Hip Hop and Breakz

I first heard of Cypress Hill when I saw the video for Phuncky Feel One on MTV Raps back in August 1991.  At the time you could only get MTV on Sky or Cable in the UK and although my family did not have it I would carry my video recorder the three miles to a friends house every week to record videos off MTV.  Up until that point I had never seen a Hip Hop video unless by some chance it had made it onto BBC's Top of the Pops or ITV's The Chart Show but these outlets were only for the mainstream Hip Hop acts or occasionally De La Soul or even PE.  When I saw the video for Phuncky Feel One I was struck by how diffeent and fresh this sound was.  the video was weird as hell but it really caught my attention.  I never managed to get the 12" but I certainly got the subsequent 12"s from that album.  The first of which was Hand on the Pump. Hand on the Pump is a song that immediately grabs your attention by using a vocal sample chopped expertly by DJ Muggs befo...

One of the problems that comes with have an extensive iTunes collection is that you sometimes overlook or even forget you have entire albums and projects.  This collection of remixes is one such forgotten gem.  Back when Method Man first stepped out from under the Wu Tang Clan's shadow and dropped his solo effort he was very much in demand and all sorts of people were remixing his work.  Some of these were only released in Japan, were B sides on Wu Tang 12"s or on some obscure soundtrack.  This here collections collects up a lot but not all of the obscure tracks that were around at the time. I'll Be There For You (Razor Sharp Mix) (Feat. Mary J. Blige) is the first track on this compilation.  Originally this was the on the All I need remix 12" that dropped in 1994.  The 12" also featured the Puff Daddy remix and the Soul inside remix.  This however was in my opinion the strongest of the remixes featuring a nice saxophone loop and some crisp snares...

Although this does not strictly fit into the MO for my blog.  This is an important piece of music from two important artists.   It is a rare thing when two things you love from two different worlds come together, it does not happen often and can lead to great anticipation.  Anticipation was what I felt when I first heard that Elvis Costello was going to be working on an album with Philadelphia’s The Roots crew.  Anticipation for what could be an amazing album from two acts who have the capability to produce incredible music but there is also the chance that this album could lead to something best forgotten. Although as surprised as I was when I first heard of this collaboration it immediately made sense; Elvis certainly has a soulful sound within him and we know The Roots are no strangers to Rock and Roll (remember the Seed 2.0 from 2002 for example).  The album is released on September the 17th on the legendary Jazz label Blue Note.  The album is 12 t...

One of my favourite underground NY producers from the late nineties/early noughties has joined forces the undisputed QB Legend Kool G Rap to drop an album later this year.  The album will be entirely produced by Necro and is set to drop on November the 19th.   Kool G Rap's raw street stories will work perfectly over Necro's grimy beats. Be sure to keep an eye on their Facebook page for updates and catch the album when it drops. The Godfathers Facebook page.

The year was 1997 and the Hip-Hop community had not heard from Gangstarr since their 1994 album "Hard to Earn".  An underground classic that had given us "Code of the Streets", "Mass appeal", " Suckas Need Bodyguards" and  "Now You're Mine" amongst other underground classics.  The Hip-Hop landscape had changed considerably between 1994 and 1997; the independent scene had grown, there was a new breed of conscious Hip-Hop emcees, bankable acts were losing their direction and producers were now more important than ever.  It was rare to see one producer craft an entire album for one act instead acts were cherry picking beats from the best producer's beat tapes in the hope of recreating another "Illmatic".  However more often than not it lead to disjointed albums that did not flow.  Jumping from one producer to another.  So many albums at that time featured a Premier joint, a Pete Rock joint, a West Coast joint, a Mobb Dee...