Stories About Songs with Kevin Beacham

In part two of New Music Seminar MC Battle For World Supremacy, our last episode for season 2, we focus on the years; 1993 and 1994! I recount the stories I heard about 1993 with MF Grimm, Mad Skillz, and the ’93 champion, Supernatural. As for ’94, I explain how my writing for local Chicago publication The Flypaper, created a lane for me to have some “involvement” and a front-row seat to many of t...

From approximately 1985 until 1994, the New Music Seminar MC Battle For World Supremacy was one of the most exciting and inspiring things for an upcoming MC, especially those whose styles were battle-ready, myself included. Ultimately, this two-part episode is about how I went from an aspiring MC hoping to compete in the contest one day, which I never achieved but did find myself in the audience f...

From 1995-2002, I hosted/produced Time Travel Radio on WNUR FM in Evanston/Chicago. One part of the show was regularly doing theme shows telling the history of various artists. In 1996, I did a spotlight show on The Jaz (a.k.a Big Jaz, Jaz-O) and his partner Jay-Z. Then, a year later, as he was promoting his second solo album, I did a Time Travel radio spotlight show on Jay-Z. I was able to interv...

For part two of The Jaz & Jay-Z special, we continue to take a look at the greatness of The Jaz with his second album, and the follow-up EP, and as he transitions into the mid-90s, which also saw him take his production skills to the next level. I also touch on some of the styles that The Jaz was a pioneer in and/or helped popularize. And, all that leads into me getting a chance to meet The Jaz, a...

The Jaz and Jay-Z are certainly each worthy of their own stories being told, but one of my favorite things is peeling back the layers of how various stories tie things together, and that's the adventure we begin here, in this two-part special that touches not only on the history of The Jaz and Jay-Z, but touches on some other key stories along the way, including moments with Fresh Gordon, UTFO, LL...

I was lucky enough to do street promotions in Chicago for Sha-Key's debut album, produced largely by Earl Blaize, as I was, and remain a big fan of that album, "A Head Naddas Journey To Aidi Skizm" ('94). This is the story of that record, including input given to me from Sha-key and Earl Blaize to help fill in some gaps. it talks about her being signed to Imago Records, and what went wrong, as wel...

From doing street promotions in Chicago for Wildpitch Records in the mid-90s, I got to work with some of my favorite artists of the time, and of all-time in some cases; including Ultramagnetic MCs, UMC's, Main Source, O.C., and The Coup. This episode talks about my work with Wild Pitch, focusing on the first two albums by The Coup, and goes into detail about a few other connections and interaction...

I'm a huge fan of all three artists who this episode focuses on, and if you are a fan of them as well, you already know some of the connections. This episode breaks down how I personally connected with each of them, and great memories, rare demos, and additional connections that are all part of the story...To start it off, we take it back to the Ultamagnetic MC's... Follow all of Kevin's work here...

Many people, especially in the time before the internet, depended on the radio to hear new music, or any music for that matter, for the most part. For me, growing up on military bases, specifically in Germany most of my childhood, radio wasn't an option unless I wanted to hear Top 40. Once I heard Hip Hop, and my vow to "find everything that sounds like this", I heavily relied on trading and dubbi...

Big L is regarded by many as one of the greats of his time, and rightfully so. This episode talks about Big L's skill as an MC, and how we first met, which included me being unintentionally dismissive...well it was somewhat intentional but I just didn't know who he was... As we go on a quest to trace some roots to his style, I talk about the Fearless Four, MC Shan, Juice Crew, & Lord Finesse. And...

StoriesAboutSongs, now part of the Stony Island Pod family, explores Hip Hop history from the vantage point of my decades as an artist, radio host, promoter, event organizer, journalist, documentarian, artist advocate, label rep, & of course, a fan, from the '70s up until the present. Each episode explores an artist whose music was inspirational, or a movement in Hip Hop, that made a lasting impre...

The season one finale takes us right back to the days I spoke about in Episode #1. It’s 1983, and my final days living in Germany are upon me, before permanently moving back to the United States. This is the story of one of the last movies I was able to see before leaving, Star Wars Return of the Jedi, and the one I learned I was going to have to miss because of that same move, Wild Style. How muc...

Admittedly, putting the names (Rudy Ray Moore and Tragedy) in this episode title feels a bit like giving away the punchline to the joke, but also sometimes the power of the punch is solid enough, it’s able to retain its potency, or so I believe in this case. This is one of those stories that every time I tell, or think of, it I have to pause and reassure myself it’s not a false memory or a dream t...

If you don’t know about the legend of the Medusa, I'm hoping this episode can change that. Although there is a career spanning many decades, with a trail of great songs, explosive live shows, and continuous dynamic vocal performances, there are far too many who are still in the dark. Regardless, whenever Medusa has an opportunity to wield a microphone, her namesake is earned. Any educated listener...

As we entered the new millennium in 2000, I started to seriously think about finally starting my own record label. From doing my Time Travel Radio Show, being Co-Owner of Caught In The Middle Magazine, hosting/organizing Scribble Jam, and running my Rage Promotions company, I was regularly meeting indie or unsigned artists with no outlet for their music, and I hoped I could help make a difference....

Up to this point, I would guess that most anyone interested in listening to this podcast has thus far been aware of all the artists I’ve covered, but Rhyme might be the first exception. For the entirety of my career in the music business, from my days running a home studio(Rage Cage Studios) in the late 80s to the early 90s, to my various other adventures, I’ve always sought to be an artist advoca...

Personally, DJ Pooh was one of my biggest inspirations as a producer in the 1980s. Additionally, his career clearly showcases that he is one of the most intriguing, creative, and diverse producers of his time. His work as a producer (and in some cases as a DJ) with King Tee, Deadly Threat, Nefertiti, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Del The Funkee Homosapien, Ultramagnetic MCs, Dogg Pound, Snoop, Too Short, B...

For anyone who is an attentive listener and has a grasp of understanding the merits of lyricism, it should be clear that Kool G Rap is one of the most skilled rhyme writers of all time. His road to this level of praise was hinted at ever since his debut in 1986, but “Poison” (‘88) was truly a moment that marked his ascension to that prestigious level as inevitable. This episode talks about the qui...

In 1995/96, rap icon Ice Cube ignited a feud with rising talent Common Sense from Chicago. Though the situation was short-lived, it made a lasting impact, and the story has been told many times over, but in nearly all of those stories, a perhaps trivial, but notable factor has been left out, the smart part I played in that story. The art for this episode is from the cover of Caught In The Middle M...

With rap music being born in New York, and quickly spreading throughout the upper East Coast in areas such as Philly and throughout New Jersey, that section of the world dominated the rap industry from the music’s conception in the mid-1970s until well into the 80s. However, around 1988 a shift started to occur as the West Coast rose to be a force to be reckoned with, courtesy of the powerful and...

My dad was drafted into the army in 1968, and approximately two years later, I was born in a hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, joining him, my mother, and my older sister living in Hanau. In my first 14 years of life, we lived in three different parts of Germany, including our second trip back to Germany living on military bases in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, between the years of 1977-1984. It was duri...