My Universal Calling

King Wojack is a hip-hop legend and veteran in Tacoma, Washington where he grew up and still lives to this day. His history is deep within the Hip-Hop movement starting in the late 1980s where King Wojack found Tacoma’s perks and downfalls. Racist undertones and a dark depression seemed to seep into the culture also known as the 'City Of Destiny.'
 

A young King Wojack played sports, rode bicycles and got into trouble similar to any other kid in the streets, however, two things captured his attention: boxing and hip-hop. King Wojack's musical experience began early in adolescence listening to musical vibrations in his parents' household. At just five-years-old, he received his first instrument, a 5-piece pearl blue drum set, for Christmas. King Wojack was constantly drumming and digging into his father’s record collection playing Earth, Wind and Fire, Bob Marley, Gap Band and other classics from the Generation X era.

King Wojack’s passion for hip-hop grew as he began mimicking hip-hop artists in the mass media. King Wojack's journey in the music industry began with a chance introduction to Nasty Nes a KFOX Radio DJ from Seattle, WA. and Sir Mix-A-Lot. A white stretch limo pulled up in Wojack’s neighborhood asking for directions to Skate King. Wojack voiceless, pointed them in the right direction without speaking, curious who was in the limo. Later that night young Wojack found out it was Nasty Nes and Mix-A-Lot.

This excited the budding hip-hop artist immediately began honing in on his DJ skills, researching and watching artists like Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash. Young Wojack was mixing and producing beats at 14-years-old from a turntable coffin he made in shop class and a stolen drum machine. The following year, Wojack was DJing house parties and boys club events. He joined a crew who called themselves Def City Rockers and they spent their time running through the city battling and fighting gang members who recently began infiltrating the town with drugs and murder around 1985. Much of the gangs were coming out of California at the time.
 

Just as the crew began performing, Def City Rockers lost a huge battle to the local breakdancing crew High Performance in front of hundreds of on-lookers, getting dissed. Wojack began writing his first 16-bar rap out of pure revenge. Wojack’s first moniker, M.C. Deff was born. Years later, King Wojack found himself as an active member in a local street gang and curating a hip-hop career. His group, Criminal Nation, “Release the Pressure” widely listened to, gaining popularity since being played on MTV and BET.
 

“I would have never thought that I'd be broke and struggling to pay rent while supporting my household of children off this music.” Wojack expresses, whose rap group Criminal Nation was signed to Cold Rock Records at the time with a distribution deal through Nastymix, which was a subsidiary of Ichiban Records (Atlanta, GA).
 

In 1994, Ichiban Records sold the company for $50 million, causing Nastymix to shut down their joint effort label and file for bankruptcy. Unfortunately Criminal Nation had signed their distribution deal a month before the bankruptcy and since the music masters were in the hands of Nastymix; instead of returning the music, the greedy company sold off all the masters that they had in their possession to Paramount Theatre. This left Criminal Nation and others on the label with no way of retrieving their music. The crew received no publishing rights, merchandise or explanation as to what happened with their music. The situation was never brought to court and was ultimately swept under the rug.
 

The story gets more complicated, involving local and state government, money laundering and transgender sex changes as well as more fraud and theft. To this day, the community still supports Nastymix’s history as an era in Washington Hip-Hop. There is even an event that is thrown annually and surprisingly by the local ZULU Nation Chapter 206. King Wojack wants to change this and release the real story about how Nastymix left an ugly, enduring scar in Seattle Hip-Hop as a whole during that era.
 

“I am taking my power back! Tell everyone the book is coming soon! I am excited to share my universe. Please enjoy,” concludes King Wojack with the announcement of creating not only a book but a film about Washington Hip-Hop History during the 1990’s and its tainted past. The story is going to be told, read, shared and talked about in Hip-Hop nationally. King Wojack is currently working on these projects as well as releasing his new album “The Warzone” released in 2019.