Thanks to the ultimate random find over at Gwar Izm, some footage of the 1st Annual Rapper’s Boxing Championships has been uncovered, 6 minutes into the above clip for the ‘Dance Energy Special 1992′. This legendary, one-off event was originally covered in The Source (scan) and has been a topic of amusement for me ever since. So much so that I felt compelled to ask Freddie Foxxx about his involvement:

You were involved in the 1st Annual Rapper’s Boxing Championships in 1992. How did that go?

It was a boxing match put together by a man named Gary Braverman, whose father was also in the boxing entertainment world – he was a friend of Don King’s. I remember when Eric B. brought the guy to see me I was actually in the back yard, working out on the bag. He walked back and this guy said, ‘Yo man, you really know how to box!’ So he said he was putting together this boxing match with all rappers, and I said, ‘OK’. I was like I didn’t think no rappers was actually gonna show-up. But back then, there was a few cats that showed-up, they wanted to get down. I actually had to train with professional fighters to prepare myself for what it was – Iran Barkley was one of my trainers. The sad thing was, I was already more capable of the boxing ability than these rap guys was, so I over-trained and I hurt a few cats in that. But it is what it is – I wasn’t in there to play no games anyway.

Who did you fight?

I fought a cat named Spook Blunt [from the group True Culture], and then the other cat was Dope E from The Terrorists or something like that.

Wasn’t Tim Dog meant to fight him originally? And you didn’t appreciate having to step in for him?

My thing was, when you rep where you live or where you from, you supposed to step-up. At the time I believe he was big enough to seal that deal for New York – he was beefing with the West Coast, the NWA thing was poppin’ – it was like, ‘You know what? This guy talked all this trash on the phone to me about he was gonna show up and do this and do that, but for some reason he’s not here’. And I felt it made New York look bad, so I stepped to it and I fought the fight. I won both belts [the 'Heavyweight Hardcore Title' and the 'East Meets West Hardcore Super Heavyweight Title'] and gave Dope E the belt for fighting me, cos he didn’t have to fight me. He coulda said, ‘Nah, I should win by default’, cos there were other people who had default wins, and now this guy is coming back out…and I happened to have a sprained right shoulder when I beat him, too. Poet had gave me a high five and I reached to give him a high five with my right hand. He hit it kinda hard and sprained my shoulder, but I still went in and fought anyway. I dropped him with a left hand in the fight – and I’m right handed! He don’t like when I tell people that! [laughs]

Thanks you internets. You have finally proven your worth!

The idea of seeing you’re favorite rapper posing next to a naked pr0n model seemed like a good idea at the time, but it seems that the mighty Fish ‘N Grits magazine founded by DJ/producer/rapper Joe Fatal ran out of steam after around six issues. Thanks to the archives of Dallas Penn, I’m able to bring you some of the less explicit photos from an issue of this pioneering smut book. Check below for some not exactly safe for work pictorial goodness….

Is this what T.I. and Tiny were up to that night they got done with a car load of weed and E pills?

Business as usual for Uncle Luke.

David Banner thankfully kept his shirt on for most of this shoot.

TIP enjoys some simulated brain.

This brings back some memories… these charts went in! Chuck D‘s ‘Crazy Alternative Top Hip-Hop 15′ is a winner, as are the contributions from Harry Allen, J. The Sultan and Funken-Klein (R.I.P.). Considering how young I was when this issue dropped, there were a lot of records that I sought-out on the strength of their inclusion on these lists.

Quality comparison of two musical mentalists, taken from the Feb. 2003 issue of Spin.

A young Dave Chappelle cracks some funnies for The Source‘s Punchline column back when House of Pain were considered “cutting edge” and “X” hats were a must-have item.

Catch me chopping it up with these two Wu-Tang troopers in the latest edition of HHC Digital.

Robbie: You’re doing your thing on Twitter. Is that another way to reach out to the fans?

Raekwon: It’s just all about interacting. I want my fans to know that outside of music y’all can still be close to me. There’s so many different, new, modern-day technology shit that’s going that we gotta coincide with. To me, I think it’s good ‘cos it gives you a hands-on with your fans – even more closer than them just waiting to hear you on the radio or waiting for your album. It’s like, ‘Yo, you can catch me in the lab, nigga! What’s good? I’m making me a turkey burger right now. How ya doing?’ I think that shit is hot right there! [chuckles] I think that’s live! Word up!

Somebody may call me and be like, ‘Yo! Tomorrow’s my birthday, kid!’ I wanna hit a nigga back and be like, ‘Happy birthday, man! Enjoy your day, this is what you should go do.’ Or if you having a bad day, if it’s something I could help you on, that’s what I’m here for. I mean at the end of the day, y’all made me who I am, so I feel like it’s owed to do that to the fans. Especially at times they wanna be heard from – I appreciate that.

So you can confirm that you’re writing your own Twitter updates? You don’t have someone typing it for you?

Nah, all that shit is in the phones right now, so you know it’s not a problem to just say something real quick or whatever, whatever. After I found out a long time ago – like maybe four years ago – that it was like two or three other Raekwons acting like they was me, I had to really step in and really fix that shit. ‘Cos I would hate for fans to be lead by somebody else and not know that they talking to the wrong person. So I had to come in and really fix that situation.

Stress went deeper than just the musical side of hip-hop and covered topics that others were afraid to touch, in addition to some creative coups such as the flexi-single of Blackstarr’s debut single and the Bobby Digital comic/CD combo. Founder and graffiti veteran KET breaks down the history of the mag and discusses his struggle against the City of New York after they tried to lock him up for ten years on vandalism charges.

Robbie: What was your main motivation to put Stress together?

KET: The hip-hop magazines that existed at the time didn’t represent hip-hop culture. I felt that they were basically ‘rap’ magazines and they were written from the perspective of outsiders, and there wasn’t anybody doing it that came from within the culture itself. So when I kinda discovered this I decided to do it myself.

Stress was a lot more community-minded and covered political issues that The Source and RapPages didn’t really bother to deal with.

Right. I see hip-hop like that; I don’t see hip-hop just as an industry. I felt that magazines like The Source and RapPages really just covered the ‘industry’ of rap. It came from a very elitist place, like if you’re from a major label you get covered, but if you are dealing with police brutality? ‘We don’t really want to talk about that’, or if you’re a famous graffiti writer or B-Boy you don’t really have any place. We were coming from a place where hip-hop is a culture started in the streets by people of color, and we wanted to represent the things that hip-hop culture experiences and deals with. And we deal with things like police brutality and incarceration and love and marginalization and whatever the case might be. We wanted to paint the bigger picture and communicate more things to our audience. We felt – as young men and women doing the magazine – that we had an important tool of communication and we felt very responsible in the type of media that we put out. We wanted to be able to educate and inform, and do it in a way that was positive and uplifting. To do that I think it takes more than just talking about you’re favorite rapper and a record review.

That must have also presented challenges as far as selling ad space. Was it a tough sell?

It was a tough sale because the industry was used to magazines like The Source that were basically regurgitating press releases for the new rapper that was coming out whatever month, so they had a lot more pages to dedicate to contemporary music than we did. We had less pages for music because we were dealing with everything under the sun. We’re dealing with a lot more social issues and features that were non-musical, so we didn’t get as much support as a Source or a RapPages. And also because we were seen as a stronger political voice and it didn’t necessarily sit good with some advertisers. But for the time that we existed we were able to secure major advertisers and build a decent business.

Stress also broke a lot of new artists like Eminem and Thirstin Howl III, didn’t you?

The good thing about us being an independent magazine, we weren’t stuck on the politics of the record labels. We were looking for artists that were pioneering or interesting and visionary and doing cool things. We put Jay-Z on the cover for the first time – his message really resonated with us and we felt that it was gonna be big. It was early, it was 1996, and nobody had ever done that before. Same thing with Eminem and Ghostface and the Beatnuts and Mos Def. People that we felt were gonna important to the culture.

You had that Rawkus cover with the 7″ flexidisc. Was that a logistical nightmare?

That was interesting, it was a lot of work. We felt so passionate about it that we would try some crazy things even though maybe we’d lose money. The ability to put out the Blackstarr single with Rawkus through our magazine like that was an incredible opportunity for us, and we were very excited to do it. One issue we did a cartoon with the RZA and we released a CD with the RZA’s record on the cover of the magazine. We put him on the cover as a robot. We wouldn’t sleep and would work all day and work all night because that was what we were about.

What was the story with Spin using you Eminem cover?

That was from the same photo shoot. Our photographer then was this guy named Jus Ske – who’s now a big DJ – and he did the photography. But you know what? We would never sign contracts with our photographers, it wasn’t that like kind of a deal with us. When Spin saw the cover the approached him about it and he resold the images to them, The funny thing is they picked the exact same image and they ran it exactly the same way, so it was a little bit strange. But we were used to having our concepts and our ideas and our staff ripped off, so it wasn’t so bizarre.

Did you have a friendly rivalry with other mags like On The Go?

On The Go, ego trip and Stress were all out around the same time, so we all felt that we were rivals – Vibe magazine as well. We were all trying to outdo each other and sometimes we would talk shit about each other. I’m known to have a big mouth so I used to say a lot of stuff about The Source and I got pissed-off at ego trip once or twice. But for the most part – with the exception of The Source – it was all friendly rivalry.

The magazine game’s falling on hard times these days – there’s so much free stuff online. What are your thoughts on that?

I think it’s a very hard time to be involved in the magazine business. The magazine business has always been a difficult business – the cost of paper and printing are very high and are getting higher every day. And advertising is very tough to acquire – especially with this new media market that we’re dealing with. The magazines I see lasting for a long time are ones that are associated with larger publishing companies that are able to benefit from better relationships with printers and advertisers because their buying in bulk, whereas the smaller independents are always gonna struggle and come and go because they just don’t have the scale to really be able to benefit and to save. It’s unfortunate because there’s always a lot of great ideas and creativity coming out of the independents, but it’s these bigger companies that are gonna be able to really dominate and do it, because they just have the money to do it. It’s just the way it is. Magazines are traditionally vanity things. They’re created by people that are very rich and that want to be cool and do something like a magazine which is considered cool and sexy. So the ones that you see out there kinda have that in mind and are done by the very wealthy, and they succeed. When you’re a self-start up and you’re trying to do it on the indy tip, like a Mass Appeal, you can last for a few years because you work really, really hard and you don’t pay anybody any money and you cut crazy deals, but eventually you can’t do it anymore, because you realize that you’re running a real business and you’re losing money. It’s tough, man.

How does something like Marc Ecko’s Complex magazine fall into that ‘vanity project’ category? Because I know that you were involved with that.

That absolutely falls into that category. Marc Ecko has a lot of money and he can afford to launch a magazine. He wanted to do something that talked to his customers that was about fashion. He’s a fashion guy and he wanted to support the fashion business. That magazine is total vanity – it’s totally supporting the kind of fashion culture that he’s involved with. That’s exactly what that is. He could’ve started a hip-hop magazine too, right? But he didn’t. He could’ve saved ego trip or On The Go, maybe, or Stress, but instead Complex was born because it suited more to his business interests. And that’s normally how magazines are born.

Were you also involved with his Getting Up game?

Yeah. Marc and I are very cool – he was one of my advertisers when I started Stress. We basically started Stress and Ecko at the same time and became friends and business colleges, growing our companies together. So when Stress was going out of business and I decided to shut it down, they asked me to help them start a new magazine, and I came in as a creative guy to put together Complex and work and develop that for them. I did that for a few years until it got to be established, and then I left because my job was done. Then they asked me to help them develop the graffiti video game, so I worked on that a couple of years and put that together from the very beginning to the very end. I was kinda the lead person on those two projects, and they worked out well.

You were also involved in the Ecko Block Party. Was that the start of your problems with the State of New York?

Maybe…for some reason I became targeted in New York. I think my involvement with the Block Party was some of it, I think the fact that I’ve been involved in a lot of commercial projects was another part of it, I think the fact that I’ve been an active writer in the city for twenty years has a lot to do with it. So I think it was a combination of all those things that got them to come after me very hard. I think the lawsuits that Ecko made happen and then not being able to get him, maybe getting me – knowing that I worked with him – seemed like a good idea for them.

Are you still dealing with that situation?

I’m still dealing with it simply because I have to pay fines now. I decided to stop the case because it was getting to be too expensive and too crazy. So I’ve been found guilty on three counts and I have to pay fines and I have to do community service and I have to do three years probation.

But that’s a better outcome than the serious jail time they were trying to throw at you.

It is a way better outcome than sitting in prison for ten years, that’s for sure. It’s just unfortunate that the city feels like it needs to target artists in such an incredible manner and destroy their livelihood and their lives. What I went through was a really terrible ordeal. It was a year and a half of dealing with the stuff, and it cost a lot of money. I had to create fundraisers and these things to help raise money to pay for lawyers. It was very difficult and very tough. I’m grateful that I didn’t go to prison, but they shouldn’t have been at my house, arresting me, anyway.

Are you ever planning on doing an autobiography?

I am working on something. I kept meticulous notes when I was in jail. I kept a journal during my case and I also have all the court records – all the bullshit the cops wrote, all the ways that the cops lie in court to get people busted. I have all those materials but I want to pay my fines before I put something out in case they throw me in jail for writing a book. I think that a lot of the things that I experienced, other people are experiencing, and all the paperwork that we submitted to the courts I would like to release into the public, so that next time someone gets into a case they can just look at my book and tell their lawyers, ‘Look, this is what you gotta say. This is how you gotta do it.’ I’m gonna make public all the court transcripts, all the motions and all those things that were filed – I mean I have motions that cost $15,000 for the lawyers to do – so why not make that public so that if you get busted there’s a reference point for your lawyers to go back in and say, ‘OK, here’s some ideas’.

That’s a good idea, man.

You gotta help people out, man. People are trying to put young people in prison, and there aren’t enough of us working with young people to keep them outta jail, so I feel like at least my experience should at least help someone else out.

For more on KET’s legal battle against the State of New York, go here.

Video from 2007 detailing the details of the case against KET:

Hip Hop Connection (UK), who ran my Hydra Entertainment feature in the new issue.

Superfly (Italy), who just printed an Italian translation of my KRS-One interview.

Vapors (L.A.) included my Percee-P and Keith Murray pieces.

Finally, the new Acclaim (Australia) houses my articles about Joell Ortiz and the RDC crew.

Not that any of this means that we’ll be taking shorts around here. Coming up on Unkut Dot Com this week: Royal Flush vinyl special and an interview with Kwest Tha Madd Ladd.

Following the sidebar shenanigans in XXL Mag last year, Vibe has given Unkut Dot Com a mention, naming this here spot as #19 in their 30 Best Music Web Spots list in the October issue. Placed just after Stretch Armstrong‘s Konstant Kontact (which has been out of action since the end of July when it moved to a new URL) and in front of Just Blaze‘s The Megatron Don. I’d rather a write-up in Hustler to be honest, but sometimes you have to just take what you can get.

As if “Verbal Intercourse” wasn’t ill enough, the Gods connected again for the little dunns incredible third LP. For some reason which I can no longer recall, I was a little disappointed with Hell On Earth in the wake of the awe-inspiring (not to mention very influential) The Infamous album. Truth be told, this was a more refined version of the same shit. The beats were sparser and darker, the raps were more paranoid and violent – the Mobb were at the top of their game. Prodigy, who can barely string two words together these days, delivered his most impressive lyrical performance outside of “Shook Ones” on the supreme mathematics that is “Apostle’s Warning”. And who can forget that “interactive” CD-ROM crap that let you pretend you were walking around the Bridge, with the secret code to unlock the song dissing Keith Murray. Good times all round.

Mobb Deep feat. Nas and Big Noyd - “Give It Up”

Mobb Deep feat. Raekwon - “Nightime Vultures”

Mobb Deep - “Apostle’s Warning”

Interesting photo I found tonight in an old Source. Shoots the shit outta this theory…or maybe just “the good old days”?

Lakim Shabazz - “Africa”

Unreleased winner from the little guy with the voice of power, recently appeared on a Tuff City collection of Lakim’s non-album tracks.

Akinyele - “Yo!”

Akafella and Buckwild combine that “93 Till Infinity” loop and the “Droppin’ Science” remix for some Lost Tapes action.

Big City - “Disgustin’”

What’s up with the Kings from Corona? Ju Ju takes a break from mic duties so Problemz steps in to sub.

Ayatollah - “In Time My Brother”

A little something from A’s next instrumental LP.

Boss Money Gangstas feat. Minnesota – “Dat Shit”

Eddie Cheeba and Trey Bag run this street talk shit.

Talk of “grown folk” music used to mean trading in your M.O.P. CD’s for some Jill Scott, but it’s becoming a topic of talk for more and more MC’s as many long-serving rap troopers are now entering middle-age. Underground stalwarts the Juggaknots tackled the issue with fellow elder statesmen Sadat X on “30 Something”, while boardroom bandit Jay-Z swagger-jacked the concept and song title a month later for his return to “official” recording.

Beyond the name, however, both songs are worlds apart in terms of their content and delivery. While (not so) Young Hov sounds more than a little defensive with his boasts of big bank ballin’, Breeze Brewin is a lot more comfortable with the relentless progress of Father Time as he points out that “if you stay nice it’s always your prime-time” while noting that he now has to watch his cholesterol levels. S. Carter boasts that “I don’t buy out the bar/I bought the night-spot” while Breeze laments the fact that “the scene is rough/seen some veterans treated like senior citizens, with niggas like ‘I seen enough’/and stay shoutin’ out ‘when you gon’ quit?’” The fact that one of these lyricists is attempting to justify his relevance to the 2006 rap game – while the other embraces a financially uncertain future – speaks volumes of their respective positions in the rap food chain.

Although Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane and Grandmaster Caz will still be able to “tear the show up” in ten years from now, I’d rather have teeth pulled with rusty pliers than listen to KRS-One‘s last record – and most rap fans seem to share this sentiment. These guys haven’t let their skills slip up over the years, but still struggle get heard in today’s over-saturated market. Whether it’s poor beat choices or attempts to sound up-to-date with “new improved” deliveries and an unhealthy reliance on modern slang, very few veterans are getting over. Aside from a handful of exceptions, while the older breed of MC’s are still welcome on stage, the record game will forever be a young man’s sport.

Jay-Z “30 Something”

Juggaknots featuring Sadat X “30 Something”

Originally published in Acclaim magazine #5:

Listening to Godfather Don‘s post-Hazardous demos and early Hydra work compared to his latter output reveals a distinct change in both his style and attitude. From his humble beginning as an abstract jazz type rapper to his Biggie-influenced jignorant material, the gawd has been putting it down in his own unique style. “Styles By The Gram”, “Seeds of Hate” and “On The Other Style” present intensive verbal work over sinister tracks, while “Status” and “Da Bomb Baby” offer a slightly more accessible angle. The original mix of “Burn” brings more of the raw complete with a choice B.I.G. hook, and album track “Do You Know” showcases Don’s buttery flow over an exquisite GD production.¹ Finally, “3 The Hard Way” combines Don with RA and Prince Poetry for one of the more eccentric posse cut’s you’ll ever hear.

1997 On The Go interview with Donnie Brasco

It’s safe to assume that Don likes him some Spanish dames.

Selected Godfather Don twelve inch releases on Hydra Entertainment:

Styles By The Gram

Status

Seeds of Hate

On The Other Side

Burn

Da Bomb Baby

Do You Know?

3 The Hard Way

Only a hundred of these test-pressings were made. Sucks for you if you didn’t cop it from Sandbox Automatic.

1. 1. Not to be confused with Party Arty and D-Flow.

Thanks to the good folks over at the San Diego-based Modern Fix magazine, I’m now the official “Hip-Hop Editor” over there, and my first issue behind the wheel hits the street this week. I handled the cover story and four other interviews, which you can check out below. I’ll also be posting some stuff on the new MF site from time to time.

DJ A-Trak

Brother J from X-Clan

Breeze Brewin from the Juggaknots

Lord Jamar

Termanology

Meanwhile, at Unkut – stay tuned for the Godfather Don vinyl special in the next day or so…..

Several weeks after the start of “G Rap Week” (which should really be “Month” but who’s counting) I’ve been able to dig up what I still consider to be the definitive Kool G Rap interview, thanks to Cheo H. Coker, B+ and RapPages. Pretty much everything you’d want to know about the early years is covered here, as well as the precise sequence of “competitive” joints where G and Big Daddy Kane tussled for the spot of top dog at the House that Marley built. Based on the poll from the last G Rap post, 52% of you think that Kane might’ve been a little shark-like in terms of imitating G‘s style from the radio session they did over the “Raw” beat. 16% declared BDK a straight-up biter, while 32% of Big Daddy loyalists refused to hear any talk of a rip-off.

But the real question is – based on the songs G Rap mentions in the interview, who was the supreme lyricists of the J-U Ice?

Big Daddy Kane & Kool G Rap - Raw (Extended Alternate Version)

Big Daddy Kane - Raw (Original Version)

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Men At Work

Big Daddy Kane - Set It Off

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Poison

Big Daddy Kane - Wrath of Kane

[Poll=15]