By the mid to late-’90s, the hip-hop landscape became a Staten Island garbage dump filled with the shards of tossed out CDs, rather than the block party, powered by the streetlight, next to a burnout building in the South Bronx. This isn’t a diss to the Wu, but a description of the environmental disaster eating away at the rugged grains of Shaolin like erosion.
Tricia Rose argued that Soundscans for hip-hop were always off, because b-boys and b-girls were always dubbing the hood’s copy of the newest release. That was the ’80s, it was supposedly all golden in those days. A decade later, it was all plastic; the jagged plastic debris of compact disc refuse. The record industry began producing an even greater abundance of CDs that found their way into the landfills in the forgotten borough, rather than into listener’s boom-boxes for dubbing.
Instead of contributing to the ecological crisis, Siah broke with the then popular double-CD-packed-with-filler-plus-elaborate-packaging trend and released a 12-inch vinyl single with a small logo of two microphones being “fondled” like testicles on the label. Contrary to the endlessly gift-wrapped CD that only sparks when placed in a microwave, listening to the “Repetition”/”Pyrite” single reveals the complex layers that compose the enigmatic MC from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. More importantly, anyone who gets a hold of this record would never send it on the path to a heap on the island of Staten but cherish the music like Ghost does his Wallo’s.
Idris: What have you been up to in the past couple of years?
Siah: Making music, going to school, teaching; a variety of things. I just sort of drifted away from the hip-hop scene in probably 2000/2001. I tried to make a little push as an independent artist by putting together a demo but I didn’t really push hard. The people who were really interested in what I had been doing from the mid to late ’90s didn’t step up and say “yeah, we want to give you a budget and we want you to make a record.” So, I didn’t push that hard because my interests were turning in different directions and such. Essentially, I went on to pursue a master’s degrees, I studied abroad, and now I work teaching Middle Eastern politics and international relations. I kept my hands involved in music, but I drifted more from producing and rhyming in the hip-hop vein to playing the piano, learning different genres of music. For example, right now I’m playing in a student Tango ensemble, the music of Piazzolla. I kept myself stimulated with music but I moved away from hip-hop generally speaking. (more…)
As he promised in the comments of the last post, Peter Divito from 2020Proof has come through in the clutch and laced me with one of the original takes of ‘Scenario’ featuring the whole Native Tongues crew.
* Since Divshare keeps failing, here’s a few other ways to check this track:
Turns out there’s another version according to DJ Johnny Juice:
“This is NOT the version I had. Pos’ verse was waaaay better. Brown’s verse was different too. Mase was on it as well as Baby Chris Lighty. And no one did “What’s the Scenario” for a hook. This version must have been done after I bounced.”
Here’s Juice’s back-story about the very first take if you missed it previously:
A Tribe Called Quest was doing ‘Scenario’. It was me, Dinco, Busta, Jarobi was there – everybody was in that motherfucker – Dres from Black Sheep was there, both of ‘em, Chris Lighty, Mase and Pos from De La, all them motherfuckers rhymed on ‘Scenario’. Everybody rhymed on it but Q-Tip, and the best motherfucker on that shit was Posdnuos. He fuckin’ destroyed it, and he ain’t even like the beat! And after he finished rhyming, everybody went back and rewrote their rhymes!
We was at Unique Studio, that motherfucker finished rhyming, he came out and goes, ‘That shit was wack.’ That’s what Pos said. In the middle of his shit, everybody was like, ‘Damn, yo!’ That’s how nice that shit was. He made ‘em turn off all the samples, ‘cos they had like 15 samples in there. They had an ‘Engine Number 9′ sample, that shit by Wilson Pickett, they had four or five samples on there that came on for different people, and Pos didn’t like none of ‘em so he just rhymed to the drums, and that motherfucker destroyed it. That shit wasn’t even close.
Consider this less a ‘wants list’ and more of a dream team of obscure tapes that will most likely never see the light of the day.1 The whole issue of the fabled Rakim salvo ‘Break The Wrath in Half’ / ‘Cut The Kane In Half’ reminded me of some of the shit I’ve heard of through various interviews over the years, both those I’ve conducted and the info gleaned from my collection of tattered old rap rags. Here are a few that spring to mind:
1. ‘Takin’ Niggaz’ - B-1 feat. Freddie Foxxx, Kool G Rap and MF Grimm.
Possibly the only copy of this joint lies in the hands of whoever wrote the demo section in RapPages, as it was reviewed. I asked Grimm about this and he remembered it but didn’t know if it still existed anywhere. Oh yeah and Lord Finesse handled the beat…
2. Untitled team-up between The 45 King and T La Rock in the late 80’s.
3. ‘Live At The BBQ’ (original take) - Main Source feat. Nas, Akinyele and Joe Fatal.
When Fatal delivered this bomb, I almost dropped the phone. The thought of an alternative take with totally different verses from everyone sounded too good to be true. And according to everyone connected to the project that I’ve spoken with since, there’s no evidence that it actually exists outside of Joe’s recollection.
4. ‘Scenario’ - A Tribe Called Quest feat. ‘Baby’ Chris Lighty, Black Sheep, De La Soul, LONS, The Jungle Brothers and the pizza delivery guy.
This one is a definate. Johnny Juice went as far as to rap some of the removed verses and actually has a copy of that version on cassette somewhere.
5. ‘Soul Survivor’ (Original Version) - LL Cool J
I’d love to hear the original, raw version of this street sweeper from the 14 Shots To The Dome LP. It got leaked to mixtapes back in ‘93 before QD3 remixed it, but I’ve had no luck getting my hands on this one so far.
Bonus: Anything from the lost TJ Swan album featuring Kane, Shan or Biz dropping guest shots over the vintage ‘Project Sound’ of Marley Marl. The New-Jack Swing stuff? Not so much.
That should be enough to set things off. Feel free to ‘add on, just like arithmetic’ as the great man once said.
1.Actually that’s pretty much the same thing, only it sounds slighty less lame. [back]
For 125 bones, Doom stans can get a CD, a 45, an effin’ tape, a comic book and a t-shirt. If they’d thrown in a pair of Metal Face AF1’s, some bubblegum and some trading cards, it would’ve been the ultimate stalker pack. I like Doom, but wait a minute….
A couple of KGR burners to finish off the week, as Freddie Foxxx’s vaulted LP from ‘93 finally gets a release courtesy of Fat Beats. Not only does this include the version largely produced by S.I.D., but a bonus CD of the original demo versions produced by the D.I.T.C. crew as well! Included on this disc is a lost track with G Rap entitled ‘Cook A Niggaz Ass’. G ended-up using this verse on his 4,5,6 album since this got shelved, but shit’s crazy regardless. On the current side of things, the Kool Genius also gets busy with Sha Lumi for ‘NY Freestyle’.
Freddie Foxxx feat. Kool G Rap - ‘Cook A Niggaz Ass’
Here’s a dusty demo that sounds like it was recorded in Hotday’s bedroom, featuring Kelis‘ husband, Cormega and some guy called Syl Drama kicking it in a one-take wonder fashion over the break that you might recall from Ras Kass’ ‘Won’t Catch Me Runnin”.
For the final part of our interview, Dr. Butcher offers a behind-the-scenes look in the creation of the first Main Source album and Large Pro’s The LP. Now based in Texas, Butcher just released new music with an artist called Understanding on the vocals, and is working on an album of instrumentals for the Vintage Vaults series for Domination Recordings. He also works with Rob Swift on jingles, TV commercials and video games such as NFL Street.
Robbie: So you just did a new 12 inch?
Dr. Butcher: They just did a digital release while I’m putting together my instrumental album. I don’t want to do just a straight-forward, ‘One beat, two beat, three beats’ – just instrumentals, and I think every producer does that and that’s boring. I’mma try to do something a little different and piece it all together. It’s vintage old tracks, and I want to find a way to introduce that to the world where it’s not sounding like I’m some 90’s producer living off the nineties sound. I’mma mix it in with 2008 Dr. Butcher, kinda like telling a story using old tracks and stuff. It should be interesting.
Is that you rapping at the end of [G Rap's] ‘Jive Talk’?
[bursts out laughing] Yep. That was us clowning around in the studio one day. We were sitting in the vocal room – Large had just put the beat down, G started rhyming and Large was sitting on a chair with a pair of drumsticks, and then he started tapping the drumsticks and we were just acting stupid, acting like old school rappers, making all these grunts in the background. We were just joking around and I was like, ‘Alright, let me just say some old rhymes and stuff’ and then I just started rhyming. And they kept it on the song! I rhymed a lot longer, but they kept the first maybe eight bars or something and faded the song out. It was the funniest thing ‘cos Stretch Armstrong would hold these contests, ‘Can anyone guess who that is? The ghost rapper at the end of the G Rap song?’ G told me that one day Biz Mark said, ‘Who’s that dude on the end of the song? I wanna sign that guy!’ Everybody was asking G who I was…even Eric B! But at the time I was more into the deejaying and then the producing, so it never went anywhere. (more…)
Here are a couple of alternative versions of some Lord Finesse productions. The 40 Oz. track is a slight reworking of the beat from Ak Skills “Check The Flava”…or maybe it’s the original song that was scrapped in favor of the Ak version? “Check The Method” was a joint that didn’t make the final cut of the Funkyman’s Awakening EP, although it saw a white label release. This version has some additions to the beat that weren’t on the bootleg version. From the new D.I.T.C. CD Unreleased Production 1994, which is full of vintage beats from Show and the rest of the crew - although you can understand why some of these tracks didn’t get released back then, as some of the rappers weren’t quite ready for prime time. Worth picking up on the strength of the music alone though.
You know how you’re always hanging out, wondering out loud, ‘I wonder what Eric B. is up to these days?’ No? Maybe it’s just me. But thanks to the wonders of Wikipedia, this question has been answered:
Eric is now the owner of 47 restaurants throughout the U.S. including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, California, Texas, Washington DC, and most recently, Pennsylvania. Residing in a 57,000 sq. ft. palatial manor, Eric has become the ideological musician turned entrepreneur turned royalty and has truly taken his hit song Eric B. is President to fruition. With a car collection featuring seven Rolls Royce vehicles, including the famed Rolls Royce featured on the cover of Follow the Leader, Eric’s vehicular menagerie features a Rolls Royce Phantom, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and many other sought-after cars and trucks.
Recently featured on MTV Cribs, Eric B’s home, with a staff of 14 grounds keepers, chefs, maids, and security staff, was influenced by oriental design.
In 2007 Eric was honored by the President of the United States with an invitation to the White House where he met President George W. Bush, the First Lady and other dignitaries.
Continuing my talk with Dr. Butcher, we discuss Rakim, LL Cool J and the legendary Silver Fox.
Robbie: Have you got any DAT’s of G Rap, Ak or Grimm songs that were never heard?
Dr. Butcher: I think Grimm has released a lot of the material on his indy label. G Rap, a lot of the things he would do he would release. We did the song for the AIDS compilation that I think was bootlegged, with Grimm, G, Ak – there was a bunch of dudes. We were kinda annoyed because ewe went in and did the song for free as a benefit and then they turned the song down. Somehow it got leaked to the public and everybody was goin’ crazy over the song. Most of the things I have copies of was a lot of Akinyele’s material, but even that stuff, a lot of it he’s since released.
What can you tell me about Queens?
KRS-One used to say a lotta slick little wording in his songs about Queens and G Rap would always approach him about it and say stuff right back at him, but for some reason KRS would never answer G Rap. He always avoided him. Even in ‘My Philosophy’ he said something about, ‘The DJ behind me’ or something, and G Rap thought he was talking about him and Polo. So he went and approached him and he denied it. KRS was like, ‘No, no, I wasn’t talking about you’. G Rap wanted to battle him so bad. He just wanted to go at KRS-One so bad but KRS wouldn’t bite! He wouldn’t touch him, because he knew that G was the new young dude that was not to be touched. He had that fire, and a lotta people avoided him for a long time, they just wouldn’t touch him.
You might know the name but there’s a lot more to Dr. Butcher’s story than I ever imagined when I first tracked him down for a talk. This first part focuses on his production and DJ work with Kool G Rap, Akinyele, MF Grimm and more.
Robbie: What was the difference between what you and DJ Polo did with G Rap?
Dr. Butcher: Polo was a few years older than me – probably a significant amount. When I was growing-up he was the neighborhood DJ – the known guy. He was never known as no superior DJ or anything like that, he was just a very ‘popular’ guy. When Marley Marl came about, he had approached me, telling me that he had a situation for a record deal. I mentioned G Rap to him – he was looking for a rapper – and at the same time Eric B. mentioned G Rap to him, so they got together and did ‘It’s A Demo’. There was another guy that G Rap wanted to be ‘Dr. Butcher’, but the guy had some issues and had to leave town or do something. Then he found out I could DJ so I just took the position. It was more of a studio thing. G would go record I would pretty much in go in and really do the scratches. Polo really wasn’t someone who was getting that technical with scratches and stuff, and that’s the kind that G wanted at the time. I would do a few shows, Polo would go on the road with him more-so. We would just put together show tapes where I would do scratching on the tapes, and they just kinda go out on the road with DAT tapes or things like that and just pretty much pretend to DJ. Just have things organized, he wasn’t wasn’t doing too many live scratches or anything.
He’d actually play a DAT of your scratching? [laughing]
Yeah, a lotta times. At the shows, if they had a portable DAT player they would go off the DAT player. He would do a little scratching over the top of stuff that I would do, but that was pretty much it. He wasn’t anyone who…he never pretended to be. On the Road To Riches album, I think Marley did most of the scratching on that album, then the second album I came in and did all the scratching ever since. I mean he’s not like somebody who walked around pretending to be this great DJ. It was more-so he had the connection and he hooked G Rap up with Marley and brought him to Cold Chillin’, and that’s how that whole situation went down. (more…)
