Big L & OC on Westwood (1997)

Following on nicely from the last post, here's Big L and OC on the Radio 1 Rap Show from 1997. Only 17 minutes long but you get an interview and freestyle and Tim says 'younahmsayin' a helluva lot.
Thanks to The Expert for sending over the audio for this one. All donations are gratefully received!

Tim posted the freestyle on youtube a while back, which makes a change because in the last year he's been posting things I ripped myself and uploaded years ago, albeit in much better (ie straight from DAT) quality.

Big L, McGruff, I Born & CL Smooth - NY Freestyle (1999)

Picked this 12" up on the cheap the other day. Bit of a strange line up - CL Smooth had all but disappeared by 1999 and I've no idea who I-Born is. Also unusual for a record of this nature to come with a proper cover. I'm not sure if it was a legit freestyle session or copy and paste effort but its worth a listen anyway.

While we're on a freestyle tip, I zipped up 40+ of  'em for those who slept or suffered a hard drive crash. Most of them are my own rips that have appeared on the blog over the last 8 years but there's also a few others that I've found online over the years. Click HERE

DJ Clue - Who Is Clue? (freestyle compilation)

First thing's first, I'm not sure this is the correct title for this mixtape, It was amongst the large batch of legit Clue and Juice tapes donated by Rich (thanks again!) but there's no artwork or labels. It just has 'Who Is Clue?' written on the inlay card. I'm pretty sure it's an unofficial tape - it's 60 minutes long for starters - that's essentially a 'Best Of Clue Freestyles' compilation. It includes the Sauce Money and Jay Z one over 'Benjamins' ("thought you was Chinese the way you duck Sauce"), Prodigy over You Ain't A Killer and McGruff and Big L on the You're A Customer beat. There's also Mase over Who Shot Ya and the classic Nas freestyle over Young Gifted & Black and Nobody Beats The Biz. Some of them I've posted on here in the past but it's always handy to have them all in one place.

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I have some questions...

Did Dizzee Rascal jack the chorus for Dance Wiv Me from DJ Cam & Afu Ra's 'Voodoo Child' ? If so would that be the strangest example of pop sourcing inspiration from underground rap since Jamie Redknapp's missus went in over the Wu's Shame On A Nuh instrumental?

While we're on the subject of jackin for beats, has anyone mentioned the similarity between Blackstreet's 'No Diggity' beat (1996) and Smoothe Da Hustler's 'Broken Language' (1995) ? Specfically the 'dun-da-da-da-dun-dun'.

Why doesn't the normal album version of De La's 'Eye Know' exist on 12"?

Who is the English bloke sampled at the beginning of 'Skills' by Gang Starr ?

How badly was Donald Trump anticipating Method Man's second album and how did he think it compared to Tical? Personally I was a bit disappointed  at the time although listening back to it recently there's a handful of decent tracks.  Also, given how many times Raekwon had reference The Donald in his lyrics, do you think he was a bit put out Trump ended up on Meth's album instead?

Will the trend for rappers with whiny/high pitched voices ever go away?

At what point will people stop buying 7" vinyl versions of rap songs they already own?

Can anyone out there hook me up with copies (digital or otherwise) of the Rocafella Mixtape Volume 2  or Clark Kent's Lafayette 7th Anniversary mix ?

Finally why is it I haven't listened to the new Tribe album (or the De La one for that matter) but have played this 4 times today after having it stuck in my head for the last 24 hours?

Funkmaster Flex - Radio 1 Rap Exchange (1995)

Lil' bit of Flex on the Radio 1 Rap Exchange from April 1995. A tad pause button'd here and there but flows well enough. Includes music by Mobb Deep, Redman, Miilkbone, DaBrat, Naughty By Nature and Keith Murray. If I can improve the quality of the other side of the tape I'll post that up some point.

As always, still after any donations so if you've got any old tapes lying around get in touch.

DJ Step One - California Love

First of the month, so as is now tradition, here's a new mix. Strictly West Coast rap this time out. Mostly 90s with a few early 00s tracks, and not too heavy on the anthems...

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Tracklist

Ice Cube - 24 With An L

2Pac - Definition Of A Thug Nigga

Domino - Long Beach Thang

Conscious Daughters - Somethin To Ride To

Snoop Dogg ft Kurupt & Daz - Doggy Dogg World

E 40 ft B Legit & Mac Shon - Sideways

WC, Tray Dee, Daz & CJ Mac - Gang Related

Kurupt ft Crooked I, Daz & Baby S - I Ain't Shit Without My Homeboyz

Suga Free ft Playa Hamm - If U Stay Ready

The Whoridaz - Talkin Bout Bank

Mista Grimm ft Nate Dogg - Indo Smoke

2Pac & Snoop Dogg - 2 Of America's Most Wanted

Knocturnal ft Xzibit, Warren G & Shade Shiest - Str8 West Coastin (remix)

Dr Dre ft King Tee, Xzibit, Knocturnal, Kokane, & Timebomb - Some LA Niggaz

Cypress Hill ft Kokane - Greed

MC Eiht - Nuthin But The Gangsta (solo version)

E 40 ft Suga T - Sprinkle Me

Warren G ft The Twinz - Recognize

WC ft Mack 10 & Ice Cube - West Up (Soul Focus remix)

Dr Dre ft Snoop Dogg & Daz - Let Me Ride (remix)

Declaime - Caliwayz (remix)

I was definitely more into the West Coast sound in my early days of listening to Hip Hop, and save for the obvious tracks I didn't really get into the Large Pro/DITC/Premier side of things until the mid 90s. This was partly to do with availablity as so many releases weren't given a domestic UK release back then and even if you could afford an import copy you had to find one first. No easy task in deepest Surrey. Anyway, once I was old enough to get into London and buy my music I was mostly buying East Coast stuff. London's record shops and radio was very NY-centric and once Dre and Snoop left Death Row and 2Pac died the West didn't really have anyone high profile enough to keep the momentum going. Basically I probably missed out on a lot of good music. I've trying to make up for lost time recently. Soundtracks seem to be a good source of deep cuts but if anyone can help me make sense of the numerous Dogg Pound releases, 2Pac bootlegs and which of the Spice 1 albums are any good that would be much appreciated. Enjoy the mix.