Via Yohan, a Yung Cat single I'd missed. Cat's always good for one slap a year, particularly when the aforementioned slap finds him colouring between Fat Tone's lines in the style of Husalah's hyperactive country-cousin from Kansas City.
Here starts the petition for a deluxe CD reissue of Fat Tone's Tha Stick Up Kid album with liner notes from C-Bo, Yung Cat, and whoever runs the OnlyNKillaCity YouTube channel.
Proper Brat-Wave bubblegum Power-Pop from Juicy B & The Thunder Zone Band. If I say Deal With The Dream is catchier than an STD in Times Square circa the early 80s it's not to lower the tone, but because this shit wouldn't have sounded outta place in season two or three of The Deuce. Song surely woulda been a single if Juiceboxxx hadn't vanished entirely from the internet.
The Flys - Love And A Molotov Cocktail
(From Love And A Molotov Cocktail 7" single; 1978)
Let's be honest here - 70's New Punk Rock ain't a patch on 70's British Punk Rock. The proof? Even a third-tier U.K group of Coventry oiks like The Flys have a legit 10/10 gobshite Punk classic which bodies the combined discographies of the entire 70's New York scene other than Blondie, The Ramones and the one good Richard Hell & The Voidoids song. New York's alright if you like junkies with nary a decent tune in sight!
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when there was no sadder sight than European men masquerading as American political experts and arguing about Biden Verzuz Trump. You nerds need to cultivate some Yank interests which are actually fun - like Rap music, natch.
Other notables:OHFR? is the first Rico Nasty song I've kinda liked this year; listened to Goodie Mob's new album and I wish they'd replace Cee-Lo with Witchdoctor or Backbone or Nathaniel or damn near anyone who's ever appeared on a Dungeon Family album; Rio Da Yung OG should be forced to retitle his Accidental Shit Talkin' EP as Here's Some First-Take Freestyles I Can't Be Bothered Writing Any Hooks For; no matter how many times YouTube recommends it to me, I'm not listening to Kay Slay's Rolling 50 Deep 18 minute posse cut; shit I wasn't expecting this month: a Tinashe Xmas EP where she covers Wham's Last Christmas.
"Ay' I'm a reptable
Treat him like he cut the line 'cause he next to go
I think I'm a timebomb, yeah I'm next to blow
He was talkin' all that beef 'til he a vegetable"
Mac J - Sparky
(From the internet; 2020)
Now I'm checkin' in, check me out. Missed this one last month but now I've caught up it's my fave Mac blast since OldSkoo. Hookless if you take the song at face value in homage to producer Sparky Made It Slap, once you realise Check Me Out was the O.G title then there is a sneaky hook in there like Abu Hamza in a cheap suit.
Whenever I listen to Mac J on Soundcloud and leave shit runnin', it always ends up playing some terrible Mac Miller song with Juicy J. No disrespect to the dead, but Mac Miller sex-raps were second only to Mindbender Futurama sex-raps in terms of sheer horrificness.
This Dancehall refreak by Michigan & Smiley of Nice Up The Dance fame takes the crown. Jah's greasy spoon uptown ranking which almost certainly woulda been banned from the jukebox in Tom's IRL diner if Kramer's racist arse was in the building.
Every year I come across a couple of Mac Dre songs I'd previously slept on and 2020 is no different; first there was the acoustic version of Times R Gettin' Crazy and now there's this hubba knock from that dodgy Mac Dre's The Name album. Ain't gon' lie, first time I heard this song I sat there sweatin' bullets expecting an uncredited guest verse from some Gilligan pill-carrier like BA or Miami The Most to spoil it. Praise the Lord - Hallelujah for some uninterrupted guerilla gurp from Furl Hawaiianshirt.
FFS can't believe I enjoy a U.K Drill song by some breh afflicted with the dreaded kid's TV presenter voice which runs rampant in the sub-genre. Tbf, M1llionz's Brummoi accent does have chutzpah and the B1llionz beat conjures up images of green grass rather than grey pavements. Not arf bad for a miserable style of music I usually can not stand.
Maybe I'm buggin' but the flow/beat combo here kinda make me think of a midlands Jacka. Midlands Jacka: a phrase I never expected to type lolz.
Uncle Murda on Noz's 100 best Rap songs of 2007 list eh? 2020 keeps throwing up all sorts of surprises. Top bloggin', but missing twelve Martorialist classics by twelve different artists who didn't make the list. So, here they are in an easily-digestible Audiomack playlist. No surprises here for regular TM™ readers, just twelve songs I'll never resist an opportunity to Stan for.
1. Camp Lo - Black Hollywood
2. Rock D The Legend ft. Big Boi - DDT
3. ByrdGang - Anniversary
4. Tha Camp - 1 Rubber
5. Grand Puba - Let's Go
6. Smooth B - I Want My Money Back
7. Jackie Chain - Waffle House Pimpin'
8. G-Side ft. Marcellus - Feel Like I Look
9. AZ - Doin' That (Memphis Sessions mix)
10. Mic Terror - Juke Them Hoes
11. Blaq Poet - Don't Give A Fucc
12. A-Wax - Gatez
Favourite find on Noz's list has gotta be Jhi-Ali's My Way. Very unique vibe - like if Bizzy Bone's little cousin from Alabama made his own version of Devin's Do What You Want To Do. Not only had I never heard the song before, I'd never realised Jhi-Ali was a bloke until the video later popped up in my YouTube recommendations. Cinderfella Jhi-Ali - 2020 truly is full of all sorts of surprises innit?
Jhi-Ali - My Way
(From My Way mixtape; 2007)
**EDIT** Just lookin' for a no-DJ MP3 of My Way and it turns out the song first dropped on this Slow Motion Soundz compilation in 2005. There's another solo Jhi-Ali solo track on there called On The Run that I'm curious to hear - anybody got it? It ain't on YouTube or Ali's Soundcloud.
Feelin' this intro to his upcoming EP by Nate Dogg's Scrappy Doo NHale. Nate Sprogg can't quite hold a note like his dearly-departed old man, but the quivers in his voice give him accidental Kokane vybz and stop him becoming the 3D Nate Dogg hologram.
Bonus beats: five years on and Warren G's single with the posthumous Nate Dogg hook where he interpolated Madness' Our House is still very much my shit. Even Russell Grant couldn't have predicted that G-Funk and 2 Tone's paths would ever cross.
Warren G ft. Nate Dogg - My House
(From Regulate... G-Funk Era Part II EP; 2015)
Warren G clearly not a believer in All Property Is Theft™ eh? Do call it a comeback, don't call him a comrade.
So, I'm warming to the U.K Rapper I'd previously dismissed as J Hus' equivalent of Dana Dane. This B***K song is an Afro-Bashment/Lakim Shabazz hybrid and I'm all over it like a Seagull on a bag of fish & chips.
My Family with BackRoad Gee is his choon of choonz, though. It was the first Salieu song where I didn't wish J Hus had got the beat instead. It was also the first Roadrapfrobeats song I've heard with big Next Hype energy.
Pa Salieu ft. BackRoad Gee - My Family
(From My Family single; 2020)
If Salieu drops a couple more choonz I dig then he's officially the best thing to come outta Coventry since Fun Boy Three.
Fun Boy Three - The Telephone Always Rings (single version)
(From The Telephone Always Rings single; 1982)
The only American The Beat I acknowledge belongs to ESG. That's my diplomatic way of saying it was an act of cultural imperialism that The Beat had to rename themselves The English Beat for the U.S.A when 'Murica's own The Beat were little more than a Costco Cheap Trick. Certainly, the so-called English Beat went on to have far greater cultural impact stateside than their Yank namesake with various songs popping up in Hollywood movies over the decades - most notably Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Grosse Point Blank, and some shitty Spiderman flick. Ultimately, The Beat U.S.A was aiight, they was cool, but they never recorded anything as John Blaze as Mirror In The Bathroom, Ranking Full Stop, or Tears Of A Clown.
The Beat - Tears Of A Clown
(From I Just Can't Stop It album; 1980)
A glaring ommission from my Cover Me Good list, tbqh - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles gave it wings, The Beat made it fly. Same happy music/sad lyrics contrast as the O.G version, but with the whimsical Motown sweetness replaced by spiky 2 Tone Ska. Plus, a saxophone solo and Ranking Roger's outro!
"F*ck it, go and spin the bottle
You know I don't do no cappin', that's why a n*gga wearin' goggles"
Eatem ft. 70th Street Carlos - Spin The Bottle
(From YouTube; 2020)
Pffft - you wait a couple of years for two of Baton Rouge's rowdiest to hop on a proper track together and when it finally happens Carlos' vocals sound like they've been clumsily Pro Toolsed in from another song entirely. Is it too much to ask for a guest verse that's cognisant of the lead rapper's presence and the song it features on? That is why ya host is a solo song afficionado nowadays - gimme a singular vision rather than a shared collaboration.
39 Posse - Got What It Takes To Make It
(From 39 Posse 12" EP; 1991)
Whoa na! Killer combination of Second Line brass band and Bob James Mardi Gras bells from very young KLC. Heard this for the first time yesterday on Chicken-N-Kalinka's Parkway Pumpin' Records mix and it was love at first listen. Stream C-N-K's full mix here:
Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
(From Excitable Boy album; 1978)
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Halloween pub parties in the U.K were cancelled due to the 10pm curfew. All I wanted was one night I could bust Tom Cruise moves to Werewolves Of London in my local and 2020 wouldn't give it to me.
Other notables: YG & Lil' Wayne's Blood Walk was also surprisingly good; while it was fun to mock Jay He's A One Song Wonder, I was kinda disappointed that the album didn't have any keepers for me; 2020 stays full of surprises like a new single by 3MG; I get that Rio Da Yung OG's Practice is a lyrical exercise track, but that shit could still do with a hook; I foolishly thought the new Busta Rhymes songs with Q-Tip, ODB, and M.O.P might be my sorta thing - turns out I shoulda just headed straight for his banger with the Bell Biv Devoe chop-up instead.
Before Ice-T was the the O.G: Original Gangster, he was the O.G Andre Macassi on the hot tarmac of South Central. This particular outfit woulda been perfect for poolside loungin' in the High Rollers video if Ice hadn't have f**ked it up from the knees down like David James on Strictly Come Dancing. So nearly fly and yet so far - why you tryna look like Borg and Jordan at the SAME DAMN TIME? Tennis garms and Basketball gear don't mix like two dicks and no bitch, find your outfit in some serious shit.
File this under 'Midwesternplayalisticbubblebathmuzik.' Ya host fuxwit Taladega and Hitman Theme heavy, but I'm settling on Hot Tub TIme Machine as my de facto favourite song from Gzus Piece's new album.
PS: there's a cool song from this album which was cut from the retail/streaming tracklist but is still hidden on Soundcloud. Shit's called Shout Out To OJ Simpson and I use it as the secret B-side to Hot Tub Time Machine.
Straight out the f**kin' archives of Khayree's Instagram, here's a snippet of an unreleased Mac Dre demo from 1992. Dre may have been Too Hard For Da F*ckin' Radio but he ain't too hard for da RadioShack cassette deck. Can Khayree & Studio Tone just collate all Dre's demo tracks/Crest tape songs and release them on one album plz?
"Do I even have to mention, thee bathroom is like another dimension
What goes on inside is something I can never explain, time exists on an entirely different plane"
Homeboy Sandman - Waiting On My Girl
(From Don't Feed The Monster album; 2020)
Time waits for no man, yet man waits for every woman. This is reality Rap - we all go through it! The realest shit Homeboy Sandman ever wrote or wot? Would love to know what Quelle Chris sampled here because this beat sounds like a lost DOOM production from the King Gheedorah album.
D'Angelo ft. Redman - Me & Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine (Def Squad remix)
(From Me & Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine remixes single; 1996)
Damn, why'd nobody ever hip me to the existence of this remix? TBQH, this mix floats my Billy Ocean more than the original - you've got the same damn D'Angelo syrupy goodness, but a refreaked groove by Erick Sermon and two quick verses of flagrant du Redman featuring an amusing homme pas. A song like this makes me wish the ol' Funk Doc had been let loose on more 90's Rap & Bullshit remixes.
What's yer favourite Erick Sermon remix then? I wanna say mines is Redman's Can't Wait remix 2 but that's #actually the original version in disguise. So, it's between Redman's Rockafella remix and Keith Murray's Dip Dip Di remix where Erick Sermon transformed two songs I don't particularly like into two songs I do indeed like.
9/10 for sheer opportunism here: Donae'O remakes his own U.K Funky classic Party Hard in tribute to Arsenal signing Thomas Partey. Maybe it deserves a 10/10 since the video is hosted by Arsenal Fan TV and features multiple annoying mugs from the channel. Not entirely sure that the proverbial roof of the Emirates Stadium has ever been "on fire", but let's not let deetz get in the way of bantz. Anyhoo, it's all fun and games until Donae'O ends up with egg on his face if Partey turns out to be the Ghanaian Denilson innit?
Busta Rhymes - As I Come Back
(From Genesis album; 2001)
Always my favourite Busta Rhymes track with The Neptunes track because that beat was so very obviously a bespoke creation for Busta. In hindsight, As I Come Back was as close as New York got to its own equivalent of Crunk and its a pity nobody else took the baton and ran with it. I wanna say that bassline is pure U.K darkside Rave but that'd make me sound like Grimey Simey and noone should ever wanna sound like Grimey Simey when talking about Rap.
"Whassup Brie?
Whassup Kei?
Whassup Lisa? Damn, I want all three!
Ohhh Ashlee, ohhh Ashlee
I get hard when she walk past me"
DJ Chose ft. BeatKing - Thick
(From YouTube; 2020)
Put a badunkadunk on it! Ain't gonna lie, I much prefer this to BeatKing's own Then Leave. In fact, I'd opine that Thick is the best Booty-Chatter™ slumper since Back It Up by Trap Beckham & Flo Milli. Three is still the magic number for DJ Chose & BeatKing; for the rest of us, however, good things come in twos like arse cheeks.
GetEmTree - Only Way Is Up Step
(From YouTube; 2020)
One of these days yous lot are gonna realise that GetEmTree is Baton Rouge's answer to Katie Got Bandz. Until then I'm gonna keep wildin' out to her music, and keep myself amused by the YouTube comments which mistake her for a him.
When regional G.O.A.T's collide or wot? Sux these two never recorded any music together because they'd have surely had great chemistry beyond their shared penchant for being photographed on the bog for their respective 1998albums. Imagine Dre on a Devin song like Go Somewhere or Devin on a Dre song like Dreganomics. Alternatively, you can always just pretend that Pawns In The Game was a Domo beat for Devin's first album which Dre nicked for himself.
Mac Dre - Pawns In The Game
(From Khayree's vaults; 1997/The Musical Life Of Mac Dre Vol 3 album; 2014)
Mac Dre & Khayree - Times R Gettin' Crazy (acoustic)
(From Billy Jam's HipHopSlam KUSF radio show; 1991)
Ripped an MP3 of Mac Dre & Khayree's live performance of Times R Gettin' Crazy from Billy Jam's HipHopSlam radio show. Download that shit here. Officially, the only acoustic cover version of a Rap song which doesn't make me go wild like Blutarsky and smash guitars.
"I hit up my insurance, I'm at your door like I'm Geico
Verses cutthroat, I'm in your dreams like I'm Psycho
Don't say I'm wrong, when I pull a left I'm really right tho""
ShuggyBo - What I Like
(From YouTube; 2020)
File this under 'somebody was bound to slappify Tiny Tim's Livin' In The Sunlight, Lovin' In The Moonlight eventually, huh?' Shout outs to ShuggyBo for makin' Sacramento sound like Loompaland on this one, and for havin' the most quintessentially NorCal Rap name ever.
