Radio 1 Rap Show 20.08.99

Last one for 2017. No guests on this show but the last 20 minutes has Prime Cuts dropping some golden era bits for you.

Doo Wop - Xmas Jams '93

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Another tape that I posted in the early days of the blog that I've just re-ripped at 320kbps. An awesome Bounce Squad freestyle session on the intro followed by Wop setting things off by shouting over the intro to Snoop's 'Gz And Hustlaz' is an all time mixtape highlight of mine. That was some goosebump business back in the day when I popped the tape in the walkman.

Tracklist

Bounce Squad intro

Snoop Dogg - Gz And Hustlaz

Erick Sermon, Keith Murray & Redman - Swing It Over Here

KRS One - Hip Hop Vs Rap

Jodeci ft Redman - You Got It

Erick Sermon - Stay Real

Shaquille O'Neal & Fu-Schnickens - Boom! Turn Up The Volume

Wu Tang Clan - Da Mystery Of Chessboxing

YZ - The Ghetto's Been Good To Me

Queen Latifah - Black Hand Side

A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation

Original Flavour - Can I Get A Hit

Das EFX - Freak It

Father - 69 (remix)

Rakim - Heat It Up (remix)

De La Soul ft Biz Markie - Lovely How I Let My Mind Float

Mary J Blige ft Biggie - Whats The 411 (remix)

Domino - Getto Jam

2Pac - Keep Ya Head Up

Wu Tang Clan - Can It Be All So Simple

DRS - Gangsta Lean

Das EFX - Kaught In Da Ak

Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice

KRS One - Sound Of Da Police (remix)

A Tribe Called Quest - We Can Get Down

Erick Sermon - Payback part 2

Madstyle - Run

Original Flavour - Can I Get Open

Wu Tang Clan - Method Man (remix)

YGz - Ghetto Celeb

Eminem & Dr Dre live in London (2000)

Westwood dropped this in the middle of a Radio Rap 1 Show I was ripping and it was more enjoyable than I expected. Em and Dre at the Brixton Academy 3 weeks before the Marshall Mathers LP came out. I found the set list here, and it's about a 50/50 split of Em songs and stuff off 2001, plus G Thang with Em doing Snoop's parts.
Good to see that they stayed true to the tradition of US artists coming to the UK and performing ridiculously short shows (30 minutes!) while probably charging £20-£30 a ticket too. Thankfully that seemed to die out over the last 15 years as touring became a bigger earner than sales, although someone should tell Redman and Method Man, who really should be doing more than 45-50 minutes given the size of their combined catalogues.

UPDATED 26/12 - full Radio 1 Rap Show this was taken from now available here

Big Ted & Shortee Blitz on Kiss FM 01.12.99

45 minutes of the Chubby Kids on Kiss from December '99. Includes music by The LOX, Dr Dre, Q Tip, Biggie, Karl Hinds, Iceberg Slimm and Hot Ones.

Also just uploaded 45 minutes of a Westwood show that was on the other side of this tape - 3rd December '99 with J Live and Asheru in the studio

Black Rob - Smooth Criminal (Espacio demo)

The Black Rob rarities continue to surface on a regular basis. Once again this one appeared by way of Grime & Lime uploading this DJ Rampage mixtape. It's listed on the cover as 'Smooth Criminal' but what we appear to have is a demo/reference track for Espacio, which ended up being a single off Life Story. There's no Lil Kim on here but Rob does reference Dep and seems to rap a part possibly intended for him. The verses are different from the final version and in typical demo fashion, there's no chorus. It's another storytelling / heist type joint that BR does so well. 

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 with Funkmaster Flex, Lil Kim and Busta Rhymes (2000)

The first thing to say about this show is that it starts with Christina Aguilera dissing Eminem over The Real Slim Shady instrumental (a song which was possibly the start of Em making really bad records). If she could rap on beat it might've been bearable but she can't so it just sounds terrible, however I think we can all agree that in 2017 a new Christina song is likely to bang harder than anything Eminem can create at this point. Seeing all these high profile rap DJs, journalists and "influencers" feel the need to have an opinion on the Eminem album and acting like it's a surprise that it's really fucking awful is just baffling to me. 

Anyway, once that's done Westwood hands over to Flex who has Lil Kim in the studio. That's followed by Busta Rhymes in part 2, who's heavily plugging the release of Anarchy. They're really pushing the singles Get Out and Fire to the extent that if you ever needed evidence of payola this wouldn't be the worst place to start, although if I recall these songs never really blew up on the same scale as Busta's other lead singles. His run of club bangers from '96 to 2006 was equalled only by Jay Z, but there was a bit of a dip on this project. Fire ain't bad but didn't really catch on and Get Out sounds a bit too Hard Knock Life-ish. The real gem on the album is 'The Heist' with Ghostface, Raekwon and Roc Marciano over a Large Pro beat. One that the backpackers probably missed when it dropped and are now being charged big bucks for the German promo 12" , probably due to the J Dilla produced A-side.

Weirdly, this show also contains Flex cutting up a bunch of 80s classics, which is the same mix that was previously broadcast a few years prior (like, '96 or something). I know this because I posted it before.