DJ Kenny Parker has shared this recording of a Boogie Down Productions show at Brixton Academy, 1990. Highlights include the freestyle session where KRS kicks some rhymes that would appear on later albums. Also, it’s my birthday today so I’m off to drink some RAER whiskey and whatnot.
Category: The 90’s Files
CJ Moore [Black By Demand] – The Unkut Interview, Part One
CJ Moore has been at ground zero for more classic hip-hop records that most of us can either count, through his work as an engineer at 1212 during the Paul C. era, with his group Black By Demand and with his work for Akinyele and Kool G Rap to name a few. After chopping it…
Al’ Tariq aka Fashion – The Unkut Interview, Part 2
Continuing my interview with Kool-Ass Fash, we discuss him leaving The Beatnuts, meeting Kanye West, forming Missin’ Linx, getting beat-jacked by Dr. Dre and his ill-fated experience signing with Dante Ross. Robbie: At what stage did you decide to do a solo album? Al’ Tariq: While we were out on tour doing The Beatnuts joint,…
Great Moments In Cracka-Ass Cracka Rap: Paleface
Click for full-size version. After being reminded of this misguided attempt at Saltine Rap pride from 1993, it’s only right to give Paleface his second 15 seconds in the spotlight. It’s safe to assume that this guy was ignored by Ice Cube and therefore nobody outside of the Vibe magazine office ever heard this ‘industrial…
The Source Scans: The Great White Hoax
Classic material from The Source as Reginald C. Dennis breaks down the 1991 White Rap Invasion. Please note that Lavar kid is a Conservative Rap Coalition pioneer with his sensible haircut and crisp polo shirt.
LL Cool J – Soul Survivor [Unreleased Original Version]
After speaking to Dr. Butcher again the other week, he revealed that he’d located a copy of the song he produced for LL Cool J in 1993, which went on to be remixed by QDIII and included on his fifth album, and generously agreed to allow me to share it with the world. Dr. Butcher:…
Buckshot – The Unkut Mini Interview
Once again I found myself subjected to indignities of a press day, where you have ten or fifteen minutes allotted to talk to a rapper who has already bored themselves to death speaking to the twenty other jerks before you and some herb always messes up the schedule and as a result that fifteen minutes…
The Influence of X-Clan on West Coast Rap
While EPMD and Heavy D had already scored hits by looping ‘More Bounce To The Ounce,’ the sound of the first X-Clan album really brought the most out of the whole Parliament Funkadelic movement in terms of flipping it into a entirely new context. Their combination of jazz and soul samples with the heavy funk…
Download: The Dr. Butcher Production Collection
Dr. Butcher, who you may remember as the guy who did all the scratching on Kool G Rap‘s second album (as well as rapping at the end of ‘Jive Talk’), has also contributed a number of wonderfully brooding soundtracks for MF Grimm, Akinyele and G Rap to unleash speech over. Here are fifteen of my…
Is MC Serch fronting about discovering Nas?
Here’s a little something from the Unkut archives with producer T-Ray discussing how MC Serch became involved with Nas‘ career when he started out in the music business. There seem to be some major discrepancies between some of the key details when compared to Serch’s version of events… T-Ray: MC Serch tried to claim a…
Why Can’t Ice Cube Keep Any Rap Friends?
When it comes to burning bridges, O’Shea Jackson may be the most accomplished hip-hop artist in the history of the music. It seems as if everyone who has ever had even the slightest involvement with him on a professional level has either gone on to record a diss song about him or made a series…
Searching For The Akafella – The Akinyele Video Collection
Inspired by this Martorialist Akineyele Deep Cuts compilation, I began to revisit some of Akafella’s later work, and it turns out that it’s a lot more entertaining now that the bitter taste of disappointment of him abandoning the genius of songs like “Exercise” and “Outta State” for endless variations of songs about poon have since…