Considering the tragic circumstances surrounding the end of GURU’s life, it’s not surprising that this project has taken nine years to arrive. As opposed to the ghoulish cash-in of Born Again and seemingly infinite posthumous Tupac albums, One of the Best Yet delivers a heart-felt farewell to the beloved MC Keith E.E. from members of…
There are several reasons why this may have happened. It could have been when I named him as one of Twitter’s biggest blowhards, the piece titled ‘Why I Don’t Trust ?uestlove’ or just my general disdain for his name-dropping antics and claims to be the ultimate rap nerd. I will out Rap Nerd any of…
Next month sees the release of a new DITC Studios compilation and a new David Bars solo album. DJ Premier, Buckwild, Lord Finesse, Showbiz, Da Beatminerz and Breakbeat Lou contribute to The Bar Code, while Showbiz handles the compilation exclusively. Hopefully Bars does another project entirely produced by Show at some point as well, based…
Also now available on pointless 45 format … Not content with releasing one of the best hardcore rap songs ever made, Just-Ice aka Sir Vicious aka The Original Gangster of Hip-Hop went and recorded the almost as great part II which arguably featured better rapping but over a less varied version of the beat. A…
In one of the most obvious snubs in recent history, some limey bastard over at the BBC music website went and ran a poll on the best rap songs of all time by surveying 108 international ‘critics’. From this list of retired bloggers, Twitter pests and two bit hacks (with a handful of actual legitimate…
Showbiz and AG recently released the proper instrumentals from their first album as Runaway Beats digitally, and as is often the case with these sort of things there was this never released remix of ‘Bounce Ta This’, using a loop from one of the album interludes, a new vocal hook and a new chorus sample….
The recently released Ghostface Killahs album marks the twenty-first officially released album (outside of Wu-Tang group LP’s) from Tony Starks aka Ghostface Killah aka Ironman aka Action Bronson’s Dad. I’m including the Theodore Unit LP, the first Raekwon, Wu-Block and the record with Czarface since Stark’s appears on nearly every track, but I’ve omitted remix…
After realising that I only own one Steady B album (and all of his Pop Art singles), I thought I might revisit his catalogue in order to fill in some gaps in my Philly rap knowledge. Bring The Beat Back Fresh off his run of popular answer records and duets with Shante, the rapper formerly…
Part 1 Here’s a very youthful and exhausted ATCQ talking to rap legend Kool Moe Dee for the Jive’s Rap Video Hits VHS tape. Apparently the fellas has been forced at gunpoint by the label to attend this session, as they all seem pretty spaced-out and disinterested, making for some amazingly awkward viewing! Are they…
Here’s the problem – Barry already owns several pressing’s of Illmatic. As a record company marketer – how can we convince Barry to pony up for yet another copy of Nas’ debut? The common answer is one of three options – a 7″ box set, a cassette tape, or some kind of limited edition coloured…
Here’s a classic article from the UK’s The Face magazine in 1990 documenting The Decepticons and the Lo Lifes back in the day.
New Musical Express was, at one point, my only source of (somewhat) reliable rap news. Sure, most of the time they approached it with a confused British journalistic approach (‘hang about, you can’t call women skeezers AND rap politics…can you?’), but to their credit they let Westwood compile his Future Rap chart every week. Here’s…