Take Fo' Records is a little known (outside of New Orleans) music label that truly broke ground with its motley roster of artists and progressive attitude, yet it's never received adequate recognition for its pioneering role in music. Whereas New Orleans's other big labels: Big Boy, Cash Money, Mobo, Parkway Pumpin', Untouchable, Tombstone and No Limit all seemed to consciously project a hard-as-nails image with tales of slangin', bangin', head bussin' and wig splittin', Take Fo' welcomed gangstas but also ball busters, dancer-cum-rappers, party starters and probably the first openly gay rapper. Despite the possible negative associations that might come with being part of this hip hop Island of Misfit Toys, the rappers on Take Fo' seemed unbothered and showed up on each others' albums in a show of courageous support.
Take Fo' evolved from the public access show Positive Black Talk that began in 1990 and was co-hosted by Earl J. Mackie. Their definition of "positive" wasn't necessarily in line with American mores at large, where violence is pretty much embraced and sexuality is incredibly repressed. Even in New Orleans, which is largely a lot more open-minded, not everyone appreciated Mackie's conception of positivity and he got grief from his pastor. But all of the show's guests conveyed messages of self-empowerment in their own ways, even if they ruffled some feathers along the way.
In 1992, Positive Black Talk lost its grant and Mackie hosted a dance at a local high school to raise funds for the show. The centerpiece was meant to be Da'Sha Ra' (pictured above) but a special ed teacher asked if he could warm up the crowd. After half an hour of captivating the audience, Henry "Henry the Man" Holden and Mackie began to formulate a new idea. After raising more in one night than the show had in two years, they switched tracks and soon Positive Black Talk Inc. morphed into Take Fo' Records and the show was no more. It took a couple months of pressure to get the warm up act, DJ Jubilee, to sign, as he already was commited to teaching and coaching, but he ultimately did and became the label's biggest star. Joined by partner Elden Anderson, the new label operated in the back of Mackie's father's roofing business. Henry the Man and E-Jay handled the production for the tracks and the label's ranks grew as more artists signed.
In the early '90s, Take Fo' quickly became one of the two labels that most epitomized Bounce music, the other being Mobo. Cash Money and Big Boy were both then primarily focused on producing a gangstafied Bounce variant, pioneered by U.N.L.V., who coined the term Gangsta Bounce. No Limit, having started in Richmond, California, was decidedly straight gangsta, albeit with a southern flavor courtesy of the second line-influenced production of Beats By the Pound. Jubilee's music, on the other hand, was in the vein of the Bounce's pioneers, TT Tucker & DJ Irv, DJ Jimi and Everlasting Hitman-- mixing the triggaman beat, the brown beat, calling out dance moves and shouting out wards, projects and occassionally neighboring southern states. "Stop Pause," his debut single, sold 30,000 copies and gave the label its first hit. By the mid-to-late '90s, Take Fo's New Orleans neighbors had all but completely dropped the Bounce aspect of their music but Take Fo' kept wobbling into the new millenium, ultimately spawning Bounce's shrill, gay offshoot, Sissy Rap.
1994 - Flesh & Blood - Flesh & Blood
1995 - Da'Sha'Ra - Still Bootin' Up, DJ Jubilee - Stop Pause, DJ Jubilee - DJ Jubilee & the
Cartoon Crew
1996 - War Time featuring The Hideout - The Album, Big Al & Lil Tee - B***h You Know Who I
Am, DJ Jubilee - 20 Years in the Jets
1997 - 2-Sweet - Actin' Bad, Willie Puckett - Doggie Hop, DJ Jubilee - Get Ready, Ready!
1998 - Willie Puckett - Million Dollar Hot Boy, DJ Jubilee - Take it to the St. Thomas
1999 - Katey Red & Dem Hoes - Melpomene Block Party, K.C. Redd [RIP] & the Shake 'em Up
Girls - It's a G-Thang
2000 - DJ Jubilee - Do Yo Thing Girl!, Katey Red - Y2 Katy
2001 - Choppa - Choppa Style, DJ Duck - Duck Remixxes, Junie Bezel - That's How Mess Get
Started
By the late '90s, with the nationwide ascendancy of southern rap, the increasingly marginalized old record labels carpetbagged it down to N.O. hoping to exploit the city's East and West coast obliterating scene. First, Priority signed a deal with No Limit, then Universal signed a major deal with Cash Money. In 1999, DJ Jubilee signed a deal with Tommy Boy but they didn't allow him to record and eventually freed him. Meanwhile, Big Easy Distributing, Take Fo’s distributor, went out of business. That same year, Take Fo’s promoter, the legendary Bobby Marchan, also passed away.
Take Fo' famously ended up going to court several times over the years. In one case, DJ Jubilee sued Juvenile, alledging that the Juve's "Back That Azz Up" ripped off Jube's "Back That Ass Up" based on the claim that he'd originated the dance at block parties. As much as I like Jubilee and feel bad that he's never achieved anywhere near the fame he deserves, I have to say he didn't really have a case since he wasn't suing that his dance had been ripped of, but that his song had. Mannie Fresh, for his part, admitted that "Back That Azz Up" was inspired by Jubilee's song, but with significantly varied production and even the lyrical conversion of what was a dance chant into more sexual territory, the court ruled in Juvenile's favor. A few years later Take Fo' sued Master P for breach of contract, alledging that No Limit failed to adequately pay Take Fo' in their joint venture with Choppa and I guess they settled for an undisclosed sum.
Take Fo' famously ended up going to court several times over the years. In one case, DJ Jubilee sued Juvenile, alledging that the Juve's "Back That Azz Up" ripped off Jube's "Back That Ass Up" based on the claim that he'd originated the dance at block parties. As much as I like Jubilee and feel bad that he's never achieved anywhere near the fame he deserves, I have to say he didn't really have a case since he wasn't suing that his dance had been ripped of, but that his song had. Mannie Fresh, for his part, admitted that "Back That Azz Up" was inspired by Jubilee's song, but with significantly varied production and even the lyrical conversion of what was a dance chant into more sexual territory, the court ruled in Juvenile's favor. A few years later Take Fo' sued Master P for breach of contract, alledging that No Limit failed to adequately pay Take Fo' in their joint venture with Choppa and I guess they settled for an undisclosed sum.
In 2001, Take Fo' became The New Take Fo'. After Katrina, the label relocated to Houston but returned by 2009, when they celebrated 17 years in the game. Whilst they may be fairly obscure, they've shown remarkable perserverance, a defiant openmindedness and created some classic music along the way.
Partial Take Fo' timeline/discography1994 - Flesh & Blood - Flesh & Blood
1995 - Da'Sha'Ra - Still Bootin' Up, DJ Jubilee - Stop Pause, DJ Jubilee - DJ Jubilee & the
Cartoon Crew
1996 - War Time featuring The Hideout - The Album, Big Al & Lil Tee - B***h You Know Who I
Am, DJ Jubilee - 20 Years in the Jets
1997 - 2-Sweet - Actin' Bad, Willie Puckett - Doggie Hop, DJ Jubilee - Get Ready, Ready!
1998 - Willie Puckett - Million Dollar Hot Boy, DJ Jubilee - Take it to the St. Thomas
1999 - Katey Red & Dem Hoes - Melpomene Block Party, K.C. Redd [RIP] & the Shake 'em Up
Girls - It's a G-Thang
2000 - DJ Jubilee - Do Yo Thing Girl!, Katey Red - Y2 Katy
2001 - Choppa - Choppa Style, DJ Duck - Duck Remixxes, Junie Bezel - That's How Mess Get
Started
Relevant Tags
Transsexuals (2), Choppa (1), Rap (17), Da'sha'ra' (1), Willie Puckett (1), Bounce (12), Hip Hop (5), 1990s (35), Sissy Rap (3), Dj Jubilee (1), Black History Month (47), Take Fo Records (1), New Orleans (20), New Orleans Rap (12), Crotch Rockets (1), Booty (1)Comments
well, if you ever come to Amoeba, look for Katey Red in the clearance section. Actually, all Take Fo' releases I've ever seen here are priced under five dollars whereas online I've seen people asking (and hopefully not getting) for hundreds! That's really interesting about Bobby Marchan. I only knew him as a guy that made what people out here call "gang bangin' oldies". I didn't know about his drag roots. I just read that he had his own drag troupe, The Powder Box Revue!
Check out www.nolabounce.com. Also www.gcpress.com, the website for the publishing co. that's putting out a book by Bounce rapper 10th Ward Buck. We're trying to compile a loose Bounce timeline for the book, and there was a lot of stuff in your post I didn't know. Good work. If you have any idea of when some more seminal Bounce tracks came out, let me know, it's confusing since so few things have dates. If you ask Juvenile, every thing started with him!
That brought back alot of memories. Where did you get that footage from? I thought everything was lost with Katrina. That is some classic stuff. Da' Sha Ra' on Positive Black Talk was ground breaking for Bounce Music. Rare footage. Lock it up and put in a time capsule. Bounce Music may not fullfill its true value until many years from now and we all might be dead and gone......Thanks for the re-cap!
Credit on the Da' Sha Ra' footage goes to Youtube user UnknownAGENT007, who's got a lot of bounce-related footage. Check 'em out!
Thanks for filling in the blanks. I had heard of Katey Red (there was even a New York Times article on her) but I could never get hold of any of her records. The Bobby Marchan connection is interesting too because the former Clowns front-man was a sometime drag queen (seek out the rare Marchan track "Ain't No Reason for Girls to be Lonely") Thanks also for the link to the Sissy Rap post, which I missed the first time around.