Nate Dogg - I Got Love
(From Music & Me album; 2001)
Every now and then I go through Nate Dogg's albums to try and find another solo song as good as I Got Love and every time it proves to be a fruitless search. The Captain Hook of Rap deserved better beats and/or more space to do his own damn thing on his own damn songs.
"Black Benz, black tint, MAC-10
I'm rollin' the window down - what's happenin'?
Rata Tat-Tat on dat ass like The Brat and
My aim is Outstanding like The Gap Band"
Mic Terror - For The Heaux
(From Green Summer EP; 2019)
"I'm the new asshole of the industry
Church folk all wanna get rid of me
Feminists consider me an enemy
I say hoes, I don't mean that offensively
I just don't know your names individually
You not dancin'? I gave you a remedy
A House track with a little' bit of energy
To Juke to when you off that Hennessy"
Mic Terror - Juke Them Hoes
(From the internet; 2007/digital retail; 2017)
I know I mentioned this in another post, but the properly-mastered MP3 of Mic Terror's Juke Them Hoes really has transformed an already great track into something truly glorious. It's the equivalent of finding a grainy VHS tape porno you saw as a teenager in vivid Blu-ray quality on XHamster (other smut streaming sites are available.) There's some things you just can't transform, though: despite what the official MP3's artwork sez it's always gonna be Juke Them Hoes.
Most importantly, it's still the song wot corrected the main problem with Hip-House: too much House, not enough Hip-Hop. As an old Kay Slay saying goes, only Chicago coulda done that, yo!
"In the club with that iron, no we don't leave 'em in the vans
Every glock got a dick just like some motherfuckin' pants"
70th Street Carlos - Opp Watch
(From 007 EP; 2019)
Shaken not stirred, bonkers not berserk. Different flow on this, but same overall WNC effect innit. The EP version of this is slightly different to the video version and I prefer the former, meself.
In the immortal near-words of Tay-K: you want action, let's turn to the past-tense. I present you with the obligatory non-Rap companion to my top 50 Rap late pass discoveries of the 2010's; well, it's actually 44 old songs I've discovered this decade and 6 old songs I've rediscovered in the past 10 years. How did I ever function without most of these songs in my life? It's a mystery, Scooby Doo.
Obviously ya host knew the Crazy Cousinz remix of Kyla's Do You Mind long before Drake besmirched it, but I was only up on the original version until I picked up this Crazy Cousinz U.K Funky compilation sometime in 2010.
Don't mind me, I'm just over here Googling Slick Rick tattoos.
Fair play to anyone brave enough to get a portrait picture of a Rapper tattooed on they physical. Me, I'd be too shook that the tattoo ended up looking like Joey Deacon or the Rapper ended up getting exposed as a nonce. Ink was the moment I feared.
Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month of next level YouTube recommendations on Willie D's VladTV interviews. Much like love, the algorithm's gonna getcha.
Other notables: Martorialist readers who dig the Kokane songs above might also enjoy Dru Down's Ring Ding Dong; ShooterGang Kony's Charlie is the best song I've heard by him; sad to say that the only song on French Montana & Max B's Coke Wave 4 to come close to capturing the spirit of the original 'tape is French's Treat 'Em Right beatjack.
Kokane - Funkin' It Up
(From Finger Roll album; 2019)
Seems like there's a new Kokane single on the Siccness mainpage every time ya boy's checked the site these past few months. At least, that's what I was told - last thing I remember I'd fallin' down a K' Hole. Anyhoobangin', Funkin' It Up is the best o' the bunch: some Robo Booty Affair squelch from the big Cadi' 'Kane himself.
You know what, I might prefer this one. Proper Atomic Frog zone Kokane:
Kokane - Doo Doo Headz
(From Finger Roll album; 2019)
2. It's important to remember that Beat Box and Moments In Love were both on the same 7" single initially. Top 5 double-header single of the 80s or wot?
3. Beat Box is one of those weird 80's British art-pop club records which got adopted by American Hip Hop kulcha. If we were to map out a timeline of this phenomenon then it began with Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Gals in 1982 and peaked in 1987 with Coldcut's Paid In Full remix.
5. There's almost as many mixes/edits of Beat Box and Moments In Love as there are of 808 State's Pacific. The two video mixes in this post are the definitive ones, IMHO.
"I'm good wherever I go, and I got a right hand like Ivan Drago
And if the hands don't work that's what the glock fo'
Ain't no lackin' in Chicago"
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. And in a similar albeit more introspective vein there's also this song:
"We gon' survive Trump, bitch, we survived crack
They gon' do some mo' shit, and we gon' survive that"
Mic Terror - Amibitionz To Get Higher
(From Green Summer EP; 2019)
Speaking of whom, I just noticed that a properly mastered version of Mic's Juke Them Hoes is finally available on retail/streaming. A personal classic, a MySpace-era anthem, and a Chicago banger that shoulda 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.
