His relationships with rappers extended beyond the studio. Old school legends like Run DMC, Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim all paid their respects to the small community station. In a burgeoning genre where artists were fighting for precious airtime, KPOO became a destination for popular acts and upcoming artists. Nowadays DJs have little power over the selection of songs but back then they were all-powerful gatekeepers and could make or break a career. He says “I was communicating with Russell Simmons like almost everyday.” He already had contacts in the music industry and the young disc jockey started inviting rappers to come on his show. A teenager like much of his audience, he was easily relatable and had his finger on the pulse of the culture. Marcus embodied the new hip-hop generation and took the show to new level. He took him under his wing and within weeks Marcus inherited the Sunday afternoon rap show. Radio manager Joe Rudolph ( in black) talking with Russell Simmons at KPOOīut Lebaron did more than give him a job. I was driving a Porsche, working in radio.” Marcus says of his start, “I was just happy. He thought he had made it big, cruising the hills of Fillmore with Lebaron on his way to a new job. KPOO DJ, Lebaron “Lord” King noticed the young man’s deep voice with a smooth delivery and asked if he was interested in being on the radio. His big break would come a few months later in '83, during a communications class at Laney College. But that wouldn’t be how he would get on the radio. Undeterred he tried other routes - like sending a demo tape to KPOO. Marcus says only they lasted about a couple weeks though as Too $hort’s provocative lyrics and his more demure style weren’t a good fit. Marcus and Oakland’s favorite son Too $hort even formed a group. By the time he got high school when he would fall in love with rap, listening to tracks like “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow and DJs like Afrika Baambaata.Įarly on, as a teenager in 1983, he thought he’d be rapper. In his time he not only put the Bay Area on the map nationally as a destination for early stars on tour, but was also instrumental in the jump-starting the local scene.īorn in Oakland the youngest of nine children, Marcus got into music early. Marcus, who was active from the early 80s into early 90s, created a bridge between the time that rap was considered an underground fad to its modern place in the world. The Fillmore’s KPOO was an early adopter, launching an all-rap show in 1979.ěy the mid-80s with the help of young DJ named Marcus Clemmons, KPOO became the center of hip-hop in the Bay Area and beyond. The genre’s stars have their biopics and are being inducted into the rock roll hall fame.īut there was a time, when rap music wasn’t so readily available and in fact throughout most of 1980s, mainstream radio refused to play it.īack then to listen to the latest cuts, you would either go to a club or listen to independent radio. A hip-hop verse adds instant cool to anything and it’s used to sell cars add “ flava” to pop songs and give street credit to a film score. Turn on any given urban, pop ad even rock radio stations you’ll hear poetic flows over intricate beats.
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