4YearGraduate said:mannybolone said: At some point, I'll have to share my obsessive search for the graffiti-lined corner where N.W.A. shot the "Panic Zone"/N.W.A and the Posse cover.
this location was talked about at length in the LA Weekly article - should be easy to find.
Actually, it's not mentioned once. For real, go back and look: there's nothing there. I thought that kind of strange but I did try to write Martin Cizmar and haven't heard back from him. Let me be clear: I thought Cizmar's article was really great - must have taken a lot of footwork to track down some of the more obscure members of the photo. But I was surprised that 1) it wasn't mentioned that this cover first appeared on "Panic Zone" and only later was re-used for the "NWA and the Posse" comp and I'm also surprised there was nothing in there about the photographer or the location. By the time I went to read the piece, I had already tracked down photographer Phil Bedel (using the white pages, no less) and he couldn't have been more gracious and generous with his time. He actually knew about the Weekly story before I mentioned it but I don't know if that's because Cizmar had spoken to him or if he had come across the story on his own (he does still live in So Cal).
In any case, I have the right lot in Hollywood. The question is *where* on the lot is the actual location. I think I finally narrowed it down, with the help of Arabian Prince, Bedel, and Rex Harte, whose dad, Roy Harte, used to run Drum City on Santa Monica. That store's back door is where the shot was supposedly taken, according to Rex and more or less supported by Roth's memories.
I'm guessing the location was where "1" is. However, I did find a brick wall that matches the right style and height that you see on the cover at "3". That could be a leftover wall from the missing building but that the actual wall you see is now gone. What makes this harder is that the loading dock-like platform Posse members were standing on isn't there anymore. So save the brick wall, there's absolutely no visual cues I could draw on. I wrote Rex Harte again this morning to see if he could lend final confirmation and Bedel said this story has him curious himself so he's going to head back down to Hollywood in a few weeks and look around to see if any of it jogs his memory.
What an insane block that was though: Gold Star Studios (long gone) was on the corner, Macola across the street, and Drum City in the middle of the block. Tabb Rex used to run his company on the same block as well and might have shared building space with Drum City at some point (though the only address I could find for him put him at the El Centro corner.
