Flashback Friday 18.

When I was a teenager there was a summer that I was kind of stuck in Japan. I won't get into why and what I was doing over there.

I hung out with a fellow named Jeff who I had one thing in common with: we didn't exactly miss home but we were definitely not enjoying the humid summer in Japan. This was the early/mid(?) 1990s and Japanese culture was big on the very worst of U.S. culture. I believe the biggest musical hits were from American Top 40. Example: Color Me Badd. Not that we ever had much access to television or radio.

Between Jeff and I, we had 2 Walkmans and a handful of casettes and this was our only relief. Mine were
1. A mix tape of old Jamaican music (What I was really into at the time if not The Germs, Crass, OPIV, or music from the local 909 punk scene.)
2. The Big Chill Soundtrack Volume 2 (Believe me when you are on month 3 in Japan in a small town you begin appreciate old yuppy nostalgia music.)
3. I was later able to track down a bunch of bootlegs from the Beatles' White Album recording sessions.

His was a self-produced mix tape he bought directly from DJ QBERT--purchased for $2 at a show, the label was hand-drawn/written.

We were on a steady rotation of the few cassettes we had, trading back and forth back and forth.

Jeff was from Sacto. He said "hella" everything. He was an aspiring turntablist, constantly thinking of new beats and he kept talking about how he'd recently scored 8 crates of vinyl. I have no idea if he ever made it.

DJ QBERT did...