At the Raekwon show the other night, I witnessed the next generation of weed holding. Several members Ice Water were helping out The Chef on stage as you might expect, but it wasn’t long before one of the co-stars tired of vocal back-ups and abandoned his mic in favor of taking care of the drinks for everyone on stage. Every time Lex Diamonds required a top-up of his vodka and cranberry, this loyal side-kick made it happen. When a bag of local weed was handed to Shallah, he quickly passed it to the same dude so he could roll it a fatty, and when some skeezer’s/jump-off’s started hanging out on stage behind the crew, homeboy started the ever-important ’selection process’. Salute for a job well done! Meanwhile, Rae did his thing as you might expect, peppering his performance with words of encouragement for folk with self-confidence issues and urging the crackers in the crowd to try and bag some black chicks when they get the chance. Much like other Wu shows, Rae spent a lot of time performing his crew’s rhymes for some reason, but when did shit from the original Cuban Linx all was forgiven. That reminds me, I still haven’t ordered that Linx 2 vinyl….
This is Critical Beatdown for 2010. While it doesn’t exactly share any similarities in terms of the beat science presented, Marcberg is a game-changer. Much like the impact of Ultramagnetic MC’s long-awaited debut, you’ve never really heard an album like this before. No guest producers, over-used hooks or any type of traditional song-structure for that matter. This is fourteen cuts of raw flows over minimalistic tracks – only built for real rap connoisseurs. (more…)
Mark down April 20, 2010 on your calender…the long-awaited, most-anticipated official solo shot from Roc Marcy is finally dropping through Fat Beats on CD and vinyl EP. I’m gonna call this as having a 90% chance of being the album of the year even even half of it is as good as ‘Snow’.
Queens-bred production duo Thorotracks (Sam & Jay) have been putting it down as a crew since 2002, and have delivered dope beats for everyone from Sean Price to NYG’z, Casual to Killah Priest, Krumbsnatcha to Skyzoo. With two compilations under their belt (The Saga Begins and The Saga Continues) and the dope new mixtape from their group The Closers (not to mention that exclusive joint for the UnkutCounter Strike tape) doing the rounds right now, you can count on these dudes to deliver the goods again and again. Here are some of the highlights from a conversation I had with Sam Thoro a couple of months back.
Robbie: How long have you and Jay been a crew?
Sam Thoro: We’ve been together as a group eight, nine years. He’s from Lefrak, and I’m from Woodside. When we started working together we just never stopped. I do a lot more of the sampling and he does a lot more of drums – now – ‘cos we kinda got it down to a science. Sometimes we do beats on our own, but most of the time we do everything together. Between the two of us we have like fifty crates of records. I might do the sample, he might do the drums, then I might play the bass line and we dump everything right into Pro Tools. He’s a DJ so if there’s scratches then he scratches – I’m an engineer so I’ll mix. Most of the stuff you hear from us that sounds good? I recorded it. (more…)
The artist formerly known as Tony Bones from The Home Office put together this ad for the Villain In Black’s new range of Swap Meet Snacks, which got me thinking – what are some rap endorsements that need to happen? Tim Dog’s Extra Beef Burgers? Lords of the Underground’s Squidgy Set? Neek The Exotic’s Exotic Spices of The Orient? OJ Da Juiceman’s Fruit and Vegetable Juicemaker?
You know that Shabaam Sahdeeq, Red Eye and Thorotracks came through with one of the hardest songs on the Counter Strike tape, right? Here’s more of the raw from these Queens representatives, with assists from Blaq Poet, Planet Asia, Krumb Snatcha, Reks and Gab Gacha. Look out for my interview with Sam from Thorotracks next week…
An amusing clip of Keith E.E. in happier days, breaking down some hip-hop basics. As we’re constantly reminded, he’s having ‘fun’. Maybe it was the Stella’s?
Here’s a track that didn’t make the Counter Strike tape. Un Pacino and H-Brando from Hard White rep over a Grimy Kid track. I ended-up using ‘Murder, She Wrote’ on the Counter Strike tape instead, but this works too. Courtesy of Ammo from G.I.T. Records.
As you would have heard by now, Keith E.E. ‘The Guru’ is seriously ill following a heart-attack. While there has been a flood of support from his friends and fans, this sad news has also given fuel to trolling douche bags to take some cheap shots at the man. Don’t get it twisted, bent-up or confused – at the height of their career, nobody was touching Gang Starr when it came to the classic MC / DJ combination. Not even Pete Rock & CL Smooth can match their legacy when you consider that The GURU and DJ Premier gave us three of the greatest rap albums ever made. Once Keith E.E. broke out from the Gangstarr Posse in Boston and hopped a Greyhound to the Rotten Apple – where he was soon to be paired-up with Texan DJ Premier – it was on like Donkey Kong. Following some early 12″s with The 45 King, No More Mr. Nice Guy introduced the world to the group known as Gang Starr in all their rough-around-the-edges glory. (more…)
If you’d told me that I’d be dropping a tape with DJ Doo Wop that featured exclusive tracks from some of New York’s finest back when I started Unkut Dot Com six years ago, I would have told you to stop smoking that shit. I’ve been through some ups and downs over that time, but Unkut has always held me down regardless. This is a small token of my appreciation to everyone who has supported and stuck by the site and kept things moving.
Shouts to everyone who came through and contributed to this project on the strength. Thanks to Ironlak for the support, eskay and Legend for helping to spread the word and of course the one and only Doo Wop who really knocked it out the park.
Still cold gettin’ dumb on you crumbs after six years…let’s go!
The topic of the seemingly endless stream of remakes of ‘The Bridge’ has already been well covered here and here. But there are also a lot of songs about the borough of Queens. Here are six of the best:
Run-DMC feat. Nas & Prodigy - ‘Queens Day’ (more…)
With a total of 324 votes (28% of the 1,143 cast) in the final round, J to the Mwah has taken the crown from Flavor Flav by only 23 votes. $hort Dog took the bronze medal with a respectable 25% of those polled. When asked for comment, Jada shouted ‘D-Block!’ and hung-up without delivering his (now award winning) laugh.
Featuring new and exclusive tracks from Smiley The Ghetto Child, Willie The Kid, Prospect, Kamakazee, F.T. aka Fuc That, Capone, Lord Nez, Killa Sha, Mayhem Lauren, Roc Marciano, Hard White, Milano, The Closers, Kool G Rap, Godchild, Copywrite, Nut-Rageous, Craig G, Tribeca, $amhill and The Doppelgangaz….
