King D S Sole Release Which He Sold Out Of His Car 25 Years Ago Is Finally Available Again

Darryl King, who DJs and produces as King D, recently stumbled upon a relic from the past while digging through his old crates: a cassette copy of the first and only release from King D & the Struggle Unit, the 1991 EP Englewood. “I always had the old-school masters [on] two-inch tape, but with the cassettes I only had that one copy left,” King says.

King had heard some hip-hop from New York, but LL Cool J and Run-D.M.C. never quite hooked him. He finally caught the hip-hop bug while scanning the radio one day in the late 80s. “I found WHPK—there was a guy, a radio disc jockey named JP Chill, super cool guy, and he was playing the first hip-hop record that really caught my attention,” King says. The song was “I Know You Got Soul,” a 1987 single by Eric B. & Rakim. “When I heard Rakim, it changed my whole outlook on hip-hop,” King says. “It was like, ‘I can get with this—this is cool.’”

   Eventually King assembled the collective he called the Struggle Unit: Def Dreski, Iroc T, T-Roc, Tray B, and a duo called Pure & Natural (the only women involved). Each act got its own track, and Pure & Natural and Tray B appeared on two cuts. (Tray B later changed his name to Jerm and put out a solo EP called Fear of the Chi Side, which King produced, mixed, and released in 1997.) King D and the crew worked out the songs as tightly as possible before entering Hair Bear Studios with engineer Jeff Islinger, understanding that extra preparation would save them money on studio time. “We’d try and be in there no more than two hours per song,” King says. “We tried to get in there—track it, record it, mix it, all in one shot.”

   King says he sold Englewood in independent shops throughout Chicago’s west and south sides. He also frequently sold the EP out of the trunk of his 1978 Cutlass Supreme. Before long he’d sold out of his initial run of 2,500 cassettes, so he made what turned out to be his final order of 2,500. King went on to produce and release EPs by Jerm (the aforementioned Chi Side) and Maniak (1997’s Who Got the Flava). Ten years ago he moved to Hammond, Indiana, and these days he collaborates with his son, a rapper who performs as Chubbz.