Photo by D-Nice MIKEY D VS MELLE MEL DATE: 1989 VENUE: New Musical Seminar Battle for MC Supremacy @ the Marriot Marquis THE COMPETITORS: Mikey D, the young upstart from Queens who went on to work with Paul C and replace Large Professor in Main Source; Melle Mel, the pioneer MC who had a worldwide…
Category: In The Trenches
A Salute To Kenny Lou of Screwball
This is the worst news I’ve heard in a long time – K.L. from Kamakazee/Screwball has passed away after an asthma attack. Kenny Lou might have seemed like “the other guy” from Screwball, but he was really the heart of the crew since the beginning. When they finally dropped the Y2K album in 2000 after…
Dr. Butcher Could Care Less About Run-DMC
Last December I was lucky enough to speak to Dr. Butcher for a couple hours, and he blessed me with some amazing stories about everything from his work to Kool G Rap, Akinyele and MF Grimm, plus a whole lot of shit I didn’t even know he was involved in. I’m not quite ready to…
Inside the Raekwon/Aftermath deal
Apparently the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 album has been finished for a minute but no paperwork was ever signed. Dre contributed a couple of beats to it, but then he went on vacation for two weeks, and when he got back he’d lost interest in the project – for whatever reason – and…
“While y’all niggas was out at the Rock The Bells Tour (I was Uptown, gats out, up in coke wars)”
Shot courtesy of Dallas Penn Unkut Dot Com‘s New York connect Idris Intifada just filed his report on the recent Rock The Bells show: When I first heard about the monster line up set for the Rock the Bells tour, I immediately thought, I’m going to get myself a ticket. This thought began to flee…
Chill Rob G Interview – Part 2
Concluding from Part 1, the Chill one breaks down the demise of the original Flavor Unit, touring overseas and his first MC name. Robbie: How do you feel about the different versions of the Flavor Unit that came out? Do you even care? Chill Rob G: [laughs] You know the Flavor Unit kinda got away…
Hold It Down – Sadat X Interview
Originally run in Modern Fix magazine #54: Considering that by the time you read this, Sadat X would have commenced serving a nine-month bid as a result of an “off-day” towards the end of last year, I imagine that on the morning I called him up to talk about his latest release he would have…
Mikey D – The Unkut Interview
In terms of having some tough breaks in the rap game, Mikey D has weathered some rough times over the years. From Cool J allegedly biting his style in the old days to an ill-fated stint as Xtra-P’s replacement in Main Source and having his NMS belt stolen by Melle Mel, Mikey has endured as…
Kenny Parker – The Unkut Interview, Part 3
Wrapping up my conversation with Kenny Parker, he shares some classic BDP stories, including the night that KRS debuted “The Bridge Is Over” at Union Square…. [Part 1 Part 2] Robbie: So did Kris really become a “Born Again” Christian? Kenny Parker: For lack of a better term, I’m gonna say “Yeah”. But he’s a…
Kenny Parker – The Unkut Interview, Part 2
Following on from Part 1, Kenny discusses the aftermath of the PM Dawn beatdown…. Kenny Parker: So the next day, Jive Records calls up and they’re like “The press wants to talk to you, Kris. Come down to Jive”. When we got there, the mood was really somber. Everybody was upset, and I remember seeing…
Kenny Parker – The Unkut Interview, Part 1
KRS-One‘s younger brother and long time BDP producer/DJ Kenny Parker recently provided a first-person perspective of what happened at the PM Dawn bumrush from BDP‘s perspective: Robbie: You guys must have felt like Prince Be deserved to get his ass kicked? Kenny Parker: Actually, it didn’t start out that way. The plan wasn’t to attack…
UMC’S – Hip-Hop Sucks Because of You!
Kool Kim and the Cella Dwellas Editors Note: For everyone who thinks that Kim was just shitting on KRS out of the blue, he was sent the audio included in the last article under the impression that it was recorded recently, which pissed him off to think that KRS was still talking about that shit…