Deshawn killed shit on Showbiz & AG’s “Represent” way back when. Remember this?
“Cuttin bitch-niggaz down with a hundred pound axe, like I was raised by psycho-crazed lumberjacks/
So in a battle I be stabbin, choppin MC’s like trees, piece-by-piece buildin cabins!”
He changed his name to Sunkiss and was rolling with the Terror Squad for a minute, now he’s resurfaced with a new Premier track. T La Rock also used to roll with dude as he revealed when I spoke to him last week:
Blu is pretty decent for a non-New Yawker, and the songs he did with Exile like “So Amazing” worked. Here’s the best (actually, maybe the only good) track from his new album with Ta’Raach (whoever that is). The rest of it is a way to “progressive” for my liking.
I forgot how good this song is until Marc Davis reminded me on the last post. Keith goes beyond mere taunts and shits on Moe Dee’s entire legacy on this one, while using a Kool Moe vocal sample on the hook! Now that’s classic Ultra.
Kool Keith once described Kool Moe Dee as “the fuckin’ Space Invader of Rap”.
This is one song where it pays to have the lyrics in front of you in order to catch the barrage of disses served up by Rhythm X (courtesy of DJ Flash from OHHLA).
Ya man Paul Juice really doesn’t dig the ol’ idiot box much, as he dedicated the better part of two vaulted tracks to vent on the boob tube.
Bad things that television might make you do, according to the Large Professor:
1. Wonder if Theo got good grades.
2. Discover who’s the next millionaire to get AIDS.
3. Make you think you’re in Florida, catching the breeze.
4. Drop a kid on a field made of tar – head first!
5. Sop up some brain rot.
LP battles evil cathode rays
The original, unreleased version of “Front Door” and “How My Man Went Down In The Game” offer us the chance to hear Xtra-P get vexed about trifling broads, who piss him off almost as much as that darned time-wasting Tell-Lie-Vision. Tell ‘em why you mad, P!
Last December I was lucky enough to speak to Dr. Butcher for a couple hours, and he blessed me with some amazing stories about everything from his work to Kool G Rap, Akinyele and MF Grimm, plus a whole lot of shit I didn’t even know he was involved in. I’m not quite ready to drop the whole session on you just this minute, but I couldn’t resist leaking this section where he shares his feelings about Run-DMC, which are not unlike some of the things I mentioned in this post.
Robbie: Being a Queens dude, did you see the backlash against Run-DMC?
Dr. Butcher: The funny thing – me coming from Queens – I was never a Run-DMC fan. I was probably the most anti Run-DMC fan anybody had known. I just did not like Run-DMC. Mainly, I think a lot of it had to do with that I was such a fan of Grandmaster Flash and the Fearless Four – Tito and DLB – those dudes were like my idols and stuff. Run-DMC kinda took a lot of their spotlight, and I think I took it personal. [laughs] It was a funny thing. They kinda crushed the careers of a lot of those old school dudes. I wasn’t really too crazy about Run’s lyrics or nothin’ like that – he just seemed too cocky to me – so I just never liked him. I just felt ‘Oh man, the Fearless Four should be where y’all guys are. Y’all suck!’ But LL was always a huge Run-DMC fan, because he was from the neighborhood – he could frequently see Run riding around. But I didn’t care. He actually wrote some songs for them that he didn’t get credit for. I’m not gonna say which ones they were, but if you listen to around the Raising Hell material you may be able to pick it out. If you go back and listen to LL’s songs I think you’ll be able to notice the similarities in the flows and the writing. But he was so excited to be around those guys and be with Def Jam and Russell Simmons and them, I think he was helping them write and stuff.
Beastie Boys bring the speaker-smashing noise back in their classic “brat-attack” mode with Rick Rubin doing his finest to ruin and reduce. When they stopped having girls in cages on stage they fell the fuck off.
In some ways, the latest Pete Rock project is more of that same old timeless PR sound, but the thing that sets it apart this time around is the varied line-up of guests on board to lend vocal assists. While both of the Soul Survivor LP’s (and even Petestrumentals to a lesser extent) gave us some of the finest MC’s of the time, on NY’s Finest we find a selection of forgotten and slept-on rappers joining the current favorites and still-active veterans. Pete is also a little more aggressive in the booth, as he addresses the doubters and snakes that have tried to test him in his trademark style that’s occasionally awkward but more hit than miss.
The answer-record craze was still going strong in 1987, as no-name hopefuls jumped on whatever bandwagon them passed by in an attempt to make a little noise in the ever-crowded rap world. The crabs in a barrel, if you will. Kool Moe Dee’s “How Ya Like Me Now” was a big record, so it’s no surprise that some rocks were thrown soon afterwards.
The motivations varied from blatant jocking of Moe’s rival LL (“Moe Dee Get Mad”), hilarious answer songs (“Fuck Me Now”) to genuine grudges (“Try To Bite Me Now”). Spyder D at least has a case – he released a single called “How Ya Like Me Now” shortly before the shiny Teddy Riley version, and also mentions that Treach 3 used his “Smerphie’s Dance” beat years earlier. Both he and the Incredible Two also seem to have taken offense to the “Rap Report Card” that was on the back of KMD’s LP, but they’re likely just mad that they weren’t graded). Willie D flips the whole shit in classic H-Town style, turning the song into a classic sex joint which is easily the best of the bunch in my book.
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