DJ Rectangle - The Lightning Fist (1998)

Sorted through a load of CDs at the weekend and came across a couple of Rectangle mixes I haven't uploaded. Full tracklist is here.

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Tim Westwood at Notting Hill Carnival (1995)

It's a 3 day weekend here in the UK which means there's a bunch of stuff going on including Notting Hill Carnival. Over the years I've posted up a few bits from Westwood's stage as I'd taped the 95 and 96 sets when they were broadcast on Radio 1. In this 40 minute segment he goes in with a wicked dancehall selection - Bounty Killer, Supercat, Lady Saw, Merciless etc - and then switches into some early 90s Hip Hop. It's nice hearing the whistle posse and horn crew giving it up for songs like Time 4 Sum Aksion and Uptown Anthem, and they're properly loving the ragga stuff too.

Some of the '96 tape is available on the Westwood Archives Mixcloud page

Max Glazer on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2003)

Max covers for Tim and gets the full 3 hours to himself to play a ton of club bangers. This was a great time for decent rap and r&b crossing over in to the mainstream. I was playing out regularly back then and it was nice to be able to play songs that didn't completely suck (although some definitely haven't aged well) to your typical Saturday night Top 40 crowd.
That said, if you aren't into G Unit, Dipset, Rocafella, Snoop, Neptunes etc you may want to give this one a miss.

Funkmaster Flex - Hot 97 Street Jams (1994-95)

More Flex. Street Jams tapes usually include a few treats and this is definitely a good one. It starts off with Sluggy Ranks 'Ghetto Youth Bust' which I enjoyed as I'm more familiar with the jungle version. A couple of classic freestyles also get an airing, with the KRS One, MC Serch & Scarface session and the full 'Live At The Garden' with Biggie, 2Pac, Big Daddy Kane and the lads. There's also a short Das EFX freestyle with DJ Scratch on the turntables.

Radio 1 Rap Exchange with Jay Z, The Roots, Lennox Lewis & Master P (1999)

Part 1 with The Roots


Part 2 with Jay Z


Part 3 with Lennox Lewis


Part 4 with Master P

Sparkle Motion presents Special Mixx Vol 1 (2017)

Sparkle Motion once again! Over to Tobes:

"New mix from myself and Yoda inspired by early Mr. Magic and The World Famous Supreme Team radio shows. Feelgood uptempo rap, pop and R&B jams from the early to mid 80s with a few secret treats thrown in along the way... hope you guys dig it..."

DJ Step One - The Remix Mix Volume 3 (2017)

3 years have passed since the first 2 volumes of this series, which really isn't good enough tbh, so I got my shit together and hooked this up yesterday. It's a simple enough concept: all the tracks are remixes. In this case, they're from 95-96 (and all off vinyl if that sort of thing still matters to you). Get on it...

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Tracklist

AZ 'Gimme Yours' (Erick Sermon remix)

Big L 'MVP' (Smooth Summer mix)

Grand Puba  'A Little Of This' (Stud Doogie remix)

Notorious BIG 'Big Poppa' (Jermaine Dupri remix)

Real Live ft Tragedy & Capone 'The Turnaround' (Thug remix)

INI ft Pete Rock 'Fakin Jax' (Frankenstein remix)

Little Indian ft The Foreigner 'One Little Indian' (Buckwild remix)

D&D All Stars '1,2 Pass It' (remix)

Fugees 'Fugee La' (Refugee Camp remix)

Big Noyd ft Prodigy 'Usual Suspect' (Stretch Armstrong remix)

Kool G Rap ft Nas 'Fast Life' (Norfside remix)

Smif N Wessun 'Soundboy Buriell' (remix)

Common Sense 'Resurrection' (Extra P remix)

Jigmastas ft Skam & The Buildin Blox 'Beyond Real' (remix)

Frankie Cutlass ft Doo Wop, Fat Joe & Evil Twinz 'Boriquas On The Set' (Flip Squad remix)

Above The Law '100 Spokes' (Fresh On D's remix)

MC Eiht 'Thuggin It Up' (DJ Spinna remix)

Pharcyde 'Runnin'  (Jay Dee remix)

Volume 1 and Volume 2 are still available to stream and download if you missed them first time round.

Don't Sleep #14 Group Home ft Agallah 'Handle Your BI' (2001)

Like Jeru, Group Home's fortunes dwindled once they stopped working with DJ Premier, Fortunately there's numerous bork producers out there that can hook up a decent Primo imitation beat and once you throw Agallah into the mix, plus some dude called Bleedz, you get a solid indie banger that came out as a 12" on Swedish label Street Level. Don't sleep.

Although the popular train of thought - online at least - seems to be that Livin Proof is Premier's best non-Gang Starr album, I personally prefer The Sun Rises In The East as the beats and the raps are both fully on point. Obviously Jeru proceeded to join the Fun Police full time on his second album which took the shine off things a bit but there's still a few favourites on there. I was never that into Ya Playin Yaself but the One Day beat is lovely, and last year I copped the test press for 50p while out digging and sold it for £70 so it holds a special place in my heart.

Radio 1 Rap Show 26.03.99 with Eminem, Proof & DJ Greenpeace

This is the show with Eminem and Proof rhyming over Hate Me Now and Redman's Pick It Up, with recordings of Em's crank calls in between. This is around the time The Slim Shady LP dropped so he wasn't a full on superstar at this point. I had the full 3 hour show originally and posted the freestyle session back when I first started this blog back in 2009, and again in the piece I did for Nah Right in 2014. I don't have those tapes anymore but this one - just the second half of the show - was in the collection Grime & Lime hooked me up with so thought I'd throw it on here, particularly as it also has DJ Greenpeace in the mix for the last half hour.



A few other shows have surfaced on line in the last week too...

16th September 1995 with DJ MK (courtesy of the man himself)

plus Max B has been busy throwing up some treats recently so make sure you keep an eye on his page.

Radio 1 Rap Show 1997 with DJ Kid Swift

Radio 1 Rap Exchange 1996 with A Tribe Called Quest