Trav's Classic
Boogie Down Production - Sex & Violence
I've long been a border line KRS "stan", well up to '97 or so. I'll still argue until I'm blue in the face that is hands down a top five MC of all time, if not top three. KRS went through his fazes early in his career. Every album slightly differed from one another through all of BDP's five releases, if it wasn't lyrical topics, it was through sounds. "Criminal Minded" was Kris' attempt at gangsta before being gangsta was in vogue. "By All Means Necessary" has some braggadocio, some conscious, and even some of the gangster fairytales seen on "Criminal Minded". "Ghetto Music: The Blueprint For Hip Hop" (my least favorite BDP album), was much more preaching and teaching. "Edutainment" was a better version of "..Blueprint..", with stronger beats and less preaching. My favorite BDP album though would be "Sex and Violence".
From the very start of the campaign for Sex Violence, I was on board. They would release "Duck Down" as the albums first single. It was a favorite on "Yo!" back in the day, and at the time, it was exactly I wanted in my hip hop music; hard as steel drums, straight grab ya by ya throat lyrics, it's all I wanted. Pal Joey produced the track, who himself is some what of a hip hop mystery, only producing a handful of hip hop tracks, but that's another story for another time. I bought the cassingle, which included the b-sided "Like A Throttle", which was on the same tip, more hard beats and Krs just straight ripping the mic. It's all I needed to be in the record store on release day Tuesday, waiting for "Sex & Violence" to put on the shelves.
At the time, a lot of people weren't feeling "Sex & Violence" (although, if I remember right, The Source gave it a 4.5 mics), but I wasn't having that and bumped the album pretty much non stop for the first half of '92. What you have on "Sex & Violence" is Krs adapting to the new hardcore edge that was going on through NYC at the time. Not that BDP was any sissy group, but the last couple albums had been rather preachy. This lead to a few people taking some shots at KRS, which obviously let a match underneath Kris, both musically and in the streets. Tracks like the aforementioned "Duck Down" and "Like A Throttle", as well as "We In There", "Ruff Ruff" and the albums kick off joint, "The Original Way" were all "up in ya face" straight up hardcore hip hop of the era. There were still songs with messages, but even those came with the rougher edge. The X-Clan and Poor Righteous Teachers dis track, "Build & Destroy", had the message, but clearly KRS was a little perturbed:
Yo, I love the way I am and can't nobody out here change me
Rearrange me, tame me, try to game me, you don't play me
When I grab the mic then SHOCK the party spot
Your rhymes are flip-flop, I'll rock, hip-hop
Non-stop, me nah stop rock
You CAN touch this, but you'll get shot
Now what's this all about? Kris and humanity
In my face you're happy, on vinyl you're mad at me
Yo, pro-blackness is your solution
But I don't really know about that style you using yo
Too many Teachers in the class spoil the class
After awhile you got blabbering fucking fools
That's worse than always talking about sex, let's build
It ain't enough to study Clarence 13X
The white man ain't the devil I promise
You want to see the devil take a look at Clarence Thomas
Now you're saying, Who? like you a owl
Throw in the towel, the devil is Colin Powell
You talk about being African and being black
Colin Powell's black, but Libya he'll attack
Libya's in Africa, but a black man
will lead a black man, to fight against his homeland
An accomplice to the devil is a devil too
The devil is anti-human, who the hell are you?
I lecture and rap without rehearsal
I manifest as a black man but I'm universal
The capital K, small R-I-S
Capital P, small A-R, capital K, small E-R
We are, the star
Without the use of a car we go far
I build and destroy!
I'll be the first to admit the album has it's faults. It loses some focus toward the end, the tracks aren't bad, but not on point as earlier in the album. Some would dismiss "The Real Holy Place" as KRS just babbling on, but I have to say it's closest to anything I've heard to my own personal beliefs. Yet, for musical purposes, it's somewhat out of place. Still the hardness found on this album is simply authentic hip hop in all it's glory and glamor. For me, this is where KRS was at his pinacle of his music career. He would go on to release arguable three solid solo releases.
Trav's Slept On Album
Zhigge - Zhigge
Back in '92, Yo! and The Source were my two major influence of what I bought from the local record shop. It was no internet, but there was a lot of stuff coming out at the time. Lots of choices to spend my hard earned 4.25 and hour I was making bussing tables at the local Sizzler ("we goin' to sizzzzler, we goin to siiiiizler"). Meaning there was more to choose from than I had money to spend on. Therefore, certain things would be left behind. One such album was Zhigge's self titled debut (and only if memory serves me right). The first single, "Rakin' In The Dough" did nothing for me, at least the album version didn't. After the album had been out for awhile, I would hear the Uptown Bounce Mix of Rakin' In The Dough on an old Red Alert radio show tape and fall in love with it. The second single from the album, "Toss It Up", did catch my attention, but not enough to grab the album. It wouldn't be until someone sent me the remix version of "Rakin' In The Dough" that I would be lucky enough come across the CD a couple years ago.
The album is reminiscent of the the whole "posse chorus" hip hop that was so mad popular in those days. Personally, they always kind of reminded me of a slightly less talented version of Bush Babees, with the same style and flavor. Tracks like "Make Ya Hips Hop", which employs a funky sax sample and a booty shaking drum track, shine back to a time when it was okay to get out on the dance floor and shake your booty. "Harlem" was a disco sounding track, with a funky groove and a smooth flow. It works real well, so much so that I'm surprised it didn't find its' way as a single. Zhigge did a lot of tracks in the true vein of hip hop, but they weren't afraid to switch it up as witnessed by the semi-wack "I Wanna Be With You". Although '92 was a little after the fad of having a love joint on your album, they still bring the singing and R&B groove, with mixed results. Another track that they mix it up some is "Born Black". The year '92 was during the tail end of the whole Black Power movement that groups like PE, X-Clan and other pushed to the forefront. The track again isn't bad, with a familiar sample that is good for a few listens.
In the end, the album isn't a lost classic, but it's a good album that is proper vision of the '92 NYC sound. The group provided an entertaining album with a few misteps ("All That Glitters" and "I Wanna Be With You"), but tracks like "Harlem", "Rakin' In The Dough", "Toss It Up" more than make up for those. It's unfortunate this was the only thing we would see out of the group, but that seemed to happen a lot in the early 90's.
Unheard Album
Big Mello - Bone Hard Zaggin
Originally, I was going to include Big Mello's "Bone Hard Zaggin" as my slept on album. I started thinking back though and I wasn't sure if I had ever actually listened to the whole album. If I had, it was way back in the day. I've always said I liked Big Mello and the music I had heard from this Rap-A-Lot star back in the day I had liked, but for some reason, I never listened to the whole thing. My introduction to Big Mello was through this skinny white kid I had in a couple classes in my first year of college. He always wore a hoodie with the hood up and headphones on. One day I asked him what he was listening to and he rattled off a bunch of names that I had seen in The Source in those cheap ass advertisements, mostly associated with Rap-A-Lot records. Over the semester, I would make him tapes of what I was listening to and he'd make me tapes, mostly of the Rap-A-Lot stuff. Big Mello happened to be on some of those. Still, I never bought any of his CDs nor heard the whole debut album.
In my younger years, I was much more fascinated by the gang culture and enjoyed the violent images more than I do in my older and mellowed years. Still, I can appreciate a good gangster album as much as anyone. C-Bo's album is just that, it's good. The album utilizes a lot of familiar samples that have been used elsewhere, both before and after this album came out. In some ways, it's kinda of a mixtape feel, but there is nothing wrong with that. "Mac's Drive 'Lacs" laces a familiar sax sample (Streets of New York?) that gives you that pimpin swagger feel. The chorus is catchy as all fuck and will have you singing a long with it. The fuzzy guitar sample of "By The Time I Get To Arizona" is used on "Symptoms of a Crook", and Big Mello turns it into his own with tales of being someone you don't want to fuck with it. The beats are all pretty sharp, sounding rather hard on a good system or a good pair of headphones. You just have to look over the fact that the samples weren't anything you haven't heard before.
Of course, the topics are nothing we haven't heard before. Bitches, gankin' fools, weed, drinking, bangin, it's all here, but the key of spitting gangster rhymes is doing it well. Big Mello does that for the most part. "Bone Hard Zaggin" isn't a ground breaking album, but it's just classic gangter rap from the early 90's.
2/18/2009
WTR Meets WYDU Presents "I Love The 90's": The Second Year 1992
4/23/2008
Philaflava's 100 Greatest Obscure Tracks :The Bonus Tracks aka Trav's Picks Part III
It's time for more "hard-to-find" goodies from my arsenal of tracks that I've managed to find in my visits to records stores, back of magazines, and of course the world wide internet. I honestly didn't intend to do more than 10-20 tracks for the "Bonus" tracks of my "Obscure" Philaflava post, but people seem to dig it plus I haven't had the time to move onto the next project I have in mind, at least not yet. So if you don't like them, tell everyone else to shut up, or if you do like them, keep the comments coming. Easy enough.
LINKS FOR ALL
Beastie Boys - Scenario (Grand Royal, on the "Drum Machine", "Scenario", "I'm Down" 12 inch, 2002)
At first you might see the Beastie Boys listed and think "Is anything the Beasties done actually "hard to find"? And my answer to that would be, actually, yeah....The Beasties have lots of b-sides, unreleased and remix joints out there. "Scenario" happens to be one such track. I don't know much about the origins of the cut. I'm sure some Beastie aficionados can probably fill in the history better than I can, but I'm venturing out on a limb here and will say it was probably done before "Licensed To Ill", so don't let the year fool you, that would be when it was released to wax by the Beasties. Movie buffs might remember it being in the Christian Slater movie "Pump Up The Volume" about a pirate radio DJ and this would be a track he would play. It was also that movie that sent me on a 15-year search for "Scenario", finally finding it when my man Tommy B from Miscreant Productions hooked it up. Needless to say, it was a great day. Song wise, it's pretty much a rip off of another personal favorite artist in Schoolly D and his classic "PSK". The drum effects are there along with the other sounds present on "PSK", but what the hell, I can look past that in this day in age. If you are fan of the Beasties such as I am, especially their earlier work, then you have to check this track out.
Da Bush Babees - Love Song Remix feat De La Soul & Mos Def (Warner Bros. from the "Love Song Remix" 12 inch, 1996)
Another example of a song that isn't horribly "obscure", but one that is need of mention just in case some kids are sleeping on it. The remix for the Bush Babee's "Love Song" track has long been one of my favorites, mainly because it contains De La Soul and Mos Def when he was still focused on making music. The remix is actually done by Da Bush Babee's Mr. Man, which is a nice twist on the original beatwise. Mos really does his thing on the hook, reminding us older heads why we thought he would be the next Chuck D or the first Kanye West. Of course since I would probably consider De La Soul my favorite hip hop group of all-time, I'm on this tracks proverbial jock because of their shining appearance that almost makes this song sound like a De La song. In fact when I first heard it, I thought it was a De La track (I didn't fuck with the Bush Babee's back in the day), it's got that De La flavor to it. Nothing wrong with that!
Constant Deviants - Can't Stop (Brooklyn Pipeline, from the "Can't Stop" b/w "Fed Up" 12 inch, 1998)A couple of weeks ago I kind of clowned the whole Indie boom that happened toward the end of the 90's decade. It made many kid go out and buy a Jansport back pack, some big ass Kross headphones and bitch about the mainstream. While they had a point about the mainstream around that time (shiny suits anyone?), the whole genre would soon grind down to boring, monotonous, and straight up garbage type of hip hop and these little hipster nerds would become just as condescending as their mainstream thug counterparts. BUT, some of the early Indie stuff was pretty tight. This is one such little gem that I know next to nothing about, but I LOVE this track. I can't even remember what caused me to download this track from the almighty Audiogalaxy (anyone remember that shit?) back in the day. I'm glad I did, but I've never been able to find much out about them. This track was released in '98 on some small label. The beat is some fly jazz shit with dope piano keys and a nice string rift, horns, shit it's got everything. I couldn't even tell you the name of the MC, but he does a nice job talking about the old days. The hook is nice as well, it's basic but sticks in your mind and it actually has one of those DJ fellas and he is making squiggy squiggy sounds....weird...don't hear those anymore. Anyone have any material by these cats, hit me up.
Alright, so I'm cheating a bit here, this was something I posted up a year ago when I first posted this track. Since then, I've managed to track down all their 12 inch singles and there was also someone close to M.I.C. and DJ Cutt (who produced this track) educated us as well:
"lead rapper M.I.C is now solo and DJ CUTT does remixes and produced
a gang of stuff for NORE (In House Production Team for Thugged Out Militainment), RICK ROSS, and he was a former producer for Crazy Cat Catalogue(Derik"D.Dot" Angelettie) - Notorious B.I.G, Black Rob, 50 Cent, Lil Kim..etc,
They still grind together with Impact Music Group a multimedia entertainment Co"
Eminem & Royce Da 5'9 - Renagades (Original Version) (Never officially released?)
As far as I'm concerned, this version shits all over the one with Jay that appeared on "The Blueprint", and I actually liked that version. Royce and Em share great chemistry on everything I've ever heard them on, so it's only natural that they killed this. Their work as "Bad Meets Evil" and the 12" they dropped made me hope they would release something back when they were both hungry.
I've heard multiple reasons for Jay ending up on the final version, all from Royce's label wouldn't allow it, to Jay paying more money for the beat, to it was part of the fall out with Dre and Royce. I'm not going to venture which one is true, although I would go with the label issues. I hope they can work together again in the future, maybe working with Royce will make Em hungry again. Excuse fuckin' Kay Slay screaming all over the damn track.
Ghostface feat Raekwon & Slick Rick - The Sun (Never officially released)
This is my favorite Ghostface track. I've seen this on some of those "unofficial" Ghostface releases, but I think it was left off of "Bulletproof Wallets" due to sample clearances. I looked up to see where he got the sample from, but no dice. Ghost is typical Ghost, while Rae comes off and adds to their obvious chemistry. Slick Rick bats cleanup and this sounds like this was made for him, even the chorus sounds like something rick would come up with. This is a great song to wake up to on an early spring morning...who said we didn't have feelings??
Kid Sensation - Ride The Rhythm Cruise Control Mix (Nastymix, from the "Ride The Rhythm" 12 inch, 1992)
I've always liked the remix for Kid Sensation's lead off single, "Ride The Rhythm", so much that I had to include in my "bonus" picks. I can remember picking up this bad boy on the cassette single back in the day. I was shocked that the remix was just as good as the original version. To this day, I'm still not sure which I prefer more, although I think this remix might have a slight edge over the original. I remember this track having a killer bassline in a decent car studio, with it's stuttering drum break laying underneath it, it was something for the trunk 'o funk for sure.
Lord Digga - My Flow Is Tight (Game Recordings, from the "My Flow Is Tight" b/w
"Sacks 5th Ave" 12 inch, 1998)
As big of a Masta Ace fan as I am, I was surprisingly never that big of a Digga fan. I thought he made for a decent hype man, but I always kind of cringed when he did full verses on the Inc albums. Yeah, I know, some of you will call me crazy, I just thought he was never that good of a lyricists. I still don't, but this solo single he dropped in '98 did prove to me he could at least carry a song on his own. Even if the track is almost a novelty in its approach. If you haven't heard this track before, Digga flips the "Price Is Right" theme from the legendary game show and makes it his own. I can never argue against the fact that Digga was a extremely talented producer and he does his thing with this track and keeps it from just being a corny disaster, which could have happened rather easily. On the mic, Digga is still Digga, but he is easier to handle in the smaller dose of one track. Also include the fact he is a little more mellow on the track, which also helps me enjoy the track more as well.
Erick Sermon - Rock Da House (Rush Associated Labels, from the "Stay Real" 12 inch as a b-side, 1993)
Being a big fan of Erick Sermon during those early 90's days, with both his production on the first two Redman albums along with Keith Murray's debut and then combine both his production and mic duties on "No Pressure", I thought E Double could do no wrong. This track came from the "Stay Real" 12 inch which I once again bought as a cassingle back in the day. For some reason, I lost it fairly quick, so I wasn't able to enjoy "Rock Da House" as much as I would have liked back in the day. My man Jaz over at Cold Rock Da Spot went on a hunt to find this, which I think finally popped up at Dr. OK's blog about a year ago. The track is full of the funk, something that I love to this day. It's all about the dirty bottom and only E Double, Redman or Keith can do a track this sloppy justice. Great stuff.
Nice & Smooth - No Bones In Ice Cream Original Version (Fresh Records, on the "Funky For You" b/w "No Bones In Ice Cream" 12 inch, 1990)
This original version of "No Bones In Ice Cream" took awhile to track down. I've always thought the original version was head and shoulders above the "No Bones" (Remix) that is found on the Jewel of the Nile LP. Nice & Smooth excelled in making non sense rhymes, concepts and ideas sound dope as fuck, probably more so than anyone else. The beat takes a familiar piano loop and lays it over another familiar sample (I'm horrible with naming samples) all over a simple drum break, but in true Nice & Smooth fashion, the shit is nice. It's nothing new from the duo, but true fans of their work should appreciate hearing when they were on top of their game and a track that could have easily been on any of their albums and still been one of the better tracks.
Zhigge - Rakin' In The Dough Uptown Bounce Mix (PolyGram, from the "Rakin' In The Dough" 12 inch single, 1992)
There are always tracks that hold some special memory and this happens to be one of them for me. I bought a DJ Red Alert tape out of the back of the Source magazine back in the day. The Uptown Bounce Mix for Rakin' In The Dough happened to be one that Red played on that show. I never heard the version before and spent the next 15 plus years (yes, again) trying to track down the version. Thankfully for the internet, I once again have it in my collection. I wasn't big on Zhigge back in those days, but I've learned to like them since then. The beat and the bangin' drums, both supplied by Salaam Remi, or the true treat found on this album.
5/01/2007
Requests & Reups: Day One
Kind of a lack luster response thus far, but oh well, not my loss. Less work for me. We'll jump right into it since I'm strapped for time.
Schoolly D - Welcome To America (Ruffhouse, 1994)
1. Intro 
2. I Wanna Get Dusted
3. I Know You Want to Kill Me
4. Welcome to America
5. Niggas Like Me
6. Gangsta Trippin
7. Gimme Your Sh** Nigga
8. No Good Nigga
9. I Shot Da Bitch
10. Motherfuckin D
11. Stop Frontin
12. Peace Of What
13. Another Sign
Someone requested last week after our "Best Of" mix, featuring Schoolly. As I said then, it's not the greatest Schoolly album, but if you are a completist nerd like me, you need this in your collection. It's still technically in print, which is weird because I didn't think Ruffhouse exsisted anymore, but it's selling for a penny on Amazon, so I don't feel to guilty for sharing any album you can buy for a penny.
Zhigge - Zhigge (Polygram, 1992)
1. Rakin' in the Dough
2. Harlem
3. No Time to Fess
4. Toss It Up
5. What'cha Gonna Do?
6. Drop the Beat Salaam!!
7. Zhigge Man
8. I Wanna Be With You
9. Make Ya Hips Hop
10. Toss It Up (The After Party)
11. Some Ol' Lo-Life Skit!!
12. Born Black
13. All That Glitters Ain't Gold
14. Now What!!
Another album that was largely overlooked during the golden age of Hip Hop that wasn't all that bad, just over shadowed by all the high quality releases during the time. I hated this album when it originally dropped, but in my more open minded older years, it's not all that bad now. It did produce two jams that are near the classic status in "Toss It Up" and "Rakin' In The Dough" that recived a lot of play on the "Yo!" and on the mixtape circuit in those days. I had an old Red Alert mixtape from back in the day that had a remix of "Rakin' In The Dough" that I've always liked more than the album version, but can't find to save my ass.
Gregory D & DJ Mannie Fresh - D Rules The Nation (Yo! Records, 1990)
