By shelz.

Back in 1986, Arthur Russell, an avant-garde musician who had worked with everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Bootsy Collins was delivered this young, unknown rapper/dancer Mark Sinclair by Gary Lucas.  They went to the studio and tried to get Sinclair comfortable on Russell’s tracks, but to no avail.

Listening to this gets a bit difficult at times.  It’s obvious Mr. Sinclair has the best intentions, but the last track especially can’t find its own beat, so any emcee would have trouble with it.

Anyway, Lucas went on to be recognized as one of the best guitarists of all time. Russell lost his battle with AIDS in 1992 and Mark Sinclair changed his name to Vin Diesel and decided to hang up his raps for movies scripts.  Wise decision.  Wise decision indeed.

Anyway, thanks to Mr. Lucas we get a bit of history in the form of demo snippets recorded during the ill-fated sessions and a moment to giggle at Diesel’s rap aspirations.  Don’t feel bad.  We’re laughing with him, not at him.

Spotted here.

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