..As the interview ended Lord Finesse made his way from behind the table. I cued the footage to the 1:28 minute mark, the exact moment Finesse could be seen speaking on the panel. I did not say a word, I only turned the screen towards him so he could see what I was playing . He stopped, checked it out, then realizing it was me, nodded his head and said "what's up?" This all got Jeremy Beaver's attention and he said:
"Hey what's that?"
"It's footage from across the street, Howard University back in 1992 when we used to host a hip-hop conference. This is rare footage featuring Lord Finesse on a panel, and participating in the DJ Contest. As far as I know I am the only person that even has this footage."
"Email that to me so we can add it to the museum"
***record scratch
(This is not what we do here!)
##
This occurred Friday December 14, at the Hip-Hop Museum, DC which is directly across the street from Howard University's School of Business. The event was an induction ceremony for the legendary Lord Finesse, and I went on a secret mission to attend this in person. The reason being actually goes back to 1992.
Howard University used to host the Cultural Initiative Hip-Hop Conference when I was a student. 1992's conference was the second year of the conference's existence. I had a camcorder (Minolta Master C-606) and recorded lots of footage of the conference from the panels, the inaugural DJ competition, and some performances.
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| The Hip-Hop Camcorder |
As I was going through the footage, it hit me that I should do something with it. If I am the only person that has actual video of the Conference, I feel it's my duty to preserve this piece of history somehow. I decided I would make a documentary about it! I talked it over with one of my mentors, Maureen Singleton (will be credited as an Executive Producer), and she had a great suggestion for a way to tell the story, which would require locating people who I have in the footage, and get them to provide their perspective about what they remember from the event. That's a great idea as far as I am concerned.
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| The VCR tapes of the Hip-Hop Conference |
I started to take all the footage and edit it in iMovie, and came up with a teaser of sorts. I posted it online through various social media channels, and got a pretty good reception from folks. On Twitter the footage got the attention of Lord Finesse and we started to exchange messages via email. I let him know my plans, and told him that I'd like to sit down with him so he can be involved, once I knew this would take off. I don't believe in wasting people's time, and at the same time I want to make sure everyone involved can get properly compensated for their participation. He was very agreeable about my proposal, and told me to stay in touch.
A few weeks ago, I saw a notification on Facebook that Lord Finesse was going to be inducted into the Hip-Hop Museum of DC. I did a little research and saw that the location for the event was directly across the street from Howard University which I found...interesting to say the least. My first thought was why something like this does not already exist on Howard's campus? My second thought was whose in charge of this? I asked folks in my network from the DMV area, and no one really seemed to know what the story with this museum was, other than it was actually a recording studio of some sort called Listen Vision Studios. I did a bit more sleuthing online and this seemed to be a legit operation. I reached out to Lord Finesse to see if he was actually going. He confirmed to me that this was legit, and he'd be there. I decided that I would go too, as it would be a good chance to meet him and show him more of what I had, and also to see what's the story with this museum.
I arrived in DC mid-afternoon and made my way toward Howard. I had the cab driver drop me off in front of the bookstore, and chose to walk up Georgia Ave a few blocks to the address of this museum. I made it to the address, which had two flights of stairs to go up and opened the door. There were a couple of people inside cleaning up, and one of them said to me, "we're not open for tours yet." to which I responded by asking about the induction ceremony. They confirmed it was taking place at 5 and I asked if it was open to the public which it was. I said I'd be back. From what I could see the space was definitely a recording studio, I could not at that point, yet make out much of the museum part. I figured I could go check-in where I was staying, grab some food, and make my way back in time for the start.
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| Death Row Records Electric Chair on display at the Hip-Hop Museum, DC |
By the time I got back it was dark and rainy, but making my way back inside the space, the ceremony I could see had started, and sure enough there was Lord Finesse sitting behind a table being interviewed by Jeremy Beaver, founder of Listen Vision Studios. Luckily, there were only a handful of us inside, maybe about seven of us so i was able to get a good view of the interview, which was streaming live and being recorded. I took a seat, content to bide my time.
At one point they played footage of Lord Finesse on "Yo MTV Raps" with Fab Five Freddy, where he did a freestyle, and I smiled because I remembered the episode, and was able to even recite a few of the bars from what I remembered. The induction ceremony/interview lasted roughly an hour with an interesting segment taking place towards the end called Unboxing. According to Jeremy, every week they do the show, they do an unboxing of hip-hop memorabilia that they receive in the mail. I believe I heard it said that these items were from eBay. Some items that were unboxed during this segment were a copy of Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" album on vinyl, autographed by Chuck D and Flavor Flav which came in from Lenexa, Kansas, and a Macola Records Jacket which came from North Hollywood, CA. I believe I found the listing for the jacket here. I bring this portion of the show up to highlight how I started this piece, which we can now revisit.
***REWIND
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| Lord Finesse & Jeremy Beaver, Founder of Listen, Vision Studios |
"Hey what's that?"
"It's footage from across the street, Howard University back in 1992 when we used to host a hip-hop conference. This is rare footage featuring Lord Finesse on a panel, and participating in the DJ Contest. As far as I know I am the only person that even has this footage."
"Email that to me so we can add it to the museum"
I did not even respond to this 'request', instead processing what he asked me. Here I am in DC, across the street from my beloved Howard University at a recording studio, which is also serving as a hip-hop museum, where the founder just interviewed an all-time legend, who I happen to have rare, unseen footage of from 1992 at a conference that took place across the street back in 1992, which to my knowledge CANNOT BE FOUND ANYWHERE ONLINE, and I am just supposed to 'email' this to you?
You can't even do me a solid and at least ask my name, who I am?
You can't even ask me if the footage can be licensed from me? I just watched you unbox a bunch of hip-hop memorabilia that I believe you said you ordered off of eBay, so clearly you have some type of funds.
Am I not worthy for some type of financial consideration, Mr. Beaver?
I did not even respond to his request, but I 'politely' took his card and continued to rap with Lord Finesse and by now a small group of people gathered around us (not Beaver) as we talked about the Hip-Hop Conference, and I made mention to those who were listening what my intentions were for what I had. Lord Finesse asked me to play what i had of him at the DC Contest, and i of course obliged him. He invited me to roll with him the following day on Saturday, but I told him I was returning back home. He asked where I came from, and I told him Long Island. I told him how great it was to finally meet him, and we would catch up soon so that I could complete my mission of creating a documentary of this footage. I was able to snap a photo with him before I left.
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| Yours truly with Lord Finesse |
As I exited the building into the night, where the rain had picked up considerably, all I could think about though was this Jeremy Beaver asking me to email him my footage so he could use it in the museum. I guess on one hand, he's doing what he's supposed to do which is ask because you never know how a person would respond, and there may have been a time where naively I would have just sent it off without thinking about it. But on the other hand, I did not think that was cool at all. I have my own plans for my blood, sweat, and tears, and outside of any of the artist who are featured in my footage, no one gets to build up their platform, before I get a chance to build up my platform. Once the documentary is complete, maybe i'll reach out to this guy with a real plan on how I want it showcased and presented, because it is quite honestly a piece of hip-hop history from the area. But that is not happening before Howard University, and myself can reap any benefits that this project yields.
Until then check out the teaser that I released of my footage and stay tuned for an EXCITING announcement in the early part of 2019!
Word up son, word!
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