Finishing up ‘Demo Week’ with the tail-end of the alphabet. In retrospect, half of these shits aren’t really ‘demos’ but however you want to describe them – ‘roughs’, ‘rehearsals’ or just ‘unreleased’ – it’s fair to say that a lot of great music never makes it to retail. Thank fuck for mix-tapes and underground radio.
Two new joints from the Freestyle Professors. ‘Who Am I’ is from the forthcoming Gryme Tyme project. Assisting Branesparker on production is an impressive line-up of Bronx heavyweights, including Lord Finesse, Diamond D, Showbiz, Minnesota, Buckwild, and Ahmed.
Continuing on, more vaulted material for your steering pleasure. Hiss added free of charge.
Ed OG - ‘I’m Different’ (demo)
Taken from the recently released Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto – Demos & Rarities 2CD, this version used Eddie Bo’s ‘Hook ‘N Sling’. I always liked that ‘S’ themed style second verse.
Gotta love demo tapes. Once sought-after trophies of music critics and studio interns, you can now find all sorts of demo tape gold all over the shop. This week I’ll be looking at some of my favorite demo moments, as we catch some future greats in their formative years. Since I couldn’t pick which to rock with first, this shit is running down in alphabetical order.1
The Artifacts feat. Brand Nubian - “Check Da Fine Print”
Readers of The Source may recall the songs reviewed for Tame and El’s ‘Unsigned Hype’ appearance. Lord Jamar handled the beats and contributes a verse with an ill-advised shot at Rakim.
Here’s my interview with Pete from Hip-Hop Connection magazine for anybody who may have missed it. Even though he proved to be one of my more challenging interview subjects, I think you’ll enjoy this a little more than the million other Q&A’s he did to promote the NY’s Finest album.
Robbie: You worked with Marley Marl all those years on the radio. What were some of your best experiences from those days?
Pete Rock: Just having the opportunity to play good records, and even some of the demo’s that I’d been working on and stuff. Flip a few of those in there. It was a good opportunity to play good music remixes, demos and actual songs.
How come you guys never made any songs together in the studio?
In the beginning stages with CL, I came with an idea and he basically brought it to life for me, and he did a joint for me and CL. It was something called ‘Lethal Weapon’ that never came out.
Did you used to work with any neighborhood guys before you met Corey?
I was working with some guys in my neighborhood, but when I met CL in high school I felt like he had a distinctive voice and he didn’t sound like anybody.
I liked that line in “Till I Retire”: ‘You made Pete Rock? Go make another one!’
[laughs] I kinda borrowed that line from Jay-Z. I thought that was clever when he said that.
Thought I might balance out all the shittin’ on Nas last week. Both versions of “Ain’t Hard To Tell” are incredible, and the demo version ain’t too shabby either. Plus I brought back the Nas / De La Soul interview from 1996 with Tim Westwood that I posted a couple of years back…a lot of comedy on here. Little Homey big up’s an early Jay-Z song, comments on the Biggie cover artwork bite and demonstrates why interviews and blunts aren’t always a “good combination”.
Nas - “Nas Will Prevail” (“Ain’t Hard To Tell” demo)
Nas & De La Soul on Tim Westwood’s Capitol Rap Show, 1996.
Flushing has already produced some outstanding rappers, and Nut-Rageous continues that tradition with this entertaining collection of some of his vinyl releases and some new tracks. A lot of his tracks remind me of dope mid-90s indy stuff, but not on some throwback tip. Nut adds his own twist to all the usual topics – broads, parties and wack rappers – but doesn’t sound like everyone else out there right now. That’s probably because he was making records since back then anyway.
“Best In This Profession” and “They Wanna Know” are two of the standouts, combining dope beats with quality vocal work, but almost every track is worthy of inclusion here. “Rap Issues” is along the same lines of “Message From Poet” in that Nut offers commentary on the rap game, while “Play The Field” is a catchy declaration to the dames sporting a 1940’s style hook. Guest spots are also a step above the usual suspects, as Dana Dane, Craig G and the late, great K.L. providing superior assists.
Despite being labeled a mixtape, Mixed Nuts qualifies as a proper street album, and has managed to stay in rotation in the ride for a while thanks to it’s combination of winning beats and the fact that Nut-Rageous is good value whenever he goes in, in much the same way that early Beatnuts managed to be constantly entertaining regardless. Not only that, but dude is still releasing vinyl! Now that’s gully.
Looks like the Poet album isn’t called The Greatest Story Ever Told anymore. The good news is his Year Round project finally has a release set for this year. Hoo-ha!
New material from one-time Hydra Entertainment artist Gab Gacha, who was a member of The Triflicts as well as a soloist who worked with the mighty Beatnuts.
Gab Gacha feat. Joell Ortiz, Trujilla & DJ Camilo - “The Blackout Show”
