Sporty Spicez

Sporty Thievz - Dogz
(From The Lost Cinema Pt 1 album; late 90s/2021)


Highlight of that recent album of unreleased Sporty Thievz songs imho. Chauvinism as an artform with a dash of equal opportunity hating from da ladeez. Definitely feel like The Culcha™ was robbed of this song being the follow up single Cheapskate, though they'd have to get their Nutty Professor on to come up with a clean edit. Also a huge pity Hot Pursuit got shelved because it's some Sporty & The Bandit type shit which lives up to the Street Cinema title of their debut album.

Sporty Thievz - Hot Pursuit
(From The Lost Cinema Pt 1 album; late 90s/2021)


Bonus beats: there's a few other deep gems on King Kirk's Bandcamp for #SportyThievzHive. Any Rap song with the Le Pamplemousse bass break is automatically a 4/5 banger.

Sporty Thievz - Ya Don't Stop
(From Diehard Sampler '98 "Lost In Yonkers" compilation; 1998)

Can You Hear Me?

Max B - 75 In The Can
(From 75 In The Can single; 2021)


75 In The Can? More like Recorded With A Coca Cola Can amirite? Nonetheless, Max having his wicked way with a cheap revamp of Dru Down's favourite song by The Fat Boys is right up my road.

It's New York treats friday with new Max and an album of unreleased Sporty Thievz songs. Dogz and Thief Thing are soundin' like some vintage Sporty X Ski Beatz to me.

#P-LoHive 1nce Again: Shmob Figaz

P-Lo - Going Off
(From Going Off single; 2021)


Husalah homage alert! P-Lo's killer little run of singles continues with his 5th yumper in a row. P's slowly but consistently dropping anthems when too many of his NorCal contemporaries are content to drop any old shite in the name of #content. If a Bay Area slap doesn't make you turf dance a hole in your living room carpet then toss that song out on the corner and let the bin men take it away.

PS: I found the intro from Walked In.

Murda was the case in point

"Don't come round me talking all this Crew shit
You was strapped, saw the kid who shot me and ain't do shit
If that was me on the othеr hand
Woulda shot him and the n*gga he was with, I'm just keeping it a hunnid, fam
So miss me with all the phony shit
Woulda did a bid for you, thinkin' we was on somе real homie shit
That woulda been time away from my kids, n*gga
Woulda been sick thinkin' bout all the sucka shit you did, n*gga
But it is what it is, n*gga"

Uncle Murda - Bro Shit
(From Don't Come Outside, Vol. 3 mixtape; 2021)


Me & Uncle Murda go back like Lil' Baby & Young Thug songs not named Pacifier, but my old chum ain't made shit dope since Cam'Ron Voice. Fortunately, friendship is a song topic which has brought the best out of everyone from Whodini to Dag Nasty and here it proves to be the ideal framework for Murda's foulness to flourish into a Bro Betrayal Ballad™. Listen closer tho because in every slice of Uncle Murda's ig'nance there's always a kernel of truth.

Last week it was Nino Man, this week it's Uncle Murda. Check back next week to see if I've found a Dave East song I like (probably not unless he miraculously drops some undeniable shit.)

Shinola songs from the shittiest artists (part 2)

Like the Mermaid mum in Round The Twist, this series may have legs.

Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
(From Run Come Save Me album; 2001)


A spectacular fluke in the otherwise dull career of stoner/student fave Roots Manuva or wot? Witness (1 Hope) is some bionic Englo-Jamaican Bashment-Rap - basically, that's my fancy way of saying it's the only U.K Hip-Hop song you can play in a DJ set between Mr. Oizu's Flat Beat and Dizzee Rascal's I Luv U.

Bad Bascomb - Black Grass
(From Black Grass Music album; 1973)


Breakbeat Lenny's Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilations contain a fair few shinola songs by the shittiest artists. For my money, Bad Bascomb's Black Grasss is the best of the bunch and I type that with the authority of someone who once bought Bascomb's one LP in the vein hope it contained any other jams (spoiler: it doesn't.) Originally a B-Boy favourite which Howie Tee later used as the backbone of Special Ed's Hoedown, Black Grass is peak Duelling Banjos-core.

A1 x J1 - Latest Trends
(From Latest Trends single; 2021)


Even Russell Grant couldn't have predicted that a CBeebies U.K Drill equivalent of WSTRN's In2 would be Brit-Rap's first legit anthem of 2021. Nuff respect to A1 x J1 for stickin' to the Nice & Smooth blueprint of one short chunky member & one long skinny member.

Try to take it all in stride, please don't keep it all inside

"Stresses are all around
Stress wants to be a verb, make sure that it's a noun
When stresses are repressed, effects can be profound
So don't be in denial when stress is goin' down"

Homeboy Sandman - Stress
(From Don't Feed The Monster album; 2020/YouTube; 2021)


Better out than in: off-kilter observational Rap that's more of an Overlord Of Overthinking handbook than Organized Konfusion's hall of famer and its equally hallowed remix. This song properly clicked for me when I realised it's got that sneaky MF Grimm Tick Tick sloppy-choppy energy in Sandman's flow and Quelle Chris' production. Brain sick, tick tick, stress will blow it up!

MF Grimm - Tick Tick
(From MF DOOM's Operation: Doomsday album; 1999)

MF Doom · Tick, Tick (feat. MF Grimm)

Tick Tick definitely ranks somewhere in the upper echelon of ya host's top ten G.O.A.T guest solo songs on other rapper's albums. The other nine? In no particular order: Lady Of Rage's G Funk (Intro) from Snoop's Doggystyle; Mac Dre's Game I'm Spittin' from Dubee's AKA Sugawolf; MF DOOM's I Hear Voices Part 1 from MF Grimm's The Downfall Of Ibylis; Kurious' Fastlane from King Gheedorah's Take Me To Your Leader; Fam-Lay's FamLay Freestyle from The Clipse's Lord Willin'; Lil' Cease's O.G solo version of Crush On You from Lil' Kim's Hard Core; Lil' Wayne's Wayne's Takeover 1 from Mannie's The Mind Of Mannie Fresh; Un Kasa's Un Casa from Dipset's Diplomatic Immunity; and Memphis Bleek's Hand It Down from Jay Camel's Volume 2.

To The Max (no Stezo)

"F*ck 5-0!
I was tryna get a bag on the ave but the slabs with 12 knocked down my do'
Had Show & Tell money, now I need bail money, man, 12 f*cked up my dough
Yeah, the trap was a crib so I stashed where I live, shoulda never had it there I know
Now n*ggas tryna take my flow, I blame 12 so f*ck 5-0!"

Nino Man - 5-0
(From No Turning Back EP; 2021)


Oi! Copper! Leave them dealers alone! New wave Harlem waviness for the Roddy Rich Homie Quan Durk-core generation. Conclusive proof that all New York rappers have at least one absolute CHOON in them when they take tips from the Max B manual to making music

Late pass!

Something I learned today: Run-D.M.C performed You Be Illin' and It's Tricky on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1987. Rap music and Adidas is how I was raised, Run-D.M.C and the Beasties were the guys that I praised. Thus, seeing this as a kid in 1987 woulda blown my mind almost as hard as seeing King Of Rock on Live Aid did.

Turns out Run-D.M.C were also interviewed on Old Grey Whistle Test a couple of years earlier during the King Of Rock era. Andy Kershaw is lucky he didn't get sparked out on TV for some of those questions - the epitome of a stereotypical clueless white host demanding black artists make 'protest music'. Maybe if Kershaw had spent less time harassing his ex-wife and more time researching the artists he was interviewing then he'd know that Run-D.M.C had already released Hard Times and Wake Up by that point.