Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Night 2Pac Died-V100 Friday Night Flava 9/13/96


The most important radio show I've ever done. The most memorable. The most controversial. Like the Hot 102 shows, I thought I'd never find the tapes but you never know what you'll come across rummaging thru the garage.

You could say at the time I didn't understand the largeness of the situation. Other than Eazy-Z, no major hip hop artist had died up to that point. Everybody on the paintings with Pac (Big, Aaliyah, Left Eye, Jam Master Jay) died after that fateful Friday night so there was no precedent. I remember thinking, "all this for Pac?" We had already done a top 10 2Pac songs in hour 2 and people wanted more. Today you would have an entire show of music dedicated to an artists memory, but then? You were either for Pac or for B.I.G. and I was definitely riding with B.I.G. in the whole east vs. west thing. Not saying you wanted a man to die, but live by the sword, die by the sword was my attitude. 2Pac just brought out that kind of emotion in you. You either rode with him 100% or were against him 100%.

There is no revisionist history on this show like you would hear in dedication shows today. Its all raw emotions on how we and the listeners felt at that time

After the show V-100 was deluged with calls and complaints from angry listeners the entire weekend. And hearing the show and hindsight being 20/20 I can totally understand why I had to make an apology the following Friday night for some of the remarks I made on the show (even after I say at the end of the show how I'm not apologizing for the things I said). We pissed off people that night and even received a death threat or two, so by the end of the show I was defiant & didn't give a fuck. I even said some things on-air that made my co-host KeKe quit the show afterwards.

Like Aaliyah after him, I didn't know how big Pac was till after he died. On Friday The 13th 1996 I learned.

This show is dedicated to my Flava Crew. Scott "Scotty G" Gunderson in DC, Kenyatta "KeKe" Taylor in NY, and The Midwest Mixer Dr. B in Milwaukee. We made Milwaukee radio history. We were a mixshow that was on once a week for 4 hours and we made more buzz than an entire on-air staff. And we gave them a show to talk about for years to come and for that and I thank you all.

This is the entire 4 hour show.

Hour I

From the top, what still impresses me to this day is how well produced the show is. From the Strick promo that starts the show, to voice messages about Pac's death, to the show intro, to soundbytes from the movie Juice, everything is on point. Shows don't get much tighter than this and I'll take the credit for that. A lot of prep went into this in a short amout of time





Hour II

We kick off the 2Pac top 10 & get Scotty G's and KeKe's thoughts on Pac's life & death. They keep it real & pull no punches. Their words are a testament to how people were really split down the middle on the whole Pac/BIG beef & how the world was where you could speak your mind before everything became ultra politically correct.



Hour III

We finish the 2Pac top 10 & get Doc B's opinion on 2Pac and his legacy plus play a few more promos, songs & Pac cuts.





Hour IV

By now the weight of the callers is starting to get to me & the crew and I'm getting a lil pissed, but we keep it movin & we finish the show off with a few more Pac songs and a mini Booty mix by Dr. B who had been on the wheels the entire show