The last time I saw Rich spin records at one of his shows was about a year ago. He just disappeared for a little while. I didn't know what happened to him. I left several messages and emails for him but there was no response until the other week when out of nowhere he left me an invitation. “I'm gonna be at the Oh Baby Club and I'ma be spinnin' them reco'ds. I know you left me messages but I was feelin' bad for a long time. It's a long story but if you wanna know why, the first song will tell you why.”
The dance floor was already packed when the opening DJ warmed up the crowd for Rich. They were there to witness the return of DJ Grand Master Rich. It was a wild raucous crowd and they began chanting, Riii-chee … Rii-chee … Ri-chee … Ri-chee … Ri-chee ….
DJ RICH: Alright … that's the kind of noise I wanna hear around here. You know, you'll never know how you feel about yo' lady 'til she kicks you out of your own house. One day I came home late and my lady kicked me out of the house. I hit the sidewalk so hard I was limpin' bad and I couldn't sit for a few days. Man, was I hurtin' for a long time. So, I was moppin' along and feelin' sorry and for a long time I remembered what she said to me. She said “Hey, you” Who me? I said. “Yeah you, you are out of here! Go on now walk. Walk out the door. Turn around now your not welcome anymore!” And then she slammed the door on my face. So I went to the first club I saw and went dancin'. And there was Diana Ross and I was feelin' so weird that it felt like she was talkin' to me. And this is what Miss Ross told me. Listen.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: So, for a while I wasn't myself. And that's then I met this man with a strange name I couldn't even say or read much less repeat. But he kept on bothering me. “Hey, man. You got a smoke?”, he says. “Nope”, I says. A couple minutes later he goes, “You got some whiskey?” “Nope”. I says. A couple minutes later he goes. “You got any money?” “Nope”. That's when he said, “So, you don't have a smoke. You don't have whiskey. You don't have any money neither. I bet you don't even have a lady, don't you?” That’s when I jumped out of the cozy sofa I was sitting and said “What do you want from me?” He looked at and said, “Hold on a minute. I don't want you to go crazy. But now that you are why don't we just listen to some dance music.” And this is what we heard.
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Do we have any women rockers in the house? (Crowd: YEAHHH) Alright !! Let me see y'all, raise your hands. Good evenin' ladies. What a fine group we have here tonight, especially with all these beautiful women. Yeahh … One day I showed up at my baby with a 6-string and she looked at me real weird. Until I said to her. Baby, I wanna rock your world. I know I ain't no Jimmy Hendrix 'coz ain't nobody like Jimmy. But I'ma learn to play this here guitar so you can tell all your lady friends, ma'h man at home can rock my world. My fingers are gonna be fast on the frets. My voice is gonna sound smooth like your hair after a trip to the salon. I'll make a record that will go gold and then platinum and I'ma make you proud of me. It might be a long ways off, but for now I'ma put on my gloves like this and put on my hat and you and I, we're gonna rock out together.
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Yeah – Mikey is still the man … How you like that? (Crowd: Yeaaaahh) Do we have any cheerleaders in the house? (Crowd: Yeaaahhh) Let me see y'all (Women started doing a cheerleader's routine) Alright, help me out here, ladies. We're gonna do some cheerin'. Give me a B (Crowd: BBBBB) Give me an A (Crowd: AAAAA) Give me a B (Crowd: BBBBBB) and give me a Y (Crowd: YYYYY) and what does it say. BAAABBBYYYYY. Yeah, that's right baby. Now I want you all to pull your baby off their chairs and pull them in the middle of the dance floor and get them ready for the next song. I will take y'all to the City of Angels. Los Angeles and the home of Lakers and a real kickin' dancer named Paula ….
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Let's see a show of hands. Any you ladies ever have a break-up? Is it true that if you have a break-up all you need to do is eat a gallon of ice-cream and everything is fine. (Crowd: NNNNooooo) So that wasn't true afterall. I'ma have to drink a tub of Colt 45 to just be normal. So I was really hurtin', see. Ain't nothin' I could do but call her. And every time I do, I get the answering machine. The message said, “If you are Rich hang-up 'coz I'm trying to forget you. If you're someone else, leave a message.” It was like a giant tire rolled over my chest, it hurt so bad. I must have left 140 messages, maybe even more. So, here's a song that got me through that rough patch. Baby if you are hearing me, before you do anything else, can you please just CALL ME !!
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Are ya'll havin' fun tonight? (Crowd: Yeahhh) Ok, I wanna hear from those hard-working ladies who've got their own businesses. Those business-owners, ya'll. (Crowd: Yeaaahhh) Wow, you ladies are hot coz not only are ya'll pretty but you hire people and come up with pay-roll – twice a month. Your real special like my baby, you know that, right? Baby I know what the problem is now. I ain't making enough, and that's why you kicked me out of my own place. You know I'm sorry, right?. But it don't end there. There's something you got to know. I have a little racket going on the side called the Rich Incorporated. I know it's starting small. Right now, my office is a public phone booth at the corner of Leaf Avenue and Clear Street. I wanna move out of the phone booth someday and into a garage. So I can call it a real company, see. And that's when I can make some mullah. But while I'm still coming up with the money for rent, here's a little something I picked out I know you like.
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Let's make some noise for ma'h man Billy. He the man. Yeah, his music still does it for me after all these years. Any of you guys ever had a special lady in yo' life that you've fallen in love so deeply that you wonder if that person really loves you like she really says. (Crowd: Yeaaaahhh) That's right. You look for signs even when your walking. One day I was thinking of my baby and there was this flower and so I picked it up and started doing she loves me, she loves me not on it. I must have gone through 14 of them flowers because the first 13 ended in she loves me not. And you know your day aint gonna be right if it ended in she loves you not, right? (Crowd: Yeeaaahh) But you just got to know, right? Yeah. It got really bad that one time I started doing she loves me she loves me not with french fries at a burger joint. I had to buy a few of them jumbo fries until finally I got one that ended with she loves me. (Crowd: Laughing) What can I say. I'm crazy 'bout her and I just need to know. So, baby if your listening, sometimes you just need to let me know!
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Whit - ney yeah. Ain't she amazing? Alright, let's see if we can make some noise 'round here. (Crowd: Yeaahhh) So, for the last song of the evenin' I want to slow it down a bit; not too much but just right. This ain't really slow enough to do slow dancin'. It's one of them songs that you just listen to. I'ma let it talk to my baby. So, if you just wanna sit around and chug some more of them liquid refreshments or just chill, that would be fine too. Some things in life are best listened to and this is one of them songs. I love you, baby. This is for you.
CLICK TO LISTEN
TO BE CONTINUED
The dance floor was already packed when the opening DJ warmed up the crowd for Rich. They were there to witness the return of DJ Grand Master Rich. It was a wild raucous crowd and they began chanting, Riii-chee … Rii-chee … Ri-chee … Ri-chee … Ri-chee ….
DJ RICH: Alright … that's the kind of noise I wanna hear around here. You know, you'll never know how you feel about yo' lady 'til she kicks you out of your own house. One day I came home late and my lady kicked me out of the house. I hit the sidewalk so hard I was limpin' bad and I couldn't sit for a few days. Man, was I hurtin' for a long time. So, I was moppin' along and feelin' sorry and for a long time I remembered what she said to me. She said “Hey, you” Who me? I said. “Yeah you, you are out of here! Go on now walk. Walk out the door. Turn around now your not welcome anymore!” And then she slammed the door on my face. So I went to the first club I saw and went dancin'. And there was Diana Ross and I was feelin' so weird that it felt like she was talkin' to me. And this is what Miss Ross told me. Listen.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: So, for a while I wasn't myself. And that's then I met this man with a strange name I couldn't even say or read much less repeat. But he kept on bothering me. “Hey, man. You got a smoke?”, he says. “Nope”, I says. A couple minutes later he goes, “You got some whiskey?” “Nope”. I says. A couple minutes later he goes. “You got any money?” “Nope”. That's when he said, “So, you don't have a smoke. You don't have whiskey. You don't have any money neither. I bet you don't even have a lady, don't you?” That’s when I jumped out of the cozy sofa I was sitting and said “What do you want from me?” He looked at and said, “Hold on a minute. I don't want you to go crazy. But now that you are why don't we just listen to some dance music.” And this is what we heard.
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Do we have any women rockers in the house? (Crowd: YEAHHH) Alright !! Let me see y'all, raise your hands. Good evenin' ladies. What a fine group we have here tonight, especially with all these beautiful women. Yeahh … One day I showed up at my baby with a 6-string and she looked at me real weird. Until I said to her. Baby, I wanna rock your world. I know I ain't no Jimmy Hendrix 'coz ain't nobody like Jimmy. But I'ma learn to play this here guitar so you can tell all your lady friends, ma'h man at home can rock my world. My fingers are gonna be fast on the frets. My voice is gonna sound smooth like your hair after a trip to the salon. I'll make a record that will go gold and then platinum and I'ma make you proud of me. It might be a long ways off, but for now I'ma put on my gloves like this and put on my hat and you and I, we're gonna rock out together.
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Yeah – Mikey is still the man … How you like that? (Crowd: Yeaaaahh) Do we have any cheerleaders in the house? (Crowd: Yeaaahhh) Let me see y'all (Women started doing a cheerleader's routine) Alright, help me out here, ladies. We're gonna do some cheerin'. Give me a B (Crowd: BBBBB) Give me an A (Crowd: AAAAA) Give me a B (Crowd: BBBBBB) and give me a Y (Crowd: YYYYY) and what does it say. BAAABBBYYYYY. Yeah, that's right baby. Now I want you all to pull your baby off their chairs and pull them in the middle of the dance floor and get them ready for the next song. I will take y'all to the City of Angels. Los Angeles and the home of Lakers and a real kickin' dancer named Paula ….
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Let's see a show of hands. Any you ladies ever have a break-up? Is it true that if you have a break-up all you need to do is eat a gallon of ice-cream and everything is fine. (Crowd: NNNNooooo) So that wasn't true afterall. I'ma have to drink a tub of Colt 45 to just be normal. So I was really hurtin', see. Ain't nothin' I could do but call her. And every time I do, I get the answering machine. The message said, “If you are Rich hang-up 'coz I'm trying to forget you. If you're someone else, leave a message.” It was like a giant tire rolled over my chest, it hurt so bad. I must have left 140 messages, maybe even more. So, here's a song that got me through that rough patch. Baby if you are hearing me, before you do anything else, can you please just CALL ME !!
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Are ya'll havin' fun tonight? (Crowd: Yeahhh) Ok, I wanna hear from those hard-working ladies who've got their own businesses. Those business-owners, ya'll. (Crowd: Yeaaahhh) Wow, you ladies are hot coz not only are ya'll pretty but you hire people and come up with pay-roll – twice a month. Your real special like my baby, you know that, right? Baby I know what the problem is now. I ain't making enough, and that's why you kicked me out of my own place. You know I'm sorry, right?. But it don't end there. There's something you got to know. I have a little racket going on the side called the Rich Incorporated. I know it's starting small. Right now, my office is a public phone booth at the corner of Leaf Avenue and Clear Street. I wanna move out of the phone booth someday and into a garage. So I can call it a real company, see. And that's when I can make some mullah. But while I'm still coming up with the money for rent, here's a little something I picked out I know you like.
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Let's make some noise for ma'h man Billy. He the man. Yeah, his music still does it for me after all these years. Any of you guys ever had a special lady in yo' life that you've fallen in love so deeply that you wonder if that person really loves you like she really says. (Crowd: Yeaaaahhh) That's right. You look for signs even when your walking. One day I was thinking of my baby and there was this flower and so I picked it up and started doing she loves me, she loves me not on it. I must have gone through 14 of them flowers because the first 13 ended in she loves me not. And you know your day aint gonna be right if it ended in she loves you not, right? (Crowd: Yeeaaahh) But you just got to know, right? Yeah. It got really bad that one time I started doing she loves me she loves me not with french fries at a burger joint. I had to buy a few of them jumbo fries until finally I got one that ended with she loves me. (Crowd: Laughing) What can I say. I'm crazy 'bout her and I just need to know. So, baby if your listening, sometimes you just need to let me know!
CLICK TO LISTEN
DJ RICH: Whit - ney yeah. Ain't she amazing? Alright, let's see if we can make some noise 'round here. (Crowd: Yeaahhh) So, for the last song of the evenin' I want to slow it down a bit; not too much but just right. This ain't really slow enough to do slow dancin'. It's one of them songs that you just listen to. I'ma let it talk to my baby. So, if you just wanna sit around and chug some more of them liquid refreshments or just chill, that would be fine too. Some things in life are best listened to and this is one of them songs. I love you, baby. This is for you.
CLICK TO LISTEN
TO BE CONTINUED
