Tape Kingz #9: Thee Mike B

Off to the West Coast for Tape Kingz #9, with super talented DJ Thee Mike B. Mike has done too much in his career to cover in the short space I have here but check his recent appearance on the ROAD podcast for his full story. It's a good listen. In terms of why he's a good person to speak to about 90s hip hop mixtapes, amongst other things he was an intern for Jon Shecter and Stretch Armstrong back in the day during the Game Recordings era. Check his stellar Top 3 and some equally dope honourable mentions...

DJ Spinbad & JS One - Cold Cutz Remixes (1997) The most intricate, interesting and simply the DOPEST of all blend tapes.

Tony Touch -Tape 50: Power Cypha (1996) This is one that changed the game. 50 freestyles from 50 MC's over all the dopest beats. Infinite respect to Tony Toca! This shit is so crazy I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. 

DJ Rob One - Can't Be Stopped (1994) This changed the game for me. I might not be a DJ today had I not copped this at 555-Soul on Martel in '94. Shout out Julie Z.

Honourable mentions:  

DJ S&S and Craig G - N!ggaz Don't Give A Fuck (1996). So many exclusives when it came out. The first place I heard Akinyele "Put It In Your Mouth", CNN's "LA,LA" and many, many more classics. S&S is still one of my favorites and has so much swag it’s crazy.

DJ Ev and Stretch Armstrong - Back 2 Back (1996).This is a perfect rap mixtape. I bought it at Fat Beats on a trip to NY in Fall of 1996. I was obsessed with it. Years later, Stretch would become my employer and ultimately, one of my best friends.

Tape Kingz #4: DJ Swerve

Great choices here from DJ Swerve, who you'll be familiar with from Kiss FM and numerous club nights all over the place. You can currently catch him on Twitch on Monday nights 8 - 10pm and on Kiss Fresh on Thursday nights 10 - 12 .

Bad Boy Mixtape Volume 3  

Picked up the tape from Red Records/Unity in Beak Street if I remember correctly. First track is You’ll See by The LOX and Biggie; prime Bad Boy, Puffy ad-libs and a dope selection put together by Stretch Armstrong. Say no more. I can even remember where I was when I heard Winter Warz on this tape.

Arthur King & Uncle T - Gangster Boogie

 

A low key sleeper. It doesn’t get too lairy, and has a perfect balance of skills and selection. I still have this in rotation for when I need some West Coast vibes. 

 DJ Swerve - Word Of Mouth Volume 4  

This one is so significant for me. Along with the club work that I was doing at the time, and Christian and Karen in the Kiss Clubs dept, this tape really helped me get me my shot at Kiss FM. These tapes were the ones to get on. They were limited to a few hundred but distributed to the right people. Jamie Topham was in charge of selecting the DJ’s for these and I just about managed to get the right level of hustle going to get on. I borrowed a 4 track Minidisc recorder from my mate Gordon and set about it putting it together in the living room of my flat. 

 Honorable mention for Double Dee & Steinski - The Lessons. This was my first experience of mixes and edits.Totally mind blowing. Where does one track stop and the other start? This was a major influence on me; a classic.

Operation Lockdown

The rap internet stays busy. Here's a few bits from this past week...

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Timebomb 1983


Mr Magic's Rap Attack, 1987 (courtesy of Andy Smith)


Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR, 11th April '96 (+ Grap Luva interview here, courtesy of Random Rap Radio


Tony Touch - Hip Hop #25, 1993 (courtesy of Dailey Maddawg 76)

Mighty Mi on Hot 97 (1997)

"Mighty Mi is going from records made this afternoon to records made when Lord Sear was thin..."

Mighty Mi takes over the 1210s on Stretch & Bobbito's Hot 97 show back in August 97. Some of this was on Soundcloud years ago but this version is longer. Shout out to Milo for hooking this up.

Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR (02.09.95)

The 'Wild Pitch extravaganza' show, with MC Serch & DJ Eclipse in the studio showcasing Wild Pitch's new roster. Foul Play, Total Pack and Jesse West are all in the building to play their forthcoming releases and kick a freestyle. OC also puts in an appearance and as you would expect he stands out from his label mates by some distance. Unfortunately 3 months later - the 8th May to be precise - Serch would be on Wildman Steve's WBAU show announcing that Wild Pitch was no more and that the label closed that day. Foul Play and Total Pack would be shelved, their material confined to Eclipse's Wild Pitch Blends mixtape (although the Foul Play demos eventually got the ltd edition vinyl treatment). Jesse West released Put Your Boots On 2 years later but never really made the most of his early association with Puff & Biggie.Obviously OC went on to do well for himself and make his mark.

The full tracklist for this show is online so it must've been uploaded before but I just found a tape of it in a stack of unmarked cassettes that Random Rap Radio donated to me so big up Craig for this one.

download at the hip hop radio archive

Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR 03.08.95

Nuff guests on this one: Smooth Da Hustler, Das EFX and Tragedy with Capone N Noreaga are all in the house and all kick a freestyle, plus there's the unreleased Half A Mil by CNN which is very dope indeed.The recording is a bit paused buttoned in places but that just means that more of the good stuff has been captured.

download at the hip hop radio archive

Bobbito & E Kim on WKCR 28.07.94

No Stretch on this one so E Kim fills in on the decks. Apparently the numerous mentions of Stretch being in Brazil weren't actually true. Shorty Long and Cella Dwellas are in the studio and...

Nas - Ain't Hard To Tell (original & remix)

Craig Mack - Flava In Ya Ear

Shyheim - Lick A Shot

Jeru The Damaja - Da Bitchez

Kurious ft Mike G & Sadat X - Mansion And A Yacht

Mic Geronimo - Shit's Real

Notorious BIG - Unbelievable

Mobb Deep - Shook Ones pt 1

Organized Konfusion - Stress (Large Professor remix)

Crooklyn Dodgers - Crooklyn (blend)

Shorty Long - interview & freestyle

A Tribe Called Quest - Oh My God (remix)

Nas - The World Is Yours (Q Tip remix)

Red Hot Lover Tone ft Notorious BIG, MOP & Prince Po - 4 My Niggaz

Jeru The Damaja - My Mind Spray

House Of Pain ft Diamond D - Word Is Bond

OC - Times Up

Cella Dwellas - interview & freestyle

Jeru The Damaja - Speak Ya Clout (verse)

MOP - Rugged Neva Smoove

PMD - I Saw It Cummin

A Tribe Called Quest ft Extra P - Keep It Rollin

Download at the Hip Hop Radio Archive

Thanks to Diablo for this one (and pretty much everything else I'll be posting over the next few weeks)

Shyne & Black Rob - Hot 97 freestyle (2000)

This has been sitting on my hard drive for ages and I've no idea where I got it from* but it made me realise that I miss the days of finding Hot 97 freestyles online and on mixtapes. Hearing BR do his verse from Let's Get It over the Keep It Thoro beat is a highlight. Full 30 mins above, freestyle (with DL link) below...

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*think it was off the Grime & Lime forum when that was briefly popping last year. Forget who posted it but as a significant amount of bits shared on there originated from this very site I don't feel too bad. Thanks anyway.

Bloggy Blog World

Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR (1991)

DJ Diablo - Friday Night Mixtape

The Grime & Lime forum is proving very handy for rare and unreleased late 90s - early 00s mixtape only tracks

Hip Hop Radio Archive is still popping off with new additions like this Radio 1 Rap Show 14.08.99 with Pharoahe Monch & Blak Twang

These episodes of the Reflections Of A DJ podcast are well worth a listen:

DJ Mighty Mi

Jon Shecter

Cipha Sounds

Stretch Armstrong on Hot 97 (1996)

Stretch on Hot 97 from July '96, with Nine in the house for a brief interview and freestyle. in the midst of the sort of bangers you'd expect, you can also find Akinyele's excellent 'Freaky Deaky' which appeared on a couple of mixtapes but sadly remains unreleased.

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tracklist

Artifacts - The Ultimate

King Sun - NY Love (All Eyez On Sun)

McGruff ft The LOX - Reppin Uptown

MOP - My Kinda Nigga

Ill Al Skratch ft Greg Nice - Me And The Click

talk break

[Crucial Conflict commercial]

Powerule ft Noreaga - Well Connected

Nine - Lyin King

Nine interview & freestyle

The Roots - The Good The Bad & The Desolate

Adagio - Obvious Joint

Lace Da Booms -Ain't No Secret

CNN - Stick You

ATCQ - Peace Prosperity & Paper

Cru ft Black Rob - Nuthin But

Lace Da Booms - Cut That Weak Shit

Akinyele - Freaky Deaky 

Beatnuts - Find That

Heltah Skeltah - Soldiers Gone Psycho

Edo G - Dedicated

Jeru The Damaja - One Day

NB: not 100% that I have the a and b side of the tape in the correct order but the way Stretch is talking in the first part makes me think that it's the beginning of the show. Also, Adagio appeared at the beginning of side 2 and also at the end (after Jeru 'One Day'). I gave up trying to figure it all out because life's too short.

Stretch & Bobbito on Hot 97 (29.09.96)

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Thanks to Diggo Blick for sending me this cassette, which is 90 minutes of Stretch and Bob on Hot 97 with Royal Flush and Da Bush Babees in the studio. And it's Stretch's birthday. Full tracklist can be found here.

Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR (1998)

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Or in this case just Bobbito as Stretch hasn't turned up yet. Looks like this is another one that's been uploaded elsewhere in the past which is good because it means that I'm able to give it a date and give you a link to the track listing. The Cheesecake track at the start is dope.

Stretch & Bobbito on Hot 97 with DJ Premier (1997)

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Another tape from the batch Tobes gave me. Think this one may have been online before as there's a tracklist on the S&B blog. As with every single radio show and mixtape from the second half of 1997, this includes You Know My Steez and Its Been A Long Time. There's some nice indie tracks on here too, plus Wu All Stars 'Sole In The Hole' which is one of the better songs by a Wu Tang spin off.

Stretch Armstrong on Hot 97 (1996)

Stretch Boogie rolling solo on Hot 97 from September 1996. Fatman Scoop is also in the building and you get some Mobb Deep, MOP, Royal Flush, De La Soul amongst others.

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Another sure shot from Tobes. Salute!

If you like this please don't sleep on It's Overture's Hot 97 - Summer Of 96 mix from last year. It's awesome.

Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR (29.11.90)

What do we have here then? Oh just some insanely early WKCR action from back when the show was in it's infant stages and Stretch was still going by the name of DJ Skinny Bones...

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(quality isn't great for the first few minutes but settles down by the time the music starts)

Although tons of tapes from the duo 8 year run have been posted online these sessions from 1990 have proved hard to come by. Even Stretch and Bob themselves have been asking for them, so this was quite a find.  Shout out to Grime & Lime as this was buried in amongst all the Westwood tapes I was given and big up S&B guru Craig at Random Rap Radio for getting his Columbo on and pieciing together enough info to the point where we could establish a date (which wasn't on the tape but we're 99% sure is correct). There's no guests on here unfortunately but the tracklist is nuts and it's a great snapshot of the embryonic stages of something that would be go on to be iconic.

Tracklist
EPMD ft LL Cool J - Rampage
KMD - Peachfuzz
Freshco - Now Ya Know
Jungle Brothers - In Dayz To Come
Main Source - Lookin At The Front Door
Eric B & Rakim - Run For Cover
Gang Starr - Just To Get A Rep
Three Times Dope - No Words
talk break
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Wanted Dead Or Alive
NWA - 100 Miles And Runnin
Nice & Smooth - Dope Not Hype
Master Ace - Letter To The Better
talk break
Ultramagnetic MCs - Feelin It
BDP live in Japan
MC Shan - The Bridge
Grandaddy IU - Something New
Tragedy & Craig G - Live And Direct From The House Of Hits
Jazzy Jay - Cold Chillin In The Spot
Run DMC - The Ave

Co-incidentally, part of this show was also captured in the clip below , which in turn was used in the Radio That Changed Lives documentary.

Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito on Hot 97 (1996)

Another tape I'm surprised I hadn't posted before. This is the first Boogie & The Barber show on Hot 97. No guests (on the 57 mins here anyway) but pretty much every track on here is great. As the S&B documentary has finally dropped (not seen it yet) now seems like a good a time as any to share this one...

Stretch & Bobbito - first Hot 97 show (Feb 11th 1996) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

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Tracklist
Tragedy & CNN 'LA LA' remix
Jay Z 'Dead Presidents'
Keith Murray 'The Rhyme' (white label version)
Saukrates 'Father Time'
Group Home 'The Realness'
La The Darkman 'I Want It All'
Redman 'Funkorama' remix
Special Ed 'Freaky Flow' DJ Premier remix
Large Professor 'Mad Scientist'
Company Flow '8 Steps To Perfection'
MOP 'Raise Hell'
AK Skills 'Nights Of Fear'
Natural Elements 'Knick Knack'
Heltah Skeltah 'Understand'

I bought most of these on vinyl when they dropped but the Keith Murray eluded me for years until I came across it on this white label and I finally copped MOP's 'Raise Hell' a couple of weeks ago. Would like to get that Natural Elements track though if anyone has it?

If you fancy going through the WKCR archives, Serch4Beatz and the Philaflava crew have gathered a mighty impressive stack of them here

Terror Squad - Hot 97 freestyle (1997)

Big Pun, Cuban Link and Triple Seis going in over the Triumph instrumental on Stretch & Bob's Hot 97 show back in 1997...

Lil Kim 'Big Momma Thang' the unreleased versions (1996)

Although I'm not exactly a big fan of Lil Kim, this track grew on me as a result of rinsing DJ Rectangle's excellent 'Deadly Needles' mixtape back in 97.
I got hold of the 12" you see below and was dismayed to find that it was missing Jay Z's cameo, and so wasn't the version included on Kim's 'Hardcore' album. Instead there were 2 mixes, one of which I assume to be the 'original' (edit: see update below) which makes use of the awesome Love Unlimited Orchestra sample also used by Real Live and Jemini around the same time, and one labelled 'remix' with the same beat as the album version. The real talking point is the lyrics that didnt make the cut on the album...




The track features Kim taking a few shots at Faith Evans and 2Pac and must have been (like most/all of her songs) written by Biggie. You can hear his cadence and humour all over it...

"Uh, who shot ya?
Who knows how they got ya?
Fed up...wet up
Maybe next time your punk ass will Keep Ya Head Up!"

I'm not sure but would guess that the lyrics were removed from the official release due to Pac having died just before it came out. Its a bit of an under-the-radar track and well worth a listen. If you're a stubborn boom-bap dinosaur who wouldn't dream of checking for Lil Kim, its all ok because its produced by Stretch Armstrong.
















Thanks to Addicted 2 Retail for having a decent Kim photo I could use!

UPDATE 16/12/11: Theres a bit more info on this in the comments section from Stretch. After asking a few more questions (via Twitter) it appears he pressed up 500-1000 copies of the 12" himself.
Mike Nice has also put me up on a demo version of this track with Biggie doing a hook to the tune of 'Sweet Dreams' by Eurythmics. This was scrapped after Nas came out with 'Street Dreams' although apparently Kim's track was made first. Also, I've re-upped the files as the album version was corrupted and I've re-titled the 'original' as 'Stretch Armstrong mix'.

Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito on Hot 97 (1997)

Stretch & Bobbito live on Hot 97 with Chubb Rock in the studio. Some great tracks on here including stuff by Lady Of Rage, Common and DITC. Big up DJ MK for the tape...



The quest to get all the Stretch & Bobbito shows uploaded is still ongoing. If you've got any to contribute or fancy downloading a few GO HERE

DJ Ev - School's In Session (1995)

Thought I'd start the new decade off with another tape out of DJ MK's collection.
This mix is by Long Island's DJ Ev, who I first heard of when Stretch Armstrong mentioned him on his (now defunct?) blog.
Ev is very nice on the cuts and from the few tapes I've heard is an all-round dope DJ who went on to roll with Funkmaster Flex's crew. Lots of 1995 goodness on this one. Tracklist is in the comments section

DOWNLOAD   STREAM SIDE A   STREAM SIDE B

If you like this make sure you check these out:

Stretch Armstrong and DJ Ev 'Back 2 Back' (1996)

DJ Ev 'Hotter This Year' (1996)

Funkmaster Flex & DJ Ev 'Big Dog Pitbulls pt 2' (1998)

Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year. Back to work and the old routine tommorow morning. I'll try and dig out some more treats to help you get through the next few weeks!

UPDATE: I got in touch with Ev via his myspace. apparently I got the title wrong!
"it's School's In Session and the Big Dawg Pitbulls Pt 2 tape is also hosted by Redman.
I like the update in your review, however, your original line "should have went on to bigger things" is accurate as well - lol...
Thanks again - Ev"