Blackstract was a group from East Flatbush, Brooklyn consisted of two brothers named Wic and Dadidas. In the mid-90s they released three good indie 12-inches on Stikman Entertainment : "I Stole Your Girl / 40G's And A 9" in 1994, "Diary Of A Mad M.C." in 1995 and "BKNY / Streets" in 1996.
Dadidas : "The group was already formed prior to my arrival a few years before I became a member in 1994. Blackstract consisted of my brother and a childhood friend of his whose name I can’t recall at this moment. Once he exited the group I was asked by my brother to take his place.
Blackstract is an amalgamation of the words ‘black’ and ‘abstract’. Wic felt that the topics of the songs were different than what people were used to hearing. They weren’t your average songs. They had a different angle from mainstream music. Also the sound was pretty abstract because we used a lot of jazz as a base. I love hip-hop and jazz.
Actually my brother (Wic) started an independent label and called it Stickman Entertainment. So we technically weren’t signed to any record label. We worked mostly with independent producers too. We also got a chance to work with DJ Mr. Cee. He really liked “Diary of a Mad MC” and wanted to help promote it so he interviewed us on Hot 97. We started doing some radio tours to freestyle and also participated in ‘Battle of the Beats.’ We were a self-managed group. We found our own venues to present at, we hit the streets promoting with word of mouth and sold our tapes like that. My brother would also talk to record store owners asking if they would sell our music and they did. I would play our songs where I worked and have people coming up to me asking for tapes. We were doing quite well."
12" - 1994 - Stikman Ent.
The first 12" to come out was "I Stole Your Girl / 40G's And A 9" fully produced by Wic. The lead single of the wax is "I Stole Your Girl" available in its LP and Accapella versions. The song featured a third cat named J.Gonzales. You've probably never seen it but an official music video of this song exists, produced by Pauly Pee Productions.
On the flip side, you can listen to the track "40G's And A 9" featuring R. Brooks a.k.a Steps. The track is available in its Street Mix and Instrumental versions.
Dadidas : "J.Gonzales was a co-worker of my brother who was thrown onto the record only as a favor for helping to pay for the studio time. True Story... lol. That’s the only song he was ever on. I laugh when I hear the song because he sounds off beat to me. lol
R. Brooks is another childhood friend of ours who made guest appearances on a couple of our records. He had his own thing going, a reggae set. So he wasn’t looking to get in on the gig permanently. Musically, he went by the name Steps."
12" - 1995 - Stikman Ent.
One year later, the duo was back with their second 12". Both tracks of this wax, "Diary Of A Mad M.C." and "A New Nightmare" were produced by Saran Rap who also worked for the group Da Crimson League. That's how the connection was made with Da Crimson League member Sgt Screwface who features on the single.
Dadidas : "I’m not sure about how the connection happened with Saran Rap... I just know that he was my brother’s connection. He produced our last two singles, He was dope ! Sgt Screwface was a friend of Saran Wrap... He did the chorus on the remix. He also ended up being a rapper on the B-side of “Streets.” "
In July 1995, Wic & Dadidas were invited by WildMan Steve & DJ Riz on The Hip Hop Spot Radio Show (90.3 WBAU) for the promo of the single. Here is the Interview and Freestyle from that night. (Props to DJ Eclipse for the Tape rip)
"BKNY / Streets" came out the next year in 1996 with Saran Rap still on the production and still the same artists featuring on the tracks, Sgt Screwface on "BKNY" and Steps on "Streets". It will be their last release... they disappeared after that without dropping a full project...
Dadidas : "Funny thing is, when we started, we didn’t think about making an album. We were just making singles and enjoyed people hearing our music. We had about 7 songs with the singles. Then we linked up with some Israeli cats living in Brooklyn. Their group was called Yo Mama. We were gonna name our collab album “NY to Tel Aviv” after one of the tracks. We made a few songs with them. Maybe about 7 as well. That might make a good “Best of” album at this point. lol. But nothing ever really materialized. One of their band members went back to Israel for a while. So the whole idea just kind of fizzled. The momentum was gone from earlier years. It didn’t seem like there was much of a buzz for the group. So I guess around 1997, more life pressing responsibilities began to take precedence over making music. My brother was in a serious relationship and planning to wed, so studio time was just getting shorter and shorter. We all just went on living our lives business as usual."
Mad Props to Dadidas, thanks for the interview.
Big Up to Kay Jay for the connection.
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