Big Chase - The End of the Line - 1991

Let's talk about this unreleased demo originally uploaded on youtube a long time ago by Calvin Trublife Jones (a.k.a DJ Trouble, p.k.a DJ Trouble Lee) and performed by an emcee named Big Chase. I really like this demo and I think it could be interesting to see Big Chase's unreleased material dropped on physical format. The only track released officially by Big Chase is the song "Y'All Ready For It" (The track uses the same instrumental) on The Rhythm Shack All-Stars EP, dropped by 16FMusic in 2014.

 If you don't know Big Chase, you need to know that this MC, a native of Brooklyn, grew up in the Marcy Projects and was originally a dancer for Jaz and Jay-Z during the early part of Jaz's career from the late 80's to the early 90's. Even though he had quality music, Big Chase never received a major recording deal and his material was never released until now. Labels would not sign him because they were interested in Jay-Z  and didn’t take Big Chase seriously. At the time he was known as "Little Chase"... the one Nas called out "hangin' with Little Chase" in his track "Ether" which was a response to Jay-Z's "Takeover". 

The demo entitled "The End of the Line" was produced by DJ Trouble Lee and was recorded at The Rhythm Shack a.k.a The Shack Studios. The Rhythm Shack was founded by producer /engineer Tkae of the Mental Castawayz back in the late 80's. Originally it was a converted bedroom in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It would later be relocated to 129th Street in Harlem as a full-fledged commercial studio.

DJ Trouble & Carlos Bess @ RHYTHM SHACK STUDIO - 1992 - Photo courtesy of DJ Trouble

DJ Trouble Lee met Big Chase at the studio, they had a production crew called the Groove Stalkers comprised of Tkae, Trouble Lee, Carlos "C12" Bess and DJ Choco. For the story, Tkae was doing some amazing Demos with Chase and then one day he decided to stop producing and destroyed everything... floppy disks, DAT tapes and the 1 inch tapes... They came into the studio and everything was all over the floor destroyed...

DJ Trouble : "It was heartbreaking and Chase couldn’t believe it... all of them couldn’t believe it... so that's why Chase and I started working one on one for years. There's a much deeper story behind all of us who was at the Rhythm Shack. You will not believe the things that happen there...you can write a movie about the whole beginning to the end..."

The good news behind this story, is that some Big Chase's unreleased material exist ! DJ Trouble has been remastering them over the last few years when he moved to Iron Bound Sound in Newark, NJ. Chase was with him and he started another group with some guys from his new block when he moved from Marcy Projects. The group was called "Darker Image", it was 3 of them but no info about the 2 other kats unfortunately... but it seems they recorded some dope demos.

The Demo "The End of the Line" is now available on Spotify, and I think Calvin "Trouble" Jones is cooking something... so stay tuned fellas, more material coming soon !!