The elusive “Often heard seldom seen” Nick Van Krunk is a man of many aliases. He is also known as Nick @ Nite – The Krunk Monstar due to his nocturnal nature.
His face for radio and the creative, energetic, often grim, gritty, yet still motivational mixes that he concocts live nightly. The mixes mostly reflect the habitat he was raised in. It’s all part of his superhero/supervillain arc.
Nick is a Triple O. G. (Ordinary Guy) in the music industry an “industry insider outsider”as he says. His origin story starts when he was born and raised by Wolves in the city of Prichard, Alabama sometime in the 20th century.
Nick first discovered his love for music at a young age while he was being civilized,moralized and spiritualized in church. From there Nick furthered his musical interest even more as he entered school and learned to play concert snare in the school band. That eventually lead him to playing snare drum in a marching band with a pack of civilized Wolves.
Around that time this musical genre called Hip Hop Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World | From Chuck D and Lorrie Boula | Episode 1 of 4 started to evolve and it really peeked Nick’s interest.
Nick learned of this evolving genre by getting mixed tapes from different radio stations from various regions of the concrete jungles in North America. He got those tapes from other carbon based life forms as they migrated back to their original habitats for yearly gatherings.
Upon listening to these tapes, the urge to create the music for himself took hold of Nick. He would play the tapesfor his friends and trade tapes with them to enlarge his musical collection and evolution. Simultaneously, what was happening on the radio locally filled his eardrums and reached his brain matter. Greats like The Mad Hatter, Marvelous BJ,Catt Sirten, Jim Mahaney and others too numerous to mention filled up his radio with a cacophony of sound up and down the radio dial.
Eventually, Nick was able to mimic the Hip Hop DJs he heard on those tapes when his caretakers gifted him a stereo with a double cassette player.
Nick started making his own mixed tapes and loops with the record, pause, record pause method which is a primitive Hip Hop technique that many youngsters in the concrete jungle were doing at the time. They made tapes off of the radio and would try to time the commercials and the DJ’s talk break to have all music. Some would record songs off of different records and cassettes by other artists and that was a “mixed tape”. Some even made their own beat loops from snippets of other peoples music. This was done mostly by those whom could not afford the “Holy Grails” of Hip Hop, which was 2 Technic 1200 turntables, a mixer, drum machines, keyboards and early samplers.These chalices of the Hip Hop movement where then unobtainable to Nick and thus his quest began.
One day Nick met this young Leopard named Harris The Dubb Master at a tribal gathering for Leopards at Mattie T. Blount, the den on Main Street. They struck up a conversation after Harris the Dubb Master saw Nick in a battle of tribal dance (B-Boying – the 3rd Element of the 5 Elements of Hip Hop) against some Leopards in the gym. They found they had a lot in common about these newly developing genres of music and culture and became fast friends. Harris The Dubb Master had a pair of turntables and invited Nick to play on them. Dubbs taught Nick a few things that Nick just couldn’t grasp but he kept at it walking across the train tracks that divided his habitat to The Dubb Masters house daily so he could try to learn to use those turntables.
That summer Dubbs went off to work in Trinidad and he let Nick keep all of his records and equipment. That season was the true birth of creation for Nick- a culmination of heard songs, inner musings and finally the channels to transmute this into a physical presence upon this world. That’s when he finally grasped the concept and honed his skill after hours and hours of practice. All this happened at great cost to the fore mentioned caretakers electrical bills (Nick thanks them). It was just like the character Q in the classic Hip Hop movie Juice.
Check out this link: https://youtu.be/-cw90OkeI0I
Eventually, Nick’s quest was successful. He had his own turntables and continued to sharpen his skills and drink of the Holy Grails.
After a few years, with a lot of twists and turns Nick wound up on radio by happenstance and that’s where he has been til now (with some diversions in the form of live assemblies with neighborhood friends,other musicians,DJs and practitioners of the other 4 Elements of Hip Hop Culture).
He has raised many generations under his unique approach of mixing that has touched many listeners in the BIG F. A. M. , as he affectionately calls them. He has influenced many up and coming DJs to do the same and build upon his legacy, the same as he did for those whom came before him. You will hear some of the Giants DNA in Nick’s mixes but delivered in his very distinct unique way, just as you will hear Nicks DNA in up and coming young DJs. Nick stands on the shoulders of those GIANTS whom came before him and respects the GRAND ARCHITECTS of The CULTURE as he continues to evolve with the youth whom are the life force of the CULTURE now.
You can catch a VIBE with Nick in the Mix LIVE
Monday-Thursday 8pm-10pm and on Fridays 7pm-10pm. Doing it for all HOODS and SOCIAL CIRCLES. The mixes are never recorded or planned. So expect nothing and expect everything. Nick says “ Hip Hop is of everything and everything is Hip Hop-able”
That’s the ethos of the GRAND MASTER ARCHITECTS instilled in Nick. If you would like to reach out to Nick about anything simply send him an e-mail at [email protected]
Nick sincerely thanks each and everyone past, present and future for your listenership.
P. E. A. C. E.
