Mark Sparks and 'Kakalaka Raw'
A look back at the producer's early success and his 1996 compilation that tried to put North Carolina MCs on the map.
I recently picked up a copy of National Book Award winner James McBride’s 2016 title Kill ‘Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. Clocking in at 228 pages, the book is a powerful and sobering work. It explores Brown’s life as well as the lives of some of the members of his legendary bands, the people in his small inner circle, the bitter legal fights over his $100 million estate, the way the music industry frequently exploits and then later casts aside Black artists, and so much more.
There are plenty of quotable passages, but one in particular stood out: “Everyone in the record business has secrets, but the most obvious one is the hardest for musicians to accept: there’s talent everywhere.” (178-179)
Enter the story of veteran producer Mark Sparks, whose 1990s credits include a remix of Mary J. Blige’s “Sweet Thing,” Mic Geronimo’s “The Natural,” Guru's “Insert A (Menthal Relaxation) Medicine” from Jazzmatazz Volume II: The New Reality, Salt 'N' Pepa’s 1993 hit “Shoop,” and many more. His post-2000 output includes songs for Anthony Hamilton, Mýa, and Will Smith.
According to a 2004 Street Heat video interview, Sparks moved from North Carolina to New York in 1990. He earned his big breaks not long after the change in zip code. Despite this relocation, Sparks didn’t forget his Carolina roots. In fact, he seemed intent on leveraging his early success to put rappers from his former state of residence on the map. He created the short-lived Kakalaka Records as a home base of sorts to collaborate with friends and other like-minded artists.
First came Mark Sparks Presents... The Kakalaka Foundation in 1995. This is ultra-rare and the cover art seems more like a demo than an official release. It doesn’t look like the full album made its way to YouTube yet, but I was able to track down the single “Thank You” and the instrumental version. The song features crisp production from Mark Sparks and gospel style keys from Mike City, another notable North Carolina producer.
The following year Kakalaka Records put out the excellent compilation Mark Sparks Presents Kakalaka Raw, their final release. Featuring The Soho Crew, The True Foundation, Lady Keem, Lower Level, Puerto Rock, and several others, the record demonstrates how much talent existed outside of the major label ecosystem in the mid-‘90s.
Lady Keem shines bright on the Mike City and Mark Sparks co-produced effort “Keema Therapy,” a beautifully smooth track that highlights the strengths of both producers while showcasing how great they sound as a combined unit. Keem leads the song off with the confident and catchy hook, “For all you phony MCs I got the remedy/you’ll remember me/it’s all about Keema therapy.” In addition to the absorbing hook and production, she more than holds her own with raps that highlight her skills while taking aim at phony competitors.
YouTube curator extraordinaire OGDonNinja posted “Keema Therapy” in 2010, but it only has a paltry 3000-plus views in the 12 years since. Lady Keem’s lack of additional output seems like a lost opportunity.
Another notable inclusion on Mark Sparks Presents Kakalaka Raw is the Charlotte group Lower Level, who contributed the track “We Serve You (Beats & Treats).” Fans of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth may recognize a familiar sample flipped nicely by producers Justice and Barry McDuffy. Though Lower Level did an admirable job with “We Serve You,” they are even more memorable on their lone single “Top Notch” / “Favorable Fluids.”
This release came out in 1995 separate of Mark Sparks and Kakalaka Records. The gorgeous, hypnotic production on “Top Notch” is handled masterfully by Barry A. and Willie McDuffy. Despite showing such promise with both beats and rhymes, the group’s output is almost non-existent besides one 12-inch and a few compilation appearances.
Lady Keem and Lower Level had the backing of Mike City and Mark Sparks - two successful producers with significant visibility - and they demonstrated skills that should have earned them future chances. It seems like they could have done so much more. But, as James McBride said, “There’s talent everywhere.”
These acts likely won’t record new music at this point, but there is a happy turn to this story that may expose their work to a wider audience. The German label Crooked Cat Records resissued Mark Sparks Presents Kakalaka Raw in 2016 with the help of Mark Sparks to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary.
Resurrecting a decades old album is never easy and Crooked Cat spoke to this in the liner notes on their Bandcamp page: “We went a long way to get here and make the album possible. Mark dealt with a lot and was very busy but he always stuck with the project.”
The reissue market is crowded right now and it’s hard to make modern audiences tune in to relatively obscure records from the past, but it is nice to see so many people curating and preserving records that didn’t get a fair shake the first time around. At the very least it increases the likelihood of audiences finding the music.
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