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

It's Overture - 94 State Of Mind

It's Overture only drop a mix about once a year so it's always a bit of a treat so get something new from them. This time around they multi track the shit out of 1994 and the results are excellent. It's only 26 minutes long but there's never a dull moment.

SOUNDCLOUD

Make sure you check out their other mixes if you haven't already, in particular the Hot 97 Summer '96 one.

Erick Sermon - Bomdigi (unreleased version)

Tobes put me up on this some time ago when it was still on Youtube. He has since hooked up a tape rip from an old 279 show which is what I've put on Soundcloud for your listening pleasure. Having asked around the 90s rap knowledge gods on the internet, no one seems to know about this. It could well be the original version of Bomdigi that was shelved due to sample clearance but it doesn't even seem to have made it on to a bootleg 12" which is unusual. It does feature the late Tommy Gunn so essentially it's a different version of the remix rather than the original E Dub solo version. Guessing it's tucked away on some Def Jam promo tape somewhere. The beat is lovely though - that soul sample wouldn't have sounded out of place 10 years later.

London Posse live in London (1991)

UK dons Rodney P and Bionic performing Gangster Chronicle, Live Like The Other Half Do and Jump Around at Westwood's Live To London jam at The Arches in Vauxhall, which was broadcast on Capital FM, hence the "censored version, seen?!".

Not much UK rap from the 80s and 90s has aged particularly well imo but all the London Posse stuff still holds it's own. Shame we never got that 2nd album around the time How's Life In London came out.



Thanks to Diablo for the tape of this one.

download at the hip hop radio archive

DJ Scian Smooth - Trunk Of Treats 2 (1996)

I'm a bit short on tapes to rip right now so I've been perusing the blogs and forums of years gone by to see what download links are still live, and I found a few treats. Firstly shout out to Mediafire; we may have had our differences in the past but if you can host a link for 10 years then respect is due. Unfortunately about 90% of uploads I found were using other hosting sites and as a result are now lost in the ether.
While I sort through my various finds here's something mixtape blogspot don (and Mediafire user) Grime & Lime posted over 5 year ago. Tapes from '96 are my fall back option when I'm not sure what to listen to so this one did the job nicely.

DOWNLOAD

[if you've been thinking that you should get in touch ahout sending me some tapes to rip but never get around to it now would be a good time]

DJ Triple C mixtape (1992)

First thing to say about this is the quality isn't the best, although once again it's been improved by the Random Rap Radio Remastering Service. It's got that slightly muddy and distorted feel in places that definitely gives off that whole 'rumbling out of a boom box in Camden Market on a Saturday afternoon' feeling from way back in the day.
If it was your standard tape from say, '95 (you know the ones with Wu, Biggie, Nas, Mobb etc) I probably wouldn't have posted it but it's from '92, when the scene wasn't as saturated, and it's also by Triple C who isn't a DJ you come across too often. More importantly it contains some Unreleased Heat ™. At the start of side 2 Triple C announces he's just been in the studio with Lord Tariq, Minnesota and DJ Scratch and then drops the exclusive. There's also someone rhyming on the track by the name of Pete Lova which we can safely assume is Peter Gunz. Now Deja Vu is still 5 years off at this point but Tariq and Gunz would end up releasing a couple of singles as part of Gunrunners (**obscure + expensive indie vinyl claxon**) before Minnesota and Tariq found some success with Money Boss Players, so this demo track is very much the foundation of that whole crew. If you don't have time to check the whole tape I posted the song on Soundcloud.

The rest of the tape is solid. Of course it is, it's 1992...

tracklist

Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Straighten It Out

Kenny Dope - Axxis

Fu-Schnickens - True Fu-Schnick

Wreckx N Effect - Rump Shaker

Mary J Blige - Real Love (remix)

Grand Puba - 360 (What Goes Around) (remix)

A TEEM - Yeah

House Of Pain - Jump Around (Pete Rock remix)

Redman - Blow Your Mind

EPMD - Cummin Atcha

LOTUG - Psycho (instrumental)

Diamond D - Freestyle (Yo Thats That Shit)

MC Serch - Back To The Grill Again

Triple C, Lord Tariq, Pete Lova & Minnesota - unreleased track

Take 6 - Spread Love (45 King remix)

Yo Yo - Black Pearl

Mary J Blige - Reminisce

Gang Starr - BYS

EPMD - Nobodys Safe Chump

Diamond D - Best Kept Secret

A Tribe Called Quest - Hot Sex

Zhigge - Born Black

LOTUG - Check It

Das EFX - Straight Out The Sewer

EPMD - Can't Hear Nothin But The Music

Eric B & Rakim - What's Going On

Prince Ikey C - Smoked We Out

The discovery of this was made all the more satisfying by it turning up unannounced on a cassette that was labelled as a Radio 1 Rap Show from '99 (cheers G&L!)

Large Professor on Kiss FM (2002)

Big Ted and Shortee Blitz interviewing The Live Guy With Glasses on their Kiss show back in 2002, when his First Class album was about to drop.

Shout out to Ted for posting this on his blog back in 2011. I thought I'd get it up on Mixcloud for those that missed it first time around.