It’s no secret that G Rap isn’t shy to drop a guest spot here and there, but even at his prime, it seems that Giancana wasted some bars on records with jerk-off’s like Ali Dee and Pudgee The “Fudge Packing” Phat Bastard. On those occasions when he’s selected a worthy tag-team partner though, the results have been top notch.

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Once again the trusty ol’ mixtape blend comes through for those of you who had trouble sitting through Hip-Hop Is Dead without throwing up a little bit in your mouth. These two cuts from Statik Selektah’s The Prophecy 2 CD ((1. Not exactly brand new, but when has that ever stopped me?)) are so nice that they’ve just turned-up on a white label vinyl EP.

Nas - Where Y’All At? (B-Boy Mix) [The Prophecy 2: The Beginning of The N, 2006]

Nas - Talk of NY (Hard To Earn Mix) [The Prophecy 2: The Beginning of The N, 2006]

Just before he released what turned out to be the best album of 2006, I talked to producer K-Def about working with Marley Marl, his first group, a run-in with D.I.T.C. and the science of breaks. Look out for his album with El Da Sensai and a second instrumental full-length in 2007.

Robbie: The stuff you did for the Theodore Unit album – did you know Ghostface from the “Real Live” remix?

K-Def: We worked together back in ‘96. I was in college at the time, and the two tracks I got to him, one of ‘em happened to be “It’s Over”. From there I went down to Miami and recorded with him, kind of touched base from what we was doin’ back in the day, it was all good. From the Theodore Unit, actually I had gave him stuff that was supposed to have been on the Pretty Tony thing, but he never really got a chance to get to it. I guess he got swamped with too many songs, so he decided to put it on Theodore Unit, being that it was more an independent aside from Def Jam.

I think there were some sample issues.

“Paychecks” was really a problem, I had to replay it all over.

Do you feel that some of your beats in the past have out-shined some of the MC’s that you’ve worked with?

I’ve been hearing that a million and one times. I’ve heard everyone tell me “Yo, the rappers weren’t good enough for your beats”...but it’s the game, man. It is what it is.

Were you rolling with Larry-O back in the days?

In ‘86, ‘87, I hooked-up with Awesome Two – Special K and Teddy Ted – and they lived around my way. They kinda got me a lot of the parties in New York, they got me a lotta parties around the way. Back then there was a lotta rappers coming through my town. From there, I think it was ‘88, I got with Larry-O, we did an album. We had signed with an independent label called Tav Dash Records – they had R. Kelly at the time signed too, before he blew-up and went to Jive. We were supposed to come out in 88, we went to Tommy Boy, we went to Wild Pitch, we went to Select, we went to Profile, Def Jam...and everybody was scared of us at the time, so it didn’t really work out.

Welcome to the next level of the Weed Carrier takeover.

Next up: Unkut.com speaks with K-Def.

When you combine massive amounts of booze, trees and whatever else was popping-off that night, you can really reach the next level of shit talking, as Jim Jones and Freeky Zeeky (fresh out of the bing) get ignorant in the best possible way:

Adding on to my endorsement of 1986, it’s worth noting that DJ Revolution also presents a solid argument for 1985’s place in the history books, thanks in no small part to an ill Back To The Future drop and the jaw-dropping way he destroys “Rock The Bells”. Admittedly, ‘85 suffered from every second song being based around the theme songs from Gilligan’s Island and Inspector Gadget, but there’s still some great shit on here plus a lot more scratching than the ‘86 mix.

A Salute To Weed Carriers – back…again? Third time’s a charm as Dallas Penn provides a new article to the long neglected dedication to rap’s bag holders. Guess I better start updating again as we lead up to the Second Annual Weed Carrier Awards.

Despite Kool G Rap’s formidable lyrical abilities, you can’t front on Big Daddy Kane’s popularity when he was at the height of his powers. This live recording from 1989 leaves little doubt who was the people’s choice at that time (at least as far as the broads were concerned).

Biz Markie, Positive K and Big Daddy Kane - Live Freestyle

Finishing up from Part 1, Fatal breaks down meeting-up with Tragedy, working with Marley Marl, production secrets and his love of all things pornographic.

Robbie: There was another song you were on called “El Gran Combo” that was on Main One’s album.

Joe Fatal: Do you have that record? I love that record, I’ve been trying to find that record for ever, and cannot find it. I didn’t even know the name of the song. Fat Joe was on it, right?

Yeah, and Domingo did the beat. It’s a dope record.

Correct. I think I got kinda busy on that record, man.

You killed it, man.

I think I killed it on that record! I’ve been trying to pick the name of that record, I thought it never came out. That’s actually the day that I met Fat Joe, and me and him became very good friends. He actually even became my son’s godfather. Me and him became real good friends from that day on. I walked in and he met me, and said “Yo Fatal! ‘Live At The BBQ’! You ripped it! You’re another Puerto Rican!” and this and this and that. When I spit a verse with him on that record, he looked at me and said: “Oh my god! You’re incredible!” I said “Thank you”, and then from then on, me and him became good friends. Thanks for even bringing that record up. I was actually on Serch’s album as well. I did a record with him called “Social Narcotics”. I was in the process of being his artist and he put me on that record.

You did some beats on the second Fat Joe album didn’t you?

Yeah, exactly. I did “Respect Mine” with Raekwon, and I did “Bronx Keeps Creating It”. That’s when I started to pursue my “Producer” career. I went through stages, man. I did the producer thing for a minute, but at that time it was frustrating, because producers weren’t really making money back then, you know? Producers now are getting 150 grand a track. Back then, we were getting 2,500, 3,000 a track…7,500 if you were kinda known. The only ones that were getting higher numbers for remixes and stuff was like Pete Rock and Premier, they was getting like 20,000 for a remix. You used to get more money back then for a remix than for a track, because you didn’t get any royalties on the remix. So it was like a one-off.

For the proof, listen to this…

I’ll get into this in more detail soon, but here’s a few reasons why 1986 was better than ‘88 and ‘94:

1. Just-Ice and Mantronik created “Cold Gettin’ Dumb”, which is without a doubt one of the greatest songs ever created in the history of modern music.

2. You had the option of doing either the Pee Wee Herman, The Wop, The Fila or The Rooftop when your favorite jam came on.

3. The drums on every song were capable of shattering car windows.

4. Less records were being released every week, therefore there was less wack shit out there.

5. Ultramagnetic MC’s unleashed “Ego Trippin’” on the world.

As usual, the real story is with street-level independents for decent new rap. A couple of new Nature Sounds releases have some gritty material worth checking out – the digital-only release of Natural Selections 2.0 delivers a good assortment of shit on there, in particular a new burner from RA The Rugged Man who continues his winning streak and leaky-leak flow with “Super”. There also seems to be another misguided attempt by Little Brother to get at Bol on “Fan Mail”, as well as some new Beatnuts material and that dope Pete Rock / D-Block combo.

Back in December of 2004, I wrote a little piece about MF Grimm and “Live At The BBQ” which resulted in this comment a month later:

pudgee can kiss my ass, plus did he ever confess in the source that he was the gay rapper?
j.f.
Comment by Joe Fatal 01.19.05

Naturally I had to investigate this hilarious statement in detail, and a few weeks later I was speaking to Joe about his many experiences as a true “jack of all trades” in the hip-hop game. Not long afterwards, he dropped off the radar again until JF stopped by Oh Word with a comment regarding his legal woes in this excellent feature about him before vanishing from the public eye once again. You might know his name from Tragedy’s first album, a Lord Finesse shout-out or his world famous Main Source cameo at the “BBQ”, but it turns out that Joe Burgos has had a hand in far more classic music than I would have ever imagined.

Robbie: As far as I know, you were Tragedy’s original DJ?

Joe Fatal: Man, I was Tragedy’s DJ…as a young kid I used to roll with Eric B. and Rakim, I rolled with G Rap, I introduced Large Professor from the Main Source to everybody he knew at the time…I’m responsible for a lot of things that happened in the history of hip-hop and never really got credit for it.

Yeah, because The Source and all those magazines have never really given you any love.

Nah, and I was around when The Source started. I knew Dave Mays, and I knew Benzino when he was Ray-Dog back then, and I knew [James] Bernard and Rob Telow and Matty C and everybody back then when The Source was starting, man. I used to roll with those cats. Used to hang out in clubs and meet-up and have a good time, but I never really got the love and the respect that I deserved, you know?

That’s messed up.

It also has something to do with…nah, I’m not even gonna turn it into a race issue, but I had to pay a little more dues than everybody else because of my skin complexion. Even though I’m Puerto Rican – I appear to be straight white. I had to pay a lotta dues man, because hip-hop – a culture that at the time was predominantly black, even though Puerto Ricans were down with the hip-hop culture since day one. I mean, I think we originated breakdancing. But it was kind of harder back then, especially with my color eyes, my color complexion… I was seen – at times – as a perpetrator. But I really wasn’t. They didn’t know what I really was. So that was part of it [chuckling]. I think that was part of me not being with Tragedy when he became The Intelligent Hoodlum – but that’s another story.

Beer gimmick of the year – the Heiny mini-keg!

Best Blog for Obscure Rap Albums: Without a doubt, the crew at Bust The Facts killed it this year with everything from Miami Bass albums to Supreme Nyborn. Sure, I’m not about to kick back with a Heineiken mini-keg and listen to all four of Candyman’s albums anytime soon, but it’s nice to have the option.

Best Top 10 Posts of 2006 Round-Up: Maybe I’m a little biased, but any list that contains four mentions of Unkut Dot Com material is alright in my book. The cheque’s in the mail, Fresh.

Rap-Related Diorama of the Year: Wu-Peanuts, of course! The perfect compliment to the Grand Royal cardboard Bass Jeep.

Bugged-Out Day At Powerplay Award: From crowning Sean Combs the “King Of All Jigs” to finding the connection between Kelis and Chewy, Dallas Penn Dot Com continued to bring the pain to the lame. Plus it hosted a couple of superb come-upperences courtesy of Combat Jack.

Live Show of the Year: I didn’t bother going to many, but witnessing Lord Finesse rip shit with DJ Roc Raida a few months back was pretty fuckin’ epic. No need for twenty dudes running around – or even a hype man for that matter – as the Funkyman “stepped on stage with authority and confidence”. Highlights included watching him son the soundman and join Raida for a cutting session.

Several weeks after the start of “G Rap Week” (which should really be “Month” but who’s counting) I’ve been able to dig up what I still consider to be the definitive Kool G Rap interview, thanks to Cheo H. Coker, B+ and RapPages. Pretty much everything you’d want to know about the early years is covered here, as well as the precise sequence of “competitive” joints where G and Big Daddy Kane tussled for the spot of top dog at the House that Marley built. Based on the poll from the last G Rap post, 52% of you think that Kane might’ve been a little shark-like in terms of imitating G’s style from the radio session they did over the “Raw” beat. 16% declared BDK a straight-up biter, while 32% of Big Daddy loyalists refused to hear any talk of a rip-off.

But the real question is – based on the songs G Rap mentions in the interview, who was the supreme lyricists of the J-U Ice?