Visitors
to Yonkers will see a suburban area inhabited by many
different nationalities. Who would guess that this quaint
town outside of New York would breed a generation of
rappers. Getty Square in downtown Yonkers is not only where
you do all your shopping but also the place where Vision
Quest Music resides. Vision Quest has played a big part of
Hip Hips development in Yonkers (see article below.) The
Hip Hop story in Yonkers can be traced back to Mary J Blige
where Uptown Records discovered her. The Lox followed with
a release on Bad Boy records in 1997 but the town’s most
ground breaking event came when two Harlem hustlers decide
to recruit DMX, Yonkers most feared rapper to create Ruff
Ryders. DMX had already established a reputation on the
underground scene and after he was signed by Def Jam went
on a rampage to let the public know about Y.O.
(Yonkers.)
Today a
DMX associate named DJ Superior continues to nurture the
town’s new crop of talent. Every artist in Yonkers from
Mary to the Lox at one point or another came thorough
Superior. Artist such as Big Jinx, King Tuh, A.P., Bully,
R.O.B., La$e, Nestle, Blacksun, Lady-D, Phill Blunts, Tray
Dot and Black G all work with Superior’s label “Most Hated
Records.”
Superior
talks about starting out. “In the beginning X had a DJ
named Kason but when he got locked up I took the torch and
ran with him. Waah (C.E.O. Ruff Ryder) had me running
around promoting X trying to get him in record pools.”
Superior says his relationship with X has now soured. “I
don’t know why our break up happened. I guess it’s because
he has phony friends around him but I’m cool with Waah and
Darion, they’re like brothers to me. The business breaks up
friendships but I have love for him.” In 2000, X came to
Superior with an A&R position at his new label
Bloodlines. This situation lead Superior’s artist Jinx
becoming a part of Bloodline Records. The label was heavily
marketed but never released anything except sound tracks.
First distributed by Def Jam the label is now distributed
by Warner Bros. Superior explains if your an artist who
does movies you will always have a record deal because
labels always want to distribute your soundtrack. “Jinx and
a female named Kashmir are Bloodline’s hardest artist. They
want him to release albums but so far he has only put out
soundtracks.” explains Superior.
Most of
the young artist in Yonkers spend a lot of their time
perfecting their craft Superior tells how Jinx and Black
Jesus are legends in the town where they won many battles.
He says the next crop of Yonkers talent to blow are J Hood,
Jinx, Black Jesus, Bully and a kid named King Tuh. In the
next couple pages we have articles on Yonker’s movers and
shakers. Sheek now a veteran in the game helped stamp
Yonkers on the map and now he is at the forefront of
developing artist with his D-Block label. Our stories
continues with a feature on J Hood who is considered to be
the next player to take Yonkers to the next level and Jinx
a Yonkers artist who has paid his due in the game and is
now waiting for his chance to add to the Yonkers Hip Hop
movement. From Riverdale to, Whitney Young to, Warburton
to, Ravine to, School Street to, Cottage to, Mulford,
Yonker’s is definitely not Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx.
Yonkers is it’s own town with it’s own unique story.
VIsion
Quest
Your not
really a Yonkers artist until Tony of Vision Quest heard of
you. For twelve years Vision Quest has been the number one
supplier for hip hop music in Yonkers. Tony does more than
just sell music to fans he keeps close tie with all artist
from Yonkers. “We are working with Ruff Ryders, we working
with D Block, we working with Mary’s camp. Mary has female
artist she is working with so we are supporting are home
and our neighborhood.” Vision Quest first started when
Dwight Fuller Tony's partner came from Brooklyn to Yonkers.
They first ran their store at a counter in a bike shop. At
that time nobody knew there was a market in Yonkers
explains Dwight. “I remember when I first brought Teddy
Riley to Yonkers. They visited my store in Brooklyn and
told them you have to go to Yonkers. Teddy was like Yonkers
what’s in Yonkers. Since than a lot of artists have came to
Vision Quest. X came through for their first album and over
5000 were out in the street. Mary came through and did a
signing. Busta came through and the people showed mad
love.” Today Vision Quest is a 10,000 foot square store
where you can purchase CDs, TVs, DVDs, magazines and more.
Last year the Vision Quest had a freestyle battle every
Friday. Rappers came from everywhere to battle it out for
the freestyle Fridays crown. A cat from Yonkers won that
entire battle explained Tony. “The Yonkers rapper beat cats
from queens, Brooklyn, everywhere. Cats from Brooklyn were
like we going to get you’ll next year.” The two have seen
Yonkers artist grow into super stars and the talent
increase in years. “Yonkers now is like a small little
Motown. We have young boys writing their behind off, young
girls sing their behind off.” explained Dwight.
Dwight says the service you get at their store is more
personal and informative than when you go into the big
corporate stores were employees just point and don’t have
much knowledge of the music. He explains how he has to
constantly explain the depth of his consumers. “I have been
in this game thirty years. So they can’t tell me selling
the top 50 songs is all the people want. People in the hood
are broader than that. I carry all types of stuff because
the people will surprise you can never assume what they
want.”
Bootlegging has hurt ever aspect of the music industry.
Dwight explains the effects of bootlegging. “Bootlegging
hurts us and the artist. As bad are the Lox are there not
platinum. The Lox are platinum off the street but not off
the shelves. So when they go make their new deal it’s from
an aspect that they never made platinum.” Vision Quest
plans for whatever changes that industry might make. Tony
says in the future the industry is going to come back to
singles. People are going to want to make a disk of their
favorite singles and right now Vision Quest is equipped to
do that. The way this work is you fill at a list of songs
you want and they burn it for you. Your list of songs will
be save to the stores sever for a year and if you break,
loss or damage that CD Vision Quest will replace for $2.
It’s a good idea but none of the record companies have come
close to allowing that so Vision Quest is waiting on the
industry. Right now Tony and Dwight plan to build a sound
stage and a recording studio above their shop where artist
can record. When the next group of platinum artist comes
out of Yonkers there’s no question at one time or another
they would have had to come through Vision Quest.
If
you liked what you read in this interview then click
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of the issue it first hit the streets in and catch all of
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HIP-HOP game.