When I caught-up with DJ Moe Love in 2010, he sounded as if he was two-sheets to the wind as he explained why he and TR Love hadn’t been involved in the Best Kept Secret LP, and why they decided to release their own Ultramagnetic Foundation project. We also talked about the early days of the legendary crew, the story behind “Ego Trippin’” and the Ultra Lab, and their mixed experiences with different record labels over the years.
Robbie: What age did you get into music?
DJ Moe Love: As far as deejaying and all that stuff? I started at a young age. Probably around ten years-old. I was brought up into music, my father had mad records. Music was in my blood. Before I started with Ultramagnetic I was in a group called People’s Choice Crew. We were from Brooklyn, Fort Greene. I’m originally from Brooklyn. Dana Dane was a part of that crew. People’s Choice Crew was just friends, neighborhood DJ’s and MC’s. We used to do it for the fun. Just-Ice is from my neighborhood also. (more…)
Like many of you, the first time I heard Nasty Nas was through his stirring performance on Main Source’s seminal “Live At The BBQ”, but it was initial exposure to “Halftime” on a local radio show that really got me amped. I was so impressed with the track that I eventually went on to describe it as “The Best Brag Rap Song of The 90’s”: “The lyrics are a ‘Good Combination’ of declarations of poetic superiority, explanations of his daily operations, product name checks, witty punchlines, casual blasphemy and a healthy dose of Eff The Police sentiment. What more could a rap fan ask for?” (more…)
First in a new series over at Complex that talks about classic songs with the artist and those who it inspired. Good to see this kind of stuff getting coverage with quality production values.
Some poor sap makes the mistake of heckling Grandmaster Caz and yelling out “I’ll give you a dime if you get off the stage!” The result? A verbal ass-whuppin.
Head on over to The Conservative Rap Coalition Tumblr for our rap magazine archives, Great Rap Promo Items, a bunch of classic photos of Syndicate Queen Darlene and other pictorial greatness. It’s been around for a minute but it’s being updated more regularly now that I saved-up enough money from my paper route to get a working scanner.
Check the complete video of the Stretch and Bobbito‘s appearance with ego trip’s Sacha Jenkins at the New Museum last Friday, which followed their special 1993 broadcast on WCKR. Shout-out to Mr. Armstrong for being the only other rap dude other than myself to rep sports coats and boat shoes on the regular.
New Museum: In conjunction with the New Museum exhibition “NYC 1993,” Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia discussed New York City circa 1993 through the lens of rap music. Events like the election of Rudolph Giuliani and the World Trade Center bombing changed the city’s landscape, as debut releases by the Wu-Tang Clan and Black Moon established a new tone for New York rap.
Since he was the topic of much of the Uptown interview posted yesterday, it’s only right that Dante Ross should be able to give us his version of events. This is what he just left in the comment section for those of you who already read the piece:
Ok now there’s a lot of inaccuracies here. First off me and CJ got none of Uptowns publishing me and CJ each got 12.5% which equaled 25% of the pub for writing the music. Tommy Boy got the rest minus samples. Also CJ and me split 500 bucks for the record making a whooping 250 a piece. As for programming the drums CJ and me both did a bit of the programming shit CJ taught me how to use the SP1200 and was nicer than I was on the SP (He was very skilled I might add) so I would say he definitely helped tighten it up. we started the beat either in CJ’s house or my pad I can’t remember but I think it was at CJ’s in the Astoria Project then we went to 12 12 and fixed it up and laid it down with Uptown in the studio with us. (more…)
Continuing the session with Video Music Box legend Uncle Ralph McDaniels, he discusses his Classic Concept Productions music video company, dealing with the competition, working on the movie Juice, his Lifer’s Group documentary and why $amhill is ahead of his time.
Robbie: When did it get to the stage where Video Music Box became your full-time job?
Ralph McDaniels: Eventually the station was like, “You’ve got to make a choice. You’re either going to be an engineer or you’re going to do Video Music Box”. From that point on, that was my full-time thing. On the show it was Ralph McDaniels and The Vid Kid – Lionel Martin – he was a guy I grew-up with, who went on to direct some of the best hip-hop and R&B videos in the 80’s and 90’s. I produced and directed, but he directed more than me because I was doing Video Music Box more at the time. We formed a company called Classic Concept Productions. Some of the first videos that we did were MC Shan “Left Me Lonely”, Roxanne Shante “Roxanne’s Revenge”. We worked a lot with Cold Chillin’ Records, so all of Biz Markie’s first videos, all of Big Daddy Kane’s first videos, Kool G Rap and Polo. If it wasn’t for Cold Chillin’, I don’t know if we’d have been as successful in the video business. Before the Genius was the GZA, we did his early videos, Masta Ace, “The Symphony” for Marley Marl. We started to move into some R&B stuff, all of the Bel Biv Devoe stuff. I did all the X-Clan videos, I did Wu-Tang Clan “C.R.E.A.M”, Raekwon “Ice Cream”. (more…)
Amazing footage of Ladies Love Cool James rocking a school gym. “Mommy, what’s a super sperm?”
Youtube user Kodiak Starr writes: “LL Cool J at age 17 and DJ Cut Creator perform live. 1985, Colby College, Waterville Maine. 5 months before Radio was released. My dad tried to get RUN DMC, but could not afford them, so Def Jam told him he should bring up LL Cool J”.
You can also catch a painful rendition of “Memories” at the 19 minute mark.
We need to Kickstarter this joint so that P.A.P.I. will release this documentary. Here’s how he described it to Life Sucks Die magazine years ago:
NORE: It’s nothing to say I’m doing my own movie. What! What! The Movie. You know why? When I came in and got involved with hip-hop, a lot of people was fake. But now, as we keep doing this music, there’s a lot of real individuals that’s ex-crackheads, ex-cokeheads, ex-robbers and ex-murderers and ex-hustlers that’s doing rap right now. This game has gotten a lot realer. That’s why you see people having cases and having shootouts. So I felt like I should be the one to express it because I’m the one that’s seen it. So again, that’s What!What! The Ghetto Documentary. I got Chris Lighty spazzing on Foxy Brown, talking about he bought her a Benz. I got Nas Escobar talking about The Roots is faggots. I got Snoop Dogg talking about Kurupt was wrong for making that record calling out names. I got Puff Daddy talking about the Ruff Ryders. I got The Lox dissing Puff Daddy. It’s all beef, that’s all I’m about, baby. I got a whole bunch of good shit. I got Jay-Z in Jamaica…
Update: NORE talks about the trailer in this interview with Peter Rosenberg and the crew: (more…)
Check this hour-long 2010 documentary about Freshco & Miz, the winners of the MC and DJ divisions of the 1990 NMS Battle For World Supremacy. Featuring appearances by Ice T, Ice Cube, DJ Enuff, MC Lyte, Treach, Kool DJ Red Alert, Monie Love, Dres, Phife, Yo-Yo, D Nice, MC Serch, Ed Lover & Dr. Dre, Guru, and DJ Wiz of Kid N Play.
