The Record Keeper
COURTESY PABLO PAZ
“They call me the historian because, for some reason, I remember all this stuff,” Pablo Paz tells SFR. These days, Paz spends more time behind the decks as his DJ Shatter persona, but he worked previously as an MC under the moniker Adrenaline Truth with hip-hop act SBLMNL RNSNS (no relation to the Outstanding Citizens Collective). Paz cites 2004 as the earliest beginnings of the the OCC, though, he says, there was no grand unifying group at the time, just numerous high school-aged hip-hop fans making lo-fi beats and freestyling in Martinez’s trailer home, dubbed The Sweatshop for the heat of the computers used in the recording process—and the lack of air conditioning. Paz had known Martinez since elementary school, and the two were close; he would eventually
introduce Martinez to other students at Santa Fe High School. “In that first iteration, it was called Line of Sight,” Paz says of the group formed by Benzo and Dylan Delgado, aka Wolfman Jack, who would go on to be a close collaborator with and confidant of Martinez. “It was people we played football with, a community atmosphere. That’s why it would get so hot in The Sweatshop, and that’s when I first saw the madness going on.” Paz says Martinez, Delgado, himself and anyone else brave enough would record on low-quality stick microphones over primitive beats Martinez created. By 2005, Line of Sight was ready to perform. “We did a couple open mics at Warehouse 21, and it was just goofing around, but people like [Warehouse 21 founder] Ana Gallegos y Reinhardt supported us,” Paz says. “So she put us in touch with a promoter and it ended up being one of the first times we were ever booked—prom night.” Line of Sight would open for hip-hop legends CunninLynguists, and the crowd would be crammed with high schoolers in their finery, fresh off a night at the formal dance. “We listened to CunninLynguists growing up, and that inspired us,” Paz says. “For us, it was huge, and since it was prom night, we talked [the promoter] into letting people have a discount if they came in their tux or gown. Everybody came.” Paz says the night collectively opened the group’s eyes. “Before the music, we didn’t really hang out much, but that’s what created the synergy,” he recalls. Local shows would follow, but soon Line of Sight’s members would graduate high school and head off to college. The collaborations lessened for a time, but Paz says Martinez never quit making music, even while attending New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and, later, New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas.
Ask any member of the Outstanding Citizens Collective and they’ll tell you the same—the late Benito Martinez III was the linchpin.
“I went off to college at the University of Hawaii, and Benzo recorded two or three albums after I moved,” he tells SFR. “Those became like the soundtrack for all of us and we were playing it wherever we were. I was playing the tracks on my college radio show.” After college, Paz returned to Santa Fe hoping to get into the film business, and indeed he has with minor roles in projects like Better Call Saul and Cry Macho. The OCC is still very much a part of his life, though. “I think the passion is back and we need it more,” he explains of the crew returning to live performances amid COVID-19. “As a crew, for our mental health and sanity, I can see it every time we get onstage. And because we’ve soaked up Benzo’s vibe, we have more to give. There’s no quit in any of us.”
The Originator
“Pablo introduced me to everybody because he’s a jock and a nerd at the same time,” says Dylan Delgado, aka Wolfman Jack. In high school, Delgado was a skater, and by his sophomore year, discovering hip-hop acts like Jedi Mind Tricks, Gang Starr and Pete Rock changed his entire idea of what music could be. Paz would take him to meet Martinez at The Sweatshop and, Delgado says, “I was definitely onboard.” “Benzo was miles ahead of us, though,” Delgado continues, “but for whatever reason, he saw potential in us, so we were like, ‘Yeah. Let’s keep going.’” Like it had been for Paz, Delgado’s experience at the prom night CunninLynguists show changed a lot. “After that, it was nose to the grindstone,” he says. “Line of Sight made the Milestone Mixtape, and we were selling it at the school cafeteria senior year. After that, it was off to college at NMSU.” Delgado would return to Santa Fe and move in with Erik Scott (aka OCC member Fluid, who we’ll get to later) and his brother Max (a former OCC collaborator who went by Symmetry). “And we were just making songs,” Delgado explains. “Benzo was constantly giving us beats from Las Cruces, and he would come home during breaks, so we set up in the laundry room of that house. Eventually, Benzo brought his computer and that’s where it lived whether he was at school or not.” CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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NOVEMBER 10-16, 2021
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