Here’s some priceless footage of Shockin’ Shaun, Jockbox and Superman Jay performing ‘Jockbox’ and miming ‘Rip The Cut’ on public access TV in 1987, on the Miggs B on TV show, which apparently had a run of 400 episodes ‘featuring guests such as Martha Stewart, Rush Limbaugh, Penthouse Pets, Patty Hearst…musicians, artists, psychics, healers, actors, therapists, comedians and the most interesting people this area has to offer’.
Vintage Ultra and possibly the only thing on the B-Sides Companion that was worth the price of admission. Ced-Gee‘s declaration that he will bang your girl ‘hard…hard and hard/like John Leslie, a porno star!’ gives a pretty clear of what exactly he plans to be ‘on’ if you make the mistake of leaving wifey at home alone.
This is one of those examples when it’s a good thing that someone had too much time on their hands:
This is a pieced together session from various multitracks. I took the original beatbox demo used and sampled for “Get Stupid pt 2″ – grabbed the best parts, chopped each element and repieced them together so it sounds like a one take beatbox (very tedious work). Took the acapella from the OG demo version of “Needle to the groove” (which had Tricky Tee on it.. bet you didn’t know he was supposed to be on Needle to the Groove?) and pieces of MC TEE’s rhymes which were from Get Stupid Pt 2 and then muted and Get Stupid ended up being an instrumental while Tee’s rhymes got recycled for later songs. I took all of these elements and repieced it into the track you are hearing now. And as an extra spice, i added my own Mantronix-ish type stutter chops (yes i did those) and voila! Get Stupid Pt 2 (beatbox version) with Tricky Tee, MC Tee, Mantronix and Greg Nice. Enjoy! (Produced by Jorun Bombay.. this version cannot be heard anywhere but here) I know it may sound like an authentic Mantronix production because of the chop chop chops.. but truthfully, this version wouldn’t even exsist before i re-pieced it, mixmatched elements together, produced it & posted it. Big shout out to MCtEE, MANTRONIX, TRICKY TEE and GREG NICE who all have been huge influences and helped shape hip hop in the 80′s and beyond. Go look up their stuff and get knowledged! Be a fan of their music.
Over 200 tracks have plundered the bounty of the tripped-out musical voyage that the Scroggins sisters took way back in 1981, so I’ve chosen the 24 finest uses of the ‘UFO’ break for this compilation. (more…)
Hardknocks delivered something unique when they dropped the School of Hard Knocks album in 1992. It stood-out both musically and lyrically as a sophisticated blend of hardcore rhymes and groove-heavy beats that sounded nothing like any other record of the era. Then they promptly vanished…leaving a lot of unanswered questions for rap fanatics who knew little about the crew itself, save for their earlier incarnation as 3 Da Hard Way. While I’d always assumed that The Spearchuckas, who were credited as the producers, were in fact Hardhead and Stoneface, it turns out I was wrong. When I had the chance to speak to J-1, who was half of the Spearchucka team, I jumped at the opportunity to fill in some of the blanks regarding this outstanding album.
Robbie: How did you start out?
J-1: I’ve been involved in music ever since I was 9 or 10. I played drums, my father played drums, played bass guitar…my family was musically involved. As far as hip-hop is concerned, I was in New York deejaying from 1978 all the way until about five years ago. I grew-up in Long Island. We did all those block parties. The C.B.S. crew. I moved to Atlanta in 1984. I started meeting people and this guy Mike California knew Henry Lee, who was from Noon Time Music. He helped us get started. Now he does Jazzy Pha and Ciara and that kind of stuff. (more…)
When I interviewed Mr. Starks before the release of his R&B album, I asked him if we could expect him to rhyme over raw breaks anytime in the near future:
Robbie: Would you ever do an album of just goin’ over breaks being cut-up, like that ‘Last Night’ skit you had?
Ghostface Killah: Yeah, yeah, I like that. There’s gonna be more of that, I love that. That’s the best.
Apollo Kids feels as close to that kind of concept as we’re ever going to get….cop it now here.
‘We’re putting the band back together…’ Doo Wop re-unites with Snaggapuss and Aul That to bring some new improved Bounce Squad shit, with a liitle help from Jadakiss. If 2010 had produced 99 more songs on this level, I’d actually be able to write-up a Top 100…
To help promote the re-launch of the NBA Jam video game, Mick Boogie put together this mix of classic 1993 remixes. Grab it for a little trip down memory lane, hopefully with a bottle of St. Ides you’ve had stashed away for such an occasion….
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…)
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…)
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…)
I’m late on this one but shit happens. Lord Finesse is the blueprint of modern Punchline Rap, no question. This also reminded me that ‘O’ Lord’ might just be be the greatest skit with rapping ever…
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…)
