Chainsaw Magazine

It was the spring of twenty seventeen, and the weather went from real cold to real hot, real fast, the way New York springs often can go from spring to summer in a day. I’d been out skateboarding with my best friend Curtis Valentine, the mad genius behind the show Urban Survival, and we stopped at an open fire hydrant for a quick bird bath, a fleeting moment of relief before Curtis was tragically murdered later that summer. That same day, after beers at a local bar, I started talking to the bartender about spinning records there after having a steady gig in San Francisco he agreed to give me a gig every Sunday morning, and then split for a Tinder date that ended with some wild adult fun, before finally landing a late interview at the liquor store run by that cool Polish lady, the very place where I met Akeem Yanes, who’s now joining Chainsaw as a regular contributor—a naturally funny block comedian who could hold court over a joint while snapping jokes, and the partner with whom I recorded WJMZ Radio on our breaks in the back of the liquor store, or on walks through the neighboring housing projects.