T La Rock is so entrenched into the history of hip-hop that he actually attended Kool Herc‘s first parties. After nine years of deejaying, breaking and emceeing locally in The Bronx, as well as introducing his brother Special K of the Treacherous Three to rap, T finally decided to take the next step and begin…
Category: Steady Bootleggin’
Holding it down for angry loners & the unemployable
Joe Fatal Sighting!
If you’re not checking The Meaning of Dope you’re missing out on the best source of original rap footage out there right now. This in particular caught my attention – vintage footage of the ever-elusive Joe Fatal, who also appeared in Main Source‘s “Just Hangin’ Out” and Kool G Rap‘s “Erase Racism” videos.
Ten Reasons Why H.N.I.C 2 Might Be The Album of The Year
No doubt you’ve been following Prodigy ‘s antics in recent times. In between his usual antics, “Field Marshal P” has gone and followed-up the surprisingly enjoyable Return Of The Mac with H.N.I.C. 2, which I assumed was gonna be a pile of steaming horse shit. Turns out it’s one of the most entertaining records I’ve…
DJ Vicious Lee (Def IV) – The Unkut Interview
Even though Rap-A-Lot Records is closely associated with Houston’s 5th Ward, most of the groups on the early roster were originally from New Jersey or New York, which resulted in some interesting blends of styles. The Def IV’s Nice & Hard album is a perfect example, as it introduced an upbeat, sample-heavy sound that was…
Keith Shocklee – The Unkut Interview, Part 2
Continuing my conversation with The Bomb Squad‘s Keith Shocklee, we discuss the early days of Public Enemy, park jams and some of their outside projects. DJ Johnny Juice told me about how you guys made-up a bunch of group names and then filled the spots? Keith Shocklee: What we was doing was a low-scale Motown…
Keith Shocklee – The Unkut Interview, Part 1
Long Island was the proverbial underdog in the mid-80s. While The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens all wrestled for rap dominance, Strong Island residents would journey into the city to check out shows before returning home to deliver their own twist on what they’d witnessed. It turns out that, somewhat removed from whatever trends were dominating…
DJ Johnny Juice and Son of Bazerk – The Unkut Interview
The original Kings of Pressure Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad were ahead of their time in more ways than one. Beyond the sonic innovation and hardcore lyrical content, the crew also pioneered the kind of self-sufficient work-ethic and forward thinking that would later be repeated as part of the RZA‘s Wu-Tang master plan. The…
Pete Rock – The Unkut Interview
Here’s my interview with Pete from Hip-Hop Connection magazine for anybody who may have missed it. Even though he proved to be one of my more challenging interview subjects, I think you’ll enjoy this a little more than the million other Q&A’s he did to promote the NY’s Finest album. Robbie: You worked with Marley…
Nutrageous – Raw Nuts Review
Photo by Kristina Hill Flushing has already produced some outstanding rappers, and Nut-Rageous continues that tradition with this entertaining collection of some of his vinyl releases and some new tracks. A lot of his tracks remind me of dope mid-90s indy stuff, but not on some throwback tip. Nut adds his own twist to all…
Nas Sharks NYOIL?
If you caught NYOIL‘s “What Up My Wigger Wigga” last year you might catch some major deja vu when you heard the hook of Nas‘ new song yesterday. A case of straight chomping or great minds thinking alike? Unkut Dot Com asked NYOIL to speak his piece on the topic: Nas is that nigga! Yeah…
Interview Mixed Grill [Termanology, Tame One, Lord Jamar, Esoteric, DJ Crucial and Wax Tailor]
Here’s a bunch of old interviews I did for print that I never got around to posting, mainly because they weren’t really in-depth. So instead of having to hear about what ever album these guys were promoting at the time, I’ve picked out the most interesting two or three quotes and thrown ’em all together….
Plug Tunin’
Internet soldiers: Your boy is back. That’s right, it’s YN. Text a friend to text a friend. And thanks to the homie Robbie Ettelson, we got a special thing goin’ on. It’s called Hard Body Female Spit Vol. 1 – aka 16 tracks of feminine fire that my Australian mate and I cooked up through…