Camp Kill You

Grade 6 was a pretty fun year. We had a Jamaican male teacher named Mr.Hoyte who was infamous for making kids cry...but not this kid! You either loved or hated the guy and in retrospect he was my all time favorite teacher. He used to bring his saxophone to school whenever it was ANY of his students birthdays and play happy birthday for them. After lunch he would always give us a textbook lesson to do, eat an apple and then take a nap. Looking back now I think he was hitting the ganja on lunch time cus his eyes were always red, he still had munchies AFTER lunch, then he'd crash and burn.

Towards the end of the school year it was announced that the grade sixes would be going on a week long trip to camp kilcoo. Since "Meatballs" was one of my all time favorite movies I was super pumped and had master plans of panty raids and shower peeping. When I brought my cheque and consent form to school I was informed that the trip was already full and no more spots were available. I was crushed!

Two days later I overheard a classmate of mine telling another how he had just dropped off his cheque and was going on the trip. I immediately asked him if what I heard was correct and he confirmed it. I had just been involved in a conspiracy theory to stop me from going to camp kilcoo! I immediately brought this to the faculty's attention like an enraged lawyer and all they did was deny deny deny. Finally they admitted that due to my behavior over the course of the year it was in their best interest not to let me go on the trip.

 Instead I had the pleasure of being in a small class of 20 some odd kids like myself who were also denied the privilege of going due to behaviour issues or bad grades. This class was in my home room and our teacher for the week....none other than Mr. Hoyte! The Hoytester was cool as ever that week, he didn't make us do ANY work whatsoever. We just did our own thing and socialized. I didn't know a lot of these kids as they were all from different classes. 

The school board may have denied us our trip, crushed our dreams, and prevented any riff raff from taking place, but they overlooked one small detail.... They had assembled the baddest of the bad asses in a room together for one week like it was a super villain convention where we could all get to know each other, and in turn combine our efforts to bring the muthafuckin' ruckus for the next two years to come...

Microphornicating

I am taking a break today from our current timeline in the blog to discuss current issues. For the past 2 years I've been working on my newest full length cd entitled " 73' " as some of you may already know. These recordings revolve around samples I've gathered from the late 60s and early 70s, most of which are fairly well known classics that I've borrowed from.

This recording has been a completely different and new approach for me and I've been getting a lot of positive feedback over it. I myself also feel this is my best work to date. Lyrically I have been delving into some personal issues that occurred within my life, mostly over the last 4 years. I never talk to friends or family about my own issues and problems so this has been a very interesting approach for me which has been difficult yet therapeutic. 

I've been longing to make a video for one of these songs and I've finally decided on "microphornication" which utilizes samples from The Eagles "Hotel California". In the past I've done a few live videos and made a few cheesy ones with animated gifs, not too mention one video somebody produced that was out of sync. I truly consider this to be the very first official Kabal music video and I hope you dig it. The link for the video can be found on the video tab.

This project was self produced. I wrote, filmed, directed, starred in, edited & produced the entire production in one day. It's amazing what you can do with a camcorder, tripod, iPod, and some free video editing software! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and any help to make it viral would be greatly appreciated.

A Friend For Life

Starting grade 6 was a pretty big deal. I was in a new school, there were a lot of new unfamiliar faces and everyone seemed so concerned about fitting in, unlike grade school where we were dirt ball kids who didn't care about our appearance or being apart of some form of group. I used to roll to school with bed head on a daily basis, but now I was showering every morning to avoid ridicule. I was very interested in girls so I had to bring my "A" game with me  if I had any chance with the ladies. 

Continuing the previous trend, I was once again the class clown in my new school, saying and doing whatever I could to get a laugh out of my class mates. Needless to say I was sent out in the hall a lot or forced to sit behind blockers, large partitions that isolated you from the rest of the students. There was a very friendly girl who say behind me named Dorothea Myer. One day while wearing my Twisted Sister shirt, she started talking to me about music. Apparently her older brother Mike listened to all the same bands I did, I assumed he must have been a cool dude. I didn't know it at the time but many years later her brother would be one of my best friends and band mates. 

For halloween that year I decided to be a boxer. I wore shorts, shoes, boxing gloves and a robe. My sister did some makeup on me to give the appearance of a black eye. There was a boy in my class named Jerry. Him and I were the 2 biggest kids in the class and our height and frames were virtually identical. I can remember thinking he would be the only boy in the class who could give me a run for my money in a fight. On Halloween day Jerry asked if he could see one of my boxing gloves, I obliged in a friendly manner and handed him one.

The next thing I knew he put the glove on and started punching himself in the face with it! All the kids were laughing hysterically including myself. Amazingly it seemed like the punches weren't even phasing him, confirming my suspicions of him being a tough kid, not to mention a fellow class clown like myself. Jerry and I hadn't really talked much in class before that day, but now we had bonded in a strange way and had become friends.

jerry in "toys r us" circa 87/88

Jerry ended up being my best friend in that class and we would unknowingly go on to be best friends and band mates in the future. To this present day we are still best of buds and I couldn't of asked for a better friend. Jerry would literally give me the shirt off of his back, and be there for me anytime anywhere in any given situation.

A lot of people graduate school and never see their supposed best friends ever again. People get jobs, wives, families, and then drift apart from each other. We've had times in our lives where we weren't joined at the hip, but now over 25 years later we are still the very best of friends. Our loyalty and commitment to each other is undying even though we both have our own busy lives to manage. Friendships like this are one in a million and I wouldn't change that for the world...

Beat Street

In 1984 when breakin' was blowing up there was another very important film that I neglected to mention, yet it deserves much credit as it is a very fundamental element to the hip hop culture and to my existence. The movie was called "Beat Street" and it focused on the breakdancing and graffiti scene in New York City. The soundtrack was composed by the first rap group I ever heard, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five.

Early into grade 6 there was a notice posted announcing a breakdancing display that would be performed in front of the school. They were encouraging students to come and sign up for it after school. When the bell rang that day I scurried off to apply. My jaw dropped when I discovered 50 to 100 kids waiting in line. I took a bus home daily and there was no way I was going to wait in this line and then have to walk over an hour to get home when the try outs were said and done.

When the day came, every student in the school was assembled in the gymnasium to witness this breakdancing spectacle. A lot of the breakers were decent and some of them were just plain wack! In grade 5, I was one of the best breakers in my school. I could moonwalk, pop & lock, do various waves and the worm, the turtle freeze and the crab walk were also specialties of mine. I even had a decent backspin and my knee spin was untouchable. 

Compared to some of the kids on stage that day my skills paled in comparison. One of the students even pulled off a head spin which I had never seen in real life, only in movies. Another Asian boy from my grade pulled of the deadliest backspin I had ever witnessed, he spun with extreme quickness and I lost count of his rotations somewhere after 10.

My ego was a bit deflated to say the least but I still knew in my heart I had just as much skill if not more than some of the performers that day. In a way I was somewhat discouraged to continue breakin' after that day. The trend was starting to slow down and the fashion aspect of it was changing drastically. I am also that guy who discovers new cool things before everyone else, but once they becomes popular I lose interest as it doesn't make me unique or an individual anymore. The flavor of the year was staring to lose taste and I was left with a quench and desire for something new to inspire me...

Funk & Fire

The summer before I went into grade 6 my mother signed me up for an indoor arts and crafts program similar to some form of day camp. The program was about 2-3 weeks if I remember correctly. The day before camp started my mother came home with something for me.... Speed stick original deodorant.

Apparently I was starting to smell funky. Although I had body and pubic hair at a young age not too mention a high libido, I had fully hit puberty now. I was getting acne and now body odor. Camp wasn't much to write home about, it was mediocre fun. My highlights were the days we went swimming and having the opportunity to steal money out of people's clothes in the locker room. I did create some pretty cool works of art and even made a friend or two. 

I went into my first day of grade 6 with confidence. I had my fresh buzz cut with rat tail and I was decked out in my freshest breakdancing gear. When I got to school and started observing the other kids I was shocked to see lots of students wearing the same shirt I was and/or the same parachute pants I had on. Suddenly I didn't feel so special as I was merely blending into the crowd and not standing out like I usually did. 

It wasn't long before I found myself sent out in the hallway for disrupting the class. I was leaning on the wall right beside a fire alarm and I could not stop staring at it. I had heard rumors they had ink inside them, so if you pulled it you could easily be identified. I don't know if I was over come with boredom or curiosity but the next thing I knew my finger was slowly pulling the leaver down but no alarm sounded. I removed my finger and checked for ink....nothing. I inserted my finger again and slowly started pulling the lever down again. No alarm. I was convinced it was broken and proceeded to keep slowly pulling the lever down. Before I knew it a tiny glass rod shattered and the alarm blared, causing me to jump right out of my skin!

The next thing I knew all the classes started filing out and evacuating the school. I quickly jumped into my class's line like I had never left the room. Outside now my heart was racing! Fire trucks were on the way and the principal was on a megaphone raging about how he would catch the culprit. Overcome with fear and guilt I went and turned myself in. I assumed I was going to get caught and figured revealing myself as the culprit would ease the punishment.

I got to the office preparing for the worst and the principal was actually really nice. I concocted a story of how I "accidentally" hit the alarm and he bought it.  No punishment was given to me but he insisted that I join the school basketball team because of my height. I agreed and next thing I knew my mom was getting me up at 6am to go to basketball practice before school. That practice was one of the most grueling experiences of my life. I was a rock n roller and we don't do 6am for nobody....not even an irate principal. Needless to say I never attended the 2nd practice...

JV C ya!

While all these doors are open in my mind I keep digging and digging for old memories that are related to music. Before I'm 100% ready to move onto my days in middle school, I want to be sure I haven't forgotten or left out any key elements of my life. I suppose I could mention a few random facts, like that I was actually a member of the chess club in grade 3 and 4. 

Asides from being an artist I used to do calligraphy in my spare time. I may have written more "lines" than any other kid in my grade ( I will not staple classmates finger tips). In kindergarten I stuck my tongue to a metal handrail, was the best artist in my class, and I was busted playing "house" with twin sisters. I got a very early rep as a "badass" when I stuffed the principals muffler to the max with snow to impress some older kids. The school board wanted me to skip grade 1 but my parents refused. I learned to print and write my loooong last name in grade 1. I had my first video game meltdown playing Space Invaders when I couldn't get past level 35.

I was just like any other kid in that day and age, I played with toys, went to the creek, journeyed on epic bike rides, played hide and go seek & army, went swimming, built go karts and tree forts, I played organized sports such as soccer, baseball & hockey, I went tobogganing in the winter and made snow forts & snowmen, I drew and colored, but the thing I enjoyed the most was strapping the headphones on in solitary and listening to music.

Somewhere around 1981-1983 my father bought a new JVC home stereo. This meant I now got the old stereo for my room, but more importantly we had a massive brand new system with giant speakers housing 12" woofers! If I remember correctly my dad paid somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2000 for the system and I figured we were living large. Looking back we were always a middle class family but perhaps a touch on the upper side, as my pops always seemed to be able to afford whatever new trend or toy was hot on the market. 

The stereo had 2 large speakers, a tuner, an am/fm radio component, a cassette player, and most importantly a turn table! This baby was sweet and I spent a lot of time in front of that stereo growing up. I loved throwing a record on and staring into the cover as the songs stirred images up in my mind. Little did I know at the time that the cassette deck would be one of my first instrumental tools in creating rap music years later...

Rewind, Pause...

As some of you may know and some of you may not, I have an uncanny ability to memorize song lyrics. It's gotten to the point where I can be driving in someone's car with them and I'll start singing a song I'm hearing for my first time by the mid point of the track. The driver would ask "oh...YOU know this song?" to which I always reply "Nah this is my first time hearing it. Not a bad tune."

I own hundred of CDs from a variety of bands. My collection is mainly thrash, hardcore, punk, metal, industrial, rap, hip hop, reggae and classic rock. I practically know almost every lyric to every song on every cd and record and cassette that I own. I often get asked by people "Do you know every word to every song in the world?" That one always makes me laugh, but the answer is obviously no. The other question I get from people is "How did you acquire the ability to do this?" and the answer my friends and loyal readers, definitely stems back to my childhood.

When I first started collecting records at age 5 a lot of them didn't come with printed lyrics so you were left to figure it out yourself. I personally used to listen to a song repeatedly with pen and paper in hand. You couldn't keep jumping the needle back on a record in fear of scratching your tender vinyl, so i would record songs onto cassette tape and use the rewind and pause button as I wrote the song down. I would generally work on one line at a time and there would always be that one word or line that i just couldn't quite make out, so I had no choice but to add lib and decide for myself what the words would be. I used this method for years and after awhile I didn't even need to write the lyrics down anymore. As long as I listened to a song enough times it would be engrained in my brain for life.

During my highschool days I was into psychedelics and read a lot of books dealing with the human mind. I discovered subliminal learning and realized I could now memorize lyrics in my sleep. I had a small ghetto blaster (radio) that could continuously play a tape, flipping automatically every time a side ended. Learning rock songs was one thing but I was listening to tons of rap in these days and there were TONS of words to be memorized. I would listen to music all night long then hop in the shower to get ready for school, the tape still playing (now loudly) as I sang or rapped along knowing more words than I did the day before.

Being involved with bands for 15 years also helped the cause as I wrote hundreds of songs over the years and can still remember every single word. In the 90's everything started getting rereleased onto compact disc and a lot of those CDs came with lyrics. It was interesting to compare what i knew them as and what they really were, and i had a pretty good track record!

When the Internet finally arrived it became possible to pretty much access the lyrics to ANY song in the history of music. People could now sing "Season ticket on a one way ride" instead of "Sees a nigger on a one way ride" when listening to AC/DC's Highway to Hell.  To sum it up i suppose it is all about repetition to an extent, but I am now on a level where I can learn a modern day pop song's lyrics before the song itself has even finished playing... I reckon I trained my brain throughout the course of my life and I believe this blog is true evidence as I can remember very early memories, a thing most people have a difficult time doing...