Special ’45s show! Plus DJ Lee Majors (More Bounce)
Chris Manak first discovered hip hop at the age of nine in his hometown of San Jose, CA in 1979. He was mainly buying soul/funk 45s by artists like Cameo and The Bar Kays at that time. You were either a rocker or a souler and PBW was a souler. To celebrate his first year as a teen in 1984, his mom got him a DJ mixer from Radio Shack. He soon discovered reggae, new wave, and punk, but hip hop was still #1. He got his first drum machine in 1986 and started recording with different local MCs and by 1990, he met 16-year-old rapper Charizma. Charizma dared Chris to change his DJ name to Peanut Butter Wolf. It wouldn’t be Wolf’s last unconventional career move.
Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf recorded over an album’s worth of “golden age” hip-hop for Hollywood Records and did shows with House Of Pain, Nas, and The Pharcyde until December 1993, when the world lost Charizma to gun violence. Wolf took a break.
“Making beats” eventually became therapy, though, as Wolf forged a career as a music producer, working with various rappers and labels for the next few years. By 1996, he started up his own label Stones Throw Records. With no money, staff, office, experience, or even CD distribution, Wolf started Stones Throw as a vinyl-only record label that catered almost strictly to DJs.
His own album My Vinyl Weighs A Ton, was the most acclaimed and successful release of the early years of Stones Throw. By 2000, Wolf relocated the label to Los Angeles, bringing the rapper/producer Madlib along with him, who became the center of the label for many years. When Madlib made Quasimoto’s The Unseen, a helium-voiced alter ego, Stones Throw saw a turning point. From then on, the label defied more conventions with each year.
With artists as varied as James Pants, Jonti, and Anika, Stones Throw grew a reputation for its left-field style, while still continuing to drop classic material in the hip-hop genre. Acclaimed albums from MF Doom’s Madvillain and J Dilla’s swan song Donuts, cemented Stones Throw’s status as a crucial entry in the history of hip hop. Wolf has also curated compilation albums for Adult Swim, 2K Sports, Serato, and Urban Outfitters. He has discovered and developed artists such as Mayer Hawthorne, Dam-Funk, Jonwayne, The Stepkids, and Aloe Blacc.
After almost three decades of record digging experience, PBW now takes DJing to the next level: multimedia. His VJ sets find him playing rare music video clips from the last 6 decades – he has one of the deepest music video collections in the world.
Peanut Butter Wolf the label founder still enjoys a DJ career that takes him around the world, balancing between club dates, festivals, and private events. Whether it’s a dinner party for Bill Clinton, a string of dates with the Beastie Boys, Gwen Stefani’s birthday party, or his own high school reunion, Wolf is equally at home behind the turntables.
Along with his partner in crime Lenny Roberts, Louie Flores (AKA Breakbeat Lou) is the man responsible for the quintessential series Ultimate Breaks & Beats, a veritable Bible for all beatmakers, crate-diggers, as well as any and all hip hop fans interested in finding “the source.”
The 25 volume series and its iconic logo has always been synonymous with the sound of hip hop, an archive-in-progress and the closest definitive list of its kind, preceding all of today’s online “short cuts” and becoming the blueprint for so many iconic records and legendary producers.
However, as famous as the series has been through the decades, not many people know enough about Lou’s story- one of the most genuine and generous figures in hip hop history. A true disciple of the culture’s early Bronx infancy which he first got involved in at the precocious age of 9, Lou has carried this giving spirit through the years with this seminal gift to all producers and diggers across the world, and today by sharing his treasure trove of knowledge with us on this special Collections episode.
From his world-famous 45s collection, to insight into the late 70s and early 80s park jams, his love and respect for Bambatta’s legacy, and more, Lou sits down with another notorious digger, DJ and vinyl expert Rich Medina for a time-traveling history of UBB and its numerous tentacles.
Enjoy the ride.
