(Young 88 Keys w/ Beatminerz and record dealer John Carraro @ the Roosevelt Hotel Convention / wax poetics)

At 14 y.o, Charles Misodi Njapa (not 88 yet) used to find loops for a big record vendor named John Carraro…
Some of you might know Carraro as that biker dude who -himself- used to sell loops to Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Large Pro and ’em at the Roosevelt Hotel Record Convention in the early 90’s…
One day, during the summer of 91, young Charles saw his idol and future mentor park his silver 325i bima right in front of the shop… and this is how the story goes…

Two blocks away from his Harlem home, 88-Keys sits back and recalls the day Q-Tip introduced him to a little detroiter named Jay-Dee during a Beats, Rhymes and Life recording session. Back in 1994, Dilla hadn’t accomplished much yet, but somehow skillz recognized skillz, and 88 gave him a beat-tape with his beeper number on it…
NB : if you’re from Newark and remember jacking this guy’s backpack in the mid-90’s, you might be the owner of the greatest Dilla beat-tapes collection ever. Unless you recorded some Bad Boy shit on them or just threw these no-rap tapes away.

Back in 97, young Charles is living in West Hempstead (Long Island) with his folks.
Still in college, he hasn’t produce any track yet, doesn’t even have a single slice of pizza to his name.
Too cool for school, 88‘ll soon get kicked out of home. All of a sudden, he has to prepare for rougher kind of life…

88-Keys goes back to ’01, when he and Kanye met in a legendary midtown studio.
The rapper/producer remembers the first convo he ever had with his future great friend and executive producer, vibin’ on the way back to their respective places in Newark… while telling about their common history and the evolution of their friendship, he reveals how he got his name from a Large Pro & Q-tip freestyle a long, long time ago….