When it comes to the revolutionary history of hip-hop in Kansas City, DJ Fresh is Benjamin Franklin. A genius innovator who prefers to stay behind the scenes instead of run for president (like, say, Rich the Factor or Tech N9ne), he wields influence over just about every early scene treatise, from albums by the Veteran Click to work by the 57th Street Rogue Dog Villains. Now 41, Fresh (real name Gary Edwin) can claim to have inspired two full generations of KC rappers and DJs, a fact demonstrated beautifully when DJ Sku dedicated his Best DJ: Hip-Hop award to Fresh at The Pitch Music Awards ceremony in August. But it's not as if DJ Fresh is moldering on his laurels. He continues to produce albums and put out his own DVD mixtape series to bring exposure to local MCs, DJs, studios, crews, movements — the landscape, in short, that he helped create.