Sunday 31 December 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 20.08.99



Last one for 2017. No guests on this show but the last 20 minutes has Prime Cuts dropping some golden era bits for you.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Doo Wop - Xmas Jams '93




Another tape that I posted in the early days of the blog that I've just re-ripped at 320kbps. An awesome Bounce Squad freestyle session on the intro followed by Wop setting things off by shouting over the intro to Snoop's 'Gz And Hustlaz' is an all time mixtape highlight of mine. That was some goosebump business back in the day when I popped the tape in the walkman.

Tracklist
Bounce Squad intro
Snoop Dogg - Gz And Hustlaz
Erick Sermon, Keith Murray & Redman - Swing It Over Here
KRS One - Hip Hop Vs Rap
Jodeci ft Redman - You Got It
Erick Sermon - Stay Real
Shaquille O'Neal & Fu-Schnickens - Boom! Turn Up The Volume
Wu Tang Clan - Da Mystery Of Chessboxing
YZ - The Ghetto's Been Good To Me
Queen Latifah - Black Hand Side
A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
Original Flavour - Can I Get A Hit
Das EFX - Freak It
Father - 69 (remix)
Rakim - Heat It Up (remix)
De La Soul ft Biz Markie - Lovely How I Let My Mind Float
Mary J Blige ft Biggie - Whats The 411 (remix)
Domino - Getto Jam
2Pac - Keep Ya Head Up
Wu Tang Clan - Can It Be All So Simple
DRS - Gangsta Lean
Das EFX - Kaught In Da Ak
Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice
KRS One - Sound Of Da Police (remix)
A Tribe Called Quest - We Can Get Down
Erick Sermon - Payback part 2
Madstyle - Run
Original Flavour - Can I Get Open
Wu Tang Clan - Method Man (remix)
YGz - Ghetto Celeb


Sunday 24 December 2017

Eminem & Dr Dre live in London (2000)



Westwood dropped this in the middle of a Radio Rap 1 Show I was ripping and it was more enjoyable than I expected. Em and Dre at the Brixton Academy 3 weeks before the Marshall Mathers LP came out. I found the set list here, and it's about a 50/50 split of Em songs and stuff off 2001, plus G Thang with Em doing Snoop's parts.
Good to see that they stayed true to the tradition of US artists coming to the UK and performing ridiculously short shows (30 minutes!) while probably charging £20-£30 a ticket too. Thankfully that seemed to die out over the last 15 years as touring became a bigger earner than sales, although someone should tell Redman and Method Man, who really should be doing more than 45-50 minutes given the size of their combined catalogues.

UPDATED 26/12 - full Radio 1 Rap Show this was taken from now available here

Saturday 23 December 2017

Big Ted & Shortee Blitz on Kiss FM 01.12.99



45 minutes of the Chubby Kids on Kiss from December '99. Includes music by The LOX, Dr Dre, Q Tip, Biggie, Karl Hinds, Iceberg Slimm and Hot Ones.

Also just uploaded 45 minutes of a Westwood show that was on the other side of this tape - 3rd December '99 with J Live and Asheru in the studio

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Black Rob - Smooth Criminal (Espacio demo)



The Black Rob rarities continue to surface on a regular basis. Once again this one appeared by way of Grime & Lime uploading this DJ Rampage mixtape. It's listed on the cover as 'Smooth Criminal' but what we appear to have is a demo/reference track for Espacio, which ended up being a single off Life Story. There's no Lil Kim on here but Rob does reference Dep and seems to rap a part possibly intended for him. The verses are different from the final version and in typical demo fashion, there's no chorus. It's another storytelling / heist type joint that BR does so well. 

Sunday 17 December 2017

Kay Slay & The Alchemist - The Mixmasters (2004)


I copped this on Canal Street on a trip to NYC in 2004. Looking back it seems like that year was New York's last stand, before the South and eventually everywhere else took over. This CD is essentially a promo for Alchemist's 'First Infantry' album. As you'd expect, Mobb Deep, D Block and Dipset are heavily featured on here so it's generally a good listen, but the Papoose and Canibus freestyle over the Guerilla Monsoon Rap instrumental might be worth skipping if you're feeling a bit fragile and/or suffer from migranes as it's not for the faint hearted or irritable. Time and a place and all that.




Mixtape CDRs being what they are the quality of this has deteriorated a bit over the years so I ended up culling the last couple of tracks.

On the same trip to the States, I managed to record Kay Slay and Alc alongside Black Rob on Hot 97

Saturday 16 December 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show with Funkmaster Flex, Lil Kim and Busta Rhymes (2000)


The first thing to say about this show is that it starts with Christina Aguilera dissing Eminem over The Real Slim Shady instrumental (a song which was possibly the start of Em making really bad records). If she could rap on beat it might've been bearable but she can't so it just sounds terrible, however I think we can all agree that in 2017 a new Christina song is likely to bang harder than anything Eminem can create at this point. Seeing all these high profile rap DJs, journalists and "influencers" feel the need to have an opinion on the Eminem album and acting like it's a surprise that it's really fucking awful is just baffling to me. 
Anyway, once that's done Westwood hands over to Flex who has Lil Kim in the studio. That's followed by Busta Rhymes in part 2, who's heavily plugging the release of Anarchy. They're really pushing the singles Get Out and Fire to the extent that if you ever needed evidence of payola this wouldn't be the worst place to start, although if I recall these songs never really blew up on the same scale as Busta's other lead singles. His run of club bangers from '96 to 2006 was equalled only by Jay Z, but there was a bit of a dip on this project. Fire ain't bad but didn't really catch on and Get Out sounds a bit too Hard Knock Life-ish. The real gem on the album is 'The Heist' with Ghostface, Raekwon and Roc Marciano over a Large Pro beat. One that the backpackers probably missed when it dropped and are now being charged big bucks for the German promo 12" , probably due to the J Dilla produced A-side.
Weirdly, this show also contains Flex cutting up a bunch of 80s classics, which is the same mix that was previously broadcast a few years prior (like, '96 or something). I know this because I posted it before.






Sunday 10 December 2017

Marley Marl on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2002)



Westwood is nowhere to be found on this tape, so it's a Future Flavas Takeover with Marley hosting alongside Seven Shawn of World Renown. They play some Terror Squad, D Block, Mobb Deep and Nore, plus Marley's own remixes of Rewind and One Mic by Nas. He runs through some Cold Chillin/Juice Crew stuff (although the mixing is a bit sloppy on this part) and some more old skool on part 2.

Thursday 7 December 2017

The TRC Hip Hop Show on Rhythm FM (22.05.94)



Bit of an oddity this one as I can't say I'd ever heard of Rhythm FM. I got the original tape from Grime & Lime.  Having hit up Mr Thing on twitter he mentioned that TRC was the graf crew that First Rate (one of the 3 DJs on this show) was down with, so it could've be a pirate station based around the Kent area. Anyone with any more details please speak up!

If you check this blog regularly you should definitely investigate The Hip Hop Radio Archive. I'll be contributing tapes from the OB4ZL archives and there's always tapes being added. Get involved.

Sunday 3 December 2017

DJ Step One - mid 90s Rap mix (2017)



Had some time free yesterday so pulled out some records from the 94-96 sections and pressed record....


Tracklist
Organized Konfusion - Stress
Big Willie Smith - Wearing Make Up
Nas - The World Is Yours (Q Tip remix)
Kurious - I'm Kurious
Darkman - Wicked (Ghetto Lab mix)
Gang Starr - Mostly Tha Voice
KMD ft MF Grimm - What A Niggy Know (remix)
Pete Rock  & CL Smooth - I Got A Love
Dobie ft Ola - Original Heads
Group Home - Livin Proof
Smif N Wessun - PNC
Masta Ace Inc - What's Going On
Redman & Method Man - How High (remix)
Erick Sermon - Bom Digi (remix instrumental)
Show & AG - Next Level (Show's street version)
Notorious BIG - Who Shot Ya
Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces
Lace Da Booms - Cut That Weak Shit (L's mix)
Mr Live - Supa Dupa
Keith Murray - The Rhyme (white label version)
Brick City Kids - What What
Tragedy ft Havoc & Extra P - Da Funk Mode
Buckshot Le Fonque - Music Evolution (DJ Premier remix)

Thursday 30 November 2017

DJ Dough & Porge 1 - Heads Ain't Ready


Superb mixtape from Dough and Porge 1 which dropped around 04/05. This was before the internet rendered the term 'rare' obsolete and there's plenty of other treats to be found here, such as their Drop It Like It's Hot remix which was in my sets for ages when I was playing out. One of those mixes where the shelf life isn't terminated by all the tracks eventually being available in better quality elsewhere. This is the sort of thing I aspire to making if time/patience/talent wasn't an issue.






Saturday 25 November 2017

OB4ZL presents: Don't Sleep on Sauce Money


Where you are gifted a big ass compilation of songs and freestyles by a rapper who definitely falls into the underrated category. Like Beanie Sigel, Black Rob and The LOX it's likely that a lot of purist backpacker types ignored him because of his label affiliation, which makes you wonder if Big L would've received the same treatment had he lived to see his Rocafella deal bear fruit. Sauce Money is a very similar rapper to L in that they both are highly skilled in amusing punchlines with an undercurrent of extreme violence.
I first became a fan of Sauce after hearing him on Reservoir Dogs in '98 although obviously he'd been putting in work for a few years previously. A few solid 12"s followed, including the amazing Pre Game which was taken from the Belly soundtrack (realised I haven't included it here but assumed if most people have just 1 SM track it's that), but the 'Middle Finger U' album got delayed after some label nonsense and didn't drop until 2000. It's not bad at all but like a lot of albums from that era it's suffers from being pretty long. It does feature production by Marley Marl, Premier, Clark Kent, EZ Elpee and Spencer Bellamy though so worth picking up if you see it cheap. I've only included a couple of tracks from it on the comp, the rest is notable guest verses, a few loose 12" releases that usually involve one or both of Jay Z or Jaz O, and a bunch of freestyles. The 'Ave' ones are taken from Kay Slay's 'Best of Sauce Money' CD, as is the savage Nature dis (anyone know the backstory on that?). The other freestyles are mostly sourced from tapes I've ripped over the last few years so you may have those already but it's good having 'em all in one place innit?

"thought you was Chinese the way you duck Sauce"
                                      


(click the image to enlarge)

Sunday 19 November 2017

DJ S&S - Niggaz Ain't Nice (1994)




Another tape I posted way back in the early days that I've now re-ripped at 320 kbps. Great selection on this one (if you ignore the Lords of the Underground and Lil Vicious tracks) including 2 Sadat X and Grand Puba collaborations that went a bit under the radar: Kick Styles (aka Flip Styles) with Diamond D, which appeared on a couple of different 12"s a few years later, and Ya Don't Stop which is tucked away on this compilation.


Friday 17 November 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 14.12.01
with Kay Slay and Swizz Beatz



'Super Ugly' has just dropped so all the talk on this show is centered around the Nas - Jay Z beef. I'd suggest skipping that and heading for the beginning of part two where Kay Slay drops 45 minutes of mostly dis tracks by The LOX, Cam'ron, Mobb Deep and Beanie Sigel. That Rocafella - D Block beef served up considerably better musical results than Nas and Jay managed.

Sunday 12 November 2017

Stretch & Bobbito on Hot 97 (29.09.96)






Thanks to Diggo Blick for sending me this cassette, which is 90 minutes of Stretch and Bob on Hot 97 with Royal Flush and Da Bush Babees in the studio. And it's Stretch's birthday. Full tracklist can be found here.


Saturday 11 November 2017

Double D on Radio X 96FM (1997)



Some German rap radio that was in the batch of tapes Tobes donated. Think it's been paused-butoned a but but you do get a Guru freestyle at 25 mins. Shout to my Deutsche connect for the info on this one...




Friday 3 November 2017

DJ Riz - 5 Minutes Of Funk (2017)



DJ Riz being disgustingly good at DJing for 20 minutes. This is very good and well worth a watch.

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Funkmaster Flex on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1999)



3 hours of Flex here and he's actually in the UK, hyping things up for Tim's jam the following night. He kicks things off cutting up some breaks, throws on some new bits (Jay Z, Nas, Nore, Mobb Deep etc) and then into some 90s classics in part 2.



Looks like I have the tape of the live broadcast from The Temple the night after this so I'll post that up at some point too.

Saturday 28 October 2017

DJ 279 on Choice FM (2004)



Some 2004 Friday Night Flavas for you, with a few Wu Tang members on the phone and tunes by Jadakiss, Masta Ace, Masta Killa and Lloyd Banks, as well as 'Cry' by Swiss which must be the best So Solid Crew related track by some distance.

Liking this Love Unlimited sampling track 15 minutes in. Thought I recognised the rapper but turns out it's someone I've never heard of.

Thursday 26 October 2017

Black Rob - Future Flavas freestyle (1998)



Always happy to come across a Black Rob freestyle I haven't heard before and that's exactly what happened on my drive to work this morning when he popped up in the middle of a Future Flavas show from 1998. Shout out to DJ Diablo for hooking me up with this and a bunch of other FF shows.

Sunday 22 October 2017

Doo Wop - 15.09.94



This was one of the first tapes I posted when I started the blog in 2009, but it was in 3 parts, with the first part of side 2 cut out and the whole thing was at 128 kbps. Here's the full tape at 320. Still not a huge fan of the Bounce Squad live bit at the beginning of the side 2 (not the most polished live show you'll hear and it's a bit shouty) but the blends that make up the first part of the mix are all fully on point. Classic mixtape business from a time when it wasn't just about getting exclusives.


According to a comment on the mixcloud page this tape is also known as 'Sandy's Birthday'. My Tape Kingz cassette has no mention of that so I'll stick with the title on the cover...




Saturday 21 October 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 20.10.00
with Ice T and Out Da Ville



17 years ago yesterday this is. Lots of future hits in part one, with Ante Up, Cold As Ice, Gravel Pit, What's Your Fantasy, Shake Ya Ass and Where I Wanna Be all making early appearances on the UK airwaves prior to hitting the mainstream playlists. Ms Jackson is on here too and that didn't hit the UK Top 40 until 4 months later which seems mad but that's how terrible UK record labels were with rap music back then.

Part 2 has a phone interview with Ice T and Notts crew Out Da Ville are in the house.

Sunday 15 October 2017

Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR (1998)




Or in this case just Bobbito as Stretch hasn't turned up yet. Looks like this is another one that's been uploaded elsewhere in the past which is good because it means that I'm able to give it a date and give you a link to the track listing. The Cheesecake track at the start is dope.

Tuesday 10 October 2017

DJ Step One - So 90s Volume 4



I put together this selection for the car and thought I'd share it on here. There's album cuts and indie joints and maybe one or two things you'd slept on or never heard before. Didn't go nuts with the mixing but it flows reasonably well. Enjoy.


Tracklist
Outkast - Claimin True
Redman - Bobyahead2dis
Artifacts - Wrong Side Of The Tracks
Jamal - Keep It Real
Rakim - Remember That
Company Flow - Juvenile Techniques
Down N Dirty Tribe - Inna Cipher
SOP - Styles
Kool G Rap & Nas - Fast Life (Buckwild remix)
London Posse - Roughnecks
Poor Righteous Teachers - Word Iz Life
E 40 - Da Bumble
Junior MAFIA ft Notorious BIG - Oh My Lord
Luniz ft Dru Down - Put The Lead On Ya
McGruff ft The LOX & Mase - Reppin Uptown

This started off life as me wanting to do something with the Redman and Luniz cuts. The Junior MAFIA track is a recent discovery as I'd never heard the album, but it turns out there's a few nice bits on there. The SOP joint features a pre-Missin Linx Problemz and Black Attack on a lovely understated beat with no hook and earlier this year it became the most expensive record in my collection (I'm not one for splashing out on vinyl usually) after I upgraded from the bootleg compilation I had it on, and treated myself to an original. The Rakim track was a favourite that did the rounds on the bootlegs of his '95 recordings that never found their way on to a proper album. I'm not a huge Co Flow fan and only really found out about Juvenile Techniques when I was listening to some old Stretch & Bobbito shows last year and was feeling the beat. The PRT track is another recent discovery when I took a chance on the 12" when I saw it cheap. The London Posse tune makes use of the always dope Blackbyrds sample and is one of the unreleased tracks that finally saw the light of day back in 2013

Saturday 7 October 2017

Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97 (1996)



Thanks to Tobes for this one.There's a frankly ridiculous amount of future classics on here. To think they all dropped around the same time is crazy, particularly when 2017 is looking like it could be the first year in the last 30 (I was introduced to all this on Christmas Day 1987) when I haven't heard a rap song I'd be bothered about hearing more than once. Anyway, self pity aside, late 95 was when I first started making the monthly trip to London to cop the latest import 12"s, so the track list on this isn't wildly different to the first ever mixtape I gave out to people, of which there's about 15 copies in existence. I don't have a copy anymore but if you ever see a C90 labelled 'NO GIMMICKS' selling on ebay for 4 figures then that's the one.


EDIT: Turns out I've previously posted this tape back in 2011 when MK hooked me up a copy but I'd ripped it in 128 kbps and the DL link is long dead anyway.

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 02.06.00
with Prime Cuts & The Creators




You know the drill for early 00s Westwood by now: Tunnel Bangers in the first half, Cipha Sounds and Jon Shecter on the phone, and then Prime Cuts in the mix with the underground/indie joints in part 2, this time with guests The Creators...



I also recently posted up this show from March 2000 with The Outsidaz in the studio...



Saturday 30 September 2017

Friday 15 September 2017

Redman - Funkorama (Midnight blend)



I'm sure someone has done this before but the chance to pair up my favourite Redman track with my favourite Tribe track seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.

Wednesday 13 September 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 21.05.99 with Cormega, OGC, Screwball, Deadly Venoms and DJ S&S



Having missed most of them when they aired, I'm really enjoying these New York Live shows with Westwood and Marley Marl. The guests and tunes tend to be a bit more varied than what you'd hear Flex playing on the Hot 97 Rap Exchanges. Lots going on in this one with Starang of OGC and Cormega guesting in part one, and then Deadly Venoms (an all female group that included N Tyce and who were briefly affiliated with the Wu), Screwball and DJ S&S appear in part two. All of them get together for a freestyle sesh at the beginning of part two...

Saturday 9 September 2017

Stretch & Bobbito on Hot 97 with DJ Premier (1997)




Another tape from the batch Tobes gave me. Think this one may have been online before as there's a tracklist on the S&B blog. As with every single radio show and mixtape from the second half of 1997, this includes You Know My Steez and Its Been A Long Time. There's some nice indie tracks on here too, plus Wu All Stars 'Sole In The Hole' which is one of the better songs by a Wu Tang spin off.

Monday 4 September 2017

Cutmaster C - Blackout 2003: Stop Cryin Haters!




I'm off to the US in a couple of weeks so I've been revisiting a few of the mixtapes I picked up on my first/last trips there back in 2003/04. I've posted a few of them  over the years but this one doesn't seem to be mentioned online anywhere. This was back when G Unit and Dipset were running things. Juelz Santana is on hosting duties so there's a few of his tracks on here alongside the rest of the usual suspects from that era.

(I had to make do with someone sending me a pic of the cover on their phone but if you click on it and biggify it you should be able to make out the full tracklist)

Shout out to Mixcloud because despite being hit and miss with IDing tracks, they have been able to put a name to the Juelz/JR Writer/Stack Bundles track that I included on my 'Mixtape Of Mixtapes' a a couple of years ago


Saturday 2 September 2017

DJ Malcolm X on Hott FM, Barbados (1999)



This is something a friend of mine bought back from a holiday in Barbados and it's always a good one to throw on when the sun's out. Just under an hour of the island's Hott FM with DJ Malcolm X mixing up some dancehall and hip hop on a Friday afternoon, Highlights include the very cheesy station jingle at the start, regular ads for the upcoming Def Jam Back To School party, underpinned by Crooklyn Clan's 'Oh Noooo' which reworks Ruff Ryders Anthem into the melody of Superthug (genius stuff), a dancehall track using the synths from Prince's 1999 and ragga takes of Hate Me Now and Redman's Da Goodness, plus a blend of Top Billin over Das EFX's Mic Checka.

Not entirely sure about a DJ calling himself Malcolm X but love the fact that there's a Bajan DJ called The Chiuahua Businessman.

Tuesday 29 August 2017

DJ Rectangle - The Lightning Fist (1998)

Sorted through a load of CDs at the weekend and came across a couple of Rectangle mixes I haven't uploaded. Full tracklist is here.


Sunday 27 August 2017

Tim Westwood at Notting Hill Carnival (1995)



It's a 3 day weekend here in the UK which means there's a bunch of stuff going on including Notting Hill Carnival. Over the years I've posted up a few bits from Westwood's stage as I'd taped the 95 and 96 sets when they were broadcast on Radio 1. In this 40 minute segment he goes in with a wicked dancehall selection - Bounty Killer, Supercat, Lady Saw, Merciless etc - and then switches into some early 90s Hip Hop. It's nice hearing the whistle posse and horn crew giving it up for songs like Time 4 Sum Aksion and Uptown Anthem, and they're properly loving the ragga stuff too.

Some of the '96 tape is available on the Westwood Archives Mixcloud page

Saturday 26 August 2017

Max Glazer on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2003)



Max covers for Tim and gets the full 3 hours to himself to play a ton of club bangers. This was a great time for decent rap and r&b crossing over in to the mainstream. I was playing out regularly back then and it was nice to be able to play songs that didn't completely suck (although some definitely haven't aged well) to your typical Saturday night Top 40 crowd.
That said, if you aren't into G Unit, Dipset, Rocafella, Snoop, Neptunes etc you may want to give this one a miss.

Saturday 19 August 2017

Funkmaster Flex - Hot 97 Street Jams (1994-95)



More Flex. Street Jams tapes usually include a few treats and this is definitely a good one. It starts off with Sluggy Ranks 'Ghetto Youth Bust' which I enjoyed as I'm more familiar with the jungle version. A couple of classic freestyles also get an airing, with the KRS One, MC Serch & Scarface session and the full 'Live At The Garden' with Biggie, 2Pac, Big Daddy Kane and the lads. There's also a short Das EFX freestyle with DJ Scratch on the turntables.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Thursday 10 August 2017

Sparkle Motion presents Special Mixx Vol 1 (2017)

Sparkle Motion once again! Over to Tobes:

"New mix from myself and Yoda inspired by early Mr. Magic and The World Famous Supreme Team radio shows. Feelgood uptempo rap, pop and R&B jams from the early to mid 80s with a few secret treats thrown in along the way... hope you guys dig it..."

Monday 7 August 2017

DJ Step One - The Remix Mix Volume 3 (2017)



3 years have passed since the first 2 volumes of this series, which really isn't good enough tbh, so I got my shit together and hooked this up yesterday. It's a simple enough concept: all the tracks are remixes. In this case, they're from 95-96 (and all off vinyl if that sort of thing still matters to you). Get on it...


Tracklist
AZ 'Gimme Yours' (Erick Sermon remix)
Big L 'MVP' (Smooth Summer mix)
Grand Puba  'A Little Of This' (Stud Doogie remix)
Notorious BIG 'Big Poppa' (Jermaine Dupri remix)
Real Live ft Tragedy & Capone 'The Turnaround' (Thug remix)
INI ft Pete Rock 'Fakin Jax' (Frankenstein remix)
Little Indian ft The Foreigner 'One Little Indian' (Buckwild remix)
D&D All Stars '1,2 Pass It' (remix)
Fugees 'Fugee La' (Refugee Camp remix)
Big Noyd ft Prodigy 'Usual Suspect' (Stretch Armstrong remix)
Kool G Rap ft Nas 'Fast Life' (Norfside remix)
Smif N Wessun 'Soundboy Buriell' (remix)
Common Sense 'Resurrection' (Extra P remix)
Jigmastas ft Skam & The Buildin Blox 'Beyond Real' (remix)
Frankie Cutlass ft Doo Wop, Fat Joe & Evil Twinz 'Boriquas On The Set' (Flip Squad remix)
Above The Law '100 Spokes' (Fresh On D's remix)
MC Eiht 'Thuggin It Up' (DJ Spinna remix)
Pharcyde 'Runnin'  (Jay Dee remix)

Volume 1 and Volume 2 are still available to stream and download if you missed them first time round.

Sunday 6 August 2017

Don't Sleep #14
Group Home ft Agallah 'Handle Your BI' (2001)



Like Jeru, Group Home's fortunes dwindled once they stopped working with DJ Premier, Fortunately there's numerous bork producers out there that can hook up a decent Primo imitation beat and once you throw Agallah into the mix, plus some dude called Bleedz, you get a solid indie banger that came out as a 12" on Swedish label Street Level. Don't sleep.

Although the popular train of thought - online at least - seems to be that Livin Proof is Premier's best non-Gang Starr album, I personally prefer The Sun Rises In The East as the beats and the raps are both fully on point. Obviously Jeru proceeded to join the Fun Police full time on his second album which took the shine off things a bit but there's still a few favourites on there. I was never that into Ya Playin Yaself but the One Day beat is lovely, and last year I copped the test press for 50p while out digging and sold it for £70 so it holds a special place in my heart.

Saturday 5 August 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 26.03.99
with Eminem, Proof & DJ Greenpeace



This is the show with Eminem and Proof rhyming over Hate Me Now and Redman's Pick It Up, with recordings of Em's crank calls in between. This is around the time The Slim Shady LP dropped so he wasn't a full on superstar at this point. I had the full 3 hour show originally and posted the freestyle session back when I first started this blog back in 2009, and again in the piece I did for Nah Right in 2014. I don't have those tapes anymore but this one - just the second half of the show - was in the collection Grime & Lime hooked me up with so thought I'd throw it on here, particularly as it also has DJ Greenpeace in the mix for the last half hour.



A few other shows have surfaced on line in the last week too...

16th September 1995 with DJ MK (courtesy of the man himself)

plus Max B has been busy throwing up some treats recently so make sure you keep an eye on his page.

Radio 1 Rap Show 1997 with DJ Kid Swift

Radio 1 Rap Exchange 1996 with A Tribe Called Quest

Saturday 29 July 2017

Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97 (1994)



Flex with 'The Flava Mix' on Hot 97 one night sometime around what I'm guessing is August or September 1994, as he announces Biggie's 'The What' as a world exclusive. The first part of the tape is slightly older, chilled out stuff like Color Me Badd, En Vogue, LL, Fresh Prince and Arrested Development. The second half includes Das EFX, Biggie, OC and the dope 'Uptown Style' by Kirk.


Wednesday 26 July 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 03.11.00 with Prime Cuts



More R1RS, this time from November 2000 when Jay Z 'Dynasty' and Prodigy's 'HNIC' were about to drop, so you get a few tracks off those plus a bit of CNN, Big Scoob, D12, Ja Rule and BG.
Part 2 sees Prime Cuts step up for his regular slot mixing up the underground, indie and UK selection.




I also posted this 2003 show with DJ Cash Money on the Mixcloud page last week




Tuesday 18 July 2017

Guru, Eminem, Defari & The Beatnuts -
Wake Up Show freestyle (1998)



I've only ever had a couple of Wake Up Show tapes in my possession so was happy to see this one in the last batch of cassettes that Tobes hooked me up with. I was particularly pleased to find this treat on there though: Guru stops by the show to do a quick interview (just before Moment Of Truth came out) and then drops a few verses alongside a relatively unknown Eminem, before Defari steps up to the mic and then the Beatnuts get involved. Good times. Do things like this still happen anywhere outside of the BET awards?

That's followed by a Smif N Wessun freestyle - they were rolling as the Cocoa Brovaz at the time -   and Em jumps on the mic again. The full show is below...





Not sure if it's a West Coast radio thing in general or just something Sway & Tech did but their lengthy intro and approach to drops and jingles might even out do Weenie & The Butt. Definitely not mad at their female co-host's voice though. Much more soothing than your standard rap radio DJ.

Had my first copyright infringement takedown notice from Audiomack last week, for a bootleg remix of Top Billin of all things. Hopefully they don't go the way of Soundcloud and Mediafire. Seems crazy that in 2017 there isn't an established reliable platform for hosting music to stream and download. I'll persist with it for now but if things start disappearing on a regular basis I might need a new home. It has occured to me that having Eminem's name on there might be a red flag. Can't say I wasn't a tad shook a few years ago when minutes after making a disparaging remark about Jimmy Iovine, I received a notification informing me that INTERSCOPE RECORDS IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU.

Sunday 9 July 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 15.12.01
with Nas, Pete Rock & Inspectah Deck



Big episode of New York Live here, with Tim and Marley hosting Nas just as Stillmatic was about to drop and the beef with Jay Z was in full swing. Pete Rock shows up for a quick interview in part 2, followed by Inspectah Deck and U God repping the Wu ahead of the release of Iron Flag.



Iron Flag seems like the most maligned or even somewhat forgotten Wu album but Rules, In The Hood and Uzi (Pinky Ring) are all solid Wu bangers. Don't sleep.

Posted a couple of other tapes on the Westwood Archives page recently

Radio 1 Rap Show 15th July 2000

24th September 1999 w/ The Madd Rapper

24th September 1999 with Rodney P, Skitz & Riddla

Also, you can now check out my man Rio T holding it down on TooHot radio, Saturday mornings 12-2pm, rocking strictly clean versions for the Rap Dads.

Tuesday 4 July 2017

Stretch Armstrong on Hot 97 (1996)



Stretch Boogie rolling solo on Hot 97 from September 1996. Fatman Scoop is also in the building and you get some Mobb Deep, MOP, Royal Flush, De La Soul amongst others.


Another sure shot from Tobes. Salute!

If you like this please don't sleep on It's Overture's Hot 97 - Summer Of 96 mix from last year. It's awesome.

Monday 26 June 2017

Marley Marl & Pete Rock - Future Flavas on Hot 97 (1996)




Another one out of Tobes' stash. Future Flavas tapes are relatively scarce and always full of heat, in this case Real Live, Group Home, Heltah Skeltah, Sadat X amongst others.

I don't usually do tracklists as I listen to most things while I'm driving and can't write stuff down. This tape had the info on the inlay card which made things easier...

Large Professor & Pete Rock - The Rap World
Real Live ft Lord Tariq, Ghostface, Cappadonna & Killa Sin - Real Live Shit (remix)
Alley High - Voo Doo
The Roots - Clones
Bahamadia - 3 The Hardway
INI - Centre Of Attention
Group Home - Suspended In Time (remix)
Heltah Skeltah - Understand
Sadat X - Stages, Cameras, Lights
De La Soul ft Mos Def - Big Brother Beat
Mad Skillz - The Jam
Tragedy, Mobb Deep & CNN - LA, LA (remix)


Saturday 24 June 2017

Black Rob & Poo Cabrocke freestyle (1999)



A Black Rob freestyle is always welcome around these parts so cheers to Grime & Lime for extracting this from Silva Sirfa's 'Fuck The World' mixtape and hooking me up. BR and Poo Cabrocke (no, me neither - the only mention I can find of him was an appearance on a 2010 G Dep album that I forgot/didn't know existed). He sounds decent enough and goes b2b with Rob over the instrumental of Pace Won's 'Step Up'.

As I mentioned in the post below, I was putting together a comp of Prodigy freestyles which I ended up posting up on twitter and a couple of forums the other day. I think they've all been posted on this blog before over the last few years but if you want them all in one place then here you go

Wednesday 21 June 2017

DJ Premier on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1998)




90 minutes of Primo in the mix on Radio 1. No talking just tunes and a lot of his own productions as he was on something of a roll at the time - Jay Z, MOP, Rakim, All City and Krumbsnatcha all feature. Thanks to Tobes for providing the tape of this one.

Sad news about Prodigy - couldn't believe he was only 42 either. Obviously I've posted quite a few Mobb related things recently and I've recently been in the process of putting together a comp of his freestyles which I'll post up soon (just need a couple more to finish it off).

Friday 16 June 2017

Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97 (1994)



Big up Tobes for coming through with another batch of tapes, first up is this one with Flex in the mix back in August '94 dropping some early 90s tunes before running through a load of party breaks. There's also a St Ides commercial by Snoop & Nate Dogg and Ice Cube hawking Crooked I iced tea ("all the Gs drink it")

Tuesday 6 June 2017

Pharoahe Monch on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2003)



Pharoahe Monch on Westwood from June 2003. It's something of a shame that Monch had a 7 year gap between Internal Affairs in '99 and Desire in 2007 as he'd have probably conjured up something worthwhile before going all Andre 3000 on us. There was a track or two that leaked around 2004/05 which may have been recorded for a project on Shady/Aftermath but there was never any danger of that coming out as long as Jimmy Iovine was milking Eminem, 50 and G Unit dry.

I may have mentioned it before, but the selection on these 00s Westwood shows is alot more mainstream than years before, particularly on the Saturday nights (Friday was a later slot and tended to be focused on the more underground tunes). This is has much to do with Hip Hop and R&B becoming more mainstream in the UK in general around that time with Timbaland, Neptunes, Dre etc all selling big numbers and "urban" music knocking House and Garage off the Top 40 perch it had perenially occupied in it's various forms throughout the 90s. Thought it was worth remembering that Tim had always played R&B and Ragga in his shows, it's just that you probably liked it more in 1994.

Couple of other shows I've uploaded recently:

11th June 1999 with QNC in the studio

26th October 2001 - phone interview with Grand Puba (was gutted he wasn't actually in the studio as I was hoping for a freestyle)




Saturday 3 June 2017

Mobb Deep - If These Walls Could Talk (2002)



It's hot and sunny outside but let's ignore that completely and go for some moody Queensbridge raps with this unreleased Mobb Deep joint that was on the flipside of the NORE track I posted recently.
Depending on which bootleg or mixtape you have this is also known as 'Snitch' or 'Snitched On' and samples Beethoven's Fur Elise; obviously I didn't know that until it appeared on the Google search but it's one of those classical pieces everyone recognises. Grimey.

Other things worthy of your attention:

Good Kool G Rap interview for Rolling Stone

Digital Underground's demo tape

15 Classic Big L freestyles

Jimmy Green's Roy Ayers mixtape

Monday 29 May 2017

Shortee Blitz & Big Ted on Kiss FM (23.06.04)



47 minutes of The Chubby Kids throwing down some heat on Kiss FM back in 2004, including new isht from MOP, Jadakiss, Nas, Beatnuts, Lakey The Kid, Yungun and Klashnekoff.

Saturday 27 May 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 13.05.00
with Doug E Fresh, Rahzel & Chuck D



The first thing to say about this show is there's a ton a of legit bangers. Big Pimpin, Whoa, Bling Bling, Quiet Storm (with P re-doing it dubplate special style for Tim) and about half of Dre's 2001 album. 99-2000 was a good time for rap songs that worked in the club without being corny. There's also a few backstage interviews with some wrestlers at a WWE event in the UK. Couldn't tell you much about that as I'd stopped watching it by then.

Part 2 (below) is a  repeat of a show from July 1999 with Doug E Fresh, Rahzel and Chuck D in the studio...

Monday 15 May 2017

Noreaga - Colors (2002)



Noreaga putting his 2002 twist on the Ice T classic is as gully as you'd expect. It's a mixtape only track that as far I can tell went under most people's radar unless you had a copy of this DJ Envy tape, and even then you were only getting a snippet. Fortunately it made on to the streets in it's full glory on this white label (alongside an unreleased Mobb Deep song). Strange it never got a bit more attention but there you go. It really sounds like it needs some trademark Kay Slay drops but you can't have everything.




It's a shame that for the most part rappers and DJs were fairly unimaginative when pulling out beats for their freestyles back then. The majority tended to reach for the hot track of the moment or tried and tested classics like Who Shot Ya or Shook Ones pt II. The Colors beat would've been a great pick, as would Juice Crew Dis or  Black Superman. Perhaps the famed East Coast Bias was very much in effect until the mid 00s.

NB: Audiomack have changed their embedding thingy so not only is there only one option for sizes - fucking massive - but it's also messed up the way the older ones appear on the site. You're probably best just clicking onto my audiomack page and DLing off there if you have any problems

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Pete Rock & CL Smooth live at The Jazz Cafe (2004)


Pete Rock & CL performing live at London's Jazz Cafe in 2004 for one of the first of what would be many reunion shows. I think this did the rounds online at the time as it was broadcast on 1Xtra (which is the source of this tape rip) and it also appeared on a promo CD, but for those of you who didn't catch it then, here it is...


I saw them perform in London in 2010 and it was a good show, although maybe I was the only one to notice that there was a few awkward points when they performed the ladies records like Lots Of Lovin, Take You There and Appreciate to an audience that was 95% male. I guess that's the perennial dilemma of the golden era rapper.

Monday 8 May 2017

Prime Cuts on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2000)



Prime Cuts had a regular slot on the R1RS during the early 00s, holding down the underground/boom bap side of things as Tim shifted more towards the thugged out jiggy side. Some quality tunes on here including Grand Agent, Immobilarie, MOP, Pete Rock and Blak Twang.

Friday 5 May 2017

DJ Spinna on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1999)



Spinna passes through Westwood's show for an interview and a quick mix. I spoke to him briefly once at a festival in Croatia. He seemed like a good dude, although it was about 2am and I was drunk so I probably seemed like a dick. Don't think I went full rap nerd at him thankfully.

The first 2 hours of the show are here - There's some classic audio of Wu Tang and BDP performing live (not together, obviously) and Funky DL hosts an open mic phone in. The quality isn't great in parts but it's the best I could do. You might need to adjust your graphic equaliser and turn off the Bass Boost.

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Prodigy - Radio 1 Rap Show freestyles (2000)







"are you listening to the words or listening to the beat? listen to the words man!"

17 years ago this past weekend the M-O-B-B appeared on Westwood's show. Prodigy proceeded to go in with a 15 minute freestyle which I've kindly seperated into the 3 tracks you see above. Hearing him over The Lox's 'Fuck You' is a highlight.

If you want to listen to the whole show that those freestyle are taken from, you can find the first hour herePart 2 with Fab 5 Freddy is here and part 3 with Prodigy, Havoc and Alchemist is below



When you see your average generic American rap fan online debtaing their Top 5 rappers, or asking who the GOAT is, it's pretty much always the same fucking names. Having listened to helluva lot of Mobb Deep in the last few months (party because I was making this mix, which I highly recommend if you haven't checked it) I would say that Prodigy at his peak should definitely be in that conversation, but that rarely seems to be the case.

With that in mind, if you missed them...

Prodigy - You Ain't A Killer freestyle (1997)

Prodigy & Ty Nitty - DJ Clue freestyle (1996)

Saturday 22 April 2017

The Dope Blend Theory


Here's a couple of blends I cooked up using 2 ATCQ joints, the first one is the 1nce Again acapella over the Crooklyn instrumental (which is produced by Q Tip and Ali). I was never a massive fan of the original 1nce Again beat and remember being quite underwhelmed when it appeared as the lead single for Beats Rhymes & Life. The Crooklyn beat gives it a bit more bounce imo.



The second one is Stressed Out over the Dead Presidents instrumental...



These were originally intended to be part of a 'mid 90s blends' mix I was putting together that never got finished, so I might post what I've got so far up as individual tracks over the next few weeks and months.

Wednesday 19 April 2017

Kool G Rap & Papoose - New York Live freestyle (1999)



Before that brief period around 2005ish when Papoose was rolling with Kay Slay and Jive Records and looking like the next big thing, he was down with Kool G Rap. This freestyle is taken from an edition of New York Live on the Radio 1 Rap Show around the time G Rap's Roots Of Evil was due to drop. The full show is below, featuring A+ in part one, and Marley Marl hosting The Roots and G Rap in part two





Kool G Rap is performing in London for the first time in ages in June btw.

Monday 17 April 2017

Who's your A&R?

aka Rap thangs that shouldn'ta done happened.

In the week that Kendrick Lamar became the first person in history to think that a rap album could benefit from Bono appearing on it (in place of the likes of Q Tip if rumours are to be believed) I thought I'd revist some terrible collaborations from the past. Obviously there's a lot so I put some restrictions in place:

- No cross genre collabs. That's a whole 'nother list - the Blade 2 soundtrack, that bizarre Brand Nubian dubstep album, Inspectah Deck and Coolio with Blondie. There's too many to consider.
 - No dead rappers. They're dead. They can't help it if their mum thought it would be nice to hear them on a song with Elton John.
 - No Wyclef records. He's worked with Tom Jones, Brian Harvey and The Rock ffs. He clearly doesn't care.
 - Nothing featuring Mr Hudson. He's another level of terrible and the song inevitably goes beyond being mildy disappointing to something more traumatic and offensive, albeit one that's strangely suitable for sub-par bars and high street retail outlets.

So, here's 5 times when rappers collaborating with other rappers fails to live to up to the sum of it's parts...

First up, the all-star collab:




Thursday 13 April 2017

Biz Markie on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2001)



Biz touches down in the UK for an appearance at the Essential Festival. There's some reminiscing about the old days and a a chat about rare joints  - anyone know what the 'talking version' of The Vapors is? - before Biz clumsily mixes up some breaks (we'll put it down to jet lag) and drops a few of his own tracks with a bit of beatboxing  in between.

I edited out the beginning of the show as there was about 25 minutes of Biggie and 2Pac tunes, followed by Tim debuting Jay Z's 'Izzo' by playing it 2 times in a row, and a total of 4 times in the 3 hour show. Method Man and Teddy Riley's 'Party And Bullshit' also got played twice and that really isn't a very good song. You do get a Break To The Beat segment though which I thought had been done away with by the 2000s. Maybe it was because Biz was in the house.

Saturday 8 April 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 16.07.99 with P Diddy & Shyne



Puffy on Westwood's show from around the time 'Forever' dropped. He's also got Shyne with him, and it turns out this was the show that this freestyle went down on. Whole load of Bad Boy tracks get played, and then part two finishes off with the recording of Biggie performing at the Radio 1 Rap Show launch party in London back in '95.





Tuesday 4 April 2017

DJ Greenpeace - Dream FM Hip Hop Volume 4 (1993)

As far I know, Dream FM was a pirate station in Leeds that broadcast through the mid 90s. This isn't a recording of a show so I assume it's a mixtape used to promote the station. There was no DJ name on the cassette or the cover but the paper insert with the tracklist (see below) tells us it's "mixed the fuck up by Greenpeace" bka Dan Greenpeace aka Dan Large of HHC/Fat Lace fame, DJ Yoda collaborator, All City Show host and these days Dubai based concert promoter. Some top notch '93 selection for you...





There's no sign on Discogs of that Progressive Agenda EP unfortunately.

Saturday 1 April 2017

Westwood live from Sylvia's in Harlem (2003)


A ridiculous line up of guests on this show. You can find the first 90 minutes with Ja Rule and Sean Paul here, but the second half  is where it's at with Timbaland, Busta Rhymes, Noreaga, Kardinal Offishall, Freeway and TOK all passing through.

And here's the Freeway freestyle over In Da Club



NB: at the start Westwood says Busta will be on the following night's show, but this was a Saturday (there was no show on a Sunday) so I'm guessing this wasn't actually broadcast live and they forgot to cut that out of the edit.

Tuesday 28 March 2017

The Choice Is Yours (except it's not anymore)

I haven't downloaded (paid or otherwise) any new rap music so far this year. This is down to 2 things, the first being that nothing has really caught my attention and secondly I've become increasingly fed up with the restricted availability of certain songs. Before anyone draws for the 'old man yells at cloud' jpeg, I've tried to articulate this as best as possible without coming off too Abe Simpson about the state of things. I feel it's a legitimate grievance. Walk with me...and then tell me how you stay on top of everything in the comments section.

Firstly I should say that I always fully embraced music in a digital format. I downloaded my first track in 2002, and bought Serato in 2008. Unlike a lot of DJs I kept my vinyl, but if you were playing out it seemed insane that would prevent yourself from being able to access certain tunes that were only available on mp3. I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of vinyl vs digital as it’s a well worn discussion that - unbelievably - still gets bought up now.
My beef is with the current situation music consumers find themselves in, where there are so many platforms to acquire music from that it’s becoming impossible to keep up with what’s out there, and even if you have the time and motivation to do that, actually being able to buy what you want is a considerable mission.