GRANDGOOD

“Queens native Geechie Dan shares some memories about his experiences as a local MC and hanging out with a young LL Cool J and Mikey D in his prime.”

One time, there was club on 112th Ave and Farmers Boulevard in my neighborhood. I ran my mouth, I thought I was confident about my rap skills at that time. This was back in ’84. LL lived around seven blocks away from me, on the other side of Farmers Blvd. On that side of Farmers Blvd really didn’t get along with my side of Farmer’s Blvd. So one night, there was a party at a club called the ‘Black and White’, which is on 112 ave and Farmer’s Blvd. So I’m going up in there and I’m rhyming off – I’ll never forget, like it was yesterday – I’m rhyming off ‘Catch The Beat’, and me and this guy Feldman, his rap name was Fell-E-O, and I was rhymin’, and no one had ever heard me rhyme outside. Everyday heard I could rhyme and had the tapes and stuff, but no one had ever heard me in the street. So I decided to rhyme in the street! I said a rhyme about LL – his name was Cool J at the time, he didn’t have LL associated with his name – so I said, ‘It’s not a fable and it’s not a myth/Cool J’s real name is James Todd Smith/but when it comes to rapping he can’t compare/his hairline is back here, I swear!’ ‘Cos he had a messed-up hairline back then! So that started a big beef. He heard about it. His boys on his side of Farmers Blvd came to the party, ‘cos they heard I was rhymin’ up there. Then they said, ‘Yo, there goes that skinny cat right there! He was the one that was dissin’ you!’ They blew it all out of proportion. ‘He dissed you! I know you aren’t gonna let him slide!’