Generic list post: November 2025

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Young Bleed died. Rapper deaths hit the hardest when it's an old favourite who was still making good music. And that's I haven't been this gutted about a rapper dying since The Jacka. Hoppin' up for the downstroke while lil' papi plays the violin. R.I.P.

Strictly Dope - Never Be Beat (1990?/2007)
G. Dep - Stay Up (2008)
Tony Yayo ft. Max B & French Montana - Do It Right (2009)
TREE & Parallel Thought - Hang Out (2025)
OnlyHeaven - Text (On The Corner performance) (2025)
BunnaB - Free Him (2025)
WNC Whop Bezzy & 70th Street Carlos - GZ & Souljas (2025)
LARussell & Lil' Jon - I'm From The Bay (2025)
De La Soul - Don't Push Me (2025)
Kurious - When The Coffee Kicks In (2025)
RMC Mike - Right Now (2025)
Nine & Dex - Power Ranger (2025)
Onirico - Stolen Moments (1991)
Real Lies ft. Zoee - Summer Rain (2025)

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 Flying Deuces (1939)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) *
Creep (2004)

TV shows I watched and liked:
Neighbours (new episodes) (2025)
Only Connect (new episodes) (2025)
Mastermind (new episodes) (2025)
Kingdom (series 1) (2025)
Celta de Vigo vs. Barcelona (2025)
Scotland vs. Denmark (2025)
Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur (2025)
Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich (2025)
Match Of The Day 1 and 2 (new episodes) (2025)

Other stuff: peep my playlist of 1983 to 1985 Rap/Electro songs I found in the Mr. Bongo record shop and my look at YouTube videos for Rap songs from decades past.

Say cheesey

"It was 2006 I recall
Fresh white tee and it's crisp I recall
'40 dropped Tell Me When To Go that winter
It was all on the flo' that winter
Then $hort came through with Blow The Whistle for the summer
You wasn't outside back then, what a bummer
Nokia phones and H2 hummers
Hey lil' mama, can I getcha number?"

LARussell & Lil' Jon - I'm From The Bay
(From I'm From The Bay single; 2025)


I Need A Freak is the Mumm-Ra of early 80s Electro because that shit is Ever-Living™. LARussell & Lil' Jon are three for three on their collaboration slaps: Having Like This, I Got Flavor and this new one. Johnny The Boxxx called this 'Wholesome Hyphy', which would be the ideal title for the EP LARussell & Lil' Jon have planned. LARussell has the relentless cheeriness of a children's TV presenter and I ain't mad at that after the last half-decade of sour-faced NorCal child gangbangers. EBK Gorilla Zo-core rappers ain't dropping no songs with Mick Foley references.

Change In Speak

De La Soul - Don't Push Me
(From Cabin In The Sky album; 2025)

De La Soul · Don't Push Me

Fave song on this new De La Soul album is the unreleased Dove solo jam produced by Dove. Tell tale signs this song is at least 15 years old include our boi Plug Two mentioning Obama becoming president, and the beat sounding like a Dancehall-inspired song Estelle would have dropped in the late 2000s. No Posdnous, no problems in this instance because Dove going for dolo is way more fun than yer standard late-career De La song. Dave Jolicoeur by name, more jocular by nature. Dove had a problem... seriously: so much later De La music is full of Posdnous' lyrical finger-wagging which is the audio equivalent of taking cod liver oil. F**k being humourless, Plug Two was complicated.

Late-career De La invariably seem to end their albums on a highlight: Don't Push Me here, Rock Co.Kane Flow on The Grind Date and U Don't Wanna B.D.S on the first Art Official Intelligence. The latter always has me wishing Maseo would do another solo track for a Change In Speak. Alas, he's too shy like Kajagoogoo.

De La Soul ft. Freddie Foxxx - U Don't Wanna B.D.S
(From Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump album; 2000)

De La Soul · U Don't Wanna B.D.S. (feat. Freddie Foxxx)

Blowin' up like a Hawaiian volcano

Strictly Dope - Never Be Beat
(From Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988–1991 album; 2007)

Dj kael kaelmi & maythayus1 · Tupac Shakur - Beginnings The Lost Tapes 1988-1991 - 04 - Never The Beat

The undisputed best song 2Pac & Ray Luv (then Ray Tyson) recorded as Strictly Dope. Probably recorded around 1990, but still would have hit perfect on the Juice soundtrack in 1991. 2Pac said "my mouth is like an UZI when it moves so quick, and my lyrics are like the bullets that I'm loadin' it with." Ray Luv said "tons and tons of freaks, I'm a Mac Daddio, writin' def jams while I'm chillin' on my patio." I say "even youse box-brained Boom-Bap purists can't front on a bangeur like this!" Some sharp-elbowed B-Boy breakbeat shit which makes you feel like you're a graffiti character on an airbrushed Shirt Kings t-shirt.

Many Supermen

Max B over N.W.A's Findum, F*ckum And Flee should have been a bulletproof cheat code for his first post-prison song. Alas, No More Tricks is a 1 minute throwaway where Max sounds like he's struggling to recite lines written in somebody else's handwriting. Me, I'm gonna pretend the song doesn't exist and go back to rediscovering old Max trax from the dayz of wayback. I heard Tony Yayo's Black Superman beatjack with Max & French Montana in 2009, but dismissed it since ByrdGang's Black Superman already existed. Fast forward to 2025 and I now want both like George Costigan in Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Max & French brought the waviness, while Yayo closes it out with the G-Unit henchman villaiNY.

Tony Yayo ft. Max B & French Montana - Do It Right
(From S.O.D mixtape; 2009)


**EDIT** I just realised the Yayo-less version of this was on Coke Wave as the last song Hold On. It wasn't on the version I downloaded tho because the last song on that was NY. My version was also missing All I Wanna.

5th Ward Breezie (part 2)

OnlyHeaven - Text
(From KISS (Keep It Short & Sweet) EP; 2025)


I already said everything I need to say about this song + how OnlyHeaven is the reincarnation of 5th Ward Weebie. So I'm posting her latest performance video of it because it's still her best jam to date and that's why it's the song she performs on the hanging mic YouTube channels. There's so much bum-shaking in Rap videos nowadays, it's good to see some boob-shaking for a change. Why'd I say that? I'm sorry, baby, that was Martaveli not Marty, baby!

Related: I was watching Deal Or No Deal last night and had to do a double-take when I clocked one of the contestants. OnlyHeaven is that you???

You see me, I eat, sleep, shit and watch Rap videos

Nice & Smooth - No Delayin'
(From Nice & Smooth album; 1989/YouTube; 2011)


I do believe this was the first YouTube video for a Rap song from decades past. No Delayin' wasn't a single back in 1989, but it's one of the best songs from Nice & Smooth's debut album, so it made the ideal song to shoot a video for to promote the 2011 remastered reissue of their album. Props for gettin' Big Daddy Kane in to mouth the vocal sample, but it's a pity Greg Nice & Smooth B didn't rock their Dapper Dan outfits from the sleeve of their debut.

Other great Rap album cuts from decades past to get YouTube videos include Project Pat's Gorilla Pimp, Young Bleed & Max Minelli's Better Than The Last Time, Brotha Lynch Hung's Rest In Piss and Juvenile's 400 Degreez. The latter is the best video of the lot and is a reminder that "you see me, I eat, sleep, shit and talk Rap" is one of the most relatable opening lines ever for doz of us neck deep in the Rap connoisseur lifestyle. If you're gonna be obsessed by something, it might as well be something good.

Juvenile - 400 Degreez
(From 400 Degreez album; 1998/YouTube; 2024)


It also has me wishin' Juve would shoot a video for Ghetto Children, which is his own favourite song from 4OO Degreez. Juve is clearly a man of taste just like me because Ghetto Children is my jam from 4OO Degreez too.

There's also been YouTube videos for old Rap singles which never got blessed with videos back when they were originally released back in the 80s. The two key examples of this are Busy Bee's Suicide and the recent 40th anniversary video for LL Cool J's Rock The Bells. These other old school rappers with classic songs celebrating 40th anniversaries in 2025 stay bringing the woodpeckers while LL brings The goods.

LL Cool J - Rock The Bells
(From Radio album; 1985/YouTube: 2025)


Fingers crossed for one video of a Rap song celebrating its 40th anniversary video in 2026. If I ruled the world it'd be a Who Framed Roger Rabbit type semi-animated video for Schoolly D's Saturday Night.

Bark The 45 King

"You lookin' like you lost, need direction
I'm lookin' like a boss, need affection"

TREE & Parallel Thought - Hang Out
(From Hang Out single; 2025)


More than ever, I appreciate TREE's music for never sounding like anyone else, even when he has other producers in the boiler room. Gotta have it in ya heart, gotta know yous makin' art, when you start with this music gotta know just who you are. Give it up for MC TREE G AKA Ziggly Twiggly AKA Oak K Player AKA Roots Riley.

Fly, pelican, fly

Jim Jones, Max B & Mel Matrix - Anniversary
(From DukeDaGod's Dipset: More Than Music Vol. 2 compilation; 2007)


Nowadays Anniversary is my de facto choice for the best ByrdGang song ever. Million Dollar Baby contribution from Max B, Gym Bore Jones in peak sulky-arse tweenager mode, Mel Matrix dependable as ever as the ByrdGang henchman, and soaring production by someone called Bear One of The Control Freaks which sounds like the greatest King Geedorah era MF DOOM beat never made. Prepare for the pop-off, turn your speakers up and let this song blow your bloody top off.

A while back I said I could live without any new Max & French songs. After hearing this snippet, I've changed my mind. Now there's a song which sounds like it needs Pain In Da Ass on the intro doing a Pachanga from Carlito's Way impersonation.

Late pass!

G. Dep - Stay Up
(From The Hiatus Deponomics mixtape; 2008)


A G. Dep single I'd never heard before. That liquid introspective shit a la Reflections or the Everyday remix which sounds like a message in a bottle from the 2008 New York mixtape era in the best way possible. Plus, Dep rockin' the bald dome & moustache combination lookin' like Kase2 in Cope 2's graffiti documentary. Hat tip to the DVD Couture Instagram account for this one.

The Deuce: Baton Rouge edition

Young Bleed - Walk Like Uh Husala
(From Preserved album; 2011)


My pick for the greatest Young Bleed album track nobody ever talks about. The way Bleed ends each line in the second verse by stretching out the last two words is the audio equivalent of a Louisiana pimp dragging his leg when he walks. Styles by the fibula.

WNC Whop Bezzy & 70th Street Carlos - Gz and Souljas
(From Out The Blue album; 2025)


A WNC flip of L.O.G's G's & Soldiers came outta that Bayou like a muskrat and makes the perfect B-side to WTF I Look Like. Really doe, there's no excuse for no Trel Itz A Hit beats on this Whop & Carlos album. Youse lads act like you've never heard South Louisiana Swag before.

No words

Never On Sunday - Urban Rains
(From Day By Day EP; 1992)

octave one · A3 Never On Sunday - Urban Rains

Deep melancholy Detroit dance music from Octave One under a different name. Detriot dance music is so confusing with all the aliases innit? For example, ur boi only recently realised that Alien FM are Aux 88 under a different guise. Anyhoo, Urban Rains is the missing link between Night Drive the choon and Night Bus the concept. A Woolworths £10 gift voucher from 2008 goes out to anybody who can tell me how I discovered this song. Shout out to the woolyback crew in St. Helens!

Dizzee Rascal - Strings Hoe
(From white label 12"; 2004)

UK Urban Classic Hits · Dizzee Rascal - Strings Hoe (Instrumental) - 2004 - UK Grime

So, there's a 2004 white label Dizzee Rascal instrumental called Strings Hoe which samples John Lurie's Car Florida from the Stranger Than Paradise soundtrack. How on Earth did 20 year old Dizzee Rascal find a John Lurie score from a 1984 Jim Jarmusch movie? Answers on a postcard from Margate plz. Personally, I'm glad Rascal didn't rhyme over Strings Hoe because, if Jarmusch were to ever do a Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samourai sequel set in London, he could use this track as the main theme. This ain't no ancient civilization here, m8... except sometimes it is.

I'm in her drawers, family bible

"One eye closed, Ranganathan
Beatin' it off like I'm masturbatin'
The hammer so loud that I'm nearly deaf, I ain't exaggeratin'"

Nine & Dex - Power Ranger
(From Power Ranger single; 2025)


#Banter is back again via the Road-Rap Eric & Ernie. Give me a new Nine & Dex song every month and I'm happier than a pig in the proverbial. Two thumbs down at two uses of the word FEDS tho. Lads, they're the old bill, the coppers, the filth, the plod, the rozzers, the bizzies, the bobbies etc.

**EDIT** I'll forgive one use of FEDS here because Nine rhymed "I say f**k the FEDS" with "guns like monsters, under beds." Chef's kiss.

If we sacrifice Adrian Younge to a volcano can we get Young Bleed back?

Young Bleed - Stamp On It
(From the internet; 2006/Preserved album; 2011)


It was the moment I feared. I was hoping I wouldn't have to write this post after the initial reports of Young Bleed's demise were greatly exaggerated. Bleed dying a week after the No Limit vs. Cash Money Verzuz is the Baton Rouge Rap equivalent of Ozzy Osbourne dying after his final show. R.I.P to the funkadelic, psychedelic reinterpretation of the third kind. Bleed was Louisiana's foremost exponent of Country-Rap Swamp-Blues choonz who was still putting out good music in 2025. The great thing about Bleed is how effortless his stream-of-consciousness flow sounded even though his writing was intricately honed to perfection. Kinda like Juvenile, he rapped like he was talking to you in the flyest of Louisiana pentecostal preacherman tongues. He didn't sound like anybody else in Concentration Camp or on No Limit, and his style was an obvious influence on 2000s rappers like $tarlito and Curren$y. I acknowledge How Ya Do Dat as a classic, but Bleed's original solo version A Fool is the de facto better song. No shotz @ the verses from Master P and C-Loc, and all shotz @ Beats By The Pound for remixing Happy Perez's beat and messing it up. Don't even front that this isn't the definitive version.

Young Bleed - A Fool
(From C-Loc's Concentration Camp compilation; 1997)

Poland Street Is Watching Part 2

This old advert is a timely reminder that the defunct Mr Bongo record shop had a stacked section of 2nd hand 80s Rap and Electro where I'd find 12" singles I'd never come across in any record shops up north. The thing about the REAL HIP-HOP™ backpack brigade who frequented Bongos was that, although they'd walk around in fat lace Adidas Superstars and Puma States, very few of them had any interest in Rap music made before 1987. Fortunately, this was good news for me because it meant ur boi could hit those used record racks like the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil and bag loadsa early to mid 80s Rap and Electro 12"s. Thus, here's a playlist of the best early 80s choonz I picked up in Bongos. All 12 songs hail from 1983 to 1985, which was a transitioal period for Rap. An era now lost in time like peeing in the sea, but which is one of my favourite stages in Rap's evolution.

Best early 80s Rap Choonz I picked up in Mr Bongo:
1. Spoonie Gee - The Big Beat (1983)
2. Jonzun Crew - Space Is The Place (1983)
3. The Cold Crush Brothers - Fresh, Wild, Fly & Bold (1984)
4. Egyptian Lover - Computer Love (Sweet Dreams) (1984)
5. The Furious Five - New York, New York (1983)
6. Grandmaster Melle Mel - Beat Street Breakdown (1984)
7. Newcleus - Jam On It (1984)
8. Crash Crew - We Are Known As Emcees (We Turn The Party Out) (1983)
9. Roxanne with UTFO - The Real Roxanne (1984)
10. Davy DMX - The DMX Will Rock (1985)
11. Stetsasonic - Just Say Stet (1985)
12. West Street Mob - Break Dance Electric Boogie (1983)