SCR Recordings was founded in 2000, by Brandon "B3" Baines and Kevin "DJ XRaida" Dube. These two kids had a dream: to become something in the hip-hop community. B3 and X formed their first group in that year, the Young MCs. B3 was the rapper and XRaida was the DJ/producer. B3 started to write hip-hop rhymes and DJ XRaida provided tracks. The duo soon changed their name to The Outskertz because they did not want to be confused with hip-hop artist Young MC and the town of Scarborough was located on the outskirts of the nearest city, Portland. They recorded 10 songs on a tape recorder, but the demo was never released due to lack of quality. In 2001, the duo's friend Ray "DJ Kizu" Capizzo joined the group, providing a computer recording program and technical skill. With Kizu, came a new name: Yashuu. Meaning nocturnal assault, or attack of the night in Japanese, the group selected the name mainly because of its uniqueness. How many other rap groups had a Japanese name? Again, the group recorded a few songs, but they were never released due to the quickly fading interest of Kizu.
With change comes experience. DJ XRaida and B3, now alone, decided to "get up, get out, and get something"(~Cee-Lo). The group quickly put together 5 songs and recorded them on XRaida's computer with a 15 dollar microphone and a hacked recording program. The group was so eager to finally put out their first album that they didn't care about the sounds of flipping pages as B3 recited his lyrics or background noises made by X's mom as she walked through the room. The group appropriately named the album The Nocturnal Assault, after their name. The album was released October 26th, 2001. Selling it for 5 dollars to their friends at school, the album sold about 20 copies and made Yashuu a name to be recognized in Scarborough Middle School.
Happy with the way things went with the previous CD, Yashuu started cooking up some new material. By June of 2002, the group was ready to release their second effort, Still Flowin'. It was released on June 4th of that year, right before the start of summer vacation. The album had 10 songs, 4 skits, and was sold for 10 dollars.
Bad timing a unreality collide. The group's second album was a disgrace compared to their previous effort. The album sold only 5 copies. About 25 were made before its release and were then left to collect dust in the desk drawers of B3 and XRaida. The group did not take it as a complete failure despite its sales. They saw it as a blessing in disguise. B3 found what was lacking from his lyrics: the reality. On the past two albums, he had been talking black and trying to be someone he was not. It was time for a change of style, a change of the overall composure of himself. Starting from scratch and going back to the drawing board, B3 wrote lyrics day and night. Removing all ghetto slang from his lyrics and deciding to be totally true to himself, his first song was called "White Boy," in which he admitted his recent mistakes and promised to make up for them. DJ XRaida was disappointed with the last effort, but with B3's support, decided to cook up a batch of fresh tracks. Also, with the Still Flowin' album came exactly what the group needed to come back with a fresh sound: Big D.
Time to flash back a little bit. Featured on a song on Still Flowin', David "Big D" Marsh was new to the rap scene. Recently moving to Scarborough with his family from Portland, D faced discrimination from his peers at Scarborough Middle School because of the way he dressed and the way he acted. It was hard for David to fit in in the eyes of anyone upon his arrival, except for B3. B3 saw what the others didn't. He saw potential in this kid. He saw the desire the boy had to become something and befriended him right away. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
D and B3 became best friends almost automatically. The day Big D arrived, he had heard about a rapper in his class named B3. He thought it was cool that B3 was a 14 year old white kid who rapped and loved hip-hop as much he did. D bought the first album and loved it, and when B3 saw his support, he offered him a cameo feature on Still Flowin'. D whipped up some lyrics and was featured on "I'm On Fire", one of the album's best songs.
Back to the present time. XRaida and B3 decided to officially add Big D to the group, to provide the people with fresh new talent and a new, honest sound. Both MCs wrote lyrics constantly, and with the beats already done, the group was ready to take on the world with their next release. They named it Rebirth, after the rebirth of their style. The album consisted of 17 tracks, recorded on a new program providing better sound quality and with a computer headset microphone. The album was released mid-November 2002.
The fans saw the changes, and liked what they saw. Rebirth sold 35 copies at 10 dollars a piece. The group made new fans by sometimes giving the album out free to people and rapping for anyone who wanted to hear their stuff. After rapping for a 6th grade fan's class, the 8th graders were pleased to sell a few more copies and acquire some more fans. It was a great feeling.
B3 and Big D could see DJ XRaida's interest fading however. XRaida never sold any copies of the album and was never too excited to keep up the hard work. B3 took it upon himself to take up where the DJ/producer had left off. Before parting with the group, X taught B3 how to produce beats and he fell in love with it. He passed ownership of SCR Recordings completely over to B3 as well and went off to start a rock band called When Jeremy Was Divided. No bad blood exists between DJ XRaida and the rest of the group, and that should be made prefectly clear. They still remain the best of friends. The DJ would no longer go by his hip-hop moniker, but would resume his regular name, Kevin Dube.
It was time to make it happen with a new album. More than pleased with the success of Rebirth, Yashuu, now consisting of only B3 and Big D, planned a new album. B3 invested in high-quality recording equipment and all recording would be done at his house from now on. D became better at writing lyrics and perfecting his style, as B3 did the same with writing and producing. By July 31st, 2003, the group's 4th album, entitled Playin' To Win, was ready to hit the scene. 20 tracks of reality, tight beats, and meaningful rhymes. Nothing could stop the now unpenetrable force of Yashuu.
B3 says that so far, the sales of the group's albums have been nice for kids their age, but they eventually want to boost the sales by getting on radio and doing shows. "We've made hundreds of dollars just selling under 100 copies of the CD, which has been good for us. It's not about the money we make though, it's about getting our music out. If we could sell a few hundred copies of Playin' To Win, it'd be a major success for our group."
