For individuals who lived in Seattle in the course of the Eighties—of a sure age and demographic—the identify “Nasty” Nes Rodriguez holds particularly profound significance. He DJ’d for a few of Seattle’s first rappers, together with the Emerald Avenue Boys, cofounded NastyMix Information, and, as a radio DJ, launched a number of the nation’s finest hiphop to Pacific Northwest followers lengthy earlier than it hit the mainstream.
Nes died on Saturday, February 15. He was 63. His spouse introduced the information on Fb on February 16.
Nes, who immigrated from the Philippines to Seattle as a child, graduated from Roosevelt Excessive College in 1979 and studied media communications at Bellevue Group School. After visiting his sister in New York in the course of the late Seventies, Nes requested she begin recording native radio exhibits for him. The cassette tapes that arrived within the mail included pioneers like Jellybean Benitez and the Latin Rascals on WKTU, Frankie Crocker on WBLS, and the primary rap radio present, Mr. Magic’s Rap Assault on WBHI.
Nes was an intern within the fall of 1979 as 1250AM KYAC turned the primary station to play “Rapper’s Delight” on Seattle radio. When the station transitioned to KKFX (KFOX) in 1980, Nasty Nes quickly turned the host of FreshTracks , the primary rap radio present west of the Mississippi River.
Nasty Nes was additionally the DJ for the Emerald Avenue Boys, the primary Seattle rappers to make a file. At dwell occasions, Rodriguez would play the instrumentals from widespread 12-inch singles for the group to rhyme and dance to. The Emerald Avenue Boys additionally carried out the theme music for FreshTracks . This early African American-Asian American collaboration helped set multiethnic collaborative work as a part of the inspiration of the Seattle hiphop scene.
Talking for myself, given the comparatively sluggish drip of latest hiphop out there throughout these occasions, the extent of anticipation for FreshTracks on Sunday evenings can’t be overstated.
Please permit me to share a few excerpts from my e book Emerald Avenue: A Historical past of Hip Hop in Seattle :
From the start, FreshTracks was a recreation changer. Dwell mixing and scratching on two turntables was fully new to Seattle radio. This overseas sound of Nasty Nes “within the combine” together with the fast rise in reputation of hip hop created a various cross-section of listeners. Whereas based mostly primarily in rap, these mastermixes adopted within the footsteps of Afrika Bambaataa and pulled music from an eclectic number of genres and artists, together with Kraftwerk, Corridor and Oates, and Los Angeles-based Egyptian Lover.
Nes’s work on FreshTracks would ultimately result in an encounter that might change the course of music historical past.
In 1984, Nasty Nes heard a couple of sequence of events being held on the Boys & Women Membership within the Central District and went to research. Each weekend, somebody who referred to as himself Sir Combine-a-Lot was packing the health club, and for a greenback per individual, he gave the gang a whole one-man present. Combine-a-Lot, who might lower, combine, and scratch data in addition to rap, commanded the gang. Completely impressed by what he noticed, Nes invited Combine-a-Lot onto KFOX to air his music. Combine’s underground materials, which included songs like “7 Rainier,” “Sq. Dance Rap,” and “Let’s G,” now acquired vast airplay. Sir Combine-a-Lot turned the most well-liked artist on KFOX, receiving extra phone-in requests than even Michael Jackson and Prince. This train in musical democracy indicated Seattle satisfaction in a neighborhood artist who appeared poised to take the baton from the Emerald Avenue Boys.
Nes would go on to co-found NastyMix Information with Sir Combine-a-Lot, Greg Jones, and Sheila Locke in 1985, setting the stage for Combine-a-Lot’s landmark Seattle rap narrative “Posse on Broadway,” and ultimately the Grammy-winning “Child Received Again” (launched on the Def American file label).
In 1988, Nes joined “Shockmaster” Glen Boyd as host of Rap Assault “Seattle’s-Solely-All-Rap-Radio-Present-in-FM-Stereo” on 90.3 KCMU, and in 1997 he moved to Los Angeles to take a place with the music trade journal Hits and pursue performing alternatives.
Nes was at all times keen and excited to speak about hiphop, particularly on the West Coast and much more particularly in Seattle. He was a useful useful resource for Emerald Avenue and lately wrote the foreword for the implausible new e book The Delivery of Seattle Rap by Novocaine 132.
“Nasty” Nes Rodriguez, the “Loopy Pinoy” and lover of Taco Time: I appeared as much as you fully in my youth, and also you turned somebody I acquired to know and admire as such a top quality individual. For that, I’m ceaselessly grateful. Relaxation in Peace to the Godfather of Seattle hiphop, see you on the Crossroads, my good friend.
Dr. Abe teaches HUM 125 Hip Hop Concept & Tradition at Seattle Central School.
