That faithful winter of 1997, when Queensbridge went nuts finding haunting vocal samples from jazz greats like Nina Simone to rap over, gave us the CRC anthems ‘Alluminatti’ (or ‘Norematti’ if you’re Team NORE instead of Iman THUG) and ‘True Confessions’ via local beat merchant G-Money. This powerful sound eventually bled into Pete Rock’s consciousness…
An alternative version of the Diamond D track from the One Tough Cop soundtrack, a film starring Stephan Baldwin and Chris Penn which no one I know has seen or even heard of. Zev’s verse would resurface when his MF Doom transformation was complete, but interesting to hear an early take here.
DJ 7L sez: This mix is an audio celebration of the work Cey Adams has done as a designer and artist. As head creative director at Def Jam in the 90’s Cey created some of the most iconic album covers and logos. In My Lifetime is source material from albums he has worked on, everything…
This gave me a good chuckle when this copy of Hip Hop Connection magazine arrived in the mailbox, with Kanye West paying respects to Pete Rock while getting shat on in the paragraph beside the sidebar. Truly the salad days. Click for the full size scan
Something was lost when ‘Hundred Dollar Bill’ was re-recorded as ‘Ijustwannachill’ for The LP. This first take is a little bit faster than the album version (enough to shave half a minute off the run time), which seems to spark-up the artist formerly known as Paul Juice to rap with a little more vigor. This…
I’ll let T-Ray and this On The Go magazine review sum this one up… T-Ray sez: I’ll tell you something I did for G Rap back in the day – I think Stretch Armstrong actually bootlegged it – it later got called ‘Hey Mr. Mr.’, but it was originally called ‘Don’t Interrupt Me When I’m…
Steve Powers and Max Glazer kicked it with Havoc, Prodigy, Big Noyd, Godfather Part III and a dude named Money No. Important topics covered include shouting out Bob from Queensbridge, the Mobb Bunnies and whether or not you should tip your bar tender.
From rap blog Detox to knocken’ em out the box like Johnny The Fox, I’m pleased to announce that Past The Margin: A Decade of Unkut Interviews is complete and ready to send to the printer this month. Ironically, it feels like I announced this effin’ tome almost ten years ago, but better late than…
Allow me to introduce a rag-tag bunch of rappers delivering parodies of well-known rap songs, piss-takes of ‘gangster’ rap and even taking the mickey out of their own image. 01. J.O.B. – Prince Paul The only P.S.K. remake worth it’s salt. 02. U Mean I’m Not – Black Sheep Sounds like Dres is having a…
Before Akinyele made a name for himself on ‘Live At The BBQ’ and the incredible Vagina Diner album, he was down with a dude named Amazin’. The duo apparently went by the name of – you guessed it – Akinyele and Amazin’, as Joe Fatal explained to me back in 2007: ‘Akinyele had a group…
Here’s an interesting snapshot of how some rap fanatics reacted to the first Nas album (myself included) – it delivered nine amazing rap songs, featuring state-of-the-art rhymes over the some of the finest producers to ever do it. And yet…it just didn’t deliver the knock-out blow that Criminal Minded, It Takes A Nation Of Millions…
One of the staples in the increasingly competitive world of music magazines was sticking some extra crap on the cover – be it a CD, mixtape or a min-mag supplement. In 1999, Jeremy Miller assembled ’32 of Hip-Hop’s Best Verses’ as a pocket-sized pal, perfect for train rides, BBQ’s and…rap karaoke? While you might be…