New Gangrene with Roc Marcy. Please stop rapping though, ALC.
From the Vodka & Ayahuasca LP.

Gangrene feat. Roc Marciano - ‘Drink It Up’

When I saw that Kenny Parker had produced the latest KRS-One project, called The BDP Album, I figured I’d give it a shot. Turns out it’s actually pretty good! ‘Tote Gunz’ is a great example of Get Off My Lawn Rap, aka Gran Tarino Rap. It’s always a good sign when The Blastmasta sounds pissed off.

KRS-One - ‘Tote Gunz’

As an added bonus, Unkut Dot Com even gets a mention on the ‘Outro’ just after the two minute mark…

Kenny Parker - ‘What It Is (Outro)’

For those that slept: Kenny Parker – The Unkut Interview

Mark has been making these for awhile, but I only just caught on. This may be the 14 most awkward minutes of video I’ve ever seen, which is all the more amusing for the fact that 45 King and Diamond have known each other for a long time. I’m not sure if they both smoked some killer weed or are really hung-over from a night of drinking hard booze. Or maybe it’s just the ‘zany’ sound effects…

Get over to 45 King’s YouTube channel for more episodes with Premier, Biz Markie, Prince Paul, Double J, Kid Capri and more.

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!

When I heard that there was a press day being held for the Marxmen to promote the new Sparta LP, I thought it might be a good oppertunity to have a slightly more rational conversation with Rap’s Greatest Duo than the last time we crossed paths. Good thing I didn’t bring up this story, huh? Turns out a bad phone line didn’t get things off to a great start….

Robbie: I feel like a lot of the aggression has been lost in rap in the last 10 years. There’s not enough music that make you want to break car windows. How do you keep that energy in the music?

Bill: Slap, can you hear him?

Fame: I can’t really hear him, mayne. What did he say?

Bill: He’s trying to say how do we keep the aggression in our music.

Fame: Uh…go ahead, you answer that one.

Bill: [laughs] We’re not really rappers, we just happen to know how to do it really well. It’s not really aggression – sometimes when you listen to a M.O.P. song you hear the pain in our voices, it’s just from being held back for so long and there’s no other way. Right now we’re doing music, so we won’t go out and be violent to try and get our point across, so now we want to make sure that people hear every word that we say. We’re not yelling either, Robbie – we’re just raising our voices. We want to make sure that people understand that we’re never going anywhere, we will never leave. Not just us as a rap group, but us as the people from those rough neighborhoods. It’s always been rough in those neighborhoods but no ones ever had no voice to say, ‘This is what kind of problems that we deal with down here’. M.O.P. will continue to be aggressive until we get our point across. People understand where we come from, they speak our language, but there’s other people that don’t understand, so we want to make sure that we put that in their ear so there’s no misconception on what it is that M.O.P. represents.

Fame, remember the first album that you worked on with Silver D, The Hill That’s Real? I noticed on the credits that you wrote the lyrics for Big Ken?

Fame: [laughs] Yeah, I wrote a lotta her songs. Ken was a friend of mine, she’s from down here in my neighborhood. Ken‘s like a older sister to me. When I was still in high school, my mom wasn’t able to come up to school, like days I would cut school, Ken would come up there and play like she’s my aunt, that way my mom’s won’t find out. She was like a good friend to me. Back then I was a pothead – I just smoked a lotta weed, all fuckin’ day. That’s what we did – we smoked weed and we vibed and shit. Ken made a lotta money back then, she made money from all types of hustlers and shit like that, so she told me stories about it and I just cut it.

How did you know Silver D?

Fame: I met Silver D through Laze-E-Laze, the same Laze that I deal with. Laze is from my neighborhood too, and Laze’s cousin gave Laze my first demo that I did at DR Period‘s house. This is like early 90′s. Laze used to come around and check me out or whatever, and Laze was cool with Silver D. If you know Silver D, Silver D was down with Kid Capri‘s group. I forget the name group…

Lords of Funk?

Fame:Yeah yeah, alright. He was one of the Lords of Funk. He had the job at WBLS at the time, and he was on Positive K records, and at the time Positive K let me use the studio, and that’s where I recorded The Hill Thats Real. So big shout to Positive K, too.

What was the name of the first demo you recorded?

Fame: It was called ‘Dope Adolescent’. [laughs] The rhyme was crazy though! I wish I could remember the rhyme though, man. Actually a friend of mine named Serge has all the songs, has all the demos and stuff.

Bill: [in disbelief] ‘Dope Adolescent’? [laughs]

You’ve been making a name for yourself in the production field as well. I liked the song you did for Cam’ron – ‘Suga Duga’.

Bill: ‘Suga Duga’, that’s my shit!

Fame: [laughs] I hate the title of it, but it was a good look. Cam was a good friend. Cam jumped on the beat, he happened to get it, he jumped on the beat and he loved it. That was good, that was jumping at the time.

Bill: Talk about some of the other production you did.

Fame: I gotta lotta joints. I wanna put out a mixtape soon, called 15 Minutes of Fame. I did a lotta production up at KOCH Records, I’ve got a lotta music that they didn’t use. I’m gonna put that out soon. It was used, but they didn’t represent it right or they didn’t push it correctly. So I did joints for Foxy Brown, I did joints for Wu-Tang, Dipset…what do they call those dudes? The Clipse, Ray-J – all type of people. I got a lotta music though. Serani, he’s a reggae artist.

What about that ‘I’m Back’ for Rakim?

Fame: That was on KOCH. I try, man. I’ve been messing with the production since I told you, since the ‘Dope Adolescent’. [laughs] It was trash, man, but back then you only had seven minutes of sample time, so you had to make it work. That was like one of my first rhymes and shit. I did the ‘Dope Adolescent’…a couple of other joints. I did the ‘I Can Feel It’ shit. ‘In The Air’. What’s his name?

Bill: Phil Collins?

Fame: Yeah, Phil Collins. I used a sample from that. I did a couple of joints. Back then, I grew up on EPMD, Marley Marl, Juice Crew, and I used to read the credits, and a lot of the credits had a artists names on it, like ‘production’, so I thought was part of the shit you had to do. Do you’re own music sometimes, shit like that. EPMD did their own shit, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, a lotta them did their own shit. So I though that was part of the package that I had to do, to be an artist. Plus it’s fun, so that’s something I ran with.

You’ve done a lot of work with AZ. Where do you know him from?

Fame: I know AZ from just making music, he was one of the first dudes that really liked my music and shit. We really connected when we got in the studio together. He was on KOCH too, a lot of my work I got through KOCH records. Cormega‘s another one. Cormega’s my brother, Cormega’s a good friend of mine. These guys really appreciate my music, so it was easy to work with them.

It must have been a nice surprise when ‘Cold As Ice’ blew up in the UK?

Fame: Yeah, they told me. Back then, like I told you, there was a big cloud of weed over my head. [laughs] I was a straight pot-head back then, so I’m just catching-up with everything right now, bro.

So you’re off the weed now?

Fame: [laughs] Yeah. Not only the weed, man, there was a lotta stress, a lotta things going on back then. Like Billy said, we was fightin’ most if the time. Fightin’ for life, fightin’ for freedom, fightin’ stress – and the weed played a big part of it. A lotta shit I missed, a lotta shit I can’t remember – people’ll tell me about it and I’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah! Come to think of it, I remember that shit!’ The past and shit. Right now I’m really enjoying this shit.

What’s your favorite production you’ve done for another artist?

Fame: I can’t say…

Bill: [in a high-pitched voice] ‘Suga Duga’? I like that song, son.

Fame: [laughing] You’re fuckin’ dumb, kid…

Bill: Yo son, I liked that shit…

Fame: Yeah, ‘Suga Duga’ is one of them…I like everything I did. I like the Rakim shit though, the Rakim gotta be one of my favorites. That ‘I’m Back’ shit was crazy.

Remember that Sade joint you flipped on Marxmen? You’re a Sade fan I assume?

Fame: That was fun. I had a lotta pain I was dealing with, that song got me through a lot, mayne. I was going through a lotta shit. My baby mother had this red Dodge with a tape deck in it – I had it on a tape – I used to play that shit over and over, over and over, over and over. That was my favorite song at the time.

Bill: A red Dodge, son?

Fame: Yeah, a red Dodge somethin’. They don’t even make those shits no more. [laughs]

Bill: The Stratus…

Do you guys feel that hip-hop has gotten too soft?

Bill: Hip-hop is still the same. Pete Rock and Smif N’ Wessun just put a record out, Talib Kweli is still putting out records, Premier’s always putting records out, Pharoahe Monch just dropped a record, we about to drop a record – so hip-hop is good. There’s a new wave of music that’s moving around – that’s soft. Buy hip-hop is 100% hard, the way it’s always been, and it’s not gonna change if we can help it.

Fame: I think hip-hop is at a spot right now for a bunch of weirdos. A bunch of weird-ass dudes, a bunch of fuckin’ E pill-popping dudes. The nerdy hip-hop is going on right now. It’s coming back to the streets now ;cos everybody’s tired of the…there’s nothing wrong with it, ‘cos everyone’s got their own style of hip-hop, but it’s not creative. Everybody’s doing the same old shit, the same old fuckin’ station, the same old song come on every day at the same time – everybody’s tired of that shit. Hip-hop needs change right now, or hip-hop needs thebasics nack to it. Hip-hop is missing that.

It’s gotta bring those hard drums back.

Fame: Right! Need the drums, need the samples back. We need all that shit back, man.

Bill: These dudes don’t know how to make music anymore. It sounds like there’s no effort in the music at all. No effort really amounts to nothing. I wanted to be a rapper because twhen i listened to other rapper;s, the lyrics they wer sayin’ or the way they presentede it over the beat was incredible. The way they do it now, anybody can do it. So what makes being a rapper so special?

Fame: The music became sarcastic. It’s like, ‘I can do this. I ain’t even gotta rap hard, watch how he likes this shit. It’s ABC shit. They really like this shit. I was only playin’ on this shit. They love this shit?’ That’s how this shit’s going on now.

Bill: Mmhmm, You right.

Plus it’s not as important to pay your dues in front of a live crowd now.

Bill: When it was about real hip-hop, you had stiff competition, and the fans wouldn’t just let you do some bullshit…

Fame: Right! Right!

Bill: …you had to pay your dues, you had to go in there. Even though Kane, G Rap, Rakim, KRS-One, Positive K, MC Lyte, Run-DMC, EPMD was all around at the same time, they was competin’ but it was friendly competition and was about the skills that you had. When you heard one song as a rapper, you said, ‘Man, this EPMD song is incredible. Let me top it!’ Not, ‘Let me do exactly what EPMD did because people like it’. That makes you a clone. That’s what the people are not getting now. The artists are not going hard, so even the listeners are not even commanding them to do their best.

Bill: Shit back then was about making great music. You had to be great, or the fans won’t accept you. It’s not even about the music, it’s about the fuckin’ clothes you wearing, it’s about image. It’s about what kind of car you driving, how many muscles you got and all this bullshit. It’s about fashion, it’s all visual now.

Do you still have the same ‘zero tollerance’ for bootleggers like you had in that video from a few years back?

Fame: That was big shit back then. Computers changed a lotta shit. They don’t have to go to the stores no more to purchase their hip-hop. That played a big role – just doing a fuckin’ walk-in for a new record you put out. Just going downtown to Beat Street records, signing autographs at a record store. That was good shit, that was fun shit.

Big Ken - ’4 Star Bitch’

Big Ken - ‘All About the Pussy’

Lil’ Fame- ‘Bring the Rukus’

Lil’ Fame- ‘Hill That’s Real’

Lil’ Fame- ‘Neighborhood Hood’

You might have caught Bronx native $amhill on the P Brothers The Gas LP, the Counterstrike mixtape, or a few old Unkut posts. If not, check out this new offering from his forthcoming EP, produced entirely by Preservation. Guess it’s time I transcribed the interview I did with $amhill in 2010…

Shouts to LEX for the heads-up.

Update: Here’s the mp3….

$amhill - ‘Poetic Justice’

The God just blessed the world with this gem via his Twitter. Produced by City Parks. This is quality music right here…

Sadat X - ‘The Fake Out’

Here’s a mix that abcdrduson made of some of Todd Ray’s work from back when he was killing it behind the boards.

In case you missed it back in 2007, you might want to read my three part interview with T-Ray while you listen.

Download: T-Ray – Best Kept Secret

Note: This is a proper vinyl mix rather than some mp3 collection fuckery. Salute!

Tracklisting:

01. Flexi Wit Da Tech Intro
02. Artifacts – “Notty Headed Nigguhz”
03. Artifacts – “Dynamite Soul”
04. Artifacts – “Whassup Now Muthafucka”
05. Artifacts – “Lower Da Boom”
06. Ozomalti – “Super Bowl Sunday”
07. Grand Puba – “Ya Know How It Goes”
08. Funkdoobiest – “I’m Shittin’ On ‘Em”
09. Joe Williams – “Get Ouf My Life”
10. Kool G Rap – “For Da Brothaz”
11. Kool G Rap – “Take ‘Em To War” (Featuring MF Grimm & B-1)
12. Ozomalti – “Cut Chemist Suite”
13. Mc Thick – “Bitch Control”
14. Lord Finesse – “You Know What I’m About” (Featuring Big L)
15. Cypress Hill – “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”
16. MC Serch – “Scenes From The Mind” (co prouction Mc Serch)
17. MC Serch – “Social Narcotics”
18. MC Serch – “Back To The Grill” (Feat Nasty Nas & Red Hot Lover Tone)
19. Fatal – “Timber”
20. Boss:Diary Of A Mad Bitch”
21. Double XX Posse:Not Gonna Be Able To Do It”
22. Double XX Posse – “Put Ya Boots On”
23. Double XX Posse – “Somethin’ Funky Ta Step To”
24. Percee P – “Puttin’ Heads To Bed”
25. White Boys – “On A Mission”

This was a limited-edition vinyl release a month or so back, and now it’s appeared as a bonus cut on the new K-Def Night Shift LP in glorious CD quality. I’m guessing the parting shot at “all the sell-outs, all the people that wanna talk about flowers and meadows” is a PM Dawn diss. “Everybody that wanna front with their shirt off” is a bit more general though… Unless this was the same time that Young MC tried to comeback on some brolic shit?

This is almost enough to let me forget about 14 Shots To The Dome…

Back in 1994 K-Def was working on some beats out of the B Room in Marly Marl‘s House Of Hits when LL Cool J walked in on his session and said “let’s make some tracks together”. Uncle L had always wanted to rhyme on a track using the famous ESG breakbeat ‘UFO’, so he had Def lay it down with some scratches and then went to town with the mic. Both thought they had a sure fire hit on their hands but unfortunately it was never used. The DAT tape of the studio session was feared lost for several years before it eventually turned up stuck behind a radiator!

LL Cool J - ‘It’s The Hip-Hop’

As more and more new rap music continues to suck, the task of finding recent shit that doesn’t make me want to cut my face off with a broken bottle and slowly peel the skin off has become more and more difficult. Naturally, all of these songs are old news on the internets by now but if you’re reading this that clearly isn’t an issue for you anyway.

Action Bronson - ‘Cliff Notes’

Statik does his best DJ Premier impersonation for the track, which means we get a scratch hook included at no extra charge. Bronson also insists that he never got high on his own supply, if that kind of thing is how you judge a rapper’s character.

Grap Luva - ‘Work It Out’

This may as well have been recorded in 1994, since it deals with the cutting-edge message of encouraging kids not to shoot each other. These days it might be more productive to request that those same kids don’t listen to shitty music and dress like emo douchebags.

Mobb Deep feat. Nas - ‘Get It Forever’

Hav and P don’t do themselves any favors letting Rapper Nas get on a song with them in this day and age, considering the fact that he can he still rap and they just mumble vague threats to themselves. That being said, this song is great.

M.O.P. - ‘Blasphemy (Blast 4 Me)’

The Sparta LP they did with Snowgoons is musically as dull as dishwater, but this track was the lone standout. The lesson for today? We need Mash Out LP produced entirely by Fame.

Show & AG - ‘South Bronx Shit’

This song wins based on the title alone.

Styles P feat. Pharoahe Monch - ‘Children’

The least annoying member of the LOX is also the only one with good taste in beats. Could have lived without the Mon Chi-Chi crooning, though.

The Opposition feat. Starvin B and GS Advance - ‘Baby’s With Razors’

Outdoorsmen crew affiliates Shaz IllYork and Spit Gemz graduate from B-Team status with this cut from the Rules Of Engagement mixtape.

Thirstin Howl III - ‘Surrounded By Criminals’

The Polo-Rican is consistently entertaining on the vocals, but is often let-down by terrible music. All is forgiven thanks to this superior chorus.

Tragedy Khadafi - ‘Black Prince’

‘Ashley’s Roachclip’ anybody? I’m just glad to hear Trag on something without keyboards again.

Willie The Kid - ‘Waste Not Want Not’

LA The Darkman‘s brother continues to be the quiet achiever. No drums? No problem.

Weekend officially redeemed. Produced by Arch Druids.
Marcberg: Reloaded coming soon….

Roc Marciano - ‘Emeralds’

Torae drops his For The Record LP tomorrow, but here’s a pro tip – Marco Polo brought the best track to this project, which includes contributions from DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock and Diamond D to name a few. Looks like Canada finally won something.

Torae - ‘You Ready’

‘Ness reppin with Big Bird. That ‘Art of Diggin’ CD is a must-have, by the way.

Courtesy of The Grim Times.

Prince Paul just pulled this out of the vault for Halloween. Who said Twitter was useless?

“This is the First song we recorded as the Gravediggaz in 92″ . It was the intro to our demo and it was actually recorded the day I introduced these guys to each other at my house . This track never made the album but It was one of my favorite productions. This was the track that started it all .. RIP Poetic . Enjoy.”

The house that hatred built ( Unreleased Gravediggaz demo 92 ) by DJ Prince Paul

Stream only, and with tags, but any new Mash-Out is good Mash-Out in my book. From the Sparta album, due on Babygrande.

MOP & The Snowgoons - ‘Get Yours’