Don't Sleep #18 MC Chill - MC Story (1986)

It's been ages since the last Don't Sleep but as I just copped this 12" I thought I'd post it up. This is something I first heard back in '88 when I was first getting into this hip hop thing. Like a lot of rap fans in the UK, the Streetsounds albums played a key part in forming my tastes, pulling together a bunch of fresh new US jams for those of us that weren't spending a fortune on imports in Groove Records every weekend. Being only 10/11 years old me and my mate Mark were very much about just finding whatever rap music we could get our hands on and at the age of 10 the bargain bins and sale items were a good place to start. He scored a copy of Electro 12 which I promptly copied (on high speed dubbing too I'd imagine) and was introduced to some top tunes by Grandmaster Flash, Fat Boys, 2 Live Crew and Whodini. The only track I din't like was Square Dance Rap by Sir Mix A Lot. The album also includes the super dope 'Ultimate III Live' (which warrants a post of its own) and the subject of this post - MC Story by MC Chill.

The single was released on Sal Abbatiello's Fever label, which was also responsible for records by Most Wanted, Spoonie G, Sweet G and Cover Girls. It churned out a ton of Latin freestyle records and that whole 80s keyboard thing is in full effect on MC Story (along with a bizarre and very out of place guitar solo at the end). The chorus is kind of cheesy but you do get a class verse from the one and only Melle Mell which makes things well worth the price of admission.

Obviously '86 was a changing of the guard for the music once Rakim and BDP came along so this was very much the end of an era for this kind of rap. It's not a track you would necessarily be into if you didn't hear it at the time, but very much a nostalgia piece for me personally so thought I'd shed a bit of light on it.

It's mad that the Streetsounds series didn't make it to CD, let alone digital or streaming outlets. You can listen to Electro 12 on Soundcloud though.

Black Rob - Gun Hell (2001)

New tapes are on the way soon but it's been a while since I posted some rare or unreleased Black Rob (a year next week to be precise) so here's a song from an obscure 12" that seems to be comprised of tracks taken from an early 00s DJ Khaled mixtape. You might be aware that before becoming an internationally successful meme clown and playlist creator, Khaled was a credible club DJ and had some half decent production credits on songs that didn't feature 47 different rappers, autotune or Justin Bieber. His remix of Heads High by Mr Vegas is definitely worth picking up if you see it. Anyway, back to Black Rob and he's got a healthy amount of unreleased heat in his catalogue. Gun Hell sounds like it might be a demo track - like the Espacio demo the chorus is a bit sketchy - but he comes with his trademark thugged out wordplay and its a worthy addition to the collection if you're fan of BR (and you should be by now or I've been wasting my time).

Not sure if Khaled did the beat on this. I'm guessing no. This might be his first appearance on OB4ZL but let's not get carried away.

Queen Latifah - Name Callin part II (1998)

I first heard this on a Westwood tape from '98 and recently picked it up on Discogs. A jackin-for-beats style white label dis track very much ticked all the boxes for me in terms of the kind of thing I liked discovering when out digging. Like LL, Latifah went on to enjoy success outside of rap but could still get nasty on the mic when necessary. I don't know what sparked this off and she doesn't name any names here but given the year you can probably guess who she's talking about.

McGruff Rugged & Raw aka If It Ain't McGruff It Ain't Me [a Herb McGruff compilation]

Over the last few years my waning (now pretty much non-existent) interest in new Hip Hop has meant I've gone back and discovered a new found appreciation for artists who I'd previously enjoyed, but perhaps never delved to deep into their catalogues. I've already hit you off with a Sauce Money compilation, and on a similar tip is this Herb McGruff collection. 

Signed by Heavy D to Uptown after the rest of his Children Of The Corn crew had found deals elsewhere, McGruff's debut album Destined To Be suffered from his label's attempts to jump on the Bad Boy bandwagon of the moment and have him dropping jiggy club efforts rather than the more thugged out Harlem-centric content that was his strong suit. Kind of understandable given that Uptown properly dropped the ball with Biggie (worst label decision ever in rap?) but history has shown us that the industry has a track record of signing acts with a big street buzz and then getting them to move away from the style that made them popular to chase radio play. In McGruff's case he got off to a good start with the Harlem Kids Get Biz promo 12", but the album had far too many lukewarm, middle of the road joints like Gruff Express and didn't really make much of an impression. What was interesting was the amount of collabs, features, and mixtape only/bootleg tracks that were circulating around the same time, and that's what makes up the bulk of this compilation.

I'm not sure if it was just bad timing, people stealing his ideas or vice versa but Herbert seems to have a issue in the jackin for beats department which probably hindered his progress somewhat. Creep is dope, but it's based around the same break Biggie used on Warning. Nasty with Foxy Brown uses the World Famous Supreme Team beat that's far too similar to the Firm Biz remix which dropped around the same time. Make It Hot has the same Eugene Wild sample recognisable from Foxy and Blackstreet's monster Get Me Home. I've included them all because 20+ years on it's not much of an issue but you can see how it may have been a problem at the time. 

I haven't really ventured into his re-emergence with Dipset in the 2000s so its mostly mid-late 90s material, and although it's pretty heavy on collaborations and guest appearances it's a decent representation of the man's work. Pick of the bunch for me is Harlem World with Mase on the hook, which samples Strawberry Letter 23. There's also East And Police produced by Godfather Don off 2008's The Demo EP,  a couple of the better tracks off the album in Reppin Uptown with The Lox and the aforementioned Harlem Kids Get Biz and some looseys like Bow Down with Mob Style and the mixtape only Hell Up In Harlem with Black Rob, Cardan & Cam'ron.

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East And Police 

Creep

Villain Guys 

Harlem World ft Mase

Freestyle

Reppin Uptown ft The LOX

Harlem NYC - Beats 2 Blow remix with Bootsie & Big L

Uptown Connection ft Mase & Big L

Harlem Kids Get Biz

Hell Up In Harlem with Black Rob, Cam'ron & Cardan

Pure Uncut Raw with Eightball, Canibus & DMX

Bow Down ft Mob Style & Meeno

Nasty ft Foxy Brown

Kay Slay freestyle

Obviously these were taken from a variety of sources - CD, vinyl, digital, some official, some less so. If you've got anything else that should've been included let me know.

Don't Sleep #17 Alley High - Voo Doo / World Wide (1996)

Voo Doo is something that I've heard on a couple of different tapes over the years and it caught my attention both times, only for me to find what it was and then promptly forget about it. Thanks to Tobes for IDing it again this time around when it turned up on this Friday Nite Flavas show, after which I swiftly made a purchase before I forgot it again (it's hella rare that any records I want are not only reasonably priced but also available from a UK seller). Both sides of the 12" are nice, with a kind of Camp Lo vibe to them. It's a bit of an obscure one but well worth your attention.

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All Discogs tells us about Alley High is that this was their only release, which is a shame as it sounds like they had some potential. What is surprising is that Voo Doo is produced by DJ Milo, who was a founder member of Bristol's legendary Wild Bunch crew. While some of the other members went off and became stoner/broadsheet favourites Massive Attack (and - if you believe the rumours - Banksy), Milo bounced to NYC, hooked up with Salaam Remi and had a hand in a track on Zhigge's album. Zhigge featured on a track on Harlem High Records's only release which is also a Milo production, and is likely the same imprint as Alley High's Harlem High Entertainment so they could well have been rolling with that whole crew.

G Dep - Hit Em High (2001)

Just found this unreleased G Dep track tucked away on a Crib Underground 12". Nothing mind blowing but a solid enough effort that should interest any fans of early 00s Bad Boy material. I think it might be produced by Clark Kent. A brief search throws up appearance on a couple of mixtapes by Clue and PF Cuttin, and a MySpace page, which seems like something from another lifetime. Annoyingly, Audiomack seems to have done away with it's download feature so here's a Mediafire link.

I've dropped a few more Westwood shows on the archive in the last couple of days.

18th January 2002 with Tom Silverman

9th June 2000 (no guest)

4th June 1999 with Roots Manuva & DJ MK

plus I've also reposted shows that other people have uploaded, including some old Capital Rap Shows

Mobb Deep - If These Walls Could Talk (2002)

It's hot and sunny outside but let's ignore that completely and go for some moody Queensbridge raps with this unreleased Mobb Deep joint that was on the flipside of the NORE track I posted recently.
Depending on which bootleg or mixtape you have this is also known as 'Snitch' or 'Snitched On' and samples Beethoven's Fur Elise; obviously I didn't know that until it appeared on the Google search but it's one of those classical pieces everyone recognises. Grimey.

Other things worthy of your attention:

Good Kool G Rap interview for Rolling Stone

Digital Underground's demo tape

15 Classic Big L freestyles

Jimmy Green's Roy Ayers mixtape

Noreaga - Colors (2002)

Noreaga putting his 2002 twist on the Ice T classic is as gully as you'd expect. It's a mixtape only track that as far I can tell went under most people's radar unless you had a copy of this DJ Envy tape, and even then you were only getting a snippet. Fortunately it made on to the streets in it's full glory on this white label (alongside an unreleased Mobb Deep song). Strange it never got a bit more attention but there you go. It really sounds like it needs some trademark Kay Slay drops but you can't have everything.

It's a shame that for the most part rappers and DJs were fairly unimaginative when pulling out beats for their freestyles back then. The majority tended to reach for the hot track of the moment or tried and tested classics like Who Shot Ya or Shook Ones pt II. The Colors beat would've been a great pick, as would Juice Crew Dis or  Black Superman. Perhaps the famed East Coast Bias was very much in effect until the mid 00s.

NB: Audiomack have changed their embedding thingy so not only is there only one option for sizes - fucking massive - but it's also messed up the way the older ones appear on the site. You're probably best just clicking onto my audiomack page and DLing off there if you have any problems

March 9th and all that

Here's the full version of Biggie's 'Real Niggaz Do Real Things' (aka "the one over all the west coast beats") which was all over the mixtapes back in '95 but for some reason rarely found in the full version you've got here. As you'd expect it appeared on a ton of bootleg 12"s but usually in parts 1, 2 and 3. All a bit strange. Anyway, this Crib Underground 12" has the best quality full length version that I'm aware of and it includes the DJ Jam interlude and everything...



His Bigness drops some classic verses over Deep Cover, G Thang, Murder Was The Case remix, Black Superman and Gin & Juice. He even shouts out Death Row at the end. Probably one of my favourite Biggie tracks.
Side note: I recently watched The People vs OJ Simpson and the use of Black Superman for Johnny Cochran to walk into the courtroom was fantastic.

Big L, McGruff, I Born & CL Smooth - NY Freestyle (1999)

Picked this 12" up on the cheap the other day. Bit of a strange line up - CL Smooth had all but disappeared by 1999 and I've no idea who I-Born is. Also unusual for a record of this nature to come with a proper cover. I'm not sure if it was a legit freestyle session or copy and paste effort but its worth a listen anyway.

While we're on a freestyle tip, I zipped up 40+ of  'em for those who slept or suffered a hard drive crash. Most of them are my own rips that have appeared on the blog over the last 8 years but there's also a few others that I've found online over the years. Click HERE

Positive K - Good Combination '95

I recently came up on a stack of decent mid 90s rap vinyl for £1 - £2 each in my local shop. This happens almost never so I took full advantage. Fortunately there were 3 obscure old school jungle 12"s in there which I was able to resell and cover my cost. This Positive K joint was one of the purchases that day.  Sometimes it's just nice to hear a rapper talkng shit over a breakbeat.



If you haven't heard it, I should warn you that the main track on this 12", 'Black Cinderella' is pretty weak. That said, you have to hand it to Pos for getting Teddy Riley to produce an indie rap release around the time he was blowing up with Blackstreet.

Thought I'd post this up because it occured to me the other day that it's crazy he only released one album and he should get a bit more shine than he does. He had a strange career arc, given that there was 6 years between his first appearance on vinyl, and his dope debut album. Then he blew up big time with I Got A Man in '93, but spent the rest of 90s dropping sporadic one-off singles. Slick Rick managed more than that and he was in prison. Dude was basically the 90s Jay Electronica.

Noreaga, Musaliny & Maze freestyle (1997)

Nore and his mans go in over Puffin On Blunts, Phone Tap and Nuthin But A G Thang and a couple of other beats. Taken from this rather nice promo doublepack, Shout out to J Preme on the TROY forum for hooking me up with this.

The Firm - La Familia (1996)

As you might already be aware, a recent collaborative effort on the Philaflava forum resulted in a reconstruction of The Firm album, re-imagining the track selection as it should've been. It's one of those releases thats generally considered a bit underwhelming, mostly due to it being less than the sum of its parts. The highs are high but the lows aren't really what the people involved should have put their names to in 1996. During the course of the discussion, the subject of 'La Familia' was raised. This was a song I'd kind of forgotten about since having it on a Future Flavas tape back in the day, but it turns out it's only official release was as a clean version on Foxy Brown's 'I'll Be' single, and Cormega's verse had been replaced by one from Nature after the group's line up changed. Save for a couple of mixtapes and poor quality youtube rips, the original was nowhere to be found. You can probably see where this post is going.
A quick check on my shelves turned up this bootleg 12" with the uncensored version featuring Cormega. So here it is. Shout out to DJ Filthy Rich for cleaning up the pops and crackles for me.



The Firm: How It Should've Been

The 12" is well worth picking up if you see it, as it also includes the original version of 'Benjamins' without Biggie and 'You'll See' (another promo only Bad Boy track). The Tracey Lee/Canibus/McGruff joint is also unreleased.

The LOX 'Kiss Of Death' (unreleased)

Inadvertantly came up on this the other day after adding it to a Discogs order without really knowing what it was. Turns out its not Kiss Of Death off the first Ruff Ryders album (which is what I was hoping for) or the track of the same name off the second Jadakiss album. What we have here is an apparently unreleased LOX track which I'm guessing is from sometime in the late 90s...


(for some reason the audiomack embed isn't showing up so go here if you can't see it)

I'm guessing its from that era mostly due to the design of the label which is similar to a few other unofficial released from that period. Also, the fact its under the name 'Goodfellaz' makes me think it might be something the group put out while they were still under contract with Bad Boy, during the well documented Let The Lox Go campaign when they trying to move over to Ruff Ryders. It's definitely the sort of grimey mixtape joint they'd have gone for when they were trying to get away from the whole shiny suit image. It sounds as though it might not have been mastered propely thats all part of the deal with these things.
If anyone has got any info on it drop knowledge in the comments. Also, if anyone can confirm that a 12" of Kiss Of Death from Ruff Ryders Vol 1 definitely exists that would be splendid. I've heard the instrumental at the beginning of this Cipha Sounds mix on Westwood so it must be out there in some format. The fact there's 2 songs (and an album, plus the track above) with the same name makes searching for it a bit awkward.

Don't Sleep #11 Lace Da Booms 'Cut That Weak Shit' (1996)

This came out as the first release on Guesswhyld, back in 1996 when indie rap wasn't an entire sub-genre in itself, and the records still looked 'indie' - no glossy covers or barcodes. If you were one of those people propping up the counter at the likes of Mr Bongo or Handspun (or in the US, Fat Beats) you'll probably be familiar with it, but for the uninitiated...



There's a few different mixes on the 12" but the go to one has to be the NYC mix. It uses the beat from Kane's 'Young Gifted And Black' and has an early guest appearance from Royal Flush, who drops a dope verse. It's some proper traditional mid-90s East Coast rap and should not be slept on.
If you still buy vinyl, this is represents pretty good value for money - L's version used the same Kane beat but has different lyrics and no Royal Flush, plus you get the instrumental. The b-side has the Buckwild mix which is in a similar style to his remixes of Mad Izm and Daaam. Not entirely my bag but alot of people seem to enjoy those beats. The Domingo produced 'Aint No Secret' ain't bad either.

Additional notes: If you check the label, you'll see this also features Quasi Modo, who is/was part of Flush's Wastelanz crew and nothing to do with Madlib.
Also, I've just spotted that the label says Guesswild and not Guesswhyld, which became the label name for future releases. Not really important but record nerds enjoy that kind of thing.

BONUS! I recently picked up a cheap copy of this Guesswhyld compilation as I wanted a CDQ of Cut That Weak Shit. Turned out it was the Buckwild mix so here it is if you want it.

its the uncensored version of the Firm Biz remix!

The Martorialist's recent playlist of AZ deep cuts inspired me to resurrect my search for the full, raw, uncut version of the excellent World Famous remix of The Firm's 'Firm Biz'. It's a track that I've seen mentioned in request threads and most wanted lists over the years but even in an era where pretty much every demo, alernate version and Austrian promo CD single has been uploaded, this has remained elusive. The clean version is a reasonably easy find - in the UK anyway -  as its included on the promo album sampler. In contrast, acquiring the dirty version was the result of finding a Japanese record store with some poor quality streaming audio samples of this bootleg 12", and then a seller in France who wasn't charging the earth for a copy (the extornionate shipping costs from the US to the UK are a whole 'nother topic though). This might only be a humble little Hip Hop blog based in the UK's stockbroker belt but not too many sites fucking with us when it comes to the hella rare unreleased 90s heat game...

If you're unfamiliar with the track, you need this in your life. It's one of those remixes that's essentially a completely different track rather than a remix. The chorus of the original remains intact (although it may have been resung) but the Teena Marie sample is dispensed with in favour of the awesome beats from the Malcolm McLaren classic. Half-A-Mil is drafted in to set things off with the opening verse and basically everything is lovely from there on in. The Firm album isn't actually that bad despite getting a bit of a bad press at the time, but this is better than anything on there, with the obvious exception of Phone Tap.

File this one alongside joints like '24 Hours To Live', 'Off The Books', OC's 'Dangerous' and such like, in terms of late 90s uptempo NYC rap bangers that straddled the thug/jiggy divide. Easier said than done in the era where it was hoodies and timbs vs shiny suits and god forbid anyone get in between the two. I still remember trying to find a copy of Clipse debut 12" 'The Funeral' and Uptown Records not knowing what it was ("bit underground for us mate") and Mr Bongo 2 minutes away not stocking it because "if you heard Funkmaster Flex play it we probably wont have it, mate". That's a whole 'nother topic though.

Mo Money ft Mase - After All (1996)

I've been keeping an eye out for Diehard Records releases after taking a punt on Mo Money & Genovese's 'The Block Hot' (as featured on my Tape Kingz Vol 1 mix). It turned out to be a good buy so when I saw this record for cheap I scooped it up. The label says it came out in 1996 but with the sample straight jacked from the SOS Band's soul classic, it could just as easily have been on Bad Boy circa 97-98. Polish it up a bit and it could pass for a Trackmasters production from that era...



I should probably mention that the sound on this is a bit off as although the record was still sealed when I bought it, the hole in the vinyl is slightly off centre. Its most noticeable in the chorus but basically its still listenable. If anyone has a better copy hook it up.
Aswell as the wayward hole, the vinyl itself is hella thin and floppy (:pause:) but I digress. I recently checked out their 'Lost N Yonkers' compilation from 1998 and although the production and mastering of tracks is pretty rough and raw (as in 'sound like they were pressed up off a Clue mixtape' raw), there's a couple of gems worthy of your attention.
It won't surprise me if once all the early-mid 90s DITC style boom bap joints have been mined to death that random jiggy rap like this becomes the sub genre du-jour for the rap collector who has everything. God knows they cant keep buying songs they already own on 7" forever.

Big Kap rest in peace!

Don't Sleep #10 Co-Defendants ft Rob Base 'Get Cha Weight Up' (1993)

The 10th installment of Don't Sleep is something that I first heard on a Red Alert tape in late 1993, and ended up being one of the first import 12"s to find its way into my collection. On a 90 minute TDK that was heavy on the Hoodie & Timbs, East Coast stomp style that was the flavour of the month (Das EFX, Onyx, LONS, Jeru, Wu Tang etc) this track really stood out as something different. A lazy blunted flow that wouldnt have sounded out of place on a West Coast/G Funk beat and a random cameo by none other than Rob Base have made this one a personal favourite over the years...

INI 'Fakin Jax' Frankenstein remix (1996)

As promised, here's the Frankenstein remix of INI's 'Fakin Jax' that appears on the flip of the Method Man remix below (shout to ego trip for spreading the word on that one)...



Always thought that the mid 90s INI material was a bit of a step sideways for Pete Rock after his streak of classic and genre defining productions in the years previous, It's solid enough head nod boom bap and maybe he just wanted to take a step back from the sort of high profile artists he'd been working with (its worth remembering that although he's held up as an icon of Real Hip Hop by the purists, he made a ton of money remixing the likes of Johnny Gill and Alexander O'Neal). He definitely fell a few steps behind the likes of Premier for a while.The fact the INI album got shelved probably didn't help matters but you can't help thinking he might have ended up working with more A listers if he'd taken a different path after the split with CL Smooth. Wonder if anyone has mentioned to him that it'd be a nice idea to release all his Future Flavas remixes in some of format?

Method Man 'PLO Style' Frankenstein remix (1996)

I haven't come across many bootleg remix 12"s recently but I picked up this 4 tracker of remixes by Canada's Frankenstein last week and his take on this track off Meth's debut LP (and b-side to Bring The Pain) was the standout cut. If you like that dusty mid 90s sound you'll probably enjoy this...



I'm not that familiar with much of Frankenstein's catalogue but 'Sparkin Intellect' remains a favourite from back in the day. Based on that track alone he's almost certainly the best rapper to come out of Toronto.



I'll drop the INI 'Fakin Jax' remix off the same 12" at some point. Unfortunately the record fair where I made the purchase had (intentionally?) pretty poor lighting so I didn't realise the vinyl was a bit more busted than I'd usually find acceptable. The Nas remix is far too crackly to bother digitizing but isn't anything special anyway and I'm not a huge fan of the Das EFX track.