I found this fairly amusing – it seems that my half-baked theories regarding Jeru The Damaja’s relationship with Biggie have been “immortalized” in the Jeru Wikipedia entry. Here’s the original article and the resulting “fall-out”.

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Listening to Godfather Don’s post-Hazardous demos and early Hydra work compared to his latter output reveals a distinct change in both his style and attitude. From his humble beginning as an abstract jazz type rapper to his Biggieinfluenced jignorant material, the gawd has been putting it down in his own unique style. “Styles By The Gram”, “Seeds of Hate” and “On The Other Style” present intensive verbal work over sinister tracks, while “Status” and “Da Bomb Baby” offer a slightly more accessible angle. The original mix of “Burn” brings more of the raw complete with a choice B.I.G. hook, and album track “Do You Know” showcases Don’s buttery flow over an exquisite GD production.¹ Finally, “3 The Hard Way” combines Don with RA and Prince Poetry for one of the more eccentric posse cut’s you’ll ever hear.

1. 1. Not to be confused with Party Arty and DFlow. [back]

Hawking back to the shitty radio trend of announcers asking their guests to name the music they’d want to have on hand should they happen to be marooned somewhere with a portable stereo and a power supply. Straight Bangin’ put out the call, and although I initially just dug up my list from last year, the request was for twenty-five long-players, plus a lot can change in a year as far as what’s rockin’. The Godfather Don piece is almost finished (check back tomorrow Illest) but since DP called me out on this I might as well have a swing.

Here’s the Unkut Dot Com affishul 25 picks at this exact moment of time. Not necessarily “the best” rap albums ever but the one’s that I’d need to maintain my sanity in a Lost-type scenario:

Thanks to the good folks over at the San Diego-based Modern Fix magazine, I’m now the official “Hip-Hop Editor” over there, and my first issue behind the wheel hits the street this week. I handled the cover story and four other interviews, which you can check out below. I’ll also be posting some stuff on the new MF site from time to time.

DJ A-Trak

Brother J from X-Clan

Breeze Brewin from the Juggaknots

Lord Jamar

Termanology

Meanwhile, at Unkut – stay tuned for the Godfather Don vinyl special in the next day or so…..

The next couple of weeks here at Unkut Dot Com are dedicated to the mighty Hydra Entertainment label, the Queens-based indy that brought us Screwball, Godfather Don and Gab Gotcha – street-loved underground records that delivered everything that Rawkus wanted to be but never really achieved (but more on that later). To set it off, here’s an old interview I did with label founder Jerry Famolari over a year ago. Look out for a conversation with his original label partner and producer Mike Heron to follow, as well as in-depth features on Screwball and Godfather Don’s releases on Hydra.

Robbie: So how did you get your start in the music industry?

Jerry: In ‘88, I used to live in this place called Lefrak City where a lot of kids used to rap, so I would finance their sessions. From ‘88 till about ‘90 I was financing different people, like V.I.C. from The Beatnuts and some other guys that he was doing, and then in ‘90 I opened up my own label – which was predominantly a House label – called Sneak Tip Records. So we started with that in August of ‘90, and then in ‘94 we opened up Hydra. Mike [Heron] and I go back since Junior High school. He used to just do beats, and he told me there was a location where he used to live that was for rent – I used to work out of my apartment back then – so we took the space and he came in as my partner. He started doing promotion actually, and he didn’t know anything about it, so he got some lists and used to make the calls, and little by little we started building our mailing list and stuff like that. I used to do the retail and the distribution, and I used to handle all the House stuff. We started mixing everything together somehow, we started employing friends of ours, and little by little it just got bigger. We reached out to Godfather Don, and started with Don, then we were looking for Poet – who was from right there in Queensbridge, because the office was in Long Island City which is about ten blocks from the actual projects. When we found Poet he was working Kamakazee and Hostyle, and they had a group called Screwball. So we ended up signing them in ‘94 or ‘95.

It’s been a long time since the “future of record pools” has actually supplied something reasonable, but there ya go. Indy “super group”¹ Polyrhythm Addicts follow-up their suprisingly strong EP from eight years ago with some new shit. As with the old stuff, DJ Spinna is the star of the show here, while the broad remains as the weakest link. Another 90’s survivor, Skillz finally does something not involving the end of the year, enlisting Philly’s bearded-wondah Freeway for a dumb-out session over a catchy Just Blaze rip-off. Let us not forget the blasphemous remake of “Live At The BBQ” that D-Dot threw together with some accapella re-heats. Thing is, Black Rob over “Nautilus” is the best thing I’ve heard in a minute, and if you can ignore the other toy verses not involving Biggie or BR then it’s an enjoyable distraction for a couple of minutes.

Polyrhythm Addicts feat. Pharoahe Monch - Reachin’

Skillz feat. Freeway - Don’t Act Like You Don’t Know

D-Dot featuring Biggie Smalls, Black Rob, Ness and Aasim - Live At The BBQ 2007

1. 1. I use the term loosly, considering that Shabaam Shadeeq and Mr. Complex were only ever moderately popular in the Rawkus era. [back]

Three reasons why Stretch Armstrong’s blog is killing it:

Run over the “My Melody” beat

Schooly-D and DJ Cash Code Money on the P-Fine & Lyvio G show, 1987

Nas and Big L on the Stretch Armstrong show in ‘93

Plus I need to start ripping some old tape shit again myself…

Following-up Keir’s interview with A-Butta, here’s a piece contributed by Idris “Intifada” Robinson from Vexed Perspectives:

During the ‘90s, Swigga went by L-Swift and composed a third of the explosive rhyme trio Natural Elements. As L-Swift, Swigga released a string of underground classics both as a solo artist and with Natural Elements. Natural Elements eventually broke up due to problems associated with their contract to Tommy Boy records (every record label sucks dick). During the dispute with the label, Swigga was hospitalized after lapsing into a coma for several days. After waking, he returned to the rap game equipped with a new outlook and a name-change and has been releasing independent hip-hop throughout the decade.

Idris: What was the reason behind the name change from L-Swift to Swigga?

Swigga: L-Swift was from the 7th grade. The type of music I make post-2000 is different from L-Swift. I had mad demons before. They piled up. When I survived being hospitalized in 2000, I was living a second life. Swigga is like a super L-Swift. Business-wise and musically I was different when I woke up. God changed what I was doing.

While researching for this interview, I learned more about you through the internet than seemed possible in the 90s, when you first started out. I was unaware you were born in the Caribbean. Do you think you will ever do any sort Hip-Hop with Calypso influence?

I would do that on a separate tangent. When I’m in that mode, I would record that down there. Anything I do, if I’m on a record, I don’t want mix too many zones. I don’t want to alienate people. St. Lucia, where I’m from, no one blew up from out of there. I’m going to be the only one.

Not only is every single 80’s and 90’s rapper attempting a “comeback” these days, but we’re also witnessing all kinds of re-issues of vinyl only material and studio outtakes, which could be interpreted as an admission that “OK, maybe our new stuff ain’t so hot – but check this old shit out!” Not that I’m complaining. First off, J-Love’s Streetcore label compiles some quality Mobb Deep winners from the vaults, which comprises of unreleased heaters from all the way back to The Infamous era up until the G-Unit stage. While we don’t get blessed with “Bridge ‘94” or “Avirex”, “Everyday Gunplay” and the Tragedy combo on “First Day of Spring” are two prime examples of the supremacy of anti-social QBC ignorance. What’s fucking with this caliber of material right now? Throw these two tracks on, followed by The War Report and some Trag and IMAN Thug team-ups, and you’ve got yourself all you need for an evening of gun-clap rap excellence. Some of the more recent stuff also hits home, as the Alchemist’s “Backwards” still appeals after numerous appearances as the backing track on various mixtapes.