L-West Productions

L-West Productions, the first generation boys from Lemmer West in Sneek. They’re all from the same street, fell in love with HipHop when it hit the Friesian shores for the first time. "Alex And The City Crew and Master Genius", one of the men reminds. "You know how that went. Some of your friends down the street had this tape and you wanted to have that tape too! Still didn’t have a double cassette deck in that time. So we put the speaker to the mic and made a copy. Hell yeah, sound was terrible but it got that sound you wanted to hear." Twenty kids riding around on their bikes, playing football with that ‘Bronx HipHop sound in their… well, did we have walkmans at that time? "United Rockers was our name when we just started." That resulted in the Beat Freaks. "Public Design was the graffiti department. That all resulted in L-West Productions." Four boys (Most, Romeo, MC Rox and Base) grew up and still hold ground. Originating from Sneek comes DJ Syah, half of the HipHop duo Sources Of Specialments and part time DJ for the L boogies. MC Rox: "I started out to do beatboxing for Syah. I was still on primary school and could not speak English yet. So I did the beatboxing. But honestly, in Gods name, I really did not know what we were saying." That was in ’85 and ’86. For those who think and thought HipHop planted seeds only in the bigger cities, here’s an amazing story. In every big and small city and village there is and was at least a HipHop crew. How did it survive all these years? Being HipHop in Amsterdam is as easy as taking a morning piss, but in the rest of the country it is a fight against all odds.

At a conversation up at the editorial office, L-West came on the table. A: "Yes, Sneek keeps on rocking. They were never close to Amsterdam or something." B: "Kinda isolated in the Netherlands". C: "But fanatic and they receive more support from their own city than some national big stars receive from the whole country."

MC Rox: "Sneek was the Rap and Graffiti city in the north. Run DMC records were not only in stores in Amsterdam, but here too. It always lived and still does. We organized ourselves jams in Het Bolwerk. The men that were running that place did not know what happened. We had the most successful nights out of all their nights. 500/600 men. Without any big costs, bands just wanted to perform. Yes, maybe the shows were wack but everybody came to see, dance and party. Money never played a part in this town."
Romeo: "You don’t have people over here with that so-called player style. Everything is just down to earth."
That is the cool part about a small city, you can play as tough as you want to be, but everybody knows the real you. So everybody can see with closed eyes when you are playing. If you are driving to Sneek you do run in a couple of signs that seems to prove you are dreaming or you are somewhere abroad in paradise: ‘Sometimes a slightly chance on a traffic jam.’ Could not believe my eyes and it felt great to push down the gas-pedal for at least one straight hour.

Silenced sounds

In a discussion, L-West and Dutch Masters once more came on the table. A friend could not blame Dutch Masters for not playing L-West on the radio. They did even not say a word about their release ‘Result From A Neighborhood Crew’ in ‘93. "L-West? They are wack", he said, "Do you blame them?". Well I kinda did, I prefer to decide for myself what I think is wack. "I was listening to the show as the only way to find out what was happening on my own streets. I would have appreciated if they done that." I said, but on the positive side, that is why I started ART12 and keep that wise advise Mental gave me four or five years ago: "Don’t like it? Then do it yourself." One of the opinions is that there is no Dutch HipHop without Mental Kees. At least as many think there is still Dutch HipHop in spite of Mental Kees.
Base: "We sent him our CD. It never got played, it even was never mentioned that it was released while Kees was saying: ‘You have a release? Sent it in so we can play it’."
Romeo: "After that, he was never welcome anymore. When the petition to save the radio show from disappearing lay at Bolwerk nobody even bothered to give it a look. When Dutch Masters were performing here, we went backstage looking for him: ‘So where is that fella’. They all sat their as sad boys. ‘Ah, he’s not here’."
MC Rox: "Of course he is free to think whatever about us but he could at least mention the release. He had the only national Dutch Radio show."
HipHop is universal, so are its problems. All the buzz and troubles did seem identical with Tim Westwood’s problems in London..
Base: "HipHop survived because of the love. But I have to say it’s sad that many peeps gave it up. Because they did not receive that attention and shine." Silenced to death.
MC Rox: "We make music that we like. We do it because we have fun doing it. If other people like it too, well that is just a fine side effect. But in the first place we do it for ourselves, no single concession."
Base: "We don’t skip a show because we are too expensive. We don’t ask much for a performance."
MC Rox: "Keep in mind if we don’t make money, nobody is making money out of L-West."
Romeo: Only expenses paid, is fine. But than the entrance for the public may not be more than 10 guilders."
MC Rox: We don’t need to do it for the money, we all got work. The band keeps us together. When it ain’t fun anymore we stop right away. Why would we need to make money with something we do for love?"

How you should sound

When L-West is speaking Dutch they speak in their second language. Their first one is a very heavy dialect of the Friesian language. A language that ain’t from the same family as Dutch and German. But Old English is from the same language as Friesian. People often don’t know that it’s one of the reasons they sound different compared with their musical counterparts from the other regions in The Netherlands.
Romeo: "But who made up the criterion how you should sound?"
MC Rox: "The very first HipHop records were our inspiration. Skinny Boys etc. We are the oldest HipHop crew in Sneek." As far as I know, they are together with the Family Jewels, Zombi Squad and Northside Stylaz the oldest crews still running. If I’m wrong please tell.
Romeo: "I think we have a unique style. The most rappers just write their rhymes and do their part. We write rhymes in three ways. He [Base] writes, I write and we write together. Then we are going to practice. Everybody gets a part. Nobody has more than four lines. Sentences are cut and mixed up between four MC’s. It becomes very difficult for outsiders to follow. When people want to videotape us they become crazy. Can’t follow who is rapping."
Base: "What we do, we leave out words that another one fills in and some we do all together etc. On record we are maybe not massive but when performing it really runs all right. It’s really live HipHop. We do get a lot positive reactions on it."
MC Rox: "We are more a live band than a studio band."


		L-West Productions ‘Notice we are independent, nobody tells us what to do. The more or harder one starts to diss or ignore us, the more or harder we start working. We’re always doing our own thing, we’re the good guys. We will never sell out to get sold-out.’ We own open tickets to wherever we’re heading for. L-West Productions, the first generation boys from Lemmer West in Sneek. They’re all from the same street, fell in love with HipHop when it hit the Friesian shores for the first time. "Alex And The City Crew and Master Genius", one of the men reminds. "You know how that went. Some of your friends down the street had this tape and you wanted to have that tape too! Still didn’t have a double cassette deck in that time. So we put the speaker to the mic and made a copy. Hell yeah, sound was terrible but it got that sound you wanted to hear." Twenty kids riding around on their bikes, playing football with that ‘Bronx HipHop sound in their… well, did we have walkmans at that time? "United Rockers* was our name when we just started." That resulted in the Beat Freaks. "Public Design* was the graffiti department. That all resulted in L-West Productions." Four boys (Most, Romeo, MC Rox and Base) grew up and still hold ground. Originating from Sneek comes DJ Syah, half of the HipHop duo Sources Of Specialments and part time DJ for the L boogies. MC Rox: "I started out to do beatboxing for Syah. I was still on primary school and could not speak English yet. So I did the beatboxing. But honestly, in Gods name, I really did not know what we were saying." That was in ’85 and ’86. For those who think and thought HipHop planted seeds only in the bigger cities, here’s an amazing story. In every big and small city and village there is and was at least a HipHop crew. How did it survive all these years? Being HipHop in Amsterdam is as easy as taking a morning piss, but in the rest of the country it is a fight against all odds. At a conversation up at the editorial office, L-West came on the table. A: "Yes, Sneek keeps on rocking. They were never close to Amsterdam or something." B: "Kinda isolated in the Netherlands". C: "But fanatic and they receive more support from their own city than some national big stars receive from the whole country." MC Rox: "Sneek was the Rap and Graffiti city in the north. Run DMC records were not only in stores in Amsterdam, but here too. It always lived and still does. We organized ourselves jams in Het Bolwerk. The men that were running that place did not know what happened. We had the most successful nights out of all their nights. 500/600 men. Without any big costs, bands just wanted to perform. Yes, maybe the shows were wack but everybody came to see, dance and party. Money never played a part in this town." Romeo: "You don’t have people over here with that so-called player style. Everything is just down to earth." That is the cool part about a small city, you can play as tough as you want to be, but everybody knows the real you. So everybody can see with closed eyes when you are playing. If you are driving to Sneek you do run in a couple of signs that seems to prove you are dreaming or you are somewhere abroad in paradise: ‘Sometimes a slightly chance on a traffic jam.’ Could not believe my eyes and it felt great to push down the gas-pedal for at least one straight hour. Silenced sounds In a discussion, L-West and Dutch Masters once more came on the table. A friend could not blame Dutch Masters for not playing L-West on the radio. They did even not say a word about their release ‘Result From A Neighborhood Crew’ in ‘93. "L-West? They are wack", he said, "Do you blame them?". Well I kinda did, I prefer to decide for myself what I think is wack. "I was listening to the show as the only way to find out what was happening on my own streets. I would have appreciated if they done that." I said, but on the positive side, that is why I started ART12 and keep that wise advise Mental gave me four or five years ago: "Don’t like it? Then do it yourself." One of the opinions is that there is no Dutch HipHop without Mental Kees. At least as many think there is still Dutch HipHop in spite of Mental Kees. Base: "We sent him our CD. It never got played, it even was never mentioned that it was released while Kees was saying: ‘You have a release? Sent it in so we can play it’." Romeo: "After that, he was never welcome anymore. When the petition to save the radio show from disappearing lay at Bolwerk nobody even bothered to give it a look. When Dutch Masters were performing here, we went backstage looking for him: ‘So where is that fella’. They all sat their as sad boys. ‘Ah, he’s not here’." MC Rox: "Of course he is free to think whatever about us but he could at least mention the release. He had the only national Dutch Radio show." HipHop is universal, so are its problems. All the buzz and troubles did seem identical with Tim Westwood’s problems in London.. Base: "HipHop survived because of the love. But I have to say it’s sad that many peeps gave it up. Because they did not receive that attention and shine." Silenced to death. MC Rox: "We make music that we like. We do it because we have fun doing it. If other people like it too, well that is just a fine side effect. But in the first place we do it for ourselves, no single concession." Base: "We don’t skip a show because we are too expensive. We don’t ask much for a performance." MC Rox: "Keep in mind if we don’t make money, nobody is making money out of L-West." Romeo: Only expenses paid, is fine. But than the entrance for the public may not be more than 10 guilders." MC Rox: We don’t need to do it for the money, we all got work. The band keeps us together. When it ain’t fun anymore we stop right away. Why would we need to make money with something we do for love?" How you should sound When L-West is speaking Dutch they speak in their second language. Their first one is a very heavy dialect of the Friesian language. A language that ain’t from the same family as Dutch and German. But Old English is from the same language as Friesian. People often don’t know that it’s one of the reasons they sound different compared with their musical counterparts from the other regions in The Netherlands. Romeo: "But who made up the criterion how you should sound?" MC Rox: "The very first HipHop records were our inspiration. Skinny Boys etc. We are the oldest HipHop crew in Sneek." As far as I know, they are together with the Family Jewels, Zombi Squad and Northside Stylaz the oldest crews still running. If I’m wrong please tell. Romeo: "I think we have a unique style. The most rappers just write their rhymes and do their part. We write rhymes in three ways. He [Base] writes, I write and we write together. Then we are going to practice. Everybody gets a part. Nobody has more than four lines. Sentences are cut and mixed up between four MC’s. It becomes very difficult for outsiders to follow. When people want to videotape us they become crazy. Can’t follow who is rapping." Base: "What we do, we leave out words that another one fills in and some we do all together etc. On record we are maybe not massive but when performing it really runs all right. It’s really live HipHop. We do get a lot positive reactions on it." MC Rox: "We are more a live band than a studio band." We did the interview in the attic of MC Rox house with a nice pot of coffee and tea, cookies and chocolates. It’s like a small museum. They collected and archived everything related to their crew. I could look around there for hours on that four by six square meters attic. They gave me a copy of their releases and a copy of ‘Blockbuster’, finally I got ‘Ghetto Child’ on cd. The tapes were long gone, wasted by the many times played. Snitz (Sneek) is a nice small tourist city with a watergate as their city symbol. The same symbol L-West Productions is using in their logo. And that is what it is, a watergate in the Dutch scene: keep on flowing. AQ L-West Productions http://members.xoom.com/northeastcon © 1999 ART12/VanderHoek Publishing. All rights reserved.