like some stuff that I kind of knew from the neighborhood that was like, man, how did they get this record? And then I heard some scratching. and back then if you heard scratching you heard bass you heard you was just like a fly on shit you was gonna just and land in that shit i came over there and was like man what the hell is this and this and that and then i started talking and steve was i think he was said was it 10 bucks for a tape i can't remember i think it was 10 bucks for a tape and it was a cassette tape turns the phrase mixtape you know what i mean not mix cd not mix mp3 not Mix whatever fuck I ain't dissing y'all shit, but y'all know what it is know the history of this shit When did I first hear of Rodeo mixtape? I first heard the rodeo mixtape. It was 1989 January 9th. I was in Fountain Valley, California for the first time I came out here as a kid Before I got into music. I used to um race BMX We were in the parking lot And I had a friend named Jesse Puentes. He was one of my partners I used to ride bikes with. And he had this big boom box in the parking lot. And we were just riding our bikes in the parking lot doing tricks. And he played this tape. And it came on and it went. Hey, yo, Steve, you got a level? Get busy with EZ. And Tony A on the 12 Techniques. See, it's a steal. And Steve is promoting them dope-ass tapes by The Wizard at the Rodeo. Yo, fuck it up, Tony. I can feel it, I've overcome, I'm rockin' shit at the rhodium Can you hear it? The taste from Steven, rockin' from the morning to the evening Dr. Dre is here, so it's time to move, or I'm gonna have to diss you I'm up for you, you know it's legit, the Dre's gonna rock and shit, and you feel it The difference between today's mixtape and the rhodium mixtape And not just because I did them. Let's just say that I never did not one rodeo mixtape, and all we had was Dr. Dre's. There is absolutely no comparison today. Let's understand that hip-hop started with the DJ. The mixtape started with the DJ. So today, the mixtape's rappers have taken over that title, that name, mixtape. But it really belongs to the DJ. So really, there is no comparison. If you want to call it something else, Cool. I wouldn't have anything to say about that. But to call it a mixtape, I do have a problem with that. I do, because I think you're taking somewhat of the glory away from the DJ when they came up with that name, the mixtape, which is on cassette. Your stuff is not even on cassette. How do the mixtapes compare from back today from then? They don't. They don't compare at all. You know, it's a lot of laziness in the bullshit of this new shit. You know, I mean, not to knock the songs on there, but the DJs behind them, you know, they don't have the DJ 101 training, you know. No authenticity, nothing genuine. It's not even a mixtape, first of all. Let's start right there. It's not even a mixtape. It's a digital mix. Right. And then they're not even DJs. You know, none of the takeaway from the DJs today, but real DJs back then actually physically DJed and not just play with buttons and look at the camera and play with buds and smile over here and waving at the crowd and doing this, and they ain't doing nothing. I think there's a lot of good ones out there, but then there's a lot of stuff that's just slapped together, man. It's like... It's just like slapping records, what they call it, you know? It's like there's no, there's no thought to it, you know? There's no creativity anymore. But there's a couple out there that might be dope, you know, but it just needs more creativity, man. There's not enough thought into it, man. Not enough cuts and scratches and all that. Because at the end of the day... That's one of the main big things of hip-hop, you know, and you don't hear that no more. So I think that's that's the difference. There's no creativity. Oh a whole lot, a whole lot man. I mean those were mixtapes. People put work into them. People put work, you know. There were, first of all, I think they were done on a four track cassette. Another one thing was there were cassettes that were really mixed tapes, mixed tapes. Now, I think it's just like... Let me record something and just put it on that pif or something. And it's my mixtape. But they don't have no kind of nothing. They didn't put no work into it. I mean, it is what it is, you know. But there was a big difference. There was a big difference. A mixtape, big difference. The difference between the mixtapes now and the way the Rody mixtapes were put together was... The Rody mixtapes were more of a... Something that was really carefully put together and not saying the stuff today is not but Just back in the day to do like a Rogan mixtape the first two minutes that you're just hearing Would take you know, whether it was Dr. Dre or tonier it would take hours and hours maybe even days just for that it was just a perfected perfected craft and everything just had to be absolutely right and linked together perfectly these mixtapes today are garbage no imagination I don't even know why they call them mixtapes. It's just songs. 1987 was my first rodeo mixtape that I actually did for Steve Yonner. It featured Supersonic, which was performed by J.J. Fabb. That song would eventually go on Double Plantin', but that was actually our first song that we put on Side A that I actually cut and scratched for Steve. And keep in mind, 1987, I mean, the 80s was just such a dope year. I had such a variety of songs to cut and scratch for Steve. But that was the very first song that we felt strongest coming out that year. And we featured it and it was dope tape, 1987 was it. The impact that the Rhodium mixtapes had on hip hop on the West Coast was crucial. We had like, we was limited for our sources. We didn't have no FM station banging it out like, y'all can turn that shit on now and listen to like probably three different stations or four if you can. reach out a little longer, you know. So to me, the Rhodium mixtape was so crucial because they played some of our backyard heroes, like our hometown heroes. They played Ice-T. I heard King-T there. Eazy-E was like one of the first times I ever even... met Eazy-E or had any like a conversation or interaction with Eazy-E was at the fucking Rhodium Swap meet. Myself and J-Rock and of course the Beat Junkies and a lot of cats that grew up from that time we were influenced what was coming out whether it be on K-Date or on the Rhodium mixtapes. We were definitely uh some of my mixes were were how I do my mixes are are influenced by the Rhodium mixtapes. The Rhodium Swap meet. uh mixtapes had a huge impact on on hip-hop and the hip-hop culture because it was different and uh you know wasn't nobody doing it like that you know you had new york they was doing mixtapes but you know you had nwa who was saying whatever the fuck they wanted to say motherfuckers wasn't doing that shit speaking how they wanted to speak you know and what that did was was open up a lane for what they call gangster rap today. And it created a lot of lanes and opened up a lot of lanes for artists like myself to be able to come out. You know, I'm part of the tree. I'm a branch on the tree that Dre and Eazy started. You know, and then on my branch, you got Snoop, the Dog Pound, 50 Cent, Eminem, and all of those guys. You know, that's all on my branch, the chronic. And that's what it created, man. Because of the Rhodium mixtape, I'm sitting here today as a world famous DJ. Like I said, I've traveled the world. I've dealt with every artist you could think of. And the impact of Rhodium mixtapes, it taught you who artists was. It got you familiar with who artists were. I didn't even know who Eazy-E was. I didn't know who Tone Luke was. I didn't know who MC Rain was. I didn't know who Ice Cube was. I knew that because I wrote a mixtape when they were saying their name at rapping. So mixtapes introduced the world to artists as they still do today. And as they've done since the beginning of time, when hip-hop started in the Bronx, in the park, and then they would record the jams in the park, and those tapes would circulate, and that's how hip-hop spreaded. It comes through mixtapes. Mixtapes and DJs are the foundation of hip-hop and always will be. Man, like, the N.W.A. and Eazy-E music hit the road and swapped me mixtapes first. Like when we dropped our records, man, it was like, it was cool putting your records out. But even though people knew who Dre was and I was and Cube and Yella before, they didn't really know who Eazy was. But not until, you know, Boyz n the Hood. and some of that, you know, Fat Girl and L.A. is the place that stuff hit the mixtapes, man. That's what kind of put it out there for people to know, like, what is this Eazy-E? What is this N.W.A. thing? So I think it was like a big, big push. The impact I think it had for West Coast artists was, you know, from Mixmaster Spade, Tidy T, you know, N.W.A. Definitely, you know, even, you know, myself, Quick, Second, High C, you know. the people got to hear it just from the grassroots level before they heard it on the radio before they saw you on tv you know knowing that the you know that you came from the um the rhodium swap meet and which is basically the epicenter of you know the birthplace of hip-hop in la when you're going into the the mainstream you know i should say the mainstream level um yeah and steve was important to that for sure wow um The instrumentation of all the importance of the Rhodium Swamp meeting and the mixtapes in the careers of Eazy-E and N.W.A. and Dre and Yella and a lot of other folks too, even Battle Cat, you know. was very, very high because, again, they needed an outlet, particularly when people weren't really checking for them and that sound that they were trying to create elsewhere. At the Rhodium, you had at least a way to sort of mass market your stuff and have people listen to it and give it an opportunity and give it a chance. BANG! Feel that... Problem? Yo, this is your main man C, broadcasting live from the rodeo. We got Hi-C and DJ Tony A in the place today, and they'll be taking calls for the next hour. 1, 2, 3, drop it! I was at the mall, sipping on a milkshake, playing the wall, taking a break. Extra, extra, read all about it. It's me, Cecil, that has been down. Yeah, we're back to work. I took time off. All the rappers got... Talkin' to you, oh yeah Talkin' to you, oh yeah Talkin' to you, oh yeah Not talkin' about a black or white thing Cause that would cause conflict and make you so legit What do you do in a situation like this? Do you get tough or get this? Hey, listen up, man Some other girls are filling your head with jive Now you're acting like you don't know that I'm alive For all the fellas, try to do what those ladies tell us Get shot down cause you're overzealous Play hard to get, you nasty All you got to do now Express yourself, yo, cause Dre's in the neighborhood And he's up to no good, with N.W.A. the lynch mob And we at the rhodium as usual, with my man Steve of course And on the motherfuckin' wheels of steel is my homeboy Tony A. the wizard And we gon' kick it off somethin' like this I'm gonna tell you right off the top what made Steve's Rodeo mixtape stand his little his little store different from other stores like all the regular places that you go to for one he was playing the music loud you could hear this shit like when you go into a store you hear like they don't want to disturb nobody they playing that shit all low it might give you a little sample of that shit Steve had that shit when you came by he was like He was like, God damn, he walked by. Like, you couldn't help but to, like, move. Like, what the hell is that? Oh, this is new shit. And it would make you stop. Actually, the music he had, I mean, he had... Everything that the record company, the real record stores and the towers and the Sam Goody's and the warehouses and stuff like that wouldn't touch or just didn't have access to somehow seemed like, you know, Yano had the plug and the access to get a lot of new fresh street music as it came out. I believe it was number one, the hospitality, you know, when when you have somebody that greets you, you know what I mean? almost on some mom-and-pop type approach and has a personal relationship with the artist whose records he's gonna put on the racks you know he had all the independent records including the cold chillin fourth and Broadway Tommy Boy you couldn't really find those at the warehouse and other stores so he also had up number of them, you know, you could buy doubles there, you know, not like a single here, a single there. So that's what made Rodium Swap Me great. Back then, if you wanted to go buy the song you were listening on K-Day, it was harder. You know, you could go to Sam Goode, you can go to the Warehouse, Tower Records, but you didn't really want to go to the spot. You wanted to go to the Swap Me, because you were going to do one run. You were going to go get a white tee, you were going to go get some boxers and socks. and you're gonna go get your music right there and if you were a dj you were in paradise you know but for us that were just buying tapes for our rides and you know listening to with the pad they had the best selection the most selection and they just it was street shit compared to a corporate store that didn't understand us back then we had um some goodies the warehouse music plus toddler records etc you know if you wanted to get your you uh mainstream records you go there if you wanted to get your bruce springsteen's your madonna's then you go to those record stores but if you wanted to get an independent artist like a mix master spade you know if you wanted to get a king t record if you wanted to get a young mc if you wanted to get a boys in the hood you went to the rhodium to get what was hot i remember people telling me man i couldn't find planet rock anywhere else i went to the rhodium steve had doubles steve never ran out and in case if he did you can go next week and he would have it for you brand new box open it up with a razor blade pull it out and give it give it to you and they were still $3.99 for 12 inch albums were like $7.99 etc i mean that's what made steve stand differently not only his hospitality not only you know susan and carlos and paulie and already working there but it was just the whole experience that if you didn't want to buy a 12 inch record or you didn't want to buy an album you could buy a mixtape he'll slap open the book and you could pick whatever songs you want, all the hottest stuff, all the independent stuff, stuff that you couldn't find anywhere else. That's what you would find. That's what made Steve Stan so unique. Being a DJ, you... You got to know Steve Yano. If you didn't know Steve Yano, where do you think all the ultimate beats and breaks came from? We didn't fly to New York to whatever that, I forgot that, downstairs record together. We got them at the Rodium. You wanted anything hot on vinyl, you go to the Rodium because Steve had it. If he didn't have it, he'll have it next week for you because you, I need this. All right, come back next week. The Rodium is hip-hop. And if these kids don't know about it, you get to go out there and do your research because the Rodium is hip-hop. It's always been that. We got to rock Before I start rocking, let's get one thing stated My name is Ice-T when you pronounce the A-T But I'm not Chantilly to bring us drinkies new I'm Ice capital T, yo, but the B for this tune You too And we got to rock Oh, here comes that fool right there, man Yo man, let me get two. Hey man, what the hell took you so long, bro? Oh man, you know how it is out here on these streets. You had me waiting. Hold on, let me check this 20's real. Alright, go ahead man. Show them the back. Oh yeah, let me get that Joe Beats 24-7. Yeah, make sure you go and get them too, man. Get the hell out of here. Mmm, drop! Drink the juice of the kiwi, that's when you see me Hype like Super Mario or Luigi Keep ya hoppin', make sure ya hipin' Tony A is cuttin' Get a good grip and just to focus out the way you're achieving You want a fresh take, you better rush it to Steven It's high seas, hell of a lyrics and beats But I'm outta here with the in-between machine Hey, canister, hey Hey As far as I can see, I wanna keep you here Looking next to me, sharing our love Between the sheets a rhodium mixtape is probably the best of the West I remember hearing batteram and you know the early Eazy-E I heard a lot of dr. Dre mixes and stuff like that and then you would hear the mix matches on K-Day and you know I guess some of them guys made made the tapes too so you know it was about being in the synergy of what was happening you know if you got a mixtape you hear some of the good stuff some of the new stuff blend it with the old and it made you know you know back in the day the nissan truck era and all that stuff you would hear everybody bumping the same things you know what i mean so if you had the tapes you was on point Just like kids got the downloads now, whoever gets it first, and you know, the mixtapes was like that. Every weekend you go in the back to see who got the new tapes coming out. So that was always the epicenter of what was going on in L.A. creatively through music. Man, so a rhodium mixtape is this, I call it a West Coast sound thing. Like, it was something that people on the West Coast... could kind of hear what was up and coming off the west coast because you know back in the early 80s like 83 84 the west coast it just now started getting into music you know like being producers and artists and djs so the mix Mixtape was something that was like introducing them cats on the West Coast that was up and coming with some old school stuff mixed in and a little sprinkle of like some of the stuff that was coming off the East Coast that we was banging in the club. So it was kind of like this thing that was, you know, kind of introducing people to the hot sound and actually telling people what to actually buy at the Rhodium Swap Meet at, you know, Yano's spot. A Rhodium Mixtape is sort of different. than a regular mixtape at that time. A lot of the stuff from the Rhodium, when you got a mixtape from the Rhodium Swapleet, and particularly from Steve Yano's booth, you would hear songs you never heard before. You know, you would hear some East Coast, you know, boom bap, or you'd hear records and mixes, special mixes of records and stuff that you had never even thought to consider before. Steve was very good at finding those gems and really finding records that were unique. And so, you know, you grab those and you'd hear, you knew when you bought a mixtape from the Rhodium Swamp Meet, it was going to be something different and unique from the other mixtapes that you had heard. And Rhodium Mixtape is, in my perspective, a collage of creative mixing, blending, scratching, cutting, and teaching. What I mean by teaching is it's all genres of music in the era of, like, say, hip-hop. You take every genre of music from that era and you blend it. So, for instance, 88 Woman Bass was... everything from 88 on down that was played. So you will have records from 84 to 88 that was all collaged and mixed together and it's just a creative, it's a master, it's a creative masterpiece of mixing and blending and cutting and scratching and that's basically what it is. It's non-stop, it never stops, always continues through the whole tape, never stops. A Rodeo mixtape to me. It's something that just symbolizes the streets, especially the Los Angeles streets, you know, the West Coast. That's, like, to me, that's where it all started right there. So that, to me, anytime I hear the rodeo mixtape, to me, that just symbolizes LA all day. And, you know, it's like there's nothing but good West Coast heat came out of there. And, you know, that's where you went out and you got your daily dose of hip-hop that you couldn't hear on the radio. So, you know, so... That's basically what it means to me. If you think about it, the mixtapes, Rhodium mixtapes, were kind of a precursor to the internet. YouTube or you want to say Instagram, you know, because the mixtapes were circulated all over the city. And once your mixtape came out, a new mixtape came out, everybody was anxious to hear who's new, what are they saying, what style they have, where they from. of like artists like NWA, Dre. I'll be honest with you when I started we quit we kind of Remember that we bit a little bit of the Nerodian Swap Mixtape on our DEA mixtape? Man, that's a little tough, but I'll tell you what, it was the best thing ever for me, man. It was just kind of like something you never heard about. But the intro had like this crazy mix that I, at the time, I believed that it was like four turntables at the same time. But I was like, how the hell are they doing this? Like, was it Superman behind the turntables or something like that? But Mixtape was... A real mixtape. It was actually a cassette too, you know, just for the record. Get it, Clay! Just in one, two, one, two Right about now, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre's in the motherfuckin' house Times are gettin' crazy, it's really hard to choose it The rhodium's the spot to get funky, fresh music Easy motherfuckin' E, and my homeboy Dr. Dre MC Ren is in effect, and you know we don't play The rhodium is hittin', but you know you can't leave Until you get a deaf-ass tape from Steve Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Yeah Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Yeah man, I came all the way down to the rodeo spot One of them W.A. tapes, man Fuck your homeboy Steve down, man, and he said I'm fresh out of taste Man, how the fuck you fresh out of taste, man? He said cause they selling like hotcakes and shit, man Got my man throwing that Hey Paul, what's for dinner? I don't know How were the mixtapes made? Well, that's actually a big mystery that a lot of people would always ask me. They always thought for some reason I always had four turntables. I mean, that's what I thought Dre had, but it wasn't four turntables. I would tell people that because I didn't want people to know my secrets. I didn't want people to know what I was like, how I was actually making them. But it was that we were actually using a Tascam 4-tracker. It was a little bitty box like this. With four volumes, one master volume, and all we had was two turntables and a mixer. People think that we probably had this big studio, four turntables, a Newmark mixer. I had a Radio Shack mixer and two old Technique 1200s that I actually bought used. Steve would bring over the records. He actually taught me how to do the Rodeo mixtapes. He would tell me, this is the way Dre did it. This is the way I'm putting them together. I'm showing you and then from there you get creative and you do your do it your way and uh so yeah that was the secret a Tascam 4-track but I would tell everybody I was using for turntables it was a great platform for us to be a part of you know definitely have to say tops up for that because like you said that gave us a leeway into the game it's almost like we was all we were just um we did a trial run through a record label because uh Your mixtapes was basically like a label, man. You know, it just didn't have people signed on it, but it was propelling people to the next level, you know? It was introducing people to the street, you know? I mean, we... They knew 2nd and None in Compton, but they didn't know 2nd and None in Inglewood. They didn't know them in, you know, Carson and Gardena, all the other local areas until, you know, they started hearing us on the Swap Meet. You know, the Rhodium Swap Meet tape, you know. And I'm just glad we was a part of that, man. My experience during the 80s with the Rhodium and mixtapes in general, it was a great time for music to me. Great time for hip-hop. Because you have to be a thinker, you have to be imaginative, you have to be creative. You know, now these guys, you know, everything is done for you in the computer. You know, press a button, pow, it's a mix. You know, Steve is definitely a part of the beginning. He was there, gave everybody a voice. And that was in the beginning. It gave everybody inspiration to want to do more, like you. Made you want to do more. Like me, made me want to do it. Like Q, everybody, R.I.N.D. It goes down, it goes, it goes, it goes, it goes. The list is so long on how the Rhodium Swap meet inspired people to be able to put music out because people couldn't put music out out there. You know what I'm saying? So you get your little song and you put it on the rhodium swap meet, it'll be all over LA. I was in awe of just how big of a volume that you could go and get the tapes at that that time and it was it was dope man for real and it definitely plays a critical part of like i said the the birth of west coast hip-hop because so much sound was you know that came out of the rhodium and different swap meets santa fe spring swap meet and stuff like that That were actually the places, a hub, where the break dancers, pop lockers, street kids, everybody would go actually to go get their tapes and stuff. And man, I remember even hearing like some of the stuff from the Rodeo mixtapes back in the day, man. And man, seeing what we were doing on our side and it was dope, man, to be part of that, for real. How much of an impact do white things, the mixtapes had at that time? The Rodeo mixtapes, I believe, were a huge impact. And I'm going to tell you why. There are well-known DJs, even DJs on the radio, that still talk about the Rodeo mixtape as if it was a movement, as if it was an experience, as if it was something they saw. Not only did they hear it, but it was just an experience to go to the Rodeo to buy your new mixtape, to be able to walk up to the stands and hear, you know, Dr. Dre here at the Rodeo. Yo, I'm right, Tony A. yo, I'm high C, yo, I'm Q, yo, I'm Eazy. To hear all of these legends, you know, bust on a mixtape. And eventually, these guys end up blowing up, making platinum gold records, traveling worldwide. 2018, these people are still known worldwide. And where did it start? At the Rolium. So you ask me, how much of an impact? It was a great impact. Just ask Dre. Just ask Q. Just rest in peace, easy. They will tell you that it was a huge impact on their career. When we didn't have radio play, you know what we had? We had the Rhodium Swapmeat. You bite this tape, boy, get real Down the road to the rodeo It's time to tell you where I'm from Cause C.I.A. chillin' and W.A. chillin' I wish you suckers please stop killin' It was once said by a man drinkin' eight Yo, Steve, please can I buy a dope tape? Steve said, yo, man, I don't give a fuck But two must up ten motherfuckin' bucks It all happened in a nigga press play Her death cut by a doctor's rate That's the way it go Cause that's the shame Steve coming up by swinging chains Niggas all around at the rodeo, I'm having Steve is selling by 24-7 My name is Ice Cube in the motherfucking place Yo, Dre, kick in the Bass After so many documentaries, why do you think the Rodium Mixtapes or Steve Yano have been excluded? You know, man, Steve and the Rodium Swap Meet and the Mixtapes... have been excluded because just like Lonzo's just now getting his recognition you know the people who want to tell the story don't know the story they don't know who to talk to most of the people I find in trying to tell this hip hop story are people who weren't even born yet. You know, you got people in their 30s trying to tell a story that happened 30 years ago. They hear certain parts and they won't hire a consultant. They won't hire somebody like Alonzo or somebody who really knows or Violet or even a Kelvin Anderson who knows all the players. A lot of people came from the sorority of Swap Me, just like people came from Crew Cut Records, people came from Kelvin Anderson, people came from VIP Records. All of us, we were the foundation of everything West Coast. Nobody seemed to care about the roots of... the story they just want to see the leaves it's like like marijuana nobody wants the stems they just want the buds okay uh you know i'm i often think about that too when i wonder about that i see it mentioned from time to time uh i see it mentioned a lot from djs from back in the day where they mentioned wow if it wasn't for these tapes i wouldn't have known about this artist they really praised those tapes i think the artist uh Sometimes they just don't talk about their roots and that sort of thing. And I think it's disgraceful sometimes because that is definitely, I know for a fact, that's where a lot of these artists got their start. You know what, I can't answer that one. I don't have an answer for that one. I don't know why they exclude the whole rhodium mixtape, especially from the West Coast. Steve Yano was a very key element in this West Coast movement, man. I think it's hard because, I mean, why... Steve and the Rhodium Swapmeat or mixtapes I've been not mentioned because it's either they don't know about it or just don't want to talk about it. It's a good question. You know, it's kind of sad that the legacy of Steve Yano and the Rhodium Swapmeat and his store have kind of been... excluded from history. I think a lot of it has to do with it was the earliest denominator. A lot of times something that comes around so early and is so special and a lot of people didn't didn't have access to the rhodium swap meter that it was kind of like that hidden gem a lot of people went to the bigger you know record stores and stuff like that but the real fools who know and the dudes on the west coast who actually got all their stuff and did stuff actually went there but i think that you know as time went on it just was something that not too many people knew about this gem it was almost like a special place for those who was actually making the music djing the music and and stuff like that and we need to actually talk about that more. I think one of the reasons why the the rhodium mixtapes and steviano always always been excluded because I think it was just too underground it was a too hardcore for a lot of people I guess or to you know it was just too hard to find sometimes but at the end of the day it wasn't that hard to find because word of mouth grows pretty quick so you know We were able to get a hold of it one way or another, but I think maybe it was just to me, I think it was just too hardcore, too underground for a lot of people. I think I've been excluded for a few reasons because not a lot of people. We're advocating, you know, the importance of Steve Yano and what he was able to do and what the Rhodium Swamp Meet was as a gathering place for all of us, for all of us DJs and MCs and people in hip-hop at that time, because not enough people were really promoting that narrative, it sort of got washed over or glossed over, if you will. I think people just forget, you know, just forget, you know, where a lot of stuff starts. because of the you know at the moment you know they asking you so many questions and you know you go back to this not really digging that far back because it's you know it's not like you writing a book so they go only so far but I mean I'm gonna start mentioning it you know because it was a very big big part of hip-hop in the hip-hop culture I mean West Coast hip-hop and the hip-hop culture And that's what created N.W.A. and Eazy and a lot of other people, you know. It's like, yeah, you know, I think he should have been included definitely in some of the things that were documentaries that were put out because Steve Yano had a big influence on on hip hop, not just West Coast hip hop. That was a big influence, but on hip hop, period, because they were playing a lot of East Coast music as well. So it wasn't just West Coast records you were hearing on these mixtapes. So it enlightened you to. everything hip-hop. There's been a lot of documentaries on West Coast hip-hop. They tend to go to the big groups, you know, the big names that were from the West Coast and focus on Tupac. And it's understandable that they do that. And it's almost good that they didn't mention it. That way we can bust it out. We can tell the story of it. You know what I'm saying? Because Steve Yano really broke down to a lot of the ethnicity connected to hip-hop. Hip-hop is like that glue. but they got to go back they've got to go and know who these groups are you know what i'm saying you throw on a second it's not tape right now it stands on its own dj quip songs you know what i'm saying that could play right right now i think steve yano falls into another category of being quote unquote one of hip-hop's minority he's one of the minorities of hip-hop this is a predominantly pretty run black Art that we're in and we're hip-hop's minority. I mean, you got an Asian guy that was out there in the forefront, bringing music out there to the forefront. Sometimes some of us that are doing that, sometimes people forget history. They want to rewrite history. And some of the good people that actually were pioneer, because we can't take that away from Steve Yano. He definitely was a pioneer of West Coast hip-hop. He was putting out music out there. when nobody else had a real outlet for it you know i mean and nobody else was really doing that you can't forget man you can't forget this as part of west coast hip-hop that some people that like i said that they fall between the cracks of of their input and all that but we can't let this happen man and that's why these documentaries and these things like this are Very important so that people know that when it comes to West Coast hip-hop, there's people that actually play pivotal major roles. I think Second to None was like the best out of everybody that ever been on the tapes. No bullshit. It's the Jack the Ripper, one hitter, quitter, with a cop the nigga real quick on the trigger. It's a celebration for one of the best for Tony A on the cut. You about to get blessed. Now the rest could try, but they not seeing my man. And I will testify as a number one fan, I gotta rectify. Cause from where I stand, I should've did this in the 80s like the way that we planned. He been dope since Adidas and Datsuns. You think you can get him? You don't want them problems. 6'3 and the guns is yoked. Run up if you want, something getting broke. Manipulating records sounds like a band. I just want to mount four. But while I hide seeing them, just step my name up for a proper introduction. I narrate the beat, the strings, and the percussion. And when I need to catch my breath, you get the main course. The star of the show, the alpha of the source. I can brag all day and I tell the truth, wouldn't you? Never mind, Tony A, show them what you can do. Damn that shit! Then it goes a little soft like this. Damn that shit! The

Drop that face Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby Gotta go make the cell look good So just for once After this, you wanna go up to Santa Cruz? You hungry? Yeah. Alright. I'm gonna buy you a beer.

What's up, kid? You like my reels? What's up man, what you need? I need two.

Let me see the money. Open it up. What you need? High C and K-Makes. Get the hell out of here man.

It's my command, it's wiggle your- Hey Tony, drop that what, please? I bet. The tray and the place to be. Co-rock and shit with my homeboy Steve.

After rodeo, get stupid dumb. Yo, don't think that you can get none of the tray. The motherfuckin' doctor, the bitch hopper.

The sucker mother- Motherfuckin' stop up. I'm fucked up so don't mind what I'm sayin'. I'm just kickin' it with Steve, Tony, A.M., Susan.

Yo, we can choose it. No shit to put in a mix. You know what I'm sayin'? We kick shit like who's in it and who's in it. That's a fact, and if your shit ain't in the mix, you know it's whack And that ain't no bullshit, I'm kicking facts on a serious tip Word up, Dr. Dre's in full effect, doing serious damage, boy Okay, I'm gonna drop a name.

Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Steve Yano. Man, he was just a very special cat that I had a lot of love and respect for, you know, once I got to know him. Steve Yano, the king of the West Coast mixtape scene. Brilliant.

Steve Yano, first thing that comes to mind. Business. Willing to help. Intelligent.

Hardworking. Good person. Man, the sound of the West Coast music scene and the place where we all got our early hits. Record scientist.

Ghetto record hood scientist. Cool motherfucker. Cool motherfucker. Back in the day, the swamis were poppin'. That's where it all started for me.

The Vermont is where I first met Steve. From there, I began to buy music from VIP Records, as well as the Compton Indoor. But at the Rhodium is where it all happened for me. I'll share with us when and where you first met Steve Yano. Wow, Steve Yano, Steve and Susan.

Wow, what a duo. What was special about Steve is how knowledgeable about, you know, not being black, you know, African American, how knowledgeable he was about the music in general, but especially underground music. He seemed to have a special love for it.

And. Definitely played a major, major part on launching a lot of the independent recording artist careers back in the day. When I first met Steve, it was when Dre had moved with us.

And Steve used to come bring the van, all the crates and stuff. Because he used to come to my house. A lot of merodium swap meet tapes was made at my house in the basement. And it's the same house.

It's straight out of Compton house. You know, straight out of Compton. A lot of stuff happened at our house and Steve used to come there with Dr. Dre and make all the tapes and I'd be sitting there just kind of like America, what do you call it, straight out of Compton. That scene in Straight Outta Compton, Steve just had to be there and it would have been the same thing. I used to be at Audio Achievements, the studio that Dre and NWA and EZ used to work at.

You know, I was just a kid around, and I used to see him come up to the studio, and he would bring Dre records and stuff like that that he would order from. So that's when I first got a chance to meet him. Man, I remember meeting Steve Yon. with Dre for the first time.

We used to always go to the Rodeo Swap Meet, you know, like shopping for t-shirts and, you know, stuff before we would go do shows. And there was this little spot over in the tent. And this guy, My name, Steve Yano, had his little spot selling, you know, vinyl records and stuff like that. And we would go there and always pick up some records before we would go to shows. So Dre was like, man, you got to meet this cat, man.

He like real, real cool. He wants me to do some stuff for him. And, you know, so I went over there with Dre. And it had to be like 1984, 1985 when I first met Steve.

I met Steve Yano, man. Donald Pico. I was a... selling Z Rocks, one of my first underground mixed 12 inches. We called them bootlegs back then.

And because I didn't know the record business worth a damn, I knew how to make them, I knew how to produce them. And I would sell them like they was dope. Because most records have a little ring on the bottom of it. Do not copy. Copying this product would be federal copyright.

And anytime I saw the word federal at that point in time, I'm thinking FBI. Okay. Even when I saw Federal Express, I got nervous.

Okay. I bought Pico. And I walk in with my little dolly. I drop off about 150 records to Saturn Records. And...

Steve was in there, and I dropped off the records. Guy gave me the money, and Steve was like, hey, you guys sell these records? I acted like I didn't hear a word he said, kept on walking. I'm like, fuck you, I don't know you. An Asian dude in the record business?

I mean, I don't know the fuck. I'm out of here, okay? So George, the guy behind the counter, says, hey, Lonzo, he's okay, man. He has the rhodium swap me.

I'm like, okay, I don't trust none of y'all. Ain't none of y'all black. I don't trust none of y'all, okay? So I went by the swap meet, checked him out, and he was legit. I mean, look.

white food and we were cool somebody come on to the studio shit have a drink got down to be a drink so we're hanging out in the studio the same studio we in right now and he came out hung out he would hang out sometimes you know and he got to meet Dre and yelling the fellas they invited him out to the squat meet and that's how I met Steve he became one of my best customers forever I was about 17 years old when I first heard a rodeo mixtape a friend from high school was actually playing the cassette on his radio I grabbed the cassette case and it said 85 Live. I continued listening to it. I heard about three or four songs playing around the same time. I heard cutting, scratching. I heard scratching coming in very quickly.

I'm like, how is this guy doing this? You know, the mystery was, you're thinking that he's using four turntables, whoever's doing this. As it kept going, all of a sudden I heard Dr. Dre.

The only Dr. Dre I knew was from the World Class Wrecking Crew. And then I heard the Rodeon. And then I heard Steve Yano and I put it together.

Dr. Dre was actually doing tape for Steve Yano at the rodeo. From that point on, I wanted to talk and catch up with my old friend Steve and find out how he knew Dr. Dre. I would have to say it was like my senior year of high school, 1985-ish in there, 86 in there.

Crazy D, who happened to be the only Mexican dude down with NWA at that time, he was also down from my neighborhood. So he'd go back and forth to mess with myself and the Cypress dudes. And then he'd go to Eazy and them and do all that. And I believe it was Crazy D who brought a tape over. And of course some 40s.

You know D. Back then, toss back some 40s, play some tapes. I first heard of Rhodium Mixtape when I had the little chippers to go up and actually buy it.

You know what I'm saying? I just started buying tapes. I started actually airbrushing t-shirts behind Steve's shop.

Steve had the big one with maybe five or six booths, maybe ten booths. And I had one little one with my pops behind it. And I would airbrush t-shirts. And when I would get paid at the end of the day, I'd run over before it closed.

and I'll buy them tapes and take them. it's home you know and we heard about this young kid from the harbor area named tony a and he was a dj homes and he was going in with the big with the big stars you know what i'm saying and he was like one of us going in and infiltrating inside of all these mcs you know what i'm saying and uh his name would ring around the hood and people were like oh yeah he's from wheelmaster blah blah you know so we kind of felt the connection of like man if he's out there we can do that shit and I think that's when I fell in love with hip-hop, man. You know what I'm saying? The first time I heard a Rodium mixtape, man, was that same old trip working. I was working in the corner.

We were selling pants. We used to deal with all the ladies that wanted to come by these tight pants. That's when stretch pants was like the thing. But look, man, I walked back to the bathroom and I just heard like some stuff that I kind of knew from the neighborhood that was like, man, how did they get this record? And then I heard some scratching.

and back then if you heard scratching you heard bass you heard you was just like a fly on shit you was gonna just and land in that shit i came over there and was like man what the hell is this and this and that and then i started talking and steve was i think he was said was it 10 bucks for a tape i can't remember i think it was 10 bucks for a tape and it was a cassette tape turns the phrase mixtape you know what i mean not mix cd not mix mp3 not Mix whatever fuck I ain't dissing y'all shit, but y'all know what it is know the history of this shit When did I first hear of Rodeo mixtape? I first heard the rodeo mixtape. It was 1989 January 9th.

I was in Fountain Valley, California for the first time I came out here as a kid Before I got into music. I used to um race BMX We were in the parking lot And I had a friend named Jesse Puentes. He was one of my partners I used to ride bikes with. And he had this big boom box in the parking lot. And we were just riding our bikes in the parking lot doing tricks.

And he played this tape. And it came on and it went. Hey, yo, Steve, you got a level? Get busy with EZ.

And Tony A on the 12 Techniques. See, it's a steal. And Steve is promoting them dope-ass tapes by The Wizard at the Rodeo.

Yo, fuck it up, Tony. I can feel it, I've overcome, I'm rockin' shit at the rhodium Can you hear it? The taste from Steven, rockin' from the morning to the evening Dr. Dre is here, so it's time to move, or I'm gonna have to diss you I'm up for you, you know it's legit, the Dre's gonna rock and shit, and you feel it The difference between today's mixtape and the rhodium mixtape And not just because I did them. Let's just say that I never did not one rodeo mixtape, and all we had was Dr. Dre's.

There is absolutely no comparison today. Let's understand that hip-hop started with the DJ. The mixtape started with the DJ.

So today, the mixtape's rappers have taken over that title, that name, mixtape. But it really belongs to the DJ. So really, there is no comparison. If you want to call it something else, Cool.

I wouldn't have anything to say about that. But to call it a mixtape, I do have a problem with that. I do, because I think you're taking somewhat of the glory away from the DJ when they came up with that name, the mixtape, which is on cassette. Your stuff is not even on cassette.

How do the mixtapes compare from back today from then? They don't. They don't compare at all.

You know, it's a lot of laziness in the bullshit of this new shit. You know, I mean, not to knock the songs on there, but the DJs behind them, you know, they don't have the DJ 101 training, you know. No authenticity, nothing genuine.

It's not even a mixtape, first of all. Let's start right there. It's not even a mixtape. It's a digital mix. Right.

And then they're not even DJs. You know, none of the takeaway from the DJs today, but real DJs back then actually physically DJed and not just play with buttons and look at the camera and play with buds and smile over here and waving at the crowd and doing this, and they ain't doing nothing. I think there's a lot of good ones out there, but then there's a lot of stuff that's just slapped together, man. It's like... It's just like slapping records, what they call it, you know?

It's like there's no, there's no thought to it, you know? There's no creativity anymore. But there's a couple out there that might be dope, you know, but it just needs more creativity, man. There's not enough thought into it, man.

Not enough cuts and scratches and all that. Because at the end of the day... That's one of the main big things of hip-hop, you know, and you don't hear that no more. So I think that's that's the difference.

There's no creativity. Oh a whole lot, a whole lot man. I mean those were mixtapes. People put work into them. People put work, you know.

There were, first of all, I think they were done on a four track cassette. Another one thing was there were cassettes that were really mixed tapes, mixed tapes. Now, I think it's just like...

Let me record something and just put it on that pif or something. And it's my mixtape. But they don't have no kind of nothing.

They didn't put no work into it. I mean, it is what it is, you know. But there was a big difference. There was a big difference.

A mixtape, big difference. The difference between the mixtapes now and the way the Rody mixtapes were put together was... The Rody mixtapes were more of a... Something that was really carefully put together and not saying the stuff today is not but Just back in the day to do like a Rogan mixtape the first two minutes that you're just hearing Would take you know, whether it was Dr. Dre or tonier it would take hours and hours maybe even days just for that it was just a perfected perfected craft and everything just had to be absolutely right and linked together perfectly these mixtapes today are garbage no imagination I don't even know why they call them mixtapes.

It's just songs. 1987 was my first rodeo mixtape that I actually did for Steve Yonner. It featured Supersonic, which was performed by J.J.

Fabb. That song would eventually go on Double Plantin', but that was actually our first song that we put on Side A that I actually cut and scratched for Steve. And keep in mind, 1987, I mean, the 80s was just such a dope year.

I had such a variety of songs to cut and scratch for Steve. But that was the very first song that we felt strongest coming out that year. And we featured it and it was dope tape, 1987 was it.

The impact that the Rhodium mixtapes had on hip hop on the West Coast was crucial. We had like, we was limited for our sources. We didn't have no FM station banging it out like, y'all can turn that shit on now and listen to like probably three different stations or four if you can.

reach out a little longer, you know. So to me, the Rhodium mixtape was so crucial because they played some of our backyard heroes, like our hometown heroes. They played Ice-T. I heard King-T there. Eazy-E was like one of the first times I ever even...

met Eazy-E or had any like a conversation or interaction with Eazy-E was at the fucking Rhodium Swap meet. Myself and J-Rock and of course the Beat Junkies and a lot of cats that grew up from that time we were influenced what was coming out whether it be on K-Date or on the Rhodium mixtapes. We were definitely uh some of my mixes were were how I do my mixes are are influenced by the Rhodium mixtapes. The Rhodium Swap meet. uh mixtapes had a huge impact on on hip-hop and the hip-hop culture because it was different and uh you know wasn't nobody doing it like that you know you had new york they was doing mixtapes but you know you had nwa who was saying whatever the fuck they wanted to say motherfuckers wasn't doing that shit speaking how they wanted to speak you know and what that did was was open up a lane for what they call gangster rap today.

And it created a lot of lanes and opened up a lot of lanes for artists like myself to be able to come out. You know, I'm part of the tree. I'm a branch on the tree that Dre and Eazy started.

You know, and then on my branch, you got Snoop, the Dog Pound, 50 Cent, Eminem, and all of those guys. You know, that's all on my branch, the chronic. And that's what it created, man.

Because of the Rhodium mixtape, I'm sitting here today as a world famous DJ. Like I said, I've traveled the world. I've dealt with every artist you could think of. And the impact of Rhodium mixtapes, it taught you who artists was.

It got you familiar with who artists were. I didn't even know who Eazy-E was. I didn't know who Tone Luke was. I didn't know who MC Rain was.

I didn't know who Ice Cube was. I knew that because I wrote a mixtape when they were saying their name at rapping. So mixtapes introduced the world to artists as they still do today. And as they've done since the beginning of time, when hip-hop started in the Bronx, in the park, and then they would record the jams in the park, and those tapes would circulate, and that's how hip-hop spreaded. It comes through mixtapes.

Mixtapes and DJs are the foundation of hip-hop and always will be. Man, like, the N.W.A. and Eazy-E music hit the road and swapped me mixtapes first. Like when we dropped our records, man, it was like, it was cool putting your records out.

But even though people knew who Dre was and I was and Cube and Yella before, they didn't really know who Eazy was. But not until, you know, Boyz n the Hood. and some of that, you know, Fat Girl and L.A.

is the place that stuff hit the mixtapes, man. That's what kind of put it out there for people to know, like, what is this Eazy-E? What is this N.W.A. thing? So I think it was like a big, big push. The impact I think it had for West Coast artists was, you know, from Mixmaster Spade, Tidy T, you know, N.W.A. Definitely, you know, even, you know, myself, Quick, Second, High C, you know.

the people got to hear it just from the grassroots level before they heard it on the radio before they saw you on tv you know knowing that the you know that you came from the um the rhodium swap meet and which is basically the epicenter of you know the birthplace of hip-hop in la when you're going into the the mainstream you know i should say the mainstream level um yeah and steve was important to that for sure wow um The instrumentation of all the importance of the Rhodium Swamp meeting and the mixtapes in the careers of Eazy-E and N.W.A. and Dre and Yella and a lot of other folks too, even Battle Cat, you know. was very, very high because, again, they needed an outlet, particularly when people weren't really checking for them and that sound that they were trying to create elsewhere. At the Rhodium, you had at least a way to sort of mass market your stuff and have people listen to it and give it an opportunity and give it a chance. BANG! Feel that...

Problem? Yo, this is your main man C, broadcasting live from the rodeo. We got Hi-C and DJ Tony A in the place today, and they'll be taking calls for the next hour. 1, 2, 3, drop it!

I was at the mall, sipping on a milkshake, playing the wall, taking a break. Extra, extra, read all about it. It's me, Cecil, that has been down. Yeah, we're back to work.

I took time off. All the rappers got... Talkin' to you, oh yeah Talkin' to you, oh yeah Talkin' to you, oh yeah Not talkin' about a black or white thing Cause that would cause conflict and make you so legit What do you do in a situation like this?

Do you get tough or get this? Hey, listen up, man Some other girls are filling your head with jive Now you're acting like you don't know that I'm alive For all the fellas, try to do what those ladies tell us Get shot down cause you're overzealous Play hard to get, you nasty All you got to do now Express yourself, yo, cause Dre's in the neighborhood And he's up to no good, with N.W.A. the lynch mob And we at the rhodium as usual, with my man Steve of course And on the motherfuckin' wheels of steel is my homeboy Tony A. the wizard And we gon' kick it off somethin' like this I'm gonna tell you right off the top what made Steve's Rodeo mixtape stand his little his little store different from other stores like all the regular places that you go to for one he was playing the music loud you could hear this shit like when you go into a store you hear like they don't want to disturb nobody they playing that shit all low it might give you a little sample of that shit Steve had that shit when you came by he was like He was like, God damn, he walked by.

Like, you couldn't help but to, like, move. Like, what the hell is that? Oh, this is new shit. And it would make you stop.

Actually, the music he had, I mean, he had... Everything that the record company, the real record stores and the towers and the Sam Goody's and the warehouses and stuff like that wouldn't touch or just didn't have access to somehow seemed like, you know, Yano had the plug and the access to get a lot of new fresh street music as it came out. I believe it was number one, the hospitality, you know, when when you have somebody that greets you, you know what I mean?

almost on some mom-and-pop type approach and has a personal relationship with the artist whose records he's gonna put on the racks you know he had all the independent records including the cold chillin fourth and Broadway Tommy Boy you couldn't really find those at the warehouse and other stores so he also had up number of them, you know, you could buy doubles there, you know, not like a single here, a single there. So that's what made Rodium Swap Me great. Back then, if you wanted to go buy the song you were listening on K-Day, it was harder. You know, you could go to Sam Goode, you can go to the Warehouse, Tower Records, but you didn't really want to go to the spot.

You wanted to go to the Swap Me, because you were going to do one run. You were going to go get a white tee, you were going to go get some boxers and socks. and you're gonna go get your music right there and if you were a dj you were in paradise you know but for us that were just buying tapes for our rides and you know listening to with the pad they had the best selection the most selection and they just it was street shit compared to a corporate store that didn't understand us back then we had um some goodies the warehouse music plus toddler records etc you know if you wanted to get your you uh mainstream records you go there if you wanted to get your bruce springsteen's your madonna's then you go to those record stores but if you wanted to get an independent artist like a mix master spade you know if you wanted to get a king t record if you wanted to get a young mc if you wanted to get a boys in the hood you went to the rhodium to get what was hot i remember people telling me man i couldn't find planet rock anywhere else i went to the rhodium steve had doubles steve never ran out and in case if he did you can go next week and he would have it for you brand new box open it up with a razor blade pull it out and give it give it to you and they were still $3.99 for 12 inch albums were like $7.99 etc i mean that's what made steve stand differently not only his hospitality not only you know susan and carlos and paulie and already working there but it was just the whole experience that if you didn't want to buy a 12 inch record or you didn't want to buy an album you could buy a mixtape he'll slap open the book and you could pick whatever songs you want, all the hottest stuff, all the independent stuff, stuff that you couldn't find anywhere else.

That's what you would find. That's what made Steve Stan so unique. Being a DJ, you...

You got to know Steve Yano. If you didn't know Steve Yano, where do you think all the ultimate beats and breaks came from? We didn't fly to New York to whatever that, I forgot that, downstairs record together.

We got them at the Rodium. You wanted anything hot on vinyl, you go to the Rodium because Steve had it. If he didn't have it, he'll have it next week for you because you, I need this.

All right, come back next week. The Rodium is hip-hop. And if these kids don't know about it, you get to go out there and do your research because the Rodium is hip-hop. It's always been that. We got to rock Before I start rocking, let's get one thing stated My name is Ice-T when you pronounce the A-T But I'm not Chantilly to bring us drinkies new I'm Ice capital T, yo, but the B for this tune You too And we got to rock Oh, here comes that fool right there, man Yo man, let me get two.

Hey man, what the hell took you so long, bro? Oh man, you know how it is out here on these streets. You had me waiting.

Hold on, let me check this 20's real. Alright, go ahead man. Show them the back. Oh yeah, let me get that Joe Beats 24-7.

Yeah, make sure you go and get them too, man. Get the hell out of here. Mmm, drop! Drink the juice of the kiwi, that's when you see me Hype like Super Mario or Luigi Keep ya hoppin', make sure ya hipin' Tony A is cuttin' Get a good grip and just to focus out the way you're achieving You want a fresh take, you better rush it to Steven It's high seas, hell of a lyrics and beats But I'm outta here with the in-between machine Hey, canister, hey Hey As far as I can see, I wanna keep you here Looking next to me, sharing our love Between the sheets a rhodium mixtape is probably the best of the West I remember hearing batteram and you know the early Eazy-E I heard a lot of dr. Dre mixes and stuff like that and then you would hear the mix matches on K-Day and you know I guess some of them guys made made the tapes too so you know it was about being in the synergy of what was happening you know if you got a mixtape you hear some of the good stuff some of the new stuff blend it with the old and it made you know you know back in the day the nissan truck era and all that stuff you would hear everybody bumping the same things you know what i mean so if you had the tapes you was on point Just like kids got the downloads now, whoever gets it first, and you know, the mixtapes was like that.

Every weekend you go in the back to see who got the new tapes coming out. So that was always the epicenter of what was going on in L.A. creatively through music.

Man, so a rhodium mixtape is this, I call it a West Coast sound thing. Like, it was something that people on the West Coast... could kind of hear what was up and coming off the west coast because you know back in the early 80s like 83 84 the west coast it just now started getting into music you know like being producers and artists and djs so the mix Mixtape was something that was like introducing them cats on the West Coast that was up and coming with some old school stuff mixed in and a little sprinkle of like some of the stuff that was coming off the East Coast that we was banging in the club.

So it was kind of like this thing that was, you know, kind of introducing people to the hot sound and actually telling people what to actually buy at the Rhodium Swap Meet at, you know, Yano's spot. A Rhodium Mixtape is sort of different. than a regular mixtape at that time.

A lot of the stuff from the Rhodium, when you got a mixtape from the Rhodium Swapleet, and particularly from Steve Yano's booth, you would hear songs you never heard before. You know, you would hear some East Coast, you know, boom bap, or you'd hear records and mixes, special mixes of records and stuff that you had never even thought to consider before. Steve was very good at finding those gems and really finding records that were unique. And so, you know, you grab those and you'd hear, you knew when you bought a mixtape from the Rhodium Swamp Meet, it was going to be something different and unique from the other mixtapes that you had heard. And Rhodium Mixtape is, in my perspective, a collage of creative mixing, blending, scratching, cutting, and teaching.

What I mean by teaching is it's all genres of music in the era of, like, say, hip-hop. You take every genre of music from that era and you blend it. So, for instance, 88 Woman Bass was... everything from 88 on down that was played. So you will have records from 84 to 88 that was all collaged and mixed together and it's just a creative, it's a master, it's a creative masterpiece of mixing and blending and cutting and scratching and that's basically what it is.

It's non-stop, it never stops, always continues through the whole tape, never stops. A Rodeo mixtape to me. It's something that just symbolizes the streets, especially the Los Angeles streets, you know, the West Coast.

That's, like, to me, that's where it all started right there. So that, to me, anytime I hear the rodeo mixtape, to me, that just symbolizes LA all day. And, you know, it's like there's nothing but good West Coast heat came out of there. And, you know, that's where you went out and you got your daily dose of hip-hop that you couldn't hear on the radio. So, you know, so...

That's basically what it means to me. If you think about it, the mixtapes, Rhodium mixtapes, were kind of a precursor to the internet. YouTube or you want to say Instagram, you know, because the mixtapes were circulated all over the city.

And once your mixtape came out, a new mixtape came out, everybody was anxious to hear who's new, what are they saying, what style they have, where they from. of like artists like NWA, Dre. I'll be honest with you when I started we quit we kind of Remember that we bit a little bit of the Nerodian Swap Mixtape on our DEA mixtape?

Man, that's a little tough, but I'll tell you what, it was the best thing ever for me, man. It was just kind of like something you never heard about. But the intro had like this crazy mix that I, at the time, I believed that it was like four turntables at the same time.

But I was like, how the hell are they doing this? Like, was it Superman behind the turntables or something like that? But Mixtape was...

A real mixtape. It was actually a cassette too, you know, just for the record. Get it, Clay! Just in one, two, one, two Right about now, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre's in the motherfuckin' house Times are gettin' crazy, it's really hard to choose it The rhodium's the spot to get funky, fresh music Easy motherfuckin' E, and my homeboy Dr. Dre MC Ren is in effect, and you know we don't play The rhodium is hittin', but you know you can't leave Until you get a deaf-ass tape from Steve Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Yeah Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Oh Steve, oh Steve, oh Steve, just give me just one more tape Yeah man, I came all the way down to the rodeo spot One of them W.A.

tapes, man Fuck your homeboy Steve down, man, and he said I'm fresh out of taste Man, how the fuck you fresh out of taste, man? He said cause they selling like hotcakes and shit, man Got my man throwing that Hey Paul, what's for dinner? I don't know How were the mixtapes made? Well, that's actually a big mystery that a lot of people would always ask me. They always thought for some reason I always had four turntables.

I mean, that's what I thought Dre had, but it wasn't four turntables. I would tell people that because I didn't want people to know my secrets. I didn't want people to know what I was like, how I was actually making them.

But it was that we were actually using a Tascam 4-tracker. It was a little bitty box like this. With four volumes, one master volume, and all we had was two turntables and a mixer. People think that we probably had this big studio, four turntables, a Newmark mixer. I had a Radio Shack mixer and two old Technique 1200s that I actually bought used.

Steve would bring over the records. He actually taught me how to do the Rodeo mixtapes. He would tell me, this is the way Dre did it. This is the way I'm putting them together.

I'm showing you and then from there you get creative and you do your do it your way and uh so yeah that was the secret a Tascam 4-track but I would tell everybody I was using for turntables it was a great platform for us to be a part of you know definitely have to say tops up for that because like you said that gave us a leeway into the game it's almost like we was all we were just um we did a trial run through a record label because uh Your mixtapes was basically like a label, man. You know, it just didn't have people signed on it, but it was propelling people to the next level, you know? It was introducing people to the street, you know? I mean, we... They knew 2nd and None in Compton, but they didn't know 2nd and None in Inglewood.

They didn't know them in, you know, Carson and Gardena, all the other local areas until, you know, they started hearing us on the Swap Meet. You know, the Rhodium Swap Meet tape, you know. And I'm just glad we was a part of that, man. My experience during the 80s with the Rhodium and mixtapes in general, it was a great time for music to me. Great time for hip-hop.

Because you have to be a thinker, you have to be imaginative, you have to be creative. You know, now these guys, you know, everything is done for you in the computer. You know, press a button, pow, it's a mix.

You know, Steve is definitely a part of the beginning. He was there, gave everybody a voice. And that was in the beginning. It gave everybody inspiration to want to do more, like you. Made you want to do more.

Like me, made me want to do it. Like Q, everybody, R.I.N.D. It goes down, it goes, it goes, it goes, it goes. The list is so long on how the Rhodium Swap meet inspired people to be able to put music out because people couldn't put music out out there.

You know what I'm saying? So you get your little song and you put it on the rhodium swap meet, it'll be all over LA. I was in awe of just how big of a volume that you could go and get the tapes at that that time and it was it was dope man for real and it definitely plays a critical part of like i said the the birth of west coast hip-hop because so much sound was you know that came out of the rhodium and different swap meets santa fe spring swap meet and stuff like that That were actually the places, a hub, where the break dancers, pop lockers, street kids, everybody would go actually to go get their tapes and stuff.

And man, I remember even hearing like some of the stuff from the Rodeo mixtapes back in the day, man. And man, seeing what we were doing on our side and it was dope, man, to be part of that, for real. How much of an impact do white things, the mixtapes had at that time?

The Rodeo mixtapes, I believe, were a huge impact. And I'm going to tell you why. There are well-known DJs, even DJs on the radio, that still talk about the Rodeo mixtape as if it was a movement, as if it was an experience, as if it was something they saw. Not only did they hear it, but it was just an experience to go to the Rodeo to buy your new mixtape, to be able to walk up to the stands and hear, you know, Dr. Dre here at the Rodeo.

Yo, I'm right, Tony A. yo, I'm high C, yo, I'm Q, yo, I'm Eazy. To hear all of these legends, you know, bust on a mixtape.

And eventually, these guys end up blowing up, making platinum gold records, traveling worldwide. 2018, these people are still known worldwide. And where did it start? At the Rolium.

So you ask me, how much of an impact? It was a great impact. Just ask Dre.

Just ask Q. Just rest in peace, easy. They will tell you that it was a huge impact on their career.

When we didn't have radio play, you know what we had? We had the Rhodium Swapmeat. You bite this tape, boy, get real Down the road to the rodeo It's time to tell you where I'm from Cause C.I.A. chillin' and W.A. chillin' I wish you suckers please stop killin' It was once said by a man drinkin' eight Yo, Steve, please can I buy a dope tape? Steve said, yo, man, I don't give a fuck But two must up ten motherfuckin' bucks It all happened in a nigga press play Her death cut by a doctor's rate That's the way it go Cause that's the shame Steve coming up by swinging chains Niggas all around at the rodeo, I'm having Steve is selling by 24-7 My name is Ice Cube in the motherfucking place Yo, Dre, kick in the Bass After so many documentaries, why do you think the Rodium Mixtapes or Steve Yano have been excluded?

You know, man, Steve and the Rodium Swap Meet and the Mixtapes... have been excluded because just like Lonzo's just now getting his recognition you know the people who want to tell the story don't know the story they don't know who to talk to most of the people I find in trying to tell this hip hop story are people who weren't even born yet. You know, you got people in their 30s trying to tell a story that happened 30 years ago.

They hear certain parts and they won't hire a consultant. They won't hire somebody like Alonzo or somebody who really knows or Violet or even a Kelvin Anderson who knows all the players. A lot of people came from the sorority of Swap Me, just like people came from Crew Cut Records, people came from Kelvin Anderson, people came from VIP Records. All of us, we were the foundation of everything West Coast. Nobody seemed to care about the roots of...

the story they just want to see the leaves it's like like marijuana nobody wants the stems they just want the buds okay uh you know i'm i often think about that too when i wonder about that i see it mentioned from time to time uh i see it mentioned a lot from djs from back in the day where they mentioned wow if it wasn't for these tapes i wouldn't have known about this artist they really praised those tapes i think the artist uh Sometimes they just don't talk about their roots and that sort of thing. And I think it's disgraceful sometimes because that is definitely, I know for a fact, that's where a lot of these artists got their start. You know what, I can't answer that one.

I don't have an answer for that one. I don't know why they exclude the whole rhodium mixtape, especially from the West Coast. Steve Yano was a very key element in this West Coast movement, man. I think it's hard because, I mean, why...

Steve and the Rhodium Swapmeat or mixtapes I've been not mentioned because it's either they don't know about it or just don't want to talk about it. It's a good question. You know, it's kind of sad that the legacy of Steve Yano and the Rhodium Swapmeat and his store have kind of been...

excluded from history. I think a lot of it has to do with it was the earliest denominator. A lot of times something that comes around so early and is so special and a lot of people didn't didn't have access to the rhodium swap meter that it was kind of like that hidden gem a lot of people went to the bigger you know record stores and stuff like that but the real fools who know and the dudes on the west coast who actually got all their stuff and did stuff actually went there but i think that you know as time went on it just was something that not too many people knew about this gem it was almost like a special place for those who was actually making the music djing the music and and stuff like that and we need to actually talk about that more.

I think one of the reasons why the the rhodium mixtapes and steviano always always been excluded because I think it was just too underground it was a too hardcore for a lot of people I guess or to you know it was just too hard to find sometimes but at the end of the day it wasn't that hard to find because word of mouth grows pretty quick so you know We were able to get a hold of it one way or another, but I think maybe it was just to me, I think it was just too hardcore, too underground for a lot of people. I think I've been excluded for a few reasons because not a lot of people. We're advocating, you know, the importance of Steve Yano and what he was able to do and what the Rhodium Swamp Meet was as a gathering place for all of us, for all of us DJs and MCs and people in hip-hop at that time, because not enough people were really promoting that narrative, it sort of got washed over or glossed over, if you will.

I think people just forget, you know, just forget, you know, where a lot of stuff starts. because of the you know at the moment you know they asking you so many questions and you know you go back to this not really digging that far back because it's you know it's not like you writing a book so they go only so far but I mean I'm gonna start mentioning it you know because it was a very big big part of hip-hop in the hip-hop culture I mean West Coast hip-hop and the hip-hop culture And that's what created N.W.A. and Eazy and a lot of other people, you know. It's like, yeah, you know, I think he should have been included definitely in some of the things that were documentaries that were put out because Steve Yano had a big influence on on hip hop, not just West Coast hip hop.

That was a big influence, but on hip hop, period, because they were playing a lot of East Coast music as well. So it wasn't just West Coast records you were hearing on these mixtapes. So it enlightened you to. everything hip-hop. There's been a lot of documentaries on West Coast hip-hop.

They tend to go to the big groups, you know, the big names that were from the West Coast and focus on Tupac. And it's understandable that they do that. And it's almost good that they didn't mention it. That way we can bust it out.

We can tell the story of it. You know what I'm saying? Because Steve Yano really broke down to a lot of the ethnicity connected to hip-hop. Hip-hop is like that glue.

but they got to go back they've got to go and know who these groups are you know what i'm saying you throw on a second it's not tape right now it stands on its own dj quip songs you know what i'm saying that could play right right now i think steve yano falls into another category of being quote unquote one of hip-hop's minority he's one of the minorities of hip-hop this is a predominantly pretty run black Art that we're in and we're hip-hop's minority. I mean, you got an Asian guy that was out there in the forefront, bringing music out there to the forefront. Sometimes some of us that are doing that, sometimes people forget history. They want to rewrite history.

And some of the good people that actually were pioneer, because we can't take that away from Steve Yano. He definitely was a pioneer of West Coast hip-hop. He was putting out music out there.

when nobody else had a real outlet for it you know i mean and nobody else was really doing that you can't forget man you can't forget this as part of west coast hip-hop that some people that like i said that they fall between the cracks of of their input and all that but we can't let this happen man and that's why these documentaries and these things like this are Very important so that people know that when it comes to West Coast hip-hop, there's people that actually play pivotal major roles. I think Second to None was like the best out of everybody that ever been on the tapes. No bullshit.

It's the Jack the Ripper, one hitter, quitter, with a cop the nigga real quick on the trigger. It's a celebration for one of the best for Tony A on the cut. You about to get blessed. Now the rest could try, but they not seeing my man.

And I will testify as a number one fan, I gotta rectify. Cause from where I stand, I should've did this in the 80s like the way that we planned. He been dope since Adidas and Datsuns.

You think you can get him? You don't want them problems. 6'3 and the guns is yoked.

Run up if you want, something getting broke. Manipulating records sounds like a band. I just want to mount four.

But while I hide seeing them, just step my name up for a proper introduction. I narrate the beat, the strings, and the percussion. And when I need to catch my breath, you get the main course.

The star of the show, the alpha of the source. I can brag all day and I tell the truth, wouldn't you? Never mind, Tony A, show them what you can do.

Damn that shit! Then it goes a little soft like this. Damn that shit! The

Transcript for:Steve Yano and Rhodium's Hip-Hop Legacy

Transcript for:
Steve Yano and Rhodium's Hip-Hop Legacy