CRATERY 84: Supreme La Rock

My first real glimpse of Supreme La Rock was not in person.

It was through a wantlist of records given to my friend Moss, via our mutual homie Jake One around ’95.

Supreme had instructed Jake to tell his new Canadian counterparts to be on the lookout for some titles and send them his way if we encountered any.

The list had records like:

Stark Reality

Power of Zeus

Les De Merle – Spectrum

Moody – Gentle Rain

Wayne McGhie

First Gear

Turner Brothers

Supreme’s wantlist was basically the stuff of folklore to me.

I had never heard of The Gentle Rain, Stark Reality or Turner Brothers.

These weren’t the type of records you’d find openly listed on sample credits.

They were too heavy for the Luv N Haight/Ubiquity comps of the time.

And you most likely wouldn’t find them in the average Toronto record store back then.

The records on that list were my first glance into a world much deeper than the one I was digging in.

A world extremely far away from CTI records and Tommy Roe drum breaks I was catching in the field.

I mean, shit. I was probably still looking for a copy of Ronnie Laws at that point.

I had never met Supreme and his wantlist had already made him the stuff of legend.

That was before his partnership in the Seattle indie label Conception Records.

Before his seminal break series with Jake One as the Conmen.

Before being featured in issue #1 of Waxpoetics.

And long before you some of you wetmouths were asking him about unlisted breaks on his Instagram.

When we spoke on the phone, you mentioned buying Blair’s “Night Life” in 10th grade. Give us some examples of the early pieces you picked up before they became “grails”.

I picked up Baby Huey & the Babysitters, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Incredible Bongo Band, Headhunters, Bob James all in the mid 80’s not necessarily “grails” but classics. Also, S.O.U.L, Billy Brooks, Faze O, Meters, etc. around ’91.

How did you develop such a large base of knowledge at such a young age? Were you working in a store? Did you have an OG pass on knowledge to you? Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, you weren’t exactly in the South Bronx. Where did this knowledge come from?

A lot of it wasn’t knowledge. Of course, joints like Jimmy Castor, Bongo Band etc. were already certified hip-hop break beat classics at that point but as for the other stuff a lot of trial and error. I was buying records that looked “cool” or noticing who produced it. This was pre-internet, you learned by listening. Louie Lou, T La Rock’s DJ told me about Octopus breaks when they performed in Seattle in the late 80’s so I tried to track those down and ended up talking to Lenny Roberts of U.B.B fame. He would send me lists of original records he had for sale. He already did the digging for you, and knew his stuff, so I’d buy things I didn’t even know because you knew they’d be good. He wasn’t listing anything that wasn’t funky or had breaks on ’em. Also started to do trades with Jazzman Gerald in the U.K. who put me onto a lot of great foreign records and Beni B (ABB records) who I randomly met one day while out digging. He put me onto tons of titles. I never worked in a shop until around ’96 and it wasn’t for long. The main list I used was in a book. Maybe Steven Hager’s “Hip Hop” but can’t remember for sure. There was a book that listed the top classic hip hop breaks so I used that as a guide until I acquired them all and crossed off the entire list.

We’re from a generation that was reared on secrecy. Knowledge was coveted. Thanks (or no thanks) to technology, record knowledge is much more accessible than it used to be (although no one can know or have everything). What are your thoughts on digging in a post-Internet world?

The thing that totally sucks about digging post-Internet is shops and dealers jacking up prices. Sure, there’s someone in the world willing to pay x amount for the record hence the reason it’s sold for that price in the past but with that being said doesn’t necessarily determine market va