For a number of reasons I won’t bore you with here, I’ve been on dial-up for the last year or so, but now i’m back on cable as of yesterday which means I can finally catch-up with the rest of the universe and mess with YouTube without waiting for that shit to load. First thing I found was a Future Music Magazine promo that Pete Rock did for the MPC, which is notable if for no other reason than the fact that he chops up “Love Is A Battlefield”?! (Quick, better call Dip Set to get on that). I’m betting that most of you have already seen this, but just in case: (more…)

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One of the early members of the Flavor Unit, Double J doesn’t feature on much of their output other than his spot on “The Flavor Unit Assination Squad” and a couple of 12”s. He mentions how it all started in an old Hip Hop Connection piece:

“We used to do block parties in Jersey City where I was born and raised. Me, Latee and Zeke met up with DJ Mark in 1988 and he introduced us to this other rapper named Apache and the rest of the Flavor Unit.”

He also explains how he got his deal with Island Records on the strength of his appearence in a homemade video of the crew that Fab Five Freddy had shot. (more…)

As the result of booze-impared judgement, I signed-up for an MP3 “record pool” last week, and sure enough started seeing my inbox filling-up with shitty R&B “club bangers”. When a new CL Smooth joint arrived yesterday, I damn-near spilled my Beck’s from the shock of actually being sent something worth hearing! While The Mecca Don’s recent outbursts against his former DJ (which included calling him a “a faggot” a bunch of times) indicate that Pete Rock will never work with him again, I could care less really. They did their thing already and left us wih a bunch of classics, so why sweat a reunion? (more…)

I have to admit that I was shocked to read a few comments in my last post that a few people feel that Return of The Funky Man isn’t that great of an album. This is complete madness. As great as Funky Technician was, Finesse’s second album is my shit. This may be partly because when it came out I was temporarily without a turnatable and went through a period of buying tapes, but that cassette stayed in my Sony for years.

Here’s ten reasons why this album is awesome:

1. It features numerous appearences from the legendary Grandpa Finesse.

2. Much like Mecca and the Soul Brother, almost every song on Return… is at least four minutes long, making for about 70 minutes of classic D.I.T.C. beats.

3. The tape has an exclusive Showbiz produced song called “Hands In The Air, Mouth Is Shut”, which is fuckin’ dope.

4. The two tracks featuring Percee-P are two of the greatest displays of raw lyrics ever put down on record.

5. It’s the first and last time we’ll ever hear from Shell Rumble and the original Harry-O.

If you’re a true rap magazine junkie then you’ve no doubt got some old issues of Hip Hop Connection stashed somewhere. This rag has been doing it’s thing since 1988 over in not-so-sunny England, and while it’s always had it’s fair share of crap articles over the years, it was also the only place you could find decent interviews with people like Tragedy, Lakim Shabazz and Hard Knocks. The review pages are a different matter all together, guilty of panning awsome albums like Straight Outta Compton and Lord Finesse’s Return of the Funky Man, which they complained was “too basic” (and rated as one star out of five if I remeber correctly), while some bullshit like the Dream Warriors received top marks.

This short interview, which ran as a triple feature on Rhyme Syndicate artists (anyone remember Hen-G and Evil-E’s awful Brothers LP?) seems to do it’s best to paint Finesse as some kind of skirt-chasing party animal, even going as far as to include snide remarks from the editor!?

This is without a doubt the most important vote you’ll ever cast:

First Annual Weed Carrier Awards

* Update *

New Poll Added:

Hey, Why Weren’t These Guys Nominated? – The Most Glaring Omission From Original List Award

It seems Marley Marl has been busy lately, and while there are plenty of stories about credit disputes / ghost producing floating around these days, you can’t deny that after all these years he’s still bringing that gritty “project sound” to everything he touches. (more…)

Originally printed in Modern Fix #51.

Despite having maintained his position as one of hip-hop’s most enduring tough guys for the last twenty years, Blaq Poet refuses to be stuck in the past. As he proclaims on “Bang This” (the opening track on his latest album): “My mindstate is ‘88. but my style is ‘09…I’m an OG, but I’m gettin’ that new money!”. Having survived through the Bridge wars, a stint on Tuff City in the early nineties as part of PHD and two albums as a member of Screwball, Poet is sounding hungrier than ever and taking even less shit than usual. Having spent the last couple of years building a heavy street buzz thanks to a strong selection of DJ Premier assisted mixtape bangers and a couple of dope singles, he’s just released Rewind: Deju Screw [Screwball] to hold us over until his official solo album drops. (more…)

“The world is mine, yo!”

Ever since Master P found sucess with his straight-to-video flicks, the Rapsloitation genre has spread like wildfire. The basic formula involves watching Scarface a few times, writing a corny, updated version of the story and calling up a few rappers to make cameo’s. Statistic meets all these criteria and then some, as the cover bills Mobb Deep, Redman and the Lost Boyz as starring. What this actually means is that Prodigy appears for about 10 seconds, Mr. Cheeks and ‘em are in a scene, and Redman features as a semi-retarded gunman. (more…)

Thanks to the suprising generosity of a few of you (check your inbox’s tomorrow for a little somethin’ somethin’), we raised enough money to renew and upgrade our hosting for another year, and with the money left over I was finally able to purchase my dream car – in solid gold, no less. You may now resume enjoying free shit, never to be troubled by that pesky Paypal button ever again.

To show my appreciation, the next few days will see some serious heat posted up in here (in between cruising the block in my shimmering new ride), not to mention I’ll attempt to finish-up the Flavor Unit series, which seems to have been dragging on for months. Although that’s hardly a bad thing, is it?

* TARGET MET. THE FUNDRAISER HAS FINISHED *

Yesterday I got a message reminding me that my hosting bill was due, and while I was happy to fund it myself a year ago when I first got it hooked up, I thought “Hey, instead of cutting into my booze budget, maybe I should get a few bucks from some of the good folk and/or deadbeats that read this site and get free shit all the time.” (more…)

I notice that there’s plenty of Coup action over at Whoola Town and the Dub B U HQ, but the highlight of their impressive new album (out this week) has to be the hilarious skits. There have been some entertaining portrayal of square white guys over the years on interludes, but “Yes ‘Em To Death” takes the cake. “Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Down” is a great take on those motivational videos that certain companies try to shove down your throat as soon as they employ you, featuring Ice T’s good buddy Jello Biafra.

The Coup - Yes ‘Em To Death (skit) [Pick A Bigger Weapon, Epitah, 2006]

The Coup - Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Down (skit) [Pick A Bigger Weapon, Epitah, 2006]