This Saturday August 17th from 12pm-7pm at the Big Park which is off Croes Avenue in the Bronx, Hip Hop pioneers will be gathering in masse for the annual tribute and celebration for the Late Disco King Mario. For those who are unfamiliar Mario was one of Hip Hop's pioneering deejays who was a main fixture but never achieved the worldwide fame that fellow DJs like Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash received. In fact Mario was the one who helped Bambaataa get started as a deejay. He used to loan Bam his dj equipment. Later on Bam would face Mario in his first official DJ battle. Back in the early days it was Disco King Mario who was at the top of heap and the man to beat He was staple in early Hip Hop whose name and his crew Chuck Chuck City was mentioned on many of the early tapes.

Disco King Mario who lived upstairs from my man DJ Paradise of X-Clan over in the Bronxdale Housing projects, was best known for doing jams in the park. In fact he was the deejay that made that whole concept popular. Like DJ Kool Herc, Mario had a nice sound system that would attract people from miles around to what was known as 'The Big Park' which was right next to the sprawling projects. We should note that this year's theme is focused on 'The Spirit of the Park'

This year there will be performances from Hip Hop pioneering crews like The Soul Sonic Force, The Cold Crush Brothers and The Crash Crew. Also in the house will be The Furious Five, The Funky Four, The Treacherous Three, DJ Red Alert, Grandmixer DST, Infinity Rappers, T-La Rock, Awesome 2,Coco Channel, Gang Starr, Greg Nice, Lord Finesse and many more. It is being hosted by Kid Islam. Big shout out and major props to Queen Anita and Big Jeff who are putting on this event.