Sam Han | Eportfolio

True Story. In the height of the Canibus vs. LL beef, I was eating dinner in front of the TV and I get a call from my boy Chris KKA (Koreanly Known As) Minho, who I grew up with. We went from nursery school, elementary school, Korean language school, Sunday school, etc. together. He was like “Yo, you MUST turn to HOT97 right now because Flex is playing LL’s response.” The response was of course “The Ripper Strikes Back,” which Flex repeatedly started up from the top and “dropped the bomb” on. It was such a moment. I remember grabbing a cassette and just letting it record all the way through just to see if Flex would ever let it play somewhat cleanly without his (in retrospect, off-beat though at the time seemingly awesome) scratching.

The next day, the entire Form II (8th grade) at Fieldston was leaving for Washington, DC, for a class trip. I put “Ripper Strikes Back” on a mixtape I made for that trip and I remember thinking I was the man, playing it for all my friends. Ha, I guess I thought I was Funkmaster Flex in some small way, being the only one with the song on tape amongst my friends.

Thinking back on it, I feel a mix of nostalgia, accomplishment and a strong dash of embarrassment.