After he read my interview with Dante Ross, former Tommy Boy artist Uptown reached out to tell his side of the story: “A lot of people don’t know the reason why I was a one-hit wonder, so I just wanted to share that”. Turns out there was a lot more to his story than a great single from 1989 – Uptown grew-up with Maseo from De La Soul and used to kick rhymes with a young Christopher Wallace back in the days, and featured on both of the Buckshot LeFonque albums which DJ Premier recorded with Branford Marsalis.

Robbie: What age were you when you got the bug to start rhyming?

Uptown: I was about 10, 11 years old. I grew up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York – about three blocks from where Biggie Smalls lived. Me and a whole bunch of friends would go around in the neighborhood and do these little block parties. They would stop the street off, put a DJ out there and we would grab the mic. Biggie, Half-A-Mil, there’s a couple of us that was out there together in the neighborhood, used to go ‘round to all kind of block parties and do the shows. How I got my deal was, Mase from De La Soul actually grew-up in my neighborhood too, but in his early teens he moved to Amityvillle. I used to go out there and visit, even before they made their first record. He used to DJ their backyard parties and I used to battle everybody in the neighborhood. A couple of months go by and Mase comes to my house and he says, “Yo! I finally got it! I got a hit! My song is on the radio!” He gave me his first demo, it was not ready for sale yet, and it was “Plug Tunin”. I was like, “Oh my god! You can’t be serious! This is you?” Because “Plug Tunin’” was the number one jam at the time. He said, “Yeah. We’re doing a show in Virginia, we want you to come with us.” So I packed up my stuff immediately and go to the show with them in Virginia. While they’re doing their show, I met Dante Ross backstage ‘cos he was the A&R for Tommy Boy at the time. He heard me rhyme one time, and he was like, “Hey, I want you to come to our office, I like the way that you sound.” So I got signed to Tommy Boy with just a one-shot rhyme to Dante Ross!
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RA discusses the pro’s and con’s of Big Daddy Kane‘s third album. In retrospect, Looks Like A Job For was a lot better as a whole, but I still rocked this when it dropped.

There goes another in year in rap. As Weirdo Rap and EDM Rap takes hold of the youf, it’s getting a little more difficult to pick-out 40 great examples of non-progressive rap that Mitt Romney would approve of. Neo-Con Hip-Hop to some. East-Coast Elitist music to others. We are the Conservative Rap Coalition, and we are legion. Sit back, grab a beer (or something stronger), and let this tape transport you back to a time when rap didn’t suck as much, and when drums mattered, loops were important and rapping about how awesome you were was still cutting-edge.

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Philly stalwart Vinnie Paz tears this Mean Joe Preem track a new one. God of the Serengeti drops on 22nd October. Check for my interview with the Paz later this week.

J-Love and Meyhem are both dropping albums over the coming weeks, so I thought I’d see what they have cooked-up for us on Egotistical Maniac and Self-Induced Illness. It’s worth noting that both records are double albums, which is always something I’m in two minds about. On the one hand, the amount of songs you’re getting is great value and it allows you the luxury of choosing the best songs to load onto your ipod or whatever, but the other side of that is there’s an art to creating to a cohesive album and do I really want to listen to 40+ tracks from anybody in a row?
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DJ Doo Wop, Lord Tariq and Snaggapuss return to burn.

Bounce Squad - ‘Blackout’

New S-Dub with Nick Wiz on the percussion. Solid meat-and-potatoes brag rap is always welcome around these parts, as is a good Biggie hook.

Shaabam Sahdeeq – ‘Sicker Than Your Average’