2 Tuesdays ago, the Right Hono(u)rable Cosmo Baker posted another instalment of his great “Breakbeat Tuesday” column, this time from world renown DJ/beathead Seattle’s DJ Supreme. He tells a great story on coming up on one of hip-hop’s ‘holy grail’ records – a record that has stumped DJs and producers for years. “The Smiley Face Record”. Read it now.

Done? Okay. Read on. The hunt for the sacred record reminded me of the tales of a hunt for the same record from my good friend, hip-hop encyclopedia and personal music mentor DJ Jorun. Joe was one of the first people that taught me about samples and breaks (I remember he had Skull Snaps up on his wall when I first met him in 97/98) and has an ear that I trust pretty much more than anyone else in hip-hop. A true Sherlock Holmes of the game. I hit Joe up to share his story for all. Take it away, Joe.

(Read on for Joe’s story, and a song from his own 45 that was inspired by the find.)

“I got my copy of “Do It Your Way” during Hurricane Juan. I found out about the record from Phill Most Chill (aka Soulman) during an arguement online among people on the-breaks.com about where the drums for “The Symphony” came from. I actually thought it was a half loop from the Hihache break and Soulman corrected us all by posting the pic. When I asked him how hard this record was to find, he basically told me “You probably wont come across it in your lifetime”.

The very next day i saw it on ebay for $6.00 and suprisingly no one was aware of it. I ended up winning the record with no one competing against me for the bidding. I posted a video on youtube of me playing the record and explaining the origin of the record and my info has been repeated by many. I was the first person to make the connection between the ‘smileyface’ and Summerfest in Milwaukee because I noticed a record by Heads, Hands & Feet at Taz Records (a gatefold LP) which had a picture of the band playing on a stage with the big smiley face behind them. Yes, the same smiley face on the 45. I did an image search on google for smileyface logos and thousands of them showed up. I spent 2 weeks looking through every single one of them until i found it. Keep in mind this was back in 2004.

After I won the record for 6 bucks, I then told Soulman I got it and he was in disbelief because I found it so quick and so easily. He told me to hang onto it because its super rare and I kept it. Since then, i’ve had Dan the Beatman be the middleman for Biz Markie to get my copy which I wouldn’t sell in 2004. I also noticed it on the inner sleeve of DJ Shadow’s “Endtroducing” LP and remembered it being a mystery for so long and then ignoring it until I found my copy. When I was playing at the Khyber (Ed. note: our former 99-02 Wednesday weekly, On The Strength) with you Paul, I don’t know if you recall me DJing with you at Khyber and then i got an idea to press up a 45 with party instrumentals and I asked of you wanted to go halfs with me. That idea stemmed from me wanting to make a 45 that was a parody of the “Do It Your Way” 7″ and i ended up doing it as the “Jorun’s Way” 45 with the Summerfest logo. You were pressing up “I Ain’t Lazy” so you wanted to take a raincheck on that and i gave the B side to Sean One. Thats where the “Joruns Way” idea came from. The “Do It Your Way” 45.”

Thanks, Joe.

If you see the JORUN name on anything, you should buy/listen. You can find him on Twitter, or for more information, here’s a nice little post about him from record king Phill Most Chill a/k/a The Soulman. Download some of his songs over there, or listen in this player which I borrowed from his page. The song below can also be found on my Satisfaction Guaranteed mix, available in my store on CD, or for download.

Related: Check out my contribution to Cosmo Baker’s Breakbeat Tuesday series HERE. And peep our club smash “Limb By Tung” and some funky baby dancing to it.

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