Nas - Capital Rap Show freestyle (1994)

'Illmatic' era Nas live on Westwood's Capital Rap Show, rapping over the 'Ikes Mood' break which is possibly my favourite sample ever (it makes anyone sound good). He does 'Memory Lane' and some off the dome rhymes. Classic stuff either way.

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Back in the days of 56K dial-up, I remember uploading a yousendit link of a pretty muffled and hissy tape rip of this. Fortunately, a couple of years ago I found a great quality WAV posted at Kam from Mr Bongo's blog (unfortunately he doesnt update it often). Anyway, I've been playing it a fair bit recently so thought Id share it.

Its Overture - Classic Rap Vol 1 (2010)

Spotted this on the TROY forum recently. I dont download too many mixes nowadays as I found I never get round to listening to them. The tracklist on this caught my attention though and having listened to it a few times now I can highly recommend it!

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Tracklist
1. Bobyahed2dis - Redman (+) Save Their Souls - Hamilton Bohannon
2. The Planet - Gang Starr
3. Whole City Behind Us - Kanye West
4. Streets Of New York (Acapella) - Rakim (+) Heart Of The City (Instrumental) - Kanye West (with elements of Escape From New York - Sadat X w. Pete Rock)
5. Trouble Man - Inspectah Deck (prod. Pete Rock)
6. Sucka Nigga (Instrumental) - A Tribe Called Quest
7. For You - Little Brother
8. Royal Flush (Accapella) - Andre 3000 (+) Goldmine (Instrumental) - Dr. Dre
9. Lyin King (Instrumental) - Nine (+) Apocalypse - Wyclef
10. Audiotorium - Mos Def (prod. Madlib)
11. Make Em NV - J Dilla
12. Represent (verse) - Big L (+) Moses Theme - Frankie Bleu (sample used for “24 Hours To Live”)
13. Click (DJ Premier Intro)
14. Thirteen - Organized Konfusion (+) How We Rock (Instrumental) - DJ Premier
15. Poisonous Darts - Ghostface
16. Made You Look (Acapella) - Nas (+) Illy (Instrumental) - El-P
17. When The Last Time (Acapella) - Clipse (+) Get At Me (Instrumental) - Alchemist
18. Return Of The Mac - Prodigy (prod. Alchemist) (+) Beatnuts Forever (Instrumental) - Beatnuts
19. None Of Y’all Better (verse) - Jadakiss (prod. DJ Premier) (with elements of No Mercy (Instrumental) - Alchemist)
20. The Stomp - Ol Dirty Bastard (+) The Edge - David McCallum

DJ MK 'Volume 12 - Worth The Wait' (1997)

Quality mixtape right here from London's DJ MK. This was probably the first place I heard the 'next generation' of UK artists like Fallacy, Skinnyman and Roots Manuva, who would go on to be huge a few years later. Some good US stuff on here aswell from DITC, All City and Tribe.

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Here's a bit of info on the tape from the man himself...
POINTLESS BUT TRUE FACTS ABOUT THIS MIXTAPE !

1 - The comedian Russell Peters used to hook me up with promos and gave me my copy of "Northern Touch"
2 - All the freestyles were recorded in one night at my flat using Braintax's studio. I made Roots Manuva a pizza as he was hungry and had no money at the time. Skinny man smoked the flat down.
3 - The cover was drawn by the world renowned Parisian graffiti artist KAY ONE.
4 - Tony vegas gave me his copy of the only test pressing at the time of "Itchy Town" I gave it it's 1st play on a mix i did on Choice Fm for 279 and also put it on this mixtape. Tony also gave me his spare DMC mixer, which i used to record this mixtape on - MK

Catch MK alongside Harry Love plus guests streaming live from The Funhouse every Monday to Thursday night from 9pm UK time

NEW SOUL FOCUS RELEASE!

Its been a while since we dropped anything on the Soul Focus label but we're back! I actually posted a rough version of this in the early days of this blog but its since been mixed and mastered properly and just generally sounds a lot better...

DJ Step One - 93:95 Hip Hop mix (2010)

Heres a 60 minute mix I just made covering what is probably my favourite era of Hip Hop. I tried not to go too heavy on the 'over-played classics' side of things and pulled out a few bits I hadn't heard for a while. There's a few blends and obscure bootleg remixes chucked in to keep things interesting aswell..

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Tracklist
DJ Steady G 'Everybody Groove'
Tha Alkaholiks 'Relieve Yourself'
Das EFX 'Baknaffek' (remix)
KRS ONE 'Mortal Thought' (DJ Step One blend)
Notorious BIG 'Everyday Struggle'
Nine 'Whutcha Want'
Armand Van Helden 'Stick Em'
Run DMC ft Pete Rock & CL Smooth 'Down With The King'
Flavor Unit MCs 'Roll Wit Tha Flavor'
Slick Rick 'Behind Bars'
Ten Thieves 'Black Reign'
Erick Sermon 'Bom Digi' (Street Jams bootleg remix)
Masta Ace Inc 'The B Side'
Method Man & Redman 'How High' (bootleg remix)
Mad Skillz 'The Nod Factor' (DJ Step One blend)
Kamikaze 'Spread It'
Group Home 'Supastar'
Troubleneck Brothers 'Back To The Hip Hop' (remix)

AZ 'If You Want It'

I picked up this semi official/bootleg AZ 12" last week and seeing as it doesn't appear to have had an official release, I thought I'd hook it up for you.

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DOWNLOAD INSTRUMENTAL

Can't say I'm sold on the chorus but if you like AZ this is definitely worth checking. I'm not too sure on the year it dropped but I'm guessing early 00s. Googling 'AZ' isn't an easy task so if anyone out there has any info on the track let me know.

Funkmaster Flex live @ The Palladium (1995)

Funkmaster Flex with a dope set of 80s classics recorded live at The Palladium in NYC back in 1995.

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The Heatwave present '25 Years Of Dancehall' (2010)

For the reggae heads, courtesy of London's Heatwave crew

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"Tuesday 23rd February 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of the day that Wayne Smith's Under Me Sleng Teng was first played in a dance.

To celebrate the 25th birthday of digital dancehall we looked back over the last quarter century of this brilliant music and had a quick party on our Rinse FM show. It was mad to look at how things have developed over two and a half decades.
The plan was to choose one tune from every year since 1985 while at the same time ensuring that all the key artists from the period were represented. We couldn't quite keep it to only 25 tunes and even then some notable vocalists and very big tunes got left out.
I suppose there's always someone who gets left out at a birthday party. Big up Kiprich, Cecile, TOK, Terry Ganzie, Serani, Spice and all the other artists whose invites got lost in the post"

Eightball ft Canibus, DMX & McGruff 'Pure Uncut Raw' (1998)

Staying on the white label tip, this is something I'd been after ever since I heard it back in 98 on the Mastermind mixtape I posted recently. Its not an easy find on the net and as far as I can tell it never received an official release. It was only earlier this year that I chanced upon the 12" you see above.



8Ball isn't someone who's catalogue I'm familiar with but this appears to be a remix (its listed as 'Part 2' on the Mastermind tape) of a track from one of his solo albums. A nice dark beat featuring Canibus and DMX when they were at their peak and the always reliable Herb McGruff make this one worth checking out.

Shout out to TheBigSleep - a reliable source for anything with a Harlem connection!

'That Mister Cee Freestyle Shit' (1994)

Following on from the DJ Enuff set I posted below, this collection hooked up by Mister Cee is most famous for including the Biggie and 2Pac 'Live At The Garden' freestyle alongside Shyheim, Big Scoob and Big Daddy Kane. Also featured are Keith Murray, ODB, Masta Ace Inc, Brand Nubian, Finsta Bundy and Biz Markie.

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DJ Enuff - Freestyle Collection (1994)

Just ripped this 12" which features freestyle sessions by KRS ONE, Biggie, Cella Dwellas, Masta Ace, Freshco, Prime, Bushwackas and King Just. You're welcome...

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Flava Of The Month