Leslie Phillips back!

70th Street Carlos - Ding Dong
(From YouTube; 2017)


Less retarded than previous collaborations, but still unmistakably a 70th Street Carlos & Trel Itz A Hit track. Carlos can't find a decent fitting shirt to save his life, but he stays the real driving force behind the WNC camp - not hard when the crew's star Whop Bezzy has spent 2017 making corny Auto-Tune shit over Atlantaficated trap beats.

Also, Bag It Up has grown on ya host recently. Like Carlos says on the song, I'm kinda slow because some shit just hits my brain late:

70th Street Carlos - Bag It Up
(From YouTube; 2017)


"Drop your location my pull up game is like a Pamper!"

Slap Caviar

They never saw me comin'! Did you see wot I done? Updated my favourite jams of 2017 playlist with some songs by Ralo, Tay-K, Queen Key, and Rich The Factor & The Popper. Inspired the whole town, taught bloggas there's enough #CuratedContent to go round.



I dunno why Audiomack no longer shows which artists the songs belong to when you embed playlists. Click the damn thing for the full credits innit.

Reasons why I love Instagram # 1

Because it's the only site with priceless footage of The Rock & Slick Rick in the studio together recording Pie:

Welcome to Rick's bakery... @therock #fbf

A post shared by Slick Rick The Ruler (@therulernyc) on Sep 15, 2017 at 9:12am PDT

Oi Uncle Ricky - where's that priceless studio footage of you & Dana Dane layin' the Smackdown over Godfather's Ho Train theme?

Why couldn't God have taken Frank Bough instead of Frank Vincent?

"You're hot as a pistol, man, hot as a pistol..."


Pour out a little Lambrusco for arguably the greatest character actor of our lifetime, and the man with the best rug in any movie or TV show he ever graced with his presence. His ultimate legacy will, of course, be the shinebox - just look up any clip or interview with him on YouTube and the comments will be 80% shinebox jokes.

Always wished Scorsese had given Frank more of a role in Taxi Driver or a role as one of the mobsters in After Hours. Also always wished he'd have appeared in more rap videos after Hype Williams drafted him in for Nas' Street Dreams. Imagine how the video for Kool G. Rap's It's A Shame could have been improved with Frank's mug up in it as the mafia plug.

Damn, amico. Who'd have ever thunk Dominic Chianese would outlive James Gandolfini and Frank Vincent? Protect Uncle Junior at all costs.

Suga Druga

Best believe ya host is on a mission to locate every slapable Dru Down deep cut. Already ticked off the list are the pre-Relativity Records joints like Weak Move, Dru Rules and Bigger Than What You Think, plus the Can You Feel Me-era victims of sample clearance like Assassinated and In Jail. Now it's onto the sporadic highlights of his 2 early '00s albums, the 2nd of which was supposed to come out on the reborn Death Row Records in 2002. File Gangstafied under ‘Slapp & Roger-core Dru Down songs which Suga Free really shoulda guested on.’

Dru Down - Gangstafied
(From Gangsta Pimpin' album; 2002)

Birds In The Kitchen

Who's a pretty boy then? OMB Peezy apparently:

Somebody look at dis shit 😂😂😂😂

A post shared by MOBILE.ALABAMA. /G\ (@omb_peezy) on Sep 9, 2017 at 1:57pm PDT

Best music criticism of 2017 thus far. Know the deal, feel me?

Born to Audiomack: Biz Markie's Converse promo cassingle

13 years before Jay-Z gave away his first and only mixtape with those Reebok kicks of his which turned into Keith Richards' face after a couple of wears, Converse teamed up with Warner Bros Records for a free Biz Markie promo cassingle which came free with every pair of blue-on-white Cons basketball hi-tops in 1990. Nothing for the radio, just 2 tracks of exclusive prime-era Diabolical: Off The Top Of My Head is Biz's version of DJ Cool V's To My Boys, while Non Stop Rockin' is a historical curiosity given that it's a precursor to Biz's Nas demo + the sample-source for Biz's own Studda Step. Catch the vapors below:

Kickin' tinny rap songs off the Earth

"Kickin' n*ggas off the Earth
You a bird, I'm a flirt, I'm a jerk
Kickin' n*ggas to the curb
What's ya purpose? Ima get what I deserve"

Queen Key - Kung Fu
(From Your Highness 2 mixtape; 2017)


F*ck a table, you can't sit on the same planet as this lass. Bass on that, eh, lads? Basically, the great tragedy of 2017 rap is that there's far too many songs with basic bass, and not enough songs that'll turn the interior of your automobile into a air pocket of low-end.

(Via Bout To Blow.)

Dru Barbered

Dru Down - Weak Move
(From Fools From The Street album; 1993)


Tales from the 'hood: Dru Down's criminal exploits in Funktown edition. God bless Ant Banks for findin', freakin' and fanutin' that Blackbyrds sample so cleanly.

Not a lotta people know this, but Dru Down's Explicit Game album from 1994 was a rejigged reissue of his 1993 independent album Fools From The Street. Someone should hire Doctor Who to travel back in time and fire whichever A&R at Relativity Records thought it was a good idea to remove Dru Rules, Bigger Than What You Think and Weak Move from the tracklist of the reissue version. You just don't consign vintage Dru Down slaps with Ant Banks to the dustbin of obscurity like that.

Here at The Martorialist we want to live in a world where Dru Down deep cuts are considered equally as important as the deep cuts by east coast rappers like AZ or Grand Puba.

The Factors >>> The Kids

Pleasantly surprised that the remix of Yo Gotti & Nicki Minaj's Freaky Tales-inspired single features the highly unlikely presences of Kansas City's Rich The Factor & his semi-protégé The Popper. Far more impressed, however, by Rich & Popper's own current single Aristocrat - the mannishness is brand new, the mobbishness is retro, the scritch is scratched if you're just after some no-frills K.C slap.

"I'm too tired, in deez streetz dress sharp as new knives
I move wise and don't hang with n*ggas who act they shoe size"

Rich The Factor ft. The Popper - Aristocrat
(From Whale Mafi 2 album; 2016/YouTube; 2017)


Summer is officially over, but it's always Funk Season in Kansas City - rest in peace Fat Tone, free Young Devi D, stay safe Yung Cat.

Generic list post: August 2017

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Paul Joseph Watson threw a paddy because YouTube demonetized most of his videos. Best hope your merchandise starts sellin', me ol' mucker.

Juvenile ft. Big Tymers - Cash Money Gorilla (1998)
J-Diggs - What Would Dre Say (2014)
Ralo - Calm Down Ralo (2017)
Lil B - Bad MF (2017)
Mozzy - Sleep Walkin' (2017)
Miami Tab Machine - Friday Neet (Gan Te The Toon) (1992)
Other notables: not feelin' any of the 3 new MF DOOM leaks because they sound like they were recorded this decade (Avalanche still rulez tho); OMB Peezy's The Hard Way isn't really strong enough to work as a single in its own right; findin' it increasingly difficult to resist Tay-K's The Race even though listening to it makes me feel like one of those Ken Kaniff rap bloggas who fetishize any kiddie gangbanger rapper with a murder case (Megaman still sux tho); I usually hate when Oakland rappers collaborate with southern rappers, but Berner's song with Young Dolph & Gucci Mane is aiiight; my new rule in 2017 is that I refuse to listen to any rapper with a septum piercing, thus I'll never hear the Lil' Uzi Vert album.

Late pass!

"She out bein' wild, drunk and ripped
And I'm tryna get her treasure, she a sunken ship"

J-Diggs - What Would Dre Say
(From Soul Of A Gangsta album; 2014)


If this ain't the G.O.A.T J-Diggs slap then what you call it, bro? Thizz Entertainment goon turnt Thizz Nation CEO spits Hoet Laureate game in the forked tongue of Mac Dre and reimagines the Spanish guitar section of Cutthoat Soup in toto as a full song. Cold as the snow on the mountains of Redding, the precisest imitation of another man's pen style since Brendan Soderberg read Tom Breihan and bit his whole shit.

I wasn't on the roads when The Beatles made Love Me Do

Nobody wants to see a top 50 best songs of the 60s post from a rap blogga, but Pitchfork just dropped a best albums of the 60s listicle and who wants to see such a thing from the sort of dickheads who write for Pitchfork in 2017? A decade of songs I discovered in movies, songs I first heard sampled on rap records, and songs which have almost been ruined by being used in shitty adverts on British TV.

Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (1968)
Isaac Hayes - Walk On By (1969)
Marty Robbins - Big Iron (1960)
Howlin' Wolf - Spoonful (1960)
Love - A House Is Not A Motel (1967)
Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons - Walk Like A Man (1963)
The Surfaris - Wipe Out (1961)
Them - Mystic Eyes (1965)
The Ronnettes - Be My Baby (1965)
Link Wray & His Ray Men - Jack The Ripper (1962)
The Zombies - Time Of The Season (1968)
Marva Whitney - It's My Thing (1969)
James Brown - Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose (1968)
The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter (1969)
The Stooges - No Fun (1969)
The Animals - Inside Looking Out (1966)
Funkadelic - I'll Bet You (1969)
Ben E. King - Stand By Me (1961)
Muddy Waters - Tom Cat (1968)
Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love (1967)
Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive (1967)
Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man (1966)
The Sonics - Psycho (1965)
Wendy Rene - After Laughter (Comes Tears) (1964)
The Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (1966)
Al Green - The Letter (1969)
Roy Grainer - Doctor Who (Theme) (1963)
Eddie Bo - Hook & Sling (1969)
Ennio Morricone - The Man With Harmonica (1968)
Tom Jones - Looking Out My Window (1968)
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1968)
Can - Mother Sky (1969)
Cat Stevens - But I Might Die Tonight (1969)
Syl Johnson - Different Strokes (1968)
The Byrds - Eight Miles High (1966)
Joe Williams & The Jazz Orchestra - Get Out My Life (1966)
Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther (Theme) (1963)
The Monkees - Last Train To Clarksville (1966)
Lowell Fulsom - Tramp (1966)
The Mohawks - The Champ (1968)
Townes Van Zandt - Waiting 'Round To Die (1969)
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me (1963)
David McCallum - The Edge (1967)
Son House - Death Letter (1965)
Marius Constant - The Twilight Zone (Theme)
The Meters - Cissy Strut (1969)
The Marvalettes - Please Mr. Postman (1961)
The Shadows - Apache (1960)
Booker T & The MG's - Green Onions (1964)
Dion - The Wanderer (1961)

Now that's the brotha I be seein' in my sleep!

I'm serious, man, I'm so sincere, this is the video right here which ended Star's VladTV career! Star then got the hump and threatened to sue DJ Vlad unless Vlad removed all of his videos from VladTV, which Vlad complied with because Star probably has loadsa dirt on him. A treasure trove of shit-talk and terrible outfits were lost into the cracks of the internet; cracks such as Dailymotion.com where the tru headz can still find the apogee of both of Star & Lord Jamar VladTV career/the only entertaining thing Yelawolf has been involved in since signing to Shady Records:


Lord Jamar & Star Issue Stern Warning to Yelawolf by clickraspy

Every DOOM okie-doke is goin' according to plan, man

F*ck Jay Goa Trance, the only new KMD album which needs to happen is a deluxe remastered version of Black Bastards with those unreleased Subroc demos the DWG lads were trying to release a few years back, and a new tribute to Subroc over the Arrow Root instrumental which DOOM wasted on Scienz Of Life. Bobbito can pen the liner notes, but only if he candidly flips fly prose in the style of his ad libs on Rhymes Like Dimes.

Nef rock the jewellery with the clear stones and get on a blogga head like some earphones

Super stoked wid it to find out that Bling Blaow is Nef The Pharaoh's biggest song since Big Tymin' because it happens to be his best song since #Saydatt. The kid cuddy needed to get back to some ol' fashioned Vallejo spittin' with a slick tone because too much of his recent music has been prone to middle of the mall self-mythologizing; this is great when it's the Bildungsroman of Come Pick Me Up or the victory-lap of No Masturbation, but not so listenable when it falls into the tabloid "just got off tour with G-Eazy/went to the waffle house with E-Feezy" matter-of-factness of practically everything he's released since the Neffy Got Wings tape. What Would Dre Say? Keep it bigger than life, do it Magnum.

"Where your diamonds at? I cannot see 'em in the dark
You a Sharpie, it ain't a compliment, I'm callin' you a mark"

Nef The Pharaoh ft. Slimmy B - Bling Blaow
(From The Chang Project mixtape/YouTube; 2017)


The only downside to Bling Blaow blowin' up is that it means Nef's slap with Mannie Fresh probably ain't gonna drop anytime soon.

Generic list post: 2008 jams & heartbreak

Ain't heard no new shit that's tickled my fancy this month, so let's rewind back to 2008. Hardly a vintage annum for music, but contrary to what you'll read on the internet nowadays, 808s & Heartbreak wasn't the pinnacle of rap in '008. Thus, 30 choonz from the year when Joey Barton did a spot of porridge:

Suga Free - Allergic To Bullshit
Lil' Wayne - A Milli
Max B - Picture Me Rollin'
French Montana & Max B - Steak Sause
Hot Stylz ft. Yung Joc - Lookin' N*gga
A.B.N - Uhh Hmm
Yung LA ft. Young Dro & T.I. - Ain't I (Remix)
Heltah Skeltah - The Art Of Disrespekinazation
Curren$y - Reagan Era
All $tar - Keep Doing My Thing
Webbie ft. Lil' Phat & Lil' Boosie - Independent
3 Deep - Say What I Wanna Say
AZ ft. Styles P - The Hardest (Part 2)
Big Boi ft. Raekwon & Andre 3000 - Royal Flush
Maino - Role Model
DB Tha General - Ima Get It
Mic Terror - Get Off
The Jacka ft. Cellski - Won't Be Right
Husalah & B-Luv - That Go
AP.9 - Snitch's Worst Nightmare
Jackie Chain ft. Jhi Ali - Rollin'
Uncle Murda - Anybody Can Get It
Young Jeezy - Circulate
Soulja Boy ft. Gucci Mane & Yo Gotti - Shopping Spree
Big Tuck ft. Q6 & Gucci Mane - Pussy & Patron
Nappy Roots ft. Greg Street - Good Day
Prodigy & Twin Gambino - Box Cutters
DG Yola ft. B.o.B & Lil' Boosie - Fuck You
Andre Nickatina & Mac Dre - Cadillac Girl (Remix)
Wiz Khalifa - Say Yeah

I don't Google Doodle on the paper!

Birfdays was the worst days, but we got posts for 4 Elementz survivalists when they thirstaaay. Celebrate Hip Hop kulcha's 44th born day with the best scene from the 2nd best documentary about what went down in the Bronx during 1973 - 1983. Brim fought the law and the law won, but at least he got to theatrically cross some train tracks wearing a pair of Star Trek shades to Jonzun Crew's Space Is The Place in the process.


Props to Kool Herc for not being a serial pederast who enjoys Kraut Techno or a scam artist who plays Blur's Song 2 in his DJ sets unlike his 2 fellow Bronx pillars of whatever the f*ck Hip Hop kulcha is supposed to be (a lighthouse luring retarded ageing Californian whiggas like AC Tha PD and Wicked22 to the shores of rap message boards?)

Dirty Leeds

LFO - We Are Back
(From Frequencies album; 1991)


AKA the song which combined the disparate aesthetics of Ron Hardy and Don Revie. We Are Back doffed it's flatcap to Phuture's The Creator and then politely bodied that shit. This is Leeds not Chicago!

One of my older raver m8s once told me that We Are Back was considered a disappointment back in't day after the LFO and Leeds Warehouse Remix 12"s. Imagine that! Conclusive proof that you can't trust the opinions of Techno 'eadz or wot?

BTW, this isn't the official We Are Back video because no such thing exists. It's actually a fan-made extended edit of the mixed version of the song from Dave Clarke's X-Mix - Electro Boogie VHS tape. Or as it's known around these parts, the mix which finally sold me on the more subtle charms of Hashim's Primrose Path.

Ga, Ba, Te & Ra

Great Atlanta rap songs of the modern era which sound like they were designed to soundtrack shanty town shootouts in the mythical blaxploitation spaghetti westerns that exist only in my head: Future's Sh!t, Migos' Hannah Montana, Ralo's Calm Down Ralo.

"If he come around with them chains on
I bet he gonna leave with them chains gone"

Ralo - Calm Down Ralo
(From Famerican Gangster II mixtape; 2017)


The ultimate Movies4Men & Chill anthem, plus the missing link between Tragedy Khadafi and Gary, Barry & Terry. A fistful of late passes for ya host because this shit is undeniable and I feel silly for fronting on it until now. As the title of the 2nd best Django movie very nearly said, Ralo kilt... if it jams, post!