Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 2023Label: Chocolate Star Records
This was only available at Rappcats pop-up in September 2023. 200 copies total, most had no shrink wrap and had a wheat pasted flyer on the sleeve. Some copies were available sealed in a plain white sleeve with the "Made in Czech Republic" sticker from the GZ Pressing Plant.From Egon/Rappcats press release:
Gary Davis is the polymath behind Chocolate Star Records, the label he started in Camden, New Jersey. He is one of the first people to record rap music, with NYC maverick Peter Brown and on his own. Before that, he made disco. But he's also steeped in the jazz tradition – his uncle is the organist “Groove” Holmes; all of the music he’s made since his childhood is inflected by this great American folk music; part of the reason we love his quirky rap and disco is because it comes from a jazz cat perspective.
So it was only appropriate to help Gary sell this album at Rappcats. He only made 200 copies of this record on Chocolate Star - it’s a funky jazz set he recorded live on October 31, 1976 at New Jersey's Glassboro State College (today's Rowan University).
I’ve been lucky to call Gary a friend for going on two decades now. His early 80s Chocolate Star baseball jacket hangs in my office. He's an inspiration to all of us - for still believing in music that comes from and finds its way back to the fringes.
“I want people who are out there struggling to know: Do not depend on other people having control over your destiny. If you wanna do it, do it!" he says,” Gary told the Palm Beach New Times many years ago. "The best part is doing it, so why worry about all this other nonsense? I've always felt that way, but now I have the evidence to back up what I've been telling people all along. It gives me the credibility I deserve.”