LA's True Underground King

When Mike Nardone started his underground radio show I was six years old with an understanding of hip-hop that was non-existent other than a few break dancers I had seen on television. The year was 1988, and Los Angeles’ premier rap radio station KDAY was on its way out, leaving open an avenue with infinite potential. With the West Coast finally being recognized as its own self-sufficient region, the need for a spotlight to showcase up and coming talent was a necessity. Enter college radio DJ, hip-hop aficionado, b-boy to the bone, Mike Nardone. His ear for good music, especially for those un-discovered and overlooked gems, has established him as one of LA’s most respected DJs. Paying dues along the way from rocking small time college shows, to the City of Angels’ top station The Beat, Mike has done what he loves, the way he wants to do it.
His radio show, We Came From Beyond has been on the air for 15 years now, and has grown into something more than just a radio show. Built on his personal devotion to bringing underground music to open minds, Mike decided to put out compilations under the same name as his radio gig. The first installment featured acts like Atmosphere, Awol-One and of course LA legends Freestyle Fellowship, mixed in with lesser known MCs like Mighty Casey. Proof that the first record was dope, Razor & Tie enlisted Nardone to complete another compilation, but this time he’s doing bigger. With a deeper roster including J-Live, Aesop Rock, Slug, Wildchild, as well as J-Zone, Lifesavas and Vast Aire, We Came From Beyond 2 is maybe the most fluent and organized comp ever. The man gets props, and the artists who got down with him got down for the cause and contributed prime cuts, not cutting room floor leftovers. He’s put generations on the underground, and while punks talk about doing this hip-hop thing, others just live it.

Were you a DJ before you got the show?
Really, like that I was actually qualified? Let’s see, I bought my turntables in ‘85, but I had been on my high school station, and learned how to do it a little bit, but I wasn’t proficient or anything. I didn’t learn on [Technics] 1200 or anything, but then I bought my own and that was it. I bought my turntables after my freshmen year in college, just did parties on campus, just doing whatever.

What has kept you going for so long?
The music. There is so much under the radar stuff that people don’t know about, and that’s what the whole basis of show is all about.

What do you think your role has been in hip-hop?
Just exposing it. If I can open a few people’s ears every year, and they go out and buy a few different records than the regular, then that’s enough. That’s what my show is there for.

When did you realize you were making a difference?
That’s funny, I’ve been asked that before, and I’ve given crappy answers. One was definitely when I got the show on The Beat. I mean that was a commercial station, and it was like, ‘oh shit, okay; it’s real.’ But even before that, there was this shop and somehow someone I knew was in the shop, and he was like “Yeah, man, they don’t even fuck with KDAY, they say the dopest hip-hop show is your show.” When I heard that I had to go in there, and the guy put me up on some other stuff. But at that point I was like, ‘okay people are out there listening.’

What are some of the most memorable moments you’ve had on the show?
There was one, and it was when the station was renovating, and they were renovating the FM booth, and we were in the production room that was literally a box. I had Common in there that week, and this was during his first record. So he was holding a mic, I was holding a mic, and I don’t know about him, but I was sweating. It was just this little box, and he was going off.

Alright so you got the new compilation We Came From Beyond 2 set to drop. Every cut is real ill, and I was thinking about naming off a song, and you saying something about it, like how you came about working with that artist, or a story behind the song, just whatever comes to you.
Yeah that’s cool.

Alright, maybe the hardest one on there, Vast Aire’s “Why Is the Sky Blue?”
That one was maybe one of the first tracks I had. See what happened is I was trying to get an Aesop Rock song, so I was talking to his manager, and he said he could only get a remix or something. See I wanted something original, but then he mentioned that he managed Vast too, and he said he had some solo stuff that he would send me. And once I heard that track, I was like that’s it. The whole record is funny like that, like the way everything happened.

Go back to LA with Emanon’s Aloe Black on “Not The One.”
There was this 12-inch Spytec put out, with this cut “Detour” with Dr. Oop. Aloe came up to the show, and Cheapshot told him to bring something up other than that record, and “Not The One” was the other record he brought. That was like two years ago or so, and I just started playing it. I let my wife hear it, and she was like, “this record is dope.” When it came around, and the record was being put together I knew I had to have that Aloe track. It was just funny that I had the track for so long.

Probably my favorite cut is the Lifesavas and Declaime cut “Governement Cheese.”
The “Government Cheese”… I met Versatile, who is one of the Lifesavas, when Blackalicious came on the show, and I’ve been tight with them since forever, back when they were still in Davis. So Vers came by with all of them, and I kept seeing them out; we would exchange pleasantries. Then I heard the “Hello, Hi, Hey” single, and that song just blew me away, like that was one of the best records to come out last year. When I heard that, I gotta get that record for my comp, simple as that. They were working on the album, and weren’t sure what was gonna be on it. “Government Cheese” was supposed to be on the album, but they had to cut it short because it was too long. And they were like, “We got this one with Declaime, are you cool with that?” and I said “Yeah, lets do it.” The Declaime thing was just an added bonus. Then I saw Declaime a couple months back, and he was like, “Hey, can I get a solo on there?” but the album was already done by that point.

Alright last one, J-Zone’s “Chump Change.”
I don’t remember how we met, but we started talking, and got cool. I was a fan of his work, and I told him I wanted a cut on there. I mean this record took a long time to put together, and I just kept coming at him like “J, what’s up with the record?” He came like, “Oh I got one,” it was something he wrote on the plane to England. He just sent me the rough copy, and I was like alright, he’s coming with it. But really it was pretty painless.

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