As is quickly becoming a habit around here, I’ve had this laying around for a couple of months already but I finally forced my self to watch it. Whoever designed the cover should slap them selves around for a minute or so, since having corny dudes like Lil “Big Man” Jon, Kanye Liberache and Lloyd “Brianna” Banks Photoshopped onto the cover was hardly encouraging me to throw this into the DVD player. Fact is, these humps hardly feature in this doco, and all the better for it.
If you can get past the “epic” narration, verbose explanations and pointless “3-D” computer graphics, this is actually pretty decent half-decent. There are some quality moments with Kay Slay, Brucie-B and them, as well as some embarassing appearances from some guy with a bootleg CD store in his mother’s basement who yells a lot (sounds like the formula for a star blogger), and everyone’s favorite lip-gloss spokesman Sticknmove (star blogger? not so much), back before he discovered white sunglasses and a dental plan. Come to think of it, this is actually a fairly painful experience to sit through. You might want to wait until someone uploads the good parts to YouTube, since I’m fairly certain you’ll learn nothing of any importance form this flick that you didn’t already know, except for Dez’s tips on catching a vic.
Try and sit through this preview and you’ll have a glimpse into the pain I suffered so that you don’t have to:
As one of the most influential beat-makers of the late 80’s, The 45 King brought horns up front like no one had thought to do before him, setting the stage for Pete Rock to flip them for his own signature style during his ‘93-’94 takeover. But where he really made his mark was on full-length projects, as Mark constructed masterful albums with Lakim Shabazz and Chill Rob G, as well as being the dominant force behind Queen Latifah’s first step into showbiz. But his reach didn’t end there, as he’s provided some more recent hits for Jay-Z (“Hard Knock Life”) and Eminem (“Stan”), and is currently recording new material with Chill Rob and Lakim.
When I spoke to Mark early one morning, he excused himself to go take a nap or something so I never got the chance to ask him about his superior rhyme skills and a bunch of other shit. I was meant to call him the next day but it never happened. Hopefully I’ll do a part two eventually but this will have to do for now. All I need now is a Latifah post and the Flavor Unit Special is just about a wrap!
The 45 King: My question…what do you think my stage name is?
Robbie: Your stage name? Umm…I guess on the early records it was DJ Mark The 45 King…but nowadays you call yourself The 45 King.
Thank-you…thank-you. Thank-you very much.
A lotta people get that mixed up?
Yeah. Then they cut it Mark 45 King. That’s incorrect. It’s not like I’m Jazzy Jeff or anybody – so me correcting myself – “he got some nerve!”
Milano Constantine has endured some setbacks – such as losing his deal with WB when they dropped T-Ray’s label – but has maintained slinging his own brand of Uptown slick talk regardless. From his earlier vinyl drops over Show and Ahmed beats, to his more recent appearances on songs from The Beatnuts, P Brothers and Grim Team, Rudy (to you) is staying sharp over “music from the dungeon”.
Since these two are about to “face-off” on the charts, it seems only right to dig out this old mixtazpe they did two years back:
I just got my hands on this new mix CD/DVD team-up between Curtis “Metro” Jackson and Kanye “Liberache” West, called Vogue Men Presents: Talking Fashion. Here’s my exclusive, track-by-track review:
While I was nodding-off during Big Shug’s “Weed Carrier For Life” vocals on his new CD (although that MoSS kid brought some nice breaks to the table), I noticed a short track that includes, between anti-Serato lines and shutting-down any “new Preme” talk, a less-then-subtle message to some of Premier’s former collaborators that’s summed-up in this rant from Shug at the end:
“I can’t believe some of you niggas done forgot about that real neck-breaking music from DJ Premier. I know y’all made money and went corporate, but nigga you know you ‘sposed to have that shit from Premier! And you – Mr. Nasty Man, we all love your shit, but you know you need DJ Premier! It is what it it is. And yo! Little fella! We doin’ alright. Come back by the crib, ‘cause you know that you need DJ Premier!”
In a bizarre twist of fate, I was recently sent a couple of books to check out from an indy publisher, and the first one I tackled appeared to be one of those corny “rap business guides” at first glance, but actually turned out to have a major connection to my on-going series looking at Hydra Entertainment. What are the odds, right? Turns out this Creature guy (who wrote the majority of this book) was a member of the Triflicts – who released one of the first singles on the label in ‘96 and also counted Beatnuts associate Gab Gotcha as a third of the trio. Hydra only gets mentioned for a couple of paragraphs, and it’s not exactly flattering, but it sparked my interest enough to keep reading this thing instead of downloading porn.
Taken from this recent post that Stretch dropped, I’ve grabbed the section where the Kool Genius drops by the station with MF Grimm at 3 in the morning. What follows is 45 minutes of lives raps, snaps and the funniest call-in sessions ever. No shit – I almost drove off the road I was laughing so hard at some of Sear’s put-downs. I’m still trying to comprehend what would possess someone to try and rap over the phone using his or Nas’ style when G’s siting there?
More videos….a few of them from the Grim Team CD (I know I’m kinda sweating that shit but I can’t front on the line-up of hardcore New Yorkers on there), plus a welcome appearance from the Trag Invasion and Erick Sermon’s surprising return to form on Rap City for the two of you that haven’t seen it yet.
If you caught the interview I posted with Marco Polo last week, you might have noticed his mention of the EMC album, which is Masta Ace, Punch, Words and Strick. They just dropped a video to introduce themselves:
