Democrazy

In the early 90's DJ Tony Touch started putting in his work down on the mixtapes, in NYC. D-Stroy who walked into a record store where Tony Touch had worked, was fascinated to how skilled Tony Touch was on the 1 & 2's. The 2 would go on to begin their journey partners. As Tony Touch would record his mixtapes, he'd ask D-Stroy to do the introductions of the mixtape. Soon Tony would get booked at clubs and teenage D-Stroy would follow as the M.C., hyping up the crowd. The time would come when they would want to make original music together, as they both were aspiring to put out an album. As Touch and D-Stroys reputation grew locally, D-Stroy would travel as a hypeman on tour with O.C. (Times Up) and Tony Touch would continue DJ’ing the hostest clubs. In 1994 they put down several songs and started to shop their demo. Their record label meetings were met with the stereotypical, "Puerto Rican, like Fat Joe". Till they met with a label that looked past the "Latin Thing" and attempted to sign them for 10 albums. Fortunately, they ended up not taking the deal, as 10 albums was a ridiculous amount of years to commit to. They continued to do events at some of NYC’s most iconic clubs, when they were invited to a viewing of the documentary based on The Young Lords, titled “Palante Siempre Palante”. Young Lords Party was predominantly a Latino organization that was part of the Rainbow Coalition along with the Black Panthers that stood up against the government from 1969-1976. “I had a lot of literature about the YLP, me and Tony placed their story in rap form. I had all the samples and Tony programmed the drums and track on his ASR-10” said D-Stroy. The song simply titled “Palante Siempre” was recorded in the legendary D&D studios and was placed in the end credits of the documentary. Fittingly, “Touch and D-Stroy” were a group, to AT LEAST record a song as significant as “Palante Siempre”. Soon after Tony Touch and D-Stroy would go separate ways, respectfully. Tony Touch would release more mixtape/albums and D-Stroy would go on to form NYC’s Underground Hip Hop Icons, The Arsonists. Remaining friends throughout the years, they would later come together and record an energetic song with Hip Hop icon DJ Premier of Gangstarr titled “Rocking With The Best”. D-Stroy would also revisit his “Frienemies” concept featuring Freestyle on the Arsonists “As The World Burns” album. The “And You Don’t Stop” chorus lives on with Bostons own Slaine of La Coka Nostra along with notable Producer/DJ, Statik Selektah. Years past but music remains, to tell a story of the time when studios weren’t easy to come by and music took some time to create. The process of making the music does change. However, most of these songs were created in 1994. This release includes the original songs and mixtape intros from Tony Touchs infamous tapes. Enjoy the ride into the era when B.I.G. and Tupac were still alive.