DJ Rectangle - OG Style (1994)

This is one of my favourite Rectangle mixes. Having initially lived with it for years on tape (possibly off Westwood), and then downloads of varying quality, I finally copped a CD copy recently at a reasonable price. Lots of 1994 classics on this, but as with all mixes like this (as opposed to golden era mixes made in the 00s onwards) there's a few lesser known joints like Record Jock by Dana Dane, The Legion's Legion Groove and Flow Wood by Volume 10. Highlights for me are the blend of One Love over Deep Cover (sounds kind of basic now but it was the shit back then), the way Black Superman comes in (simple but effective) and the intros and little scratch/acapella blends between tracks that was Rectangle's signature, along with his intros. Full tracklist is here.

DJ On-Point - Point Of No Return (2004)

Canal Street purchase from Sept 2004. Headlining tracks were the new Nas (You Know My Style) and Fab's Breathe which was ringing off everywhere at the time, alongside Lean Back, Why and New York. The usual NYC mixtape suspects are present and correct here - D Block, Mobb Deep, Dipset, G Unit - alongside some up and comers.

DJ Rectangle - Wax Assassin (1998)

1998 was a good year right? Nice amount of new acts coming through that would go on to be mainstays of the genre, a solid number of good albums, underground/indie, mainstream and everything in between on both coasts was in pretty good health, So a DJ Rectangle mix from 1998 is going to be good innit?

Check the 'Cogs for the TL. I had to cut off the last 2 tracks as the CD was skipping but I think the rest of it is fine

Guru freestyle (2005)

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I saw Guru performing with Solar and Doo Wop back in 2005 and copped this mix CD after the show. It's basically a best of mix, hosted by Guru but it seems like he's also playing the tracks. Off one deck. Low budget merch issues aside  - maybe it was done at short notice, when I bought my ticket it was billed as a Gang Starr show - what did make it worth getting was the freestyles over some non-Gang Starr Premier beats, such as The 6th Sense, So Ghetto, Nas Is Like, Unbelievable and also Quiet Storm.  I posted them up in zipfile about 8 years ago but they're all pretty short so I figured it would be easier to paste them all together into one continuous track.

DJ Enuff - My Definition Of Hip Hop Vol 2 (1997)

Strange one this. Official retail CD by DJ Enuff released in France with a mix of underground joints and a few French artists thrown in alongside some early 50 Cent material and freestyles by Diamond D, Negro League and Natural Elements

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DJ Rectangle - Table Torture

CD rip of this Rectangle mix from late 2001 - early 2002. Full tracklist here.

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DJ Rectangle - The Six Million Dollar Hand (2004)

Found this Rectangle CD that I haven't posted yet. It's from 2004 so we're on the fringes of classic territory and there's definitely some bullshit on here but Rec stitches it together so nicely and switches it up so often that you don't really have time to get too annoyed by anything. If you're in the UK the sun's out and it's a 3 day weekend so an appropriate opportunity to throw this on may well present itself at some point.

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(click on the image to biggify it)

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.

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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

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.

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Cutmaster C - Blackout 2003: Stop Cryin Haters!

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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

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.

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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.

Don't Sleep #11 Lace Da Booms 'Cut That Weak Shit' (1996)

This came out as the first release on Guesswhyld, back in 1996 when indie rap wasn't an entire sub-genre in itself, and the records still looked 'indie' - no glossy covers or barcodes. If you were one of those people propping up the counter at the likes of Mr Bongo or Handspun (or in the US, Fat Beats) you'll probably be familiar with it, but for the uninitiated...



There's a few different mixes on the 12" but the go to one has to be the NYC mix. It uses the beat from Kane's 'Young Gifted And Black' and has an early guest appearance from Royal Flush, who drops a dope verse. It's some proper traditional mid-90s East Coast rap and should not be slept on.
If you still buy vinyl, this is represents pretty good value for money - L's version used the same Kane beat but has different lyrics and no Royal Flush, plus you get the instrumental. The b-side has the Buckwild mix which is in a similar style to his remixes of Mad Izm and Daaam. Not entirely my bag but alot of people seem to enjoy those beats. The Domingo produced 'Aint No Secret' ain't bad either.

Additional notes: If you check the label, you'll see this also features Quasi Modo, who is/was part of Flush's Wastelanz crew and nothing to do with Madlib.
Also, I've just spotted that the label says Guesswild and not Guesswhyld, which became the label name for future releases. Not really important but record nerds enjoy that kind of thing.

BONUS! I recently picked up a cheap copy of this Guesswhyld compilation as I wanted a CDQ of Cut That Weak Shit. Turned out it was the Buckwild mix so here it is if you want it.

Fusion - The Burner (2003)

Obscure promo mix CD heat now, courtesy of Fusion, a producer best known for his work with OB4ZL favourite Fallacy. This gathers up a bunch of exclusives, blends, freestyles and remixes from the US and UK. Highligts include some early Durrty Goodz (when he was still Durrty Doogz), the mix of Made You Look over the Big N Bashy instrumental, D&B vet Skibadee dropping something over a Just Blaze beat that I cant place right now and some always welcome verses by Skeme (the English one).

Fusion - The Burner (2003) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

DJ Rectangle - Behind Bars (1999)

That last Rectangle mix I posted went down well, and rightly so - every mix he dropped back in the day was heat. Here's one from '99. Bangers, blends and acapellas flying around all over the place and superbly mixed as you'd expect...

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DJ Rectangle - Behind Bars (1999) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

Cash Money - Kickin Flava (2006)

I wouldn't usually post mix CDs that got a normal retail release but this one was fairly low key and is long out of print so thought I'd throw it up on the mixcloud for you and yours...

Cash Money - Kickin Flava (2006) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

Tracklist is here

Totally Iced Out : a compilation of Ice T remixes, features & loose tracks

Ice T circa Power to Original Gangster is probably my favourite rapper ever. I've mentioned before I was a bit disappointed with Home Invasion but he had a good 4-5 year run for the most part. As a bunch of my vinyl and CDs will be going into storage for while, I've been ripping audio like a madman and a result of that is this little comp. It's not meant to be exhaustive by any means - there was really no need to include Dick Tracy for example - but there's some nice remixes, guest spots and soundtrack joints that may have passed you by or been forgotten about...

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We kick off with the Simon Harris Hi-Tech remix of 'Drama', taken from the UK 12" of High Rollers. Harris doesn't mess with the song too much, just adding a break beat and a few samples. One of the few exceptions to the rule that all UK remixes of US tracks are terrible. That's followed by 'Colors' which you'll know but as its probably the best Ice T track not to appear on one of his albums it had to be included. Next up is the remix of 'You Played Yourself' by King Tee & Aladdin, and the dope 12" remix of 'Heartbeat' featuring War. DJ Premier's remix of Lifestyles Of The Rich & Infamous is pretty nice, and the collaboration with Ice Cube for their movie Trespass (initially called Looters but switched in the wake of the LA riots) is a reminder that the whole soundtrack is worth pulling out once in a while. Into the Home Invasion era, I've included 3 remixes from this CD single - the Beatnuts remix of 'Addicted To Danger' and the superior version of G Style. I left out the Ronin remixes of Gotta Lotta Love and Thats How I'm Living though (see earlier comment regarding UK remixes). Things finish up with Tracey's guest spot on 2Pac's 'Last Wordz', from 93's 'Strictly 4 My NIGGAZ' and another West Coast posse cut taken from Spice 1's 'Black Bossalini' LP - the under the radar 'Recognize Game' with Too Short, from 1997.

If you're a fan I highly recommend checking out Ice on the Combat Jack Show, where he pretty much covers his entire life story in 2 hours. Interesting stuff with some great stories.

DJ Rectangle - Deadly Needles (1997)

Definitely one of my favourite mixtapes of all time. I first heard this when Westwood played a side of the tape over 2 weeks on his show. I recorded it, played it to death and bought pretty much all the tracks used on here. Some of them aren't even particularly great out of the context of this mix, but everything fits together really well and Rectangle's technique of using snatches of various acapellas and instrumentals in between songs means that energy of the mix never dips. After  living with the cassette copy, and then a downloaded version (with a minor glitch whenever the track changed, which is often) I copped it on CD a few years ago and decided against uploading it. Until now...

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Rectangle's tapes had a lot of West Coast joints that I wouldn't usually be exposed to as NY DJs tended to favour mostly East Coast artists and that was mirrored in the selections on offer in the UK's record shops. This is the tape that put me on to Suga Free's 'If You Stay Ready', 'Talkin Bout Bank' by The Whoridas and 'Hit The Floor' by MC Eiht & Daz. I assure you, it's fucking great.

DJ Rectangle - Deadly Needles (1997) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

If you like this I recently re-upped 1995's 'Ill Rated' mixtape

Don't Sleep #7 The Usual Suspects (1997)

A double header for this edition of Don't Sleep. One of my favourite tracks of the late 90s that kind of got lost in the shuffle of great posse cuts from that era - John Blaze, Banned From TV, The Firm joints, Reservoir Dogs, Benjamins etc . The notable thing about this particular cut is that it comes in two different versions. Both were officially released but neither seems to be considered the original or the remix. They both use the same beat but the line up of rappers varies. 

Version 1, taken from the How To Be A Player soundtrack features Mic Geronimo alongside DMX, Cormega, Fatal and Ja Rule. This was back when DMX was on the cusp of becoming the biggest rapper on the planet for 2 years and no one was entirely sure how Ja Rule spelt his name (he's listed as "Ja" on this). I believe Cormega was signed to Def Jam at this time which explains his appearance and Fatal was getting a bit of attention off the back of his 2Pac association. The beat is courtesy of one of the lesser know members of The Hitmen - Daven "Prestige" Vanderpool and is pretty simple and minimal with a nice Mandrill sample and a subtle bit of ESG in the background.

Version 2 featured on Mic's 'Vendetta' album and on the b side of the Nothin Move But The Money 12". Cormega and Fatal have been replaced by the more than capable line up of Tragedy, Jadakiss and Styles P. No idea why. Label politics would usually be the answer but I can't see why Def Jam would let DMX on there and not Cormega. They did drop him though so maybe that had something to do with it. Still dope. Don't sleep.

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Previous Don't Sleeps are here

Green Lantern - The Best Of 2000

The always dope GL mixes up the year's bangers on this one - Dre, Outkast, Prodigy, Royce, Wu Tang, Big L and loads more. Superbly put together as you'd expect...

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Green Lantern - The Best of 2000 by Djstepone on Mixcloud