No one my age, who listened to hip-hop, could forget that line from Biggie Smalls single “Juicy”. He was paying homage to a legend who has passed away Friday, Oct 2nd.
DJ Mr. Magic, one of hip hop’s conduits to radio, died Friday of a heart attack.
Before Torrents, MP3’s and iTunes, these mix tape shows were the source of new music. Growing up in Harrisburg, we had no hip-hop radio stations and I didn’t have BET until late junior high school. My only recourse was to take blank cassette tapes whenever we visited anyone in Philadelphia, New York or New Jersey and record a hip-hop mix-tape show so I could take it home and learn all the latest. Mr. Magic pioneered this format of Radio show and the “mix-tape” hip-hop tradition.