Sunday 31 December 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show 20.08.99



Last one for 2017. No guests on this show but the last 20 minutes has Prime Cuts dropping some golden era bits for you.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Doo Wop - Xmas Jams '93




Another tape that I posted in the early days of the blog that I've just re-ripped at 320kbps. An awesome Bounce Squad freestyle session on the intro followed by Wop setting things off by shouting over the intro to Snoop's 'Gz And Hustlaz' is an all time mixtape highlight of mine. That was some goosebump business back in the day when I popped the tape in the walkman.

Tracklist
Bounce Squad intro
Snoop Dogg - Gz And Hustlaz
Erick Sermon, Keith Murray & Redman - Swing It Over Here
KRS One - Hip Hop Vs Rap
Jodeci ft Redman - You Got It
Erick Sermon - Stay Real
Shaquille O'Neal & Fu-Schnickens - Boom! Turn Up The Volume
Wu Tang Clan - Da Mystery Of Chessboxing
YZ - The Ghetto's Been Good To Me
Queen Latifah - Black Hand Side
A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
Original Flavour - Can I Get A Hit
Das EFX - Freak It
Father - 69 (remix)
Rakim - Heat It Up (remix)
De La Soul ft Biz Markie - Lovely How I Let My Mind Float
Mary J Blige ft Biggie - Whats The 411 (remix)
Domino - Getto Jam
2Pac - Keep Ya Head Up
Wu Tang Clan - Can It Be All So Simple
DRS - Gangsta Lean
Das EFX - Kaught In Da Ak
Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice
KRS One - Sound Of Da Police (remix)
A Tribe Called Quest - We Can Get Down
Erick Sermon - Payback part 2
Madstyle - Run
Original Flavour - Can I Get Open
Wu Tang Clan - Method Man (remix)
YGz - Ghetto Celeb


Sunday 24 December 2017

Eminem & Dr Dre live in London (2000)



Westwood dropped this in the middle of a Radio Rap 1 Show I was ripping and it was more enjoyable than I expected. Em and Dre at the Brixton Academy 3 weeks before the Marshall Mathers LP came out. I found the set list here, and it's about a 50/50 split of Em songs and stuff off 2001, plus G Thang with Em doing Snoop's parts.
Good to see that they stayed true to the tradition of US artists coming to the UK and performing ridiculously short shows (30 minutes!) while probably charging £20-£30 a ticket too. Thankfully that seemed to die out over the last 15 years as touring became a bigger earner than sales, although someone should tell Redman and Method Man, who really should be doing more than 45-50 minutes given the size of their combined catalogues.

UPDATED 26/12 - full Radio 1 Rap Show this was taken from now available here

Saturday 23 December 2017

Big Ted & Shortee Blitz on Kiss FM 01.12.99



45 minutes of the Chubby Kids on Kiss from December '99. Includes music by The LOX, Dr Dre, Q Tip, Biggie, Karl Hinds, Iceberg Slimm and Hot Ones.

Also just uploaded 45 minutes of a Westwood show that was on the other side of this tape - 3rd December '99 with J Live and Asheru in the studio

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Black Rob - Smooth Criminal (Espacio demo)



The Black Rob rarities continue to surface on a regular basis. Once again this one appeared by way of Grime & Lime uploading this DJ Rampage mixtape. It's listed on the cover as 'Smooth Criminal' but what we appear to have is a demo/reference track for Espacio, which ended up being a single off Life Story. There's no Lil Kim on here but Rob does reference Dep and seems to rap a part possibly intended for him. The verses are different from the final version and in typical demo fashion, there's no chorus. It's another storytelling / heist type joint that BR does so well. 

Sunday 17 December 2017

Kay Slay & The Alchemist - The Mixmasters (2004)


I copped this on Canal Street on a trip to NYC in 2004. Looking back it seems like that year was New York's last stand, before the South and eventually everywhere else took over. This CD is essentially a promo for Alchemist's 'First Infantry' album. As you'd expect, Mobb Deep, D Block and Dipset are heavily featured on here so it's generally a good listen, but the Papoose and Canibus freestyle over the Guerilla Monsoon Rap instrumental might be worth skipping if you're feeling a bit fragile and/or suffer from migranes as it's not for the faint hearted or irritable. Time and a place and all that.




Mixtape CDRs being what they are the quality of this has deteriorated a bit over the years so I ended up culling the last couple of tracks.

On the same trip to the States, I managed to record Kay Slay and Alc alongside Black Rob on Hot 97

Saturday 16 December 2017

Radio 1 Rap Show with Funkmaster Flex, Lil Kim and Busta Rhymes (2000)


The first thing to say about this show is that it starts with Christina Aguilera dissing Eminem over The Real Slim Shady instrumental (a song which was possibly the start of Em making really bad records). If she could rap on beat it might've been bearable but she can't so it just sounds terrible, however I think we can all agree that in 2017 a new Christina song is likely to bang harder than anything Eminem can create at this point. Seeing all these high profile rap DJs, journalists and "influencers" feel the need to have an opinion on the Eminem album and acting like it's a surprise that it's really fucking awful is just baffling to me. 
Anyway, once that's done Westwood hands over to Flex who has Lil Kim in the studio. That's followed by Busta Rhymes in part 2, who's heavily plugging the release of Anarchy. They're really pushing the singles Get Out and Fire to the extent that if you ever needed evidence of payola this wouldn't be the worst place to start, although if I recall these songs never really blew up on the same scale as Busta's other lead singles. His run of club bangers from '96 to 2006 was equalled only by Jay Z, but there was a bit of a dip on this project. Fire ain't bad but didn't really catch on and Get Out sounds a bit too Hard Knock Life-ish. The real gem on the album is 'The Heist' with Ghostface, Raekwon and Roc Marciano over a Large Pro beat. One that the backpackers probably missed when it dropped and are now being charged big bucks for the German promo 12" , probably due to the J Dilla produced A-side.
Weirdly, this show also contains Flex cutting up a bunch of 80s classics, which is the same mix that was previously broadcast a few years prior (like, '96 or something). I know this because I posted it before.






Sunday 10 December 2017

Marley Marl on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2002)



Westwood is nowhere to be found on this tape, so it's a Future Flavas Takeover with Marley hosting alongside Seven Shawn of World Renown. They play some Terror Squad, D Block, Mobb Deep and Nore, plus Marley's own remixes of Rewind and One Mic by Nas. He runs through some Cold Chillin/Juice Crew stuff (although the mixing is a bit sloppy on this part) and some more old skool on part 2.

Thursday 7 December 2017

The TRC Hip Hop Show on Rhythm FM (22.05.94)



Bit of an oddity this one as I can't say I'd ever heard of Rhythm FM. I got the original tape from Grime & Lime.  Having hit up Mr Thing on twitter he mentioned that TRC was the graf crew that First Rate (one of the 3 DJs on this show) was down with, so it could've be a pirate station based around the Kent area. Anyone with any more details please speak up!

If you check this blog regularly you should definitely investigate The Hip Hop Radio Archive. I'll be contributing tapes from the OB4ZL archives and there's always tapes being added. Get involved.

Sunday 3 December 2017

DJ Step One - mid 90s Rap mix (2017)



Had some time free yesterday so pulled out some records from the 94-96 sections and pressed record....


Tracklist
Organized Konfusion - Stress
Big Willie Smith - Wearing Make Up
Nas - The World Is Yours (Q Tip remix)
Kurious - I'm Kurious
Darkman - Wicked (Ghetto Lab mix)
Gang Starr - Mostly Tha Voice
KMD ft MF Grimm - What A Niggy Know (remix)
Pete Rock  & CL Smooth - I Got A Love
Dobie ft Ola - Original Heads
Group Home - Livin Proof
Smif N Wessun - PNC
Masta Ace Inc - What's Going On
Redman & Method Man - How High (remix)
Erick Sermon - Bom Digi (remix instrumental)
Show & AG - Next Level (Show's street version)
Notorious BIG - Who Shot Ya
Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces
Lace Da Booms - Cut That Weak Shit (L's mix)
Mr Live - Supa Dupa
Keith Murray - The Rhyme (white label version)
Brick City Kids - What What
Tragedy ft Havoc & Extra P - Da Funk Mode
Buckshot Le Fonque - Music Evolution (DJ Premier remix)