BDK’s pioneering work with see-through outfits has yet to be properly acknowledged.

Another steal from XXL. This might be the only other decent track ever to feature in the Bangers section, given the glut of Southern trash on there. A little Big Daddy Kane unleased shit, taped off of Westwood’s show, from around the Prince of Darkness era, judging by the sing-songy sections of his lyrics that became an annoying part of his repertoire later in his career. The beat could be some Easy Moe Bee work, but that’s a rough guess. (more…)

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For those of us who can’t wait for the official Blaq Poet/DJ Premier album, “The Grand P.O.” has dropped a little something to hold us over. I was lucky enough to speak with this QB veteran recently, and here’s what had to say about this new shit:

So I see that you’ve got a new record called “Deja Screw” coming out. Is that a collection of all your mixtape stuff?

That’s just a lot of lyrics, like my verses from Y2K, my verses from Loyalty - verses from both those albums that I felt people didn’t really hear. So I was like “Yo, I’mma do those shits over again”, over some hot beats and let niggas hear it again, ‘cause I felt people didn’t hear that shit the way I wanted them to hear it.

Is the Year Round project with Premo still on track?

Yeah, the Year Round project is poppin’. I’m just waitin’ for Premier, whenever he’s finished doin’ what he’s doin’ – a lotta things right now. As soon as he’s finished we’re gonna start to wrap-up my album. Blaq Poet – The Best That Never Did It.

(more…)

This will be the last Ghostface post for a while, but since the retail version of Fishscale has been finalised, I thought I’d highlight a couple of things that didn’t make the final cut. “Charlie Brown” didn’t make it, nor did “Murder Goons” (aka “Hot 97”). To really confuse everyone, there seem to be three different versions of the Just Blaze produced “The Champ”. J-Love’s Hidden Darts Part 3 features a church organ running through the track, while the “advance” mix features the ol’ trusty sped-up vocal sample on the hook, while the official retail track has a variation (replayed?) of the horn loop but no organs or “fever” vocals. Luckily, Mr. T reps on all three. (more…)

Retreading the familiar ground of an ex-con trying to walk the straight and narrow, the story of Shadow (Bokeem Woodbine) and Sharon (Deborah Cox) is part romantic drama, part Van Damme flick. Before the plot reaches it’s predictable conclusion, the first three-quarters of the Blood of a Champion are pretty enjoyable, as the two leads keeps things moving with solid performances that exceed the low-budget feel of the sets and the supporting cast. Thanks to Shadow being one of the gulliest characters I’ve seen in a movie for a while, there are a number of highlights worth mentioning. (more…)

As one of the least prolific members of the original Flavor Unit, Markey Fresh still made quite an impression based upon his performance on “The King Is Here” alone. A brilliant slice of lo-fi theme music declaring the superiority of New Jersey’s king of the beats, this staple of Red Alert’s Kiss-FM show exists in two incarnations. The jeep-beat ready 12” version (complete with crafty “It’s Just Begun” horn chops) is far more commanding than the stripped down mix found on the King’s Master of the Game LP, but Markey’s lyrical dedication to the 45 rings true in both instances. (more…)

It had to be done, what with all this recent weed carrier / jewellery holder madness. That’s right, I’ve ressurected A Salute To Weed Carriers, redesigned and Blogger free! Bol and Combat Jack are joining us this time around, so this shit is bound to win.

45 King Update: Three more LP mp3’s added, as requested by Brian Beck and Jaz.

Some more Wu Tang posts:

O-Dub digs up the gay-looking cartoon caricatures that earned Ronin Ro Cheo H. Coker a punch in the face.

Obviously the proud owned of a new fake ID, Big Walt catches a Ghostface show.

The relaunched XXL Mag site (built with Wordpress, no less) has a review of Fishscale. Guess who got first comment on that shit? Sad, I know.

More importantly, fellow Mindset Army trooper Bol has a column on there as well. Elliot Wilson has also thrown his hat in on this whole blog shit, but I’m betting those will be the only two columns worth reading over there (with the possible exception of Krispy Ex - time will tell).

All of you production equipment nerds are gonna have a field day on this one, as the RZA drops science about analog vs. digital, samplers he’s messed with, mixing techniques and the whole nine. It’s incredible how influential his sound has been to today’s producers – don’t forget that only a couple of people were speeding-up soul vocals back then.

Wu-Related Extra Reading: While record reviews are a dime-a-dozen these days, live show reviews are usually good value. Joey from Straight Bangin’ has been on a winning streak with his show recaps, and these two maintain his high standard:

Wu Tang: Getting The Band Back Together

What The Fuck Is A Papoose?

Bol also delivered when he recounted a rare St. Louis appearence from Tony Starks.

And for those of you who can’t get enough Ghostface news, eskay threw up the official Fishscale tracklisting.

Also, you can catch the new J-Love’s Ghostface: Hidden Darts Pt. 3, which features more of J’s dope remixes and exclusives, over at The Smoking Section.

(far right) The Drama King before he discovered fried foods.

As a result of Bol pointing out that the XXL site is up, I got my hands on a little Ironman exclusive that didn’t make the album. For those of you who don’t fuck with streaming audio, I flipped it into an mp3. Don’t say I never do anything for ya! As an extra bonus, here’s a couple of stills of DJ Kayslay back in his Dez days, for the five of you who never saw Style Wars. (more…)

This is a strange one. While the logos on the label would have us believe that DJ Mark The 45 King recorded an album for Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam following the hit he gave Jay-Z (“Hard Knock Life”) in 1998, there’s really no reason to think this is anything but a bootlegger scam (the whole “Mark 45 King” thing doesn’t help either!). I can’t for the life of me picture Def Jam putting money up for a project that mainly features local unknowns’ Big Pooh and Lady Champain over a selection of well-known loops that would have cost a fortune to clear. (more…)

Another Vibe throwback. Too many quotables to mention on this one…especially Rae’s reaction to that Miami shit!

While I certainly had some reservations about an album from GFK and Zev, this new leak is renewing my enthusiasm for the project.

Ghostface Killah & MF Doom - Angels

Rejected album titles for this album (so far):

Face/Off
The Masked Avengers
Ghosts of Doom
Doomface
Ghostdoom
We Got The Internet Goin’ Nuts Pt. 2
Backpacker’s Wet Dream
Metal Iron Dudes
Comic Books R Cool
Men Of Steel (nullus)

Despite the fact that his classic debut single served as the inspiration for the name of his crew, Latee remains as one of the more enigmatic members of the New Jersey collective. Anyone who used to catch Kool DJ Red Alert’s show on KISS-FM would instantly recognise the block-rocking Fatback riff and earth-shattering kick drum combo of “This Cut’s Got Flavor”, as it was a fixture of Red’s “45 King Specials” for a year before it even made it onto vinyl. (more…)