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At the age of ten,
Radio could be found playing clarinet in
junior high band class, break dancing, and
studying the fist of Northern Shaolin Eagle
Claw in a parking a lot under a surf shop
next to a nail salon in LA. Two years later,
Radioinactive made his hip hop performance
debut in the Los Angeles Unified School
District’s Gifted and Talented Students
Olympics of the Mind competition. He wore
a splatter-paint T-shirt and rapped
in pig latin.
In 1993, a young Radioninactive began showing
up at The Good Life Cafe, a health food
store in south central LA which hosted a
weekly competitive showcase for hip hop
artists. The Good Life became a catalyst
for the (largely under-reported) early 90’s
underground hip hop Renaissance in LA. Radioinactive
went on to form the Log Cabin Crew with
(pre-Living Legends) Murs, Eligh and Scarab
and the seminal West Coast Workforce with
Subtitle (GSL). He started recording four
track stuff with MCs Circus and Awol One
that would later become classics of the
OG space-hop Shapeshifters. From the Planet
of the Shapes (1997) and Know Future to
their most recent release Shapeshifters Was Here
(2005) on the Cornerstone R.A.S. label,
Radioinactive has been a core member of
the Shapeshifters.
Radio’s distinctive delivery and humor
first charmed the hearts and pens of the
hip hop press with the song “Farmer’s
Market of the Beast” on the now classic
Beneath the Surface (1998) compilation,
where he rapped like a goat. He joined the
Mush Records roster and released Pyramidi
(2001), his first solo record; The Weather
(2003), a collaboration with long-time co-conspirator-in-rhyme
Busdriver (Ninja Tune, Epitaph); and Free
Kamal (2004) with producer Anti MC.
Now with the gifts of analog-mafia-funded
Los Angeles label Stranger Touch Records,
Radioinactive transcends his impressive
credentials and delivers a hook-heavy catharsis
of post-ironic hipster hop.
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