One of my all-time favorite Non Phixion songs is “14 Years of Rap” with The Arsonists, produced by 10K. This song came out on May 10th, 1999 on a single called Plan A by the short-lived Skeme Team collaborative (even though they’re not on the song), which would later become Brooklyn Academy.
For those of you who haven’t heard of The Arsonists, they were another rap group from Brooklyn around the same time who frequently did shows with Non Phixion. I’ll touch on them this summer in a feature I’m calling “As The Week Burns” to commemorate the release of their first album, so stay tuned.
The song premiered with a video as well. It was the first music video appearance of NP. The video is an outright tribute to a show called “Graffiti Rock” from 1984 that only lasted one episode. While it was canceled quickly, it gained a huge cult following due to its inclusion of hip hop celebrities like Kool Moe Dee and Run DMC. It also includes actress and then-B girl Debi Mazar before she was famous. Here’s the full episode:
They did an excellent job on the video, I must say. They recreated the set almost perfectly and the tag logo looks exactly the same. The video features a lot of people to look out for: DJ Eclipse of Non Phixion is the DJ, Sabac is seen dancing in a red leather jacket, Necro’s wearing his logo on a hoodie, and legendary DJ/WKCR radio personality Bobbito Garcia is the host. There’s probably a lot more people in it I don’t recognize, so if you know any, email me. Another interesting fact about this video is that the symbol (which is actually a Masonic lodge emblem, not a star of David) in Bill’s eye wasn’t digitally added like some people have suggested, it was actually a custom contact lense Bill had made for the video, but due to it being made wrong, you can only see half of the design.
Anyway, here’s the video:
And the actual single version:
Alright, till next time, Physicists, break up the séance.
Black Magic Physics 