Born To Audiomack: Boy Sand 2022 Quinary Of Quality

Okay, New York's no longer paved with gold, at least it's paved though... ya know? Here's 5 Homeboy Sandman songs from 2022 + the arse end of 2021 which I much prefer to anything on his last EP There In Spirit. Some traditional New York Rap from a slightly untraditional perspective. As I've said before, Sandman is kinda like Rammellzee if he were born in 1980 and had emerged at the arse-end of Bobbito's Fondle 'Em era. So give it up for Boy Sand - N.Y.C's only working rapper officially approved by Edan and Doja Cat.

~~ Homeboy Sandman 2022 Quinary Of Quality ~~
1. Boy Sand También
2. Animal Kingdom
3. Fruit Day 1
4. Satellite
5. A!

My Mind Spray 4.5

Random old song that's been my jam lately: Style by Craig Mack. Combining the Spoonin' Rap bass with the South Bronx horn-stab was such a good idea that I can't believe nobody'd done it before the song's producer Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales hooked it up for Mack in 1997. R.I.P to the pair of them.

I'm immune to ironic hypebeast Rap songs which people performatively Stan for on social media, so obviously I hate that new Lil' Yachty song. TBF tho I hate every Lil' Yachty song because I can't stand his ol' Soundcloud Talib Kweli soundin' ass voice.

As great as Mouse & Level's I Bet U Won't is, for true #Mouse&LevelHive members Get It Back will always be their best song together.

I read Pitchfork's 30 best House songs of the 90s list because Philip Sherburne is someone who genuinely knows his onions about dance music. Or, at least, he usually does because he said Masters At Work's The Ha Dance was the House song which blew up the Trading Places sample in 1991 when it was #actually Seduction's Seduction in 1988.

Ain't gonna lie, I was almost as pleased to find the CDQ MP3 of Y@k Ballz's TCK as I was to find the CDQ MP3 of Jacka's Heavy Rain. Apparently Y@k recorded TCK for his debut EP on Fondle 'Em Records but Bobbito wouldn't let him include it because the song contained a rogue N-bomb - a fair decision when the rapper who dropped it looks like a Persian lesbian dressed as a 90s U.K Hip-Hop fan.

Real Lies are probably best experienced live on MDMA, but I caught them live while on mushrooms last night and still Felt Like I Was Part Of Something™ - just without the dreaded MDMA comedown today. It's very much a Boss Trick night when you can even find magic in the parlance of the venue's pissy bogs.

Don't Believe The Hype (Sticker)

On one hand, it was a game-recognise-game moment when Devin The Dude got top billin' on the hype sticker for Jacka's Tear Gas CD. On the other hand, it was shameful that Cellski got shafted for sticker-space when he was behind the boards and the microphone for the album's arguable best single. Damn, homie - Cellski made Streets Of Frisco but he still got knocked out the box for Planet Asia.

Young Cellski aka 2 Took - Streets Of Frisco
(From Inner City Life EP; 1992)

G-Funk Classics · Young Cellski - Streets of Frisco

So, Jacka songs from 2007/2008 you wish he'd put on Tear Gas? I got these 5 on it:

The Jacka - Heavy Rain (2007)
The Jacka - Aspen (2007)
The Jacka - Rule The World (2007)
The Jacka - Wake Ya Game Up (2008)
The Jacka - African Warrior (2008)

Modest Mouse

Mouse On Tha Track - Big Blossom
(From Big Blossom album; 2022)


Highlight of Mouse On Tha Track's most recent album has gotta be its closing equivalent of Millionaire Dreaming from Millionaire Dreamzzz. Mouse realises this because he's shot a video for the song with a Nature Boy Alan Titchmarsh type theme. Forget the science, it's not rocket salad - a catchy feelgood song is thee shit to fertilise your soul. Might hit Mouse up for some horticulture tips because my money plant is looking like it's about to declare bankruptcy.

**EDIT** The album's other main single has grown on me too. It's exactly what you'd expect from a Mouse X BeatKing song and that's why it's so effective as a higher echelon booty-chatter bangeur.

Mouse On Tha Track ft. BeatKing - Universe
(From Big Blossom album; 2022)


Bonus beats: it's always good to see Baton Rouge's new generation hitting up Mouse. In the past few days alone both NBA Youngboy and WNC Whop Bezzy have come calling. The NBA song has got all the attention, but it's the WNC song which makes far better use of Mouse's talents.

WNC Whop Bezzy ft. Mouse On Tha Track - Don't Stop
(From Don't Stop single; 2022)

Marunate on that

Lil' Maru - Change Up
(From Change Up single; 2020)


Lil' Maru - On The Block
(From On The Block single; 2021)


Who dis: Lil' Maru has a flow which shapes monotone into melody, so he's kinda like Lil' Peep if Peep were reincarnated as a Mexican zoomer gangbanger rapper from San Diego. Part of me wants to investigate Maru's music further to see if he has any other songs up my road, but it's probably not gonna happen because I have a very low tolerance for 70 BPM sad boi production. That's okay, though - a lotta rappers are best experienced via the Busy Bee Principle where you boil their entire career down to two songs. Here at The Martorialist we call it a Deuce And Dip.

Me, Myself & I

Can I jump back and kiss myself like James Brown one time? I'm on the Blogspot and I'm feelin' myself, if your musical taste is lookin' bad then my Audiomack playlists are here to help. Here's a round-up of my best Born To Audiomack playlists of 2022. Let's go deep into this Rap shit:

First there's Edan Deep Cuts which is a buncha songs taken from his 12" and 7" singles. Big fan of how Edan created his own little musical universe by combining Percee P's Lung Collapsing Lyrics with the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique.

Then there's The Best of Seiji Oda which collated sixteen songs he'd dropped over the past two years before anyone on the Rap Internet was paying attention. Seiji's music has been a cool breeze of fresh air for me in this current era of Yaseo The Ruler boring NorCal Rap.

There's Eatem's Greatest Pressure which is a compilation of his best singles from 2016 to 2022. I like to think of Eatem as Baton Rouge's equivalent of Duke Deuce.

Then there's N.Y Twelves Quinary Of Quality which consists of five personal classic 12" songs by Phil Blunts, Consequence, Blahzay Blahzay, B-1 & Large Professor, and Ayatollah with Rakim.

There's Nef The Pharoah's Quinary Of Quality which is my top five songs by him from the past two years. Still a big fan of his Thizz Khalifa sound when he gets it right.

Then there's Mac Dre & Khayree's 1996 - 1998 Sure Slaps which collects the best songs they recorded during that period before they fell out. Probably the best playlist of the bunch because Dre & Khayree were one of the greatest rapper/producer combinations of the 1990s.

There's 2022 Club-Rap Quinary Of Quality featuring songs by 2Rare, Asian Doll & Bandmanrill, D4M $loan, Kenzo B, and Cookiee Kawaii. 110 BPM the minimum here.

Then finally there's the 2022 NorCal Quinary Of Quality featuring songs by Young Jr, Ezale, P-Lo & Larry June, Stunnaman02 & Lil' Kayla, and A-Wax.

There's a Homeboy Sandman 2022 Quinary Of Quality featuring my top 5 songs by him from the past 12 months.

And then finally there's lesser celebrated 2022 jams Quinary Of Quality featuring songs by AD, Stunnaman02 & DrewBanga, Mouse On Tha Track, Westside Boogie & DRAM, and Wavy Bagels which haven't had much love from elsewhere on the internet.

Oh yeah, I also used the Good Combination™ of Blogspot & Audiomack to upload a couple of songs which weren't streamable anywhere online: Stezo & Dooley-O's EPMD dis Piece Of The Pie and Big Scoob's minor classic Kryptonite. Cheers to Plug Step Won for the MP3 hook up on the latter song.

Apollo Kids

There tend to be two problems with live TV Rap performances on Showtime At The Apollo: the first is too-cool-for-skool New York crowd's lifeless reactions to barnstorming performances from the likes of Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince and Run-D.M.C; the second is too-cool-for-skool New York crown holders like Rakim and Slick Rick rhyming over their own vocal tracks and rendering their performances as glorified karaoke sessions.

So we should be thankful for the Showtime At The Apollo performances where the rappers and the audiences are in total synergy as their lose their collective shit together. Best example has gotta be the post-Biggie 1997 Bad Boy roster's medley of It's All About The Benjamins and Mo' Money, Mo' Problems which could only be improved if Lil' Kim and Biggie's ghost joined them onstage to perform their respective verses. Peep the dearly departed Black Rob playing his position on baseball bat swinging hypeman duty.


Bonus beatbox at The Apollo: Doug E. Fresh living up to his title of The World's Greatest Entertainer™ by killin' it from his seat in the audience with a medley of La Di Da Di, The Show and Bel Biv DeVoe's Poison featuring BBD and Tony Rock. A performance so good even the musical input of a backing band couldn't ruin it.


I'm reliably informed this clip comes from Jamie Foxx"s 2012 Showtime At The Apollo remake Apollo Live. Foxx's 2nd best contribution to last decade after his role in Baby Driver.

Generic list post: September 2022

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Queen Elizabeth II went back to the essence. Yo, pull ya skirt down, Britain - old people die everyday, b. Personally, I've disliked the British royal famalam ever since I got picked to play Prince Charles in my infant school's Christmas play. Same ears?

Jamie Jupitor - Future Computer (2016)
Nef The Pharoah - Old Enough (2022)
Nef The Pharoah - Tattooed (2022)
Seiji Oda - City Pop 001 (2022)
Seiji Oda - What It Feel Like (2022)
Homeboy Sandman - Satellite (2022)
Cash Cobain & Chow Lee - Just Blick It (2022)
The Chats - 6L GTR (2022)
The Chats - Ticket Inspector (2022)
Disasterpeace - Dork (2022)

Other notables: there's a New York Drill song which samples Level & Mouse's I Bet U Won't lol; and speaking of New York Drill songs, I quite like the spazziness of Sha Ek's Too Oppy.

Other reading: peep my Mac Dre & Khayree best of 1996 to 1998 playlist and Chicken-N-Kalinka's Cell Block Records playlist. Over on The Spartorialist, King Kos dropped a list of his 101 favourite British movies of all time and I had a go at my own list in his comments.

PS: If you combine my 101 favourite Rap songs of the 90s with my 101 favourite non-Rap singles of the 90s then you have a list that's a billion times better than Pitchfork's best 250 songs of the 90s list. Obviously I haven't actually read Pitchfork's list because the committee of frumpy music critics who collate Pitchfork lists mostly have terrible taste in everything and can't be trusted. Plus, 95% of American music critics are clueless about dance music from their own country let alone the rest of the world. As the old saying goes, 9/10 Pitchfork contributors probably think Juan Atkins is some guy who plays 'soccer' for Real Madrid.