Nas - Freestyle (1996)

This is the Nas freestyle that was doing the rounds on the mixtapes back in 96 just before 'It Was Written' dropped. Its the one over some classic 80s beats (Nobody Beats The Biz, Eric B For President and So Whatcha Sayin) and I thought you might appreciate a nice, good quality, untagged version straight off the white label...

Flava In Ya Ear remix (DJ Step One blend)

I haven't posted a blend for a while so here's something I just cooked up: the acapella of the 'Flava In Ya Ear' remix over the instrumental of Outkast's 'Southernplayalistic...'

DOWNLOAD

Max LX & Dave VJ - Kiss FM Rap Chart (1991)

Back to the tapes! This is the rap show chart from January (or possibly early February - my guess is based on the advert for the LL concert) 1991. Kiss hadnt been a legal station for very long at this point - the first broadcast as a non-pirate was September 1990.
KMD, King Sun, Ice Cube, Special Ed, BDP and Chubb Rock all feature...

Max LX & Dave VJ - Kiss FM Rap Chart (early 91) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

the post with no name (aka 'random treats')

Been a while since I last posted. No real reason for the break other than that I dropped a lot of hotness in May and thought I'd best give you time to catch up. Nothing worse than having a load of newly downloaded music and not having time to get through it all before the next gem appears.
Theres no specific theme to this post other than to offer up a few things from my hardrive that you might not have come across before, but at the same time probably dont warrant their own post. Enjoy...

Jay Z 'Feelin It' (Rosco's ride-out blend)
I found this on Soundcloud. Uses the 'It Was A Good Day' instrumental. Nice.

Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz 'Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)' Bay Area mix
Promo only business to keep the regional DJs sweet. This has the same beat but the chorus shouts out towns and cities in The Bay rather than NYC.

The Firm 'Freestyle'
Think I got this off the 'Firm Biz' CD single. Uses the Alkaholiks 'Hip Hop Drunkies' beat.

Mobb Deep 'True Lies'
I'm guessing this is from around 1997ish. Not 100% but I dont think it ever saw an official release. If it did and any of you have a better quality version than the bootleg vinyl rip I've posted here then hook me up!

Silva Sirfa 'The Art Of Blending' (2001)

Its approaching that time of year when every blog, forum and DJ will compile a selection of 'summer joints' which without fail always feature the same tracks year in, year out. If you want an alternative to 'Regulate', 'Summertime' and the usual R&B standards you could do a lot worse than bump this blend tape from 2001(ish) by NYC's DJ Silva Sirfa...

DOWNLOAD   STREAM PART 1   STREAM PART 2

Its upfront and classic R&B over Hip Hop beats. Its a fucking good CD basically.




















If you're into this you might want to check out RNT's latest compilation

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'.

Radio 1 Rap Show: Def Jam's 10th Anniversary (1995)

Russell Simmons, Method Man and Nelson George guest on this Westwood show from December 95. Uncle Russ selects ten of his favourite tracks from the label ("I ain't mad at 'The Rain' though") and Meth gets wasted. GZA and Shaggy make a brief appearance aswell...