Philadelphia Hip Hop, Rap Pioneers, and Underground Music Networks: Three Issues of Audio Gliphix, 1997-98

Audio Gliphix Underground Hip Hop

Periodical

Bajai, K C. Philadelphia counterculture hip hop and underground music magazine archive, 1997 to 1998, documenting an independent music press positioned against commercial radio programming and the narrowing of late 1990s popular music into major label categories. Published under the slogan “music beyond the airwaves,” Audio Gliphix placed Philadelphia hip hop within a deliberately mixed underground culture encompassing rap, indie rock, electronic music, funk, jazz, and international scenes. Editor in chief K C Bajai described the magazine as the successor to the music section of his earlier Kollage Magazine, which ran from 1987 through 1994, and used his Fall 1997 editorial to attack radio programmers who were “too stupid, scared or short sighted to program new and progressive music,” as well as a hip hop industry dominated by “Recycled beats. Recycled rhythms. Recycled riffs... and recycled rhymes.” The three issues, Volume 3 Nos. 1, 4, and 5, preserve the magazine’s effort to construct an alternative music network from Philadelphia outward, combining local performers and photographers with national acts, international correspondents, independent labels, club culture, and histories of hip hop.

Audio Gliphix. Volume 3. Philadelphia: Kollage International, 1997 to 1998. Three issues, Volume 3 Nos. 1, 4, and 5. Published by Kollage International and edited by K C Bajai, with art direction by TN Adverting & Design and a staff of correspondents covering rap and urban music, indie rock, Latin music, and regional scenes in the United States and abroad.

[1] Bajai, K C, ed. Audio Gliphix. Volume 3, No. 1. Philadelphia: Kollage International, Fall 1997. Identified as the magazine’s “2nd ANNIVERSARY ISSUE,” with cover features including “all phat no philler,” a Philadelphia Da Fat Cat Clique feature billed as “Step Up to the Mike,” “Speaking Tongues” on the hip hop scene in Germany, and “Trailblazers in HipHop Culture” on rap pioneers, alongside coverage of Wyclef, Craig Mack, Missy Elliott, Rampage, King Britt, and other contemporary artists. Bajai’s “editor’s diatribe” situates the publication directly within Philadelphia’s independent music culture, arguing that the city’s mainstream press neglected local bands and explaining that the title Audio Gliphix had been “rescued from the pages of KOLLAGE Magazine,” where it had served as the music section beginning in 1987. He defines the publication’s range as “vast and multi-genred” and announces an increased emphasis on Philadelphia artists while retaining contributions from correspondents across the United States and internationally.

[2] Bajai, K C, ed. Audio Gliphix. Volume 3, No. 4. Philadelphia: Kollage International, circa 1998. Features include Ms. Dae by Khel Brown, the Five Deadly Venoms by Lynda Lane, “the mouse that roared” by Eddie Bowman, “papa’s got a brand new bag” by Kivuto, Siora by Gilbert Hines, and Bajai’s “millennial city home girls.” Regular columns include “bitchdom & disdom,” “northern exposure,” “aztlan showcase,” and “dr. shock’s rap beat,” with additional “live wire,” record review, and reader departments. The issue’s juxtaposition of the Five Deadly Venoms and Ms. Dae with regional and alternative music columns shows the magazine treating hip hop as part of a broader independent cultural circuit rather than isolating rap within a conventional genre publication.

[3] Bajai, K C, ed. Audio Gliphix. Volume 3, No. 5. Philadelphia: Kollage International, circa 1998. Features Jamie Myerson by K C Bajai, the Wamdue Kids by Khel Brown, Karnak by Bajai, and Mike Keneally by Don Zulaica. Departments extend the issue beyond its principal profiles through an “aztlan showcase” including Question Mark & The Mysterians and Tia Carrere; “fresh of the platter” coverage of Towa Tei, Das EFX, Morcheeba, and Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz; a “live wire” section naming the Zawinul Syndicate, King Britt & Sylk 130, Funk Fest 98, and Groove Collective; and a label profile devoted to IRMA, described as an Italian house, jazz, and funk label coming to America. Cover illustration is credited to Grey Cremer.

Audio Gliphix emerged during a period when hip hop had become a dominant commercial force while locally produced music journalism continued to document performers, DJs, labels, clubs, and stylistic exchanges that did not fit major label or radio programming. Bajai addresses that division explicitly in Volume 3 No. 1, describing what he saw as hip hop’s contemporary low point and locating responsibility in both commercially driven artists and risk averse radio programmers. His response was editorial rather than nostalgic: the magazine moves from Philadelphia acts and figures such as Da Fat Cat Clique and King Britt to German hip hop, the Five Deadly Venoms, Das EFX, Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, Morcheeba, Towa Tei, Groove Collective, Italian label IRMA, indie rock, and Latin music. The masthead reinforces the same decentralized model, listing correspondents in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, San Jose, Paris, Toronto, Hohenlinden, Minneapolis, and other cities, while the magazine’s period address and international circulation place it within the exchange networks of independent print culture before music discovery became principally organized through streaming platforms and social media. Light handling wear, edge wear, and age toning visible, with the newsprint interiors remaining legible and the illustrated wrappers retaining strong printing. Overall good condition. A three issue record of Philadelphia independent music journalism defining hip hop culture through local scenes, underground circulation, international exchange, and resistance to the commercial radio economy of the late 1990s.

Item #23813

Price: $385.00