Black Rob 'Permanent Scars' (2004)

I love this track. I was only made aware of it last year and recently Mike Nice has been kind enough to hook me up with the full length, untagged version. I was originally put onto it by esteemed blogger The Martorialist so its only right I hand over to him on this one...

Realistically, I only have 2 claims to fame in this internet-Rap shit : originating "Hennessey/enemies" 2pac jokes and being the first person to upload Permanent Scars by Black Rob to the 'net after my friend Bradley brought me the Kay Slay mixtape it originally appeared on back from NYC in summer 2004. I've since managed to lose the CD but, for the record, it was the same 'tape that Juelz's Red Bandana freestyle debuted and the 2 songs were mixed together as a shining beacon in amongst a plethora of shitty freestyles by Papoose, Grafh and J-Hood.

Permanent Scars, the original title of Black Rob's shelved 2nd album, ended up being rebilled as Live From The Eastside when it reappeared on Kay Slay's essential The Return Of Black Rob collection in late 2004 (which included many of the tracks recorded for the B.R album like Business Never Personal; probably the only time you'll hear a Neptunes production being used as a hookless storytelling joint) and it comes with some prime Rap-nerd trivia since Heavy D resold the beat to Beanie Sigel for Feel It In The Air after the B.R song ended up in mixtape purgatory, and Feel It.. went on to become a minor hit as well as one of the greatest Emo-Rap jams of the last decade.

Beanie's take is the superior cut, but Permanent Scars/Live From The Eastside is a mixtape classic and there are enough differences between the two songs that you can enjoy them both as separate entities anyway. Thanks to Mike Nice for unearthing this untagged version, although it's pretty weird to hear it with no Kay Slay bellowing after it's been a personal favourite of mine these past near-eight years.



Thanks to Mike Nice and The Martorialist on this one.

King Of Da Crates: the DJ Mike Nice interview

If you've been following the blog for a while you'll know that occasionally I speak to DJs or rappers who were around back in the day and get them to speak on how they came up in the game and generally reminisce a bit. This time out the focus is on a man best known for his mixtapes of insanely rare demos and unreleased material: NYC's DJ Mike Nice...

Who You Be?
I am the original DJ MIKE NICE, formerly of Upstairs Records NYC. I am known as the King Of Da Crates in regards to my mass assortment of unreleased material and demos, and a record collection of 40,000 at last count back in 94!
At present I’m the A&R of Venom Records and DJ and produce for my group The Faculty (EI8Trak & L.Y.F.E)

What was your ‘Day One’ ?
The first record that got me open was around 1981: The Gap Band ‘You Dropped A Bomb On Me’. I was 6 years old at the time.
The 1st Hip Hop record that I recall getting me open was 1984 Rockmaster Scott ‘The Roof Is On Fire’. Shortly after that, ‘La Di Da Di’ and ‘The Show’ by Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh. I was born in 1975 and growing up music was always playing in the crib. My parents played a lot of Disco, Soul & R&B so I heard a lot of breaks early on, even if I didn’t know the name of the song.