Sunday 30 June 2019

Generic list post: June 2019


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.

BlocBoy JB - Mercedes (2019)
Eatem - Hit Da Drink Twice (Martorialist Edit) (2019)
70th Street Carlos - Forgive Me (2019)
Slick Rick - Can't Dance To A Track That Ain't Got No Soul (2019)
Slick Rick - Midas Touch (2019)
TREE & Parallel Thought - God Like (2019)
Extra T's - E.T Boogie (1982)

Other notables: very pleased that my favourite Young Bleed & Max Minelli song got blessed with a video 20 years after it first dropped; Polo G's Chosen 1 would make a good B-side for Deep Wounds; Sonniebo's new single is best experienced as a 40 second Instagram giggin' challenge innit; 1TakeJay's intro from the new DJ Mustard compilation gives us a glimpse of what Blueface's music might sound like if all his beats didn't sound like Joe Moses mixtape cuts from 2011; listening to the Lil' Jon & Mac Dre song is the audio equivalent of watching that computer-generated Audrey Hepburn advert for Galaxy chocolate; Mass Appeal's fake-Nas gimmick Rapper shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near G. Dep's Head Over Wheels.

Bonus beats: Ya host's top 50 late pass discoveries of the 2010s.

Friday 28 June 2019

Who ate all the pies? Not 70th Street Carlos

"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.

Unrelated: that new Slick Rick song which was supposed to be on the Great Adventures... reissue and another new song just dropped like 2 purrr. MC Rickoi D lightin' up classic breaks & beats like he's just recorded 2 tracks for Top Shelf 8/8/88.

Slick Rick - Can't Dance To A Track That Ain't Got No Soul/Midas Touch
(From YouTube: 2019)



Full songs here and here.

Wednesday 26 June 2019

Sesame Streets Is Watching

Agallah - Crookie Monster
(From Crookie Monster single; 1999/YouTube; 2014)




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.

Sunday 23 June 2019

Extra late pass! E.T. Fonk Home

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)



Weird coincidence since I only posted about it the other day but I never knew Haring did the artwork on Come Away With ESG. Seems obvious really, dunnit?

Friday 21 June 2019

Paul Blogba @ BlocSpot.com

"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.

Thursday 20 June 2019

I got a friend with a poll in the basement

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.

Wednesday 19 June 2019

Pe' Against The World

"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?

Monday 17 June 2019

Why, Why, Why?

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.

Come Away With ESG = best album of 1983 or wot?

Wednesday 12 June 2019

Generic list post: best late pass discoveries of the 2010s

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.

Whodini - Magic's Wand (instrumental) (1982)
Disco Four - Throwdown (1983)
Positive K ft. King Of Chill - Step Up Front (3 Heineken Technique) (1988)
Mac Dre & DJ Cee - Donkey Ain't Free (1989)
Filthy Phil - Deadgiveaway (1992)
2Pac - Fuck All Y'All (O.G mix) (1994/1998)
Dolamite - Hustlas (1995)
Teddy ft. Dru Down & Yukmouth - Are You In The Mood? (LP mix) (1995)
Herb McGruff - Creep (1996)
Cheeky Blakk - Keep It On The Real (1996)
Khayree ft. Mac Dre - Back 2 My Mission (1997)
Young Bleed - A Fool (1997)
Total ft. Missy Elliot - What About Us? (1997)
AZ ft. Jermaine Dupri - Rock Me (Hey AZ So So Def mix) (1998)
Raheem The Dream - Freak No Mo' (1998)
Juvenile ft. B.G. - 187 (1999)
Jiggs & Cheeks - Hustle Til I Die (1999)
Z-Man - White Girls Wit Ass (1999)
Mista Madd ft. Slim Thug & Yungstar - Down South (1999)
SPM ft. Baby Beesh - Oh My My (2000)
Jagged Edge ft. Jermaine Dupri & Loon - Promise (Cool JD remix) (2000)
Tim Trees - Bank Roll (2000)
Camu Tao - Hold The Floor (2001)
Dubee & Mac Dre - You Ain't My Dog (2001)
Casual - Studio D (2001)
Twista & Legit Ballaz ft. Johnny P - Ball With Us (2001)
Edan ft. Skillz Ferguson - Adrenaline Rush (2001)
Dru Down - Gangstafied (2002)
Lil' Jon - Play No Games (instrumental) (2002)
Fat Tone - Ima Getcha (2002)
5th Ward Weebie - Supa Sunday In N.O (2003)
Loon - This Ain't Funny (2003)
Max Minelli - My First Verse (2003)
A-Mafia - Mafia Anthem (2003)
Husalah - Inshallah (In God's Will) (2003)
Agallah - Gun Go (2004)
N.O.R.E ft. Peedi Crakk - N*ggarican (2004)
J. Valentine & Bailey - Go Dumb (I'm Sprung Yay Area remix) (2006)
A-Wax - Gatez (2007)
Jim Jones, Max B & Mel Matrix - Anniversary (2007)
DB Tha General - Intro (2007)
BallGreezy - Shone (2007)
Max B & Styles P - Kill That Faggot (remix) (2008)
Yelawolf - Beer Buzz (2008)
Uncle Murda - Anybody Can Get It (2008)
3 Deep - Say What I Wanna Say (2008)
Newcleus - Programmed 4 L.O.V.E (2009)
Grand Puba ft. Q-Tip - Good To Go (2009)
Jae Millz - Sober (2009)
Waka Flocka Flame - Hard In Da Paint (2009)

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.

Tuesday 11 June 2019

Bo Giggley

Not really feelin' Sonniebo's new single as a song. As a 40 second snippet used to soundtrack an Instagram giggin' challenge, however, it's a Blap Supremo™:


It's inevitable that 80% of all Rap songs will be 30 seconds long by 2021. It's also inevitable that 50% of rappers will still do that lazy say-the-same-line-twice-in-a-row trick on them.

Saturday 8 June 2019

More like Better Late Than Never

It's never too late to shoot a video for a truly great Rap song. The Proof? Young Bleed & Max Minelli just shot a video for a track that's now over 20 years old. Better Than The Last Time was supposed to be a Max solo track for one of the Concentration Camp compilations but C-Loc liked it so much he got Bleed to add a verse and asked Master P to include it on My Balls and My Word. Proper 5 Star General Max Pain & Bionic Bleed material:

"All I want for Christmas is 12 gold teeth
A fresh candy blue jeep, and .44 heat
I'm hot-headed on some cold streets
And not a motherfucker wanna hold me when I'm lonely"


Young Bleed ft. Max Minelli - Better Than The Last Time
(From My Balls and My Word album; 1998/YouTube; 2019)



Need a deluxe remastered CD reissue of My Balls and My Word with A Fool on there + a bonus DVD of FrankieThaLuckyDog doing a live video review of the full album.

Wednesday 5 June 2019

Orange Krushed

In 1983 Larry Smith & Davy DMX of Orange Krush pivoted to producing Rap records and used a rough approximation of the same Oberheim DMX drum pattern on 4 very different songs that year. Early 80s Rap is so badly documented that it's damn near impossible to work out the chronology of the '83 Smith & DMX productions, so I threw 'em together as a mini-playlist in the order they sound best in: from the Disco-DMX hybrid of Spoonie Gee's The Big Beat to the tuff bahdangdiddydiddy minimalism of Lovebug Starski's Live At The Disco Fever to the stark brutality of Run-D.M.C's Sucker M.C's to the Electro scratch-madness of Fearless Four's F-4000.

~~Larry Smith & Davy DMX - Orange Krushed Ya Speakers In 1983~~
Spoonie Gee - The Big Beat (1983)
Love Bug Starski - Live At The Disco Fever (1983)
Run-D.M.C - Sucker M.C's (1983)
The Fearless Four - F-4000 (1983)


Davy DMX being Kurtis Blow's younger sibling explains why Davy ghost-produced all those tracks Kurtis was credited for dunnit? Even back then the Rap game was all politics and paperwork, but there were loopholes to let ya baby-brother producer get a slice of the pie.

Monday 3 June 2019

It Beas' that way sometimes, papi

When Russell Simmons booked a performance for the Beastie Boys at Disco Fever in 1984, the Beasties were stoked because it was the South Bronx's craziest/sexiest/coolest nightclub. Problem was, they were scheduled to perform before midnight, thus the place was near-empty except for a dozen hardened barflys who were busy drinkin', minglin' and smokin' coco puffs. So when Russell Simmons let the Beastie Boys perform She's On It in Krush Groove in 1985, the Beasties used it as an opportunity to reimagine how their Disco Fever performance went down. Art imitating fantasy, the essence of Rap music innit.


The Beasties later went on to casually dismiss She's On It as a relic of their Def Jam era and now refer to the song as "Cheese Omelette". A lesson ya host learned a long time ago is never trust rapper's opinions about their own music, so fuck what the Beasties think because She's On It is peak juvenile 80's Rock-Rap and shoulda been included on Licensed to Ill for maximum Big Rick (Rubin) Energy™.

Beastie Boys - She's On It
(From Krush Groove soundtrack; 1985)


Sunday 2 June 2019

It's so rowdy in the Rouge

"I said I hit da drink twice and then holla FREE COLE!
Bitch, I been up in that water like I'm Finding Nemo
Better get up out my space befo' you catch a Bebo
I'm so sick of love songs, I don't fuck with Ne-Yo"


Eatem - Hit Da Drank Twice (Martorialist edit)
(From t'internet; 2019)



Some Baton Rouge brawl music for the weekend, sir/ma'am? This new Eatem song had a cameo from some bloke called Lil' Larry who didn't act enough of a donkey on the track so I got Jack The Snipper to edit his verse out. Since that Stamina joint still ain't dropped, this is Eatem's best shit since Side N*gga.