Rest in Peace Blowfly! Matt Sonzala interviews Blowfly & Dino Lee, Austin, 1993

This past weekend after learning that the legendary Clarence "Blowfly" Reid had passed away, I got to thinking about just how many times I had the good fortune of seeing him live. My first time was in 1993. I heard he was doing a show in Austin, and all I knew was that he was not only hilarious, but he was also basically the first rapper ever. His "Rap Dirty" single was straight up hip hop, before anyone even knew what hip-hop was. And like the title implies, it was basically a funny ol' sex rhyme. Blowfly hailed from Miami and it's no coincidence that many of the rappers from his town followed suit and released controversial, often over the top dirty songs as well. I wanted to meet the man who had so much influence on the culture that I loved, but really never got the recognition for it, especially not back then. So Eric "CeePlus" Castillo and I hopped in my old ass Toyota station wagon with only an am radio in it and headed to Austin from Houston. We had no hook ups and no connection to Blowfly, and honestly didn't know anything about the band who would be opening for him/backing him - Dino Lee's Luv Johnson. The way I remember it, we went to Austin early in the day and went right to the venue. We started asking questions as to when Blowfly would arrive and someone gave me Dino Lee's number. Called him up, let him know we were there to do an interview, and he set us up right around soundcheck. The interview is actually with both Blowfly and Dino Lee. Blowfly's reverence for Dino and his music opened my eyes to a lot of things. Before that, I was about tired of white boy funk (#Austin) and especially white rappers. But after hearing Blowfly's opinions, I was pretty much a changed man (sort of). A man who pretty much invented a style, and continually innovated, and not to mention wrote many hits for himself and others under his actual name (Clarence Reid) was giving it up to bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dino Lee's Luv Johnson. Shit tripped me out, I was 21 years old. And I got to sit and talk to Blowfly for an hour. Later in life I was working for a festival and met Tom Bowker, a dude from Miami who flew up to Chicago specifically to catch a Blowfly show, and ended up playing drums for him and managing him in his later years. Got to see him perform so many times in different capacities and even got to sit in while he crafted songs with Devin the Dude (which to my knowledge have never come out). Thanks to Tom Bowker, Blowfly's career rolled on literally until his final days. Dude was touring in a van punk rock style up until last year and if he would have pulled through this last time, would probably hop in the van again. He left us an incredible body of work, and for that I am thankful. And I am even more thankful for getting to spend some time here and there with him over the years. I don't remember who I did this interview for, or if it ever even came out. I know I played part of it on my radio show on KPFT that year and I think MAYBE it was for either Texas Beat or Thorazine. Not totally sure. Anyway, at the end Blowfly asks me to be sure and send him a copy. Pretty sure that never happened. Hope he can hear this wherever he is right now. We love you Blowfly! Pushermania Podcast Network.