Mixtape Preservation Society presents "The Story of Black Love & Oral Syndrome"

The chances of a band getting their foot in the door are slim to none. The seemingly countless array of groups on the radio or online these days is actually just a tiny percentage of the millions of musicians, performers, and artists who ply their trade daily, sometime for free with no financial reward. The pure joy of making music is the sole motivation.

Twenty-five years ago the rap and hip-hop game was totally different from what it is like today. Rap was starting to become mainstream but still hadn't broken through fully. Back in those days rap hadn't proved itself to be a safe investment-- violence at shows, janky promoters, and unstable performers kept venues away from the dollars hip-hop was generating. You could sample up to a couple of bars of music without getting hit too hard with clearance fees. There was no internet, no social media, no Napster, and cell phones were the size of bricks. MCs and DJs had to go the old-fashioned way to get their records heard: signing with a record label, whether it be a major label or an indie label.

I had the pleasure of seeing a group of aspiring rappers and musicians take a stab at the brass ring between the years of 1993 and 1995. For two years a clique of hungry rap kids who went by the name Black Love hooked up with a production duo calling themselves Oral Syndrome and played gigs all over Hollywood and Los Angeles. There was a modular interchangeability within the group: they could do shows as just a three-man rap unit flowing over DAT tapes; they could record mixtapes and demos on 4-Track cassette in their home studio in North Hollywood; and they could also expand to a six-man live band to perform on the Sunset Strip to rock and club audiences.

The band got very close to making it big, but unfortunately holding a band of six different personalities together toward one goal can be tough, especially with all the attendant distractions that befall many musical groups: sex, drugs, money, time, and most of all... youth. Inexperience coupled with no proper management caused the band to implode overnight, as if nothing had ever happened.

But something did happen. There is proof of it. I've been listening to that proof for over two decades. I can't be the only one: there were lots of people at the shows, in the studio, at the clubs and on the streets, wanting to be down with Black Love. There were many copies of tapes, dubs of mixes and demos handed out... I didn't hallucinate this. I didn't make it up out of thin air, even though it seems to have vanished into such.

And yet, it's gone. And no one has ever looked back until now. There is much more material out there but this podcast is based upon what I have at my disposal, as a fan with the inside track. There's videos, bootlegs, countless demos, recordings, photographs... and none of it would mean anything if the music wasn't so fucking good.

So. Fucking. Good.

Every time I play this stuff for the uninitiated, they cannot believe that it didn't go anywhere. I can't believe it myself. Considering the garbage that's allowed to grace the airwaves these days, maybe it's a good thing that Black Love & Oral Syndrome never made it past the starting gate. Success might have only diluted the formula and watered down the soul behind such passionate music. Or maybe it would've spread it out above and beyond the rest... who knows?

This is just the first hour, I hope to have more material for future episodes.