Once upon a time in the projects, before '6 in the Mornin'' and 'P.S.K.' and at a time when Lonzo had Dre and the Cru in sequins doing 'Cabbage Patch' electro hop, it was high-noon in the West and time for change. The people called for street knowledge and The Compton Posse put the whole hood on lock. They beat down 'Fuck The Police' with the 'Batterram' and went out in a blazing shoot out with the L.A.P.D., but not before leaving indelible footsteps through the dawn of a renaissance in hip hop. Rapping over the breaks of soaked records much like it's East coast origin, the West bellowed out with real attitude and confronting animosity. Inner-city angst from it's horrid core, cocked, loaded and aimed back into the face of it's oppressor, Gangsta rap would mark the birth of hip hop's strong-arm, a tour de force not to be ignored. The Compton Posse started this gangsta shit and this is the thanks they deserve.

He embraced his New York roots and the hip-hop that thrived within it, and spending his teens being raised under Compton Airport's flight path on 156th and Wilmington, Mixmaster Spade landed in the epicentre of a cultural outbreak on the West coast. He became quite accomplished on turntables and started rapping over 8-track tapes of Chic's 'Good Times' and Vaughan Mason's 'Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll'. He once tore up Roger Troutman's 'So Ruff, So Tuff' on decks set up in the kitchen of a house party out in the Watts District of South L.A. and it raised his profile to another level. He became a local rap hero from Compton to Long Beach, and his hangouts would rival Lonzo's Eve's After Dark (hot spot for Dr Dre, Eazy and the Wreckin Cru). Spade created a space for young rappers, Coolio, J-Ro, Tila, CJ Mack and DJs Aladdin and Pooh at his makeshift garage studio and they became The Compton Posse when young nineteen year-old protégée Toddy Tee jumped in, ready to record 'Batterram'.

Tee's track was written and devised in his bedroom and produced by Dr Dre. It would become the hottest cassette on the street, a top KDAY (radio) request and South Central L.A.’s first real anthem, encapsulating the era amidst a full-blown war on drugs in the city - right at breaking point between South L.A.'s infuriated residents and Chief Daryl Gates' L.A.P.D. The V-100 six-ton armoured vehicle with its 14-foot-long steel battering ram would be employed to mow down crack houses across the city, before knocking. So for many, 'Batterram' was just the war cry the people needed and starts the enduring growth of Gangsta rap in the changing streets of Compton.

Shortly after Spade followed up with 'Just Say No', another KDAY hotcake produced again by Dr Dre. King Tee followed up with Pooh's 'Ya Betta Bring A Gun' and by 1986 The Compton Posse were recording for L.A. Posse Records and performing across L.A., Oakland and out to Texas and Arizona. They were raw, uncut from the rough but had more strength of street knowledge than hip hop has ever dared to flex. The Compton Posse made shit real, too real for those who didn't know. However, the reality behind their raps would unfortunately be the demise of Mixmaster Spade and after the brief scent of success had drifted, it would bring an end to The Compton Posse and the beginning of Gangsta rap.

An encounter with the LA. County Sheriffs Department in 1987 turned the Posse's garage-studio into a deadly shootout with Mixmaster Spade and seven gang members. Police subsequently raided the property, seizing 25 gallons of PCP, weapons and cash. Eventually Spade and his associates surrendered to the law, but not before an officer was struck down by a gunshot (albeit friendly fire). Spade was sent to a Kansas penitentiary and would return to little left of his notoriety, and few guest appearances. By 2005 he lost his life to a motorcycle accident. Toddy Tee's career had faded quickly, in the radio rush of bravado would-be gangsta rappers emerging. And what they both left was the blueprint for the future successors of whom we celebrate and turn the volume up on today.

Early acts would fill the void of this ghetto rebellion, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube's C.I.A., Lonzo's World Class Wreckin' Cru and Eazy-E hand-picking from both to make N.W.A. which lead to the makings of DJ Quik's Penthouse Players Click, Black Eyed Peas, Above The Law and Fila Fresh Crew. King Tee would cut a strong gangsta rap-cult figure, healthy solo career and mentor to J-Ro's Tha Alkoholiks and a young Xzibit from the Likwit Crew and would rap alongside Ice-T whose solo front compares to that of Ice Cube's threatening lyrics as a regular performer (then) at downtown L.A. club, Radio with Afrika Islam. DJ Aladdin's Low Profile union with WC gave us the M.A.A.D. Circle with Sir Jinx, Crazy Toones and Coolio before his solo smash-hit 'Gangsta's Paradise' planted his place firmly in hip hop's pages. As well would DJ Pooh, a premier producer in the making of West coast rap. Then Dr Dre's stepped the might of Death Row Records' juggernaut success into Gangsta rap's golden era and the rest was written.

Mixmaster Spade and his Compton Posse embraced hip hop in the 1980s, an overwhelming trend that would later lead the F.B.I. to force their hand, (N.W.A.'s letter from FBI Director, Milt Ahlerich) and they became the pied pipers of L.A. through their mixtapes and parties. There was never any money to be made from it, but they were trailblazers in the progression of hip hop. Toddy Tee's 'Batteram', forever the original soundtrack to the streets of South Central's rolling 100's, and the Mixmaster Spade, the self-proclaimed OG Compton Godfather of Rap will always be acknowledged as catalysts in a pivotal shift in the fortune of West Coast hip hop, which is still an unfinished chapter, infiltrating the mainstream and holding a strong legacy some 25 years later and happily here after.