With a career in the music industry spanning over 30 years, Mario ‘Not Rude’ Rodriguez has worked on a lot of records as an engineer and mixer. Amongst his hip-hop projects, he’s been involved with records from Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, Biggie Smalls and Public Enemy to name a few. For the first part…
Category: Not Your Average
Never less than ill
Soap Opera Rap
It seems that every other week a new Rap Genre emerges from someone’s twisted imagination. Since it’s been almost a year since the first Unkut Guide on the subject, it ain’t no mystery that a lot of effed-up new styles have appeared. Without a doubt, the most prominent would have to be the Soap Opera…
The Unkut Film Critic Reviews Kanye West’s Runaway
Highly esteem film critic Rodger Tossenpot just submitted his thoughts on Kanye’s latest piece of ‘creative jeanious [sic]. No one man should have this much Power. The power to make me weep at the frailty of the human condition, laugh at our faults and marvel at the beauty of Great Art. Many dismissed the idea…
Alexander Richter – The Unkut Interview
The best thing about getting an interview or feature published in print is having my words paired-up with original photography. Google image search is fine for your everyday blog post type of thing, but nothing beats having a crisp shot of the artist that nobody has. Enter Alexander Richter, who has provided shots for a…
The Source: Decade Of Rap Charts
Click on the pics for a full-size version. This brings back some memories… these charts went in! Chuck D‘s ‘Crazy Alternative Top Hip-Hop 15’ is a winner, as are the contributions from Harry Allen, J. The Sultan and Funken-Klein (R.I.P.). Considering how young I was when this issue dropped, there were a lot of records…
Tragedy Khadafi – The Unkut Interview, Part 2
Continuing from Part 1, Trag discusses dealing with depression, mentoring MC’s and the origin of his military state of mind. Robbie: Can you tell me more about the fall-out from your second album? Tragedy Khadafi: I’ve been rhyming since I was nine and I started writing songs when I was eleven, so I’ve been rhyming…
Tragedy Khadafi – The Unkut Interview, Part 1
Photo: ARMEN Tragedy Khadafi is considered to be the blueprint of the Queensbridge style of rhyming, which has become world-renowned thanks to artists like Nas, Mobb Deep and Cormega. Even though he never achieved the commercial acclaim of some of those who followed in his footsteps – due to a variety of personal and professional…
Download: Nas – Kutmatic
This is the album Nasty Nas would have made after Illmatic if I was his A&R in some kind of alternative universe where sample clearance didn’t exist. Alternative title: The Second Time Nas Didn’t Lose. Nas – Kutmatic Track listing:
Internets Celebrities – Somebody Say Chea!
I’m not even going to attempt to explain who the Internets Celebrities are – that’s what the ‘About’ section of their site is for, dummies! Okay, since you’re clearly too lazy and/or hungover to crawl over to your laptop and wipe the Cheezel dust from your fingers, I’ll provide a Twitter-proof rundown in less than…
Producers – Why Are You Rapping?
Respect to the great Diamond D, but he has to shoulder some of the responsibility for the glut of Producer On The Mic artists that seem to be clogging up the game. Stunts, Blunts & Hip-Hop worked because because the beats were incredible and the lyrics were straight-forward and amusing, but it also seems to…
Kanye Lost
Artwork: The Home Office RE: ‘Monster’ ‘Power’ [Remix]…
Is Marley Marl The Most Important Producer In The History Of Hip-Hop?
Once upon a time, around 1985 at Unique recording studio in New York city, Marley Marl accidentally sampled a snare drum. It was a mistake, initially, as he’d instructed the engineer to grab a vocal snippet for the Captain Rock song he was remixing at the time. When he played the sound on the keyboard…