Your patience waiting for DWG003 has been stellar, so while we put the finishing touches on things, we thought we'd give you a little taste of the interview we conducted with him 3 months or so ago. Trust us when we tell you the wait will have been well worth it.
So with no further adieu, we present to you... Unique:
Who inspired you to start MCing?
Wow…My mom passed and the house we were in was paid for the rest of the month…I’m sittin’ there, no inspiration, no motivation, listenin’ to the radio and Run DMC came on and said, “People comin’, people goin’, people born to die / Don’t ask me because I don’t know why / It’s just like that… And that’s the way it isâ€Â.
That’s what picked me up off the floor and made me go outside again… It really inspired me.
And this was in the early to mid 80s then, right?
My mom died in ’83 and that’s when Sucker MCs came out…Then they followed with “It’s Like Thatâ€Â.
When you started MCing, were you in a group? MCing solo?
I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to go solo originally… It’s funny because I played the trumpet in the school band. I was the lead trumpet and my buddy, Tariq, played the saxophone. I told Tariq, “I want to enter into this talent show, man. I’m tired of seeing the same guys. Lets go up there and show ’em somethingâ€Â.
At first he was reluctant, so I said, “Look, man… Here it is right here, here go the format… I wrote out your part, I wrote out my partâ€Â…We go back and forth, “I’m Tariq, I’m Hak the Human Wop Bo-o-o-xâ€Â... And that was it… We did the show and the response was phenomenal… I got so high on stage just from the fans and seeing my sister and all her friends out their losing their minds… I was so elated… That was the bug right there…
So your name was…
Hakim… We were Tariq and Hak the Human Wop Box…
When was this – ‘86 or ‘87?
No, I graduated in ‘86, so that would be ’84. We went to Barringer High School in Newark.
How long were you together?
Aw man – we did the show in ’84 and the show in ’85 that we won. Tariq passed in ’87, so I just started doing it myself…
How did he pass?
He had an asthma attack… He had very acute asthma…
The sad part is I never even got a chance to go to the funeral…I was at college and heard about it two, three months after the fact…
Sorry to hear about that…
Yeah, so I was… Y’know…
Were you down with Godfather D the whole time?
Nah, I moved to East Orange through adoption where I met King Mike C… Not to disrespect, ‘cause I got respect for them all, but he’s the grandfather of that style that Treach does…
Did Mike C and Treach hang out a lot?
They went to the high school together… They did talent show battles like me and Tariq did in Newark.
So you met Godfather D through King Mike C?
Yeah, through King Mike C… We went up to this club and we were spittin’…Godfather was like, “Yo, you’re kinda hot, yo… Listen, come back laterâ€Â… We did a routine and from that routine became a crew…The rest was history…
Mike comes back a month or two later like, “Yo, come with me, Unique, let’s goâ€Â… I jump in the car and we’re off to Teaneck… I meet Sylvia and Joey, Jr. and they’re like, “Lemme hear somethingâ€Â…
At that time, I had one or two new verses to spit, so I kicked those… They ended up being on “I’m Untouchableâ€Â: “Adversaries are slayed / Ice cold as the Evergladesâ€Â…And Joey was like, “Oh my God, yo, say that again! Yo, do that part right there again!â€Â…
Next thing I know, I’m in a room with a big TV and I’m amazed and dazed by the cars and everything. I’m thinking, “Wow, this is the life for me, they like me, I’m here, I’m in the right spot.†They gave me some money, I signed the contract, I went in the studio, and I finished my album in a week.
This was for New Day, right?
Yes…New Day…
The rest of the interview will be posted on our site... It gets pretty amazing as Unique talks about his experience with New Day, the songs he recorded, his introduction into the world of drug dealing, and more than I can possibly think of right now...
Thanks again for the amazing support for this project... With cats like you around, hip hop's lost stories will continue to be uncovered and brought to the masses...
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