You’ve got to admit, the Bridge plays for keeps. Everyone that Poet shouted out on 1995’s “Set It Pt. 3″ is still putting out music when you look at it. Killa Sha was part of the Killdren aka Killa Kids, and ACD were on Lumi’s album. Noyd and Infamous Mobb have new shit out…the only one MIA is Hostyle:
“I got peeps from Vernon to 12th Street/My man Nas, Kamakazee and Mobb Deep/
The Killa Kids, ACDC and Hostyle/My nigga Noyd and the Twins goin’ buckwild/
Can’t forget Cormega, he’s locked down/My man Pop, the Queensbridge family”
According to the new Screwball Classics CD, Hostyle has been replaced by Scope and VS, who I guess is Verse from the Rewind>Deja Screw CD. Anyway, it seemed like as good a time as any to do a drop on some old Tuff City and Hydra pieces that document the early days of the Screwball movement.
Hostyle feat. Quik aka Joell Ortiz - “Live From New York” (more…)
A couple of tracks from the new double album from J-Love and Meyhem. The line-up of guests is crazy – basically all of NY’s finest drop by to kick it on this shit. Look out for my interview with J in the next week or so. As a bonus, I’ve thrown in a Raekwon cut produced by Lil’ Fame from the final tape in the Street Savior series.
Not content with having made some of the greatest mixed tapes ever, Kid Capri has pretty much done everything worth doing in this rap shit. From scratching on Mele Mel’s Piano album in 1989 to releasing an album on Cold Chillin‘ in ‘91 to deejaying for Rakim on tour to adding his famous ad-libs to some countless songs, the Kid is still one of the hardest working dude in the biz. When I heard his track on the last Styles P album I was reminded of his other side hustle – production. Whether it’s the claustrophobic drama of Diamond’s D.I.T.C. posse cut, the old school Mtume flip for Puba or the chop from The Hot Rock soundtrack for The Ghost, here are five sure-shots from Capri:
Diamond D feat. Big L, Fat Joe, Lord Finesse & A.G. - “Five Fingas of Death” (more…)
“You love to hear the stories, again and again, about that dope song with the ill piano blend…”
Not to just randomly shit on Nas, but this whole scenario could be seen as an example of why a lot of dudes have fallen out with the little guy over the years. First, he records a track with Kamakazee and Cormega at Marley’s, but when it’s time to release it he decides he wants some big bucks so they take him off that shit, get Havoc to replace him and get a new verse from Mega so that it can be used on the Screwball album. That’s pretty ficked-up to begin with, but it could just be the handiwork of Steve Stoute for all anyone knows. The thing that’s really messed-up is that Mr. Kelis then decided to remake the song for the Illmatic 10th Anniversary release, using his original verse and adding two new ones, effectively bogarting the entire song. What a douchebag. It’s pretty much saying to Solo, KL and Cormega “You guys sucked and didn’t deserve to share a beat with me, but the beat was so awesome I’m gonna claim this for myself!” (more…)
It’s tough to pin down why this movie freaked me out when I was kid, but with it’s combination of bizarre sci-fi plot, creepy animation and acid-drenched soundtrack, Fantastic Planet is not a flick you forget in a hurry. A French animated film from 1973 (La Planète sauvage), it’s been very influential both in terms of it’s somewhat Dali-esque visual style and dope soundtrack. Most recently, Madlib incorporated elements of it into the first Quasimoto project, flipping the theme for “Come On Feet” and the artwork for the “Basic Instinct” single.
This is a little something I put together from my two brief interviews with Joell – one from his album release and something from a couple of months back. The way he’s going right now, 2008 is going to be another great year for dude.
Robbie: You recently got an XXL cover. That’s a good look, man.
Joell Ortiz: Yep, I’m hyped about that – even though they’ve got me looking like I’m a million pounds, and I’m really not! Shit, it’s all good. That’s my first cover.
I heard that new song you did with Smif ‘N Wessun. Are you doing many features right now?
Actually man, I remember when we first did that shit, that shit was sounding real fun, but when I heard the finished product with Rock’s vocals I was like “Wow!” ‘Cos I didn’t hear it with Rock’s vocals on it, so when Rock had did the chorus I was like “Oh, that shit’s crazy!” I don’t really do too many features, but Smif ‘N Wessun are dudes I listened to growing up, so I got up with them. That was really dope.
You were in LA a couple of weeks ago working with Dre, right?
Yeah, I’m just working on the Aftermath record. I was working with a couple of different producers, it wasn’t just Dre. I was also working with this R&B female who’s signed over there. I’m always recording, brother, whether I’m in LA or New York. Whenever I go somewhere I’m trying to record and get recognized. That’s how I move. (more…)
You may not have noticed, but there seems to be some kind of conspiracy to eliminate the “big-boned” rap star. It’s bad enough that the fast food spots are slinging salad in an attempt to halt the Subway juggernaut, but now fat rappers seem to have gone the way of the laser disc. Was it so long ago that cholesterol-charged lardo’s such as Heavy D were proudly making songs like “Overweight Lover” and “Chunky But Funky”? From the Fat Boys to Chubb Rock, B-Fats and the 2 Bigg MC, the 80’s were a celebration of all things deep-fried. The trend got so big that Arsenio Hall recorded an entire parody album under the alias of Chunky A! Even the ladies got involved, as KRS-One’s super-sized ex-wife Ms. Melodie and The Overweight Pooch attempted to be large and in charge. (more…)
It never went anywhere, of course, but Joe Familiar always seems to forget about the place where this shit started. Sadat X is finally back after his “vacation”, so we’ll be hearing so new burners from him in a minute, while Money Boss mastermind and Soundview resident Minnesota is cooking up some serious material on the boards and the vocals.1 He’s also been working with another rhyming beatsmith from Claremont Village in the South BX by the name of $amhill, who has an understated style that gets over.
