DJ Hollywood & Brucie B - Live at the 111th Street Block Party
It's a Harlem thing.
Inside the pages of Do Remember!, you’ll find interviews with both DJ Hollywood and Brucie B in “The Live Tapes” chapter, where they share memories of the early mixtape days in Harlem and how live club and party recordings would circulate on cassettes in the streets. We highlighted Brucie B earlier in our 50 TAPES run, so here’s DJ Hollywood, who actually started off making 8-Track tapes (early!) and was also an integral part of the live mixtape movement in the ‘80s:
DJ Hollywood: The cassette was invented, and this became the excitement of the street. Because now, the live parties you went to could be recorded on a tape—and you could ride around with that tape, and that could make you a famous person in your neighborhood. And everywhere the tape went, that sound went. People all over the city got used to that sound. That’s what set the parties into crazy motion, because they’re listening to the shit on the tape and they’re saying, “Yo! That shit is hot, man. Where’d that come from?”
At this time, breaking records was something that DJs were doing because it only traveled on the tapes. “Before I Let Go,” it never went to the radio—we broke that record on tape. When people got into that record, it was over.
Okay, you ready to party with DJ Hollywood and Brucie B? This live mixtape was recorded in 1989 at a block party on 111th Street in Harlem. It starts off with some fly R&B classics “for the older generation” like Deniece Williams “Cause You Love Me Baby” before they flip into joints by everyone from Full Force and Whodini to Mantronix and Doug E. Fresh & MC Ricky D (aka Slick Rick)—and they even funk it up with a little James Brown.
It’s a party like no other when Hollywood and Brucie B join forces. Enjoy the mix, and salute to these two absolute legends—your contributions to Do Remember! are forever cherished and appreciated.
Stream Live at the 111th Street Block Party below, and stay tuned for our last 50 TAPES drop as celebrate the release of Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes, out now via Rizzoli.
DJ Hollywood & Brucie B - Live at the 111th Street Block Party