WRPI’s DJ Toast celebrates 35 years on the hip-hop scene

In 2006, I profiled local hip-hop radio host DJ Toast, who had just packed his record crates for one final Friday night shift of “The Main Event” on WRPI Troy 91.5 FM. Toast, aka Eric Haskins, had decided to retire after dedicating 17 years to airing the best of new and old school hip-hop, from classic Gang Starr cuts to fresh demo tapes by local 518 artists. Then a funny thing happened. Haskins, a Clifton Park resident, came out of retirement eight years later to launch the Grown Man Rap Show on WRPI, which he’s hosted ever since. On Friday, May 24, DJ Toast celebrates his long-running radio career with a 35th anniversary show at Empire Live featuring ‘90s hip-hop outfit Smif-N-Wessun along with El Gant, Akrobatik, DJ C, NYCE and more. “I stepped away in ‘06 for a number of reasons,” Haskins told me this week. “I wasn’t feeling the music much anymore. Hip-hop changed from being drum-based to a lot of keyboards and synth sounds, like The Neptunes. So I really wasn’t feeling it. And then also my kids got to be a certain age. And my wife was putting up with me for 17 years of not...