Radio 1 Rap Show 11.05.02 New York Live with Kay Slay & Nature

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

Radio 1 Rap Show 14.12.01 with Kay Slay and Swizz Beatz

'Super Ugly' has just dropped so all the talk on this show is centered around the Nas - Jay Z beef. I'd suggest skipping that and heading for the beginning of part two where Kay Slay drops 45 minutes of mostly dis tracks by The LOX, Cam'ron, Mobb Deep and Beanie Sigel. That Rocafella - D Block beef served up considerably better musical results than Nas and Jay managed.

Skillz - Hot 97 freestyle (2003)

This is one of those things I played to death back in the day but had forgotten about it in recent years. (Mad) Skillz on Kay Slay's Drama Hour, going all out with the punchlines over 50's 'In Da Club' beat. There's a good chance you might have heard this before but its old enough and dope enough to warrant posting. Rap twitter would have gone nuts if it was around when this first dropped.

"I was sick when Jermaine was pop locking for Whodini"

He reworked some of the lyrics used on this into an actual track in 2010 but it's not anywhere near as good. As for In Da Club, it's strange to think that it was probably the last big selling rap 12". The first time I heard it was when Westwood played it in early 2003 (possibly the same show I first heard Dipset Anthem on aswell), and he followed it with Fabolous, Paul Cain & Joe Budden's take on the track, which I still enjoy. If anyone has an untagged CDQ of this get in touch. I need that.

Kay Slay - Original Gangsters pt 3 (DISC 4)

The 4th and final disc in this set. All freestyles on this one...

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Happy Christmas!

Kay Slay - Original Gangsters pt 3 (DISC 3)

Here's Disc 3. This one is mostly R&B with some remixes and a stack of blends - the Lucy Pearl one is a particular standout - and then gets back to what you'd expect to hear on a Streetsweepers mix...

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Kay Slay - Original Gangsters pt 3 (DISC 2)

As promised, here's disc 2...

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Kay Slay - Original Gangsters pt 3 (DISC 1)

I just got hold of this 4 disc Kay Slay set that dropped around 2000 so thought I'd share a disc at a time in the run up to Christmas. This mixtape was particularly notable as the Drama King managed to get Harlem legends AZ and Alpo on the phone together and their conversations are used for intros and interludes throughout the CDs. There's also a stack of rare and unreleased joints on here, plus Disc 4 is all freestyles so keep checking back and I'll try and get the whole lot by December  24th...

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Kay Slay & Cutmaster C - Get Down Or Lay Down (2002)

The Drama King teams with up with Cutmaster C for this one. Highlights include the Dipset freestyle and Big Noyd rapping over the Roc The Mic instrumental. Beef was in fashion back then so you also get KRS One dissing Nelly and Jermaine Dupri having a pop at Dre & Timbaland...

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Kay Slay - Regulators pt 5 (2002)

I don't have the cover for this and the one I found online is hella blurry, but its a Kay Slay mix from 2002 so you can probably guess what it's about. There's a coupla unreleased joints by Cardan featuring Huddy & Meeno (so basically Harlem World) and Shyne. There's also freestyles from all the usual suspects, as well as Freeway's 'What We Do' which never gets old. It's always nice hearing a classic in it's initial "Brand New Exclusive!" form.

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A word of warning: the CD kicks off with 2 radio interviews. One with Irv Gotti and one with DMX, centered around the rivalry between X and Ja Rule. Both are about 10 minutes long, but that's what happened before YouTube came along. The DMX one is worth a listen, the Irv one not so much unless you're interested in both sides of a beef that never really amounted to much.

Ghostface Killah - No Pork On My Fork (2004)

Kay Slay hosting a best of Ghostface mix. What else do you need to know before you click the link?

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I didnt scan the tracklist as in true mixtape fashion it's not entirely accurate, but as pretty much everything in the GFK catalogue could warrant inclusion on a CD like this it's not that important (I labelled all the files correctly anyway).

You can still get my 'Tony Starks Collection' of unreleased/obscure/non-LP etc Ghostface cuts here.
Hopefully. Links seem to die stupidly quickly these days.

Kay Slay - Renegades pt 9 (2002)

Along with Clue, Kay Slay was the at the top the mixtape game in the early 00s, and many an average track has been enhanced by his aggy bellowing. This CD was where I first heard the Clipse & LOX collab 'I'm Not You' (one of both groups finest moments), LL's '10 Million Stars' and Styles P's 'Good Times' (aka 'I Get High'). Other standouts are the Sauce Money joints and the Flipmode Squad freestyle at the start

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Kay Slay on Hot 97 (2004)

I recorded this on a trip to NYC in 2004, back when East Coast rap wasnt a dirty word. 'Lean Back', 'Why' and 'Breathe' were all in heavy rotation on daytime radio and G Unit, Dipset, Rocafella and D- Block were still forces to be reckoned with.
Here we find the DJ formerly known as Dezzy Dezz in the studio with guests Black Rob and The Alchemist.
Before showcasing Robert and Alan's new material (which may or may not include a still unreleased BR track - can anyone confirm?), Kay drops newies by Fat Joe, Lloyd Banks, Dipset, Jon Doe & Papoose, Frankie Krutches and Canibus aswell as that T.I. '99 Problems' joint dissing Lil Flip.

Kay Slay - Hot 97 (Sept 2004) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

Kay Slay freestyles

Sorting through some CDs yesterday I found an old compilation of freestyles from Kay Slay mixtapes that I'd copped on a visit to Canal Street back in 2004. Here's the pick of the bunch...

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Tracklist
1- Big L, Black Rob, Puertorock & Bathgate
2- Cam'ron & McGruff
3- Capone N Noreaga
4- Da Ranjahz
5- Ghostface & Trife
6- Prodigy
7- Sauce Money

Cormega, Nature & Half A Mil freestyle

QB's Cormega & Nature alongside Brooklyn's Half A Mil (RIP) spitting something for DJ Kay Slay. Proper NYC street shit...

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