Wax Grooves

When Phil Shafer, otherwise known as Sike Style, started Listen Up Thursdays, he wanted to create an event at which customers could dig through crates of used records at Recycled Sounds while he and DJ Dula unveiled recent hip-hop releases from national artists and hosted local talent live in the store. Shafer, a DJ in the Human Cropcircles when he’s not working at Recycled Sounds, was excited to create what he describes as an “after-school, after-work jam session with no age limit.” He’s particularly psyched about this week’s gathering, which showcases the wax-pressed rhythms of local talent SoundsGood, the project of beat-producer Miles Bonny and lyricist Joe Good (whose real name is Jamal Gamby).

“I’ve known [Gamby] since high school, and it’s really cool, because in the world of hip-hop, once you’re on vinyl, it’s official. Anybody can burn a CD,” Shafer says.

Just like everybody else, SoundsGood released a full-length album on compact disc in 2002. “Normally you come out with the single first, but we’re dong it different,” Bonny says. “It was cool making a CD, but after you get over that hurdle, you realize how many CDs are out there. Not that many people put vinyl out around here. It’s definitely more of an investment.”

Bonny describes the 12-inch as “a kind of mini-album” that will include two singles, instrumental versions for DJs to scratch on, and edited versions the duo hopes radio stations will pick up. The white-label records will bear the artwork of local graffiti artist Scribe. Most of the copies will be sent to magazines, radio stations, clubs and national hip-hop DJs to spread the word. Gamby describes this as the “broke man’s way to tour.”

He says it felt like magic when he got the first test pressings of his rhymes on vinyl. “Putting out the CD was kind of like a fantasy. Now it’s a reality,” Gamby says. “The history of hip-hop starts with wax, and now hip-hop is starting with us.”