Owned by recently-gone-bankrupt local slumlord (or "real estate baron," as he preferred to be called) George Tate, the Dungeon was an unforgettable spot. Not very big, but home to outsized egos, and a never-ending supply of plots and schemes. Roy Ayers' "Running Away" was the unofficial theme song. Plans and strategies to change the world were abundant. Grassroots business ventures were hatched, and you never knew if whatever you did (or with who) might end up on video. But times were tight, the heat didn't work very well, and the winter of '95 was a cold one.
The Dungeon phone has been long distance disabled to prevent the kind of outrageous unknown phone charges that were plaguing them, what with random motherfuckers rolling through at all times. - Letter to Dana, 4/10/95Life in the Dungeon finally drove N'Gai to the ultimate act of desperation – moving back into the Pink House in mid-1996.
This is Dawad> Yes those were some dark years!
ReplyDeleteThis is Charles Atlas from the dungeon. The "Dungeon" was on Cole St. The official tape/cd was "The Bizarre Ride on the Pharcyde" by Pharcyde. "Running Away" was a Pharcyde jam, not roy ayers, but it wasn't on the only album we had for a long time (Bizzare Ride), nor was it our official song. Johnson St. didn't have an official song.
ReplyDeleteGood concept...i think "The Dungeon Crew" aka "The College Boys" need to do a movie..hmmmm.
Thanks to the former BSM Minister of Information for shedding some light on Dungeon lore. You're right, the Cole Street spot was first dubbed the Dungeon before y'all moved down to Johnson Street. But whether it was that 135-A Johnson Street was almost at the bottom of a hill, or just that it was smaller, with less space to chill, and fewer pieces of comfortable furniture for visiting heads to relax on (unlike the living room full of couches on Cole Street), it always seemed to me like the Johnson Street crib was even more Dungeon-like.
ReplyDeleteAnd the track I remember playing on repeat at Johnson Street was definitely Running Away by Roy Ayers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyvqfqC7Bw
not the Pharcyde's Runnin' (aka Can't Keep Running Away), which like Charles noted, wasn't even on Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, the album that was played 1,000 times or more in N'Gai's room at the Pink House. Runnin' was released as the first single off their second album, Labcabincalifornia, which dropped in November '95.
But then again, my memories are hazy, coming as they do from passing through on occasional visits and observing events from a horizontal position on the couch. Where's the all-time, top-10 Dungeon mixtape playlist?
Here is the unfinished mural airbrushed on the wall of the Dungeon. it was a version of the pharcyde bizarre ride album cover except with our caricatures. we couldn't get it finished b/c our slumlord flipped out when he saw it. but the idea was to have a jungle of vines stretching along the wall morphing into a rollarcoaster ride. one of those stoner ideas.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/photo.php?op=1&view=global&subj=818750516&pid=2590878&id=818750516
i remember this...
ReplyDeletewe were here as well
N'Gai was in a vertigo. Why would one not be? From pink house to the bliss of Thailand and then to land in the dreadful dungeon. Cruel and unusual it was. Esu at work, but as always, it was much more than a trick. The sage was being prepared.
Pink life & Dungeon life... what a juxtaposition... process overload... cognitive dissonance... 10%ers? 5%ers? do? be? "real" world? raw world?... oh, nevermind...
And so it was, and IS... The experience of the those dark days and their fruits could not be duplicated by 1000 trustfunders in 1000 years of "slumming it" yet as always, the story got told from the perspective of those with the funds...
Pon N'Gai's return to the pink house, the upstairs became a refuge for those who moved invisibily. We had our daily rituals. We cultivated the backyard and held reasonings. Some days, OB's dog Smokie was our only companion. We moved in and out quietly making other residents fill with intrigue and suspicion. Oh yes, we were there...
Respect to those who remember, and those who could see... seen?
"i guess we got our own life to live, or is it because we want our own kingdown to rule?"
pos-d-noose