Dallas Penn contributes this drop in the first of a series of guest spots while his site is on hiatus:
Fat Beats was like your older uncle who you didn’t visit as often so that when you got the news of his death it was from the other folks who still brought him his wine and shit.
You had great times at Fat Beats tho’ and those memories will last forever. Hip-Hop, like the rest of America which it represents has gone Best Buy big box pop. Fat Beats, Bondy‘s and Beat Street are only to be references in your favorite rapper’s verse of nostalgia. (more…)
Yesterday saw the announcement that the brick and mortar stores of Fat Beats would be closing their doors in New York and LA after sixteen years:
Fat Beats will celebrate the legacies of the stores, which are scheduled to close in early September (New York: September 4th, Los Angeles: September 18th) by throwing a series of blow-out sales and tribute parties open to the public during their last weeks. Fans can check FatBeats.com for updates.
The Fat Beats brand isn’t dead by any means, as the online store and the record label will continue to rep independent hip-hop, but this announcement certainly marks another turning point in the decline of vinyl sales and the changing face of rap retail. I’ve asked some regulars to share some of their fondest memories of the iconic NY store over the next week or so in tribute to the spot, so let’s set it off with some of Marco Polo‘s favorite moments: (more…)
One of the many notable moments from the 2nd episode of The Combat Jack Radio Show was when the topic of ‘Verse of the Year’ came up. Dallas declared that Black Thought was the current holder of that title thanks to his rousing performance on ‘Walk Alone’ from How I Got Over. Despite being aware of the fact that DP has been known to carry weed for Philly’s Finest on occassion, I thought maybe I should check the album out again after having initially dismissed it as a ‘snooze-fest’. Turns out that Black Thought murders shit over some rich, moody compositions. But there’s something not quite right – the majority of the choruses are fuckin’ horrible. I’m not sure if it’s the choice of vocalists or the words, but the hooks on this record completely kill the vibe for me. To be honest, The Roots have a pretty poor track-record in this area. ‘Dat Skat’, anybody? But I’m not trying to make an example of the Hardest Working Band In Hip-Hop, because this problem is an epidemic right now. (more…)
Not sure how I missed the debut last week, but I just caught the second episode of The Combat Jack Radio Show with Dallas Penn on PNC Radio, and I think it’s safe to say we’ve got a keeper on our hands.
Diamond D was never too heavily involved in the remix game, but in the early days he cashed some checks where he could, and the was able to lend his sound to some otherwise forgettable groups like the Private Investigators and The A.T.E.E.M. His work for Brand Nubian and Ras Kass, however? Effin’ incredible. Welcome to what I like to call the classic ‘two-horse race’. (more…)
Before there were Boss Money Gangsters, there were Money Boss Players, and they were awesome. The first time I heard ‘Killed In The Crap Game’, I was hooked. Abrasive electric guitar? Check. Anti-social raps? Check. Quoting ‘The Message’ for the hook? Check!
From his independent heater ‘Cannibal Town’, through to his The Hitman album and his work as a member of the Maniac Mob on The D&D Project, founding Flavor Unit soldier Double J has been doing his thing to rep Jersey City over the years without getting caught out by the music game.
Robbie: When did you start working with 45 King?
Double J: Meeting with Mark in ‘86, I hear everybody speaking of ‘the basement’, but when I started out we were in the attic in East Orange. Everybody talking about the basement – they should know about the attic. Mark had the microphones screwed into the wall, like four mics lined up, and everybody used to come up there, rhymin’. We started to make so much noise he had to leave there. Then we went down to the basement where we continued making the noise. Before all of that, I was more into the street life rather than the music at that time. I wasn’t really into writing rhymes and this and that, ‘cos I had just had a kid, and I’m trying to raise a kid real early. When the music wasn’t giving me no checks, I’ve still got to put milk on the table and pampers. So I had to keep living the street life and rhyme every chance I could. So when I met up with Mark and ‘em we go and make tapes and everything – we just had a lot of fun and just rocked. We made a lotta video tapes of us passing the mic too. Me, Apache and Latee – we went to school together. Me and Latee was in the same 3rd grade class. At the beginning of the Flavor Unit, we’d be all in the basement and we was wondering what should we call it. Should we call it the ‘Flavor Posse’ because it was already the Juice Crew so we couldn’t use the Flavor Crew. I think it was Lakim Shabazz that said, ‘Let’s call it the Flavor Unit’, and ever since then that’s what we rolled with. The word ‘Flavor’ was Latee from ‘This Cut’s Got Flavor’, ‘cos that was the first record outta the crew that was poppin’ on the radio. (more…)
“One thing I gotta say – I had a partner through all this stuff named John Gamble. Up until the second Everlast record I worked on, damn near everything I ever did with him. He was like the engineer of the team, but also a producer, and he’s an incredibly underrated part of the element. Geeby Dajani, he was my partner in the beginning. He put us together and then he wasn’t really involved from a really early point, after maybe the first Brand Nubian record I didn’t really fuck with him on music too much after that. Maybe H2O a little bit, but that was it. The thing was I was more dominant in making the music, so we kinda had to stop working together ‘cos I was just too ambitious and driven, so I just kinda went for mine. The whole time though, I had Gamble next to me, helping me clean my shit up, make it sound better, fixing up my programming – very underrated element. I was just wanna give him thanks, props and praise. I just wanna shout out my partner John Gamble, ‘cos he’s an ill dude.”
Fat Joe has released ten albums? You’ve got to respect that kind of dedication, despite his fondness for shitty club music on three quarters of them. But regardless of the direction that he may taken over the years in order to survive in the music game, Crack has done pretty well for a guy who admits he couldn’t rap for shit when he started out and had to strong-arm himself into the spotlight. He once admitted that he knew he was wack back in the days, but no one had the heart to tell him when he grabbed the mic in case he broke their nose with a right hook. While his debut was carried by top-notch D.I.T.C. beats, by the time he delivered Jealous One’s Envy he had refined his Shout Rap style into something more convincing, and continued to display and great ear for music. Once Big Punisher came into the picture, Joe was forced to step his game up in a major way and ever since has made the most of his somewhat limited vocal talents. I was surprised to find that his latest, The Darkside, has a few burner’s on it. Even more shocking is the fact that Cool & Dre actually out-shined the Premier and Just Blaze contributions.
Anyways, I though this would be a good opportunity to throw a few of Joey’s less renown work out there. Beyond the posse cuts, ‘Twinz ’98′, ‘Flow Joe’ and ‘Lean Back’, here are some of the big fella’s finest moments: (more…)
“These kids don’t appreciate music from last week, let alone ten years ago!”
This is something that a lot of people – artists in particular – like to complain about. It’s a valid point though. Any mention of ‘older rappers’ in the media draws the inevitable comparisons with the Rolling Stones, who continue to tour despite that the fact that they’re all over 100 years old (not to mention the fact that Keith Richards has been dead for the last 25 years). Classic rock albums from Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and The Beatles continue to be discovered and enjoyed by each new generation of music fans – or at least those who take the time to study their shit – while many staples of great hip-hop long-players are relegated to the occasional blog post on knowyaraphistory.blogspot.com (note: may not be a real URL). (more…)
Not content with unleashing some heat from the vaults, I.U. has just thrown us a couple of dope self-produced songs from his forthcoming Grown Man B.I. album.
“Fuck your tight jeans and your bullshit swag/ Your chain and your watch – just throw it in the bag!”
Grand Daddy I.U. feat. Sadat X - ‘Rhyme After Rhyme’
