Shortee Blitz & Big Ted on Kiss FM (23.06.04)

47 minutes of The Chubby Kids throwing down some heat on Kiss FM back in 2004, including new isht from MOP, Jadakiss, Nas, Beatnuts, Lakey The Kid, Yungun and Klashnekoff.

Radio 1 Rap Show 13.05.00 with Doug E Fresh, Rahzel & Chuck D

The first thing to say about this show is there's a ton a of legit bangers. Big Pimpin, Whoa, Bling Bling, Quiet Storm (with P re-doing it dubplate special style for Tim) and about half of Dre's 2001 album. 99-2000 was a good time for rap songs that worked in the club without being corny. There's also a few backstage interviews with some wrestlers at a WWE event in the UK. Couldn't tell you much about that as I'd stopped watching it by then.

Part 2 (below) is a  repeat of a show from July 1999 with Doug E Fresh, Rahzel and Chuck D in the studio...

Noreaga - Colors (2002)

Noreaga putting his 2002 twist on the Ice T classic is as gully as you'd expect. It's a mixtape only track that as far I can tell went under most people's radar unless you had a copy of this DJ Envy tape, and even then you were only getting a snippet. Fortunately it made on to the streets in it's full glory on this white label (alongside an unreleased Mobb Deep song). Strange it never got a bit more attention but there you go. It really sounds like it needs some trademark Kay Slay drops but you can't have everything.

It's a shame that for the most part rappers and DJs were fairly unimaginative when pulling out beats for their freestyles back then. The majority tended to reach for the hot track of the moment or tried and tested classics like Who Shot Ya or Shook Ones pt II. The Colors beat would've been a great pick, as would Juice Crew Dis or  Black Superman. Perhaps the famed East Coast Bias was very much in effect until the mid 00s.

NB: Audiomack have changed their embedding thingy so not only is there only one option for sizes - fucking massive - but it's also messed up the way the older ones appear on the site. You're probably best just clicking onto my audiomack page and DLing off there if you have any problems

Pete Rock & CL Smooth live at The Jazz Cafe (2004)

Pete Rock & CL performing live at London's Jazz Cafe in 2004 for one of the first of what would be many reunion shows. I think this did the rounds online at the time as it was broadcast on 1Xtra (which is the source of this tape rip) and it also appeared on a promo CD, but for those of you who didn't catch it then, here it is...

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I saw them perform in London in 2010 and it was a good show, although maybe I was the only one to notice that there was a few awkward points when they performed the ladies records like Lots Of Lovin, Take You There and Appreciate to an audience that was 95% male. I guess that's the perennial dilemma of the golden era rapper.

Prime Cuts on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2000)

Prime Cuts had a regular slot on the R1RS during the early 00s, holding down the underground/boom bap side of things as Tim shifted more towards the thugged out jiggy side. Some quality tunes on here including Grand Agent, Immobilarie, MOP, Pete Rock and Blak Twang.

DJ Spinna on the Radio 1 Rap Show (1999)

Spinna passes through Westwood's show for an interview and a quick mix. I spoke to him briefly once at a festival in Croatia. He seemed like a good dude, although it was about 2am and I was drunk so I probably seemed like a dick. Don't think I went full rap nerd at him thankfully.

The first 2 hours of the show are here - There's some classic audio of Wu Tang and BDP performing live (not together, obviously) and Funky DL hosts an open mic phone in. The quality isn't great in parts but it's the best I could do. You might need to adjust your graphic equaliser and turn off the Bass Boost.