LL Cool J live in London (1987)

This a top notch recording out of Eddie's collection. LL Cool J live on the Def Jam Tour at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1987, where he was headlining with Eric B & Rakim and Public Enemy supporting. LL rips this shit and was fully on top the rap world at the time.
Despite some sterling detective work by Random Rap Radio (who also kindly assisted in improving the sound quality), I don't have an exact date but DJ Food has photos and memories of a show on the 1st November '87  and there's video footage from a different night, possibly the day before or after that, taken from BBC 2's Behind The Beat. Note the red Kangol in DJ Food's post and the white Kangol in the video.



On a related note - and as the annual Record Store Day nonsense has just passed - Bigger And Deffer really needs a nice double vinyl reissue with some extra tracks. A Lost Tapes album would be nice too, or at least a decent repress or digital issue of the Double L Cools Down LP. No? Ok, Wu Tang, Doom and Dilla reissues for the rest of our days it is then.

I can't record audio into my laptop at the moment but regular service should resume as soon as I get that sorted or can bring myself to buy a new laptop and reinstall everything.

Radio 1 Rap Show: Def Jam's 10th Anniversary (1995)

Russell Simmons, Method Man and Nelson George guest on this Westwood show from December 95. Uncle Russ selects ten of his favourite tracks from the label ("I ain't mad at 'The Rain' though") and Meth gets wasted. GZA and Shaggy make a brief appearance aswell...

The Unstoppable Def Jam Sampler (1999)

The late 90s saw Def Jam reclaim their spot at the top of the industry following a few years of dominance by Bad Boy and Death Row. The addition to the roster of the Rocafella and Murder Inc imprints alongside DMX and Redman & Method Man meant they pretty much had the East Coast locked down. This promo CD has a few things that weren't available elsewhere and is well worth checking out...

DOWNLOAD

Tracklist
Def Squad 'Full Cooperation'
DMX & Ja Rule 'I Shot Ya' freestyle
Ja Rule 'Criminology' freestyle
Jayo Felony ft Mack 10, WC, Method Man & DMX 'Whatcha Gonna Do'
LL Cool J 'The Ripper Strikes Back'
Method Man & Redman 'How High' (Live)
Method Man, Redman & DMX '4,3,2,1' (Live)
Onyx 'Freestyle'


NB: I've omitted the snippet tracks - if you really need a 90 second preview of Jay Z's 'Can I Get A...' this probably isn't the blog for you.