Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Duke Deuce took a menswear turn for the worse by wearing a pair of Doc Marten books. Ban all crusty-punk clobber from Rap music IMHO.
"Baby take this L on the chin, 'Clef
Who got Vallejo crackin' again? Nef"
DJ Fresh & Nef The Pharoah - I Make It Make Sense
(From The Tonite Show album; 2021)
And who got Nef slappin' again? Fresh. That's not technically true since this is a DJ Fresh and DJ Chaz co-production, and last year's ABC registered a 707 on the Slap-O-Meter, but let's not get bogged down with details eh? It's a Romper innit. In fact, it's a Romp Tremendo.
Ain't gonna lie, I was bitterly disappointed my NorCal Rap/Strictly Come Dancing puns went flatinum. C'est la vie, I never got the chance to use Studio Tonioli.
East 17 - Stay Another Day
(From some East 17 album; 1994)
The boys from the Walthamstow roofer's choir still singing shit like Nate, this song stays ringing out on Christmas day.
If there's a glaring omission from my 101 best non-Rap singles of the 1990s list then it's Britain's last great Christmas song here. Tony Mortimer pulling strings like Phil Spector, Brian Harvey as the missing link between Aaron Hall and Aled Jones, Terry Coldwell in Kool Moe Dee's Star Trek shades looking like an 80s B-Boy graffiti character, and the other lad whose name nobody can remember givin' it large with R&B hands of death. Okay, so it's #actually a pop precursor to Z-Ro & Trae's 1 Night with added church bells and a video which resembles the snow globe in Citizen Kane, but it kept Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You off the top of the U.K Top 40 singles chart in 1994. A Yuletide masterpiece which should be sung at Midnight Mass across the world.
From puffa jackets to jacket potatoes, the life of Brian Harvey. Fair play, though - my man was the British Bud "Grandmaster B" Bundy but he still cuffed Daniella Westbrook when she was fit.
For doz who thought Sandman was a one trick Pony, have a load of Homeboy's ark. Hold ya Horses before you hold ya head because the Cat is outta the bag with this one. To paraphrase some Fish-outta-water blogger, the Elephant in the room is that Homeboy Sandman is Rammellzee if he were born in 1980 and had emerged at the polar bear's toenails of the Fondle 'Em era, and it really gets my Goat when folk don't realise this. Used to feel I was on a wild Goose chase looking for jams from Sandman, but he's frequently been the Dog's bollocks these past two years.
"Bottles of Champagne, some shots, a few beers
I treat my dogs better than white people do theirs
I'm in a drop like a tear
But the engine sound like a pick-up
My roof can do a sit up
These hoes come outta nowhere like the hiccups"
Bruiser Wolf - Chess Move$
(From Dope Game $tupid album; 2021)
Hat tip to Fred for recommending this Bruiser Wolf album. So, Wolf is Danny Brown's sidekick and his musical M.O is that he's Suga Free in a Carhartt Duck chore jacket rather than a Cavalli 3/4 length Mink coat? I can dig that like Ben Byron's dog. It's a cold world and we could all do with more rappers bearing warm clobber. Gotta appreciate the #OutfitSynergy of Bruiser wearing a Superstar tracksuit in a song where he says "sold more white lines than Adidas." Pity the Superstar trackies have been shitty quality since 2017 when Adidas switched to cheaper materials and added the stupid white piping from the armpit to the collar. Holla if ya hear me, AthleisurewearHive.
Also very necessary is Bruiser's tragicom song about his mum being a baghead. Tears of sadness and laughter at the SAME DAMN TIME like the end of Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
"Pushed me outta the womb and left me when I was two
No first days at school or watchin' me jump the broom
I was ashamed when people asked me what Momma do
So I made up somethin' crazy like 'yeah, she work at the zoo!'
Can't trust women 'cause I couldn't trust you"
Bruiser Wolf ft. Apropos - Momma Was A Dopefiend
(From Dope Game $tupid album; 2021)
"I am you, but I ain't you
You left my dad bitter like grapefruit"
From Peter Crouch to Wavy Crockett, it's Maya Jama AKA The Murkle Woman.
Call me Marty McFly the way I'm takin' trips back-and-forth through time. Personally, I'd hate to be one of those fellas who only listen to old music because they've become trapped in their own past; conversely, I'd also hate to be one of those fellas who only listen to new music because they're desperate to be part of The Discourse™. Ya host is All Ears For All Eras because the True Connoisseur™ needs a balanced diet of old and new music. Like Yasmeen from Corrie said the other night, it's okay to look back as long as you don't stare.
Sonnnnnnn, I'm over 40
I don't wanna hear Rap that sounds like Playboi Carti
And I don't have a no-drums boner in me
What I love are songs by Eatem and Ezale, yeah
Sooooo, gimme new shit by Mac J, Mic T and Max B
Plus Cellski, Cootie and Cookiee
I'd never be seen dead wearing any Yeezys
Come on and read me...
Best old Rap songs which saw the light of day in 2021 IMHO:
KMD - Scrambled Eggs (1992 or 1993)
Sporty Thievz - Hot Pursuit (1998)
KLC ft. Mannie Fresh - No Place Like Home (2006)
Homeboy Sandman threw a strop a month or so back and deleted his YouTube account after an interview he did with some Covidiot grifter got removed. Alas, this meant his three recent Slice ofLife songs were self-wiped from t'internet like they were RIFF RAFF's MySpace n-bomb videos. Fortunately Sandman put them shits back up on Audiomack like it's 2015 again. File all 3 songs under 'Rammellzee if he were born in 1980 and had emerged at the arse-end of the Fondle 'Em era.'
Chucked the MP3s in a zip file and uploaded them HERE!
Told you this Fresh & Nef shit was some Saturday Night Fever '08 Hyphy. They tried to give the dance game to moshers and punks, it's like them lads never heard Disco or Funk, you can't tell me nothin' when I know I'm right, like a bow-legged gigger on a Stunna bike, Nef rode the track right.
DJ Fresh & Nef The Pharoah - Giggerz
(From The Tonite Show album; 2021)
Lemme take this opportunity to pitch a TV show: Strictly Turf Dancing, as judged by Craig Revel B.O.Rwood, Motsi Mac Buse, Shirley Bay Ballas, and Ant Banks DuBeke. As ideas go, it's a ten from Young L-E-N.
Master Ace - Me & The Biz
(From Take A Look Around album; 1990)
Boggles my mind that the brilliance of Me & The Biz was an accidental masta stroke - the song is a glorified reference track which ended up being released because Biz Markie and Marley Marl both refused to be in the same studio to record Biz's vocals. Masta Ace says he thinks the song would have been a bigger hit if Biz had appeared on it; perhaps, but it would have lost what makes it such a unique song, and Rap would be poorer without the Biz Markie puppet which was created especially for the video. Real talk, though - how'd everyone involved go to the trouble of making a Biz puppet, decking it out with the video's best outfit, and then do the song itself dirty by editing out the entire third verse? You bet that makes me real mad, don't it.
Crazy visions, BOOM: Ace pays tribute to The Diabolical by recording Me & The Biz part 2. There's no need to find a new beat because it's scientifically impossible to come up with a better backdrop for Ace's Bizisms than that Cymande sample.
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when my YouTube feed was clogged up with stupid Alpo conspiracy theories. Pennance for all the times I flexed about copping the pre-cinema release Paid In Full bootleg DVD from Canal Street?
Money Mark - Rock In The Rain
(From Push The Button album; 1998)
For better or worse, "I'm just a rock in the rain" could be this blog's motto. If this ain't better than Hand In Your Head then it's the closest one. Lord only knows what Mo Wax label owner James Lavelle put in Money Mark's tea to turn him into a lean, mean songwriting machine for the Push The Button album. Even the instrumental jams were more grand.
Money Mark - Crowns
(From Push The Button album; 1998)
Crowns makes for a great soundtrack to grocery shopping imho. That's the beauty of music innit - it can transform the most mundane task into something a tiny bit majestic.
A Fresh & Nef Tonite Show is something which should have happened in 2016, but better late than never. Fave song on this shit is a good example of parallel universe Rap: what if Saturday Night Fever '08 Hyphy was a thing? Dunno if that's a sample or live keys, but, either way, DJ Fresh is a beast with pianos. No, really doe:
Not to toot my own trumpet, but me calling him Thizz Khalifa is still the best description I've ever seen of Nef The Pharoah's music.
Solemn Brigham - Dirty Whip
(From South Sinner Street album; 2021)
Solemn Brigham clearly ain't a subscriber to the Lil' Fame "with my chrome 10 inch hubcaps, but I keep 'em clean tho" philosophy. Swear this song keeps following me around, but I ain't complaining since it Hits Different™. Dirty Whip's appeal? Shit's a capital A piano Anthem from the Mello Music Group which sounds like it could be from a new Maybach Music Group compilation. The first song from Mello Music Group's roster which has potential for a viral challenge or wot?
Bonus beats: ex-Maybach Music Group affiliate Stalley now dropping music on Mello Music Group makes the cipher complete. Stalley was the O.G J. Cole in terms of "he's so boring that...." jokes, but I'm a big fan of Cup Inside A Cup meself. Shit was like a millennial MF Grimm Cloud-Rap song.
Stalley - Cup Inside A Cup
(From Honest Cowboy EP; 2013)
Always wanted to say that Max B has album intros which body other Rapper's whole albums and now I can. My man still makes good music, man. A lotta y'all favourites don't!!
Mountains is as close as this Negro Spirituals album comes to a Nu-Wave BBQ Music anthem, which is a pre-Christmas miracle since it's produced by that useless hack Paul Couture.
Max B - Mountains
(From Negro Spirituals album; 2021)
Miraculously, Paul Couture also didn't manage to mangle the Picture Me Rollin' interpolation on Don't Make Me Cry. Bit weird having Raheem DeVaughn on this shit, tho - Max and a sanger on the same song is like having parsnips and potato wedges on the same plate innit?
Max B ft. Raheem DeVaughn - Don't Make Me Cry
(From Negro Spirituals album; 2021)
Shout out to Buck Tarbrush, we in the building like Sing Sing! Even bigger shout out to Martorialist commenter Fred since he suggested I do a list of Rap songs about doing time. Not sure whether this top 25 of my favourite prison Rap songs is what Fred had in mind, but much like Norman Stanley Fletcher, I'm not a stickler for other people's rules. As ever, free Max B until it's backwards.
Which type of Rap fans are the W.O.A.T - middle aged white boom-bap purists or middle class black KanYe West fanboys?
The teenagers and paedophiles of TikTok need to form like Dai-X and make Valee's Allat retroactively blow up.
When Public Enemy got inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, the hosts should have noted that Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos is the best breaking-outta-the-bing song since Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak.
Nino Man's 5-0 gotta be my favourite Go Fight Some Other Crime type song since Go Fight Some Other Crime itself.
Pa Salieu ft. Slowthai - Glidin'
(From Glidin' single; 2021)
Lads, blokes, countrymen - please tell me I ain't the only person who secretly likes Pa Salieu's song with Slowthai? Obviously Slowthai is utterly unacceptable on any/every level and the song is pure Alexis Petridis' Guardian single of the week-bait, yet Glidin' is still the best Roadraprobeats single of 2021 so far.
Beggars can't be choosers now J Hus has taken a hiatus from music ¯\_㋡_/¯
Freddie Foxxx - The Master
(From Freddie Foxxx Is Here album; 1989)
Freddie Foxxx's The Master wasn't the first Rap video to have an intro, but it was the first to have an annoying intro that was almost as long as the song itself. All we wanted were some Paid In Full posse cameos, but all we got was Eric B as Fred's spiritual guiding light, a sumo wrestler who looks like an AZN Biz Markie, and some Chinese lass ferrying Fred to the club on a rickshaw. Oh well, at least The Master is the one killer song from Fred's first LP and one of the 'ardest Rap songs of 1989 full stop.
Back in the early noughties ya host replied to a Hip Hop Rumours message board thread with a post about Freddie Foxxx allegedly bum-raping someone from Benzino's crew with a baseball bat. A week or so later I received a surpringly polite message from Fred himself asking me to remove the post because it was wrong - he'd #actually only threatened to bum-rape someone from Benzino's crew with a baseball bat. Moral of the story? And when ya nose is drippin' and drainin' blood, Bumpy Knuckles will be all up in your D.M's saying "What, what? That's wrong!"
Travis Porter - Like Dat
(From Back On Bullshit album; 2021)
**Dem Franchise Boyz voice** I THINK I LIKE IT!
Here at The Martorialist we're diggin' the notion of parallel universes in Rap, so if T.P had signed to T.I's Grand Hustle imprint to drop a second album then the lead single woulda sounded a lil' sumfin like Like Dat.
**EDIT** Also feelin' the Swag-Rap Fresh Prince(s) storytelling of Same Hoes. This shit needs a video which sticks to the song's script.
Travis Porter - Same Hoes
(From Back On Bullshit album; 2021)
Gotta love when that harmonica comes in at the end for maximum "my baby's cheating on me" Delta Bluesman vybz. It's the little touches that make a big difference.
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Halloween really did fall on a weekend, me and Gene Simmons were Trick Or Treatin'.
Like my Granddad always used to say, you can't keep water in concrete indefinitely because it'll leak eventually. Max B - the first New York rapper since Grand Puba to use patois on record without soundin' like Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black. Free the Boss Don and the World Boss.
The Style Council - It's A Very Deep Sea
(From Confessions Of A Pop Group album; 1988)
Why's It's A Very Deep Sea not on the Style Council best of compilation I own? More importantly, why'd nobody put me onto it until I did a Style Council deep dive recently? What else are you lot hiding from me eh eh?
Not so much Blue-Eyed Soul as Deep Blue Water Soul; re-evaluating the wreckage of one's past to reveal only painful regrets rather than pirate's treasure (shout out to One-Eyed Willy, we in this bitch!) True story: It's A Very Deep Sea is even better than Long Hot Summer, which means it's not only the best Style Council song but the best Paul Weller song point blank. Always preferred Prawn Cocktail Paul Weller to Beef & Onion Paul Weller, meself. Big fan of Salt & Vinegar Paul Weller too though, as typified by The Jam's Funeral Pyre.
The Jam - Funeral Pyre
(From Funeral Pyre single; 1981)
Yeah, he nicked that riff from Love's Seven & Seven Is, but so what? If Rap has taught us anything, it's that there's an art in jacking the best bits of other people's songs. You can have your cake and steal it too.
Let The Homocides Begin by Top Priority & Percee P has gotta be the funniest song title typo in Rap history.
What's the last Gucci Mane song you really liked? Mines is Ring The Alarm.
2021: the year it was revealed DJ Kool Herc's nightclub stabbing happened because MC Coke La Rock had nipped home to take a shit since he didn't like the club's toilets.
The worst decision Zev Luv DOOM ever made was thinking Popcorn was a Mr Hood-type track rather than a Black Bastards-type track and leaving it off the latter album. A particularly baffling decision considering he chopped up #actual Mr. Hood era B-side Plumskinzz and put it on Black Bastards twice.
What I'd love right now is for a great regional Rap single to come outta nowhere and take over the world like Nelly's Country Grammar (Hot Shit) did in 2000 or Rich Boy & Polow Da Don's Throw Some D's did in 2006.
Failing that, I'd settle for Eatem's Go Get Yo F*ckin' Brotha blowing up. Think of it as overcharging the industry for the way it mistreated Bailey's F*ck Yo Couch.
This is in no way an Azealia Banks endorsement, but I hope UNiiQU3's Microdosing goes on to be the new 212.
I was wrong about They Don't Really Love Us by Phil Blunts & Black Jesus being the most Queens-soundin' Rap song to ever come from Yonkers. The answer is #actually G-Notes by Black Jesus & Snypa.
The Biznezzz ft. Yukmouth - Keep It Moving
(From YouTube; 2021)
Oh what a difference an M makes, one little letter. Ain't hearin' much music which tickles my fancy on Thizzler's Instagram these days, so at least they're providing LOLz instead. File The Biznezzz under 'NorCal singer lasses who could play the chief lesbian henchwoman in an all female remake of OZ.'
Because ya host is a hater and a lover in equal measure, here's some 2021 NorCal songs which very much do tickle my fancy.
Bonus Bay Area Biznezz: Billy Jam just uploaded Digital Underground's 1989 electronic press kit to his YouTube channel. Something which often gets forgotten about Digital Underground is that a lotta folks didn't realise that Shock G and Humpty Hump were the SAME DAMN PERSON until the Humpty Dance video.
Hi, I'm Generic British Generation X Guy. You may remember me from such posts as Dear diary, my teen-angst bullshit had Ice-T's Body Count, Christian Slater was a better Jack Nicholson than Jack Nicholson, and Earth is roughly 4 billion years old but I'm glad I was alive at the point in time when SL2's On A Ragga Tip sat attop the U.K Top 40.
Always wanted to compile a best non-Rap singles of the 1990s list but was daunted at how time-consuming and mind-bending it'd end up being. I was right: it was a right royal pain in the posterior to whittle the 1990s down to 101 singles since it's an incredible decade which also happens to be plagued by the absolute worst type of nostalgia - whether it's Rap, Rock, R&B or Rave there's a very specific type of ageing bloke who remains forever frozen in 1996 and who is constantly doing his damndest to ruin 90s classics for me. Anyhoo, after a lotta lotta deliberation this is my definitive 101 favourite 1990s Other Genres™ singles, which is set in stone and never to be changed (... until I remember summat obvious I've forgotten, natch.)
As notedpreviously, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Massive Attack and Tricky selections are songs I love by artists I loathe.
The SL2, Cajmere, and Underground Resistance selections weren't technically the first songs on their respective 12"s but they became A-side anthems in their own rights because they're simply THAT good.
Slint's Spiderland is one of my favourite Other Genres™ 90s albums on some Yank equivalent of Talk Talk's Laughing Stock type shit, but it doesn't have any singles and I'm not too fussed about Slint's actual 10" single.
The entrance to France's Notre-Dame de Royan is my favourite Brutalist architecture which resembles the robot on the cover of A Guy Called Gerald's 28 Gun Bad Boy album.
Lock Em In The Trunk is the Duke Deuce song I'm waitin' on to drop, but WTF! definitely ain't no entrée. In fact, it's the anthem that Duke's trademark "WHAT THE F*CK!" ad lib deserves. D Squared is very good at condensing Big Crunk Energy down into hardbody exotic shit - don't even front like that beat doesn't sound like Egyptian Lover moved the Pyramids to Memphis.
Just noticed that a British holy grail has finally turned up on YouTube: the full episode of The Hitman & Her broadcast from Manchester's infamous Hacienda club in 1989. For doz that literally slept, The Hitman & Her was a British late-night TV show hosted by Stock Aitken Waterman supremo Pete Waterman & then-kids TV presenter Michaela Strachan. Beginning in 1988 the show's M.O was visiting various British nightclubs which were to be provincial meat-markets where Sharons & Tracys and Kevins & Garys would politely dance to current Top 40 pop music and indulge in wacky japes at the behest of Waterman & Strachan.
So far, so standard night at Ritzy's Wine Bar. Until, that is, Waterman & Strachan took a trip to the Hacienda during the peak of Britain's Acid House explosion in 1989 and came across a bacchanal of Mancunian 24 hour party people dancing to rave classics by L.U.S.T, Rhythm Is Rhythm, West Bam, Inner City, Maurice etc. Well, sorta - the club had announced The Hitman & Her would be filming that night so a shitload of Sharons & Tracys and Kevins & Garys also turned up to get their mugs on the telly. Thing is, though, it's this combination of folks which make the episode such a period-piece classic; seriously, there is no better documentation of British club culture in 1989 than the juxtaposition of Waterman & Strachan coaxing a group of hairdresser lasses into singing Beatles karaoke before the cameras cut back to a dancefloor full of Mancunian ravers locked into the plinkity-plonkity hypnotic 303 tweak of A Guy Called Gerald's Voodoo Ray.
Petition to get the aforementioned Voodoo Ray footage (32:35 in the second video) recognised and realised as the song's official video. Note the lad dancing on the stage who looks like a Pakistani Shaun Ryder and another lad who looks like a chunkier Kermit from the Ruthless Rap Assassins. Together they coulda been the Bizarro World Black Grape.
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when The Rock was spotted driving around listening to Giggs' Talking The Hardest. Talk about "all gassed up now Ima slang me a rock" eh?
Feel a bit noncey enjoying an Olivia Rodrigo song, but Brutal cranks way harder than any of the new Rock shit currently on rotation on KerrangTV dunnit? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Money Mark - Hand In Your Head
(From Push The Button album; 1998)
Best quality video upload I've ever seen of this masterpiece. A MTV2 favourite from 1998 which should be an AM radio mainstay forever ever. A perfect pop song from a most unlikely place: the Beastie Boys' keyboard noodler guy.
Speakin' of whom, I've loved the Beasties' So What'Cha Want for damn near 30 years but only just noticed that Ad-Rock is wearing a The Fever t-shirt in the video. Strong period-detail synergy for a song which mentions Spoonie Gee and references Wild Style.
Beastie Boys - So What'Cha Want
(From Check Your Head album; 1992)
Fall back, Cleanhobo - there's a new bellhop in (Funk)town. Feel like I'm back in 2016 again the way I'm rewindin' Ezale teaser videos. Maybe we'll finally get that Cold Game Chronicles song which was the one with the long-deleted video teaser of Ezale climbing up the abandoned apartment complex. He really thinks that he's Tom Cruise foreal foreal.
Gooblums on deck, here's some decade-old Baton Rouge shit that's new to me. 70th Street Carlos and Trel Itz A Hit swear Young Stoka was THE shit to them growing up and who am I to disagree? If Stoka only has two songs to his name then at least they both crack on some low-budget Baton Rouge rogues gallery type shit - donkey boy shit on the former and dope boy shit on the latter.
Made meself a little playlist of P-Lo's current run of singles. Once a minor HBK Gang member more known for his production, P-Lo outlasted the crew's star rappers and has truly blossomed orchestrating self-produced Slap Anthemos on his lonesome. This ain't no J. Cole and his record sales, this is P-Lo and his songwriting skillz - slapinum with no features.
AZ ft. Keffa - Keep It Real
(From Doe Or Die II album; 2021)
Expeditiously I be on my grizzly, yet I'm feelin' A-Ziggy gettin' semi-wavy by puttin' the Max in the B over Love Rap from the bottom straight to the tizzy. So, Doe Or Die II is a mess but I'll forgive AZ because it's like he made this song especially 4 me.
Conclusive proof that classic Curtis Mayfield samples can make any and all rappers sound super duper stupid fly. This shit really does Hit Different™ because it sounds and looks like a regional hit from an entirely different era.
Every time I wipe out after deep surfin' The Wave™ I come outta that water with a song I've kinda slept on. So, move over Deez My Streets because Bang Bang Boogie is ya host's new favourite song on Max's first Public Domain mixtape. Shoot, bro - Max over The O'Jays is like a waterproof suit, yo. That grown and Gore-Tex shit for the summer, for the winter, fourth quarter, whatever, owww.
Styles P & Max B - Kill That Faggot (remix)
(From Max B's Million Dollar Baby 2 mixtape; 2008)
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Styles P didn't break Max B outta prison to perform the Kill That Faggot remix at the LOX and Dipset Verzuz. And that's why there needs to be a rematch when Max gets out.
Other notables: quite like Capitol 1 by EST Gee; AZ's The Wheel ain't my favourite shit but it's still a billion times better than Nas' new album (wtf? @ the guests on Doe Or Die 2 tho.)
PS: when Homeboy Sandman says "I'm like Samson in reverse" on Go Hard he's really talking about Romelu Lukaku.
"There's a genie in the bottle and she better be a model
Got a dollar to my name, Ima bet it on the lotto
We was playin' in the sand, now we playin' in the wind
'Cause if I can do it over ima do this shit again"
As real Max mavens know, the snippet of this one had been around for donkey's years, and when I say donkey's I ain't talkin' about Yung Eeyore French Montana, boiiiiiii. Literal vintage Bigga here.
Max's camp have re-released 75 In The Can but addded a buncha stupid bell & whistle doodads. That Paul Couture bloke just can't help himself messing Max's shit up, and the sooner Dame Grease kicks him outta the camp the better.
Cookiee Kawaii ft. Justin Love - Donkey
(From the internet; 2021)
Why wasn't this the intro on Cookiee Kawaii's album? Very good scene-setter for her JeR&Bsey Club sound. Also, it's the real sequel to Vibe (If I Back It Up), f*ck the official Tyga remix!
Little Shawn - Hickeys On Your Chest
(From The Voice In The Mirror album; 1992)
Little Shawn's Hickeys On Your Chest AKA the missing link between Super Lover Cee and Ma$e. Never seen this video in such pristine quality before - possibly the only Rap video to feature Bela Lugosi. Is Little Shawn's album worth a listen? Howie Tee produced the whole thing so there must be at least one more Legit Jam™ on there.
Update: checked the album and there's nowt as good as Hickeys On Your Chest on there. Nowt as good as his later single Dom Perignon either tbqh.
Little Shawn ft. Notorious B.I.G - Dom Perignon
(From Dom Perignon single; 1995)
10/10 opportunism for Little Shawn flipping Biggie's line on Party And Bullshit into a comeback single and billing it as a Biggie cameo.
When MF DOOM asked "which n*ggas is wack until they last two tracks?" on The Finest in 1999 he couldn't have ever anticipated how ridiculous the bonus track game would become in following decades: regular bonus tracks, deluxe bonus tracks, remix bonus tracks, re-released 2nd pressing bonus tracks, 2nd disc bonus tracks, European bonus tracks, Japanese bonus tracks, Australian bonus tracks, Best Buy bonus tracks, Target bonus tracks, iTunes bonus tracks, Spotify bonus tracks etc etc etc. FREEZE! This shit is outta control, for example an actor who never snapped outta his role. So, here's ya host's favourite songs from the past 20+ years which were forced to get in where they didn't fit in as bonus tracks.
Nothing sums up Nas' idiocy better than him relegating his last truly great song to a bonus track on one of the worst double albums in Rap history. Word is bond, son, you let yourself down like dis!?!
PS: Schrödinger's Album (noun)
A philosophical thought-experiment conducted by dullards on Rap Twitter where Nas' It Was Written is simultaneously unfairly underrated and better than Illmatic.
On one hand, Fam-Lay retired from Rap without having a hit single even though he had a handful of singles which shoulda been hits. On the other hand, Fam-Lay sorta has a 2021 hit single by proxy via that BIA lass he discovered/mentors. I ain't tryna suggest his writing hand was behind BIA's rhymes on Whole Lotta Money, but her nonchalance and flow on this one sound like they were trainedtogo by him.
BIA - Whole Lotta Money
(From For Certain EP; 2020)
Digable Planets - Little Renee
(From Coneheads soundtrack; 1993)
Say what you want about the 1990s, but it was the only decade where a killer Digable Planets exclusive could end up on the soundtrack to a Dan Aykroyd movie alongside songs by Slash & Michael Monroe, R.E.M, Morten Harket from A-ha, Barenaked Ladies, and Soft Cell's Tainted Love. It's a pity Aykroyd didn't have Digable Planets perform it in the movie like Digital Underground did with Same Song in Nothing But Trouble innit? Some of youze lads will probably front like you've got this song on a test-press 12" single, but I'd never heard it until a few weeks back, nor have I ever seen or heard anybody mention it before. Genuine deep cut status or wot?
"I'm from the town, I'll take your bitch
Just because I was raised like this"
Ezale - Raised Like This
(From Raised Like This single; 2021)
Yeah surprises are cool, but ain't it nice that Ezale's comeback song sounds exactly like you'd expect it to sound? R.I.P Hawk Beatz - you out-DJ Freshed DJ Fresh a couple of times on Ezale's Tonite Show album and the same can be said about Raised Like This here.
Percee P's masterpiece and a masterpiece in general. That said, it's impossible for any British Rap fan of a certain age to listen to Lung Collapsing Lyrics and not think that they heard Caveman's Fry You Like Fish and bit the whole shit. Obviously both songs were drinking from the cup of Ultramagnetic MC's, but it's still a very sneaky example of Jackin' For Brits innit?
Caveman - Fry You Like Fish
(From Fry You Like Fish 12" single; 1990)
"Last year I told n*ggas put they gun down
**WHAT HAPPENED??**
They shot Kool John, I got a gun now
We gotta be on ten just to have some fun now
But the racist killer cops ain't gettin' gunned down"
Stunnaman02 & QuakeBeatz - Big Steppin'
(From I Gotta Feel It album; 2021)
Shouts out to Marty Robbins, we in this bitch! No lie, comin' across Big Steppin' gives me the same sorta thrill I had when I first came across Nef The Pharoah's Big Tymin' - the excitement of findin' a current NorCal anthem with the potential to be a future Slap Classico. Nothin' remotely original, but a bit of personality and a lot of bass go a long way.
