Sunday, September 04, 2011

some dope new hip hop i stummbled across

http://die-rek.com/album/the-die-version-project

check this shit out. hard beats and its available free from bandcamp. this album is dope



some real tight stuff here and whoever made the beats is a genius. solid stuff


Saturday, February 26, 2011

Deadly Threat - Sickinnahead ***RE-UP***

***DOWNLOAD***
Threat - Sickinnahead

For those that listened to west coast gangsta rap in the earlt 90's there is a big possibility you heard Threat rhyme on someones track?
The fact that i chose him to be my first unsung hero is down to the fact that i can hardly find a thing about the dude on the net anywhere??? its not surprising but at the same time its a shame as this was a solid as hell album...okay it was exactly like all other west coast album out there.....guns, bitches and low riders? But how this album never shipped major units is beyond me?
Threat was sort of an un-official member ife Ice cubes lench mob andguest rapped on some all time west coast hip hop classics. None better than Ice Cubes "color blind" which featured a who's who of west coast rappers on the album "death certifidate"
He had a good voice and his rhymes were very well thought out and his beats were pretty sweet for the time. other collabs included the great track " Peep game" with 2pac and " A hoe b4 the homie" on King Tee's Trifflin album.
This aint a classic album like "Straight outta compton" but this is a great addition to anyones cd collection and chances are...you probably get it cheap somewhere too. be sure to check it out.

*******************************
So after the re-up i come with a little more info on threat. Ive just listened to this album again and it still amazes me how he didnt make a bigger name for himself? such a good dude with serious skills?

so anyways i have since found out that threat was a member of a group called " Black Menace " ive not checked out their stuff yet but am definitely gonna delve into it.

i found a link available for some of their stuff over on Deadly Grounds Website
I'm gonna get this album and see if i can track down the oither stuff so keep your eyes open for some stuff soon :)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Re-ups

so regarding RE-UPS im gonna be updating all my dead links and putting them up over next few days so bare with me kids, all the stuff will be available, had a lot of requests for the deadly threat LP and the preacher earl 12" (which i have to rip again) ....you have taste!

Hitting Puberty came too late :(

just found this peeps and i have to say it made me feel quite sad about how 1 tiny moment can change your life so much? respect to Chi Ali and just hope his words can change anyones life

peace

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Da Brick City Kids

Artifacts

Artifacts were a group coming out of New Jersey made up of a crew of real B boys known as El Da Sensei, Tame One and DJ Kaos and they were amoung the rare breed of hip hop artists that carried on with the original origins of the art and were quite well known supporters of the graffiti scene.

I was lucky enough to hear about Artifacts about a year before they kinda blew up. I had a mate back in the days that used to record shop with me and he had heard rumblings about an artist that was cousins or some shit like that with Redman??? not sure if that is right  but he came across a 12" by underground beat makers "The Nubian Crackers" the track was called Do You Wanna Hear It? and it had various different versions on the 12"....mostly just beats and stuff but there was one version which featured the unknowns Artifacts!

Now not a lot of people copped this back in the day and you'd have to be a pretty die hard fan to even know this exsists, but from the moment i heard it i was huge fan. This track is possibly one of the most slept on tracks in hip hop and is a must to anyone that loves there hard beats....


***DOWNLOAD***


So it took a little while for artifacts to come out with some solo work but i can remember reading about them in source magazine, there was a kinda buzz about them and soon enough they came with the goods.....


***DOWNLOAD***

Wrong Side Of The Tracks was the first 12" to hit the stores and it came with the excellent Bside Flexi With Da Tech :)   there wasnt any remixes sadly but from what i remember the 12" came out before the album so it was just nice to be able to get a fix of the beat heavy style they came with.

It wasn't long till the highly anticipated album came.............


***DOWNLOAD***

The album is a pretty impressive debut and is full of quality hard head bop beats and smooth flows that make it a must have to any collection. The album got some pretty decnt reviews and then came one of them 12" that has one of them tracks/remixes that just blew up.........



 ***DOWNLOAD***

The remix track was just one of those smooth vibed tracks that included guest vocals from Busta Rhymes and was just an instant classic. I loved this 12" so much and is probably one of my most played tracks ever.

The album on the whole was full of gems and its very hard to pick a stand out track as they all kind of have their own identity on the album, but a personal fave of mine was the track Dynamite Soul so i was quite chuffed when it came to be released as a single....................


***DOWNLOAD***

This 12" came with a phat remix and a new track not on the album "Who I Am". The remix was pretty much a new song on its own with an amazing beat and new lyrics ples the added guest vocals from Mad Skillz (he kinda sounds like Big L just not as nice lol)
The new track , who i am, kinda has a sound like it was produced by pete rock but was actually produced by EZ LPEE, not someone i kow a whole lot about but the beat is nice and was a nice little bonus to any artifacts fans out there.

So all in all a pretty impressive burst onto the scene and with great hopes for the Artifacts, but it would be another 3 years before they came with a 2nd album.........



Thats Them was the 2nd coming from the crew and it seemed to me that the album didnt get the same praise as the first and is quite strange to me as its a pretty solid album? i think with the years going by and hip hop more interested in wars between east/west coasts and the drama that surrounded pac and biggie i think a lot of heads kinda drifted off from hip hop, i for one am guilty of that. I dont know whether it was a case of me growing up and having a job and a girl or just a lack of quality around at the time to keep me interested? Occasionly i would pick up stuff but i was far from the gold hunter that i was so i think i just didnt put my heart into it as much. God bless the internet hey! so now i get the chance to go back and re live my youth now i'm an old fossil. have to say i appreciate hip hop a lot more nowadays than i did back then and when i listen back to groups like Artifacts i wonder to myself why i fell off so much.......I'm blaming the girl :)   but its well worth checking this album if you dont own it (why?)

The group went their seperate ways after the album and singles releases, the only 12" i managed to buy from this was The Ultimate...................



***DOWNLOAD***

I had actualy stopped buying as many 12"s as i had used to so it was quite rare for me to part with cash for nothing less than albums. there seemed to be a lack of remixes floating around on singles but as soon as i saw Showbiz did the remix for this 12" i had to grab it. The remix was a much harder version obviously and well worth the download.

I managed to kop the solo releases from the crew fairly recently and will throw them up at some point but i hope you enjoy if you never heard them before.......AND DO NOT SLEEP ON THE NUBIAN CRACKERS TRACK!!!  as El Da Sensei says on Flexi.......

"Yeah still high the ill fly, red-eye rundown a semi
Automatic Artifact with knaps causin heart attacks
to critics and honeydips, who jeered on my lyrics
And slept when I dropped that "Do You Wanna Hear It?"
 DONT DO THE SAME!






Friday, January 28, 2011

The Dog from the bronx

Tim Dog

So the year was 1991, N.W.A had just released their 2nd album and took a few swipes at former band member ice cube and went on with their biz of being the worlds most dangerous group.......... then out of nowhere came the diss of all disses, FUCK COMPTON blew up and the war between east and west coasts was ignited. Tim dog didn't fuck around making subliminal diss tracks he just went all out war on Compton and named many names but most notoriously Dr Dre and DJ Quik.  I'm not gonna delve too much into it as I'll let you listen to the tracks and make your own mind up.

At the time i remember people being like "whoooooa no he didn't just say that?" to this day i think there was a little bit of jealousy coming thru from dog and if you listen to the album nowadays it doesn't really sound like it dated well. there are tracks that still sound dope as hell but mainly for sentimental reasons and less for the actual quality of the album. Don't get me wrong this is a classic and a must have but lyrically it ain't the best

Its a shame in a way as Tim definitely has some talent and sounds hard as hell but to me it just doesn't really stand out anymore.

TRACK LISTINGS
  1. "Intro" 3.46
  2. "Low Down Nigga" 3.56
  3. "Robin Harris Shit (Skit)" 1.14
  4. "DJ Quik Beat Down (Skit)" 0.53
  5. "Step To Me" 4.01
  6. "Phone Conversation With Reporter (Skit)" 2.16
  7. "Bronx Nigga" 3.50
  8. "You Ain't Shit" 4.01
  9. "I Ain't Takin No Shorts" 4.33
  10. "NFL Shit (Skit)" 1.10
  11. "Ill Wax Anybody" 4.00
  12. "Michel'le Conversation (Skit)" 1.54
  13. "Cant Fuck Around" 3.33
  14. "Dogs Gonna Getcha" 3.03
  15. "Going Wild In The Penile" 3.44
  16. "Get Off The Dick" 3.27
  17. "I Ain't Havin' It" (Feat. Kool Keith) 4.55
  18. "Patriotic Pimp" 4.00
  19. "Secret Fantasies" (Feat. Kool Keith) 4.51
So then the aftermath came and everyone from MC eiht of C.M.W. to Quik retaliated with several diss tracks aimed at Tim dog and the south Bronx. to my knowledge nothing ever blew up into a fight situation but there is a shout out for 2pac strangely enough on his second album for apparently squashing a situation that happened in San Fran??? will we ever know?

there was a year with tracks being made thrashing back some of Tim dogs comments back down his throat, my opinion is that the west coast won the battle. C.M.W's "who's fucking who?" from the music to drive by album was possibly one of the best retaliation tracks ever and DJ Quik also threw some solid shit back too. 

However everything from the N.W.A camp stayed pretty quiet and Dre and Eazy didn't really get involved in the situation till after Tim's 2nd album dropped. 


Track listings

  1. "I Don't Give A Fuck" – 4:26
  2. "Grab Your Gat" – 4:20
  3. "I Get Wrecked" (Featuring KRS-One)  – 5:23
  4. "Timberland's" – 4:23
  5. "If I Was A Cop" – 3:45
  6. "Hardcore" – 3:28
  7. "Game" – 4:53
  8. "Skip To My Loot" – 4:24
  9. "Silly Bitch" – 3:47
  10. "Mad Dog" – 4:31
  11. "Make Room" – 2:40
  12. "Breakin North" – 4:06
This album in my opinion was a much better effort from Tim dog as just a hip hop album and not a collection of personal gripes. i quite enjoyed this album but it didn't really do very well as sales were quite low? The beats were better the rhyming was better so its hard to understand why it didn't do very well?

Around the same time Dre's album was picking up more and more momentum and well on its way to becoming a solid gold classic in hip hop law! Dre had finally answered Tim dog back with a few subliminals and some straight out disses via his young apprentice Snoop Dog. Eazy also got in on the act with his solo releases and kokane had a lot to say about Tim.

Which brings us on to what i feel was an act of desperation from Tim when he released "bitch with a perm"

Not the best of comebacks in my opinion.





Request some Re-ups :)

So as you can see i am back now so feel free to request any re-ups or or requests for shit? i got a stack of cd's and a pile of wax so if you after any old stuff/remixes give me a shout and i'll see what i can do for you. can rip stuff how you like too so feel free to be cheeky.......
yeeds

Paid to be tha BOSS

Bo$$....


SO this is one of them albums that just about everybody heard the single (deeper) and probably said "niiiiiice" but then went on to sleep on the album which is a shame as there are some little gems on there.... with production coming from JMJ, Erick Sermon, MC Serch and the rest made up from Def Jef :) you gotta wonder why so many people ignored it, possibly because it was a female rapper? but as it goes this was probably the best female mc out there at the time as none of the others were dropping anything of note and Lady of Rage was pretty much on her own level! i enjoyed this album so thats what matters. ive seen it posted once or twice on other blogs but i thought i may as well throw it up there for the masses. its a pretty good album and a shame she never got to do anymore? rumour has it she kinda lied about her upbringing and was from a well off background so after that she swiftly got dropped by def jam and the rest is history....

Bo$$ - Born Gangstaz

***Tracklistings***

1 Intro: A Call from Mom featuring Lillie Laws
2 Deeper featuring Papa Juggy Additional vocals by Def Jef
3 Comin' to Getcha featuring Erick Sermon
4 Mai Sista Izza Bitch featuring AMG
5 Thelma and Louise
6 Drive By
7 Progress of Elimination
8 Livin' Loc'd featuring Sticky Fingaz
9 Recipe of a Hoe
10 A Blind Date With Boss featuring Onyx
11 Catch a Bad One
12 Born Gangsta Additional vocals by Admiral D AMG,
13 1-800-Body-Bags Additional vocals by Def Jef
14 Diary of a Mad Bitch
15 2 to da Head scratching by Redman
16 I Don't Give a Fuck
17 Outro: A Call from Dad featuring Joe Laws



Spice up your life.....

So like i said its been a long time but im not gonna feed you all with excuses on why my lazy ass didnt post for a while im just gonna jump straight into it and deliver the goods...
Back in 1992 Yo MTV raps was blazing out classic after classic and none more so than the smooth west coast track "welcome to the ghetto" by the now legendary Spice 1.
The track was amazing and i rememeber watching the video quite a few times as the single and album seemed to be unfindable over here in the UK ? i cant quite remember where i managed to pick this up from but it sure as hell wasn't a record shop :) I think round my way there was possibly only me that had an original copy of this shit and i think because of that it kinda got slept on by all the heads in my area. I was also one of the lucky ones that had Sky tv back then so people used to pile round my house on evenings after school at 5 o clock to watch half hour of Yo and then again on saturday mornings my mums front room would get taken over by me and my friends sitting there with my finger on the pause button on the vcr :) the good old days.
I often think back and rememeber the times when i rolled in a buch of about 10 pretty hardcore hip hop heads and knew of about another 2 or 3 crews of people that we would bump into in the record shop (Jays records, Cambridge R.I.P)
I was from a small town but i can assure you the wax that was circulated around my streets was harder than any shit you saw in London or big cities lucky enough to have 100's of record shops. Back in the days, saturday mornings were left for the kill or be killed for us kids growin up with a wax and headbob obsession :) everyone would be up at the crack of dawn and on the train to cambridge at 7 o clock sharp!!! sittin outside in the cold/rain/snow waiting for the dude in the shop to open the doors. It wa always the best part of the week having your friend shout across the shop at you while holding a 12" that no one expected with just a big grin on his face coz he copped that shit first :) am pretty sure thats how all headz rolled around the world.
so anyways i give you Mr Spice 1........
He was from the Oakland area and was from what i know tied up with the too short/ant banks crews, but as an artist he kinda just seemed to be out there on his own? in truth i dont really know all that much about him apart form his music, but i guess thats all that matters.
Spice 1, I'm pretty sure is still making music but for me hip hop just remains in them golden years so if truth be told i dont really listen to much new stuff at all? i know there is some good shit out there but to be honest it doesnt do the same as it did for me back then so i dont worry myself over it.....
this album tho is pretty much a west coast must have! i copped the first 3 albums from spice 1 but for me they just didnt compare to this.

Spice 1
***Tracklistings***
1."In My Neighborhood"
2."187 Proof"
3."East Bay Gangster (Reggae)"
4."Money Gone"
5."1-800-Spice"
6."Peace to My Nine"
7."Young Nigga"
8."Welcome to the Ghetto"
9."Fucked in the Game"
10."Money or Murder"
11."City Streets"
12."1-900-Spice"
13."Break Yourself" (featuring MC Ant)
14."187 Pure"

stand out tracks are easily "welcome to the ghetto" "in my neighborhood" and "young nigga"
this is a definite must have for anyone who loved that west coast sound and i hope you enjoy...

Its good to be back :)