Cutmaster Swift ft Guru, MC Storm & Jeopardy - Choice FM exclusive (1991)

Thought I'd found another early 90s Gang Starr radio freestyle when this one started up, but it turns out there's a more interesting back story to it. It begins with the **Choice Exclusive** drop and Guru says it's a freestyle, before going into a verse from Hardcore Composer. The tape is dated 1991, so Daily Operation wasn't out at this point. He's then followed by 2 British MCs, which threw me a bit as the cuts in the chorus and the sound quality aren't what you would expect from a radio cypher. Needing some help, I hit up Craig and he thought one of the rappers sounded like Big Ted, which turned out to be correct. I hit Ted up on Instagram and he gave me the details...

It's actually production by Cutmaster Swift featuring MC Storm (Swift's brother) and myself on the extra verses. It originally began as a freestyled acapella from Guru for 279 and he suggested Swift put a beat to it and put Storm and me on there too, and there you have it. Just another one of those hip hop history magic moments.
Cheers for reminding me of it. I have it and the instrumental on a TDK MA metal tape somewhere.

Swift was one of the biggest hip hop DJs in the UK from the early days, and Ted was still known as Jeopardy back then. MC Storm was part of the No Parking MCs (thanks again to Craig for the knowledge) and had a couple of underground releases in the early 90s.

Kind of quirky, and this type of thing would be commonplace 10-15 years later when every mixtape DJ and aspiring producer got their hands on pro-tools but back then it was quite unusual as far as I know. I was going to title it Gang Starr - Hardcore Composer (rare demo version) but thought that might be pushing it a bit. Even clickbait has boundaries.
Big up Eddie as always, I've nearly got through all his tapes now so it's nice that they're still producing results.

Ghostface & Cappadonna - Choice FM freestyle (1996)

Quick Ghostface and Cappadonna freestyle going in over the Hell On Earth instrumental on 279's Friday Night Flavas back in October '96.
This would've been around the time Ironman dropped as they also hit Westwood's show during their visit to London.

DJ 279 on Choice FM 12.05.95

The Number Man doing it up with the new releases on Choice FM's Friday Night Flavas from May '95. Quality is a tad muddy but listenable. This one includes that unreleased Bomdigi remix I posted recently. Shout to Diablo for the tape.

DJ 279 on Choice FM 25.06.04 with Swiss, Asher D & Cassius Henry

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It was nice to come across this Friday Night Flavas show from 2004 where 279 hosts one of his round table freestyle sessions with So Solid's Asher D and Swiss alongside Ammo and Young Pro (who I haven't heard of but were presumably up and coming at the time) and singer Cassius Henry. They take turns going in over new and old rap beats for the best part of an hour. It's good, the only place you'll hear members of So Solid Crew rapping over Iced Down Medallions, and a useful time stamp of where certain artists in the UK were before road rap and UK drill became a thing. It wasn't all boom-bap head-nod backpack business over here. On a slightly related note, don't get me started on Complex letting their work experience lad loose on an article where the extent of the research was checking his own iTunes history. Just let it be known that UK artists like Rodney P & Bionic, Mr 45, Skeme & Big P, MD7, Fallacy and Terra Firma have been talking that road talk since the 90s.

I should also add that what made finding this tape a particularly nice surprise was that I was never a fan of So Solid Crew in their heyday (although I do know the lyrics to 21 Seconds inside out - it was unavoidable when it dropped). However, one of the crew's DJ/producers Swiss turned MC and dropped a decent solo effort in 2005, which included the single Cry and as it was on more of straight up rap tip, was more my kind of thing. I liked UK Garage but when the MCs appeared that was it for me, and as much as I wanted to like grime at first but in it's early days the majority of raps and beats were just too basic and raw (ok, rubbish) in comparison to where hip hop was at the time.

DJ 279 on Choice FM with Black Moon (1994)

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279's Friday Nite Flavas on Choice FM from October 1994, with Black Moon and the Bootcamp Click in the studio for an interview followed by a freestyle. There's also a couple of tracks off Rampage's shelved debut album as well as stuff by Method Man, OC, Keith Murray, Bas Blasta and Lords Of The Underground ('Tic Toc' is really quite rubbish although the acapella did end up being sampled on 3 or 4 decent jungle tunes so it wasn't a complete waste of vinyl). I've left a few adverts in and cut out the ones for local businesses and warnings of the dangers of ecstasy and, erm, measles. After some deliberation I left in the 2 tracks by winners of a spoken word/poetry/rap competition. The first one at 1:13:00 is hilariously bad so it seemed a shame for it to be consigned to the recycle bin. There is a danger it might get stuck in your head though. The second track is 100 times better by default but god knows what the rest of the entries were like.

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.

DJ Swing on Choice FM (1996)

Just came across another tape of DJ Swing, mixing up some R&B and Rap on London's Choice FM back in 1996...

DJ Swing - Choice FM (1996) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

DJ Swing on Choice FM (1995)

Another mix by the late, great DJ Swing live on London's Choice FM from 1995. This is on the flipside of the tape of the previous Swing set I posted last year. On this one you get some 2Pac, Mad Skillz, Cypress Hill, Monica, SWV and more...

DJ Swing - Choice FM (1995) side b by Djstepone on Mixcloud

DJ Swing on Choice FM (1995)

45 minutes of the late DJ Swing of London's Boogie Bunch in the mix on Choice FM back in 1995. He kicks things off with some classic Juice Crew/Cold Chillin selection and then runs through some newer Hip Hop and R&B jams...

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Swing sadly passed away in 2006. There's a good write up on him here.

DJ 279 - Friday Night Flava on Choice FM (1993)

DJ 279 has been holding it down on the radio since the early 90s. Unfortunately while Westwood was broadcasting nationally and Kiss FM covered London and the surrounding counties, picking up Choice FM was pretty much impossible if you were off the tube map. As a result, tapes of The Numberman's Friday Night Flava shows are harder to come by than those of his competition (I've been asking around for a while now). Fortunately that man Mr Lawson has come through with a show from June 1993



Hopefully some more tapes will surface soon. If you want to check out more in the meantime, check Big Ted's blog for some audio of Nas on the show in 1994.