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The 305’s Sub Monuments
In Miami, bass is king. In fact, there are so many record labels, stores, clubs, radio stations and studios that it’s hard to keep track of everything sub-related in Liberty City. That’s why we asked writer Dave Tompkins and illustrator Brad Beatson to team up for a general survey of the bass landscape in Miami. Click on the names below the map to find out more information about their contribution to Miami Bass history.
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\n
\nThe Monuments\n
NORTH MIAMI
\nBass Station // Pandisc // Vision\n
MIAMI GARDENS & GOLDEN GLADES
Studio 183 // Peaches
\n
BROWNSVILLE & LITTLE HAITI
NW 15th Ave // Superstars Roller Tech // Pac Jam // Music Specialist International // Pac Jam (54th Street Location)
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VIRGINIA KEY BEACH
\n
DOWNTOWN
Hot Productions // Joey Boy Records // WEDR // Circle House
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WEST PALM BEACH
\nCut It Up Def
\n
FT. LAUDERDALE
\n4-Sight Records
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Bass Station
\n\n119th Street near 19th Avenue
\nLocated in a retired bowling alley down from Bob Perry’s Blue Note record store, Bass Station was a co-branding of label and club backed by ex-Marine dope entrepreneur Norberto Morales and the Triple M DJs (Miami Money Makers). Members included P Man Sam Ferguson (originally of Space Funk) and the absurdly talented DJ Eric Griffin. All three are now deceased, but P Man’s electro-boogie classic “Rock It Baby” is a 12-inch memorial that respectfully dismantles “Saturday Love.” By the late ’80s, Griffin had his own label (Never Stop) while effortlessly clowning the rules of sampling and programming. The first Bass Station release, Dynamix II’s “Just Give the DJ A Break,” is one of those tracks that even the Miami Bass scoffers respect, mainly because of the production work of Griffin and Dynamix’s Dave Noller and Lon Alonzo. Bottom gets tuned, vocoder says “Toilet Bowl” and English synth pop act Visage goes electro-funk, despite themselves.\n
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Pandisc
\n\n13116 NW 7th Avenue
\nA former disco DJ, Pandisc CEO Bo Crane once described Miami Bass as pop culture thrown into a garbage can blender. To wit: The Young & Restless skeevy wonder hit “Poison Ivy,” where daytime soap meets cautionary STD tale. The Pandisc roster also included various aliases attributed to James McCauley (the Roger Corman of Miami Bass), myriad contributions to the car audio bass scene (many by former reggae engineer Neil Case), DJ Laz and, in a city where deeds often change hands and landscapes, the Music Specialist catalog. \n
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Joey Boy Records
\n\n3081 NW 24th Street - Street View
\nJoey Boy made up for “Do the Alf” with the future-scrambled 12-inch “Good to the Last Dub,” in which the 15-year old Ladi Luv seems to be toggling her rap into a pulse phone on redial to Germany. There was nothing like it in Miami, nor anywhere else. Along with pre-Exposé Freestyle vocalists, Joey Boy would sign multi-instrumentalist Calvin Mills (then a refugee from Music Specialist) who collaborated with Disco Rick on the label’s first major hit “Your Mama’s on Crack Rock.” The world’s most expensive electro record about professional wrestling was also on Joey Boy. Trucker historians should note that Joey Boy shared offices with the people behind the “I-95 Asshole Song.”
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NW 15th Ave between MLK and NW 71st
\n\nStreet View
\nOnce the namesake of a LeJuan Love song, 15th Avenue would also give Trick Daddy plenty of raw material growing up in poverty among crooked police and dope houses. 15th Avenue would be shut down for some of Miami’s more memorable block parties, from the early mobile DJ scene with Luke and Ghetto Style DJs to the legendary yeller over records at high speeds DJ Uncle Al, a community hero who was killed in his Opa-locka home, which also doubled as his pirate radio station. Five years ago, there was a push to rename this stretch DJ Uncle Al Blvd, through Liberty City’s Pure Funk DJs and their pirate station Hot 97, where one can wake up to Cybotron on a Saturday morning.
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Hot Productions
\n\n495 SE 10th Court
\nAfter disco seemingly bit it overnight, Henry Stone diversified his TK empire (home to x-rated rap pioneer Blowfly), extending his distribution tentacles to electro-funk (Newcleus!) and Miami Bass. With Instant Funk’s Larry Davis and Disco Rick, Joe Stone co-produced Gucci Crew II and sold singles from the trunk of his car in the Pac Jam parking lot. (Few things in this world make me happier than the 808 delay on Gucci Crew’s “Dating Game”). Hot Productions also gave us the lucrative mall girl sensation L’Trimm (a car bass exponent) and Stone’s own group 2 Live Jews, whose very existence was threatened when Roy Orbison’s ghost sued 2 Live Crew for their fur-flown parody of “Pretty Woman.”
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WEDR
\n\nA voice of both outrage and calm for the community during the Liberty City riots in May 1980, WEDR station manager Jerry Rushin would later mentor and groom younger Bass artists and DJs. EDR DJ Steven J. Grey would convince the station to allow DJs like 2 Live Crew’s Mr. Mixx do live mix shows on weekends, which was also crucial in helping break new records. Radio ads often had the same drop-out duck style (also called “regulatin’”) of DJing popular on pirate frequencies, creating a sub-genre on their own.
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Vision
\n\n13385 Dixie Highway - Street View
\nFormer teen idol/snake horror film star Steve Alaimo helped build the Vision Records label (with Criteria engineers Ron and Howard Albert) after leaving the TK machine. I imagine driving along the Dixie Highway en route to the Everglades, the low-end of civilization, and stopping by Vision to cop Beatmaster Clay D’s “T---y Beats” – a perfect minute of South Florida quake produced by a dude relocated from Texas by way of Planet Patrol and Michael Jackson. Clay D would also produce Prince Rahiem, “Boot the Booty” and “Rock the House” with DJ Magic Mike, who went on to release over ten albums with the Orlando-situated Cheetah Records.
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Pac Jam (54th Street Location)
\n\n54th and NW 12th Avenue - Street View
\nUncle Luke opened up his tiny Pac Jam club within walking distance, so kids wouldn’t have to commute to less hospitable white neighborhoods outside Liberty City. Pac Jam was also the site of Luke’s Bass 91.7 station, set up by pirate radio operative Steven J. Grey. Luke and unsung Ghetto Style DJs like Chico would broadcast live on location, as Pac Jam became a proving ground for new records. Photographed as the backdrop for 2 Live Crew’s first album 2 Live Is What We Are, Pac Jam may have violated OSHA standards with its sternum-caving bass.
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Circle House
\n\n45 NW 5th Street - Street View
\nIf bass is the objective and you live in Miami, it’s conducive to be in a studio run by Jamaican experts in sub warfare. 2 Live Crew’s second album Move Somethin’ would be engineered at Circle House, a studio owned by Inner Circle, known for “Bad Boys,” the theme to the reality TV show Cops. (Often featuring 2 Live Crew nemesis Sheriff Nick Navarro.) Joining 2 Live Crew on the Circle House walls of gold and platinum records are releases by Hot Boyz, Lil Jon and Trick Daddy, essentially mapping Miami Bass to hip hop in New Orleans and Atlanta via Kingston soundsystem boom.
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4-Sight Records
\n\nLauderhill Mall - Street View
\nAsk Usher Raymond if he remembers his brief visit to 4-Sight in Fort Lauderdale, when the Bass Mechanic took him to R&B boot camp. Billy Hines’ label originated at Royal Sounds – a record store inside a 88-acre flea market – and released vocoder singles by Hines’ teenaged son Adrian (MC A.D.E..’s “Bass Rock Express,” “Bass Mechanic”), The Maggotronics’ minimal electro-funk “Radio Mars,” Gigolo Tony and the first single by Atlanta’s MC Shy-D. 4-Sight also worked with in-house future bass producers James McCauley (Maggotron himself), Amos Larkins (bass pioneer whose resume needs its own cartographer ) and Frank “Thumbs” Cornelius (of the soul group Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose). A young kid from New Orleans named Mannie Fresh would also visit 4-Sight.
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Cut It Up Def
\n\n4136 10th Ave N, Lake Worth
\nAreas north of Miami, like Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, often get lumped in due to the common bottom denominator. Palm Beach had its own scene with Dynamix II’s strain of “techno bass,” DJ KJ and MC Kooley C, and the pirate radio shows with Raylo and Dem Damn Dawgs. Located in West Palm Beach, Cut It Up Def gave the region a label identity, with acts like Jealous J and Jock D. The label recently put out the documentary The Bass That Ate Miami.
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Virginia Key Beach
\n\nStreet View
\nI like the idea of Geto Boys, Poison Clan, 2 Live Crew and 8-Ball & MJG performing with a mountain of subwoofers on a barrier island that also hosts a sewage plant, an oil depot, a marine biology school and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. This once-segregated beach made local headlines when early pre-bass mobile DJ crews like Jerry Jarvis and his Monster Jocks and Tiny Head of South Miami DJs threw parties in the late ’70s. Other early mobile DJ crews like Party Down DJs and Space Funk would follow suit. Luke learned to swim here.
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Music Specialist International
\n\n71st Street & N. Miami Avenue - Street View
\nProducer/tech eccentric Pretty Tony Butler created his laser-clean hybrid of teen vocoder electro and Latin Freestyle in the back of this old tailoring warehouse in Little Haiti. This independent label’s small but platinum roster consisted of Trinere (Butler’s girlfriend at the time), three incarnates of Freestyle (one in Knievelian motocross suits), Peaches record store clerk Debbie Deb and Butler himself, who wore leather aviator headflaps in the studio. “Freak-a-thons” ensued.
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Superstars Roller Tech
\n\n79th Street and Miami Avenue - Street View
\nCo-owned by Miami Dolphin All-Pros Nat Moore and Larry Little, Superstar Rollerteque was one of the first rinks with a mainly black clientele, helping launch the careers of mobile DJs like Pretty Tony and Luther Campbell. Kids would skate backwards to “Rock Lobster” and “Ring My Bell.” Located close to I-95, the rink was later run by Gucci Crew’s Disco Rick Taylor, present manager of the mega-strip club King of Diamonds. The space is now mini storage.
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Pac Jam
\n\n8400 NE 2nd Avenue - Street View
\nBy the “Me So Horny” portion of the ’80s, Luke’s club relocated and expanded to serve as the label headquarters before finally ending up on Biscayne. (Though named Luke Skyywalker Records, the label was a partnership among all four 2 Live Crew members.) At the time, Luke was flying in artists like Scarface, Schoolly-D and Public Enemy into Opa-locka Executive Airport on a private jet owned by his brother/aspiring astronaut Stanley. As a regular once told me, “Pac Jam was the livest fucking thing ever.” By most visiting accounts, the Pac Jam audience was hard to impress. This space where Trick Daddy Dollars was discovered is currently in God’s hands, occupied by the Grace Evangelical Baptist Church.
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Peaches
\n\n41 NW 167th Street - Street View
\nOn the cover of Maggotron’s album The Bass That Ate Miami, a 50-foot monster speaker named Quadzilla rips off the WEDR antenna while attacking Miami. Peaches Records, where Pretty Tony discovered Debbie Deb, was also under siege. For 12-inch singles one could also go to Mizelle’s Records, a black-owned family business at USA Flea Market at NW 79th, or Blue Note Records down the street from Bass Station.
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Studio 183
\n\nNW 27th Ave
\nStudio 183 was a former JCPenney’s that hosted a hip hop party called Miami Nights. Schoolly-D reportedly blew Miami’s mind when performing his hit “PSK (What Does It Mean?)” with a Roland 909 drum machine plugged into a thunder-foot pedal while wearing an espadrille. In the strip mall across from Studio 183 were longtime jazz record store Cam Music and the World Famous Carol Mart, a supplier of Jam Pony Express mix tapes (imported from Fort Lauderdale) and scenery for Rick Ross's “Hustlin’” video. The parking lot alone is a historic bass landmark – all that will remain once this Carol City strip mall is soon demolished.
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Header image © Brad Beatson / Dave Tompkins