What with the current influx of Molly Rap, Acid Rap, Loud Rap, Lean Rap, Yayo Rap, Bath Salts Rap and whatever the fuck else these characters are getting bent off, it seems like we’ve returned to the Slow Rap era that Cypress Hill heralded in the early nineties. Does that mean that we need to get twisted on the appropriate substance to fully enjoy much of this new rap? I’m pretty sure you need ingest heroic quantities of codeine to fully enjoy this new DOOM song with Clams Casino, “Bookends”: (more…)
Much has happened since our last meeting. Those of you who couldn’t afford the original Platinum membership packs have requested other options to show your support, and the landscape has shifted somewhat. Hipster Rap ate itself in a blur of day-glo, but new enemies have emerged in it’s wake. Now is not the time to rest on our laurels and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done, for the war rages on. Here are some of the major issues facing the CRC in 2013: (more…)
Queens battle MC veteran Mikey D hit up Unkut HQ the other day to make the following announcement:
Mikey D: All through the years, since the 80’s, with [LL] Cool J, each interview that I have the topic of the conversation is always about me and him. Although we went through what we went through, me looking back as a grown man, technically he didn’t do anything to me that was wrong. He did everything that he was supposed to do! But I got caught-up in people’s misery. You know how they say “misery needs company”, so by me still drinking 40 oz’s and still trying to hold on to being the “baddest MC in the neighborhood” title – and you’ve got these miserable people in your ears all the time, hating on him for what he’s doing? Of course I fell into that. I’m going to keep it real and say to him that I apologize for any form of disrespect. I can’t fault a man for my failures. After I left the beer and all of the negative people alone, that’s when I started seeing clearly. Melle Mel also, what happened happened at the New Music Seminar, that was 25 years ago. Let’s get over it. I want to apologize to both of them as a man, because we are all under the same umbrella. Let’s get it poppin’!
Mikey’s new crew Elements of Hip-Hop consists of Mikey D on the mic, DJ Mercury (who worked with Professor X) and Philly DJ legend Grand Wizard Rasheen. Calm Before The Storm drops April 2, with Day of Destruction following later in the year.
Many cynical rap fans complain that today’s new rapper dudes are bufoonish clowns and a disgrace to hip-hop, but perhaps we should be more appreciative of these attempts to inject a little humor into the post-Fat Boys rap landscape. Here are eight rapper’s who are no joke: (more…)
This is a vinyl mix of great ignorant rap songs which I put together with DJ J-Red in 2002. Sure to upset anybody within earshot. Includes classics such as Willie D‘s ‘Baldhead Hoes’, Convict‘s ‘Wash Ya Ass’ and Bustdown‘s ‘Pissing Razor Blades’.
As Rakim tells it in the above video with RA The Rugged Man (who looks ‘like a teenage girl on her first date’ according to the YouTube comments ), he agreed to remove his four lines aimed at Big Daddy Kane from the first version of ‘Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em’ after Ant Live played like Sir IBU on some ‘I’m The Peacemaker’ shit.
Rakim, from what I understand – I didn’t hear it – but I know he had made a record called ‘Cut The Kane In Half’, and it was gonna be a diss record for Big Daddy Kane but he didn’t put it out. But if you listen to his rhymes, he says little slick stuff on the Follow The Leader album that was directed at Kane. Because there was a lot of stuff goin’ on about how was better and who was the best. Rakim was pretty quiet, he never talked about. Kane was a little more verbal about it. They never really made it publicly known, but he definitely was gonna do something.
Towards the end of 1987 I had amassed a decent collection of rap albums dubbed TDK’s, which was all well and good but hardly official since I didn’t actually own any records. My birthday was coming up and ‘my old Earth’ somehow managed to figure out that what I really needed was a 12″ single of the new Public Enemy. She handed me a gift-wrapped copy of ‘You’re Gonna Get Yours’, and I spent the rest of the day trying to find how many guns I could spot on the front cover and listening to the ‘Terminator X Gettaway Version’ over and over. I already had the album on tape, and it took me a while to realise that the song on the B-side was some Newest Latest material.
Eventually I threw it on the family record player, and once that series of opening horn hits unleashed the ear-splitting drone of ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ I stood there in awe… My mother was less enthusiastic: ‘It’s a bit repetitive, isn’t it?’. I ignored her, transfixed by the voice of power and the drums of death. This was like nothing I’d ever heard before. The next week I took the record over to play to the dudes who had first started dubbing me tapes on the other side of town. The record had the same effect on them, and some of the older kids asked if they could borrow it to tape that week. Not even a teenager at the time, having high school kids want to borrow my record seemed like an esteemed badge of honor, and I was more than happy to oblige.
Amazingly, they actually returned the record to me a few weeks later…
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…)
The crew over at Acclaim magazine (who I have been writing for since 2007) have just given me a weekly spot at their new site. To start things off, I offered my take on the Lord Finesse lawsuit against Teen Wolf:
Mix tapes can be a whole lot more than a bunch of songs you record for a chick you’re trying to impress by revealing your “sensitive side”. In the world of hip-hop, they have proven to be one of the most important tools in spreading the sound of a native New York subculture into a worldwide phenomenon. Allow me to break it down for you, decade by decade. (more…)
As Unkut Dot Com returns from hiatus, what better way to set things off than the first installment of a new series of regular features written by QB Rap pioneer Tragedy Khadafi…
The Intro
Rising above form and into substance…that’s what this is primarily about. Learning to think outside of the box and for some…outside of the block – as it relates to hip hop and life in general. We are officially in ‘that’ era where virtually anything is possible when applying the right information and utilizing the right kind of power…the people of Egypt manifested an aspect of that raw power in recent times by alleviating what they deemed as their ‘oppressor’, ultimately by acting upon knowledge. Does knowledge equate to power? Not exactly. Sure a lot of us have heard the cliché ‘knowledge is power’…but it’s a lot more to it than that…knowledge is nothing if not properly utilized or put into ACTIVATION. Just how the majority of hip hop is straight ‘zombie-music’ with no life in it because most of the vital information that has been released and or developed over the years is no longer being infused in the music we’re being fed, therefore the only thing where acting upon is MISINFORMATION. This basically means that the misinformation isn’t developing real knowledge for anyone to act upon which will produce real wealth and power in the lives/minds of the listener. And this produces no growth. Growth isn’t or shouldn’t just be equated to what an artist or entertainer in the industry is making dollar wise or generates based on sales. Because that isn’t really a sign of TRUE GROWTH. Just as a person’s wealth can’t be defined by the cars, jewelry, and or clothing they possess. But as stupid as it is, that’s exactly how a lot of us define wealth and growth. (more…)
The awful truth is that rap bloggers are essentially glorified publicists. You can pick and choose who you ‘support’ or ‘expose’ but essentially all you’re doing is selecting which angle you want to roll with. Even if your blog focuses on old records, you’re essentially just promoting some European kid’s next Random Rap ebay auction. Writing reviews is basically an exercise in vanity, since 90% of the people reading the review already have the album anyway, and the only thing you might possibly achieve is ruffling the feathers of the over-sensitive artists who sent you the stuff in the first place. The idea that rap blogs are dictating radio or sales in any major way is laughable, and the theory that anyone actually values the opinion of anyone on the Rap Internets is even more of a joke. The only reason anyone visits one hip-hop site over the other is that it happens to be slightly less annoying than the other ones, or maybe doesn’t post as much crap that you hate. (more…)
Portrait by Pritt Kelsi
