About

Champaign-Urbana, IL - Musician, producer, composer, audio designer, and DJ Larry E. Gates II  has played hundreds of stages across the nation and has shared those stages with the likes of Chuck Berry, G. Love & Special Sauce, 30 Seconds To Mars, Local H, Superdrag, Trombone Shorty, Brother Ali, The Nappy Roots, Blueprint, DJ Rare Groove, Illogic, and many others.

 

Twitter

Donate

If you appreciate the music and the effort that went into writing, recording and producing it, please consider donating whatever amount you deem fit:

Entries in Flava Flav (1)

Throwback Thursdays: Public Enemy

If you only know Flava Flav from his embarrassing reality TV career you're missing out.  Public Enemy remains one of the most relevant ensembles in hip-hop.  Led by the militant teacher, Chuck D and his cartoon-esque clown of a sidekick, Flav - the group transformed the face of the genre.  They still put on one of the best live shows in hip-hop.  Chuck D usually led the attack on every track with few acceptions (see "Cold Lampin" and below, "911 is a Joke") with Flava Flav tossing in his trademark ad libs like, "Yeeeeaaah Boy!".

The emergency phone number "911" was invented in 1968 but didn't reach wide usage until the 80's.  On this track, Flav recounts the pains of the inner city and how they struggled to get the same emergency attention as folks in better neighborhoods.  Dig it.