Used CD Shopping Trip 2-20 (The Shittiest Trip Ever)

I knew when I moved, I would be leaving behind my treasure troves of used CD stores back in Denver, but never did I imagine it would be this bad. While dropping off a few applications and resumes, I figured I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket and needed to get rid of it, so I would hit up some of the Hastings stores that dot the map around town here in the city of trees. Now, I haven't really looked at the Hastings stores since my dismal outings back in November and December when I first moved back. I figured that a two month break might give them some time to regroup and get some decent used stuff in. Boy was I wrong. It was basically the same bullshit at the first two Hastings I hit up that was there in November. At the shit wasn't even cheap. Rob Base's lackluster sophomore album? It was going for $9.00 bucks....NINE dollars. This was a CD I picked up for a buck fifty in Denver. No way am I paying anything over four bucks for that album. Another store had ten copies or so of Juvenile Committee's "Free Us Colored Kids" that I picked up for a couple bucks in Denver, but they were going for $8.99 at this store. Ten copies of an album that wasn't all that great to begin with and probably less than ten people in this fuckin' town know who the group is, but yet they are selling them for nine bucks apiece. Get real. I suppose I was spoiled by the variety of stores in Denver, but damn.

I'm not really sure what the problem is. I know Boise isn't exactly a hip hop haven, but I've acquired a lot of CD's in this town, both used and new. But this was bad. Hastings used to be a fairly cheap place, a place you could find plenty of quality used albums for $4.99 rather easily. I'm not saying they didn't have anything I wanted on this trip. There were a few things, but nothing that I'm willing to pay seven to nine bucks used for. Most of the things they had that I was willing to purchase were mediocre albums at best. It's not like they had Nine's albums for $8.99, I'd be willing to pay that price. But not for one of the soft Heavy D albums. I guess I'm bitching, but I needed to rant.

I skipped the other two Hastings stores that I was planning on going to and went straight to my old reliable, "The Record Exchange". As I've mentioned in the past, I've been going to this store since I was in the 8th grade. They have a nice selection of hip hop, both in CD's and in wax formats. The used section usually has one or two items that I'm willing to snatch up. My beef with their used CD's used to be they were too expensive. But not anymore. After my disappointing visits to Hastings, I picked up a couple used CD's just so I didn't get skunked in my effort to pick up some used CD's.

MC Serch - Return Of The Product (Def Jam, 1992) $4.99

1. Here It Comes

2. Don't Have To Be

3. Back To The Grill

4. Hard But True

5. Return Of The Product

6. Daze In A Weak

7. Can You Dig It

8. Social Narcotics

9. Hits The Head

10. Scenes From The Mind

11. Here It Comes Again

I've had this damn CD a couple times in the past. The first one I think ended up with road rash after I left the CD and case on top of my car and flew off. The second just "disappeared" as things do after some of the house parties my roommate and I would have in Salt Lake City. Never be friends with fuckin' tweakers. Scum buckets.

As I mentioned on the Pete Nice write up yesterday, I always kind of viewed this album as somewhat of a disappointment. The production was on some weird shit for the day in age it came out, although now it sounds kind of ground breaking. Maybe it was before it's time? Nah, I wouldn't go that far. The album did have some good tracks on it, tracks such as the classic "Back To The Grill" and "Daze In A Weak" were always personal favorites. A funny little trivia tidbit: The production duo of Wolf & Epic produced five of the albums 11. Brent Mazur was known as Epic, he would go on to form that delightful one hit wonder band, Crazy Town, known for the Alternative/Rock/Kind of Rappish dity "Butterfly". Now you know.

New Kingdom - Paradise Don't Come Cheap (Gee Street, 1996) $5.99

1. Mexico Or Bust

2. Horse Latitudes

3. Infested

4. Unicorns Were Horses

5. Kickin' Like Bruce Lee

6. Shining Armor

7. Paradise Don't Come Cheap

8. Co Pilot

9. Big 10 1/2

10. Valhalla Soothsayer

11. Animal

12. Half Asleep

13. Terror Mad Visionary

14. Suspended In Air

15. Journey To The Sun

I'm not going to lie, this was a mistake. I actually picked this up thinking it was their 1993 album "Heavy Load", which despite it's "alternative hip hop" overtones, I kind of liked. I knew they had a second album, but never bothered listening to it or did I really have any reason to even look for it. Fate have it, I now own it.

I threw it in the CD player while writing this and.....eh. I don't remember the MC being this shitty on the first album. Dude basically just screams over the tracks on every song. The beats is alright. It has that alternative hip hop feel as the first one, but even more so. It actually reminded me of the Urban Dance Squad album, "Mental Floss For The Globe". Maybe it's the mood I'm in at this particular moment, if you have an open mind to different kinds of music, you might be able to do something with this album and the ratings it has gotten on both Amazon.com and Rate Your Music have been rather shining. What do I know? I know this isn't really my thing.

So there you have it. Only two albums. It was a pretty shitty day for used CD shopping. I'm not sure if there are just not out there or if I just missed stuff. Hastings need to do a different approach to selling used CD's, if the same shit has been sitting there for two months, then obviously you aren't doing something right. I guess we'll have to wait for my next trip to Salk Lake City in the next month or so and my trip back to the Mile High city this spring before any really good stuff comes in. I told Eric about my shopping trip and he said "there is always Amazon", which is true, but it's just not as fun as finding that long lost CD you've been searching for forever, living and breathing right there in the palm of your hand.

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Used CD Shopping Trip 1-25-07

Thur, 1-25-07 (my computer desk)
Twist & Shout & Second Spin

Last Thursday was pay day. I had some overtime on it, plus two full weeks after being short the last couple of checks because of the holidays and the such. Needless to say, I haven't had much money to spend on myself lately. I paid a bunch of bills then decided it was time to hit up some of the used music stores and see what I can track down in the used bins. No better way to waste a bright & sunny Thursday afternoon than checking out some CD stores.

Twist & Shout: Colofax Ave, Denver Colorado ($29.73)

Twist & Shout is one of the two main wax/inpendent music stores in Denver. You have Wax Trax and you have Twist & Shout. Each have their own pro's and con's. Wax Trax seems to have the harder to find stuff as far as wax goes, but their CD selection isn't up to par with Twist & Shout. Twist & Shout moved locations recently and I had not been there since the move. The new store is pretty nice. Much more room than the old location. They also had their own special "Hip Hop & Underground Room", with a DJ spinning records (although I'm thinking dude was more of Drum & Bass/Trance dude with purple hair) and everything in one area. At first I thought it was kind of cool, then I kind of took offense to it, since it seem like it was easier to keep an eye on us "hoodlum" hip hop purchasers. Whatever.

I went through the wax, just to see if I found anything extremely rare. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. T&S has always been very good about carrying all the latest hip hop releases on CD, best I've seen in town. They include stuff that is supposbly only avaliable on the sites like hiphopsite.com, such as the J-Zone "Experianced" project that he uses Jimi Hendrix samples that I thought was only avaliable through hiphopsite.com. It was also the only place I've seen Dooley-O's "I Gotcha" release from last year, that I snapped up. It's more expensive in price, both their new and used CD's, which is common with the independent stores. I did go ahead an picked up a new copy of Exile's "Dirty Science", which was the only thing in my top 10 favorite albums of 2006 that I didn't have a hard copy for. But you're not here for that, on to the pickups...

Hi-C - Skanless $6.99
http://www.zshare.net/download/hi-c-rar.html
1. [Intro-Scratch]
2. Too Greasy
3. Leave My Curl Alone
4. Punk S**T
5. Funky Rap Sanga
6. Request Line
7. Sitting in the Park
8. Compton Hoochies
9. Jack Move
10. Bulls**T
11. 2 Ada Time
12. Yo Dick
13. Froggy Style
14. 2 Drunk Ta F**K
15. Ding-A-Ling
16. I'm Not Your Puppet
17. 2 Skanless
18. Let Me Know [*] - DJ Quick, Hi-C, , Tonya A
19. Do You Wanna See [*] - DJ Quick, Hi-C, , Tonya A
20. Do It [*] - DJ Quick, Hi-C, , Tonya A


This got the re-release treatment back in '04, which is cool I guess. Nothing much different, execept for three lack luster tracks with DJ Quik at the end that do NOTHING to add to the total package. Personally this has always been a favorite of mine. It was dropped my senior year in high school and it appeals to the high school kid in it's humor. It got much play at any party we had that year. Tracks like "Punk Shit", "2 Ada Time", "2 Skanless" and the WYDU Classic "2 Drunk Ta F**k" (don't lie, it's happened to all of us) were all favorites of us hormone charged, cheap beer guzzling, high school seniors. The $6.99 I had to fork out was a little more than I wanted to pay for it. I guess since it appears to be from '04, they justify charging more for it. I wanted it though, so I paid for it.

Blackmale - Let It Swing $4.99
I remember copping this tape when I was in High School as well. It dropped in '89 and I thought was always slept on as fuck. It dropped on Ruffhouse before Ruffhouse got huge. The group consisted of a duo from Philly, if I remember right. I'm not saying it's a slept on classic, but if you enjoy music from this time period, you should be able to enjoy this album as well. Looking on Amazon, it's going for a cheap .25 cents, but I'd rather pay the $4.99 for it and experiance the enjoyment I felt when I came across it. It's posted up on Bust The Facts if anyone wants to check it out.

45 King - The 900 Number EP $6.99 http://sharebee.com/ed8b82b4

1. 900 Number [Original Mix]
2. 900 Number [45 King Remix]
3. 900 Number [Lakim Shabazz Acappella Vocal]
4. 900 Number [Ced Gee Remix 1]
5. 900 Number [Ced Gee Remix 2]
6. 900 Number [Ced Gee Remix 3]
7. 900 Number [YZ Acappella Vocal]

I thought for sure when I ran into this I was on to something big. Well after doing a little research, this too, has recentely been rereleased. But then I got to looking at what I have, and the copyright is 1991 (usually rereleases contain both the first copyright and the second copyright) then looking at the bottom of the re-release it says "From Eminem's Producers", meaning the "Stan" track he did. Mine has "Acapella versions by Lakim Shabazz & YZ", so I'm thinking mine is original. Not that I'm that big of a record geek, but it's still kind of cool. Again, I didn't really want to spend $6.99 for an EP, but I've been on a 45 King quest the past few months, so I grabbed it.

O.G.C. - Da Storm ($5.99)
Yes, even I have my holes in my collection. When most of the BCC stuff came out, a friend of mine and I would take turns buying stuff, while the other person would dub it. He always insisted that he buy the BCC, so besides the Black Moon albums, I didn't own anything else. I'm trying to correct that, so I'll snap up any of those original BCC releases.

After dropping almost forty bucks at Twist & Shout, I wanted to hit up a cheap place, so it was off to Second Spin on Colorado BLVD

Second Spin: Colorado BLVD, Denver Colorado ($7.02)
I had just been there on New Years Day, but they usually have some type of sale going on. I was in luck, they still had the buy three get one free and the "Everything under $3.99 is 50% off" sale. It was a little soon after my first visit, but there was some new stuff and some stuff that the price had been brought down on. I bought a couple games as well (San Andreas GTA) and the clerk was nice enough to count it as a fourth, giving me one for free and giving me half price on one of the three, which he wasn't supposed to do.

DJ Hurricane - The Hurra (free)
http://sharebee.com/4465d7fe
1. Now You Do
2. Elbow Room
3. Four Fly Guys
4. Can We All Get Along
5. Feel The Blast
6. Pass Me The Gun
7. The Hurra
8. Where's My Niggas At
9. What's Really Going On
10. Comin' Off
11. Get Blind
12. Pat You Foot
13. Stick' Em Up

While he may be best recognized as the Beasite Boys DJ, Hurricane is a hip hop vetern, appearing with The Afro's and also Davey D. Hurricane dropped this LP back in on the Beasties label. It's decent, nothing ground breaking, but it's strong in the "Hollis Crew" flavor. For free, I'll take it, although I thought it was going to be a $1.50, which still would have been alright.

Rob Base - The Incredible Base ($1.50)
http://sharebee.com/c0b4026f

1.Turn It Out (Go Base)

2.Get Up And Have A Good Time

3.Rumors

4.Hype It Up

5.Incredible Base, The

6.War

7.Outstanding

8.If You Really Want To Party

9.Dope Mix

10.Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing

This is another one of those "it's so bad, but I like it" albums. This was Rob Base's follow up to his popular debut "It Takes Two". It's another album that I played the crap out of in high school, probably because I knew no better. I bought it out of memories, but after listening to it again, it sure didn't age very well.

I also bought Da Backwudz - Wood Work, which I don't think is really relavent to this blog, but it was one of the more suprising albums I heard last year.

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