AZ, Raekwon & Ghostface - New York Get Down (Step One mix)

AZ, Rae & Ghost on the Nas - Get Down beat. Thought I would post up this blend off the last mix I did (cop here if you somehow haven't already), partly because it's good but also I've never really uploaded anything to YouTube and wanted to try it out. Might get a few more things on there if it does some numbers (reaches double figures)

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The Firm - Phone Tap (remix)

I had no idea this existed until today when I caught it on this Stretch Armstrong show from 1998.
I wouldn't say it's better than the original but it's not bad, and I'm surprised it hasn't crossed my path at some point in the last 20 years. Anyone know if this made it onto any kind of vinyl or CD, official or otherwise?

Camp Lo - Coolie High (Sugarhill blend)

Quick ting here. As you might be aware, Camp Lo recently released an album's worth of 95/96 material in the form of On The Way Uptown. As I'm currently sitting on a few blends I'd made I thought I'd let this one go (there was going to be a whole mix of blends but I ended up doing the Real Live project instead). The acapella of the Paradise mix of  'Coolie High' over AZ's 'Sugarhill' instrumental. A Camp Lo - AZ collaboration over some Ski or Harry Fraud '88 Coupes' type production would be immense.

Other things that might be relevant to your interests:

Lord Finesse mixing golden era classics on The Underground Railroad show on WBAI (2006)

100% Ruff Ryders Special on Radar Radio

The Oral History of 'Bling Bling'

AZ & Styles P 'The Hardest' (OB4ZL edit)

This is easily in my Top 10 favourite tracks of the last decade. There was 2 versions over the same Large Professor beat. One was on Styles' 'Phantom Gangster' album, and the other on AZ's 'Undeniable', and also on Large Professor's 'Main Source' album just for good measure. Obviously the only thing left to do - albeit a bit late - was to weld the two together into one continuous track.

some re-ups

When I set this blog up and started ripping my old tapes I wasn't clued up on the whole digital fidelity thing so most of the early posts are at 128 kbps. This morning I re-ripped 2 of my all time favourite tapes at 320 and added them to my mixcloud page. Go check 'em out...

Evil Dee on Hot 97 (1994)

Mastermind - Tape 36 (1997)

I still get asked about the Mastermind tapes a lot so I'll try and get the other 2 I have re posted at some point.

I also added DJ Semtex's 'Volume 6' tape the other day

The Firm - La Familia (1996)

As you might already be aware, a recent collaborative effort on the Philaflava forum resulted in a reconstruction of The Firm album, re-imagining the track selection as it should've been. It's one of those releases thats generally considered a bit underwhelming, mostly due to it being less than the sum of its parts. The highs are high but the lows aren't really what the people involved should have put their names to in 1996. During the course of the discussion, the subject of 'La Familia' was raised. This was a song I'd kind of forgotten about since having it on a Future Flavas tape back in the day, but it turns out it's only official release was as a clean version on Foxy Brown's 'I'll Be' single, and Cormega's verse had been replaced by one from Nature after the group's line up changed. Save for a couple of mixtapes and poor quality youtube rips, the original was nowhere to be found. You can probably see where this post is going.
A quick check on my shelves turned up this bootleg 12" with the uncensored version featuring Cormega. So here it is. Shout out to DJ Filthy Rich for cleaning up the pops and crackles for me.



The Firm: How It Should've Been

The 12" is well worth picking up if you see it, as it also includes the original version of 'Benjamins' without Biggie and 'You'll See' (another promo only Bad Boy track). The Tracey Lee/Canibus/McGruff joint is also unreleased.

its the uncensored version of the Firm Biz remix!

The Martorialist's recent playlist of AZ deep cuts inspired me to resurrect my search for the full, raw, uncut version of the excellent World Famous remix of The Firm's 'Firm Biz'. It's a track that I've seen mentioned in request threads and most wanted lists over the years but even in an era where pretty much every demo, alernate version and Austrian promo CD single has been uploaded, this has remained elusive. The clean version is a reasonably easy find - in the UK anyway -  as its included on the promo album sampler. In contrast, acquiring the dirty version was the result of finding a Japanese record store with some poor quality streaming audio samples of this bootleg 12", and then a seller in France who wasn't charging the earth for a copy (the extornionate shipping costs from the US to the UK are a whole 'nother topic though). This might only be a humble little Hip Hop blog based in the UK's stockbroker belt but not too many sites fucking with us when it comes to the hella rare unreleased 90s heat game...

If you're unfamiliar with the track, you need this in your life. It's one of those remixes that's essentially a completely different track rather than a remix. The chorus of the original remains intact (although it may have been resung) but the Teena Marie sample is dispensed with in favour of the awesome beats from the Malcolm McLaren classic. Half-A-Mil is drafted in to set things off with the opening verse and basically everything is lovely from there on in. The Firm album isn't actually that bad despite getting a bit of a bad press at the time, but this is better than anything on there, with the obvious exception of Phone Tap.

File this one alongside joints like '24 Hours To Live', 'Off The Books', OC's 'Dangerous' and such like, in terms of late 90s uptempo NYC rap bangers that straddled the thug/jiggy divide. Easier said than done in the era where it was hoodies and timbs vs shiny suits and god forbid anyone get in between the two. I still remember trying to find a copy of Clipse debut 12" 'The Funeral' and Uptown Records not knowing what it was ("bit underground for us mate") and Mr Bongo 2 minutes away not stocking it because "if you heard Funkmaster Flex play it we probably wont have it, mate". That's a whole 'nother topic though.

I'll be back but for now just google...

Its a BDP reference. No posts recently due the house move now being in full effect. 20 years ago, almost to the week, I bought my first set of turntables - some Gemini belt drives. Today is the first time since then I haven't had them or my vinyl (or any CDs for that matter) in the house. Having lots of records is all well and good until it comes time to move, and then it's just a total bastard. Especially when you live on the 3rd floor with 5 flights of stairs and no lift. It's hard not to feel envious of the people who have all their music on a harddrive, or the types that just use iTunes and Spotify and occasionally buy a compilation from the supermarket.

Anyway, rant over. I feel like I may have posted something similar before but the point remains relevant. This is going to be one of those placeholder type posts where I put you up on them thangs I've discovered on my online travels. No one really sends me their mixes to post anymore. Feel free to do that if you've got something you want to share. Some decent artwork and being able to actually mix helps btw, although I'm fully aware I never have art for my own mixes. So...

Random Rap Radio continues to be a source of things you never heard before (for..for..never heard before...) like this Pete Rock & Marley Marl Future Flavas mixtape sampler for MCA Records from 1999

Remember The Supafriendz? They were Mad Skillz' crew back in the day. Bad Cop just put together this 'best of' mix featuring posse cuts, solo joints and radio freestyles. Check Supafriendz - Da Supa Mixtape

DJ Semtex shared a couple of old Bootcamp Click freestyles following the sad news about Sean Price (RIP).

DJ MK dropped his 'Watever Mixtape Vol 1' last week.

I recommend checking Big Ted's weekly show on Mi-Soul for new and classic Hip Hop.

Mark 563 has posted his dope 'Whats Real' mixtape from 2005 on Mixcloud, featuring all sorts of mid 90s classics.

If you want something to read while you're listening to these, the homie Stan Ipcus recently hooked up another one of his excellent Mixtape Memories pieces, this time interviewing Craig G.

That should keep you going for now. Have fun and enjoy whats left of the summer.

Edit - just realised that 4 of the 6 people linked above used to work in record shops in London. Weird. Shout out to Mr Bongo, Liberty Grooves, Handspun/Deal Real and HMV Oxford Street!

One other thing. I really wanted to like Compton and aside from the presence of Kendrick Lamar and Eminem the tracklist showed some promise. I can't remember the last time I was that pleased to receive a new release in my inbox, but on hearing it I thought the majority of it was rubbish with one or two songs being tolerable at best. The first track after the intro is particularly terrible. Comments I've read online - and there are many - suggest I'm very much in the minority but then as a general rule, comments online suggest most people are stupid. So there. There's a new Warren G EP out with previously unheard Nate Dogg vocals. I suggest you seek that out instead,

DJ Rhude - NAZ: The Flyest Essence (2015)

The homie DJ Rhude just dropped this blend/remix tape using Nas & AZ vocals...

GO HERE

The venture features remixes from two of The Firm’s cohorts, Nas and AZ, and boasts production credits from legendary beat-makers including Pete Rock, Salaam Remi, Large Professor, The Alchemist and more. On the genesis of the mixtape, DJ Rhude stated, “Nas and AZ’s chemistry in the booth is undeniable as evidenced by their body of work over the years. Despite said chemistry, the two artists have never collaborated on a full length album despite the fans pleas for it,” he said. “While it probably may never happen, Datwon (Vibe EIC) and I brainstormed about putting together a mixtape as a way of imagining how an album between the two could sound. As a result Naz: The Flyest Essence was born.”

AZ 'Red Magic' (2014)

AZ rapping over a sample of 'Strawberry Letter 23'. This is exactly the kind of thing I'd have come up with for Rap Thangs That Shoulda Done Happened.

AZ & Questlove on Shade45 (2013)

AZ freestyles over Questlove beatboxing.Things like this need to happen more often.

UPDATE: I mp3'd the freestyle - GO HERE

Also, the homie HL recently interviewed AZ - go here

AZ 'Genesis' (2013)

The best news I've had so far in 2013 came on New Year's Day when AZ's twitter feed hinted that new music was about to drop. I dont usually post new releases but he's is one of my favourite rappers and for some reason my favourite rappers rarely release (good) new music. Hopefully the forthcoming 'Doe Or Die 2' is up to par and not far away, and if there's a Primo beat on there that would be a bonus.

You can get the download here .

Nas & AZ blends

Updates have been a bit thin on the ground recently as I've been busy with radio stuff, plus the summer has kicked in here in the UK so I havent really had the opportunity to rip any more tapes. As I dont want this site to just consist of mixcloud links to my shows, I thought I'd post up a couple of blends for you...

Nas 'Thiefs Theme' (DJ Step One blend)
This one matches the Nas acapella with the DJ Premier beat from Termanology's 'Watch How It Go Down'

AZ 'The Come Up (DJ Step One blend)
AZ's 'The Come Up' over the beat from one of my favourite tunes so far this year: DJ Numark & Large Professor's 'When You Sleep'.

The next Infinite Hip Hop Show on Kane FM is this coming Saturday at 6pm. I also filled in last week for 2 hours - you can check that out here.

AZ 'Dont Know' (2001)

Another AZ 12" that I recently aquired. Its a decent 80s soul flavoured track which suits Sosa's style down to a tee...

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The b-side is labelled as 'Whatcha', which I assume is 'Whatcha Day About' from the '9 Lives' album. I say assume because its actually a printing error and instead you get a clean version of 'Dont Know'. Ah, the joys of unofficial vinyl releases.

If you like this you might want to check this other AZ 12" I posted a while back

For those of you wanting some more tape rips, I'll be back on that tip soon. They're kind of time consuming though and I'm busy with a few other things right now.

AZ ft Doo Wop 'For The Streets' (1998)

This a great promo only 'jackin for beats' style 12", with AZ flowing over the big tunes of the day...

AZ 'If You Want It'

I picked up this semi official/bootleg AZ 12" last week and seeing as it doesn't appear to have had an official release, I thought I'd hook it up for you.

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Can't say I'm sold on the chorus but if you like AZ this is definitely worth checking. I'm not too sure on the year it dropped but I'm guessing early 00s. Googling 'AZ' isn't an easy task so if anyone out there has any info on the track let me know.

AZ - AWOL (Hydra Beats blends)

This is the latest project from Vaporized, and this time he's taken the vocals from AZ's dope 'AWOL' album and blended them with instrumentals from the Hydra Records camp.
I found this over at Philaflava where the reviews so far have been positive to say the least, so its definitely worth a listen.

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