Never less than ill
These past few days, I started imagining an alternative timeline where Run-DMC released Tougher Than Leather in 1987 and how that might have changed the trajectory of their career. By no means do I believe it would have prevented the inevitable slide down from the top of the mountain, but it certainly would have softened…
Admitting to sampling Ultimate Breaks and Beats is one of the last remaining sacred cows of rap music. Ghostwriters and beat-jacking entire songs all seems to be fine and dandy these days, but the pride of claiming that you personally found every drum sound, horn stab and loop in the dollar bin of a ‘Mom…
The late, great Biz Markie was sometimes referred to as The Clown Prince of Rap, which isn’t the greatest nickname because clowns generally get a bad…erm…rap. Later in his career, I believe Biz was getting a lot of DJ work at fancy parties and whatnot after he hit the mainstream as a regular on Yo…
From what I’ve been able to piece together, Dan The Beatman (aka DJ Danny Dan who made a record for Select with his girlfriend, The Female Dream) made the original beat and recorded it with Paul C. at 1212 Studios (as told to Big Daddy magazine for issue 12): Could this YouTube upload of an…
Eric B. is not one of the most talkative characters I’ve encountered in my days as a bloke who rings up rap music legends. Considering that I was unable to verify anything he told me, the whole thing was an exercise in frustration and bewilderment. Our conversation in 2009 included a declaration that Queens invented…
Everyone who put their own album on their list needs to take a long, hard look at themselves, with the exception of Greg Nice who took it to another level. If I’d been asked to list my own Five Favourite Albums of 1991 in January of 1992, based on what I listened to the most…
The first cab off the rank to celebrate this site surviving twenty years is a one-off run of t-shirts, designed by Aeon Hand (f.k.a. Theotis Jones) and featuring some of the illustrations from Past The Margin. Pre-order the size you want by the 23rd March 2024 and it will be sent out in early April….
Nine years later I finally found this, as it was included on this 2019 compilation of O.C. demos, radio spots and remixes. grass was onto something, this is far and away the best version of this song. This also inspired me to go back to that radio session he did over an early incarnation of…
Recalling that Cornell University has a large digital archive, featuring an extensive collection of early rap flyers and photos, I stumbled onto a section chronicling the first 1,400 records in Bambatta’s original collection. Much like one of your old share-house mates might have done, Bam went through a phase where he would write his name…
Straight outta Paris, Bachir and SLurg (who used to frequent the comment section here back in the day) host a radio show every Sunday where they focus on a particular theme. For the 81st episode, they constructed a mix featuring everyone featured in the Past The Margin book, proving that Unkut.com is now Australia’s second-most…
Today marks twenty years since I first posted on unkut.com. In recent times I haven’t a great deal to write about, but just yesterday I finally got to interview the legendary Godfather Don, and as a result I’m fired-up to take Unkut into a new phase. Look-out for this interview in the coming weeks and…
Hype stickers can vary from a mini-sales pitch to spruik the album you’re looking at, a bog-standard track listing or just the name of the producer who was paid twenty grand in the 90s to remix the single. Here are some I found in the shelves this morning and deemed worthy of a snarky accolade….