A salute to a classic rap chart. Illustration by Aeon Hand. Download: Harry Allen’s 12 All-Time Favourite Underacknowledged Hip-Hop Cuts
Category: Steady Bootleggin’
Holding it down for angry loners & the unemployable
Nas remixes and bootlegs radio mix
White labels rule the world. Download: Nas remixes and bootlegs radio mix
Ice-T – Drama [Hi-Tech Mix]
Despite his numerous sins against breakbeat albums, even a broken clock is right twice a day and on this particular day Simon Harris aka Mr. Music of Life made a nice little remix for L.A. bloke Ice-T. It’s typical of the British production style of the era, where it apparently mandatory to add sirens and…
Das-EFX – What More Can I Say
Picked this up today on one of those dodgy bootlegs where the song was labeled as ‘EFX’ (Hip Hop Remix). From what I can gather from this perfect encapsulation of Rap Blog comment sections circa 2009, this may have been recorded in 1993 or 1994. To my ears it sounds more like something that would…
Three alternative versions of Main Source’s ‘Looking At The Front Door’
This song was my first introduction to the talents of Large Professor as a rapper, and remains a firm favourite to this day. In 2006, P-Vine records from Japan pressed-up the alternative ‘Uncut’ mix on a 12″ in Japan, providing some extra lyrics and scratching, which was good times. Then yesterday I heard a radio…
Ultramagnetic MC’s – Funky (We Can Do This Version)
First we got ‘Bait’ on the first Red Alert album, and then on his next compilation he gave us an alternative version of ‘Funky’ with a new intro, different Ced verse and an extra Keith rap at the end! Was this recorded as a promo for Red a year after the 12″ mix was released,…
The Best of Melle Mel references in Past The Margin
There’s been a lot of Melle Mel talk the past couple of days, so it seemed like a good opportunity to share some choice quotes that others have made about the legend himself – as found in the printed pages of A Decade of Unkut Interviews. Mikey D: I’d already won the belt, now they’re…
Big Punisher – You Ain’t A Killer [Marley Marl Remix]
Another day, another white label remix bootleg. Not that I’m complaining, I love this crap! The off-brand Marley Marl cartoon, the unfulfilled promise of future volumes that never arrived and the fact that only one of the three tracks is from the FF crew really seals the deal as well. There’s also a 50% chance…
Spoonie Gee – Did You Come To Party [Dub Mix]
Here I was, this whole time thinking that I needed to get this Marley Marl remix of the ode to Dapper Dan’s favourite pugilist, when the real knock-out was Teddy Riley’s dub work on the flip. Ted was in the midst of his proto-New Jack Swing era, delivering dancefloor-ready rap jams for Moe Dee, the…
Sonny Black – Thug Banger
Is this an answer record to Akinyele’s ‘Thug Shit’? Because that hook has me catching a flashback to 1997. History shows that neither of these songs reached the level of ‘Whomp (There It Is)’ / ‘Whoot, There It Is’ confusion that Tag Team and 95 South endured. This sounds like the kind of late nineties…
Gang Starr’s Daily Operation – the first minimalist rap album
DJ Premier and GURU’s third LP isn’t the most stripped-down rap album you’ll ever hear – it’s a veritable smorgasbord of sounds in comparison to the likes of the first Schoolly-D album or anything from Rick Rubin era Def Jam – but considering the technology and resources that they had available to them, Daily Operation…
Re-Up: Main Source – The Science [Unkut Bootleg]
P-Vine Records are releasing an official pressing of the shelved Main Source album The Science. In the meantime I thought I’d dig up my attempt at replicating how the LP might have shaped up in a 2014 post. Download