Gonna Get a Fly Girl, Get Some Spank and Drive Off in a Def OJ

November 25, 2021 6:58 AM

The Oral History of the OJ Car Service
posted by chavenet (4 comments total)

Love this. Rock the Bells radio is doing a lot of this kind of documenting and promoting of early hip hop history and it's a great thing.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:25 AM on November 25, 2021 [7 favorites]

Rahiem: When Grandmaster Flash was at his absolute hottest as a D.J. he would charge anywhere from 200 to 500 dollars to make custom tapes for people. He would shout their names throughout the tapes. He eventually did this for OJ drivers, so they were playing tapes of our parties as well as custom tapes that Flash made for them. I’d say the OJ played a significant role in the music travelling from the Bronx to other boroughs. [..]

Dynamite: All these drivers wanted music, so I began tailoring personalized tapes for all the drivers at all the cab companies. It was a great marketing tool that worked both ways. The drivers now had these tapes shouting out their numbers, and I in turn gained notoriety with the passengers as one of the first to sell Hip Hop mix tapes, this is 1978. If you never been to a Dynamite and Cooleone party you best believe you heard those tapes. I could make 3- 400 dollars a week selling tapes. So these cars are now spreading Hip Hop music to the other boroughs. Now people in Queens and as far as Brooklyn are hearing these tapes and coming to these parties in The Bronx via OJ Cab. Meanwhile I’m in with all the drivers and would always be seen hoppin’ in and outta these fly cars. I stayed on hold.

posted by LobsterMitten at 7:51 AM on November 25, 2021 [8 favorites]

This was incredible. It's so cool to read as these guys remember all the vivid detail of these drivers and this world, which seems to have played a material role in the birth of hip hop.

All these hip hop dudes are legends to so many people, so it's neat to see the respect they have for the drivers.

I love learning about whole universes that had been invisible to me before.
posted by AgentRocket at 8:55 AM on November 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Awesome; thanks to everyone involved to make sure these stories and experience were told again and sharing here it on MeFi.
posted by fizzix at 10:05 AM on November 26, 2021 [1 favorite]