Hip Hop and Breakz

Heres is a another gem from my own collection.  This is a certified Queensbridge classic from the legendary Kool G Rap.  I honestly cant remember where I picked this up from although something tells me I may have bought it from a friend of mine who was selling off his Hip-Hop collection, possibly Diablo I'm not too sure to be honest. Wherever I picked this up from there is no doubt this is a perfect example of Kool G Rap's Crime filled storytelling.  This 12" features two versions of the track; The Al Capone and the Untouchable version as well as instrumentals and an accapella.  Both of these are different to the album version.  There is also the inclusion of another track called Straight Jacket.  The A side starts of with a dirty version of the Al Capone mix of the track.  This version comes in at just over four minutes and features nice piano loop over the Skull Snaps drum break.  It also has vocal samples of Robert DeNiro from The Untou...

Back in the 1997 when Eminem was first introduced to Royce da 5'9 Slim Shady decided this was a lyricist with who he could make some serious Hip-Hop and he was right.  He went onto work with Eminem on The Slim Shady LP but what most hardcore hip hop fans were waiting for was Royce to step to the mic on his own.  We heard him on the Grand Theft Auto III soundtrack on the track "I'm the King" which was produced by The Alchemist and it was a dope track.  A nice beat which allowed Royce to show off his skills.  However its impact was small when you compare it to his next single "Boom".  This 12" was released in 2000 and was destined to be a big club banger.  DJ Premier produced it and he did a superb job.  The track starts off with a clock ticking and then jumps into a fantastic strings sample before being joined by some signature Premier drums.  Royce kills it lyrically just check out this first verse I'm the verbal-spit Smith Wesson I unload ...

It was late 1995 and the Hip-Hop world has firmly in the grip of Wu-Tang fever. We had been listening to the original 9 members for almost two years and the affiliates were starting to appear; Sunz of Man, Killarmy, Shabazz the Disciple, Dark Skinned Assassin and of course L'a The Darkman. Their 12"s were of varying levels of quality but all had that Wu Tang sound despite hardly any of them being produced by The Rza and most being produced by one of his many proteges; 4Th Disciple, Mathematics, True Master and Bronze Navareth. Some of them were even lucky enough to have one of the original 9 dropping a verse or at times just a chorus. This 12" here is one of them. I picked this joint up in the fantastic but long since gone Deal Real record shop in London's west End (the first and real one, not the recreated trendy one off Carnaby Street but the true one on D'Arblay street) I probably paid about £6 for it and it would have been picked up with other simil...

This one here is for my old mate Ricardinio, I hope I got the right 12". This 12" was on constant rotation in mid 1998 and even now it is still a heavy 12". So this was released under the pseudonym The Giant which anyone can easily tell is AG (Andre The Giant)from Show & AG fame. The reason for the use of the pseudonym is because these two track aren't produced by Showbiz but produced by DJ Greyboy. Greyboy is often described as an Acid Jazz producer although he did produce tracks for OGC (Originoo Gun Clappaz)and Main Flow of the group Mood he was more on the Acid Jazz side of things. Originally hailing from California he has released a number of compilations most recently 15 years of West Coast Cool in 2008. The A side is Hidden Crate and starts of with a De Niro Taxi Driver sample before moving into a deep guitar loop laden beat over a jaded drum with some flutes in there. AG demonstrates his usual skills in his trademarked laid back flow. He drops ...

This is the first in a series of Random Late 90s 12"s that I thought I'd up for you guys to enjoy, I'll try and keep it regular but I can't make any promises. This is a 12" that I bought from HipHopsite.com in 1997. I remember playing it a lot during '97 and dug it out again recently and still enjoyed the piano laden beat and the funny hip hop lyrics. Colored Section are a tight 2 man project from this left coast act. Smooth beats combined with the the mellow rhyme style of Coke (formally of Madcap) and Che'ski equals a solid album. This is a fun 12" with incredibly clever lyrics which pays tribute to the pioneers of the game. The group itself did drop an album however I never managed to get hold of it at the time but did grab it a few years back from some download site or the other. I found it to be a fun and enjoyable album with no social commentary or deep lyrics but just an enjoyable fun album. It also includes a West Voast remix of this t...

Its crazy to thing this came out over 13 years ago and that to some younger hip hop heads this is Old Skool. This is another Rawkus gem also picked up from Deal Real in 1997. In fact I think I may have bought this the same day that I bought the Universal Magnetic 12", a good day indeed. I remember going into Deal Real with only enough money for one 12", £6.50 at the time and struggling to decide which I should buy. In the end I paid for one and got the other on tick and paid for it the next week. I had heard of Hi-Tek before as I had picked up the terribly underrated debut album, Doom by Cincinnati duo Mood. Hi-Tek had handled the majority of the production on that album and I had been impressed with his Tribe influenced sound. I had not heard from Kweli before this 12" but was immediately impressed with his intelligent and easily understood lyrics that coupled iwth the guest appearances from Mos Def and Bush Babees member Mr Man made this 12" a must have. Th...

I remember buying this record in Deal Real Record in London's West End, just off Oxford Street. They played the track for me and I immediately had to buy it. It was so refreshing and new, the beat was reminiscent of Tribe and the lyrics reminded me of De La Soul in that they were light hearted and humorous. This was my first introduction to Mos Def and I was very impressed. I went on to follow Mos's career closely and just months after buying this 12" I saw him do a live in store with Kweli at Deal Real and he was dope but more importantly a regular nice guy. A year or so later I saw him perform with Kweli and Co Flow at Subterania and his freestyle skills were very impressive. Mos was at the time so innovative and charismatic whilst not taking the whole indie backpack scene to serious, I have to say that I don't feel the direction he's taken of late is'nt my kinda thing but this is about 1997 not 2010. The A-Side is produced by Sean J Period and uses the...

For the 9th part of my random 90s 12" series I have chosen an often overlooked Method Man 12" from 1995. This is a pretty dope 12" featuring Mr Meth over a couple of disjointed Rza beats but more importantly this 12" marks a turning point in Method Man's lyrical style. Prior to the release of this 12" Method Man's flow was more fluent and of a higher tempo. You could often hear Meth on 36 Chambers and Tical having to take breathes in between hectic bars. It was almost as if he had too much too say and was struggling to take breathes in between these lines. He sounded hungry, trying to prove himself over the other members of the crowd. Remember for a lot of people Meth was the first member of the Clan they ever heard. An example of this style can be found on the original version of Meth Vs chef where Meth wrecks the track "for Dolo", check the link below. However on the Riddler 12" Meth debuted the style that he would utilise for hi...

Technically this isn't really a random nineties 12" as it came out in 2000 but I was going through my record collection and realised that I had yet to convert this to MP3 and I figured there may be some people who check out this blog who may apprecaite this dope 12". DJ Cam is a dope DJ and Producer from France known mainly for his instrumental hip hop albums which heavily sample traditional Jazz. By the time I picked this 12" up in 2000 I had been listening to DJ Cam since his second studio album Substances in 1996. Substances could easily sit in the same category as Shadow's Endtroducing using dark jazz loops and break alongside strong hip hop samples creating a melancholic but enjoyable soundtrack. DJ Cam has steadily produced albums since the early nineties with his last release being 2007's Lost and Found. This 12" features a fantastic DJ Premier remix of a track from a strange enhanced CD project called the Loa Project volume 1 which only had t...

Back with a new design and some more dope tunes for you all to savour. Kicking off the new site is a return to the Random Nineties 12" series with part 7 coming from one of the late nineties underground stars El da Sensei along with a whole gang of indie emcees including; FT, Mike Zoot and fan favourites Pharoah Monche & Prince Po (also known as the legendary Organized Konfusion). For those who are unfamiliar with El Da Sensei he is a talented Newark, New Jersey emcee who was one half of the influential mid nineties group the Artifacts along with Tame One. The Artifacts' most popular single "Wrong Side of Da Tracks" paid special homage to graffiti art, as they were graffiti artists themselves. They released two albums; Between a Rock and a Hard place (1994) and Thats Them (1997) both on Big Beat (Atlantic). They split up shortly after their second album although they did release a dope 12" on Rawkus under the name Brick City Kids. Following on from his ...

When J-Live's debut 12", the original Longevity/Braggin' Writes 12" dropped in 1995 on Raw Shack (RSP-001, another nineties indie label that seems to have disappeared) I totalled missed it and by the time I heard Braggin' writes I couldn't find a copy anywhere. That is why when the remix 12" (Groove Attack GAP 00211) dropped in 1996 I made sure I got two copies and if I remember correctly this may have been one of the first records I bought off an internet site, Sandbox I think. Obviously the original Longevity/Braggin' Writes 12" is an amazing debut 12" which really shot J-Live onto the indie hip hop scene. The dope A-Side Longevity had a mellow beat with a crisp drum and the B-Side has a killer guitar sample with some sick scratches and both of them featured J-Live's intricate lyrics therefore to make the remix 12" something special they needed the remixes to be dope but significantly different to the originals. The Longevity re...

Following on from last weeks High Drama remix (part 2 ? who knows maybe) this week we have the final part of the trilogy; High Drama Part 3: the Search for 2 (are they referring to the part 2 in that title ?). This came out in early 1998 if I remember right and it was released on Guesswhyld (GW 201) distributed by Fat beats, like the first two parts and like the first two parts this was purchased from Mr Bongos on Poland Street in London's West End. Of course like most of the decent Hip Hop record shops in London Mr Bongos has long since closed down which is a shame as I bought many dope tunes from there and even remember seeing a few good in store performances too. You can still check out the Mr Bongos website but its mainly focused on the rereleases put out on the Mr Bongos label and their mostly Latin, Jazz and Funk albums and compilations. Returning to the 12" at hand, the track is produced Shawn J Period who was at the time at the top of his game and not only did we ...

After doing the original 'High Drama' last week it only seemed logical to put up the remix this week. The remix came out a couple of months after the original also on Guesswhyld (GW 201) in late 1997. This was a pretty big hit on the Indie scene and was featured on a lot of mixtapes at the time, my favourite being the Eddie Ill and DL tapes which featured so much dope indie music at the time. This was another Mr Bongo's( a long since closed down Hip Hop record shop in London's West End) purchase and probably cost about £6.50, around this time I was spending at least £30 a week on vinyl and mixtapes, the good old days when buying music still held some excitement. The 12" features the 'High Drama remix', 'Service remix' and the original 'Service' with instrumentals too. The best joint on the 12" is easily the 'High Drama remix' which is remixed by Shaun J Period. Shaun J Period always struck me as a bouncier version of Hi-Te...

As some of you know I saw Mos Def live in London a couple of weeks ago and I was incredibly disappointed; he was late on stage, did barely an hour, did none of the tracks I wanted to hear, he did a mediocre drum solo (you are not Questlove) and bad Michael Jackson covers. I came away asking myself was I the only one there who thought he sucked ? but after speaking to some friends I came to the conclusion That the real hip hop heads were let down by this poor concert. Even the people who thought it was good could said the best thing about it was that Definition was fantastic and so were couple of other tunes. These guys seemed happy that he did three great songs, in all honesty I have to say three songs don't make a concert. So I went home and vowed not pay to see Mos Def again and that I would content myself by listening to some good old Mos Def before he became the pretentious artists that he now appears to be. So I dug into my record collection and found one of my favourite...

For the second instalment of my Random nineties series I've stuck with the Non Phixion/Necro family and gone with Ill Bill's Gangsta Rap 12" which dropped in 1999 on Necro's second label Psycho-Logical label (PL2). The 12" features two tracks; Gangsta Rap and How to kill a cop both of which are produced by Necro. Gansgta Rap features a lovely piano loop with a spiralling bass riff and a mellow trumpet sample that almost sounds out of place on this track but somehow Necro pulls it off to great effect creating an eerie track with a mellow vibe. DJ Eclipse provides some nice cutting and scratching of a dope ODB sample (You's a Gangsta?) and Ill Bill drops some funny tongue in cheek lyrics about being a thug; "Aye yo I smoke dust and shoot cops, Sold guns to Tupac, smoke blunts with Biggie Smalls and sold drugs on new lots, I was too young, couldn't get up in clubs in the old days, we used rob and terrorise kids in front of home-base, When Funkmaster Fl...

From now until the end of the year I will be upping a random nineties 12" each week. For the first instalment of this ongoing random nineties 12" series I have gone with a Non Phixion 12" from 1998. This was the third 12" from Non Phixion following on from the Legacy and 5 Boro's 12"s which were released on MC Serch's Serchlight indie label. This 12" however was released on Uncle Howie (UHR004) / Hebrew National (HN-777) and was recorded at Area 51 studio in Brooklyn and then later mixed at the famous D&D studios. It was distributed by Fat Beats. All the tracks in this are produced by Necro who handled a lot of the group's production and the label that this was on was on, Uncle Howie was Necro's own label and named after his own Uncle Howie who can be seen in the video for Necro's LL inspired I need drugs , check the link for one of the sickest videos ever!. Getting back to the 12" at hand this is a fine example of Necro...