MC Overlord and Yoggie Mussgrove
When MC Overlord was 18 and wanted to rap with the Bizness, he was forced to beg David Cotten to overlook the club’s 21-and-up policy. “I used to stand out there working on him,” says Overlord. “Eventually I got him to escort me in, watch me rap, and bring me right back to the door.” A few years later, Overlord and band, which includes Yoggie Mussgrove (Hot Buttered Rhythm, Brannen Temple’s Potnus, Funky London), took over a Tuesday residency without much fanfare or a fan base. “We considered it a privilege to play there and we were gonna do what we could.” Today, Overlord says he owes much of his career to Crooks’ patience and Steamboat acts such as Vallejo and Sister 7, who allowed the rapper to sit in and draw from their crowds. In tribute, Overlord promises to avoid the club’s new tenants like the plague. “I see what it’s doing to Danny,” he says. “And I’ll never, and I mean never, step foot in that place again. It’s the one time I’ll proudly hold a grudge.”
This article appears in September 24 • 1999.