Today hip-hop has lost one it’s true pioneers – Sir Juice, aka Mr. Magic, passed away after suffering a heart attack. Not only was Magic the first rap DJ to have an exclusive rap show on commercial radio on WBLS (The Rap Attack with DJ Marley Marl and Fly Ty) but his often brutal honesty…
Category: In The Trenches
Boo-Ya Tribe Stop Ram-Raid At DMC’s (1990)
Tony Prince (DMC founder), talking about the 1990 world finals at Wembley Arena in the UK (7000 capacity), and some ram-raiders trying to get in by driving a car through the stage door: “I’m just about to go on stage and introduce somebody and two of our guys came running up to me saying, ‘There’s…
Combat Jack – The Unkut Interview, Part 2
Following on from Part 1, Combat Jack details some more tales from the front-line and discusses life after the music biz. Robbie: How did you find most of your clients? Combat Jack: The attorney I was working for, she let me build a hip-hop practice, ‘cos she saw the potential in me. I worked with…
Combat Jack – The Unkut Interview, Part 1
After some unforgettable inside-story posts at Bol‘s spot a few years ago – one of which gave me some great material when I interviewed Pete Rock – Combat Jack started his own site at the beginning of 2009. Having worked with hundreds of artists during his career as music attorney, CJ has behind-the-scenes tales for…
The Story Behind Large Professor’s The LP
You might recall this from my interview with the artist once known as Paul Juice recently: Robbie: Is ‘Queens Lounge’ from The LP ever going to see a proper release? Large Professor: I’ll go back through the archives and try to dig that up and dust that off and get it right, man. I wanna…
Are Live Cover Versions Just Filler?
Ghostface live, huh? Yeah, that shit was quality. It featured everything you’d hope for from a Starks’ set – an overpowering smell of weed surrounding the stage, winning live renditions of ‘Nutmeg’, ‘Run’ and ‘Mighty Healthy’, Ghost diddy-bopping around like an excited kid who just ate a bag of candy and….a bunch of cover versions?…
Prince Po Isn’t Mad At Nas, May Record New Organized Konfusion Songs
I’ve had this long-standing theory that Organized Konfusion felt some kind of way about Nas “taking inspiration” from their ‘Stray Bullet’ track for It Was Written‘s ‘I Gave You Power’. Robbie: When Nas did ‘I Gave You Power’ did you take that as a compliment to ‘Stray Bullet’, or were you like, ‘Hang on a…
The 90’s Files: The Mighty V.I.C.
Name: The Mighty V.I.C. Affiliations: A member of The Beatnuts until the Stone Crazy album, worked with Godfather Don as the Groove Merchantz and later formed Ghetto Pros with Mike Heron. Claim to Fame: “G Rap used to live around my block, and I gave him the loop for ‘Truly Yours’. I remember playing the…
Dante Ross – The Unkut Interview Part 3: The SD-50’s
The other aspect of Dante Ross’ career that’s noteworthy to rap fiends are the classic tracks he produced with John Gamble under the Stimulated Dummies banner. Providing beats for acts such as 3rd Bass, Hard 2 Obtain, Shazzy, Del, Grand Puba, KMD, Casual and Kurious Jorge to name a few, producing provided yet another outlet…
Dante Ross – The Unkut Interview Part 2: The Elektra Era
Following on from Part One, we move onto Dante’s time at Elektra Records, where assembled an all-star cast of artists, including Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Brand Nubian, KMD and Busta Rhymes. Robbie: What was your process for finding groups to sign? Dante Ross: I met every group I ever knew from…
Dante Ross – The Unkut Interview Part 1: The Tommy Boy Era
There was a time when being an A&R in rap music actually meant something more than the guy who’s trying to find out what records you’re sampling so he can become a producer. Dante Ross actually gave a fuck about the projects he worked on, which is why he was involved in hip-hop milestones such…
Crooked I Reads Prodigy Letter, Not Pleased
It seems that after HipHopDX did a post about the Prodigy Top 40 Letter that a certain comment about Slaughterhouse member Crooked I seems to have gotten back to him and as you might expect, he’s pissed. And wouldn’t you know it – he just happens to do a blog over at…yep – HipHopDX: I…