Pretty Tone Capone in the studio with Real Live, 2004. Photo: richdirection The infamous Pretty Tone Capone from Harlem’s Mob Style is about to return to the rap game. While I haven’t heard his new material yet, his work with the group and as a soloist has given us some of the most authentic street…
Author: Robbie Ettelson
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: DOOM and the art of rap re-recordings
MF Doom is one of the few rapper’s who releases different vocal takes of his songs. It’s a great idea… No Country For Old (Rap) Men: DOOM and the art of rap re-recordings
Stream: Abstract Radio #10 feat. Pete Rock and Large Professor
Shouts to ego trip for this classic cover which I’ve destroyed with my Extra Abstract Photoshop skills. Here’s last Friday’s episode of Abstract Radio, where Large and Pete join Tip in the studio to rap, play classic funk records and call up D’Angelo and Andre 3000. Grab it before it gets C&D’d.
Emergency CRC Meeting
Please head over to the CRC site to vote on the future of Kool G Rap as a Conservative Rap Coaliton approved rapper. These are dark days indeed, my friends.
Newcleus – Jam On It [Demo Version]
This is the first take of ‘Jam On It,’ recorded on a four track tape recorder and sans the Wikki’s.
King Sun Demos
Until the demo tape which Ice Cube ripped off surfaces, these two King Sun unreleased tracks will have to tide us over. King Sun – ‘Mr Policeman’ A Jazzy Jay produced burner submitted for the Who’s The Man? soundtrack which rocks a loop that would later appear on one of Godfather Don’s Hydrabeats LPs.
Stream: The Combat Jack Show – The Consequence Episode
Combat Jack kindly informed Cons that I had crowned him the Greatest Weed Carrier of All Time, and his response was fairly predictable. I can now tick off offending Consequence from my rap bucket list.
Download: A Salute To Original Demo Versions
As much as it’s always a treat to hear the early, unreleased demo efforts of great rappers, it’s also intriguing to be able to experience the early, rough takes of songs that would be polished-up, adjusted or paired back. Some of these demo versions feature different lyrics, alternative loops or sometimes simply looser deliveries, and…
Rap Guest Shots That Featured No Actual Rapping
Nothing worse than seeing the names of rapper’s on the back of a hip-hop album and thinking to yourself, ‘Sweet! Looking forward to hearing this dude rap on this shit!’ Then you get home and it turns out that the ‘feature’ is just the MC in question performing the hook and doing a shout-out at…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: The Lessons That Hip-Hop Forgot
Fun Fact: Chilly Tee gave up rapping after his Bomb Squad produced LP tanked and got into the movie business, serving as the Lead Animator for stop motion films Coraline, The Boxtrolls and Paranorman (which is one of the better kids films I’ve seen in recent times). No Country For Old (Rap) Men: The Lessons…
Download: A Salute To Showbiz Remixes
Photo: richdirection Remember that time that A.G. fired shots at Arrested Development in The Source for not mentioning Show when they won the Grammy for ‘Tennesee’? Here’s the remix in question, alongside fifteen other examples of Show’s production magic, ranging from his early big band horn-stab style through to his incredibly sparse, stripped down period…
Let Ren Down – Thoughts On The Straight Outta Compton Movie
I really wanted to like Straight Outta Compton, and in many ways, I did. But in many other, more important ways, I did not. The fundamental problem with any biopic that’s produced by the people it’s telling the story about is that you’re getting an incredibly sanitized, white-washed version of events which goes to extreme…