How an Obscure Canadian Hip-Hop Band Helped Form a Music Friendship

 In 1991 I was not a huge hip/hop or rap fan at all. The only hip/hop or rap albums in my collection consisted of the bigger names like Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Ice-T, or "Alternative Hip-Hop" like Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, 

Then one afternoon on the local "Alternative Music" station WHFS's new music spotlight, I heard the second half of a hip/hop song, with smooth vocals that sampled a very familiar bassline, reminding me of a marching band.

 A few days later I heard the complete song. When the song ended the DJ followed up saying the name of the song was "Wash Your Face in My Sink" and the band was called The Dream Warriors. I made a note to check out the album the next time I was at a record store. 

A little later I found a quick blurb about the band in either Rolling Stone or Spin Magazine which said the band was...Canadian? They were from Ontario to be exact. 

Soon I found a cassette copy of the Dream Warrior's album And Now The Legacy Begins. 

Pressing play on the tape deck I found 13 songs of laid-back hip/hop similar to Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul. The band's style contained elements of many different types of music including jazz ("Wash Your Face In My Sink", "Follow Me Not"), reggae ("You Could Get Arrested"), and old school ("Face in the Basin"). There was also a "scary" tune in "Twelve Sided Dice", which sampled the theme of the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World. 

Half a year or so later I found myself in my first semester at Long Island University- C.W. Post Campus with an hour-long radio show. It was college radio, probably the only time you would ever have carte blanche to play whatever you want. As long as there was no "foul language" of course.

 
Because I had no idea how much space my dorm room would have, most of my CDs and all of my records were still back home in Maryland. Luckily the station had plenty of CDs and a whole wall full of LPs. Most of the LPs were more hard rock, thrash, or other metal the station had been known for in the '80s but there was plenty of alternative rock, punk, hardcore, and more titles spread out among them. I was given a whole hour to play them.

I posted flyers advertising my show all over campus. 

At LIU-C.W. Post Campus, or "Post" for short, the school put all the freshmen in one of three dorms on "The Quad". Each one is named after a county in New York, like Kings Hall or Queens Hall. I was in Nassau Hall. 

With everyone in the same boat as far as being away from school for the
first time, for at least that first semester, the camaraderie among the students was strong. Almost everyone hung out together, got drunk, or whatever.

One of the guys on my floor of the dorm who was not really hanging out with everyone else was this guy named Dave. He just happened to be the only African-American student in the hallway. In fact, no one was really paying much attention to this guy at all. Except for maybe one of the guys in the triple down the end of the hall who every time he passed would speak to him in an almost demeaning way using exaggerated stereotypical ethnic jargon like "Yo, what up, what up?" or "Hey Homey, gimme some skin". Honestly, it was actually a lot worse than this but can't properly be relayed here.

I felt bad this guy was getting such a cold shoulder from almost the whole hallway. My parents had always taught me that when I did leave Columbia, MD, the world would not be inclusive to all races and religions like Columbia was. Be ready for it. Still, I didn't realize how blatantly obvious this would be almost right away. 

The problem was I, who was raised in the all-inclusive melting pot of Columbia, Maryland, wasn't making much of an effort either. I wanted to change that but except for maybe a nod "What's up" as we passed in the hallway, I just couldn't find an in. 

Then one day while passing by Dave's room I heard a familiar

bassline coming out of it. It was The Dream Warriors' "Wash Your Face in My Sink". 

Finally, I saw that "in". 

Poking my head in I asked, " Is that the Dream Warriors?"

Dave looked up, with a surprised look on his face. I am not sure if it was because someone else in the dorm recognized the obscure rap band's song or because someone in the dorm was talking to him, 

Shaking the surprised look on his face, Dave says. "Yeah! These guys are one of my favorite new bands. Can you believe they are from Canada?". 

I said, "Me too. Found out about them just a few months back. I have the album on a cassette back home".

"Cassette?', Dave says, " Then you haven't heard the awesome remix on this 12" single". 

As he flipped the record over I glanced around Dave's half of his dorm room. He had a seriously intense record collection in his dorm room. Tons of rap, hip-hop, jazz, and some rock albums. He also had 12" singles of many individual songs. It made me seriously miss having access to my own collection, which was still down in Maryland. 

We talked about how each of us first learned about The Dream Warriors. It may have been just a quick conversation about a soon to once again be obscure Canadian rap band but it was all that was needed to break the ice. 

After that, it wasn't a quick head nod in the hallway. Now when we were both hanging around the dorm Dave and I would tell each other about new albums we had bought or show we attended. Soon other students in the dorm would join in on our conversations. 

As the year went on people dropped their radio shows. At first, everyone was all gung ho to be on there but instead started concentrating on different social activities around campus. I'd say some even might have left to concentrate on their studies but this was C.W. Post after all.

My one-hour 6pm to 7pm show, named "The Fuzzy Blast" after a Dinosaur Jr bootleg live cassette (which I still have 30 years) soon became a 5 to 7 show. 

One day as I was packing up the CDs and LPs I had played on

the show, placing the ones owned by the stations back on the LP racks, I turned around and saw Dave walk into the studio with a stack of LPs and 12" singles under his arm. 

I said to him, "Hey, you have a show here too?"

He answered, "Yeah, It's 8pm to 10 pm. It used to be only 9 to 10 but you know how things go here"

"What kind of music do you play on the show?" 

Dave put down the stack of vinyl from under his arm and said with a sly look, "Smooth Jazz and R&B"

I let Dave know I would check out the show as soon as I got back to the dorm. 

In between our two shows, from 7pm to 8 pm there was a guy named Chris who would play an hour of different hard rock power ballads dedicating each one to a different girl he knew on campus. 

One day he didn't show up for his time slot.

When my show ended I asked the station manager, "So what happened to Chris?". 

The station manager said, "He called me up over the weekend. Said he wasn't going to be doing his show anymore. He said ran out of girls to dedicate the songs to".

Then Dave came in with a whole new stack of records under his arm. 

The station manager says, "Since you guys each have a show on either side of Chris's one of you can have that time slot too"

Neither of us wanted the slot for fear that a three-hour show would just burn us out too fast.

Then the station manager said, "Why don't you both do it? You could switch off the style of music for each song. Josh plays one. Dave Plays one. And on and on". Then he added, "Maybe you will possibly expose and convert someone to like a new kind of music". 

Dave and I looked at each other. Why did we not think of that?

So we did. 

Each week between our own personal shows. we would

do an hour together switching off each song. Soon we had a theme: One of us would play a song by a band and he would match it with a similar name. It would be the Stylistics followed by The Style Council. Al Green was followed by Gang Green, Chaka Kahn followed by Kon Kan. Dr. Hook followed by Dr. Know, Sly, and the Family Stone followed by The Stone Roses. And on and on and on.

It was a lot of fun. Hopefully, someone out there discovered some cool new music they otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. 

Then one day during our last show of the year, as The Four Tops was finishing their follow-up to Gang of Four, Dave pulled out an LP  and said, "I've got a surprise for you". 

The needle goes on the record. That familiar bassline came over the speaker. The bassline I first heard coming down the hall. The bassline I first heard over the radio that afternoon a year ago. 

It was the bassline from the Dream Warrior's "Wash Your Face In My Sink". Only this time a whole orchestra soon chimed in. 

Dave held up the record jacket. It was Count Basie: Basie In The Bag, Track #2 "Hang On Sloopy". the Count's version of the song made famous by the 60's rock band The McCoys. 

My mind was blown. For a year I had been trying to find out where the Dream Warriors had sampled it from and now I knew.

Once the awe had died down and the "Hang on Sloopy" was coming to an end, I prepared the next record to be played. 

It was "Psychotic Reaction", by The Count Five, of course. 

Soon the school year ended and students returned home for the summer. 

When we came back in the Fall Dave was not there. Since he mentioned the idea a couple times I assume he transferred to another school. Post, in general, had a very high transfer rate. Hopefully, wherever he went they had a dorm that was more accepting. 

Hopefully, it also had an awesome campus radio station.