Redman, Method Man & D'Angelo on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1999)

On this day back in the 1-9-9-9, Redman and Method Man are in the house with Westwood to promote the Blackout album, kick a freestyle, and we even get an impromptu DJ set from Redman (presumably with Tim's records). On top of that D'Angelo stops by for an interview right at the end of the show.  What more do you want?

Tracklist and download link available at the Hip Hop Radio Archive

Furious 5 & Rodney Cee freestyle (1995)

This is a good one. Melle Mell and the lads with Rodney Cee of Double Trouble having a big old pass the mic sesh on the Radio 1 Rap Show. Melle sounds dope over Supastar.

Westwood live from Notting Hill Carnival '95 with Jeru The Damaja & Mad Lion

I've posted parts of this tape over the years but here's the full 2 hour show (now in 320), with Jeru and Mad Lion performing and Westwood and his crew running through a ton of rap, ragga, miami bass and R&B. Whistles and horns are in full effect and the reactions to certain tunes really let you know what was big on the street at the time, as opposed to an extensive twitter debate with William from Worcestershire who's adamant everyone was listening to Outkast and Jay Z back then and GZA and Smoothe Da Hustler was just some backpack shit.

Also, I know it's (finally fucking) February but you can pretend it's August.

I've got the Carnival '96 tape so I'll post that up at some point. Anyone holding 1997? I'm not sure if they did a live broadcast for that one.

Doo Wop on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1996)

An hour long Doo Wop mix recorded especially for the Radio 1 Rap Show. Things start off with a Keith Murray and Redman freestyle (over Teddy Pendergrass' Believe In Love, no less) and its all good from then on in.

download at the hip hop radio archive

tracklist

Keith Murray & Redman - Freestyle

Busta Rhymes & Rampage - Abandon Ship

OGC & Heltah Skeltah - LeFlah part 2

Smooth Da Hustler - Hustlers Theme

Tragedy ft Prodigy & CNN - LA LA

Doo Wop - Freestyle

Fugees - Killing Me Softly

Uneek - Diamonds

Bahamadia - Wordplay

Paula Perry - Paula's Jam

Brandy - Best Friend (blend w/ Real Live Shit)

Yvette Michelle ft Doo Wop - Everynight And Everyday (remix)

Busta Rhymes ft Zhane - Its A Party

Lost Boyz - Renee (remix)

Lost Boyz - Freestyle

Mad Lion & KRS One - Double Trouble

Large Professor - Mad Scientist

Jay Z - 22 Two's

Rakim - New York To Cali

Shout to the legendary DJ Yoda for providing the tape of this one. He was good enough to hook me up with this and a few others out of his collection recently so there's more treats on the way over the next few weeks. Coincidentally, I recently posted the first part of this show a few weeks ago and was a bit disappointed to find the recording cut off before the mix started, so this was a nice surprise.

It's not Epic it's Rocafella!

Live from Sylvia's in Harlem, Westwood hosts Cam, Juelz and Jim who drop a freestyle over The Roc (Just Fire) and What Happened To That Boy and Cam does his lyrics from Down & Out (2 years before that came out). Keith Murray is also in the building alongside 50 Grand for some more freestyle action.

On a related note, another Radio 1 Rap Show from the year before threw up this oddity on the Top 10 At Ten. It's a remix of Oh Boy, that despite being dismissed by Just Blaze* as a "fake DJ trickery attempt", is actually pretty decent and definitely better than the official 'Oh Girl' remix. I've no idea where the Cam verse came from if it wasn't done for this track but he's accompanied by 2 other dudes who despite sounding like State Property, appear to go by Frank Mueller and TD (Ted Dibiase?). Can't find any info on  them or this version so if anyone can help out please do.



*my DMs are hotter than yours

DJ Premier on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1998)

DOWNLOAD

90 minutes of Primo in the mix on Radio 1. No talking just tunes and a lot of his own productions as he was on something of a roll at the time - Jay Z, MOP, Rakim, All City and Krumbsnatcha all feature. Thanks to Tobes for providing the tape of this one.

Sad news about Prodigy - couldn't believe he was only 42 either. Obviously I've posted quite a few Mobb related things recently and I've recently been in the process of putting together a comp of his freestyles which I'll post up soon (just need a couple more to finish it off).

Radio 1 Rap Show 13.05.00 with Doug E Fresh, Rahzel & Chuck D

The first thing to say about this show is there's a ton a of legit bangers. Big Pimpin, Whoa, Bling Bling, Quiet Storm (with P re-doing it dubplate special style for Tim) and about half of Dre's 2001 album. 99-2000 was a good time for rap songs that worked in the club without being corny. There's also a few backstage interviews with some wrestlers at a WWE event in the UK. Couldn't tell you much about that as I'd stopped watching it by then.

Part 2 (below) is a  repeat of a show from July 1999 with Doug E Fresh, Rahzel and Chuck D in the studio...

Prime Cuts on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2000)

Prime Cuts had a regular slot on the R1RS during the early 00s, holding down the underground/boom bap side of things as Tim shifted more towards the thugged out jiggy side. Some quality tunes on here including Grand Agent, Immobilarie, MOP, Pete Rock and Blak Twang.

DJ Spinna on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1999)

Spinna passes through Westwood's show for an interview and a quick mix. I spoke to him briefly once at a festival in Croatia. He seemed like a good dude, although it was about 2am and I was drunk so I probably seemed like a dick. Don't think I went full rap nerd at him thankfully.

The first 2 hours of the show are here - There's some classic audio of Wu Tang and BDP performing live (not together, obviously) and Funky DL hosts an open mic phone in. The quality isn't great in parts but it's the best I could do. You might need to adjust your graphic equaliser and turn off the Bass Boost.

Prodigy - Radio 1 Rap Show freestyles (2000)

"are you listening to the words or listening to the beat? listen to the words man!"

17 years ago this past weekend the M-O-B-B appeared on Westwood's show. Prodigy proceeded to go in with a 15 minute freestyle which I've kindly seperated into the 3 tracks you see above. Hearing him over The Lox's 'Fuck You' is a highlight.

If you want to listen to the whole show that those freestyle are taken from, you can find the first hour here. Part 2 with Fab 5 Freddy is here and part 3 with Prodigy, Havoc and Alchemist is below

When you see your average generic American rap fan online debtaing their Top 5 rappers, or asking who the GOAT is, it's pretty much always the same fucking names. Having listened to helluva lot of Mobb Deep in the last few months (party because I was making this mix, which I highly recommend if you haven't checked it) I would say that Prodigy at his peak should definitely be in that conversation, but that rarely seems to be the case.

With that in mind, if you missed them...

Prodigy - You Ain't A Killer freestyle (1997)

Prodigy & Ty Nitty - DJ Clue freestyle (1996)

Biz Markie on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2001)

Biz touches down in the UK for an appearance at the Essential Festival. There's some reminiscing about the old days and a a chat about rare joints  - anyone know what the 'talking version' of The Vapors is? - before Biz clumsily mixes up some breaks (we'll put it down to jet lag) and drops a few of his own tracks with a bit of beatboxing  in between.

I edited out the beginning of the show as there was about 25 minutes of Biggie and 2Pac tunes, followed by Tim debuting Jay Z's 'Izzo' by playing it 2 times in a row, and a total of 4 times in the 3 hour show. Method Man and Teddy Riley's 'Party And Bullshit' also got played twice and that really isn't a very good song. You do get a Break To The Beat segment though which I thought had been done away with by the 2000s. Maybe it was because Biz was in the house.

Radio 1 Rap Show 16.07.99 with P Diddy & Shyne

Puffy on Westwood's show from around the time 'Forever' dropped. He's also got Shyne with him, and it turns out this was the show that this freestyle went down on. Whole load of Bad Boy tracks get played, and then part two finishes off with the recording of Biggie performing at the Radio 1 Rap Show launch party in London back in '95.

Westwood live from Sylvia's in Harlem (2003)

A ridiculous line up of guests on this show. You can find the first 90 minutes with Ja Rule and Sean Paul here, but the second half  is where it's at with Timbaland, Busta Rhymes, Noreaga, Kardinal Offishall, Freeway and TOK all passing through.

And here's the Freeway freestyle over In Da Club

NB: at the start Westwood says Busta will be on the following night's show, but this was a Saturday (there was no show on a Sunday) so I'm guessing this wasn't actually broadcast live and they forgot to cut that out of the edit.

Radio 1 Rap Show 19.03.99 - New York Live with Jeru, Black Moon, DJ S&S and Truck Turner

Even though I didn't catch many of them at the time, I'm starting to think that Westwood's New York Live shows with Marley are better than his Rap Exchange shows with Flex. DJ S&S is on the 1210s for a bit and all the guests drop freestyles on this one, with Craig G stepping up to rhyme alongside Truck Turner and Jeru. Pete Rock and TJ Swann are also in the studio. I imagine the #bantz was in full flow.

Part 1 with Truck Turner and DJ S&S


Part 2 with Black Moon and Jeru


and here's the the Buckshot and Jeru freestyles if you want them

Nas on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2003)

Nas on Westwood doing some promo for God's Son. Lost Tapes 2 definitely coming out apparently. No freestyle unfortunately but I've only got an hour of the show here. Hopefully the other tape will turn up  (I found tape 2 - still no freestyle though) I had the Made You Look remix in regular rotation for a couple of years so it was good to hear that again for the first time in a while.

Radio 1 Rap Show 12.11.99 with JT Money

As far as 90s shows went, it was kind of unusual for Tim to have guests from outside of the East Coast. Off the back of the success of No Limit and Cash Money in the US, other rappers from the South started getting some attention and depending on who they signed with, had the opportunity to venture overseas to do a bit of promo work. I'm guessing that when JT Money inked his deal he didn't envisage rocking Huddersfield Uni but apparently this actually happened, although I'm told his London gig didn't so without eye witnesses who knows. Either way, he's up at the Beeb for this show and Tim is pretty amped (about 8/10 I'd say). I lost track of the amount of times he says "dirty south" but it's a lot. Part two has a lengthy Noreaga freestyle (taken from a previous show) and JT's DJ gets in the mix towards the end.

Radio 1 Rap Show 25.03.00 New York Live with DJ Premier & Sauce Money

Another New York Live show broadcast from Marley Marl's crib with Cipha Sounds holding down turntable duties. DJ Premier and Sauce Money (someone I've been listening to a lot recently) are in the studio on part two.



I actually posted some of this show back in 2009 but my recording stopped just as Premier appears, so it's nice to have the whole show.

The Westwood Archives mixcloud page is up and running so make sure you keep an eye on that as I might throw a few shows on there that don't make it to the blog. Figure it might be best to just drop the more notable shows and highlights (freestyles, mixes etc) otherwise it will end up being straight Westwood tape rips on here for the next 3 or 4 years.

Radio 1 Rap Show 12.10.02with Redman & Blak Twang

This is the full show (or most of it) that the Redman freestyle below is taken from. The first part is pretty much a club set. Late 2002 was peak chipmunk soul so there's the U Don't Know remix, 'What We Do' and the remix of Styles P 'Good Times', plus a ton of Neptunes bangers - Grindin, Full Mode, Luv U Better, and the G Unit version 'After My Chedda'. In a pre-twitter era Tim has to take it to the phone lines for listeners to debate 2Pac's 'Me & My Girlfriend' vs Jay & Bey's shitty 'Bonnie & Clyde 03' (plus a Toni Braxton song that I don't remember at all). No one's feeling it. Tim tells us that Beyonce "needs that" as "she's mad moist out there" as she's "so commercial she's corny". Tempted to link that specific audio to one of those lunatic women that fully loses their shit whenever someone suggests Beyonce might actually be a bit overrated and only has 2 memorable solo songs.

Anyway, then Redman is in the house followed by Blak Twang so that's you sorted for a couple of hours.

New mixcloud page set up just for the Westwood shows so follow that.

Redman - Quiet Storm freestyle (2002)

Reggie over the Mobb Deep beat on Westwood's show from October 2002.

Radio 1 Rap Show 09.12.01 New York Live with G Dep & Big Daddy Kane

Another New York Live show, this time with G Dep from right around the time when Special Delivery was big and his album was about to drop. He's not shy about dropping a couple of quick freestyles and discussing his favourite rappers. Then Big Daddy Kane steps up for the second part and has a chat about the old days with Marley Marl before mentioning he's got an album in the works, which going by the two singles with Premier and Alchemist would've been worth copping if it had actually come out. He drops a quick freestyle too so all in all this one is well worth your time.