Nice article on Hip-Hop Legend Lady B now heard on 107.9 WRNB FM from Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer:
(Photo by Sharon Gekoski-Kimmel/Inquirer Staff Photographer)
Hip-hop legend back on Philly air
Lady B was an early female rapper not afraid to spin some risky singles.
By A.D. Amorosi
For The Inquirer
Philadelphia radio legend Lady B has kept old-school hip-hop alive - not just by playing it, but by living it.
She was there back in 1979, making one of the first female rap records with "To the Beat, Y'all," and becoming one of the first radio personalities on Philly's WHAT-AM that same year.
She was there back in 1984, playing some of the riskiest raps from Public Enemy and Schoolly D on WUSL Power 99 FM. Her groundbreaking show "Street Beat" introduced Philly rap luminaries such as Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith, of course), Tuff Crew, and Schoolly D to radio audiences up and down the East Coast.
When that ended, she brought the classic old-school hip-hop to satellite radio in 2002, where she manned the BackSpin channel on Sirius.
And now, after five years away from the Philly airwaves, Lady B - Wendy Clark - returned to the FM dial at the end of August. Fans can catch her on weekdays and Saturdays, spinning R&B and hip-hop, new and old, on WRNB 107.9 FM.
"Lady B's lived and continues to live hip-hop. She walks it like she talks it," says Michael Coard, a Philadelphia lawyer who started a series of Hip Hop 101 classes at Temple University. "She promotes the 'let's get together and have fun' mentality of old-school hip-hop and the 'nonsexist and non-bling' positive side of new jack hip-hop."
Lady B sees herself as a hip-hop ambassador, working with Big Sisters of Philadelphia and lecturing at Coard's classes.
"Our younger generation needs to know that hip-hop was about more than money, sex, drugs and disrespect," she says. "We need to remind many of their parents as well about that fact."
Those parents are her age now. Clark turned 46 last month. She celebrated by readying patter for her Philly show, then heading, by train, to her satellite show at Sirius studios in Manhattan.
That's right, Lady B is a worker - not a diva.
"Before I met her, I heard she was conceited," says her manager, Jay T Austin III. Known as "Docta Shock," Austin, 45, operates the Web magazine Urbanbeatmovement.com, which champions old-school hip-hop.
"After I met her, I found that she is so nice and caring and honest, funny, exciting and intelligent," says Austin. "She cares deeply about people, and she's so, so down-to-earth. When you're with her you forget she's Lady B, she has no airs about her."
The Overbrook High grad from Wynnefield started young in the entertainment business, working as a waitress at R&B hot spot Kim Graves Night Club at 20th & Sansom. She was still in high school when DJ Lawrence Levan put a mike in her hand and showed her how to whip the crowds into a frenzy.
"I was too young to serve drinks, but I could rap as well as the men," she says.
An early fan of B's mike-rocking style and warmly sensuous flow, Perry Johnson of WDAS-FM encouraged her to record "To the Beat, Y'all" at Earmark Recording Studio with Nick Martenelli. Although Lady B has said she's not the funky tune's biggest fan ("I was rushed," she says), she's happy she made the track.
"It made me the first female on wax."
The record put B in earshot of Motown PR whiz Richard Cooper, who told her that Philly's premier African American station, WHAT-AM, was looking for interns.
The station also happened to have radio doyenne Mary Mason as general manager - which meant the world to Lady B. She started off doing odd jobs, while learning the art of radio chat from Mason, but she wanted more.
"I kept bugging her to let me play some of the records that were accumulating at the station," Lady B says. "I eventually convinced Mary to let me spin some of the new records that I had - about a milk-crate full - on the air."
In 1979, that meant singles by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5, the Treacherous 3, Sequence, Crash Crew, Funky 4 + 1, on labels like Sugarhill and Enjoy. It was the early dawn of hip-hop, and Lady B was among the first to bring it to Philadelphia radio, particularly when her show "Street Beat" began in 1984.
"It was a rush knowing we had impact," she says. "The struggle was getting militant or political artists like Public Enemy on the air. They were just too black and too strong. I guess it's still like that today - getting new artists on air with something to say."
Those who she championed still remember her impact. "Lady B was a very instrumental figure in my success," Will Smith said on a radio show in 2003.
"She was the first one to play my first record on air, even though she didn't agree with the subject matter of the lyrics," says Schoolly D of songs like "Gangster Boogie" and "P.S.K." "Smokin' weed, guns, etc., she played it. That's what counts."
For all that, VIBE magazine's History of Hip-Hop called Lady B "maybe the most influential female in hip-hop radio history." But it wasn't enough for Power 99 FM, which tried to tamper with success in 1989.
"They offered me an extreme pay cut and wanted to change the format, so I resigned," Lady B says.
It's not as if she didn't have options. She hit New York City in 1990, working at Sleeping Bag Records as national promotional director and WBLS-FM as an on-air personality.
She came back to Philly in 1997, when WPHI 103.9 FM hired her for a "Street Beat" ("Roots of Hip Hop") weekend show and a weeknight show called "The Truth," which played new music. But when Sirius made her an offer, her Philly FM tenure ended again.
Austin, who gave Lady B a Philly Urban Legend Award in 2002, believed she should stay on the air in her home city. "I used my Web site to solicit communication with the radio stations, to get old-school fans excited," he said. "Radio doesn't have fighters anymore."
And now, since August's end, Lady B - due to Austin's perseverance and the love of her fans - is back on the radio in Philadelphia at WRNB 107.9 FM.
Every Saturday, from 7 p.m. to midnight, and on weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., she spins classic hip-hop and R&B on "Tha' Basement Party."
She loves bonding with her Philly people, playing hip-hop that, in Austin's words, "wasn't always all about sex, blunts, diamonds, rims and disrespecting women."
There may be some station resistance, at present, to her playing too much old hip-hop, as the show is programmed in part by its larger Radio One ownership. But Lady B is up to the challenge.
"It's going to be a battle, but I'm ready once again," she said. "Hip-hop has given us a voice, a voice we would not have, had it not been for the culture. This genre has given us a chance to dream and to fulfill dreams.
"Today we need the old school more than ever."
No comments :
Post a Comment