I remember when it started...that THUMP, Thump, thump...in the distance. Like THUNDER it would wake me and call me towards it. Like a BLACK HOLE it's gravity was too much to withstand, so we...would orbit and perhaps join into the implosion/explosion. Like the earthqake that makes itself known by moving all that is around it this was what called us. There was nothing unfamiliar about it at first. It was quite like a long lost friend. We knew the cause of the gravity in our SOUL.

1978 LOGAN - PHILADELHIA

I awoke that morning with nothing in particular on my mind. A few friends would call or stop by and perhaps we would smoke a dube...listen to some Gino Vinelli - I was into the Jazz...like my dad...he played percussion/BASS for John Coletrane and MAN DID THEY GIT HIGH...

I thought about Astro Boy, and Captain Boogie...and Dr. Perry Johnson, boy did he hold my attention after school on WDAS. But it still hadn't really hit me.

But somehow, in my memory, this day was different...this summer day of 1978. I could feel the pressure and energy in the morning air. I was too damn HYPE to even want to smoke a J. I could feel SOMETHING BIG.

We chilled for a while, shot some ball and got a few phone numbers from a few of the local honeys...man, I would sometimes ask the same girl for her number two and three times, forgetting that I had already gotten it before. I would make up some line, you know, dam baby I forgot it -- or I lost it -- and they would usually relent and give it to me again...

There it is again, THERE...did you FEEL THAT??? My homeys knew what I meant...as the ball bounced it's way to the pavement ...nobody noticing... Oh yeah that THUMP...here comes SMMOOOTH with that 32oz (we didn't have 40's until California Coolers came out). Smooth was DA MAN...he knew all the chicks and all the happenin's and always had weed or beer or somethin...he was older...probably lookin' for acceptace among us...his younger peers... who knows. But to us SMMMMMOOOOOOVE was DA MAN.

Waz UP SMOOVE! we all said in unison... Yo MAN did you hear...there is a BLOCK PARTY ON 11th Street!! I'm goin in and throwin on my gear now...Here have some of this beer, I'll be back.

I don't know if we ever got that basketball back...we all went in the direction of the THUNDER...in the direction of 11th Street.

We got there and yes indeedy...there were honey's...

Dam Greg, I said, I should have gone home to shower... Then before I could think to turn and go home...I heard a horn...from somewhere behind us...a calling type of horn...one played by a man named Tom Browne... never heard this on the radio before this day...then before I could react fully to the horn a Bass Line kicked in...and I mean KICKED IN...Jamaica Funk that's what it was...the jump was on for the best lookin Honey...DISCO RAT had TURNED ON HIS AMP AND STARTED TO PLAY!!!... That may sound like a simple enough thing... but you don't quite understand.... DISCO RAT HAD TURNED ON HIS AMP FROM THE BACK OF HIS RED EX WONDERBREAD TRUCK AT THE OTHER END OF THE BLOCK AND STARTED TO PLAY! The crowd moved, in UNISON, from the now surprised and somewhat embarrased DJ with the lower wattage system as he had to relent his control over the crowd to KING RAT...

This is the first in a series of articles on unsung hip hop legends in Logan - Philadelphia
next session...KING DISCO RAT