venti_mistake

There used to be this awesome coffee house in the Gaslamp District Called Mecca Java. This is circa 1993-94 at least that's when we discovered it.

I had just started kickin it with this really cool dude named Ed. He was the one who introduced me to HCJ and the finer points of Depech Mode while groovin still to Tribe and the whole Native Tongue family. I showed him how to rock out to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and loaned him my Eric Clapton cd which I still haven't got back but it's all good.

He was a tagger/piecer. I could draw hot chicks and read the Great Gatsby waaaay too much. Together we learned the fine art of ditching school for half a day to draw together, drink coffee, go to cool obsure spots, and visit museums and showcases in la Jolla, and just fucking live life.

But the days always started at Mecca Java's. They had open mic on tuesday nights. They had the cushiest couches, the dopest local artwork, the yummiest scones, and the hottest/smartest/coolest/nicest and every other kind of positive "-est" barrista I have ever met to this day. They called her "Kicks." To this day I still don't know why. Maybe it was her shoes... I asked her once and she just winked and gave me a free cappucino. Ed thought I was chatting her up. Riiiight...15 with a mouthful of braces and a 118 lb frame-uuuh no.

We would sit for hours, milking the coffee, and draw and piece and draw. Occasionally we'd break for a smoke or chess or just to bullshit but we did our best pieces together at Mecca Java. He'd do the letters, I drew the girls.

We even had joke tagger names because we started a joke crew to poke fun at some of the snooty tagger cliques in our town. We were ICP waaay before the Insane Clown Posse.

I
Can't
Piece

If you could write your name and you had a handle you wanted, you could be part of our crew. So I was "sketch" and Ed was "Qubes." And what started as a joke turned into this big thing where even legit taggers were asking to join our crew. It was hillarious! But then we had to squash it because people started claiming and it was never supposed to be about that.

Whoa. Hello tangent. Where was I...?

Mecca Java. God I miss that place.
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Peace.. peace.. peace y'all!
(Strange!) Real strange.. real strange..
(An overdose..) A.. nickel bag of funk
(WE GOT BEAT!!)
Now move on.. move on.. yeah..
("Hey man are you ready to go?") Yeah..

[Butterfly]
Boogie jive and rap is life where I'm from
Where I'm from, I might play with Izzy where I'm from
Where I'm from, it be like, "run your coat black"
Jupiter, keeps her fat beats by the pack
Where I'm from, nappy hair is life
We be reading Marx where I'm from
The kids be rockin Clarks where I'm from
You turn around your cap, you talk over a beat
and dig some sounds boomin out a jeep
Where I'm from, cocoons hide the youth, swoon units 100 proof
You want some beef, they will cut you some
Where I'm form, the beats is infinite where I'm from
Voodoo, ashubani, gangsta lean where I'm from
I'm interplanetary, my insect movements vary
It's kinky if it's hair, G, where I'm from
The firehoses blow, it's purple wind and snow
I do a hit and go, SPLIT
It's hip, what's hip? When hip is just the norm
Cause Planets pledge allegiance to the funk in all it's forms
The kinks, the dance, the prints in all the shirts
My grandmother told my mother it's Africa at work
On vibes, we freak, them universal beats
You find it at the spot you hit at ends of every week
We twist, exist, to spin the maddest hits
Up here funk is our neighbor so we paid her a visit
The lip we sip can't house the nine zips
For rock we can't do nothin, for this we come equipped
Off disc, off tape, rap blastin til from 8
The really truly fat the fly on the flip
Cocoa gotta know, how Planets, gotta roll
Speak the mega cool, get funky as a goal
It's calm, relax, we're only some new jacks
that acts from the funk but don't play the role
Where you from?
....

[Doodlebug]
Weekend "Dig Plans" got T's where I'm from
Where I'm from, it's Collins 13 where I'm from
Where I'm from, brothers took the beat and got fly
(Why?) That's most asked by 85, where I'm from
Fakin the funk you get did
Projects, tenements, pyramids
Where I'm from, we're livin off the boom boom crack
It's that hip hop rockers jazz when I max
Peace be the greeting of the insect tribe
Pestilent forces can't catch the vibe
We live to love and we love to rock mics
We speak in ghetto tongue cause ghetto's the life
Food for thought so get a buffet plate
The lyrics are so fat you might gain weight
So just watch me step alone, into the sunset
Left foot right foot 1-2 mic check
Brewin funk inside my soul kitchen
So pull up a chair here's a bit have a listen
of hardhead intervene, damn I know you're fluent
Yeah, cause Doodle ain't havin it and Butterfly knew it
Where you from?
....

[Ladybug]
Venus acts a fool at the square right? (Yeah)
Doctors engineer in apparel right? (Yeah)
Hip-Hop made a point last year right? (Yeah)
But Planets is the joint this year right? (Yeah)
Planets got the dubs and live to grass-hop
Duck out from the fuzz, that sweat the hip-hop
Risin like we foam, get it from the dome
I'm from where the fat beats stretch for mad blocks
We can get a kit, without, no thread
Feelin funky beats go straight, to the head
Fall into a club, dig on what we love
It be past six, before we reach bed
Butter freaks on relics we say, those are fat
Doodle makin silk, LaQuan, where it's at?
We need to stack a sack, for rap to take us dap
So we treat our clips, just like, bustin caps
Rip it til dawn, kick it til dawn
Hip-Hop is the fix, or else, we be gone
People thought they canned it, rap is not by bandits
Digable Planets got it, goin on

Everywhere, every every where (yeah)

-Digable Planets