DJ Step One - Actual Rap Music

10 days off work during lockdown is not the same as 10 days off work during lockdown with a 2 year old to look after. I did find time to pull out some records last night though, and recorded it. 97-98ish type stuff (and a couple of 96 things).

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tracklist
Capone N Noreaga ft Tragedy & Nas – Calm Down
Xzibit ft Mobb Deep – Eyes May Shine (remix)
All City – The Actual
B1 - Verbal Affairs
Mo Money, Genovese & Lord Tariq – The Block Hot
DITC – Day One
Black Rob – I Love You Baby
Alley High ft Monifah – Voo Doo
Bad Meets Evil – Nuttin Ta Do
Large Professor – Mad Scientist
Big Kwam – Verbalize (DJ Spinna remix)
Ghostface Killah – Cobra Clutch
Dilated Peoples – Work The Angles
Jay Z - A Million and One Questions (extended remix)
Cru – Bubblin
Keith Murray – The Rhyme (original version)
Redman – Funkorama (Blackstar blend)
Mic Geronimo ft DMX, Ja Rule, The LOX & Tragedy – The Usual Suspects

Lord Tariq freestyle (1993)

 

This is taken from a Rell Love tape that Westwood played back in summer '93, with Tariq going off over Funky Child and the G Thang remix beats, and it's sufficiently rowdy. LT was definitely killing it on the mixtapes back then and I like to think that he could've dropped a great album in 93/94 with a half decent label behind him, although maybe that raw mixtape energy with familiar beats is part of the appeal. Guess we'll never know but it's a shame he doesn't have more official material from this period.

DJ Skully - Kiss FM 13.01.03

Another dope Kiss FM mix from Skully's archives...

Tracklist

Talib Kweli - Shock Body

Royce 5'9 - My Friend

Gang Starr - Skillz

Infamous MC - Apocalypse

Little Brother  - The Way You Do It

Large Professor - Akinyele

Nas - Get Down

Conspicuous - Spittage

Foreign Beggars - Where Did The Sun Go

Ryans Hope - Sushi

Lewis Parker ft Profound - Sunny Dedications

Edo G - Be Thankful

Natty - Freestyle

Dilated Peoples ft Talib Kweli - Live On Stage (remix)

Jay Z - Bonnie & Clyde (Jay Zak remix)

Tre Hardson ft MC Lyte - Roots, Love & Culture

Truth Enola - No Way No How (remix)

Nightmares On Wax - 70s 80s (The Upbringing mix)

Emanon - For What You Live

Little Brother - Away From Me

DMP - Don't Wanna Give That Up

Conspicuous - Wonderful Life

L.E.O - Blue In The Vein

Joe Budha -Freestyle Frenzy

Cutmaster Swift ft Guru, MC Storm & Jeopardy - Choice FM exclusive (1991)

Thought I'd found another early 90s Gang Starr radio freestyle when this one started up, but it turns out there's a more interesting back story to it. It begins with the **Choice Exclusive** drop and Guru says it's a freestyle, before going into a verse from Hardcore Composer. The tape is dated 1991, so Daily Operation wasn't out at this point. He's then followed by 2 British MCs, which threw me a bit as the cuts in the chorus and the sound quality aren't what you would expect from a radio cypher. Needing some help, I hit up Craig and he thought one of the rappers sounded like Big Ted, which turned out to be correct. I hit Ted up on Instagram and he gave me the details...

It's actually production by Cutmaster Swift featuring MC Storm (Swift's brother) and myself on the extra verses. It originally began as a freestyled acapella from Guru for 279 and he suggested Swift put a beat to it and put Storm and me on there too, and there you have it. Just another one of those hip hop history magic moments.
Cheers for reminding me of it. I have it and the instrumental on a TDK MA metal tape somewhere.

Swift was one of the biggest hip hop DJs in the UK from the early days, and Ted was still known as Jeopardy back then. MC Storm was part of the No Parking MCs (thanks again to Craig for the knowledge) and had a couple of underground releases in the early 90s.

Kind of quirky, and this type of thing would be commonplace 10-15 years later when every mixtape DJ and aspiring producer got their hands on pro-tools but back then it was quite unusual as far as I know. I was going to title it Gang Starr - Hardcore Composer (rare demo version) but thought that might be pushing it a bit. Even clickbait has boundaries.
Big up Eddie as always, I've nearly got through all his tapes now so it's nice that they're still producing results.

DJ DS Goes Back to School (3rd Year: 1988)

DJ DS takes it back to '88 in the latest of his mix series.

DJ Rectangle - OG Style (1994)

This is one of my favourite Rectangle mixes. Having initially lived with it for years on tape (possibly off Westwood), and then downloads of varying quality, I finally copped a CD copy recently at a reasonable price. Lots of 1994 classics on this, but as with all mixes like this (as opposed to golden era mixes made in the 00s onwards) there's a few lesser known joints like Record Jock by Dana Dane, The Legion's Legion Groove and Flow Wood by Volume 10. Highlights for me are the blend of One Love over Deep Cover (sounds kind of basic now but it was the shit back then), the way Black Superman comes in (simple but effective) and the intros and little scratch/acapella blends between tracks that was Rectangle's signature, along with his intros. Full tracklist is here.

Steady Pace & Master Ace on the Capital Rap Show (1990)

Here's a short but enjoyable clip of Master Ace and his DJ Steady Pace on Westwood's show in October 1990. Steady does his thing on the 1200s for just under 10 minutes while Ace handles the mic. It cuts off before Ace kicks any rhymes unfortunately but it's a good listen nonetheless.