As much as I enjoyed Black Thought’s incredible performance on Hot 97 a few weeks back, the star of the show was Funkmaster Flex’s reactions, as he had the best day at work…ever.
Category: Radio…Suckas Never Play Me
Stream: Just-Ice interviewed by Mike Allen (R.I.P)
Here’s a vintage interview with Just-Ice from 1988 with the late, great Mike Allen. Just talks about his fronts, Sade and a single called ‘Poison’ which never came out. Courtesy of the P Brothers’ tape collection.
Stream: Ultramagnetic MC’s Live On WNYU’s Club 89 [February 13th, 1989]
Grand Good came through in the clutch with this one – twenty minutes of the Ultra crew rapping on the radio. Wonder whatever happened to that Ced-Gee compilation that was meant to drop on Next Plateau?
Afrika Islam – The Unkut Interview
Rising up through the ranks from the ‘Son of Bambattaa’ to the DJ at The Roxy and launching the Zulu Beat radio show on WHBI, Afrika Islam went on to release the very first cut and paste record, help found the Rhyme Syndicate and produce the majority of Ice-T’s first four albums after moving to…
The Zulu Beat Radio Show: An Oral History
Afrika Islam: I was a member of the Zulu King b-boys, under Afrika Bambaataa. That’s how I came into the culture, from the floor up. I went out to battle other b-boy crews across the city, representing the Zulu Nation. From there, my second step was becoming a Zulu Nation DJ – the first line…
Stream: Abstract Radio #10 feat. Pete Rock and Large Professor
Shouts to ego trip for this classic cover which I’ve destroyed with my Extra Abstract Photoshop skills. Here’s last Friday’s episode of Abstract Radio, where Large and Pete join Tip in the studio to rap, play classic funk records and call up D’Angelo and Andre 3000. Grab it before it gets C&D’d.
Cassette Culture with Stretch Armstrong: The Latin Rascals, Dec. 1985, Kiss-FM NYC
Stretch Armstrong recently dropped the latest article in his always enjoyable Cassette Culture series over at Cuepoint, providing an essential retrospective of the art of tape editing, while also providing a recording of a classic Latin Rascals mix from 1985. The shit these dudes were doing with reels of tape and a razor blade was…
Download: The Effin’ Clean Rap Radio Re-recordings compilation
Adding gunshots, sirens and rewinds to remove swears from rap records is all well and good, but you’ve got to respect the effort made by certain rappers who went to the trouble of re-writing and re-recording their lyrics in order to cater to radio guidelines. Some of my personal favorites include Tim Dog‘s ‘Forget Compton,’…
Sugar Bear & Stezo – Capital Rap Sessions [1989]
Sugar Bear The Powerful Powerlord was responsible for the highly enjoyable 1988 single, ‘Don’t Scandalize Mine’ / ‘Ready To Penetrate’, and was also no slouch when it came to freestyling, as he demonstrated with this amusing Tim Westwood guest spot.
Latee and The 45 King – Tim Westwood Session [1990]
Latee dropping his verses from “Wake Up”, “Puttin’ On The Hits” and “This Cut’s Got Flavor” while 45 King flips a break beat on Tim Westwood‘s show? Count me in. Thanks to Palmer Stallings for finding digging this out of the tape stash.
The Juice Crew – 1990 Tim Westwood Freestyle
Here’s a Tim Westwood sure shot from 1990, courtesy of CRC member Palmer Stallings. Biz Markie, Tragedy, Craig G, Big Daddy Kane and MC Shan all drop verses, alhough sadly there’s no sign of TJ Swan despite him apparently being in the house. Shout-out to the other radio station that crosses the signal a few…
Unsigned Skype: M. Will
Marlon Williams, Jr. is the son of the greatest hip-hop producer of all time, Engineer All-Star Marley Marl. That’s a lot of pressure to deal with. Nevertheless, this classically-trained musician eventually found himself drawn into the world of beats and rhymes. His last couple of instrumental projects – dedications to Dexter Wansel and Alan Parsons…