Generic list post: April 2021

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Something For The Weekend unfortunately meant Rappers dying every week. Pour out a little beverage of your choice for Shock G and Black Rob. DMX too, though I only like a handful of his songs tbqh.

Me & E - Whatcha Need (1989)
Major Weight Media - Natural (1997)
Homeboy Sandman - Conjugal Visit To The Prison Of The Mind (2014)
P-Lo - Boomerang (2020)
P-Lo - Walked In (2021)
Mac J - Gotta Grudge (2021)
CupcaKKe - Mosh Pit (2021)
Chilly - For Your Love (12" version) (1978)
Cajmere - So Happy (2021)
Beabadoobee - Apple Cider (2019)
Other notables: that Gzus Haze album ain't bad but doesn't really have any stand-out songs imho; did anyone need a Real Instruments™ remake of Grand Puba's I Like It?; for my sins, I quite enjoy the CBeebies U.K Drill of Latest Trends by A1 & J1.

Bonus reading: can you believe 1991 was 30 years ago? (part 2) and shinola songs by the shittiest artists.

Curtis Jones' Future Shock

Cajmere - So Happy
(From So Happy single; 2021)

Cajmere · Cajmere - So Happy

Some shit I wasn't expecting to find this morning: a new Cajmere choon based around James Brown's I'm Satisfied which sounds as Dirt McGirt Cajploitation as I'd hoped it would. Crazy visionz, BOOM: Cajmere's alter-ego Green Velvet is the ideal person to bring James Brown's batshit crazy late 70's TV show Future Shock back to life amirite?

Bonus beats: City Girls recently interpolating Percolator got me thinkin' about other Cajmere songs primed for rappers to use. Somebody could REALLY have their wicked way with Let Me Be, though that somebody preferably wouldn't be Kid Cudi, Vic Mensa or Makonnen.

Cajmere - Let Me Be
(From Underground Goodies Vol. 4 EP; 1992)

colin racine · Cajmere ‎- Let Me Be

#P-LoHive reprise

P-Lo - Walked In
(From Yours EP; 2021)


Walked in and shit got spooky the way this one has grown on me. It's definitely the most P-Lo Type Beat™ of his last four singles, but in a Hella good way. For best results use Walked In as the B-Side to Yours - an Oakland Yin & Yang combination of sweet romancing & dumb dancing which Shock G would be proud of.

Previously: #P-LoHive.

If we sacrifice Stevie G to a volcano can we get Shock G back?

Shock G never attacked an innocent DJ for rejecting a Phil Collins song request!


FFS is this 2021's new normal where a Rapper dies every Friday? R.I.P to Shock G AKA Humpty Hump AKA Piano Man AKA MC Blowfish AKA The Packet Man AKA Rackadelic AKA the musical genius who did think with his penis. Half the Rap eccentricities Kool Keith brags he invented, Shock G has a more legitimate claim to, and, as I recently realised, Humpty Hump even pioneered Hyphy. It seems like Digital Underground have been shunted into the margins of Rap history but this shouldn't come as a surprise - any Rappers who dare to display a sense of humour get deemed "non lyrical" and end up derided as glorified novelty acts no matter how great their music is.

Well, fuk the history books and anyone who wrote 'em because Digital Underground's first album and follow-up EP are God-tier Rap music, and Shock was a true genius Rapper/producer/dancer auteur. A man of many talents, he even bodied a couple 80's Hollywood comedy legends in their own movie, somehow coaxed a good remix out of CJ Mackintosh, and transformed a forgettable Prince single into Prince's last great song. Pop a Sex Packet for the Funk Mob Extraordinaire who originated sock puppeting on wax. Oh, how we'll forever love to bump thee.


The Apollo: officially more receptive to Digital Underground than Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince!

Late pass!

Homeboy Sandman - Conjugal Visit To The Prison Of The Mind
(From Homeboy Sandman Is The Sandman EP; 2014/YouTube; 2021)


This older Homeboy Sandman song recently got blessed with video outta the blue. Conjugal Visit To The Prison Of The Mind sounds nothing like Waiting On My Girl but my point about the latter song applies here too: when Sandman's music and my taste do converge it's always on some idiosyncratic bugged-out shit which could only come from him. True story: Killah Priest is still pissed that he didn't think of this song title first.

Bonus beats: if I'd heard Conjugal Visit To The Prison Of The Mind back when it first dropped in 2014 then I woulda had that shit up in my playlists next to Kurious' Best In The World. Call me Freedom Williams because I'm just a squirrel tryna get a nut - f*ck Rotten Apple Rap, gimme more Pecan Rican Rap.

Kurious Jorge - Best In The World
(From YouTube; 2014)

If we sacrifice Purple Aki to a volcano can we get Black Rob back?

Black Rob - Up North (This is What it Is)
(From Game Tested, Streets Approved album; 2011)


This month is starting to feel like a new Final Destination movie where the Grim Reaper is on the hunt for everyone who appeared on 24 Hours To Live. F*ck White Cop, R.I.P Black Rob. Readers from the dayz of wayback will remember that I was a big B.R fan and why wouldn't I be? Rob was one of Harlem's vividest authors with an eye for detail and an ear for good old fashioned songwriting. Alongside Biggie, he was the only Bad Boy Records rapper to parlay Puffy's factory farm system into a couple of good albums; Rob also had an enviable stash of officially unreleased music dating back to 1991 when he recorded his first demo with Dan The Automator - still one of the unlikeliest rapper/producer pairings ever or wot? In and out of prison up until he hit the age of 40, a tiny crumb of solace can be taken from B.R spending his last decade on Earth as a free man who could transform a 2011 graduation party into The Tunnel circa 2000.


PS: the upload of my Black Rob deep cuts compilation is still live. I'd throw it up on Audiomack as a playlist but songs from the Bad Boy catalogue tend to get nuked by the DMCA within hours.

TOTP Billin'

Nowadays my main Friday night ritual is watching BBC4's re-runs of old Top Of The Pops episodes, and two hall of fame Pop-Rap classix were performed on last night's 1990 shows. And I do mean performed because this was the era when Top Of The Pops began insisting that artists played live in a bid to make the show more credible/as a sneaky ploy to stop Rave acts with songs extolling drug use appearing on TV. If you were in high school or up in clubs when Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby and Dream Warriors' My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style first dropped you loved both songs and you either lyin' or you were listening to Timmy Mallet if you claim otherwise.




On the evidence of the Ice Ice Baby clip, Vanilla Ice was a far better live performer than many of the G.O.A.T's including Rakim and Nas. Get yourself a Rapper who can dance and rhyme at the Same Damn Time!™

More sax please, I'm British

"Mosh pit, I'm 'bout to put a hole in 'em
Better have on Calvin Kleins 'cause I'ma knock ya out your denims"

CupcaKKe - Mosh Pit
(From Mosh Pit single; 2021)



Then we squashed it, Instagram let me know "watch it", it's time to join Chicago's filthiest rhymer in the mosh pit. Definitely tryna hear more saxobeat in 2021 Rap. Gimme that TOOT TOOT and lemme get that BEEP BEEP.