Thursday, October 27, 2005

Interview with DJ Mean Gene

Click here to view video.
Hip Hop Pioneer, DJ Mean Gene, gives us a few minutes to tell of about his history and involvement in the Hip Hop Culture. DJ Mean Gene is from the "old school" with a ton of knowledge and has had a major impact on what we call Hip Hop today.
To give a little bit of history on who this legend of Hip Hop is, I will give you a couple of excerpts from various articles. In a 1996 interview with Kool DJ Red Alert by Davey D (Davey D's Hip Hop Corner, Sept. 1996), DJ Red Alert had to say this:
"There was a host of different deejays that was coming up during the time. Rest in Peace Disco King Mario who was from Soundview [Bronxdale] Projects. He passed away due to severe problems. He's considered one of the pioneer deejays. There was DJ AJ who later on became the deejay for Kurtis Blow. Kurtis Blow made a record using his name called 'AJ Scratch'.

Then you had the L Brothers, who were the Livingston Brothers. Once upon a time the Livingston Brothers and Grandmaster Flash were all together as a crew but then they parted off. The L Brothers consisted of the older brother called Mean Gene. The middle brother was Cordeo and the younger brother who turned out to be one of the baddest out the bunch was Grand Wizard Theodore."

In a more recent article on HeavyContact.com, DJ Mean Gene is given credit for teaching his brother Grand Wizard Theodore how to DJ. "Grand Wizard Theodore learned the art of DJing from his older brother ("Mean Gene" Livingston), and Grand Master Flash, who in the early 70's performed together. " Grand Wizard Theodore is given the credit for inventing the "scratch" and also the "needle drop". As you can see, DJ Mean Gene is deeply rooted into the history of Hip Hop.

2 comments:

Lynn Lane said...

jonny...thanks! I'll be bringing more to the vlog in the next few days. I've got a few amazing clips that I'll be dropping.

Anonymous said...

This is a fact I still remember both of them from Casita Maria in the heart of the south bronx down the block from the 41st. pct. They used to play there and mele mel even won a hustle contest there back in the day...much props TOPAZ ONE OF THE EBONY DUKES INC