Here’s a new drop from Unkut Dot Com’s New York correspondent Idris Intifada:
After Kwest Tha Madd Ladd rhymes you’re banned from using writing utensils. Those who have heard Kwest’s lyrical prowess will agree that this penalty is just. Other rappers should stop writing and start robbing banks like Steady B. As an MC, he’s got it all; a unique voice, advance rhyme patterns and versatility of subject matter. Yet due to a music industry founded on stupidity he is criminally slept-on. Although Kwest’s debut full-length This is My First Album released on American in 1996 didn’t receive the promotion it deserved, those who have had the chance to hear the LP, his appearances on several 12 inches or witnessed the destructive nature of his battle-raps will agree that he possesses a remarkable talent. In recent years, the fans have been left unfulfilled by an industry that refuses to support gifted artists and subsequently we have heard very little from the Queens-based MC. Questions about Kwest’s whereabouts have arisen due to his seeming disappearance from Hip-Hop. Baseless conjectures claiming that Kwest has met an untimely death or is living on the street have surfaced on internet message board rumor mills.
I had the pleasure to interview Kwest and quash the false rumors. The truth is that Kwest is an uncompromising artist who refuses to change his craft in order to sell records. He is releasing a LP consisting of previously unreleased cuts on No Sleep Recordings that exemplify his unbending devotion to great music. I present below a long overdo interview that will hopefully begin a trend in giving Kwest the attention he deserves.
Idris: What have you been up to? There are a lot of rumors floating around. Can you breakdown the hiatus?
Kwest: [laughs] My untimely demise was greatly exaggerated! DL, my friends and I all have day-jobs. We consider ourselves purists. We sit together and throw around trivia that everyone should know but doesn’t. The underground scene I came from and respected so much eventually got saturated and they went on to making radio singles. Dudes I respected ended up flipping and doing the same 16 bars then a hook. That’s when I had to fall back. I would do some joints, like the Groove Attack B-side but people weren’t appreciating what was coming out. (more…)
It goes without saying that the new Ghostface is a million times more interesting than the Wu-Tang LP. While both of them share a love for classic break-beats, RZA managed to fuck-up most of the decent songs on the group album by adding abysmal singing to half the tracks (at least grab Blue Raspberry from whatever 7-11 she’s working at if you need hooks!), while Starks continues to win regardless. That being said, The Big Doe Rehab seems more like a mixtape than a true album – which adds weight to the argument that the Ironman needs to stop churning out so much music – but that’s the way shit rolls these days I guess. (more…)
…only you don’t get rich off of it. Still, for those of you sick of straining your eyes reading shit off a screen, you can get some Unkut print action from:
EPMD once cited Phil Collins as their favorite artist, much to the astonishment of British journalists who consider the one-time Genesis drummer to be a boring old fart. The World Famous Brucie B swears that “In The Air Tonight” was killing it in the roller skating rinks in the 80s, and I vaguely recall some shitty Lil’ Kim song that actually had the bald bastard re-doing his hook. Fast forward to the 2000-era, and another boring Brit seems to have captured the hearts of the Rotten Apple. Yup, you guesed it…Coldplay front-man Chris Martin – who shares the same government as DJ Premier but none of the aural innovation – has recently been recruited for records with both Jay-Z and Kanye “Liberache” West. (more…)
Show is Bronx rap royalty. Besides his stellar work with Andre The Giant, he’s blessed his Diggin’ In The Crates crew (O.C., Big L, Diamond D, Lord Finesse, Fat Joe) with countless classic tracks, and produced winners for legends like KRS-One and Big Pun all the way up to today’s finest such as Joell Ortiz and Milano. After I was played six cuts from the new Show & AG album, I had the chance to build with the Show B-I-Z late one Friday night to discuss the state of the music game, the importance of the Boogie Down BX and why sample-based hip-hop will never play-out.
Robbie: Is this the first time that you and AG have recorded in a few years?
Show: Definitely, it’s been a few years. Since ’99 or 2000. At this moment me and A still trying to get our own vibe back, coz I’m really tryin’ to grow, far as musically, and AG still like to do what he do also. So we’re just trying to connect in the right way, where we both feel good about it. After we do that, it’s back to putting our crew back in effect.
I guess it’s not a situation where you can try to make Runaway Slave Part 2. You’ve gotta do new stuff but try to capture the same chemistry.
Yeah, but that takes a while. Mind you, when we was doin’ our first stuff, that wasn’t just nothing we just did – that was a couple of years worth of material and we just took the best ones. That’s how sometime an album have to be made.
Did you have a crew before you got down with AG?
Yeah, I had a couple of crews! One of them was Maxwell House, and I was down with this guy named Lance Romance. My deejay name was Little Rock and Lance Romance. There’s a couple of vinyls out there, floating. They’re real valuable and they real rare. (more…)
Late 90’s indy rap fiends might remember the Houston-based K-Otix. Turns out the guy behind the boards is now doing his own thing and producing for other groups, and when I was assigned to interview him for a mag I found some quality free concept albums he’s put together to showcase his superior beat-chopping skills. The most recent is his unique take on classic MJ/J5 records called Dem Damb Jacksons, while even more enjoyable was his reworking of all the samples from Tribe Called Quests‘ third LP for Manipulated Marauders (just don’t tell Lupe). Thanks to Rappers I Know for the links, and check out The ARE’s MySpace to hear the new record he just did for Lil’ Kim. (more…)
Normal service will resume shortly, when I drop the Percee-P interview. Until then, here’s a re-up of my Breeze Brewin interview I did for Modern Fix last year:
As demonstrated over memorable yet sporadic appearances over the 90’s, lead Juggaknot Breeze Brewin is remarkable in his ability to deliver verses that are immediately rewarding but still reveal new angles after repeated listens. The Juggaknots aren’t a one-man show as siblings Queen Herawin and Buddy Slim more than earn their keep. As music keeps getting dumber (and not the good kind of dumb, either), Use Your Confusion offers some much needed brainfood.
Robbie: You’ve got a nice guest-list on the album.
Breeze: I did a record with Nine, being from the Bronx, I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. I did a record with Sadat X which was real cool. I lived in New Rochelle for a bit when that whole Brand Nubian joint popped off. Cats who were strong influences…and of course Slick Rick. Who wouldn’t want to do a record with Slick Rick?
Sadat’s still killing it these days.
I’m impressed that Sadat has maintained his status. A lot of guys that have been in the game that long aren’t sounding so great these days, but he’s still firing with the hot shit. He’s bugged, man. He’s a real artist. When we was doing the record…just his taste in beats and his approach was very professional but still very artistic. His flow has gotten more complex as time had gone on – more intricate – and you can tell how he’s messing with patterns and different things…there’s definitely an artistic agenda there. (more…)
Just got sent this mixtape from France’s DJ Modesty. A quality collection of mostly up-and-coming rappers from the Q.U., including a dude called Nutrageous (!?) Definitely some quality stuff on here for any disciples of “The Desert” . (more…)
Here’s what happens when I step outta my comfort zone. Although I usually drop the extended version here, this edit is a better read. From Vapors Magazine, Issue 44:
When he first stepped into the music game (originally under the moniker Keefy Keef for his 1992 debut single), Keith Murray got lyrical fiends open with his vocabulary-spill technique on Erick Sermon’s “Hostile”. Fifteen years later, he’s eased-up on the big words a little, but hasn’t lost that hyperactive swagger that sets him apart from the comp. Keith’s also got a reputation for talking with his hands, whether snuffing fellow rappers (Prodigy from Mobb Deep), hitting teenagers with barstools, or (allegedly) choking Def Jam employees. Maybe that explains why he was a little cagey when I asked him about some of the content of the new record, Rap-Murr-Phobia (The Fear of Real Hip-Hop). Either that or the fact that he seemed to be nursing the mother of all hang-overs.
Robbie: I was listening to the album yesterday, you’ve got some good songs on there talking about you’re knuckle game, smacking dudes around. I like that shit.
Over here at Unkut Dot Com we’re on a steady diet of nothing but Killa Queens material. Killa Sha’s old partner Foul Monday brings some brutal shit over the perfect beat, while Statik Selektah delivers straight heat on his impressive debut with the Mega and Royce drop. Up-and-comer Trez does his thing with assists from Trag and Sha Lumi, while Capone and co. destroy the best song from the 41st Side compilation.
Foul Monday feat. Ruc Da Jackel - “The Truth” (more…)
One of the unsung heroes of the original Flavor Unit was Lord Ali Ba-Ski (aka The Human Body Chart), who wrecked shit something terrible on the 45 King Presents…The Flavor Unit album. I always wondered why he didn’t drop any other records after that album, and after I did a post about him as part of 2006’s Flavor Unit Special, the big man himself blessed the comment section. It goes without saying that I followed-up with an interview request, and as is often the case it took over a year before we finally got a chance to build – but it was well worth the wait.
What better way to mark the 350th post on Unkut Dot Com than an exclusive with this Flavor Unit originator?
Robbie: So you’re 6′8″ and you used to play ball?
Ali Ba-Ski: I went to junior school in Kentucky, then I transferred to a four-year in Alabama – Sanford University. I left there after the first year. We used to run them bleaches around the whole stadium, and then I got diagnosed with something called Osgood’s Slaughter. That’s when you real tall and the bone beneath your knee-cap slips from under there – you get mad tendonitis. After that happened, I was still able to play but I just lost my drive for it. They had me projected to play overseas professionally and everything! I was the number two player in the State of Kentucky as a freshman, and then I was the number one player in my sophomore year, before I got all the offers and everything. I was out there handling my business. While all that was going on, I wasn’t even thinking of rap.
Apache and Latee, they my first cousins. They pretty much pulled me in the game. They was goin’ over to East Orange, New Jersey – to Mark house – and they asked me did I want to go one day, so I went over there with ‘em. They used to be over there – Apache, Latee, Chill Rob, Lakim Shabazz – they used to be in there freestyling, and Taheed used to be there too. He used to be down with Apache, they used to have their little group, there was two of ‘em. I used to be in there, sipping on my 40’s while they was doin’ their thing, and then just outta the blue one day I shocked all of ‘em and just said something that I had written, and they was all on the ground rollin’ and laughin’ and cracking up! After that it was one verse after the other, it never stopped. All it did was get better. (more…)
