About the Show
In 1987, after answering phones for a show on Princeton University’s WPRB, G connected with PRB club DJ Eazy M to form Club Krush (which later morphed into Raw Deal). Trenton-based MC/DJ/Producer Tony D joined the pair in the basement station and for the next six years brought the best in underground and local hip-hop to New Jersey and Philadelphia during a time period where Philadelphia radio was ignoring and even shunning hip-hop. The show broke groups like the Wu-Tang Clan and Poor Righteous Teachers and featured in-studio performances from everyone from YZ, BeFyne, Courageous Chief, and the Hillbillies to Tim Dog, Treach, and Rza during “Thursday Night Live” sessions. In the later years of the show, DJ Kam took Easy M’s place and DJ Jay-Ski made his radio premiere as a guest on Raw Deal.
In this audio clip, G explains the history of Club Krush and Raw Deal on WPRB.
About the People
G – G currently runs Raw Deal Tees.
Tony D – Tony D (Anthony Depula) was a Trenton-based MC, DJ, and producer. Find out more on the two-hour podcast recorded in 2014 dedicated to his memory.
Eazy M – aka DJ Marc Coleman, Philadelphia house DJ. Marc currently runs Tactile Design Group and serves as its creative director.
DJ Kam – Legendary Philly radio and mixtape DJ. Now spins on Heavy Hitter Radio.
DJ Jay-Ski – Legendary Philly radio and mixtape DJ. Now spins on XM Radio.
Laze – Laze listened to Club Krush and Raw Deal when he was in high school. He called in to give shout outs way too often and sent in some truly terrible demo tapes that thankfully never made it on the air. In 2007, he started Normal Bias and started posting copies of the show. In 2014, he launched RawDealRadio.com as an official home for the show’s archive.
About the Site
This site started as an extension of Normal Bias, where episodes of Club Krush and Raw Deal have been posted since 2007. Most shows were recorded on trusty TDK-D90 normal bias cassettes and while most are unlabeled, every effort to accurately date episodes for the archive is made based on ads and release dates of songs.
All shows posted here are hosted at the amazing Internet Archive, where they will be cared for and saved for future generations. If you’d like to throw some cash at this project, I encourage you instead to donate to the Internet Archive since they’re doing all the heavy lifting in terms of bandwidth and storage.
The Goals of the Raw Deal Radio Archive
- Digitally preserve as many episodes of Club Krush and Raw Deal as possible.
- Use the best version of an episode at our disposal.
- Date the episodes as accurately as possible, noting in the show’s description how that date was determined.
- Provide thorough playlists of each episode, including noting which songs were cut from the recording.
- Collect all PRB and show-specific drops as well as theme songs.
- Summarize each episode, noting what made it unique.