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There is no greater driving force behind underground hip hop than the infamous duo Sway and Tech. With over fifteen years in the industry as presenters on the world-renowned ‘Wake Up Show’, they are all about taking it ‘Back to the Basics’.
There
are two names infamous in hip hop history. Not just for their personal
achievements but for what they have bestowed upon others, through recognising
raw talent when they come face to face with it. Oakland natives Sway
and Tech King have maintained
serious equilibrium within a genre of music that has seen more changes
than the butt of a baby; the reason for their success and longevity in
the game comes in the form of one word, respect.
They developed a radio show in their home state of California, back in the late 80s which exceeded heights that they never even thought were possible. The internationally syndicated ‘Wake Up Show’ now reaches Northern California, Chicago, Florida, Atlanta, New York and for all the international fans it reaches out to countries like Japan, New Zealand and France, exposing and promoting the music and the hip hop culture to a wider range of markets and over 11 million fans.
The history of the show is like your favorite fairy story, only difference being, that there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. ‘The Wake Up Show’ came about through two eager high school kids wanting to make an impression with their rhymes and their skills behind the turntables. Having already established a following in their hometowns, Sway and Tech easily went on to win a competition that encouraged the birth of ‘The Wake Up Show’. As an artist, Sway won a thousand dollar cash prize and a system. The more elaborate prize was that Tech got to play a live 15-minute set on KMEL. This was the crucial turning point for the duo. No one had played rap on the radio commercially up until that point, but whatever Tech did in that allocated 15 minutes, he did to the advantage of he and his partner, because he was invited back to spin again and through this exposure, when they suggested hosting a three hour show, the idea wasn’t deemed ludicrous.
Sway is adamant that ‘divine intervention’ played a lead role in the formation of the show. They had no real understanding of what they were going to do with the radio show once they secured it. Although classes in the fundamentals of the music industry helped the hosts, the concept of actually hosting a radio show was overshadowed by what they had miraculously achieved. “We didn’t know what we were doing back then. We got on the radio, we were cursing,” Sway explained. “There was no blue print for us to follow,” when it came to how the show was ran.”
Obviously failure to follow a code wasn’t a bad thing as they came up with an idea that has yet to beaten. No other show has been as successful as ‘The Wake Up Show’, no other show has been responsible for launching the careers of as many artists as Sway and Tech have. Their studio has been a stage for the likes of Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem and the legendary B.I.G. Everyone has to start somewhere and these pioneers remember where it was they were welcomed and allowed to do something on radio no one else allowed them to do. “The policy of ‘The Wake Up Show’ was to come on and kick a free-style, back then this want heard of. We created a market, the economics for a market. The Bay Area wasn’t a money making market. We encouraged the likes of Wu-Tang to come and visit the Bay Area and be seen at the clubs and on the streets etc,” Sway discussed. Encouraging artists from the dominating East Coast to show love to the West Coast, which was at this time pretty much a non-entity in terms of hip hop, only enhanced their reputation as individuals and furthered the popularity of the show.
Having showcased the talents of some of the most prestigious rappers in the world today, some still with us, some not, ‘The Wake Up Show’ has maintained a strong policy when it comes to ‘charging’ people for their talent. They don’t. “We have never taken a dime to play a record and we are probably the last commercial show to stay true to that,” Sway stressed when discussing the reality of commercial radio. With the way many major commercial stations conduct business today, it is no surprising that hip hop has taken the turn that it has. People pay to be heard and unfortunately nothing can compete with the green. So with countless artists swamping the airwaves without any individuality apparent, it is no wonder that Sway and Tech took into their own hands a project “dedicated to real hip hop fans.”
“The title ‘Back 2 Basics’ is us going back to an era
where the lyrics came first," King Tech explains. "I wanted
to go get guys that are hungry, that still have the talent, that are upcoming
or that are just on a veteran level as opposed to just going after platinum
artists to just stack up the names. It wasn’t about that for us.
You can have Eminem who has his own fan base, but let’s try to find
the next Eminem, find the next talent that’s coming up and try to
break something with this one."
Being the best ‘unpaid’ A&R’s in the history of commercial radio and possibly all the major labels today, Sway and Tech’s ‘Back 2 Basics’ showcases names, some of which have been recognised and some of which haven’t. But the premise behind the album was to bring about ‘new music, a new style as we thought that was what was needed.’ Artists like Chino XL, Canibus, Royce da 5’9, Common, Sly Boogie all contribute to the album. The concept behind this is to once again take the music literally ‘back to the basics’ and concentrate upon what it was built in the first place, the lyrics.
Hip hop was about words, it was about rhymes, it wasn’t about money, cars or rims when it broke out. Listening to the neighborhood dons spit their spats back and forth in the parks and on the street corners, provided energy, it made people aware of just how much could be achieved with the formation of sentences, the way in which those words were delivered and then how they were received. Lines like “I take seven MCs put 'em in a line/ And add seven more brothas who think they can rhyme/ Well, it'll take seven more before I go for mine/ Now that's 21 MC's ate up at the same time” from Eric B and Rakim’s ‘My Melody’ were the foundations of what this music was built on.
Sway, Tech and their recognised show will continue to encourage hip hop in its basic state. If the world chooses to listen then maybe we will once again see respect for the rhymes that encouraged the multi-million industry it has become; if it continues on the path it is on right now, maybe not. But one thing is for sure: Sway and Tech are names that have moulded and encouraged the genre to be what it is today. Will they continue to do so? Of course, they are about keeping it real and eventually people will get back to the reality rather than the fantasy of what hip hop is really about.
