Around 1993 I met
Andrew who was friends with several Eritrean and
Ethiopian kids based at
Wood Green,
Hornsey and
Bounds Green in north
London. One of the kids Andrew knew was the younger 'brother' of my girlfriend at that time, Adiam Beraki.
Andrew's early life was spent in
Nigeria but he was now living with his mother in a grey council estate alongside
West Green Road in
Tottenham, a stones throw from where
Southern Record Distribution was based at that time.
All these kids would often visit the top floor of the house in Bounds Green where Adiam lived with her 'sister'. The Bounds Green house was on the other side of
Bounds Green Road and a five minute wander and where I was housed. A note: I write 'brother' and 'sister' as the relationship was more extended family members than blood relatives
.
I would see Andrew at the house in Bounds Green, and also see him around West Green Road in Tottenham.
Andrew as well as the other kids were passionately into the
Hip Hop scene from the late
1980's. Andrew was interested in rapping and had a decent style when rapping his own righteous lyrics to various instrumental sides of Hip Hop records stashed at the Bounds Green house.
Through Southern Record Distribution I knew Dorothea Edet who worked at Munroe studios in
Holloway Road. I discussed Andrew with her one night, and she thought she might be able to help a young aspiring rapper.
Through Dorothea I was invited to meet up with a rapper called
Little Pauly Ryan. I took Andrew with me, and Andrew rapped ad lib to beats in Little Pauly
Ryan's bedroom at his mothers house somewhere out north west London (
Park Royal /
Stonebridge Park maybe - Can't remember).
Little Pauly Ryan was impressed and constructed some beats for Andrew to keep. The raw and rough beats on a cassette tape were handed to Andrew, and I drove back with him to Bounds Green.
I discussed this cassette tape and this kid to
Paul Harding, ex of the early '80's punk band, Hager The
Womb, who at that
point was deeply involved in
Stay Up Forever records. Paul Harding agreed to engineer
Andrew rapping his righteous lyrics over the beats on the cassette tape at
Southern Studios during the studios downtime, late at night. Conveniently Southern Studios was nearby to the Bounds Green house, and where I was housed.
Andrew now had an alias, Ill
Jake. On this YouTube post, Ill Jake's three tracks recorded that night at Southern Studios, sit between the 'official' 12" record by Little Pauly Ryan on the
Bite 8 record label.
The difference in the sound quality between the tracks can be heard straight away. Ill Jake's tracks effectively being 'demo' quality, original beats recorded in a bedroom and after only three hours at a late night Southern Studios session, and Little Pauly Ryan's several days of remixing and overdubs. Added to that, I had the only master cassette, not a nice shiny vinyl, which is now around twenty two years old so the quality has faded a bit.
Walking out of Southern Studios and back at the Bounds Green house this cassette was played all morning long by the kids there. Ill Jake was ecstatic and appreciative of the help I had given him.
By the latter years of the
1990's, and as life went on, I lost contact with some of these kids, including Andrew. I was told some time ago now that he had been in prison for (I think) a house robbery in
Hampstead.
Hope he is OK nowadays. He was a sweet kid.
Not sure what happened to Little Pauly Ryan.
Accompanying the audio on this
YouTube video are images that show the spray paint skills of Asboluv, one of my favourite artists
... From a 1980's punk background, Asboluv creates some of the best work with a spray can and some stencils, whether on walls, wood or canvas. The Asboluv work compliments the three Little Pauly Ryan tracks.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/asboluv/
The images for the Ill Jake tracks are just a handful of some of my photographs taken back in 1993, showing (mainly in long stretches) Andrew / Ill Jake himself at the Bounds Green
House (one of the only photographs I have of him). Added are of some photographs of the other kids that were around that regularly came to visit at the Bounds Green house.
Track listing:
Little Pauly Ryan - Little P Fills
The Room Up
Ill Jake - Unnamed track
Little Pauly Ryan - Make 'Em Go Ohhh
Ill Jake - Unnamed track
Little Pauly Ryan - Little P Fills The Room Up (
Underdog mix)
Ill Jake - Unnamed track
- published: 29 Sep 2015
- views: 164