Pookey Blow never made it big.
December 16, 2018 12:02 PM   Subscribe

Pookey Blow - Get Up (And Go To School) [12" single] By 1983, the musical career of 15-year-old Pookey Blow, born Jerry Pearson, was over. A couple of the teenage rapper's cuts earned regional recognition, but fame and profits that his uncle/producer envisioned never materialized.

From the 2004 Stones Throw compilation The Third Unheard: Connecticut Hip Hop 1979-1983.
[The Third Unheard: YouTube Playlist]

Review, The Third Unheard [Waterbury Republican via Stones Throw]
POOKEY BLOW NEVER MADE IT BIG. He never visited Jacob the Jeweler for diamond-encrusted bling; neither, did he tour countries where fans who barely spoke English rapped along with his lyrics. Success, the kind that has since made household names and millionaires out of hip-hop stars Jay-Z and 50 Cent, eluded him.

By 1983, the musical career of 15-year-old Pookey Blow, born Jerry Pearson, was over. A couple of the teenage rapper's cuts earned regional recognition, but fame and profits that his uncle/producer envisioned never materialized. Today the 36-year old New Haven native is stationed at the Army's Fort Hood in Texas.

The aspirations of Pookey Blow's uncle, would-be mogul Tony Pearson, followed a similar ilar path.

"By no means will I pollute my mind and think I've had any success as an entertainer," said the elder Pearson, recalling his attempt at, becoming a P. Diddy predecessor. "Haven't had any success, didn't make any money."

Approaching middle age and producer of the hip-hop cable access show "Holla Back Video" broadcast in several cities including Waterbury, Tony Pearson was perhaps best known as Mr. Magic.

That is, if people knew him at all.

In the late 1970s, Mr. Magic was Connecticut's equivalent of Kool DJ Here, a founding father of rap and among those who vie for the title of innovator of hip-hop. During the decade of Richard Nixon and "Saturday Night Fever," Mr. Magic emerged as a regionally known deejay and Ansonla record store owner.

After seeing the way the crowd reacted when he spun Kurtis Blow's 1979 "Christmas Rapping" album for the first time, Tony Pearson became intent on producing the first rap album to come out of New England.
Excerpt from the liner notes included in The Third Unheard CD and vinyl [Stones Throw]
In 1979, Tony Pearson, AKA Mr. Magic, was a twenty-something New Haven-based DJ and owner of the Magic Records store in the small valley town of Ansonia. He had already commandeered the area’s disco and funk scene with the help of protégés Reggie Reg and Gary Bell and friends Leo the Lion, Henry P, Old Man Soul and Funk Machine, Melvin the Music Maker and The Original Cutmaster Joey Dee. His musical trajectory changed, however, when Reggie Reg brought Kurtis Blow’s “Christmas Rapping” to a Christmas Party at a Hudson Street social club.

“He was so excited when he came in with the record. We couldn’t wait to play it ‘cause we knew that cut was going to be the cut,” Mr. Magic remembers. “We put it on, man, and people had never heard it. That’s when I started thinking. I told Reggie and Gary, ‘I’m going to do a rap record and you guys have to be on it with me.’”

He developed a novel concept – to increase his chances of breaking a new musical form in Connecticut, he would write a meandering rap that would start off with a nod to the state (“You know some people say Connecticut can’t rock/But I’m here to make you all hip and hop”) and end with all of Connecticut’s major cities (and some obscure towns such as Ansonia and Meriden) responding “We’re down!” to his roll-call. However this record would never be recorded as planned. The disciplined Mr. Magic had a self-imposed deadline – he wanted to be the first New Englander to release a rap record and, gauging by the gaggle of 12-inches lining the shelves of his record store, he felt nervous that some go-getter would beat him to the punch. Thus, when it became apparent that Reggie Reg and DJ Gary needed time to perfect their sections of the song, Mr. Magic removed their names, transcribed his rap onto a series of cue-cards and contacted a studio in Bridgeport to book a hasty recording session.
Later released by Now Again Records on the compilation OLD SCHOOL CONNECTICUT HIP HOP – TRI STATE RECORDS [Now Again]
posted by nightrecordings (7 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
cutest playa you will meet today
posted by ouke at 12:29 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


The kazoo at the end is what kills me and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, listen all the way to the end, it's totally worth it!!!
posted by Fizz at 1:04 PM on December 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


I was sad that his favorite class was lunch. That doesn’t say much for the old school curriculum.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:07 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


I was sad that his favorite class was lunch.

I like to believe that he went on to culinary school.
posted by nightrecordings at 1:16 PM on December 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


More seriously, I enjoy the way that this track is a sort of transitional form between earlier musical styles and what we recognize as rap today. I know that’s well travelled path, and a lot of writing has been done on it, but it’s interesting to find something “in situ,” so to speak. The past is odder than we remember.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:44 PM on December 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


That song has a decent amount of cowbell.
posted by 4ster at 6:01 PM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Better than Asher Roth.
posted by lkc at 6:30 PM on December 16, 2018


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