Mic Terror - Playa Shit
(From Green Summer EP; 2019)
Fave song on the new Mic Terror EP. Some midwesternplayalisticadillacmuzik with a tinge of sangin' Devin The Dude sauciness. That "Terror-slide" bridge from 3:30 to 4:14 got me open like SPAR on Xmas day.
Speaking of whom, I just noticed that a properly mastered version of Mic's Juke Them Hoes is finally available on retail/streaming. In a perfect world that song woulda been as big as Dude 'n Nem's Watch My Feet.
"She got me thinkin' love, I think it's voodoo
She got me in command like a poodle
Soft like baby doodoo
Chicken flipped my noodle"
Alley High ft. Monifa - Voo Doo
(From World Wide/Voo Doo 12"; 1996)
Some butta 90s Harlem shit you can eat up like a strudel, produced by former Bwistolian whisper-wap affiliate DJ Milo. File this under ‘Zhigge if they rebranded themselves as Uptown's answer to The Pharcyde’ or ‘a bohemian Sporty Thievz if they'd been sobered by the delirium of lurve’.
Ultimately, it's this dance routine wot sold Duke Deuce's Yeh to me. Well, that and the fact that you can bump it with BlocBoy JB's Mercedes and House Party if you're in the mood for a trifecta of 2019 Memphis dance energy (no Normski.)
"Do that n*gga got 100? Do that n*gga got a mil'?
Boy, don't worry 'bout my pockets come pick up your hoe' heels"
Good gracious, the amount of unreleased/rare demo tape Rap from decade's past that's become proper public domain over the past 10 years is bodacious. Here's a playlist of favourites that are essential to me & the rest of my heathens. Broke the standard 1 Song Per Artist rule for Mac Dre because his tracks come from different decades and couldn't be more different.
Tracks & Deets:
The Bizzie Boyz - Crazy Hard! (1988/2011)
Mac Dre & DJ Cee - Donkey Ain't Free (1989/201?)
Lord Finesse - Inconsiderate Females (1989/2012)
Azie of MobStyle - Untitled (1989/2011)
Spice 1 - Killa Days (1992/2014)
LL Cool J - Year Of The Hip Hop (1992/2011)
Camp Lo - Camp Lo (Bust Ya Down) (1995/2016)
G. Dep - Blak N*gga (1996/2016)
Pete Rock - Street Dreams Instrumental (1996/2019)
Mac Dre - Pawns In The Game (1997/2014)
Casual - Who Do That? (1997/2016)
Juvenile ft. Big Tymers - Cash Money Gorilla (1998/2017)
Z-Man - Artistic Violence (1999/2012)
Sean Price - I Shot Tha (2005/2014)
Max B - Take A Flick (2007/2013)
Lil' Wayne - Dinnertime (2008/2017)
The Jacka ft. Dru Down - For Real (2009/2015)
MF DOOM & Madlib - Avalanche (2009/2016)
T-Pain & Lil' Wayne - Listen To Me (2009/2017)
19 songs here so pick me a 20th. Only rules are it must have leaked post-2009, it must not be by an artist already in the playlist, and it absolutely must not feature rhyming by Drake or Das Rapists.
Forgive Minnesota's Lucky Rosenbloom, Father. He knew not that the B-side of his only single is some Electro-Gospel TR-808 shit which sounds like the rawest early Chicago House song Trax Records never dropped. Less Master C & J, more Master J.C.
Lucky - Just Give It All To Christ
(From Keep Your Faith In God 7" single; 1985)
Hat tip to Jed for the head's up on this one. Even bigger hat tip to Freddy Fresh for the upload.
Question: what do you get if you cross Style Wars and In Bed With Chris Needham? Answer: the 2005 documentary about Australian graffiti writer/Bogan extraordinaire/rebel without plausible deniability Justin "Jisoe" Hughes. Who dat? Essentially, Jisoe is Slobbie Unkut: a bizarro world Robbie Unkut who loves graffiti and buges rather than Godfather Don and blogs.
While Jisoe is an archetypal Aussie outlaw who fancies himself as the Ned Kelly of Melbourne's Hip Hop underbelly, the reality is that he's more of a Toadfish Rebecchi in stolen POLO. Filmed over the space of a year in the early 2000s, the documentary catches Jisoe at a crucial juncture in life: living as a petty criminal and reigning as the All City king of Melbourne, but grappling with adult responsibilities as his long-suffering girlfriend Sal gives birth to their babby. You don't need to have dabbled in graffiti as a teenager to enjoy Jisoe, because it's bigger than one of the four dubious elementz of Hip Hop: this is a documentary about a dysfunctional savant struggling to adapt to the conventional pressures of polite society; in that sense, Jisoe the human being has as much in common with Maradona as he does with Dondi.
Extras mannish: Jisoe's police interview after gettin' busted for criminal damage is some of the best catchphrase-comedy you'll ever hear. Two words repeated to increasingly hilarious effect over the space of 9 minutes.
"Did I mess up my life?
I'm at the Coinstar tonight
I just wanna take it all in stride
But did I mess up my life?
Oh, I don't know"
Juiceboxxx - Coinstar Song
(From YouTube; 2019)
Juiceboxxx is out here making Rock music for doz of us who got bored of new Rock music in the early noughties but can't just listen to old Undertones and Sum 41 records forever ever. Tell Lil' Kim to put the cake soap down and put the lighters up again because Coinstar Song is an anthem wot taps into summat universal: metaphorically speaking, we're all at the Coinstar tonight tryna turn that loose change into a lump sum.
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when A-Wax's saltine buddy-turnt-enemy-turnt-buddy GMEBE Bandz wasn't killed by the Titanic Stone gangbangers he associated with, but a couple of Gamergaters & Kap G's teenage brother. A sincere R.I.P because Out The Streets does jam tbf.
"Yeah, I done sold my soul and put it on eBay
Fuck that shit, it wasn't worth nuthin' anyway
Yeah, and I can fuck your girl, n*gga, any day
It's up there I swear to God just like an interstate"
70th Street Carlos - Forgive Me
(From Win Or Lose mixtape; 2019)
Ain't no eatin' if you ain't bringin' shit to the table, and it looks like the artist formerly known as Boosie FatAzz turned up with the salad. This one's definitely my favourite of the non-Trel Itz A Hit tracks on Carlos' recent No Hooks-type mixtape.
Really warms my cockles to see a Rapper give thanx on a fanmade video for one of their songs. I ain't gonna say Agallah is better than Nas, BUT you need to wash your ears out with quick-drying cement if you prefer Nas' Edward G. Robinson voice to Agallah's Cookie Monster voice.
As heard at the Keith Haring exhibition at The Tate this weekend - it's the 80's Electro Boogie choon sampled on Busta's Dangerous innit! To all my fellow noobz who've also slept on this song until now, that's what we're gonna be: the Extra Late Fresh Extra Tellestrial Brothers™... Extra Tellest' and we the best (yes Kase2/no DJ Khaled.)
Extra T's - E.T. Boogie
(From E.T. Boogie single; 1982)
"John Wall, Wizard
Dan Buehler, kick ya
We don't shake no hands with the opposition, n*gga
LA Clipper
Eastside Cripper
Keep playin' with my dogs 'til I make 'em go and sic ya"
BlocBoy JB - Mercedes
(From I Am Me album; 2019)
Still not quite a Mercedes of the Heather Graham in License To Drive caliber, but the video has totally sold ya host on this song (often happens with BlocBoy JB videos for moi: also see No Chorus Part 11, Licks, and House Party.) BlocBoy is the only HUMUDA HUMUDA HUMUDA-flow/SKKRRT SKKRRT-ad lib Rapper whose music I find appealing - it's that gleeful energy of his wot sets him apart innit.
The most important British question since Brexit: One Step Beyond or Night Boat To Cairo?
Madness - One Step Beyond
(From One Step Beyond album; 1979)
Madness - Night Boat To Cairo
(From One Step Beyond album; 1979)
Choose wisely but bear in mind that only one of these songs is the hometown anthem of a football club beloved of racist little Englanders and plastic glory-hunters. Incidentally, this is the same song once sampled on a DJ Spinna track where Eminem rhymed about starving his pets to death.
(Of course, Baggy Trousers is #actually Madness' best single but that ain't the question I'm askin' here. Stick to the script like a Love Island contestant.)
"Bossed up on these n*ggas like Im Darnell
N*ggas sellin' couches actin' like the cartel
Leather in the 650, new car smell"
Peezy - New Car Smell
(From No Hooks II mixtape; 2019)
I ain't even a Peezy fan like some of youze lot but even I'm glad the highlight of No Hooks II just got blessed with a video. Believe me it ain't easy admitting that Detroit now has the best rapper called Peezy. Damn, OMB, the fuck happened to you?
Here is somethin' ya boy can't understand - how is UFO the only ESG song to have ever been sampled by rappers? It's incomprehensible that New York club classix like Moody (Spaced Out) and Dance remain as untouched as Elliot Rodger's decomposing todger, while ESG's instrumental jams like Parking Lot Blues and Tiny Sticks are basically breakbeats-in-waiting already.
ESG - Parking Lot Blues
(From Come Away With ESG album; 1983)
ESG - Tiny Sticks
(From Come Away With ESG album; 1983)
Still, as my granddad used to say, it's better to have nobody rap over your songs than it is to have some insufferable c*nts like Das Rapist rap over them.
1nce Again fuck waiting until List Making Season™ when I've already got 50 unfuckwithable choonz right now. The best Rap/Rap & Bullshit songs from decade's past that I've discovered in the last 10 years: a mixture of tracks I prefer as instrumentals, slept-on singles, B-sides, original versions I prefer to the re-recordings, tracks which ended up on promo 12"s due to sample issues, album cuts, compilation exclusives, mixtape cuts, hit singles which didn't find their way into my orbit, future-hit singles which didn't blow up until 2010, regional anthems, slept on remixes, street DVD singles, beatjacks I prefer to the originals, and obscure loosies. Honourable mention of sorts goes to the lesser-heard uncensored version of the Firm Biz (World's Famous Mix) as finally found by Step Won.
Some bloggas and self-styled tastemakers will swear they were up on Hard In Da Paint when it first dropped in 2009 but, other than Rey, they are ALL lying through their fingertips. Don't front because ya boy is out back ready to Google your best of 2009 list if you come through flagrant.
Not really feelin' Sonniebo's new single as a song. As a 40 second snippet used to soundtrack an Instagram giggin' challenge, however, it's a Blap Supremo™:
It's inevitable that 80% of all Rap songs will be 30 seconds long by 2021. It's also inevitable that 50% of rappers will still do that lazy say-the-same-line-twice-in-a-row trick on them.
It's never too late to shoot a video for a truly great Rap song. The Proof? Young Bleed & Max Minelli just shot a video for a track that's now over 20 years old. Better Than The Last Time was supposed to be a Max solo track for one of the Concentration Camp compilations but C-Loc liked it so much he got Bleed to add a verse and asked Master P to include it on My Balls and My Word. Proper 5 Star General Max Pain & Bionic Bleed material:
"All I want for Christmas is 12 gold teeth
A fresh candy blue jeep, and .44 heat
I'm hot-headed on some cold streets
And not a motherfucker wanna hold me when I'm lonely"
Young Bleed ft. Max Minelli - Better Than The Last Time
(From My Balls and My Word album; 1998/YouTube; 2019)
Need a deluxe remastered CD reissue of My Balls and My Word with A Fool on there + a bonus DVD of FrankieThaLuckyDog doing a live video review of the full album.
In 1983 Larry Smith & Davy DMX of Orange Krush pivoted to producing Rap records and used a rough approximation of the same Oberheim DMX drum pattern on 4 very different songs that year. Early 80s Rap is so badly documented that it's damn near impossible to work out the chronology of the '83 Smith & DMX productions, so I threw 'em together as a mini-playlist in the order they sound best in: from the Disco-DMX hybrid of Spoonie Gee's The Big Beat to the tuff bahdangdiddydiddy minimalism of Lovebug Starski's Live At The Disco Fever to the stark brutality of Run-D.M.C's Sucker M.C's to the Electro scratch-madness of Fearless Four's F-4000.
~~Larry Smith & Davy DMX - Orange Krushed Ya Speakers In 1983~~
Spoonie Gee - The Big Beat (1983)
Love Bug Starski - Live At The Disco Fever (1983)
Run-D.M.C - Sucker M.C's (1983)
The Fearless Four - F-4000 (1983)
Davy DMX being Kurtis Blow's younger sibling explains why Davy ghost-produced all those tracks Kurtis was credited for dunnit? Even back then the Rap game was all politics and paperwork, but there were loopholes to let ya baby-brother producer get a slice of the pie.
When Russell Simmons booked a performance for the Beastie Boys at Disco Fever in 1984, the Beasties were stoked because it was the South Bronx's craziest/sexiest/coolest nightclub. Problem was, they were scheduled to perform before midnight, thus the place was near-empty except for a dozen hardened barflys who were busy drinkin', minglin' and smokin' coco puffs. So when Russell Simmons let the Beastie Boys perform She's On It in Krush Groove in 1985, the Beasties used it as an opportunity to reimagine how their Disco Fever performance went down. Art imitating fantasy, the essence of Rap music innit.
The Beasties later went on to casually dismiss She's On It as a relic of their Def Jam era and now refer to the song as "Cheese Omelette". A lesson ya host learned a long time ago is never trust rapper's opinions about their own music, so fuck what the Beasties think because She's On It is peak juvenile 80's Rock-Rap and shoulda been included on Licensed to Ill for maximum Big Rick (Rubin) Energy™.
Beastie Boys - She's On It
(From Krush Groove soundtrack; 1985)
"I said I hit da drink twice and then holla FREEKO
Bitch, I been up in that water like I'm Finding Nemo
Better get up out my space befo' you catch a Bebo
I'm so sick of love songs, I don't fuck with Ne-Yo"
Eatem - Hit Da Drink Twice (Martorialist edit)
(From t'internet; 2019)
Some Baton Rouge brawl music for the weekend, sir/ma'am? This new Eatem song had a cameo from some bloke called Lil' Larry who didn't act enough of a donkey on the track so I got Jack The Snipper to edit his verse out. Since that Stamina joint still ain't dropped, this is Eatem's best shit since Side N*gga.
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Tommeh Robinson flopped harder than Eric Vanderslice's stomach. Also the month when The Camel™ looked like a dog's-dinner - Jay-Z now wants for nothing in life but hasn't put together a decent outfit since he was broke.
Two years later Big Choo is STILL posting snippets from his remake of Dolamite's Hustlas that he STILL hasn't dropped. I'm about to fly to Louisiana and pay a crackhead to run up on Choo and give him a Chinese burn every day until he releases this damn song.
Just checking Choo's Instagram story and he's now teasing a Bounce remake of Tove Lo's Bork-House classic Habits (Stay High). FFS, I swear this fella was put on Earth to personally Bop-tease me. Lookin' forward to that shit droppin' on Nevuary 1st.
The first wave of British Punks had shit twisted like that lass from It Follows: they thought Tony Parsons was a good writer, they preferred The Clash's Janie Jones to The Damned's Neat Neat Neat, they dismissed Generation X as posers when Dancing With Myself turned out to be an apex of the genre, and they didn't give The Undertones' True Confessions its proper due.
The Undertones - True Confessions
(From Teenage Kicks EP; 1978)
If True Confessions ain't better than Teenage Kicks then it's the Undertones song where Feargal Sharkey really gets to let rip with his trademark vocal-quiver. Son could pull that shit off live too as he proved when they performed it on the Old Grey Whistle Test in full samurai guitar craic mode.
Bonus beats: much like The Buzzcocks, The Undertones didn't even bother putting their best songs on their albums. 4th single is a top 3 Undertones song and peak O.G pop-Punk.
The Undertones - You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?)
(From You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?) single; 1979)
Impressively, Feargal seemed to have a different turtleneck for every TV appearance. Even more impressively, he looked like an Irish choirboy and a Scottish grandfather at the SAME DAMN TIME!
"And she do what I say so
But she Play-Doh, save her in my phone as Plato"
Ether ft. Fivio Foreign & Mr. Swipey - WAKA
(From the internet; 2019)
Pink Chardonnay is an ill blogger because he found the first fun New York Drill song. Well, it probably registers as N.Y Drill to the average listener, but it's more like Chicken Noodle Soup for the Bobby Shmurda generation. Call 'em what you want, they're all Uncle Murda's children to some degree.
