Stones Throw Records

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Everybody's got a story, here's mine, by Peanut Butter Wolf I first discovered popular music as a young kid in the mid 1970's. The first song I remember making an impact on me (besides Schoolhouse Rock) was "What's Goin On" by Marvin Gaye. The TV station I used to watch would play it saturday morning right before cartoons started at 6AM. I remember liking the music, the vocals, and even the message it brought. (Kids understand more than we give them credit for). In the late 1970's I started buying records. My second grade teacher would play us disco songs on Fridays. I was maybe 6 years old and would get a record for my birthday or Christmas. Some favorites were "Saturday Night Fever," "Boogie Nights," and "YMCA." 1979 was my "coming of age" year. I was nine years old and started getting allowance. What that translates to is: I started buying records weekly. I could only afford the 45 singles, but that was enough for me. Holidays would get me a 12" (Double Dutch Bus) or an album (Cameo). I would also save my lunch money and eat when I came home so I could buy more records. Coincidentally, 1979 was also the year that hip hop records started to spring up at the neighborhood record store. It was mostly songs on an independent label called Sugarhill Records that made it to the West Coast (They had their promotion, as well as their distribution together.) I soon noticed that whatever I bought from that label would be consistant to the other songs from the label. In 1982, I bought "Planet Rock" on Tommy Boy Records. I started to realise that they always had it together. With songs like "Pack Jam", "Play That Beat," "Space Is the Place," and "Play At Your Own Risk," you always got your five dollar's worth. Then I noticed a pattern. Sunnyview Records was cool because of "Jam On Revenge" and "ET Boogie". Beauty & the Beat Records had "Triple Threat," "King Kut," and "What the Party Needs." Vintertainment had "2,3 Break," "Hip Hop On Wax," "Girls," and "Pee Wee's Dance." Def Jam had "It's Yours," "I Need A Beat," "Drum Machine," "Beat The Clock," and "Party's Gettin Rough" (They couldn't go wrong.) At this time, I was a bedroom DJ, making mixtapes for my friends at school. I also borrowed a drum machine and started recording demos with a group called The Slobs. Dreams of being the next Cold Chillin For me, 1986 was the year that I first considered starting a label when I grew up. I wrote a high school essay about it that year (Just recently found it). I even went so far as to decide against college, since I figured it wouldn't help my music career anyway. (I later changed my mind and got my degree in Business Marketing). Four years later while still in college, I put out my first record ("You Can't Swing This" by Lyrical Prophecy) with a label called PMR Records. It was run by Kim Collett, who DJed with me at the local radio station (KSJS). I got my dad to pitch in $500 to get the thing released, making me a part owner in the label. We only pressed 500 copies, never mastered it, cut and pasted the artwork, and didn't even know you could sell them to a distributor.

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