Found by our hombre Thoro' Eard and yours for 40 quid. The perfect Xmas stocking filler for the gentleman still internally gnawed by his inability to grow a jheri curl.
BONUS N.W.A RELATED BEATS :
Yelawolf - Boyz In The Woodz (From Ball Of Flames - The Ballad Of Slick Rick E. Bobby; 2008)
Thus far I've only heard the Mystikal joint and all the previously leaked cuts from Radioactive, but I'm gonna hazard a wild guess that I'd be better sticking with all the good songs off Ball Of Flames, Stereo and both versions of Trunk Muzik than even bothering with it, amirite?
Along with L.G, Fred Flak was responsible for the production and co-production on MobStyle's The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and Game Of Death albums as well as Azie Fassion's solo tape Street Wise, but his greatest work came about when Pretty Tone Capone went solo and he became Tone's main producer. Together they recorded such Harlem classics as Can't Talk Too Long On The Telephone, Case Dismissed, Across 110th Street and Marked 4 Death, albeit with a little help from Funkmaster Flex on Across... After he replied to one of my MobStyle posts, Fred and I arranged to shoot the shit and he's since been kind enough to lace me with a few unreleased MobStyle gems from his vault for the interview.
MobStyle - Gangster Shit (From The Good, The Bad, The Ugly; 1990)
T.M : Let's start with Harlem. What I love about the O.G wave of Uptown Rappers like Spoonie Gee, Harlem World Crew, Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde, Crash Crew, The Fearless Four and Doug E. Fresh is that their records sound so different to the Bronx Rappers . Tell me what sort of impact these guys had on you as a kid?
F.F : Spoonie Gee was my first Hip Hop record when I got my turntables back in the day. Well, when I was DJing I actually had a crew who had a few rap battles with Treacherous 3, and Crash Crew was my homies. I used to chill with Darryl C and me and Reggie Reg are still cool - thats a real cool bro. As well as Reg, I'm cool with DJ Barry B from the Get Fresh Crew, Doug E. Fresh lives directly across the street from me. Me and Teddy Riley used to do jams in the park in my projects and the place used to b packed like a concert.
MobStyle - The Freestyle (From Fred Flak's unreleased stash; 1989)
T.M : So, how did the MobStyle hook-up come about?
F.F : Well I met tone first 'cause Tone heard I was the go-to kid for street beats. So when me and Tone started doin songs in the studio I guess Azie liked what he heard and thats when mobstyle came about so he asked tone to hook us up, so Tone brought Azie to my apartment. I let A hear some samples and about 2 days later we was in the studio like everyday for 12-14hrs a day. Being in the studio with Tone I've met so many artist I thought I was famous! *laughs*
MobStyle - The Cypher (From Fred Flak's unreleased stash; 1990)
T.M : I think you just pipped EPMD to the post to be the first person to use that Love Unlimited Orchestra sample on The DL and I love what you did with Nautilus on Can't Talk Too Long On The Telephone. What are some of your favourite breaks?
F.F : I was a DJ before I started producing so I like a lot of break beats, but U.F.O by ESG is one of my alltime favorite beats
T.M : Good choice. You a Phil Collins fan? Harlem love Phil's music, right?
F.F : Yeah - Phil the man. *Laughs*
T.M : Okay, I gotta ask about the N.W.A incident when they played the Apollo and Tone, Gangster Lou and a posse of Uptown goons bumrushed the stage.
F.F : Well the Apollo incident was a normal reaction, really. Tone wasn't gonna let N.W.A perform in Harlem or N.Y period after they dissed MobStyle on record and at that time Tone was a loose cannon.
T.M : 100 Miles And Runnin' away from New York. *Laughs* What a pity that nobody captured that on camera.
Pretty Tone Capone - Case Dismissed (From Case Dismissed 12"; 1992)
T.M : So, the Case Dismissed video is one of the wildest Rap videos I've ever seen. What's the story behind it?
F.F : Well the court room is the same court room from the movie New Jack City and most of the people there are homies from the 'hood who almost got us kicked out because we had blunts, blunts and more blunts lit up. *Laughs* Rick Rubin from Def American supplied us with a nice budget. I wish I could make a movie bout myself and the adventures back then. So many!
T.M : Was the cute Puerto Rican chick with Tone his girlfriend?
F.F : No, that was a chick we scooped up on the street. *Laughs*
Pretty Tone Capone - Can't Talk Too Long On The Telephone (From Def American Recordings Preview tape; 1992)
T.M : Smooth operators. Tone signed a solo deal with Rick Rubin's label Def American Records in 1992. How much material did you record for them?
F.F : I produced around 8 - 10 songs for Rick Rubin. We worked around a lot of artists for it like Fat Joe, Showbiz, Lord Finesse, Father M.C, Ru-Paul, Funk Master Flex and the DMC champ' DJ Steve D.
T.M : I've gotta confess that I'm having difficulty picturing Tone and Ru-Paul on the same track together.
F.F : Yeah, thats what we said. Thats why we scratched it off the album. *Laughs* And the name of the song was Where's The Beef! *Laughs* It probably would've went platinum with all the homo thugs out nowadays. *Laughs*
Pretty Tone Capone ft. J-Nitti - Across 110th Street (From Across 110th Street 12"; 1993)
T.M : Def American was more of a Rock label than a Rap label really because Tone, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Milk D were the only Rappers Rick Rubin had back then. Did you ever meet any of those Rock bands like Slayer or Danzig?
F.F : No, we haven't met them guys but we were on our way up.
T.M : Do you think Def American didn't really know how to promote really raw Street-Rap like Tone?
F.F : As far as Rubin goes, honestly I don't think he was ready for Hip Hip.. or maybe Hip Hop wasn't ready for Rick. Tone would've ripped that 99 Problems beat up. *Laughs*
T.M : What happened with Tone's album getting shelved? Was it down to major labels getting shook during the whole Ice-T Cop Killer controversy?
F.F : With Tone's album, him and Rick just couldnt see eye to eye. We was outta control. Oh boy, the stories. You might have to wait for my movie. *Laughs*
T.M : I sent you the video of K-Def cuttin' up that song with Tone on the intro. What's up with that one?
F.F : That's not one of ours. I asked Tone about that and he says he doesn't even know how they got his vocals for that.
T.M : Damn. What did you and Tone think about people like Cam'Ron & Bloodshed or Ghostface Killah? You think they swaggerjacked elements of Tone at all?
F.F : Well honestly theres a lot of rappers out now who i think stole Tone's swag, ya know?
Pretty Tone Capone - Marked 4 Death (From Across 110th Street 12"; 1993)
T.M : Okay, so, is there any joint in your catalogue you could single out as a favourite?
F.F : My favouriteS, you mean. I can't choose just one. Every song we did was then and there, and every song has a story behind the scenes, so even if the song wasn't my favourite, the story that goes with makin' the song makes it one of my favourites
T.M : Fair enough. I like Can't Talk Too Long.. and Case Dismissed, myself. And you co-produced Gangster Shit, right?
F.F : Yeah, and I produced Part 2.
Killa Dilla - The Rain (From Loyalty; 2006)
T.M : So, I've been checking some of your newer beats and they'd sound real good with someone like Black Rob over them. I'm feelin' that Killa Dilla joint you sent me too.
F.F : That's my man! We recorded that one around 2006-ish along with some tracks by my boy M.C Future, who did a joint with Max B.
T.M : You listen to Max? Or any Cam and Dipset in general?
F.F : I'm not a big fan of Dipset. They aiight.
T.M : Finally, 5 songs which represent Harlem?
F.F : 5 songs... right now... none! Foreal, I miss the old real hip-hop, this music now is too corporate, no originality, lame ass fake gangsters. I like Jadakiss, Styles-P, Jay-Z, a lil' Rick Ross!
T.M : Thanks for the time, Fred.
F.F : No probs. Stay in touch, man. Peace.
As well as the phone number, Gmail address and Facebook page on his business card up top, you can also find Fred on Youtube at FredFlakGreatestHitz.
AKA brief thoughts on Master P's new mixtape TMZ : Too Many Zeros.
Silkk is conspicuous by his absence; it's pretty bizarre to hear Romeo Rap now his balls have dropped; it's perhaps even more bizarre to hear P Rapping about h8ers on Twitter and Facebook; not nearly enough P on here, but when he does appear it's heartwarming to hear that his artistic M.O of brazenly swaggerjacking popular Rappers is still intact, with Rick Ross being his new muse; I might never get the deluxe reissue of T-Bo & Mike Da Hustla's Who Dem Boys? that I crave, but I suppose a new T-Bo banger with Romeo will have suffice instead :
T-Bo & Romeo - Fed Up (From TMZ : Too Many Zeros mixtape; 2011)
Also good to see this living up to $tarlito's "rest in peace songs every CD like P. Miller" line with the emotional tour-de-force finale R.I.P. I always thought I Miss My Homies should've been the closing track on Ghetto D so this goes someway in righting that wrong, although, as you might expect, Pimp C is not shouted out as "one of the fallen soldiers" here :
Krazy ft. Master P, T.E.C & Chip - R.I.P (From TMZ : Too Many Zeros mixtape; 2011)
In summary : not exactly The Ghetto's Tryin' To Kill Me or Ghetto D, but it does have more joints than Rakim's last album.
"On the mic you get stupid, I can get buck too Bitch, if your name ain't Boosie, n*gga, fuck you!"
Webbie - I Been Here (From Savage Life 3 album; 2011)
If What's Happenin' is such an anthem in Baton Rogue that it's already being trumpeted as the 2011 I'm 'Bout It, Bout It, then I Been Here is a possible future album-cut classic in the vein of Walk Like A Killer; I Do 'Em All is worthy of being mentioned alongside No Ho'z Barred as far as Rap songs which exemplify the philosophy of I Don't Care If You Wouldn't, I Would go; thank fuck Lil' Trill has finally hit puberty because he's no longer the most nails-on-a-blackboard voice in Rap since the incessantly shrill chickenhead in the background of Slim Thug's Like A Boss that he was back in 2009; and I'm mighty disappointed Crazy didn't make the album when I'm gagging for a No DJ version and it would've been the ideal opening cut since it's one of Webbie's most uncivilised moments of 2011 :
Webbie - Crazy (From Still Trill mixtape; 2011)
Hopefully Turk & Mell are currently putting together a compilation of all Webbie's Savage Life 3 promo campaign interviews and the hitherto unseen footage of him beating the shit out of the Freestyle Friday winner on BET to add to Trill Ent's catalogue of classic 'hood DVDs. It's mind boggling to think that Rappers are still referencing films like Scarface and Menace II Society in 2011 when they could paying homage to Boosie & Webbie's cinematic vehicle Ghetto Stories : The Movie instead, but it's an absolute travesty that neither Boosie or Webbie were nominated in the Best Actor category for their performances in the picture at last year's Oscars when Hollywood still owes this Rap shit an award for snubbing Cam'Ron's triumphant turn as Rico in Paid In Full :
Duh, because somebody uploaded the ridiculously rare video of Positive K's second single Step Up Front and it has everything you could possibly want from a 1988 Rap video; namely, Dapper Dan gear, Lisa Turtle lookalikes in sheepskin coats and dudes with flattops dancing on a rooftop in the projects :
Positive K - Step Up Front
(From Step Up Front 12"; 1988)
The problem with interchangeable LL Cool J clones from the Golden-Era is that some of them were afforded the opportunity to release shitty albums (or ridiculously overrated albums with one good song) as well as crap 12" singles. In turn, this makes it all the more irksome that a unique talent like Positive K had to wait until 1992 to drop his own long player when he was putting out awesome singles like Step Up Front and his third single A Good Combination in the twlight years of the 80s, with the latter being as unorthodox and bugged out as De La's Plug Tunin'. For real, who else was flowing like this or even rhymin' over beats like this in '89? Warm it up, Pos' :
Positive K - A Good Combination
(From A Good Combination 12"; 1989)
Actual Facts : every time some newjack self-proclaimed vinyl purist turd who doesn't even own any Positive K records pays over $100/£100 for a generic Paul C-engineered 1989 12" from the Random-Rap canon, another black dude from the Bronx is murdered in cold blood by po-po.
That's random irritations which happen to be Rap related, rather than irritations caused by crappy Random-Rap 12" singles released in 1988 and 1989 by interchangeable LL Cool J clones that Belgian dudes called Jens Roc Ski will pay silly money for on eBay :
1. Went to see Ghostface thursday night and that's twice I've caught him live in the past couple of years now where he hasn't performed Daytona 500 during the medley section of his set. It wouldn't have been churlish to ask for a partial refund because a Daytona 500 no-show in a Ghost' live performance is like Coco's career without Ice, Riff Raff without the rice, Rev' Run's Twitter without platitudes about Christ, Arsene Wenger's transfer success without Mike, DMX without a pipe, Odd Future without a dyke, or a day on WSHH without a video of a McDonalds fight.
2. Man, all y'all Drake h8orz who've downloaded whatever his latest album is called and then spent the past few days listening to it in-depth and critiquing it song-by-song online might be even more deplorable than actual Drake fans. At least his defenders have the excuse of being female/gay/named Jacques/too stupid to own The Dream's albums, you other dudes who find Drake's music revolting have wasted precious time which could've otherwise been spent listening to Bigga Make Me Cum by Max B on repeat and reading BeholdTheDestroyer or PlayingRickyMorton just so you can indulge in impassioned message board/Twitter spats. This can't be life, fellas.
3. What's the deal with MP3s from Bandcamp being unsuitable for certain MP3 players? I'll take an occasional ‘file format not supported’ loss on MP3s from Livemixtapes since they're free, but when I'm shelling out moolah for $tarlito and Mic Terror releases from Bandcamp I expect to be able to jam them when ridin' through the city at night shouting "wanker!" at anybody wearing drop-crotch chinos (is this just a U.K thing or are Hammerpants big with the yout' in America and Canada too?), not just when I'm sitting at home on the sofa scratching my balls on a surprisingly sunny november saturday morning.
$tarlito - Rather Be With You (From #UW : Separation Anxiety; 2011)
More pertinently, do black ppl really have WASP-ey names like Dolph in real life and why is Dolph suddenly a ubiquitous presence on every song to come out of Memphis that's been posted on DGB over the past month and change? The entire Martorialist mob are still decked out in our Team Zed Zilla v-neck tees and this godamn Dolph varmint keeps giving us nipple rashes from the friction of him continually ganking Zed's seat in Memphis Rap's current game of weed carrier Musical Chairs.
Zed Zilla - Dope Flow (From Rents Due mixtape; 2011)
Other than that, this post is little more than a missive from the thursday-filler folder to let you know that Dope Flow from the Rents Due mixtape is the shit too because it's like an episode of Doctor Who where Dom P's ex-schoolmate and the hawt ginger stallion take 2011 $tarlito back in time to when he was signed to Ca$h Money Records in 2005 just to secure him one of those melodramatically wailing guitar solo joints Wayne was fond of circa The Carter II. If the winter weather has got you feeling existentially tormented like Ja Rule in the Put It On Me remix video then Dope Flow is the song 4 u :
I have no problem agreeing that Gucci Gucci is one of thethree good songs by white chicks in the thirty-odd year history of Rap music. Similarly, whether you like it or not, the scene in the "A Day With V-Nasty" video where Vanessa runs up on the AZN breh slappin' Lil B's Like A Martian in the street is the 2011 equivalent of that scene in Wild Style where the kid in the turtleneck turns up to snap his fingers approvingly as Double Trouble are rhyming on the stoop. But sometimes a man needs to get his femme-Rapper jollies from actual black ppl and this is where Lady comes in since Nicki Minaj has unfortunately spent the last year making music for Ukrainian tampon commercials; Pussy almost sounds like a semi-Martian Slap remix of Yankin' and it's for precisely that reason that it's the highlight of her brand new album Bout Dat Life:
Lady - Pussy
(From Bout Dat Life album; 2011)
In a perfect world Pussy would be a viral sensation which rivals Lookin' Ass N*gga in popularity, but, as Ice-T told us back in the day, SHIT AIN'T LIKE THAT!!! Alas, I suppose we'll all just have to settle for it being the type of Rap song that Q.T Pie from the Gangsta-Rap episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends would probably make in 2011 instead:
