Episode 5 is here and it’s a special one. For this episode ew have Boston legend, DJ 7L of 7L & Esoteric, The DJ crew known as “The Bladerunners, and as part of the trio know as “Czarface” I remember moving to Massachussets and one of the first underground Hip-hop records I heard on 88.9 was “Speaking Real Words”. Ever since then I’ve been a fan throughout the years and eventually got a chance to meet 7L and chop it up at his records shop, Vinyl Index at the Bow Market in Somerville. It’s an honor to have him do a mix for the podcast and he killed it. This is a perfect mix for you folks working from home to vibe to and take a break from chaos thats going on right now. Open your ears and enjoy the sounds provided by 7L. As always, Thank you for listening

Manip

Due to the virus going around I wasn’t able to get together with 7L for a video interview but I sent over some questions which he graciously answered. Peep the interview below

Favorite dollar bin record find.

Probably Ramsey Lewis “Funky Serenity”. 

I got it at the Salvation Army on Route 1 in 1991. Typically there was never anything great there, I would get decent Kids records, like Power Records type stuff. But on this day there was a decent stack of Ramsey Lewis, some other Jazz stuff and late Issac Hayes. All seemed to be from the same person, decent condition. So up til this point I was pretty big on grabbing records that already had been used, like just finding the original sample to mix with the rap song. Usually The Source was good at mentioning original sample sources. Spin had an article with Biz Markies 10 favorite breaks. So stuff like that (along with the UBB list) would be what I would look for. I grabbed them all, the Maiden Voyage, The Piano Player and Funky Serenity. So this got me out of that frame of mind of just getting what had been used already and look for untapped records.

I understand it’s not a super rare find or expensive or whatever you can say but it was a moment. It was very early in my buying so there was something memorable for me.  Again this was 1991.I have better dollar finds, the Brethren Drum break, oh I did get Pendulum & Company for a $1.I am sure there are other finds. Lots of good Hip Hop stuff. 

What’s your current holy grail record?

Hmmm, like most expensive? The Flat Earth Society a local Psych record might be one of the more expensive ones. Stark Reality. But for personal ones if my place was on fire, probably my libraries CAM, KPM, Bruton all those I treasure the most. My soundtracks or drum records. 

Any strange or funny diggin stories you could share?

In college my friend Dan had a radio show at his Universities station. It was every Friday 9-midnight so safe to say NO ONE was ever around. On his last show before Spring Break we had made a plan to ‘borrow’ records from the station. Basically ALL OF THEM. They were planning on doing a donation/give away by the end of the semester, so that took away most of the guilt. We had filled both our cars up, front seat back seat, in between seats,trunk, my boy had a station wagon. No mail bins, or crates, just loose records, the best way to fit the most in the space we had. The school was 45 minutes from my house and my muffler broke from the weight pretty much immediately when I pulled out of the lot. So all the way home I was dragging metal and it was loud af. The whole time I was thinking of what I was going to say as to why I had all these records for when I got pulled over. I never did. I got home to a ton of Soundtracks. The Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop had already been run through for sure multiple times. I got good ones like Hot Rock, Brother on the Run, Logans Run, Dunwich Horror that was.a score…then a lot ot of basics, Star Wars, Godfather, Body Double. It was definitely a nice way to thicken up on my Soundtrack stuff. 

What are you currently working on?

2 Projects cannot speak on it just yet. I do have something coming with AZ sometime this year. But now is full lock down mode. I go from being very productive (this mix for you and some beats for sure) to just an anxious zombie glued to my couch. 

Where can people find you?

@DJ7L on instagram or CZARFACE.com. Physically usually at Vinyl Index @vinylindex, but for now, trying to stay inside as much as I can, I hope everyone can do the same. We need to remain calm but also aware during this time, Try and stay off twitter and Panic providers, and be safe monitor your loved ones. 

Make sure you check out the https://www.vinylindex.com/. The shop maybe closed but you can still shop on the website and support.