Doo Wop just blessed with a dope new mixtape full of quality Chick Rap:
The Women of Strength Foundation founded by Tashera Simmons (wife of DMX) was established to assist and support women and children who have suffered from abandonment, homelessness, drug addiction, domestic violence and other social conflicts. Women of Strength intends to lend not only financial support but also much need emotional support as well.
A new collection of unreleased Big L material, titled Return of the Devil’s Son, is due next month:
‘This album is supported 100% by the Big L family.” Said Big L’s older brother Donald Phinazee “I’ve been talking about this album for the last six years and it means everything to me. This is an original Big L album and I’m excited to put my brother out. This album will show where he should have been and where he was about to go. It’s going on 12 years since he’s been gone. He would have been that one; this project will show where he should have been at’.
Return of the Devil’s Son on Distrolord/SMC Recordings will be available online and in stores November 23, 2010.
Continuing from Part 1, Trag discusses dealing with depression, mentoring MC’s and the origin of his military state of mind.
Robbie: Can you tell me more about the fall-out from your second album?
Tragedy Khadafi: I’ve been rhyming since I was nine and I started writing songs when I was eleven, so I’ve been rhyming all my life – and anything I’ve ever put out, people felt! But now, this second album, nobody’s feeling it like that! And it’s bothering me – I don’t know how to take that, I don’t know how to accept that at the time. So I left Atlanta and I decided that I’m going to go back to the mecca – for me. So I go back to the Bridge, and I’m just hanging around the Bridge, vibin’ with my old people, old friends, goin’ back to the block. In the course of that I started writing more joints, recording, and my views changed in the sense where I felt like, ‘I can still drop science – I can still drop knowledge – but maybe it doesn’t have to sound so preachy. Maybe it doesn’t have to sound so direct’. The game started changing, things started shifting. As far as I’m concerned, I always drop consciousness in my records – even if it’s just one line. I always try to find the balance between the streets, music and consciousness, and I try to infuse it all together. (more…)
Why do people who don’t even work in the music industry talk about album sales? It makes no sense whatsoever when you think about it, but since the young rap fans of today are often more concerned with what sort of jacket Kanye was wearing in his new video than what he says in his lyrics, it shouldn’t really come as any great surprise. See, there’s this white guy who used to rap about being crazy, going on killing spree’s and unsavory thoughts toward the mother of his child (and his own mum, come to think of it). Nothing unusual there either – pale-faced rappers have often resorted to casting themselves in the role of the lunatic in an attempt to deflect any questions of ‘street cred’ or whatever you want to call it. He sold a hell of a lot of records performing Black music, won an Oscar, then took a break and got strung-out on goofballs and got fat – basically on some Elvis shit. Here’s the thing – he was actually a pretty great rapper. Sure, as his career progressed the quality of the beats steadily declined and the choruses became increasingly annoying, but the kid still had lyrics to go. (more…)
R.A. continues his winning streak on this cut from Hell Razah‘s latest LP, Heaven Razah, which drops on October 26 via Nature Sounds. Pre-order from UGHH.com.
Hell Razah feat. R.A. The Rugged Man - ‘Return of the Renaissance’
When the crew over at Complex decided they needed to put together a definitive list of the 50 Greatest Queensbridge Rap Songs Of All Time, who else were they gonna call? As is the nature of such projects, there was a little give-and-take between my initial chart and the finished result, but that’s part of the challenge and I’m more than happy with the final result:
A few weeks back I asked if anyone had any ideas for the Wild Card Round, but after going through the list I decided to go back to the drawing board and pick eight essential remixes that haven’t been covered yet. Once this is decided, the winners of this and the previous eight rounds will battle it out for the title of The Greatest Remix Of All Time, at least according to Unkut’s Conservative Rap Coalition (aka The East-Coast Rap Elitists). Whether on the strength of the new lyrics or just taking an otherwise shitty track and making it sound good, these eight remixes all win in their own way. (more…)
As promised, Doo Wop and Pete Rock have been working on a project together. Here’s a leak with Joell Ortiz and a snippet of a second track that Wop previewed on his Twitter.
Doo Wop & Pete Rock feat. Joell Ortiz - ‘Do Thangs’
Tragedy Khadafi is considered to be the blueprint of the Queensbridge style of rhyming, which has become world-renowned thanks to artists like Nas, Mobb Deep and Cormega. Even though he never achieved the commercial acclaim of some of those who followed in his footsteps – due to a variety of personal and professional set-backs – his influence and musical vision is still being felt today through those he mentored, such as Capone-N-Noreaga and Killa Sha. Having just come home after three years in prison, Trag is furiously preparing a number of projects, including a solo album, and collaborations with the late Sha Lumi, DJ Phantom and DJ Fresh. With a new single is due out this November, I took the opportunity to discuss some of his earlier work in the first of this two part feature.
Robbie: Tell us about the Super Kids record, ‘The Tragedy’.
Tragedy: When I first came out, I was probably around 12, 13, and my name was MC Jade. When I was trying to come out and get my name up and be heard, I had an individual from my block in Queensbridge, on the 41st side, named Panic. Panic is like an older brother to me, man. Panic was always that guidance for me, especially when I was younger. He had two turntables and a mixer in his room, so when I would stop by his window I would hear him playing records and cutting-up records, and it always intrigued me. So I stepped to him one day and told him, ‘Yo, I wanna go through your records. Let me listen to your records’, so he let me come in the crib, he would let me listen to all his records and I would write my rhymes while I listened to a lotta old school joints, and we started to form a bond. He was actually my first DJ. He went on to produce some things for Marley later on too, but the turntables he had wasn’t actually his – they were Hot Day’s turntables. So that’s how me and Hot Day met, because Hot Day came by Panic’s crib – took his turntables back – and obviously I went to Panic’s to try to make some more music and Panic was like, ‘Yo, I had to give this dude his turntables back’. That’s how I got introduced to Hot Day, and from that point on me and Hot Day started making tapes together. (more…)
Combat Jack is on a roll right now, having recently penned this superb True Stories Behind 25 Rap Classics for Complex as well as hosting his always entertaining show on PNC Radio (which also features my semi-regular Weed Carrier Report) with Dallas Penn and NY Delight. This week’s episode featured Super DJ Clark Kent, Maffew Ragazino and Sean P in the studio, which added an extra Brooknam flavor to proceedings.
Here’s the entire Recon mixtape, featuring Confidence‘s remixes of classic 90′s tracks and DJ Grazzhoppa (1991 European DMC Champ) handling scratch and blend duties. Obviously the original versions of these songs didn’t require any improvement, but it’s always interesting to hear a new take on these well-worn classics.
This could almost be put in the Weirdo Rap category, but fuck it. I haven’t checked the rest of the tape yet, but you can download it below if you’re so inclined.
Das Racist feat. Roc Marciano - ‘Roc Marciano Joint’
