I was wondering what this guy was up to since his solid Cold Currentz album from a few years back.

Erule - ‘Listen Up’ video:
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Vividseats.com is your one-stop destination for all Concert Tickets, Theater Tickets, and Sports Tickets. We sell at the best prices Chris Rock Tickets, Cirque du Soleil Tickets, Wu Tang Clan Tickets, Artie Lange Tickets, and many more.

The crew from the Vinyl Addicts sent me this A-Z questionnaire months ago and recently posted it:

A-Z: Robbie Ettelson

Elsewhere, the latest Hip-Hop Connection has my pieces on The Rap Bandit, Killa Sha and the Siah & Yeshua re-issue.

Finally, the Hipster Rap Douchebag Poll got a nice boost in votes following the Kidz In The Hall response (also earning them some extra votes in the process!). Currently just short of 900 votes, it’s hardly on the level of the legendary First Annual Weed Carrier Awards, which clocked-up a staggering 13,000 votes, but it provided some cheap laughs nevertheless.

Marciano is unstoppable right now. Mossberg Season is going to shit on everything when it drops. I mean really, the only three albums you need to be considering messing with this year are this, Killa Sha’s The Shepard and the P Brothers’ The Gas (which will feature at least of one of the aforementioned MCs).

Roc Marciano @ MySpace

Roc Marciano - ‘4 All The Real Raw Deal’

I mentioned this earlier, but after hearing the new LL Cool J mixtape I got to thinking that there seems to be a lot of ill will towards blogs by certain artists. Not sure if it’s gossip blogs, bootlegging blogs or just shit-talking blogs that have these dudes pissed, but I’ve interviewed both of ‘em and they never said anything about it, so I can’t help but wonder which spots are to blame. It’s kinda tough to fault J-Love’s reasoning on this one though - a lot of rap blogs are gay as fuck.

J-Love - ‘Blogs R 4 Homos’ (cut ‘n paste highlights from his new CD)

LL Cool J - ‘You Don’t Want It With The G.O.A.T.’

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to sit through Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo, Rappin’ or even Posse, then get ready for more cinematic horrors in the not-too-distant future. Yeah, you guessed it – they started shooting the effin’ Biggie Smalls movie. After holding a nation-wide audition for the lead, the producers (I’m assuming Lil’ Cease is on as “creative consultant”) decided on Gravy, who – as luck would have it – just happens to be a fat rapper from Brooklyn. Actually, he was pretty much a shoe-in for the role months ago, but I’m guessing the auditions were some type of pointless publicity stunt. The point being – does anybody actually think this movie will be any good? Previous Rapsloitation flicks like Krush Groove at least had some live performances to distract us from the cheesy acting, and Beat Street had that dude who bit a can in half. Do you really need to see a young B.I.G. discovering that life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough on the mean streets of Bed-Stuy before finding rap stardom, ugly Italian jumpers and finally getting his end in a dame with a blonde weave?

For all you ’80s fanatics, there have also been some reports that fruits like Cuba Gooding Jr. had been cast in the role of Engineer-All Star Marley Marl, and David Banner was to play Biz Markie in the Juice Crew flick! I doubt we’ll see this movie for another five years, but I’m sure that when The Vapors is finally made I’ll be first in line to see how badly it tells the story of how Big Daddy Kane, MC Shan and Roxanne Shante got their start. As long as Mario Van Peebles isn’t involved, I’m good. Admittedly, Paid In Full was pretty awesome despite not being an actual movie about rap, but if you ever peeped the back cover of Eric B. & Rakim’s first album you know the deal (plus it good to see Cam’Ron making himself useful for a change). As for 8 Mile and Get Rich Or Die Trying? Blame them for this new wave of hip-hop themed films. OK, maybe not much Curtis’ caper. It’s only a matter of time before Kanye gives us his autobiographical magnum opus, although I suspect it will be closer to Tougher Than Leather or Cool As Ice than Style Wars. Here’s hoping the Black Eyed Peas get signed on for a remake of the Fat Boy’s comedy vehicle Disorderlies.

Video: A tribute to the greatest rap movie evah:
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Continuing my talk with “Super Rapper” T La Rock, we discuss the origins of his name, working with Mantronik, bootleggers and unreleased recordings. T is currently developing a biopic called ‘The T La Rock Story’ with “a very powerful producer from Hollywood” named Bonnie Timmerman (who was the Casting Director on Man On Fire, Carlito’s Way and State of Grace to name a few) as well as working on new music.

What’s the story behind your name?

T La Rock: That’s the thing, I was asking my brother about that. I’ve been ‘T La Rock’ for so long that it escapes me. I try to think real hard, ‘What made me say La Rock?’ I was ‘T La Rock’ when there was only three MC’s that was with Flash, put it that way. [laughs] There was only two ‘La Rocks’. People ask me was I the first ‘La Rock’ and I say, ‘It’s a toss-up’, because there was one other ‘La Rock’ – and this is way before Scott La Rock, ‘cos you know Scott La Rock actually got his name from me. We knew each other – in other words, I knew Scott, I know Scott’s brother, I know Scott’s mother, I know Scott’s cousin – so I knew him. He just was hanging around me all the time and one day he just added the ‘La Rock’ and said, ‘You got a problem with that, do you?’ I said, ‘Nah! Ga’ head’. Not many people know about that.

Who was the other ‘La Rock’?

There was another one who was with Kool Herc, and his name was Coka La Rock. But the thing that was funny about it is his name was pronounced two different ways – ‘Coke La Rock’ and ‘Coka La Rock’. We didn’t know each other. The way I came up with the ‘La Rock’ had nothin’ to do with emceeing. That was from breakdancing…well, dancing, rather. We didn’t call it breakdancing back then.
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T La Rock is so entrenched into the history of hip-hop that he actually attended Kool Herc’s first parties. After nine years of deejaying, breaking and emceeing locally in The Bronx, as well as introducing his brother Special K of the Treacherous Three to rap, T finally decided to take the next step and begin his recording career. The result was a song that would prove to be one of the most influential b-boy records of all time.

Robbie: When did you get the bug to have a piece of wax out there with your name on it?

T La Rock: Around 1983 is when I decided to go professional, when I hooked-up with Rick Rubin. My brother Special K was the one that actually introduced me to Rick. He was supposed to record a record with Rick Rubin but he couldn’t, because he was signed with Sugarhill Records and Treacherous Three. So my brother told me about this guy Rick Rubin, says he wants to put out a record, he wants to start-up a label, so I was like, ‘OK’. I met Rick Rubin, he was in NYU. He hadn’t gotten with Russell [Simmons] yet. When we first did ‘It’s Yours’, Def Jam wasn’t even a label yet. I think he was actually runnin’ ‘em out of his dorm room. It was ‘Def Jam Recordings’ – almost like a production company. It was still a record company but it wasn’t that official yet.

It was on Streetwise first, right?

That was later on. After we recorded it we hooked-up with Arthur Baker. I think we initially started-out with Streetwise to try to get distribution, and wind-up actually putting the record on there. Everybody gets confused and they say, ‘How come everybody keeps saying LL Cool J was the first record on Def Jam when I bought ‘It’s Yours’. That was on Def Jam!’ It’s just that Def Jam wasn’t a full label yet. If you have an original copy of ‘It’s Yours’, you will see ‘Def Jam Recordings’ on it.

Is it true that you had a falling-out with Def Jam and they tried to get LL to take your spot?

No. What happened was - here’s a record I made, ‘It’s Yours’…huge! One of the biggest records ever. I’m doing two or three shows a week, making anywhere from $800 to $1000 a show - which was a whole lotta money back then. I still kept my job working at the pharmacy when ‘It’s Yours’ was on the radio, getting’ airplay. Now after a while ‘It’s Yours’ finally dies down, I knew nothing about royalties or anything like that. I’m new to the music business. So everybody’s sayin’ to me, “Wow, T. I know you made a lot of money’ and I say ‘Yeah’. I’m thinking they’re talking about from the shows, but they were talking about from record sales! So I went to Streetwise and said, ‘I want a royalty statement’. They gave me a statement – you’re gonna love this – saying that we owed them money! [laughs] In other words, tryin’ to say the record didn’t make sell enough to recoup to make back the money! So that was like a complete, total turn-off, and I had gotten a little mad with Rick because at the beginning I never knew what deal went down. Keep in mind, this is my very first record deal. I knew nothing about the business.
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If you’re not checking The Meaning of Dope you’re missing out on the best source of original rap footage out there right now. This in particular caught my attention - vintage footage of the ever-elusive Joe Fatal, who also appeared in Main Source’s “Just Hangin’ Out” and Kool G Rap’s “Erase Racism” videos.

Just got off the phone with Fuc That (who used to be in a crew called Street Smartz in the 90s) and he was telling me about his new shit. Considering he was only 17 when he dropped the classic “Ain’t No Burna”, he’s hardly over the hill these days. Look out for his Half Man/Half Beast mixtape on Stand Out Music.

F.T. - “Where’s The Money”

Fuc That @ MySpace

Street Smartz - ‘Don’t Trust Anyone’ video:
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I hope G got a HUGE check for this one.

Steve-O feat. Kool G Rap - “Poke The Puss”

Thanks to End Level Boss for putting me on to this abomination.

Steve-O Rap Album Trailer:
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So I get an email today from a guy from Underground Hip Hop dot com letting me know that the Kidz In The Hall gave Unkut a fair amount of airtime in this new video. Amusing to say the least. As I’d originally mentioned in the post, I only really included them to make up the numbers. They make decent enough music I guess, if you’re into that kind of shit, but there’s really no excuse for rocking canary yellow cardigans unless you’re Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Anyway, cheer up fellas - you only polled thirteen votes!

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No doubt you’ve been following Prodigy ’s antics in recent times. In between his usual antics, “Field Marshal P” has gone and followed-up the surprisingly enjoyable Return Of The Mac with H.N.I.C. 2, which I assumed was gonna be a pile of steaming horse shit. Turns out it’s one of the most entertaining records I’ve heard in a long time. Let me break it down:

1. The Cover - Not only do we get a bunch of Streetwear P’s posing in various garish outfits, but he’s added little hand-drawn syringes, pills, bottles of booze and even dice!

2. The Booklet - Lyric Book P kindly included his complete lyrics for your reading pleasure: “Yo P I can rhyme/ 50 Cent did it, I can do this shit too/ But you not 50, he a individual”. Say word.

3. He calls himself “a handsome shooter” and describes himself as “the skateboarder, surfboarded, snowboarder”. Surfboard P is gnarly, broseph!

4. Claims that he was in the car when his pops robbed a jewelery store when he was eight years old. It’s unclear whether or not he was driving the getaway car himself.

5. Includes a bonus “Spanish” version of “A.B.C.” which is just certain lines translated and spoken by some robot voice.

6. The Beats - Alchemist and Sid Roames deliver some seriously dope music, which reminds me of a 70’s horror flick (in a good way).

7. Responds to lyrical shots from Nas and Jay with: “You thought something sweet? Believe Jay if you want/Ga head beleive Nas or whoever you choose/You come on over here and you gonna see the truth”. That’ll learn ‘em, right?

8. Halfway through “Young Veterans” it sounds like he’s rapping underwater. That’d be another first for this trailblazer.

9. Includes a prison yard photo of his pops, which is so ignorant that it it wins.

10. Despite the fact that Illuminati P can barely string two words together and hardly even bothers to actually rhyme during many verses, this shit is nuttier than anything Ol’ Dirty ever did. Straightjacket P for the win!

Prodigy - “Young Veterans”

“Dirty New Yorker” video:
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