Summer 2006.... Hot Monkey Love Cafe. Monday Night. Mondays at The Monkey picked up where The Cypher left off... The only thing missing was Pokkey. It was now hosted by Pyro, who was 18 or 19 at the time and also did the sound was just hyped every minute of it. The regulars were local emcees mostly, all pretty young. The Monkey was one of the few all age venues in the area that had Hiphop nights. Our crew was Pottery Wheel, assembled by Dr. Greene, and included Pyro. They would do a set every week and I would add skratches off to the side. We did this every Monday for a few months at least, until the cafe moved spots and the crew all went separate ways, figuratively and literally. I still talk to Pyro pretty regularly, he lives out in Fresno now and has been preforming at open mics and Hiphop nights, and still doing sound and loving every minute of it. He just told me he did the sound for Pep Love, and before that he was opening up for DEL. He's been killing it and getting sharper all the time. I haven't talked to Greene in almost a year, but hopefully we will connect in the future. Generik and Anec are still in San Diego and are in a crew together, but aren't cool with Greene or Pyro because of some beefs and battle raps, not quite sure all the details anymore.
2. Pottery Wheel Rips it Down
The Cypher is where ADA was born. It all connects through the Hot Monkey Love Cafe, which ended up moving to another location, never to be the same. I never got to see it. So that summer turned out to be its last summer for Hiphop, and it was also my last summer in San Diego, although I didn't know it at the time.
I wrote this sometime in Roswell, late 2006.
I first came to the Monkey Fall 2002. I was a freshman, 18 and didn't hardly know anyone in San Diego. All I knew was that I was finally out of high school and living in California. I was so naïve. Before I moved out there I couldn’t even locate San Diego on a map. I just knew it was southern CA and there were palm trees and the ocean. When I moved into my dorm room, my RA Charlie was impressed that I had turntables and was excited because he liked Hiphop a lot and was interested in learning more about DJing. He was way into Beastie Boys, and stuff like Blackalicious and Hieroglyphics. He could recite all the lines of the Alphabet Aerobics. He was a theology major. He's married now and we don't talk much (ever) anymore which is a shame because he's a cool guy and we had some good times together. Even though he was the RA, I saw him more as a friend. Through Charlie I met this older dude Matt who took me Access Music (I didnt have a car back then). There, I met DJ Mada, who was real nice when I asked him if there were any 'under 21' hiphop events, and gave me this little green flyer for The Cypher. Willow and Artistic DJing. That Tuesday, Matt drove us out to the Monkey. We pay 3 bucks and inside its hot and there's mad people: DJs, Bboys, Emcees, heads, girls, everyone. I met Pokkey the first time that night. He was hosting. I saw him cooling off outside so I went to talk to him. I told him I was a DJ, he was like, "what do you play?" I said something about the Golden Era, and we were instant friends. it was that easy. But what wasn't so easy was actually getting a chance to DJ there. so many good DJs were coming through every week: Willow, Artistic, Sake and Mane One, Ironic, Kutfather, and more that never introduced themselves to me. I got better just by watching them every week. Finally after a couple of months of just showing up with a crate, I got some time on the tabes. I was nervous as shit and probably sketchy and sloppy, but whatever, it was fun. My skills were limited to mixing, scratching, and basic backspinning. I wasn’t real clean and could barely cue up the records in time. After time me and Pokey got to know each other and realized that we had a lot in common. He said I'm the only one he ever let borrow his infamous tape collection. Seriously it was boxes and boxes of the best, the dopest, the rarest, the most classic TAPES i've ever seen. I've been down with Pokkey The Selecta ever since those Tuesday nights in 2002 and now we're closer than ever. Pokey didnt even DJ back then. I gave him my old geminis when I got 1200s. Since then, he's been digging like crazy! It's easy for him because he already had the knowledge. He has crucial knowledge because he's been there and seen things I can only dream about about. He gave me the name A D A when I first started DJing at The Cypher because he liked the way it sounds and I asked him to come up with something.
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