I was musing about the fact that EPMD had an amazing run of three four cutting-edge albums before they parted ways the first time, which is almost unprecedented. However, as Old Man Rap Twitter pointed out, there are a few other contenders: Run-DMC – Set the pace on their first three LP’s, although Tougher Than…
Author: Robbie Ettelson
Download: A Salute To MF Doom
It could be said that the world doesn’t need another DOOM compilation, but considering that most of them are amateurish fan mash-ups I’d argue that a definite collection of the Metal Faced Villain‘s post-Zev Love X period is long overdue. These are the seventeen best examples of DOOM, as officially sanctioned by the CRC Advisory…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Can I Kick It? No, You Can’t
News that there will be some ‘special remixes featuring rapper’s who stan for Tribe’ on the 25th Anniversary Edition of People’s Instinctive Travels… has raised all kinds of alarm bells… No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Can I Kick It? No, You Can’t
The Zulu Beat Radio Show: An Oral History
Afrika Islam: I was a member of the Zulu King b-boys, under Afrika Bambaataa. That’s how I came into the culture, from the floor up. I went out to battle other b-boy crews across the city, representing the Zulu Nation. From there, my second step was becoming a Zulu Nation DJ – the first line…
Download: A Salute To Old School Throwbacks
There’s nothing like pretending to rap like it’s 1985 (or better yet, 1977) well after the fact, or recruiting some veteran MC’s to kick some old styles. While some of these attempts have fallen flat (Ugly Duckling and People Under The Stairs being two examples that spring to mind), others have made an entire career…
Why Country Road Crew Wear is Australia’s Polo
The Australian chapter of Complex just launched last week, so I penned a little something something about the once fly gear known as Country Road for all you outfit architects. Why Country Road Crew Wear is Australia’s Polo
D.I.Y. Vinyl EP – What Would You Pick?
What with recent technological advancements where you can now cut one-off vinyl records in real time at places that make personalized t-shirts, it got me to thinking what songs I would throw on if I was to make a bootleg of CD and digital only rap songs from recent years. My first one would probably…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: The Search For Fake Hip-Hop
This makes Star Trek II: The Search For Spock look like a walk in the park. No Country For Old (Rap) Men: The Search For Fake Hip-Hop
Download: A Salute To Failed Sample Clearances
To complete the theme that I’ve running with these past few weeks, here are fifteen rap songs which were either scrapped altogether, released as promo only or re-recorded for the album. It’s limited to one pick per artist, otherwise this would have ended up as yet another compilation of Ghostface and Nas songs that couldn’t…
Download: A Salute To Scrapped Original Versions
Following on from last week’s Demo Versions comp, this is a collection of original versions of rap songs which had their beat completely changed for the album. Unlike tracks which have to get redone because of sample clearance problems, these tracks all seem to have been decided not to be musically strong enough and were…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Too Smooth, Too Soon
Big Daddy Kane is one of the best to ever do it, and can still tear a stage up to this day. So why did his solo recording career end in the ninwties? No Country For (Old) Rap Men: Too Smooth, Too Soon
Biters In the City [of Shaolin]
Cole James Cash was cleaning up his mom’s basement last week and found this old record which features not one but two rhymes which are ripped off word-for-word from other rappers. Apparently Lo Down had some connection with the Wu-Tang, with Islord from Killarmy contributing the final verse which is actually the Raekown’s rap from…