Can You Dig It? Vol. 33: Jesse Felluss

Name: Jesse Felluss

Claim to Fame: I was pretty well known in the New York hip hop mix tape scene for the 6 Great Albums series. Now I’m more known as the dude that just rocks the party, whatever kind of party it is, 80’s, hip hop, house, or rock. In a way that kind of hurts me sometimes because I’m not known for one specific thing like hip hop or mash ups. These days, I’m going for more of the house vibe. I really like the energy of a house party going off.


Unfortunately, outside of the house scene it’s all Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Danity Kane. It’s alright, I guess. It gets the girls going, but it’s not really what I’m into. I’m working harder on my production than working the New York scene. To me, right now, the New York scene is played out. It’s stoke brokers and hot gold digging chicks that want to here cheesy music. That’s how I see the New York scene at the moment. I’m trying to bust out these house tracks, get on the road, and get out to where people want to get hit with something different, instead of just making a bunch of young girls gyrate. That can be fun too though (laughs). I can’t be too mad at it. I have my complaints, but overall, life is good. The DJ living is great. I get to sleep in and watch my soccer games during the day.



Representing: I grew up in DC and then spent three years of high school living in Port smith, New Hampshire. I went to college up in New Paltz, New York and then moved to NYC in 2000. I’ve been living in the same building ever since.



Years in the Game: If you consider me scratching on my brother’s record player and totally fucking the thing up DJing, I started DJing and buying records at around ‘93. For a while, I guess I wasn’t in the game, I was in my bedroom learning how to do everything. I was probably better than most club DJ’s when I started doing clubs because I had practiced so much. I didn’t have any gigs when I was in New Hampshire, so I did it as a hobby. I didn’t really think of DJing as a business until it started making me more money than my regular job. I made the leap, and here I am. I always practiced like a motherfucker, even before I was doing this as a job. A lot of people see DJing as a business first. With any art, you’re only going to be good at it if you’re thinking about the art first. If you’re only thinking about the money and the red carpet, nine out of ten times you really won’t go anywhere.



Best Digging City or Town: There’s a special place in my heart for the old school days when I first kind of discovered DJing. I would go to Satellite and Biscuit Head records in Boston. I could stay in those places for hours and hours. My friends would be wylin’ out like, “Dude, what is this, how can you spend three hours in one store?” So I ditched them and started going on trips to dig without them (Laughs).

The old Beat Street was really sick for everything hip hop that you needed. Rock & Soul was the home base I used to hit up on a weekly basis. That was always a good spot. Atlanta had some good spots. I haven’t spent too much time in California, but I found good shit in the vintage shops there. Some of the shops had really good records and they’d cost 99 cents. It’s great to be able to go into a shop and find dope records for that cheap. I remember San Diego having some good spots.



Back when I was in the DJ battle scene, I used to always go to Fat Beats for the Dirtstyle battle and hip hop records. Back when hip hop was fun (Laughs). It was great man, getting destroyed by I Emerge all the time (Laughs). It was fun.



Most Prized Piece of Wax: I would say my number one overall is the copy of Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly that my brother owned. When I first started fucking around with turntables, I’d put that shit on and when “Pusherman” came on, it was one of those musical moments where it took over my whole body. Listening to that record was my first vinyl moment. I put the needle on and it was all scratchy and it sounded great. That one always sticks out, it was just awesome.



Appetite for Destruction was one of my first records ever; I got it when I was in sixth grade. I used to read the words and sing along to that album. Picture that, a sixth grader signing along to "Mister Brownstone". I didn’t know what the words meant until a little later. I remember thinking, “Man, my mom let me sing that shit?” I guess she didn’t really know what the song meant either (Laughs).



I’d also have to say my first ever Booger Breaks record. When I first bought that, it got a workout. It actually got a work out for something like 10 years (Laughs). Whenever I practiced scratching, I would take that one out. When I first started DJing, I was mostly going to raves. Eventually I got a VHS copy of a DMC competition and that was my introduction to battles. When I got Bionic Booger Breaks, I was hearing every sampled I’d ever heard anyone scratch. I was going nuts.



Favorite Album Cover/s: I always liked the Appetite for Destruction.

The Illmatic cover was obviously dope.



A guy like me is always going to love The Chronic.


Abby Road by The Beatles is really good.



I like Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. That cover looks all bugged out, like it’s a scene from Lord of the Rings.



Another cover I love is Jethro Tull’s Aqua Lung. That has a weird, medieval vibe to it.



Dollar Bin Miracle: There was this thrift store I went to in San Diego while I was on the 2003 Lipton Brisk Flavors of Hip-hop Tour. Everything record cost 99 cents. We were finding sick shit: 70’s, 80’s, and all original pressings. Some of us had to buy new crates to stick all of our new the records in. That was dope.



I like the Grateful Dead, and one time I got this triple live set of theirs for 25 cents at a yard sale. It was six records total. Sometimes I find the Dead boring, but sometimes I love listening to them. I can’t explain it, it’s weird. I have ADD like a motherfucker, so sometimes I have trouble listening to a 20 minute song.


Total Records Owned: I’ve cleaned out a lot of the stuff I don’t have an emotional connection to. Right now I’m probably rocking around 1,500 records. I only keep stuff that I’m actually going to want to play for myself. I’m not going to keep a copy of Lil’ John’s “Get Low”. I have no use for that ever again in my life.



Or Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love”. Yeah, it was a big song, but guess what? There’s never going to be a day in my life where I’m going to want to put that on in my living room.



I live in New York. I’d love to be one of those guys who has a basement like Jazzy Jay. That would be awesome if I had the room, but I don’t, so I got rid of the shit I really don’t need. It’s tough to start getting rid of records. The mentality used to be just horde that shit, because everyone wanted to be the guy with a million records.



Best Digging Story: I remember going to Boston on a digging trip with my friends when we were either sophomores or juniors in high school. For us to go to Boston solo was a big deal. We got so fucked up; we were drinking and smoking on the way there. Biscuit Head was on the second floor of some building and we didn’t know where the fuck we were going. Our car was running on fumes; it was a total mess.



Once we got to Biscuit Head, I didn’t want to leave. My friends were like, “Uh, this place is cool and all man, but we we’ve been here for a couple of hours and we want to eat.” I told them, “Go ahead, I’m here.” Just sitting there for hours and listening to records in the store was like heaven to me. That was the same day I got Booger Breaks and I also got to hit Satellite. My friends were pissed though. Oh man, they were pissed. They were not feeling me one bit. They didn’t really know what was happening inside me at the moment. Those trips were the beginnings of where I’m at today. After that day, they were done doing Boston trips with me.

Record shopping is great. There’s just something about flipping through those stacks. You never know when that next flick of the finger is going to expose some sick shit.



To find out more about Jesse Felluss, check out his MySpace.

Also make sure to check out his new band, Nue Pourn. You can download a free summer mix from Nue Porn titled Days of Color by clicking here.

Can You Dig It? Vol. 32: Brian Coleman

Name: Brian Coleman

Claim to Fame: I'm the author of Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies



and Rakim Told Me.



I'm also President of Charles Bronson fan club, the Massachusetts chapter.



Representing: I've been in or around Boston and Cambridge, MA since “Girls I Got Em Locked” hit.



I grew up all over the Northeast, in almost too many spots to name. I will say that I am the rare dude who has legitimate and deep-seated New Jersey Pride.

Years in the Game: I've been collecting wax since about 1974, starting with my Spinners “Rubber Band Man” 45, with unnecessary accumulations starting around 1992.

Best Digging City or Town: Geez, that’s a tough one. Fall River, MA and Providence, RI back in the ‘90s were dope as hell. There weren’t many collectors working the scene back then and they weren’t a long drive for me and my man Tim Haslett (R.I.P.).



Outside of Hartford, CT had some wild spots too. And don’t get me wrong, Boston has always been good to me, but as any digger knows, you need to troll the out-of-the-way spots to really hit the jackpot.

Most Prized Piece of Wax: Probably my copy of Afrika Bambaataa “Death Mix.”



If I had an original copy of Rammelzee vs. K-Rob “Beat Bop”, that’d be my most prized. Dare to dream.



Favorite Album Cover/s: Moondog Moondog



Frank Zappa Hot Rats



Alice Coltrane Journey to Satchidananda



Joy Division Unknown Pleasures



Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back



Mantronix The Album



Curtis Mayfield Curtis



Black Flag My War, or any Raymond Pettibon Black Flag cover, for that matter.



Schoolly D Schoolly D (especially back cover)



Dollar Bin Miracle: Disco Dave & The Force of the Five MCs “High Powered Rap”



and Mr. Sweety G “We Want to Get Down”, which are both on Mix Master Mike and Disco Dave Records. They were $.49 each at a spot in Connecticut.

Total Records Owned: Somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000, and maybe 1,200 45s. I haven’t counted in a while and I gave a bunch to the Library of Vinyl Experience (LOVE) a couple years back. I have plenty, I’ll say that.

Best Digging Story: Back at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC in the ‘90s I had a copy of the Jungle Brothers “Beyond this World” on top of my pile of wax and this dude walked up to me, looked me in the eye, and just tried to grab it.



The weird thing was that he kept looking me in the eye the whole time, with a look like “What? Everything’s cool, just chill, I deserve this record.” After about 30 seconds of our tug-of-war, I just punched the dude in the chest and he let go instantly and walked away very calmly. The weirdest thing to me was that it wasn’t that rare of a record. Maybe that’s why he gave up so easily.

The Roosevelt was pretty intense back in the day, dudes weren’t fucking around and it was a real cut-throat type of scene. I stopped going after a while, because it wasn’t that fun. I was always more of a fan of finding shit in out-of-the-way spots for low-cash. I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $30 for a record and I’m proud of that. For me, just owning a dope piece of wax isn’t the most important thing, it’s how it got to you.

To find out more about Brian Coleman, visit his MySpace page. For more about his essential books on classic rap records, click here and here.

Can You Dig It? Vol. 31: Noz

Name: Noz

Claim to Fame: I DJ’d poorly for a while in high school and college. I never really got good at it. I was alright and I had good records, but it never really materialized for me. I did a radio show too and that’s actually where Cocaine Blunts and Hip Hop Tapes started. The fifth anniversary of the blog just passed, so I’ve been doing my blog for most of my adult life.



I’m not much of a multi-media beast; I just try to do my blogs. I did the column at XXL for a while, I’ve done a lot of freelancing for various magazines like Vibe, and I write some reviews for NPR.

Representing: I grew up in New Jersey. I live in DC now.



Years in the Game: I’ve been buying records for 13 or 14 years. I started when I was 12 or 13. Back then I wasn’t deep into it; I was going to flea markets with my parents and buying James Brown 45’s. I really got into digging when I came to DC to go to school. DC circa 2001 was just incredible for buying records. I was bringing 50 to 100 records home from flea markets on a regular basis, and they were really good records. I was kind of blessed to come down here during a time like that.

I was DJing off and on between ’01 and ’05. I never really did it heavily; it was mostly my radio show or the occasional house party for a friend. I never felt called to DJ. My crates are too specific. I don’t know if people really want to put up with the music I want to play.



Best Digging City or Town: DC is the only city I’ve ever lived in. I grew up in Jersey and I would go into New York, Philly, and Trenton, but you need to live in a city to really know the records. In my experience, DC is the best, but if I had been hitting Philly as hard as I hit DC, I might have done better. I don’t know.

There was one flea market in particular that me and a half dozen other dudes would hit up twice a week. It wasn’t like there were too few records to go around, we’d all get there and then go home happy. Nobody really sells records there anymore. We’d go on Thursdays and Saturdays. Thursdays I had a morning class, so I’d have to lug a crate of records with me to my class. I’d just sit there and put my feat up on them. Everything now is pretty much done in DC as far as casually buying records. If you’re not doing house calls, you’re not finding records.

There are a couple of dealers who have tapped out all the flea markets. I’ll go to a flea market now and see crates of records in one of the dealer’s trucks. When I ask about taking a look at them they’ll say, “Nah, I’m saving these for so and so.” I don’t understand that at all. I’ll buy some records too. I buy a lot of bullshit rap and weird records which most people wouldn’t want to look at anyway.

I’m not going to complain about Ebay because I’ve made a lot of money and gotten a lot of great records off of Ebay. At the same time, it’s made it so that dealers are less a source of information and merely a source of records. They don’t have to have any knowledge of what they’re selling. That’s a big problem. It makes it hard for people who are just trying to casually buy records that they know about and care about. Whatever…it was fun while it lasted.



Most Prized Piece of Wax: Probably the very first indy Scarface 12”, which I put up on my blog a little while ago. It’s a self titled 12” and it came out before he signed to Rap-A-Lot. I actually got that one off of Ebay, so there isn’t an exciting story behind it.





I have this one joint that I love; it’s my favorite record that I’ve found in the last few years. It’s a 45 by a fool from New Orleans called MC J’ Ro J’. The cover is a goofy picture sleeve 45” and it’s basically proto bounce backed by brass band samples. It’s a ridiculous record. The guys talking about “leading raps second lines through the French quarter.” Other than those two, I don’t really know.



I don’t usually think of records that way, I don’t really single them out. At the end of the day, my most prized records aren’t unknown grails or $500 joints; they’re stuff like Curtis Mayfield Live. To me that is a prized record that I couldn’t part with.



Favorite Album Cover/s: I’m still pretty geeked off of Pen and Pixel. Most of that stuff didn’t come out on vinyl, so I don’t know if it even counts. I’ve seen Pen and Pixel covers that are pineapples surrounded by gold and money stacks.



Or two dudes riding a bra strap through the clouds.



To me, the creativity of that design company is one of the greatest things in the history of the world. They did thousands and thousands of covers, so you’re always finding bizarre new shit like a dude riding a Cadillac past Pluto. These are actual covers. I’m not making this up.



People on the internet are always siked off of Big Bear. Big Bear only scratches the surface of the Pen and Pixel madness.



There’s one site I linked to on my blog and it was something like 40 pages of Pen and Pixel, and that didn’t even scratch the surface. They put out so many covers during their four year reign. I think there was some kind of falling out with them; I’m not really sure what happened. They kind of disappeared around 2000-2001, which is a shame. Pen and Pixel truly was the greatest design company in the history of hip hop.

I can’t really follow that up with anything. Other than Pen and Pixel, I don’t know. There are lots of classic album covers. I was just looking at Terry Callier’s What Color Is Love cover with the naked chick smoking a cigarette.



That’s a fantastic cover, but you can’t really put that next to dudes riding a bra strap. At the end of the day, if your choices come down to a really sublime photo verses Photoshop madness, you know where you’re going to go.

Dollar Bin Miracle: I found Keefy Keef, Keith Murray’s first record, sleeveless in a thrift shop for fifty cents. It wasn’t even in a crate of rap music; it was amongst the usual random assortment of thrift store records.



I rarely pay a lot for the big money rare rap records I find. I usually find them for a dollar. I found two Paul C produced records by Sport G and Mastermind for ten cents each, which was pretty cool.



It all starts to blur together after a while. I’m not paying more than five dollars for most of the records I buy. Unless it’s something I really want on Ebay. Most record stores are going to pass on the stuff I’m looking for and just put it in their dollar bin.

Total Records Owned: I’m probably down to 2500 now. About half of that is stuff that I hope to get rid of at some point. My main goal is to be able to fit my collection into one IKEA unit. Then again, I’m always buying stuff. I’ve cut down my collection over the past few years, but not as much as I’d like to. I don’t want to be one of these dudes with 20,000 records. I’m not keeping albums with one good song on them. To met, that’s a waste of space and money. I’ll put the one song I like on my computer and sell the record if the rest of it sucks.

Best Digging Story: I don’t have many crazy stories about major come ups. I’m not out there doing the house calls and networking. I’d rather put that effort into writing. I figure that I can be networking with record dealers and old ladies or I can be networking with artists. I tend to choose artists. With records, I’m pretty much only doing flea market, thrift store, and record store type shit.

I do have one really weird story from a house call that’s worth sharing. This ones tough…I don’t want to give away too much about this particular dealer because he’s a really nice guy. Anyway, I went to this one dealer’s house and we ate fried plantains after I looked through his records. When we were done he was like, “I just got a hot tub. You should call all of your buddies. We can have a little party.” Keep in mind this guy is something like 60 years old. I was just like, “Um…no. I’m just going to back out slowly and take my records.” It’s kind of embarrassing now that I think about it, but yeah, that’s my story (Laughs).



It was strange. I still see the guy around sometimes. The last time I saw him he was talking about how Michael Jackson should go to Thailand if he wants to be a pedophile. He was like, “You can’t do that man, unless you’re in Thailand.” I just told him, “No, you can’t do that anywhere; I don’t care where you go.”



I don’t want to throw him under the bus; I’ve gotten great records from that man. He’s just a little bit eccentric.

To read some of Noz's essential insight into the wild world of forgotten and under appreciated music, click here. His CBRAP blog is without question one of the best music based sites on the web.