Sharpshooterz
by Joyce Lex
Photos by Alan Ortanez
"My crew, my dogs, set rules, set laws..." lyrics from the
song Chi Chi Man from TOK is some of the words that come to mind when
I think about the Sharpshooterz Crew. I had the chance to sit and rap
out with them for about 2 hours.
If you are wondering who they are, they are a group of deejays/dancehall
selectors/ turntablist that consists of the group who resides in San Diego.
There is DJ Rells (Randy Rells), Felt 1(John Farin), Pacman (Henry Vongsavath),
R-Type (Ardy Ison), and Mr. Groove (Burkley Hoang) who represents the
core of the group. There are other members but these guys are the meat
and bread of the group. When asked how they got together most of the answers
were the same. "We all hang around the same clicks and deejay the
same spots for different promotion groups, so why not create something
of your own."
These guys aren't just deejays they have it all in this group, they have
R-Type and Pacman who are turntablist, Mr. Groove, Felt 1 and DJ Rells
who deejay some of the big clubs in Downtown San Diego. "Basically
we all can party-rock and can maintain the good vibe at party, so really
there isn't no stand out of the bunch" DJ Rells says with laughter
as the others look on laughing. When I asked what their main goal was,
Mr. Groove said to just put out good music in mix tapes or CDs. Also a
lot of them are apart of different things in the industry. Felt 1 and
DJ Rells are team riders for the clothing line"L.R.G" &
members of the Heavyweights Record Pool. Mr. Groove is operations manager
of AB Record pool. R-type and Pacman work as buyers for the hip hop selection
for a local San Diego record store.
Do they just listen to hip hop? NO, the group answers in unison. Most
listen to a variety of music that include dancehall, rock, punk and jazz.
But most of all these guys are what you would call "crate diggers".
What that means is they like to look for rare grooves or break beats,
especially records that was used by today's artist to sample and make
the songs you hear today.
What's next for these guys? Well a lot of things they answered. Mr. Groove
is working with an up and coming producer from San Diego named Alan Yambao.
Asked how that was going? He answered, "Yambao is a real dope producer,
he's like a mix of Dj Premier, The Neptunes and Dr. Dre...ALL TOGETHER!
Those guys better watch it cuzz he's come take their paper soon!"
DJ Rells and Felt 1 just finished their dancehall mix CD dubbed "Fine
Tuning". Pacman and R-Type have a mix tape series called Hot Mixx
and they just finished volume 2 of the series. You can pick up any of
those mix tape cd's at any of your local record store or hip-hop shop.
But you can give them a holla if the stores are all sold out. Lasting
words I have for these guys? Bring a diaper cuzz its non-stop joking and
clowning on each other. These are a group of guys to look out for in 2004.
SHARPSHOOTERZ 2004...
