A Mix Bag -- Seattle's Nastymix Records Is Becoming A Key Player In The Highly Competitive, Rap-And-Rock Sound Business
Ed Locke leads a visitor through the eighth-floor Tower Building offices of Nastymix Records, proudly pointing out the recording studio, board room, executive offices, staff rooms and storage area. ``This used to be KVI's floor,'' he beams. ``And now it's ours. From radio to records.''
Locke has made a similar transition. The former KYAC deejay now heads Seattle's biggest record company. Thanks largely to the national success of rap artist Sir Mix-a-Lot - who has sold 1.5 million records - Nastymix has emerged as a power in the highly competitive, volatile independent-record business.
The bright new offices are a symbol of the label's success, and a commitment to the future. Started five years ago on a $900 budget, Nastymix is embarking on an ambitious expansion project that will widen its base from rap music to a variety of pop styles. It's another gamble for Locke, who has persevered through years of ups and downs with Nastymix.
In a flurry of signings, he has doubled the label's client list - which also includes Mix-a-Lot offshoot Kid Sensation, Tacoma hard-core rap group High Performance, former New York rapper Whiz Kid, and Rococo, the Euro-disco British group of twin sisters. Now coming on board are:
-- The Accused - The self-proclaimed ``Kings of Splatter Rock'' are inspired by ``splatter'' (i.e. bloody) movies. Formerly associated with the Combat and Sub Pop labels, the Seattle speed-metal band's previous album releases include ``Martha Splatterhead,'' ``Martha Splatterhead's Maddest Stories Ever Told'' and ``More Fun Than An Open Casket Funeral.'' The group's first Nastymix release, due July 24, is titled ``Grinning Like An Undertaker.''
-- Blu Max - An alternative dance-music duo in the manner of Wham!, its sound combines early '80s New Wave with traditional pop. The fashion-conscious pair - Locke calls them ``funky white boys'' - is working on its first Nastymix recording, an LP called ``Strong Encounters,'' set for September release.
-- Bob and the Mob - From New Jersey, the street-oriented group features MC Speedo and DJ Slayer. Its first Nastymix singles are rap updates of classic funk: the Spinners' ``It's a Shame'' and Marvin Gaye's ``Let's Get It On.''
-- Side F-X - From Miami, the group, featuring Reggie ``Kut Mighty Swift'' La Lanne, is cited by Locke for its ``great music and great management.'' Its first Nastymix release comes out later this month.
-- Adrienne - A stylish R&B vocalist in the Whitney Houston vein, Adrienne Baseden is balancing her career with Nastymix with studies at Wilberforce University, a predominately black college in Wilberforce, Ohio, where she won a scholarship. Her schooling probably will push her LP release into next year.
The signings are the latest challenge for Locke, an admitted ``disco freak'' who parlayed his love of music into a career.
Locke is aided by a strong team of local music veterans including ``Nasty'' Nes Rodriguez (the ``Nasty'' of Nastymix), the first local deejay to play rap; Ramon Wells, longtime record-spinner at now-defunct Tugs disco, and a founder of the Seattle Record Pool, a deejay service organization; and Glen Boyd, a contributor to The Rocket and other publications who is the former proprietor of the Music Menu store in Rainier Valley. Locke is poised to expand Nastymix into a broad-based, national
label.
The Seattle native, a young-looking 29, originally aspired to be an actor. The self-proclaimed ``family ham'' used to star on ``gong shows'' at home, where only Chinese was spoken. He acted in high-school and college dramas, and served a summer apprenticeship with the Seattle Rep. But he decided to go into radio after becoming frustrated by the slow pace of the University of Washington's drama program. Transferring to Bellevue Community College, he studied radio and landed an on-air job on KYAC at nights.
``Being 19 years old and being on a radio station in a major market was a dream come true,'' he recalled in his large Nastymix corner office, crammed with records, tapes, compact discs, posters and promotional items.
But eight months after Locke started at the radio station, it went bankrupt. ``I guess that's why my paychecks kept bouncing,'' he quipped.
He landed a job as deejay at the Spectrum disco in Federal Way, eventually buying a mobile deejay setup and starting his own business.
While spinning records at teen dances, private parties and community halls, he developed a friendship with Rodriguez, whose ``Fresh Tracks'' show on KKFX was Seattle's first rap-music outlet.
One night in 1984 the two went to a dance at the Boys Club in the Central District and saw a sign that read, ``Sir Mix-a-Lot, Seattle's No. 1 Deejay.'' Intrigued, they checked him out. Noticing Rodriguez in the crowd, Mix directed a rap at him, a deejay battle song. Although Mix was ``dissing'' him (rap talk for putting him down), Rodriguez was impressed with Mix's talent as rapper and deejay.
Locke had never seen anything like Mix in Seattle. Mix was doing streetwise, East Coast-style rap songs with Northwest references.
``We came, we saw, we learned,'' Locke said.
Locke and Rodriguez talked with Mix (whose real name is Anthony Ray) and asked for a tape of his rap songs. Rodriguez immediately started playing the tape on his radio show, getting strong reaction from listeners.
Locke followed Mix from gig to gig, becoming more and more impressed.
``I learned about what Mix-a-Lot was wanting to do and was capable of doing,'' he recalled. ``It was like market research, educating myself about what was going on.''
In the fall of 1985, Locke decided that the rest of rap world should hear Mix, and borrowed $900 to press 500 copies of a four-song Six Mix-a-Lot EP.
Wanting to do things right, Locke rented an office in the Denny Regrade and - mixing Rodriguez's nickname with Anthony's ``nom de rap'' - started Nastymix Records.
The label almost died before it got off the ground. Locke says its California record-pressing company sent out too many copies to stores, and when the returns started coming to Nastymix, he had to pay the stores for the unsold records.
Facing bankrupty, Locke decided that Nastymix would have to sell those records somewhere else.
``I had enough promoter in me to convince some people we could do this,'' Locke said. ``Then I had to prove it to myself.''
With the help of Rodriguez and Wells, Locke started sending copies to, and calling, radio stations around the country. Eventually, a tune from the EP, ``Square Dance Rap,'' a novelty song with a square-dance beat, became a hit in Flint, Mich. Then in Florence, S.C. And finally it got played on KDAY in Los Angeles, the only full-time rap station in the country.
Borrowing money from a friend who had inherited a large sum, Locke pressed 60,000 more copies.
With a rap hit on its hands, Nastymix released a followup Mix-a-Lot single, ``I Want to Freak.'' It died. Then Mix recorded a dance instrumental, ``Destiny.'' It also stiffed.
Suddenly broke again, Locke borrowed money from his mother, a former seamstress from Kowloon, a part of Hong Kong, who was then working for Boeing. He used the money to release ``SWASS,'' an album Mix had recorded at home with his four-track recorder.
The promotion team went to work again, only this time it had quick success. On the strength of ``Posse on Broadway,'' a funny rap song that was like an auditory tour of Broadway on Capitol Hill, ``SWASS'' sold 50,000 albums in 90 days. With help from a couple of song videos, it has now sold about 970,000 copies, just short of platinum.
Nastymix has not looked back. Riding the Mix-a-Lot money wagon (which has bought Mix a fleet of Mercedes-Benzes), the label is now chugging along nicely. Mix's second album, ``Seminar,'' has gone gold (500,000 copies sold) on the strength of several hit singles, including the current ``My Hooptie,'' another funny rap, this time about the clunky cars Mix used to drive.
Kid Sensation, a member of Mix's ``posse,'' is emerging as a teen idol; High Performance is proving itself a potent rap group with both dance tunes and hard political songs. Along with Sir Mix-a-Lot, those are two more acts Nastymix can bank on.
But the new acts remain mysteries. Will the rap label be able to sell a metal act like the Accused? Will ``funky white boys'' dilute Nastymix's strength in black music? And will bands from ``back East'' and abroad be comfortable on a home-grown Seattle label?
Stay tuned.