saltlakemusic

Advocates of Hip Hop in Salt Lake City · Oct 13, 06:45 PM

Gabe Martinez, aka DJ Briskone, was one of Mr. James’ favorite students. Mr. James happened to be one of my favorite teachers, his retail class took on the role of selling donuts during lunch to teach the kids a lesson in life: buy a donut for fifty cents, sell it to the students for a dollar. They took the money raised selling donuts and bought an old impala, fixed it up and sold it for three times what they put into it. What happened to the money after that? Only Mr. James knows for sure.

Gabe obviously learned from the experience, at 18 years old he and his buddy Lee started a Sugarhouse clothing store many Utahn’s may have forgotten called ‘Funksion.’ Inventory consisted of records, clothing, equipment and paint gear. Gabe started the prominent graffitti art crew SADK in Salt Lake City, and since has moved on to producing records for Netweight out of Concord, New Hampshire. It was nice to see one of the kids from West Valley making it.

Gabe moved onto produce several records under the title Briskone, including a 2003 EP for The Numbs, from Provo Utah, which by the way is a rare find for Salt Lake music collectors. This band did for hip hop in Utah what Donny Osmond did for, whatever the hell Donny Osmond did. They performed at the Vans Warped Tour sharing the venue with groups like The Black Eyed Peas. Urb magazine said the about the Numbs “Thanks to several left coast tours and internet word of mouth, The Numbs shouldn’t remain a secret much longer.” Public Enemy’s Chuck D. played the Numbs 2001 album ‘The Word’ on his internet radio show. The band dropped Guapo records as their label in the fall of 2003 and started shopping, that was all she wrote. Tommy Boy records started negotiations with the hip hop team which suddenly fell through after their representative left the company unexpectedly.

Then there was that house party a few years back, Adolf crashed on my couch and in the morning as I threatened to pour hot coffee on his ass if he didn’t scoot over. He switched the TV to some Saturday morning cable sports show and started getting all excited “Numbs! the Numbs!” he said. Their music was playing in the background for maybe 5 seconds, then was gone forever. How appropriate.

Dj Kool Kel owns UPROK, a coffee shop/clothing store downtown just north of State Street on the west side of the road between 300 and 400 South. On Oct. 13, 2003, Kel was voted City Weekly’s favorite DJ, and much like BriskOne and The Numbs, keeps the hip hop scene in Utah from floating off into nothingness. The first Friday of every month, Undagroundz hosts rap battles at 344 S. State Street. If you find another hip hop advocate in Utah, cherish them, because they certainly don’t grow on trees.

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