Generic list post: February 2022

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when the bottom (and chest) fell out of my TV world. British teatime television without Neighbours? Yo, that's like jewels without ice, China without rice, or Smooth B without Greg Nice. Words I never thought I'd type: BRING BACK RICHARD DESMOND AS CHANNEL 5 BOSS!

Stezo ft. Dooley-O - Piece Of The Pie (1990/2004)
C-Funk - Lime In Ya Coconut (1995)
C-Funk - O.G Schwang (1995/2008)
Playa G - Drink A Yak (original version) (1996)
Edan - Dope Rhymes For Sure (2001)
Seiji Oda - Like This (2020)
Seiji Oda - Colors (2021)
Young Jr - Bird Walk (2022)
AD - All I Do (2022)
Tinashe - Naturally (2022)

Other notables: I need a no Auto-Tune mix of Eatem & Dwill's Rock Paper Scissors; quite like Homeboy Sandman's The Only Constant even though he's kinda irksome on it; drumless Warren G is far better than drumless Faux Marciano rappers; unfortunately for my taste, Duke Deuce & Rico Nasty's Falling Off is more like a Rico Nasty song featuring Duke Deuce rather than a Duke Deuce song featuring Rico Nasty.

Other stuff: felt compelled to note how white guys on the Rap Internet look like members of Pop-Punk bands and took a trip down teenage Crimes Against Clobber™ lane. Also enjoyed Party Sparty on non-American movie soundtrack Funk jams and some bloke from The Guardian talking to Street Sounds CEO Morgan Khan.

Guy Trouble: EPMD vs. Stezo

What's beef?: Beef is when Stezo got kicked off EPMD's tour as their dancer for fighting with Parrish Smith, but then scored his own record deal with EPMD's label Fresh/Sleeping Bag much to EPMD's chagrin and blew up when It's My Turn became a hit. Parrish fired a subliminal at Stezo on So Whatcha Sayin' with the "and when we needed a piss, boy, you was hired" line and DJ Scratch called Stezo out when EPMD performed the song at the 1990 Rap Mania concert in New York.

The beef is on: Stezo got wind that EPMD had dissed him onstage and recorded a response track which Fresh/Sleeping Bag owner Virgil Simms was more than happy to release since Stezo's debut album Crazy Noise had done very decent numbers. Unfortunately, Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records went bankrupt in late 1990 before Stezo could release it and the song remained in the vaults until Stones Throw Records released it on 12" back in 2004. Piece Of The Pie AKA the song where Dooley-O predicted the title of EPMD's sixth album nine years before it dropped.

Stezo ft. Dooley-O - Piece Of The Pie
(From unreleased; 1990/Piece Of The Pie 12" single; 2004)


Beef, what a relief: Would Piece Of The Pie have had any real impact on EPMD's career? Probably not, but it would have made for a very nice single, preferably with Police Story on the B-side. Where it might have had an impact is that, had it been released in 1990, Large Professor probably wouldn't have used the same Nautilus sample for Main Source's Live At The Barbeque in 1991. Thus, the posse track which introduced Nas and Akinyele to the world might have sounded very different. Even Kodak couldn't picture that.

A bird in the dance is worth two in the bush

"Chicken walk all in your house all on your couch
Need to learn to keep my name out of your mouth
Before I pop you in your top, watch shit pour out"

Young Jr - Bird Walk
(From Bird Walk single; 2022)


Sometimes all you need is a disrespect NorCal dumb knock with its own dance - call it the Big Steppin' effect. Peep the Bird Walk tutorial at the end of the video, but never forgot who invented the O.G bird dance.

Late pass!

C-Funk - Lime In Ya Coconut
(From Three Dimensional Ear Pleasure EP; 1995)


Billy Jam's YouTube channel stays bodying the Rap Internet. Sum shit I learned today: Cap'N Crunch from Rated X changed his name to C-Funk to go solo and released an EP on Paris' record label with a lead single which kinda sounds like Bone Thugs as written by Humpty Hump/produced by Shock G. Add a little Kokane style croonage and you've got some major choonage right here.

**EDIT** one of the unreleased bonus tracks on the EP's digital reissue is the best Digital Underground song never made by Digital Underground. Why why why did this shit not drop in 1995?

C-Funk - O.G. Schwang
(From Three Dimensional Ear Pleasure EP reissue; 2008)

C-Funk · O.G. Schwang

Re-up Gong: Edan Deep Cuts

~~ Edan - Deep Cuts ~~
1. The E's Have It ft. Skillz Ferguson (1999)
2. Migraine (O.G mix) (1999)
3. Drop Some Smooth Lyrics (2001)
4. Adrenaline Rush ft. Skillz Ferguson (2001)
5. Dope Rhymes For Sure (2001)
6. Clinical Rhymes ft. Skillz Ferguson (2002)
7. Schoolly D Knew The Time (2002)
8. Emcees Smoke Crack (remix) (2002)
9. I'll Come Running Back To You (2002)
10. Rap Beautician (2002)
11. Funky Rhyming (2005)
12. Real Bad Promo (2018)



Geological poop, I got shit straight and updated my Edan Deep Cuts playlist with a couple of songs I'd slept on. Dope Rhymes For Sure should be retitled Dope Song Full Stop and Rap Beautician is Edan's musical manifesto on wax. His M.O: a smart-arse Jewish Rap nerd who did his own beats, cuts and rhymes, and created his own sound by combining Percee P circa 1992 with Paul's Boutique era Beastie Boys. It probably shouldn't have worked, but it very much did. Check back this time next year to see if I've finally added Beautiful Food.

Bonus beats: you know how Edan has a boner for early 60s British Rock? Betcha he'd love How by The Jynx. Can't decide whether this shit is like The Monkees doing a Merseybeat song or if it's like a Merseybeat band doing a Monkees song. Either way, it has the illest Dingle alley cat harmonica.
The Jynx - How
(From How single; 1964)

Plenty of Oda fish in the sea part 2

Seiji Oda - Jinx
(From Wading In Shallow Water EP; 2021)


Seiji Oda - howuknowitsme?
(From YouTube; 2021)


Two songs which coulda been on my best of Seiji Oda playlist, different sounds which still find parallel lines on the Slap-Tranquilo scale. Seiji says he mixes the lo-fi with the Hyphy, I say he mixes the Makonnen with the Mac Dre. Now, I didn't care for Makonnen's music beyond a couple of tunes, but there's no doubt that echoes and richochets of Makonnen's sound can still be heard throughout Rap - just listen to Valee or Veeze for proof.

Flashback to the time some people got mad because I said Makonnen looked like Rickie from My So Called Life if he'd ate all the pies. Was I wrong, though?

This Is Tha Barker

"I had this style ever since I was a child
I got this other style I ain't flip in a while"

Remember me? Did it all for the B-L-O-G. True story: every white guy on the Rap Internet resembles someone from a Pop-Punk band. I'm reliably informed that I'm a Travis Barker guy, and I ain't even mad at that - it's infinitely better than being a Dexter Holland guy, a Milo Aukerman guy or a Tye Zamora guy innit? If you're unfortunate enough to be a Deryck Whibley guy then take some solace that you look like a bloke with two 10/10 singles to his name and a hot wife on his arm.

Let's talk gear. If Rap music didn't inspire you to wear stupid shit as a teenager then being into Rap music as a teenager was wasted on you, mon square. Me, I done shocked everything from clocks around my neck, Reebok Pump hi-tops on my feet, visors on my head, XXL Ben Davis shirts on my back, and 42" baggy jeans on my 32" waist. But my biggest Crime Against Clobber™ was copping a pair of snow-camo cargo pants in 1991 in a misguided attempt to look like Public Enemy's back-up dancers the SW1s. Them kecks were wack like World Cups, but by 1992 they'd become great beater pants to do graffiti in, particularly since the cargo pockets came in handy to pilfer cans of paint from Halfords and Kwik Save. We were a gang of Goonies lookalikes doin' Subway Art recreations, shout out my CD brothers with fly names and I.D questions.

To paraphrase a very different Travis B, snow-camo cargo pants have followed me my whole life everywhere - in bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, even in Blink-182's All The Small Things video where Travis Barker wore a pair. You can fight for your right to party, but you can never fight your sartorial destiny. Probably shoulda bought two pair like Nelly.

Tom Hardy 4 The F**kin' Radio

"And when I hit the club I know they hate me
A lotta n*ggas do it but they ain't me
Couple shrooms I be feelin' like I ain't me
But don't move, Ima keep the thing on safety"

AD - All I Do
(From All I Do single; 2022)


Gotta love when a HARD rapper drops some grown and gorgeous harp shit. Uncle Murda's Bro Shit was 2021's best example of the sound, and Compton AD's All I Do is 2022's first entry in the canon. So pretty and yet so nasty - All I Do is like Meena from Emmerdale in song form.

Lacazette lookalike AD definitely missed a trick by not filming the entire video inside his car for big Locke intimacy. Inside looking out like the 2nd best Animals song.

Late pass: Yak Ballz & MJG

Playa G - Drink A Yak (original version)
(From Drink A Yak 12" single; 1996)


MP45 has been uploading 12" single cuts which have never been on YouTube before and this song by Memphis rapper Playa G is my pick of the bunch. Full disclosure, ya host had never heard this original mix or the album version before but I prefer this one, meself - the vocals get lost a bit in the album mix with all the added synthesiser warbling. Gucci Mane always says Project Pat was one of his favourite rappers, gonna hazard a guess he was a big Playa G fan too?

Born To Audiomack: the best of Seiji Oda

"Any time I put on jeans, it's Japanese denim
They ain't even Japanese, I just happen to be in 'em"

Remember that Seiji Oda breh from a couple of posts ago? His music has proper popped out with the Snagglepuss knock and made me drop my croissant, so I've compiled a playlist of his best songs. Sometimes he sounds like a Japanese Kap G who took it to the Bay; sometimes he sounds like a Slap-Tranquilo P-Lo; sometimes he sounds like Valee if his main artistic inspiration was Mac Dre's Off The Rictor; and sometimes he sounds like an R&Based version of Japanese City-Pop. Somehow it all works and, more importantly, it all works together as this playlist proves. Shout out to the Cosmos, Seiji is beyond tho.

~~ The Best Of Seiji Oda ~~
1. Like This (2020)
2. Aero (2019)
3. Ridin' Round (2021)
4. How U Doin'? (2020)
5. Perfect Timing (2021)
6. Pomegranite (2021)
7. Tuesday! (2020)
8. Like Furl (acoustic) (2020)
9. Colors (2021)
10. Outtapocket (2021)
11. House Shoes (2021)
12. No Fillins (2021)
13. Gasbreakdip ft. Lil' Ricefield (2021)
14. Cyborg (2021)
15. Gochujang ft. Lil' Ricefield (2022)
16. Aero2 (2021)



Surprised myself by how much I like his sangy Auto-Tune songs. The reason they work for me is that they're very warm and fuzzy and are still distinctly Oakland. No Fillins, for instance, is dreamy R&B which interpolates Cupcake No Fillin by the Trunk Boiz. Told you that Seiji has unexpected depth like a Japanese bathtub.