Meeky got my schedule done – the 8th will be my first post in a series of posts scheduled all the way up through October 10th. I’ll be blogging twice a week on average (at least on major topics).

So I’m sitting here listening to DJ K-NYSE Track 5 from 1994 and digitizing it with Audacity so I can convert it to CD.

In case you didn’t know, DJ K-NYSE is my old DJing name

Man, I look back, this tape was tight at the time….

Now ? I guess because I’ve become more of a perfectionist over the years, I’m hearing EVERY mistake on the tape and it hurts (although about 23 mins in, my mistake quotient diminishes severely). I’m cringing at all of the bad blends (you won’t hear them as much as I do), a couple of false starts and just how CORNY I sound with the echo chamber on my mixer activated saying “Nobody rocks the house for 94 like DJ K….NYSE!” (with the appropriate echo of the word NYSE…).

Oh gosh. Another one: “Nobody rocks the HIZZOOOOUSE….like DJ K….NYSE!”

Old practice. DJ’s used to ‘mark’ their tapes with random promos throughout so that no one could take their mix and duplicate it. Some had the equipment to simply track over someone else’s promo if they owned the record and had the time. I purposely used the echo chamber to make any attempt at tracking out my name noticable (since there were a LOT of amateur DJs in B-more City at the time).

Ahhh. The era of the backspin in Baltimore (at the end of a blend or somewhere else in there, a DJ would quickly slide the record backwards at rapid speed and just let it spin down for one, two or more counts – usually an even number).

Okay, some of this stuff is still tight. I might link it up on here and stream it one day just for laughs. It’s house music w/ some early Baltimore Club music.

I made Track 5 in dedication to Lamonteé Briggs – my old DJing parnter and peer in high school. Lamonteé passed away the year prior (summer of 93, just when we were gettin’ big as a djing duo). I was a pall bearer at his funeral. We had a tight operation – back in 92-94 in B-more, you could get away with spinning house/club (the two terms were interchangable back then) for 3 hours of a 4 hour party and in the last hour, you put on the reggae, hip-hop, etc… We ran 2 hour sets sometimes, then broke for hip-hop for 45 mins, slow jams and then took everybody home with the hometown favorite music. They were some fun days.

Lamonteé’s passing was the catalyst that kicked Theologically Correct dot Com into motion. Not that I wasn’t already writing tracts, street witnessing, writing articles, etc…. and I’d even put a proposal together to get a parachurch ministry of some sort started up. I was working as an administrative assistant that summer (temp job) at Univ. of Baltimore. I got to do a lot of typing – including work on

His momma was a church-goin’ woman. Mom and dad were separated, but it was good to see them both come together in those days when Lamonteé passed away.

Oh wow. I just gave a shout out to my brother – he was sitting in the living room while I was mixing.

Anyway, back on topic – my big question at the time was whether or not Lamonteé was saved. As a believer, I’d occassionally discuss religious topics with Lamonteé. He’d mentioned in the past that he at least knew the gospel and I think he may have even ‘prayed a sinners’ prayer’ at one point. But he lived like everyone else around him. Not a bad guy – just an average guy. Good man, goin’ to community college for criminal justice and the money we made DJing came in handy to help him with that.

He’d picked up an extra job working at a discount store (McCrory’s for the old heads who remember) in downtown B-more (gone now). I think there’s a Rite Aid where that store used to be. Anyway, he was originally a security guard there, but got extra work helping in the stock room. One afternoon, the old freight elevator he was on shifted and his mid-section was crushed by about 1000 lbs of stuff. That was on a Friday – the same Friday we were supposed to practice for a gig we had coming up that next week at Bowie over the summer.

They operated on him, tried to keep him alive. He was conscious. He died of heart failure that next Wednesday around 1:30 am. I didn’t hear about it until the evening he’d already passed. My ex’s uncle (T’s uncle) was the firefighter who got him out of the elevator.

While in the hospital, I heard that one of the reverends from his mom’s church paid him a visit and shared the gospel with him. At the funeral, he said that Lamonteé claimed to know the Lord.

I remember sitting on the front pew during the service and crying out to God a loud AMEN. I remember witnessing to several old classmates, random people on the street afterward and a host of other people here and there. I put my pager number (remember those!) on a tract I’d made, made copies at work, passed them out… someone once called me at 6:30 am wanting someone to pray with them for salvation. The guy was a junkie and HIV positive. Maybe I’ll see him on the other side of this life too.

I still wonder am I gonna see ‘Lemontree’ (old ROTC joke) when I cross over to the next life. Time to time, he passes through my mind. I still have some of his old equipment and records. I have some tapes he and I did during practice. I may digitize them one day soon, since they’re decaying just sitting around.

Well, I’m not cringing as much anymore. My blends have gotten a whole lot cleaner on the tape (I haven’t listened to this thing in AGES) after the 25 min. mark. Wow @ me and these corny promos throughout the tape (I’m on side 2 now).

Something about ‘Monté’s death kicked me into high gear when it came to sharing my faith, though. God used it and ordained it for that purpose, I guess. I don’t purport to understand all of Eph. 1:3-14 and how/why God does certain things. Perhaps other folk came to know Him during that time as well as a result of ‘Monté’s death. I won’t know all of the ‘fruit’ of that event until heaven, of course.

Well, these are just my random thoughts. I’m off to get this paper done for class and get some sleep. Pray for me. I go back to work in a week.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Kerry

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