Born To Audiomack: Follow My Lead

Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader (Martorialist re-edit)
1. No Competition (1988)
2. The R (1988)
3. Musical Massacre (1988)
4. To The Listeners (1988)
5. Just A Beat (1988)
6. Follow The Leader (1988)
7. Microphone Fiend (1988)
8. Lyrics Of Fury (1988)




Back in the 90s when I got a CD player with a programming function, one of the first albums I re-sequenced to my satisfaction was Eric B. & Rakim's Follow The Leader. Haven't you ever heard of an unofficial tracklist murderer? This was a death penalty that I'm servin' up. Follow The Leader has the greatest opening 3 song run in the history of Rap music which means that the album's other highlights tend to be get forgotten. So, what I did was whittle the album down to 8 songs, reorder the tracklist so it starts with the 4 killer songs from the latter half of the album and ends with the aforementioned greatest opening 3 song run in the history of Rap music. Betwixt both sets of songs is the instrumental Just A Beat which functions as a breather/bridge between Rakim raining down his magic. And there we have it, Follow The Leader reduced and rearranged into a sequence which makes far more sense to me as an album. This version of the album is official Martorialist canon because I put it on one side of a 90 minute cassette tape which lived rent free in my Walkman for most of the 90s.

If I were feelin' adventurous, I might end the album with Eric B. Never Scared. By adventurous I obviously mean masochistic.

09 til Infinity (part 4)

"Damn, an ugly bitch gon' hate to see me smile
Well, Godamn, I done found my style"

BunnaB - Mind Right
(From Mind Right single; 2026)


BunnaB continues to paint pictures on a 2009 Atlanta Fruity Swag-Rap canvas, but with colours and details which didn't exist in '09. Or sumfink lol. Fave thing about BunnaB: she's the chief exponent of rejuvenating an old style of Atlanta Rap which ended far too quickly for my liking. 2nd fave thing about BunnaB: she looks like she could be Alpo's daughter.

New York rapper on a $4 jazz sample

Homeboy Sandman - Look Alive
(From These Titles Are Getting Pretty Silly AKA Can't Sell 4 mixtape; 2025)


I slept on this one because Sandman's other current single Need A Woman is one of the most embarrassing Rap songs ever recorded: insufferable finger-wagging prudishness which makes 1996 Jeru Tha Damaja sound like Too $hort. Look Alive, however, is my favourite type of Boy Sand song where he mixes ground control shit with galaxy brain shit. The video even features the return of his apartment from such Martorialist-approved Sandman videos as Waiting On My Girl and Yup. Do It!.

Bonus beats: Sandman mentions Kool Keith on this song, so here's one of my favourite Ultramagnetic MC's deep cuts. Before Kool Keith mastered Sex Style, he dabbled in Romance Rap with this solo R&Bullshit ballad probably recorded around The Four Horsemen era in 1992/1993. Fresh for February 14th you suckaaaaz, there ain't nothing Don Juan Thornton won't do for the object of his affections. He'll take her out in the summer to see the Jets! He'll take her out in the winter to see the Mets! Keith doesn't mention wee-wee or doo-doo on this song and that's why it's a much welcome outlier in his catalogue.

Ultramagnetic MC's - Biscuits and Eggs
(From New York What Is Funky compilation; 1996)

Ultramagnetic Mcs · Biscuits and Eggs

Born To Audiomack: Best of Bavgate

~~ Best of Bavgate ~~
1. Keep It Gangsta ft. LJ (2005)
2. Like Me (2005)
3. The Gate (2005)
4. Touched (2005)
5. Committed ft. Juvenile & Skip (2005)
6. Stay Strapp ft. Turf Talk (2006)
7. Play Bavgate ft. Pooh Sauce (2006)
8. I'm About That Actin ft. Messy Marv (2006)
9. Black Rags (2006)
10. Mob Shit ft. Squeeze (2007)
11. T'z Up ft. Mac Mall & Geezy (2007)




Bloggers say they got Bay love, but it never was, they ain't got no Yee like The Breakfast Club. Bavgate started out as one part of the duo Steady Mobb'n in 1991, went solo in the early 2000s and eventually found his final form in 2005 as Thizz Nation's sorta-equivalent of Kokane. Take a soak in Bav's music with this playlist of my favourite songs of his from the Thizz era. Motherf**kers mad because the 'net is jockin' and motherf**kers mad because my posts is knockin'. Keep It Gangsta is a minor classic which should have been a major choon - a two steppin' tune for polar bears and squares alike.

Generic list post: January 2026

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when I'm still mostly stuck on music from 2025. Also the month I paid homage to It Doesn't Matter by Wyclef & The Rock, I'm Talented by Masterminds, Saturday Night by Schoolly D and Special Ed in general.

Newcleus - Disco Kryptonite (2025)
Aesop Rock - John Something (2025)
Ezale - Make Her Gig (2025)
Young Bari ft. BossLife Big Spence - That's A Playa (2025)
Young Devi D - What's Left (2025)
Jim Jones - JOMO (2025)
Liim - Break (2025)
Paul Wall & DJ Fresh - What Chu Really Know (2025)
T.I. - Let Em Kno (2026)
P-Lo - Out The Box (2026)

Bonus bloggin: 1nce again I'm gonna use my monthly wrap-up post to keep track of the best movies and TV shows I've been watching. * indicates rewatches dunnit.

Movies I watched and liked:
The Appointment (1981)
Down By Law (1986) *
Mirror Mirror (1990)
Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001) *
Saipan (2026)

TV shows I watched and liked:
Superfan: The Story of Vladimir (2023)
Only Connect (new episodes) (2026)
Bournemouth vs. Arsenal (2026)
Newcastle vs. Leeds (2026)
Barcelona vs. Real Madrid (2026)
Inter Milan vs. Arsenal (2026)
Arsenal vs. Kairat Almaty (2026)
Benefica vs. Real Madrid (2026)
Match Of The Day 1 and 2 (new episodes) (2026)

I Cudi Been A Contender!

Kid Cudi - Maui Wowie
(From A Kid Called Cudi mixtape; 2008)

Kid Cudi · Maui Wowie

After the ridiculousness of Jim Jones claiming he's responsible for Kid Cudi's Day 'n' Nite blowing up, Cudi is entitled to whip up a viral duck tale of his own. So lemme suggest this: he should claim that his beatjack of Grind Mode's She's So Fine (I'm So High) is responsible for the original blowing up. Who cares about posting the truth anymore in the post-truth era? That's one of the two Cudi songs I fuxwit because the kid accidentally took a trip offshore on the wave on that shit. His music got wiped out totally afterwards, but Maui Wowie is a notable entry in the canon of Shinola Songs By Shitty Rappers.

I feel like I was the only person who rode for the Jim Jones & Statik Selektah single last year. For those of us who enjoy Jones at his most ridiculous when he's putting the Cap into Capo, that song was an absolute treat. There was no better piece of unintentional comedy in a 2025 Rap song than when Jones said "I been in court, the DA's looking like he seen Gotti" on that shit.

Jim Jones - JOMO
(From From The Church Steps album; 2025)

Jim Jones Capo · Jomo

My Mind Spray: Special Ed edition

One of my favourite short-lived Rap rumours: Special Ed only had one hand. Brought about because of Ed's bizarre pose on the cover of his debut album; short-lived because as soon as you saw the video for I Got It Made, you knew Ed wasn't Kase 2.5.

As far as opening trifectas of songs on Rap albums go, Taxing, I Got It Made and I'm The Magnificent from Special Ed's debut album is one of the best three choon runs on a golden-era LP. Which makes it all the more baffling that Priority Records decided to remix I'm The Magnificent for the single/video release and ruined the song with vastly inferior production. As far as pointless video mixes of classic Rap song ever go, the video mix of I'm The Magnificent is second only to the video mix of In The Ghetto by Eric B. & Rakim. Two separate A&Rs destroyed two perfect songs with two shitty video remixes in the SAME DAMN YEAR.

Speaking of I'm The Magnificent, Special Ed's "I betcha what you want is just attention/your mother & your father should have used some prevention" lyric is applicable to most current Hip-Hop media personalties: DJ Vlad, Adam22, Joe Budden, DJ Akademiks, Wack 100, Trap Lore Ross etc. The world would be a better place if none of those lads were ever born.

Titch Homie Quan

T.I. - Let Em Know
(From Let Em Know single; 2026)

T.I. · LET EM KNOW

Never expected the first 2026 Rap song I'd post would be a new T.I. single produced by Pharrell, but happenstance works in mysterious ways. To me, this song sounds like the single Rich Homie Quan should have released as the follow-up to Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh). More confirmation that I only enjoy new Atlanta Rap which sounds like old Atlanta Rap with a subtle tweak. Plz God let this one blow up so T.I. stops trying to be a terrible comedian/podcaster.