After cutting his teeth reviewing records for The Source magazine while still in high school, DJ Mighty Mi went onto release some classic white label remixes and formed The High and Mighty with Mr. Eon, eventually starting the Easter Conference record label. A couple of months ago I got the chance to pick his brain…
It took me exactly twenty years to get Godfather Don on the phone, which makes sense now that I know that by the time I started this site he had already changed his focus to playing jazz. This being my first phone interview since the ill-fated Just-Ice session in 2016, I had no idea how…
White labels rule the world. Download: Nas remixes and bootlegs radio mix
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…
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…
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…
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…
Not sure why the Stereo MC’s labeled this remix as Part II, other than that they thought they might sell a few extra copies via if the punter’s thought it was a brand new song from Brother J and co? They also recorded some nice remixes for the Jungle Brothers and Latifah under their Ultimatum…
Here’s an interesting snapshot of how some rap fanatics reacted to the first Nas album (myself included) – it delivered nine amazing rap songs, featuring state-of-the-art rhymes over the some of the finest producers to ever do it. And yet…it just didn’t deliver the knock-out blow that Criminal Minded, It Takes A Nation Of Millions…
One of the staples in the increasingly competitive world of music magazines was sticking some extra crap on the cover – be it a CD, mixtape or a min-mag supplement. In 1999, Jeremy Miller assembled ’32 of Hip-Hop’s Best Verses’ as a pocket-sized pal, perfect for train rides, BBQ’s and…rap karaoke? While you might be…
Finally got my hands on a bootleg of this masterpiece, yet another casualty of the ‘Cop Killer’ fallout which resulted in any rap lyrics involving shooting police being either censored or the whole song getting pulled. DJ Premier really went all-in with that demented horn loop that recalls a squeaky screen door swinging in the…
If you were hanging out at clubs in 1992, there was no way you could miss the impact of the SWV’s ‘Right Here’ [Human Nature Mix], which was also the second and final modern R&B tape I bought after the What’s The 411? album. Who could forget that video with ya gals suited up for…