This is the worst news I’ve heard in a long time – K.L. from Kamakazee/Screwball has passed away after an asthma attack. Kenny Lou might have seemed like “the other guy” from Screwball, but he was really the heart of the crew since the beginning. When they finally dropped the Y2K album in 2000 after years in the trenches and numerous delays, the rest of the team seemed to get the most attention. Hostyle was pushed into the spotlight with the “H.O.S.T.Y.L.E.” single, Poet had “F.A.Y.B.A.N.” and Kyron caused a media shit-storm with “I Shot Rudy”. K.L.’s solo joint on the LP - “Communications” – featured EZ Elpee on the beat and Killa Sha on the hook, but he seemed content to maintain his position as a true team-player. When things went sour within the group, he was the dude who had the heart to step-up to the plate and deal with it on the track “Loyalty”, as Jerry from Hydra explains:
New information has finally come to light regarding the never-released TJ Swan album. Over the past four years I’ve asked a number of people if they’ve ever heard the Swan album that Marley Marl always used to mention in interviews. Here’s the story so far:
DJ Ivory (P Brothers): “They made it. There are master tapes of it, I know that for a fact.”
Mike Heron: “I should’ve got TJ Swan on Screwball’s album. He was the first Nate Dog!”
Big Daddy Kane: “Man, I haven’t talked to Swan in a very long time. I guess, in a manner of speaking, he pretty much was the first Nate Dog! The first hip-hop singer.”
Other than amusing a couple of people, I hadn’t found out anything new on the subject, other than the fact that the album exists. But when I spoke to Masta Ace last year, he responded with this gem:
Masta Ace: “I heard it – it’s a great album! If that album woulda come out, he woulda been double platinum, household name. I don’t know what he woulda done from there, but this was a brilliant album. In that same spirit of the Biz Mark records – his singing style. The beats were hot! It was the beginning of that kinda New Jack Swing – hadn’t really takin’ off yet. A few of those TJ Swan tracks, Marley submitted to Bel Biv Devoe later. It was like on that cusp, yo, of that next R&B sound. If that record would come out? He woulda killed!”
It could be argued that AZ has even worse taste in beats than Mr. Kelis, but when he gets a decent track it’s worth the effort. Undeniable is no A.W.O.L. – it’s not even as good as The Format – with it’s smooved-out the wrong way production, but these two tracks stand-out. “A-Game” gets raw in the right way, let-down only by the weak-at-the-knees chorus. The hidden bonus track is also more of the winning formula, while “The Hardest” with Styles P and Xtra-P is the standout by a mile (but wasn’t this on The Ghost Sessions already?).
AZ - “A.Game”
AZ - Hidden Track
AZ feat. Styles P & Large Pro - “The Hardest” video:
silent minority comes through with another ten video downloads for everyone who’s sick of muddy YouTube clips. I’ve taken the liberty to add some snarky commentary in italics.
Further photographic evidence that the sun really does shine out of The Ruler’s ass.
I was reading a Cormega interview where he mentioned he has to play this track at least 5 times or
something. Had to laugh, seeing as I’ve literally worn-out tapes through playing this.
Roc Marciano and PR reunited for this “Deluxe Edition” bonus track from NY’s Finest. It’s no “Game of Death” but it’ll do for now. And for true Pete fanatics, here’s his lone contribution to Jim Jones’ newest musical abortion (aka Harlems American Gangster).
Another snippet from the Dr. Butcher sessions, detailing what could be argued is the greatest “unofficial” rap song ever recorded.
Robbie: It seems like even G Rap and Kane had a friendly rivalry.
Dr. Butcher: Absolutely! I’m sure you’ve heard the version of ‘Raw’ with G Rap and Kane freestylin’ on it. The story behind that record is – G Rap, right after he did the record he came and got me and said ‘Yo Drew, listen to the this’. What it was is that Kane had a girl in the studio, and G was like ‘Yo, I think Kane was tryin’ to impress the girl. He was workin’ on ‘Raw’ and G was just hangin’ out in the studio, and he was like ‘Yo, you wanna do something real quick?’ and G was like ‘Sure’. I think Kane had just wrote his verse, so he had a fresh, hot little verse that he wanted to spit – I think to impress the girl that was in the studio – so he did his verse, and he didn’t know that G had this monsterous verse sittin’ there waitin’ for him! [laughs] So he finished his verse, then G walked in the booth and did his verse and Kane just sat there like…he just couldn’t believe what G had just did. I know Marley was happy, ‘cos right after it hit the radio waves! [laughs] He wants the new hotness! It was funny, G was just like ‘Yo, I just had to show him. He thought he was gonna catch me off guard, but I was ready for him. I had a crazy, crazy verse in the stash.’ Like you said, it was a friendly rivalry. Kane’s a really, really good dude. They always got along. G never had a bad word to say about Kane. It’s no different than Jay-Z’s and Biggie Smalls’ rivalry. People think them two dudes was just the best of friends, but traveling with Jay I’ve heard many conversations of like when they were doing the ‘Brooklyn’ song, how they was like ‘Yo Jay, you better tear Biggie up!’ It was a serious rivalry! It wasn’t all about ‘Yo, that’s me dude’ – them dudes were goin’ at each other! But it was in a friendly way. God rest Biggie and all, but when he was gone, Jay just went and took that spot. They was waitin’ for the spot.
Big Daddy Kane & Kool G Rap - “Raw (original demo version)”
Sometime back in 2005 I did a write-up on the various remakes of “The Bridge”, not realizing that the saga was far from over. Come to think of it, dudes will be covering Shan’s anthem for as long as Queensbridge breeds dope rappers (forever). Who better than Sha Lumi to drop the 2008 version, with former Screwball member Hostyle and former Tragedy associate Imam THUG? You want more Screw? Here’s Poet and Lumi over a Thoro Tracks winner. “Blackin Understanding” was originally intended for Killa Sha’s album, and considering it’s one of his finest solo shots it defies logic as to why it didn’t make the cut. Sha also did a “borough check” cut with Raekwon’s #1 Fan – Shyheim – a couple of years ago, and to round things out we finish with the a Luminati mixtape freestyle.
Squeeze Radio, hosted by Timm See and Sucio Smash had their 5 Year Anniversary the other night, and continued the tradition that Eclipse set-off the other week (minus the 30 minutes of dead air). According to Timm, they took over after Stretch & Bob retired: “We started almost 7 years ago as CM Fam-A-Lam kids then once it all was official we re-christened the show Squeeze Radio”. With a starting line-up including Sadat X, Masta Ace and Kurious, the podcast is essential listening.
If you look at a lot of the music industry, they got rid of a lot of the bands that make rough-edge stuff. It’s like Slade, they used to play mean bass lines. They got rid of the keys that don’t match and the tough bass lines. They more or less sweetened up the music, made it light. People don’t mess with the left-hand side of the keyboard. And what it is, a lot of people say in more like suburban areas, they don’t want to hear you. They more or less scared and intimidated, so they want to hear something less intimidating. That’s really all your spirit around you when you make those records that sound hard and crazy ‘cause that’s like what you’re coming from, your whole background of the Bronx – you know, the pissy streets and Hunt’s Point Market, the trucks and the delivery and the fish on the street, the stench – and the beats are just matching. I honestly like to rap on hard shit myself. That’s why, to this day, I like EPMD, people that stuck to their sound. We don’t got that no more. I think sampling is one thing that really took a lot of that out. You’ve got your Ron Carters and your greatest jazz records to collect and sample off of, but when you listen to the loops a lot of them are really sweet, there’s but so much you can do with them. But when you actually get on keyboards and make Frankenstein funky shit and it’s just made with no teachings – it’s not somebody going [he imitates the music scale] “A-B-C-D” – I think a lot of up-and-coming producers live by notes; they have a lot of sweet notes. I never was a fan of sweet loops. Ninety-nine percent I’m never rapping on top of a sweet loop. I would never rap on sweet loops, but I’ve been remixed on sweet loops because people had this thing of, “Hey, we could put Kool Keith on Bugs Bunny,” and “We got a Woody Woodpecker sample that I think he will sound great on – it’s hot!” People feel like that’s great, they get their dicks hard with that. They’ll put me on top of a Sesame Street loop, but that’s their fantasy. They just feel like this is something to laugh at. I think it’s corny. I really think it’s corny to walk around the city and buy a bunch of records and come home with a Fisher Price record and listen to each little sample like, wow. It’s like you’re taking somebody’s shit. I’d rather listen to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, or Prince. At least they’re doing something original. To me, sampling is gone. Two things that are played out for the critics: skits are played out, I think skits are gone, shove them up your ass; samples of Donald Duck and all types of records are gone, and sweet loops is done. Let’s get back to some hard stuff. Also, I don’t really dig the scattered producer thing. I think it sucks. I think your albums sounds like 10 people did it and it doesn’t even match your whole circular of what you’re about. I feel it’s just a hold up. I like making original records myself. That’s what I’m going to continue to do. People can’t really make original stuff. At least when I go down to my fucking grave, people will say, “That guy did his own shit.” I don’t wanna die and motherfuckers say, “That nigga bit, he followed, he copied everybody; open his casket, look at all the people he robbed. He sampled every-fucking-body in the world.” I don’t even go back that far in time; I’m so far in the future I do not want to go into a dirty store and get my hands dirty with dirty records. Pick up old records with dust on them and get ‘em on my hands. I want new dirt on my hands. It’s just a turn-off, a big turn-off. I hate vinyl. I hate vinyl with a fucking passion.
So it turns out that this marks the 400th post for Unkut Dot Com, as well as four years deep in this blogging mambajahambo.1 I can’t take all the credit though – I only penned 385 of those shits. Thanks also to Keir, Idris, silent minority, Kool Kim, Pawel and Bill. But back to me…I’ve also contributed important work for pioneering projects such as Ban Kanye From The Grammys (Kanye’s Gayest Quotes and Kanye West Vs. Diamond D), as well as the world renown Salute To Weed Carriers and guest drops over at Oh Word, XXL Mag and Soul Sides.
Although the immediate response that you get from blogging is always good value, as a life-long magazine junkie it was only a matter of time until I dipped my beak in the print game. After Modern Fix gave me a start by publishing my Blaq Poet piece, I’ve gone on to write for a few other mags over the last two years, but it all came full-circle when Hip-Hop Connection – the longest running rap magazine in the world – contacted me to write a feature on Hydra Entertainment, which was also the topic of one of my very first posts. To cut a long story short, I’ve been feverishly putting more stuff together for them over the past few months, and the latest issue inludes my Pete Rock interview as the cover feature, as well as the first part of my conversation with Keith Shocklee (The Bomb Squad) and a no-holds barred session with DJ Johnny Juice and Son of Bazerk.
Russel Gonzalez learned from the best. In his early days, he was hanging out with DJ Premier in their hometown of Houston, and got tips on using his first sampler from Rap-A-Lot producer Crazy C. By ’94 he had formed K-Otix with local rappers Mike and D, and they made a name for themselves amongst the mid-90’s indy explosion. By 2004, he decided to move on. He hasn’t looked back since.
Robbie: You started out working with K-Otix in the 90s, didn’t you?
The Are:K-Otix was my first group. We actually formed in 93-94. We had a good run, in terms of albums and twelve inches, but I pretty much stepped away from the group in 2003-2004.
Was that because of the state of the indy vinyl market, or creatively you want to try out some new stuff?
Just creatively, I wanted to move the forward and just work with different artists. One of the things with the group thing was having to give a lot of additional time to the group. A lot of times I’d kinda neglect myself in terms of working with other artists and hitting the road and hustling music or just shopping beats. It got to the point where things with K-Otix weren’t always moving as smoothly as they were in the 90’s, so I thought it would be best for me – if I was gonna grow as a producer – to move on and start working with many artists instead of just one or a handful.
There’s been a rich history of hip-hop from Houston, as far as early Rap-A-Lot stuff like Royal Flush Posse and the Def IV. Flipping harmonicas and church organs over sampled drums.
Houston always had a really rich hip-hop scene from early on. The difference is that Houston wasn’t getting as much press for it as let’s say an LA or a New York. So you had these groups that were out in 1988 and 1986 and so on. They were great records, it’s just that were kinda like hood records – they were strictly in the hood, at your local record shop, and that was about the extent of it. It wasn’t like this stuff was getting any further than Louisiana at the time!
.jpg)
