Lecco’s Lemma’s Basement Tapes

Magnus Johnstone is one of those rare DJs who always remained a few steps ahead of the cultural zeitgeist—continually discovering new genres of music, turning people on to them, and moving on before they reached the mass market. From the middle of the ’80s through the late ’90s, he was a fixture at college radio stations across greater Boston.

Well before world and electronic music reached their current mainstream popularity, Magnus was turning Boston on to obscure Arabic, Jamaican, African, and German electronic bands.

When his attention turned to rap music in the early ’80s, he helped launch hip-hop in Boston. Between 1985 and 1989, Magnus hosted the first rap show in the city to regularly feature local artists. Lecco’s Lemma first appeared in the summer of 1985 on MIT’s college radio station WMBR 88.1 FM. It rapidly became a virtual (as well as physical) meeting place for young members of Boston’s first hip-hop generation. Because Magnus solicited tapes from local artists and invited them down to perform on the air, his show was a critical source of inspiration and exposure for Boston artists like MC Keithy E (aka Guru), Ray Dog (aka Benzino) and members of the Almighty RSO, Top Choice Clique, TDS Mob, Big Chuck, and, of course, the young Edo G. Because Magnus is an obsessive collector, he has an incredible archive containing hundreds of original tapes that were made by these young Boston artists back in the days when hip-hop was still being made more for the love than the money.

Born in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston, Magnus graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the late ’70s as an aspiring painter with a deep love of music. Painting has remained his primary artistic pursuit over the years. If painting has been his love, music has certainly been his muse. Magnus was always a pioneer when it came to music and he loved nothing more than sharing his latest discoveries with his friends and fans. By the late ’70s, he was deeply into reggae and was making regular record-buying trips to New York. In the early ’80s, he started up a weekly reggae show called Reggae Mukasa on WMBR.

A musical omnivore with tastes leaning toward the raw and funky, Magnus got hooked on the youthful energy and raw production of early rap music as soon as he heard it. By the summer of 1985, he was regularly buying new releases and filling in on MIT’s urban music show, the Ghetto. “It got so that by the end of the summer I would get on, not even say anything, play three raps in a row and the phones would start ringing: Keep it going, Magnus!’ I remember in August, I played a new song twice by popular request—the only time before or since. It was ‘La Di Da Di’ by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick. I was having a very good time.”

As successful as these guest appearances were, Magnus was growing frustrated that he didn’t have more opportunities to play rap music on the air. With his reggae show feeling increasingly burdensome, he began talking about leaving WMBR at the end of the summer. Hearing the news, his friend and fellow DJ Thomas “the Alien” Uebel convinced Magnus to pitch the station director on a new rap and electronic music show rather than leaving. He even provided the high-art concept to go with it. His idea was that the show would be run by a computer named Lecco who selected the songs—which were his creations—or “Lemma.” Whatever the final pitch had been, it worked, and management agreed to the new format. In the fall of 1985, Magnus was given the 4-6 p.m. slot on Saturdays for his new rap and electronic music show.

At that time, there were almost no outlets for rap music on the airwaves in Boston. “In fact, there was a real antipathy for rap music in the older Black audience. Mattapan Music, for instance, who was sponsoring my show, took out an ad at the time on WILD, Boston’s ‘Black’ radio [station] that they self produced that included a snippet of rap on it. The owner of the station, Joe Johnson heard it and was furious. [He] called the station and had them yank it. I remember particularly a letter from a Black parent and teacher to WMBR accusing the show of promoting regressive language that featured later as a bit of evidence in the show’s cancellation.”

Whatever the reaction of the older audience, teenage fans credit Magnus with catalyzing the first rap community in Boston by exposing people to this new music and providing an outlet for local artists. Given the small amount of rap being played on commercial radio at that time in Boston, there was a huge demand for the show right from the beginning. “As soon as I started though, the kids found me and the requests started jamming the phones, all for rap. It got so that as soon as every show started all three phone lines would light up and stay that way. As soon as you’d answer it and put it back down, it would light back up. The energy was incredible.”

For young people who were hungry for this new art form, the Lecco’s Lemma show was both an education in the newest releases and an inspiration for their own creations. A critical turning point in the show occurred when Magnus began inviting young artists in to perform live on the air.

Magnus often had MCs in the studio to toast over reggae versions on his reggae show, so the idea of handing a live radio station microphone over to a teenage performer seemed perfectly natural to him. In December 1985, Magnus invited a young group to come in and perform their routine live on the air. From this point on, the show became an interactive forum for the young hip-hop community.

Each week, in his hypnotizing and strangely accented hipster drawl, Magnus would introduce his favorite new releases, announce local shows, and, most importantly, play almost any local artist at least once. To his devoted fans, these local segments often sounded better than the material from national acts. Most importantly, Magnus provided inspiration in the form of publicity for these aspiring producers who began to make tapes specifically for the show. Eventually, Magnus began compiling weekly lists of the most popular songs and artists on the show, providing even more incentive for local artists to submit their work.

In 1986, MC Keithy E (aka Guru) appeared on the show with his DJ, Mike Dee, to discuss a recently completed demo tape. This early interview illustrates how important Magnus was in the local rap scene in Boston. Like many tapes in the collection, it was clearly made and sent directly to him for the show (both the cover and the tape are labeled “for Magnus”). However, his tape is illustrative as much for its media savvy as for its content.

The tape begins with a segment of Guru’s first appearance on the Lecco’s Lemma show and his interview with Magnus (which someone apparently had recorded back home). Over the instrumental of the recently recorded track “So What?” Magnus begins the interview—during all of which the studio phone can be heard ringing off the hook in the background.

Alright. Right there we have “So What?” It’s by MC Keithy E, Beatmaster Jay, and Mikey Dee on the scratch on this one. We played the one without the scratch last week and this is the instrumental this week. I’m sure you remember it. Its #1 on our new list. And with us in the studio. Keithy E and Mikey Dee. What’s up guys?

Mikey Dee: Hey.

Keithy E: You got it.

So listen. I was talking to Beatmaster Jay last night and we were talking about the song and he was saying how you more or less recorded that song while you were recording that tape which we have not yet played on the show called Fresh Avenue.

Keithy: That’s exactly right.

And I really like Fresh Avenue. Listen man. Keithy, I don’t know. This is basically the first I have heard of you, these tapes. They sound so good. I’m surprised I haven’t heard of you before.

Keithy: Well, I’ve been aspiring to be an MC for at least three years now. I went to college in Atlanta. I’m from Dorchester. I live currently in Brooklyn, and what I am trying to do currently is get my raps circulating to companies and people with clout so I can get on the set and maybe be MC of the year.

Well. I’ll tell you. With stuff like this you’ll definitely have a shot at it because it’s great.

[audio:http://www.careyworks.com/LOVEaudio/Leccos%20Megamix%201.mp3]

To the young Guru at the time, being MC of the Year on Lecco’s Lemma seemed an important part of building his career. An autographed copy of his Wild Pitch release, The Lesson, reinforces this point, as his hand-written note “MC of the year every year” reminds Magnus that he eventually achieved his goal.

Boston’s original bad boys of rap, the Almighty RSO, were also regular attendees. Magnus was clearly an early recipient of their Boot release Greatest Show on Earth—a taped copy of which appears in the collection. More subtle evidence of his influence can perhaps be seen on the cover of their later release, We’re Notorious. The photograph depicts a young RSO decked out in Adidas gear with their turntables set up on the banks of the Charles River. Behind them is a panoramic view of Boston’s famous skyline, with the Prudential and John Hancock buildings framing the group as two members reach for guns that have been tucked into their waistbands. It is exactly the view of Boston young members of RSO would have seen as they looked back at the city from outside WMBR in Cambridge.

Magnus was clearly fulfilling his mission to help expose the incredible music being made by inner-city youth. Although he declined the regular invitations to manage local groups at that time, focusing instead on managing his own painting career, he still played a critical role in helping many of them reach wider audiences. For example, Magnus was the contact for many of the artists included on the 1986 Boston Goes Def! compilation.

While the radio shows generally went off without incident, there were occasional scuffles and it was not unusual for profanities to slip out during exuberant on-air performances. When the latter generated calls from local parents and teachers concerned about the negative influence of the show on young people, station management began taking note of this strange new development on Saturday afternoons.

Finally, in the spring of 1986, a crew that was scheduled to appear on the show handed out flyers in their neighborhood announcing an MC battle at the station that day. Magnus arrived to find more than one hundred unsupervised and excited youngsters bustling around basement halls of MIT. Whether it was the urban youth roaming the halls, the occasional profanity that slipped out over the air, the calls from parents, or some combination of these factors, when the show came up for renewal that fall, it was discontinued. With help from a friend, Magnus was able to move the show to Boston College’s WZBC-FM 90.3 in Newton where it remained until the late ’80s.

During Magnus’s unlikely reign as Boston’s rap radio pioneer, he watched as kids that had once sent him homemade tapes went on to sign record deals with major labels. He also watched as a new generation of artists emerged—more and more of whom seemed to be coming from Boston’s largely White suburbs. Now receiving a regular supply of new (and increasingly professional sounding) tapes from groups like COD, Top Choice, Out of Town Posse, DJ Spin, MCDJ Force, and Paris Toon, Magnus’s original goal of exposing the world to music being made at home by inner-city youth was fading.

In the meantime, other college stations had developed rap shows, most of which were more professional sounding than Magnus’s notoriously informal—and charming—production. Harvard’s WHRB 95.3 FM had “Street Beat” which was run by Harvard students David Mays and Jon Schecter (the eventual founders of the Source) with DJ Def Jeff from the RSO Crew. An even more professional sounding effort could be heard on Emerson College’s WERS 88.9 FM, Rap Explosion. This show featured short-lived DJ wunderkind Jesse McKie and his mix-master successor Mark Morrow.

Eventually, Magnus got tired of playing material from increasingly White and suburban artists and started to devote more and more airtime to experimental music, dub, electronic music, and the nascent trip-hop movement. By the time hip-hop had gone mainstream in the late ’80s, Magnus had packed up and moved on. After a lengthy leave of absence during which he endured serious health problems and worked on his psychedelic bio-mechanical paintings, Magnus returned to both WZBC and WMBR in the late ’90s, spinning a mix of old-school hip-hop, trip-hop, dub, and whatever else he felt like playing.

Although he now lives far from the urban environments that spawned much of his favorite music, Magnus remains an active music collector, connoisseur, and college-radio DJ to this day. His weekly electronic and spoken-word radio show The Matrix can be heard on WERU 89.9 FM in Blue Hill, Maine. However, for folks that were involved in Boston’s original rap scene, Magnus will always be remembered for the two hours on Saturday afternoons when local rap ruled the city’s airwaves.