A big ass Wake Up Show freestyle cipher (1997)

Freestyles were a regular part of rap radio by 1997 but this is like a Mr Bongo regular's wet dream. It's a 37 minute freestyle session on Sway & Tech's Wake Up Show from late 1997 and the line up is immense. Kool G Rap, Craig G, Juice, Shorty Wreck, Eminem, Kwest Tha Madd Lad, Thirstin Howl, Wordsworth & Mos Def and Talib Kweli all step up and do their thing. A lot of those names were new on the scene at the time so there's definitely an element of hungry MCs with something to prove when their time on the mic comes around.
As far as I can tell, this is a simultaneous broadcast with Marley Marl who's on the radio in NYC with G Rap and the lads. At one point you'll hear Eminem (of all people) get told to hold off rhyming so they can switch over for some rhymes from the east coast.

The full tape (with the 50 mins of the show before the freestyle) is available on  the Hip Hop Radio Archive

There's a snippet of this on YouTube but I don't think the whole thing has been online before



Thanks to Random Rap Radio for supplying the tape of this (and a few others soon to come). He's about to drop a very dope limited edition cassette mix of super rare live 80s Hip Hop with the latest issue of Dig Mag, so get that.

Eminem & Dr Dre live in London (2000)

Westwood dropped this in the middle of a Radio Rap 1 Show I was ripping and it was more enjoyable than I expected. Em and Dre at the Brixton Academy 3 weeks before the Marshall Mathers LP came out. I found the set list here, and it's about a 50/50 split of Em songs and stuff off 2001, plus G Thang with Em doing Snoop's parts.
Good to see that they stayed true to the tradition of US artists coming to the UK and performing ridiculously short shows (30 minutes!) while probably charging £20-£30 a ticket too. Thankfully that seemed to die out over the last 15 years as touring became a bigger earner than sales, although someone should tell Redman and Method Man, who really should be doing more than 45-50 minutes given the size of their combined catalogues.

UPDATED 26/12 - full Radio 1 Rap Show this was taken from now available here

Radio 1 Rap Show 26.03.99 with Eminem, Proof & DJ Greenpeace

This is the show with Eminem and Proof rhyming over Hate Me Now and Redman's Pick It Up, with recordings of Em's crank calls in between. This is around the time The Slim Shady LP dropped so he wasn't a full on superstar at this point. I had the full 3 hour show originally and posted the freestyle session back when I first started this blog back in 2009, and again in the piece I did for Nah Right in 2014. I don't have those tapes anymore but this one - just the second half of the show - was in the collection Grime & Lime hooked me up with so thought I'd throw it on here, particularly as it also has DJ Greenpeace in the mix for the last half hour.



A few other shows have surfaced on line in the last week too...

16th September 1995 with DJ MK (courtesy of the man himself)

plus Max B has been busy throwing up some treats recently so make sure you keep an eye on his page.

Radio 1 Rap Show 1997 with DJ Kid Swift

Radio 1 Rap Exchange 1996 with A Tribe Called Quest

Guru, Eminem, Defari & The Beatnuts - Wake Up Show freestyle (1998)

I've only ever had a couple of Wake Up Show tapes in my possession so was happy to see this one in the last batch of cassettes that Tobes hooked me up with. I was particularly pleased to find this treat on there though: Guru stops by the show to do a quick interview (just before Moment Of Truth came out) and then drops a few verses alongside a relatively unknown Eminem, before Defari steps up to the mic and then the Beatnuts get involved. Good times. Do things like this still happen anywhere outside of the BET awards?

That's followed by a Smif N Wessun freestyle - they were rolling as the Cocoa Brovaz at the time -   and Em jumps on the mic again. The full show is below...





Not sure if it's a West Coast radio thing in general or just something Sway & Tech did but their lengthy intro and approach to drops and jingles might even out do Weenie & The Butt. Definitely not mad at their female co-host's voice though. Much more soothing than your standard rap radio DJ.

Had my first copyright infringement takedown notice from Audiomack last week, for a bootleg remix of Top Billin of all things. Hopefully they don't go the way of Soundcloud and Mediafire. Seems crazy that in 2017 there isn't an established reliable platform for hosting music to stream and download. I'll persist with it for now but if things start disappearing on a regular basis I might need a new home. It has occured to me that having Eminem's name on there might be a red flag. Can't say I wasn't a tad shook a few years ago when minutes after making a disparaging remark about Jimmy Iovine, I received a notification informing me that INTERSCOPE RECORDS IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU.

Green Lantern 'The Mix'

Bit of a strange one here. Its a 7 minute megamix of 90s classics by DJ Green Lantern, taken from this 12" which looks - and in places sounds - like a bootleg (it ends quite abruptly!). I suppose it could be that someone recorded Lantern's interlude slot on the Eminem tour one night and then pressed it up, adding some of the accapellas and instrumentals on the b-side. Either that or they just jacked his show vinyl and this is a straight copy. Anyway, it features Da Bush Babees, Nine, Mary J, Method Man, Craig Mack and Channel Live and its worth a listen.

DOWNLOAD

more Eminem & Proof on Westwood (1999)

More from Eminem and Proof on Westwood back in 1999.

Eminem & Proof 'Pick It Up' freestyle

Eminem & Proof 'Hate Me Now' freestyle

Eminem & Proof - 10 minute freestyle (1999)

This weekend marks the third year anniversay of Proof's death. I was never much of a D12 fan but Proof is a beast on the mic and I would have loved to have seen him have the opportunity to do more solo stuff. HHC recently ran a feature on Detroit Hip Hop and all the artists interviewed acknowledged his talent and contribution to their local scene.
This is one of a few freestyles he dropped alongside Eminem on Tim Westwood's show during a trip to the UK in 1999. They go back and forth for 10 minutes over LL's '4321' instrumental with punchlines and quotables for days...

"I found out where Canibus' money went, I borrowed a dollar from Wyclef.."
DOWNLOAD HERE

I should have another freestyle from this show to post soon. RIP Proof.