So...records...music....the lifeblood of DJ's (well...alot of us anyways.)...the soundtrack to our lives...
Imagine being 14 years old fresh into DJ'ing and living in a SUPER small town in rural BF Illinois, and not yet being able to drive....where do you get your music from?
ANYWHERE YOU POSSIBLY CAN.
So in my town back then there were "dime" stores..which are like convenience stores, but bigger...but not as big as a department store...one of the few we had was called Perry Drug, which, conveniently, was right next door to where my mom went grocery shopping...and they had a music section...not huge, but they sold records (no singles...except on 45)...just full LP's....I remember getting some Run DMC 45's from there...99 cents or...maybe 1.25 each...cant remember....I do remember seeing a Twisted Sister album in there and on the back cover there was a huge TS piece with each of the band members names in graffiti by legendary NYC writer Vulcan, and just thinking that was the coolest cover ever.
Also on the opposite end of town from the dime store, we had Zayre and K Mart...again...both of which had music sections, and theirs were a bit bigger than Perry's was....I never got much from K Mart except a few of the "Breakdance" compilation things (on casette for my boombox natrually)...but from Zayre, I got the "Back In Black" album by Whodini....that I remember vividly.
In the part we (my family) called "Uptown" there was (still is) an Ace Hardware that my dad would go to almost every weekend....I always went with him since before I started dj'ing....first it was to cruise the toy section and scoring some Hot Wheels....later it was checking out all of the bike stuff...then I learned, they too, sold records....also...when my needles broke, they sold replacements...but not the same brand as I originally had, so I had to get new cartridges...the ones they sold here were some off...cheapo brand, but those things would take a BEATING and would last a LONG time (well...for P-mount cartridges anyways)
One day while riding my bike around town I was over by Zayre and happened to look across the street at the new shopping strip that was just built and i noticed something..."Flipside Records"...woah...whats this? I rode over...."opening in 2 weeks"...I look thru the window and notice theres already some product on the shelves...and something grabbed my eye and made my heart start beating...I saw a section for "12 Inch Singles"....OHMAHGAWD!!! THIS IS IT!!! So I go over on opening day after school...I go to the singles section...im seeing alot of pop....rock....I didnt realize it at the time, but this is a chain store, and they dont know about House Music...there was some Hip Hop...but I was getting more into dance stuff...I think the only thing I got from there, that I can remember is "Boy I've Been Told" by Sa-Fire...
Now, I cant remember HOW I heard of this store that was apparently "Heaven" out in Waukegan, but I remember someone going there one day and coming back with REAL house records....im talking DJ International, Trax, Jes Say...THE SHIT, so I HAD to get there....which took ALOT of me begging my mom or dad to take me....so one Saturday we took a drive out there...down Washington Street, to a place called Strawberry Fields...let me tell you about this spot...it wasn't a HUGE store...but what they lacked in size, they made up for in quality...when you walked through the door, to the left there was the rock and punk stuff...to the right was the cash register and counters / showcases...and down the middle of the store there was record racks...walking down the side with the register, the racks to your left were where they had the goods if you were a DJ....now when my parents took me there, I didnt have a WHOLE lot of time to look / shop, but I tried to get through it all as fast as I could before I was told we had to go...everything that I ever wanted was probably in those racks, but I didnt know the titles of alot of stuff then, so I grabbed a few of what I did know...over the next few years I shopped at that store as much as I possibly could...then they moved the store to the more accessible Grand Ave, and closed shortly thereafter....
Around the same time I was going to Strawberry Fields, a couple of my friends were venturing down into Chicago for the stuff they couldnt get at S.F.....they would go to Loop Records, Imports Etc., (both of which I never got the chance to visit) and a store called Gramophone.
The original location at 2663 N. Clark is a LEGENDARY spot...you walk in on any given saturday afternoon across that black and white tile floor, and its like a who's who of DJ's...OH...theres Derrick Carter playing in the booth....oh whats that DJ Sneak? I should check this tune out? ok cool!!
As far as records...I dont even have to mention....they had that shit on LOCKDOWN....anything and fucking everything...if Gramophone didnt have it, you didnt need it, plain and simple.and the man to see when you went and knew where EVERYTHING was at if you couldnt find it was Andy "Mixin" Moy.
That guy was the guru...his recommendations were ALWAYS spot on based on what I was picking up any particular day...he was one of those guys where you could hum a part of a tune...or say part of a hook, and know exactly what you were talking about.
The store has now moved a couple blocks north of where it was originally at, now located at 2843 N. Clark but theyre still going!!
I would later do alot of shopping at Frequency in Schaumburg that was owned by Rick "Get Down" Garcia that started out as a mixtape kiosk, then grew to include vinyl...then eventually have a storefront in One Schaumburg Place mall (now where Streets Of Woodfield stand) and then finally move to a full blown store on Golf Road before closing and selling to Another Level (another chicagoland based record store that had a couple of locations)
Super Dance, in Rolling Meadows, which started out as part of the Just Dance chain of stores was another spot I shopped at almost religiously when I couldnt get down to Gramophone...this is where I really got into Strictly Rhythm Records, that were sold to me by the man known as Peace MC (later to become the legendary Alex Peace)
so those were the spots that I went to ALOT before I actually worked in a store myself...more on that in a future post...
other stores that I went to, from memory...but didnt frequent alot..
Blockbuster Music in Schaumburg (closed)
Hot Jams on Archer & Pulaski in Chicago (closed)
Just Dance on Western Ave in Chicago (closed)
Beat Parlor (i forgot the street this was on...in Chicago....cool store...good prices..just never got there alot...closed i think)
DJ Records in Berwyn (still operates out of Cicero, by appointment only...GREAT spot for classics)...hit up Benji Espinoza
Kstarke on Western Ave in Chicago (in business...another cool spot that I dont get to very often)
next time...starting to play out!!
