With the surprise passing of David Bowie aka The OG Rappin’ Duke, I thought I’d assemble some notable rap tracks that drank from his expansive musical well. Disappointingly, it seems that only ‘Fame’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ got any sample love outside of the infamous riff from ‘Under Pressure’ with Queen, which means that this is…
Here’s a soundtrack to yesterday’s interview, presented in approximately chronological order. Download: A Salute To Pumpkin
Little is known about the legendary drummer/producer behind classic rap jams from Enjoy, Profile and Tuff City, so when his nephew Koolie Kookoo hit me up this past December I jumped at the chance to find out more about the great man. Here are some of Koolie’s favourite memories and anecdotes of his uncle. Robbie:…
So here we are, at the cusp of another year, looking back at which rap songs still resonate with us up to twelve months later. If anyone is foolish enough to release an incredible song in the next three says, I’d like to extend my apologies. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy forty Conservative Rap Coalition…
This is a bit of a mixed bunch. The requirements being that the beat or loop changes at least three times in the track. In the case of the Pete Rock song, it’s a case of the loops changing over the drums, but most of them change the entire backing track. Elsewhere, tracks from the…
Toasting a glass to white labels and unofficial compilations… No Country For Old (Rap) Men: A Salute to Bootleg Vinyl
Back in four eight days…
This is an update of my 2009 salute to the late Tony D, now with extra Zippyshare. Yet another example of how important New Jersey has been to the rap landscape. Download: A Salute To Tony D Track listing:
As the soon to be cancelled The Soup would say…’Chicks, man.’ No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Why did the women of rap get sidelined?
Laurenovich is back with a new album on the Fool’s Gold label, and continues to refine his modern Queens rap recipe. Early in proceedings Meyhem pledges that you’ll never catch him in sandals, while explaining that once he turned 21 he ‘became a man, bought a watch and a gun’ before telling the police that…
This is either the worst column I’ve submitted or the dawning of a new age of comdic genius. No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Failed pitches for hip-hop themed video games
As promised, here’s the first part of the Eighties Edition. This period is a little trickier, as for much of it rap was still a ‘singles’ medium, so many artists never even got to release albums at all, which opens the playing field pretty wide. To keep it manageable, I’ve stuck to crews and soloists…