Following on from Part One, we move onto Dante’s time at Elektra Records, where assembled an all-star cast of artists, including Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Brand Nubian, KMD and Busta Rhymes.

Robbie: What was your process for finding groups to sign?

Dante Ross: I met every group I ever knew from somebody who was probably making records at the time. Obviously Puba was already making records, ‘cos he was in Masters of Ceremony when I met ‘em. Even with KMD, I met from 3rd Bass initially. Leaders of the New School, I actually saw them do a show – but I knew about ‘em already and I knew they were affiliated with the Bomb Squad. It’s never a blind solicitation process, so it’s never really work. I produced some records where I didn’t know the groups, but it just was never as fun.
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There was a time when being an A&R in rap music actually meant something more than the guy who’s trying to find out what records you’re sampling so he can become a producer. Dante Ross actually gave a fuck about the projects he worked on, which is why he was involved in hip-hop milestones such as Mecca & The Soul Brother, All For One and 3 Feet High & Rising to name a few. I won’t go into his full bio here but everything will be covered in future installments. To kick things off, we chopped it up about his formative years in the music biz.

Robbie: When were you working with RUSH Management?

Dante Ross: ’87. That was fun as hell. I got my job ‘cos Ricky Powell went on tour with the Beastie Boys and they gave me a job as the messenger, his replacement. I guess I had half a brain on my fuckin’ head, and I was a crazy little kid, so I ended-up gettin’ a real job workin’ with Eric B. & Rakim, being a road manager. Which led me to later on getting an A&R job at Tommy Boy records. I worked there for a while – it was actually cool. I worked with Lyor and it was a crazy job and I half hated it, half loved it. But I got my foot in the door.
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Marco Polo has been making a lotta noise over the last couple of years – between his his solo album and various features – and is currently considered one of the best beat mechanics out there, while Torae previously dropped his well received Daily Conversation record a while back. Rocking with the classic one producer, one MC formula that’s worked for so many classic rap albums in the past, can these two match the quality of ‘But Wait’ for a whole CD?
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Sure, Biz is known for his wacky stunts but…..wow.
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Hip-hop was never a great medium for video clips, and considering that most of those shot before 1995 cost less to make than a Happy Meal, there have been some shockers. Now that major labels are pretty much dead, it looks like we’re returning to that low budget style, which is good in that it requires more creativity, but most of the time it just comes of cheesy. Here are five prime offenders:
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So I checked out this EPMD show the other night, and it was pretty entertaining for the most part. Getting drunk and shouting along to ‘It’s My Thing’, ‘Headbanger’ and ‘So Whatcha Sayin’ is never a bad way to pass a Friday night, but there was one major fly in the ointment…the massive ENCORE FAIL that left me and the crew on some ‘Fuckouttahere!’ train of thought. Erick and Parrish made seven albums together, plus three solos each and whatever else you care to include, and they step back out on stage to perform the same two songs they did at the start of the night! And not classic EPMD tracks either, we’re talking about ‘Da Joint’ and ‘Richter Scale’ from that forgettable fifth LP! In a set that skipped over gems such as ‘Hardcore’ and ‘Total Kaos’, the whole incident verged on some ‘never forgive’ action, like writing ‘WAR’ through Fat Albert.

The obvious question this raises is are PMD and the EE Double losing their minds as a result of some kind of degenerative mental disease? How else could anyone explain two veteran performers making such a bizarre decision? Until I get to the bottom of this, the question I’ve got for everyone out there in the internets is:

What is the most effed-up thing you’ve ever seen happen at a rap show?

It seems that I under-estimated the amount of Frat Rap out there in yesterdays piece, so to keep all you Surf MC’s fans happy I’ve asked Kid Roth to return to conclude our College Rap Wrap-Up…
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According to Rolling Stone, this Asher kid is “a spacey stoner who practices yoga and enjoys musing on politics”. The first thing that springs to mind is “hippy douchebag”, right? Sure, but he’s not the first example of Frat Rap. Come to think of it, he was never actually in a fraternity, but since Steve Rifkind offered to wash my car if I covered Kid Roth, I thought I’d let Asher check out some of those who paved the way for the College Rap movement (including founder of The Source magazine, Jon ‘Sultan MC’ Schecter, pictured above), since he was in day-care when half these songs came out.
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Records are still here, and the way things are looking right now they’re going to outlast the CD. Sure, they’re heavy as hell and take-up half of your house, but these tracks are wax-only, so stop your blood-clot crying.
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The search for hip-hop’s bare-knuckled champ continues…
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Photo: Kristina Hill

Issue #001 of HHC Digital just hit the mean streets of the internets. Grab the free download here. I’ve got new back-page column titled Unkut Presents: Bacdafucup! and contributed a couple of other bits as well. Still not convinced? Check a section of their awesome DOOM interview:

HHCDigital: Can we talk about a few of the rappers you’ve worked with over the years?

DOOM: Sure.

Let’s start with Kurious.

King Jorge! We call him Davie Bowie, ‘cos he’s the star of our crew. That’s Rockstar Jorge! I met him the same time I met Bobbito, both of them were working up at Def Jam. Jorge was working in the mail department. I think Bob got him the job, and he himself was working as the radio guy who promotes shit on radio. The first time I went up to the Def Jam office Pete Nice and [MC] Serch introduced me to everyone up there. This was ’89, right before ‘The Gas Face’ dropped, before 3rd Bass’s first album came out. Jorge was in the mail room, but he always rhymed. Jorge has been rhyming since then, a rhymer by nature. Met him in ’89 and I’ve been his motherfuckin’ partner since then. I’m on his next record, think it’s called ‘II’. I’m a plug that.

What about that guy Earthquake, from ‘Stop Smokin’ That Shit’?
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As the seeds of New York hip-hop began to spread in the mid-80’s, nearby cities such as Philadelphia and Boston were quick to adapt their own unique take on the original recipe. While most people didn’t have the Bean on their rap radar until they heard Ed OG’s ‘I’ve Got To Have It’ (or former Mass. resident GURU from Gangstarr), groups like The Almighty RSO and TDS Mob were already crafting their own brand of hardcore rap, while the Boston Goes Def compilation was an early milestone for local talent. Top Choice Clique (consisting of lead MC Jawn P, MC/DJ Force and DJ Gemini) were an important part of this early movement. They were drawn together through a shared interest in the Lecco’s Lemma radio show, as Force recalls, “I was in a group called Jambox Three, and I had met DJ Gemini. At that time there was another person who was in the original line-up of Top Choice – a beatbox by the name of Andy F. They knew Jawn P, and I guess they were feeling the way I dropped lyrics, and they told me about him and we got together and started vibing. Originally Top Choice Clique was meant to be like the Juice Crew from New York, kinda like a bunch of groups and MC’s under one umbrella. I was a soloist, Jawn and Gemini were called Double Def, there was Andy F the beatbox and we had MC Ace, another MC. Somehow it just ended up coming down to just three of us.”
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The Live Guy With Glasses is one of hip-hop’s top shelf legends, and having worked on some of rap’s greatest ever albums – in addition to his own stand-out work as the front man for Main Source and as a soloist – he refuses to kick back and relax, continuing to bang out beats and rhymes like only he can. Here are some of the highlights from our conversation from late last year. And yes, I know I forgot to ask him about Vagina Diner…

Robbie: Were you rhyming first or making beats?

Large Pro: It was all kinda simultaneous, but the first time I went in the studio was to rhyme. It was three dudes – it was my dude Tony Rome, it was me – I think I was called K.G. back then – and it was my dude J-Wrath…he was JY, and we would go in the studio and just rhyme and shit. As a matter of fact, Wrath is the manager for Lost Boys now, Cheeks and ‘em. I guess everybody kinda stuck with it, they just went down their own little paths and shit.

So you were just making demos back then?

Yeah, demos. Tony Arfi from Power Play took an interest in us and he decided to invest some studio time in us. We were just puttin’ some demos together, and Karmel was our DJ. He was real nice and just getting’ busy.

So what happened between then and meeting the McKenzie brothers?

After a while I started getting in trouble for writing on walls, writing on trains and everything. They had put me in a group home and everything, and then when I came back out got really serious about tryin’ to do my tapes and do my demos, ‘cos in the group home dudes would be rhyming, bangin’ on the damn dressers and allathat. So I got outta there, came back and I had a little Division for Youth job, a little summer youth job and shit, and I’d blow my whole check goin’ in the studio and shit, tryin’ to make a demo. Then after a while I met the McKenzie brothers, and their moms started investing in us and we took it from there.
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After East Coast-based Ruffhouse Records launched his L.A. crew into rap stardom in the early 90′s, Cypress Hill frontman B-Real went solo from New York. One of the latest additions to NYC indie Duck Down Records’ expanding roster of well-respected lyricists, Louis Freese, 38, made his official debut in February after releasing three Gunslinger mixtapes. B-Real produced three tracks on Smoke N Mirrors, and with a new Cypress Hill album tentatively set for summer, he aimed to create a project that’s distinctly his own.

Bill: How would you describe your first solo album?

B-Real: I didn’t try to do like the glamour, bling-bling type of shit. … Not like real candy cane type shit. It’s all pretty much raw and gritty, and that’s the kind of an album I wanted to deliver.

Does the smoke in Smoke N Mirrors have anything to do with weed smoke?

The whole meaning behind it is ‘Not everything is what it seems’. This business is like a big magic trick. You see the videos where dudes are fucking whipping around in expensive cars and they’re shooting videos in a huge ass mansion with all these fucking hot broads, and you know it’s only like that for some.
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Hip-Hop Connection Digital launches April 15. Preview it here.

Jesse Serwer speaks to Just-Ice about his Back To The Old School LP and The History of The Blunt.

Peter Divito tracks down Charlie Brown from LONS to talk about the old days and current projects.

Will C. delivers ’7 Day of Rap Attack’ at his new blog.

Combat Jack on Run-DMC.

Angus Batey examines the Making of 3 Feet High and Rising.