DJ Step One - Actual Rap Music

10 days off work during lockdown is not the same as 10 days off work during lockdown with a 2 year old to look after. I did find time to pull out some records last night though, and recorded it. 97-98ish type stuff (and a couple of 96 things).

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tracklist
Capone N Noreaga ft Tragedy & Nas – Calm Down
Xzibit ft Mobb Deep – Eyes May Shine (remix)
All City – The Actual
B1 - Verbal Affairs
Mo Money, Genovese & Lord Tariq – The Block Hot
DITC – Day One
Black Rob – I Love You Baby
Alley High ft Monifah – Voo Doo
Bad Meets Evil – Nuttin Ta Do
Large Professor – Mad Scientist
Big Kwam – Verbalize (DJ Spinna remix)
Ghostface Killah – Cobra Clutch
Dilated Peoples – Work The Angles
Jay Z - A Million and One Questions (extended remix)
Cru – Bubblin
Keith Murray – The Rhyme (original version)
Redman – Funkorama (Blackstar blend)
Mic Geronimo ft DMX, Ja Rule, The LOX & Tragedy – The Usual Suspects

Lord Tariq freestyle (1993)

 

This is taken from a Rell Love tape that Westwood played back in summer '93, with Tariq going off over Funky Child and the G Thang remix beats, and it's sufficiently rowdy. LT was definitely killing it on the mixtapes back then and I like to think that he could've dropped a great album in 93/94 with a half decent label behind him, although maybe that raw mixtape energy with familiar beats is part of the appeal. Guess we'll never know but it's a shame he doesn't have more official material from this period.

DJ Skully - Kiss FM 13.01.03

Another dope Kiss FM mix from Skully's archives...

Tracklist

Talib Kweli - Shock Body

Royce 5'9 - My Friend

Gang Starr - Skillz

Infamous MC - Apocalypse

Little Brother  - The Way You Do It

Large Professor - Akinyele

Nas - Get Down

Conspicuous - Spittage

Foreign Beggars - Where Did The Sun Go

Ryans Hope - Sushi

Lewis Parker ft Profound - Sunny Dedications

Edo G - Be Thankful

Natty - Freestyle

Dilated Peoples ft Talib Kweli - Live On Stage (remix)

Jay Z - Bonnie & Clyde (Jay Zak remix)

Tre Hardson ft MC Lyte - Roots, Love & Culture

Truth Enola - No Way No How (remix)

Nightmares On Wax - 70s 80s (The Upbringing mix)

Emanon - For What You Live

Little Brother - Away From Me

DMP - Don't Wanna Give That Up

Conspicuous - Wonderful Life

L.E.O - Blue In The Vein

Joe Budha -Freestyle Frenzy

Cutmaster Swift ft Guru, MC Storm & Jeopardy - Choice FM exclusive (1991)

Thought I'd found another early 90s Gang Starr radio freestyle when this one started up, but it turns out there's a more interesting back story to it. It begins with the **Choice Exclusive** drop and Guru says it's a freestyle, before going into a verse from Hardcore Composer. The tape is dated 1991, so Daily Operation wasn't out at this point. He's then followed by 2 British MCs, which threw me a bit as the cuts in the chorus and the sound quality aren't what you would expect from a radio cypher. Needing some help, I hit up Craig and he thought one of the rappers sounded like Big Ted, which turned out to be correct. I hit Ted up on Instagram and he gave me the details...

It's actually production by Cutmaster Swift featuring MC Storm (Swift's brother) and myself on the extra verses. It originally began as a freestyled acapella from Guru for 279 and he suggested Swift put a beat to it and put Storm and me on there too, and there you have it. Just another one of those hip hop history magic moments.
Cheers for reminding me of it. I have it and the instrumental on a TDK MA metal tape somewhere.

Swift was one of the biggest hip hop DJs in the UK from the early days, and Ted was still known as Jeopardy back then. MC Storm was part of the No Parking MCs (thanks again to Craig for the knowledge) and had a couple of underground releases in the early 90s.

Kind of quirky, and this type of thing would be commonplace 10-15 years later when every mixtape DJ and aspiring producer got their hands on pro-tools but back then it was quite unusual as far as I know. I was going to title it Gang Starr - Hardcore Composer (rare demo version) but thought that might be pushing it a bit. Even clickbait has boundaries.
Big up Eddie as always, I've nearly got through all his tapes now so it's nice that they're still producing results.

DJ DS Goes Back to School (3rd Year: 1988)

DJ DS takes it back to '88 in the latest of his mix series.

DJ Rectangle - OG Style (1994)

This is one of my favourite Rectangle mixes. Having initially lived with it for years on tape (possibly off Westwood), and then downloads of varying quality, I finally copped a CD copy recently at a reasonable price. Lots of 1994 classics on this, but as with all mixes like this (as opposed to golden era mixes made in the 00s onwards) there's a few lesser known joints like Record Jock by Dana Dane, The Legion's Legion Groove and Flow Wood by Volume 10. Highlights for me are the blend of One Love over Deep Cover (sounds kind of basic now but it was the shit back then), the way Black Superman comes in (simple but effective) and the intros and little scratch/acapella blends between tracks that was Rectangle's signature, along with his intros. Full tracklist is here.

Steady Pace & Master Ace on the Capital Rap Show (1990)

Here's a short but enjoyable clip of Master Ace and his DJ Steady Pace on Westwood's show in October 1990. Steady does his thing on the 1200s for just under 10 minutes while Ace handles the mic. It cuts off before Ace kicks any rhymes unfortunately but it's a good listen nonetheless.

DJ Skully on Kiss FM (2002)

I've got a big soft spot for 2002 Hip Hop. There was still some good indie releases around, the UK scene was firing and the major label US stuff was fucking great. Here's Skully in the mix on late night Kiss FM, straight from the archives of the man himself... 

tracklist

TY - We Don’t Care 

Obie Trice - Rap Name 

Scarface - My Block 

Loop Troop - Heads Day Off 

Styles P - Good Times (I Get High) 

Binkis - Bullit 

Wildchild ft Percy P & Medaphor- KnickKnack 

Jaz-O & Immobilaire ft MOP - Pledge Allegiance 

Phi Life Cypher ft Task Force - Want It So Bad 

Roots Manuva - Witness The Swords 

DJ Spinna ft Shadowman - Drive 

Nas - Purple 

Mr Lif - New Man Theme

 Lewis Parker - At Large With A-Cyde 

Tommy Evans - Silent Mobius 

2For5 - Whats Ya Naim 

Karl Hinds - Freestyle 

Mr Lif - Trobleshooting 

50 Cent - Ghetto Qu’ran

Gang Starr - Capital Rap Show freestyle (1990)

Daaaaamn son, Guru busting Take A Rest over the Eat Em Up L Chill beat on Westwood back in 1990? Finding things like this is what keeps me going through these tapes and trying to hunt more down.

DJ Step One - Golden Era Rap

New mix by me! Banged this one out back in August. No real theme to it, just pulled out a bunch of records. Late 80s/early 90s stuff always seems a bit more summery innit? Probably because it's a bit more uptempo and funkier and the whole timbs/blunts/grimey thing hadn't fully taken hold yet*. As much as I like using Serato, I also sit in front of a screen all day at work so going all vinyl helps me to switch off. Couldn't come up with a clever title so kept it simple. Seems to help with the SEOs anyway. Enjoy...

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tracklist

Ultramagnetic MCs - Poppa Large (Pete Rock blend)

LL Cool J - Jingling Baby (remix)

UMCs - Blue Cheese

Kings Of Swing - Nod Ya Head To This

De La Soul - Keepin The Faith

Lakim Shabazz - Pure Righteousness

Brand Nubian - Brand Nubian

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Poison

3rd Bass - Portrait Of The Artist As A Hood (remix)

Run DMC - Beats To The Rhyme

Ice Cube - Jackin For Beats

Cypress Hill - The Phuncky Feel One

Jungle Brothers - Because I Got It Like That

YZ - Thinking Of A Masterplan

Zhigge - Raking In The Dough (Uptown Bounce beats)

Gang Starr - Who's Gonna Take The Weight

EPMD - Crossover

Nice & Smooth - Hip Hop Junkies (Bedford Park mix)

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Mistadobalina

Naughty By Nature - Everything's Gonna Be Alright (City Lick mix)

Redman - Blow Ya Mind (remix)

* "Underground" rappers take note - not everything has to be 3 minutes of gunz n drugz bars over a moody 85 bpm loop with no hook. You're all very boring right now.

DJ DS Goes Back to School (2nd Year: 1987)

Another tasty mix by DJ DS, this time focusing on 1987...

Unfortunately it’s the end of October half-term and that only means one thing…….. DJ DS Goes Back to School!

As I mentioned in my 1986 mix, I was at high school from 1986 – 1991, therefore my 2nd year covered in this mix is 1987. What a year too…. Getting this down to 35 tracks (plus an intro & outro) was so tough. Hopefully your favourites from this year feature in the track list.

If you’ve heard any of my mixes you know what to expect, plenty of doubles, blends and all that good stuff. I’ve also popped some sound bites from movies released during the same year including Good Morning Vietnam, Predator, The Principal, and many more!!

On a way more important note:

If any of you are on Twitter and follow Hip Hop then you may know about my man Del Soulcondor and the ongoing fundraising campaign to support him through is battle with Cancer. Huge props to Tim for setting up the page. Please visit the Go Fund Me page for more information about Del and his horrible illness. In addition to the Go Fund Me, the amazing Greg Blackman has dropped 'Save The Wax', featuring Genesis Elijah & Bohze. The track is produced by DJ Moneyshot and all proceeds kindly being donated to Del’s Go Fund Me too. 

https://gregblackman.bandcamp.com/track/save-the-wax-featuring-genesis-elijah-bohze-produced-by-dj-moneyshot

Please, if you haven’t already, help out the effort to give Del a boost through this difficult time and help #SavetheWax!

Thanks.

DJ DS

 Obviously I have to co-sign the fundraising for Del, it's been a remarkable effort so far and great to see so many people pitching in, especially given how tough its been for a lot of us over the last few months. Del is a good dude and his record collection is crazy so it would be a shame if he had to start selling it off in such awful circumstances.

Tracklist for the mix below

MC Serch - Kiss FM freestyle (1991)

 

Don't call it a comeback! Hardware/software issues seem to be sorted just in time for Lockdown II so I thought I'd kick it off with a treat. MC Serch on Richie Rich's Rap Academy going in for nearly 10 minutes over some UBBs and he sounds particularly dope over Got To Be Real and Dance To The Drummer's Beat. This is from around the time Derelicts Of Dialect dropped so guess 3rd Bass were in the UK doing some promo. Shout to Eddie, who's tapes I'll be getting back into over the next few weeks. Hopefully there's more gems like this.
Thanks to Brett from This Is For The Hustlers for the hints and tips on the new blogger layout.

Prince Paul - The Crazy Forgotten 80s

 

Still not sure how you embed Mixcloud player or anything else on this shitty updated version of Blogger and unless someone can tell me then that's probably it for this site. Anyway, just to let you know I'm still here (and still looking for a decent external soundcard/USB to aux thing). Prince Paul with 80s deep cuts though...

GO HERE

they're the DJ, I'm the blogger...

Still going through a transitional period at the moment but new rips will be on the way at some point in the near future. In the meantime...

LL Cool J live in London (1987)

This a top notch recording out of Eddie's collection. LL Cool J live on the Def Jam Tour at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1987, where he was headlining with Eric B & Rakim and Public Enemy supporting. LL rips this shit and was fully on top the rap world at the time.
Despite some sterling detective work by Random Rap Radio (who also kindly assisted in improving the sound quality), I don't have an exact date but DJ Food has photos and memories of a show on the 1st November '87  and there's video footage from a different night, possibly the day before or after that, taken from BBC 2's Behind The Beat. Note the red Kangol in DJ Food's post and the white Kangol in the video.



On a related note - and as the annual Record Store Day nonsense has just passed - Bigger And Deffer really needs a nice double vinyl reissue with some extra tracks. A Lost Tapes album would be nice too, or at least a decent repress or digital issue of the Double L Cools Down LP. No? Ok, Wu Tang, Doom and Dilla reissues for the rest of our days it is then.

I can't record audio into my laptop at the moment but regular service should resume as soon as I get that sorted or can bring myself to buy a new laptop and reinstall everything.

Nas & Akinyele freestyle (1991)

Don't think this has been online before, but its something I've had for a while and never got around to posting. Nas and Akinyele trading rhymes in what I guess would be 1991 as it's similar to the lunchroom freestyles that leaked a few year ago. This session sounds like it's from a radio show but I have no idea which one.

I tried to embed the Audiomack player but it kept bringing up a Guru freestyle. Fuck knows what's going on there. It's on my Audiomack page either way.

Big Pun & Fat Joe - Twinz (Step One blend)

Having a few tech issues but should be able to resume posting tapes soon. In the meantime here's another blend from the Droppin Gems On Your Melon mix. This time Terror Squad meets Bomb Squad.

Big up to B-Boy Document for the feature on the blog in their most recent issue. You can cop that here. It was my first magazine interview so I shoudl probably have submitted some recent photos for it rather than ones from 2005 but it came out well regardless.

Also

Filthy Rich dropped a tribute mix for Only Built For Cuban Links

Random Rap Radio shared a Capital Rap Show from August '89

Chase March hooked up a tape of Mastermind's Street Jam Show on the Hip Hop Radio Archive. Hopefully the first of many.

oh, and I'm on the 'gram now. Might be more 90s Jungle/D&B orientated but will throw in a few hip hop bits here and there.

DJ DS - Independence Day Vol 3

Some nice late 90s/Early 00s underground action from DJ DS.

Not posted much recently, partly because this new Blogger interface is a bit shit and I haven't been able to figure out embedding Mixcloud or Audiomack players. Reverted back to the original math but that's only got a few weeks left on this planet. Hopefully they'll sort out any bugs and make it easier to use by then.

AZ, Raekwon & Ghostface - New York Get Down (Step One mix)

AZ, Rae & Ghost on the Nas - Get Down beat. Thought I would post up this blend off the last mix I did (cop here if you somehow haven't already), partly because it's good but also I've never really uploaded anything to YouTube and wanted to try it out. Might get a few more things on there if it does some numbers (reaches double figures)

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LL Cool J - Mr Controversy (unreleased, 90-91)

Been listening to some old LL recently, specifically Mama Said Knock You Out and Bigger And Deffer (which really needs the 2LP reissue treatment, along with a proper release of the Double L Cools Down bootleg) so I was pleased to come across this unreleased track from 1991 which presumably was part of the Mama Said... sessions with Marley Marl but didn't make the cut. That's a shame because it's pretty good. Can't say I remember hearing it back in the day but this is taken from a Max & Dave Kiss FM Rap Show so guess there's a chance I have heard it before. It's on YouTube already but the quality is predictably weak so only right we get it up on here.

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Big Daddy Kane & Scoob Lover freestyle (1989)

Taken from a  Mr Magic show but played by Westwood on the Capital Rap Show, here's Kane and hype man/dancer Scoob Lover (who eventually became Big Scoob) going back and forth for 9 minutes.

Ghostface & Cappadonna - Choice FM freestyle (1996)

Quick Ghostface and Cappadonna freestyle going in over the Hell On Earth instrumental on 279's Friday Night Flavas back in October '96.
This would've been around the time Ironman dropped as they also hit Westwood's show during their visit to London.

DJ Step One - Droppin Gems On Your Melon

A mix with no theme, covering no specific era, style, sub genre or region (although it's 95% east coast). Just a load of good shit with some dope blends and a couple of snippets from interviews thrown in for added flavour.

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Kay Slay - intro

Dr Octogan - Bear Witness

Ghostface Killah - One

Prodigy - Keep It Thoro

Method Man, Redman, DMX & Master P - 4,3,2,1 (Triumph blend)

Crooklyn Clan - NYC Anthem

Notorious BIG - Can't You See (verse)

Notorious BIG - Warning

Capone N Noreaga ft Tragedy - T.O.N.Y (Phone Tap blend)

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Ill Street Blues

Smif N Wessun - Buck Town (Wu blend)

AZ, Raekwon & Ghostface - New York Get Down (Step One mix)

Cold Crush Brothers - The Bronx

Camp Lo - Park Joint

Black Moon - How Many MCs (Ed OG blend)

Gang Starr ft Rage - You Know My Steez (remix)

Beatnuts ft Gab Gotcha - Bless The Mic

EPMD - Its Goin Down

Armand Van Helden -Word Up Doc

Redman - Can't Wait (remix)

Stretch Armstrong / Russell Simmons - PE # 1 interlude

Big Noyd ft Prodigy - Louder

AZ - The Format

Big Pun & Fat Joe - Twinz (Black Steel blend)

Nas, Cormega & Kamakaze - On The Real

Combat Jack & Stetsasonic - My Melody interlude

Eric B & Rakim - My Melody

Melody - Cool Chillin

DJ Skully on Kiss FM (2002)

Before Skully started doing his weekly show on Kiss he did a few guest spots on the station. This one from August 2002 is just before he represented for the UK at the DMC finals and came second. Here's 45 minutes of dope head nod hip hop for you...

tracklist

Jaz O - Love Is Gone

Masta Ace - Survival

Camp Lo - Glow

Morcheeba ft Slick Rick - Women Lose Weight (Alchemist remix)

Jazzy Jeff ft Baby Blak & Pauly Yamz - For Da Love Of Da Game

Da Bush Babees - We Run Tings (Its Like Dat)

Non Phixion - Rock Stars

Scorzayzee - Ammunition

Cocoa Brovaz - Tools Of The Trade

Obscure Disorder - The Grill

Tommy Evans ft Yungun - Silent Mobius

Braintax ft Jehst - Riveria Hustle

Madlib - Wanna Test (remix)

PUTS - Empty Bottle Of Water

DJ Yoda ft PUTS - Quid Control

13 - Clear The Spot

Black Opz - The Warning

Solitaire - Easy To Slip

Klashnekoff - Jankrowville

Da Grass Roots - Black Dove

K Otix - Take My Life

Flavor Flav on the Capital Rap Show (1992)

The world continues to be a mess and the amount of idiots piping up with an opinion just drains the soul at this point so take your mind off it for 5 minutes and check Flav doing More News At 11 on Westwood's show.

Furious 5 & Rodney Cee freestyle (1995)

This is a good one. Melle Mell and the lads with Rodney Cee of Double Trouble having a big old pass the mic sesh on the Radio 1 Rap Show. Melle sounds dope over Supastar.

London Posse - Capital Rap Show freestyles (1992)

Not one but two London Posse freestyles from Westwood's show in '92. The first one above you may have heard before as it has appeared online in the past. It's the one with Rodders and Bionic going off over the remixes of Its A Boy and Shut Em Down and Check The Rhime. Classic material as you would expect.
The second one hasn't been shared before as far as I know and sees the duo doing their thing over Scenario and Uptown Anthem for 8 minutes,although that includes the odd false start Bionic decides to censor himself.



Thanks again to Eddie for the tapes of these ones.

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previously: London Posse - Live To London (May '91)

Chuck Chillout on Kiss FM (1988)

Chuck Chillout on the wheels for the Kiss FM Mastermix Dance Party back in (what I think is) March '88. Yvonne Mobley hosts while Chuck cuts up Rob Base, Kane and Public Enemy.

download at the hip hop radio archive

Rap Summary

 photo from @Represent_NYC_

Recent goodies courtesy of DJ people

Red Alert on Kiss FM, Oct '87 & Whizkid live in Peckham in '84, both courtesy of DJ MK who has been sharing some holy grail business on his Mixcloud recently

Jaguar Skills has dropped the Hip Hop Time Bombs for 1984 and 2011 (2003 comes out on Monday)

Nice mini-mix from the dons Its Overture

TDK presents Where Brooklyn At ?!?! The Biggie Fat Tape

Stetsasonic performing on WNYU, 1986 from DJ Andy Smith's collection

Wojavelli follows his Best Of Eightball mix with a Best Of C-Murder and Best Of BG

Run DMC on Mike Allen's Capital FM show, May '87 at Random Rap Radio

That should keep you going.

"I don't feel no MC like I feel MC D..."

So said Rodney P. MC D is a vet of the UK rap scene and as Silent Eclipse he scored a major label deal with 4th & Broadway back in the mid 90s which resulted in the Psychological Enslavement album that dropped in 95. Like a lot of rappers caught up in the red tape of such deals, he went quiet for a bit before re-emerging and making appearances on various projects in the early 00s.

Although the Silent Eclipse material was quite political and "conscious" (like an English Dead Prez or Paris), he was probably amongst the first artists to have that element of what eventually became known as "road rap" and is definitely highly regarded amongst those that know but his contribution is somewhat overlooked these days.

What we have here are 2 radio sessions from July 1993. The first is something I played loads back in the day but only had in poor quality until now. Taken from Max & Dave's show and over the beat for Make Room by Tha Alkaholiks, D kicks a tale of police harassment that would later appear on the Silent Eclipse album as the track Policing As A Tool. Dope stuff.



The second joint is something I hadn't heard before. More lyrics that would later appear on the Silent Eclipse LP, this time on the title track. This one was for DJ 279.

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Big up Eddie for the box of tapes he sent over last week. Not full shows unfortunately but looks like there is going to be some gems on them.

Also: MC D on the Radio 1 Rap Show, 26th November 1999

DJ Filthy Rich - Mobb Deep: The Infamous Tribute Vol 1

GO HERE

Don't Sleep #18 MC Chill - MC Story (1986)

It's been ages since the last Don't Sleep but as I just copped this 12" I thought I'd post it up. This is something I first heard back in '88 when I was first getting into this hip hop thing. Like a lot of rap fans in the UK, the Streetsounds albums played a key part in forming my tastes, pulling together a bunch of fresh new US jams for those of us that weren't spending a fortune on imports in Groove Records every weekend. Being only 10/11 years old me and my mate Mark were very much about just finding whatever rap music we could get our hands on and at the age of 10 the bargain bins and sale items were a good place to start. He scored a copy of Electro 12 which I promptly copied (on high speed dubbing too I'd imagine) and was introduced to some top tunes by Grandmaster Flash, Fat Boys, 2 Live Crew and Whodini. The only track I din't like was Square Dance Rap by Sir Mix A Lot. The album also includes the super dope 'Ultimate III Live' (which warrants a post of its own) and the subject of this post - MC Story by MC Chill.

The single was released on Sal Abbatiello's Fever label, which was also responsible for records by Most Wanted, Spoonie G, Sweet G and Cover Girls. It churned out a ton of Latin freestyle records and that whole 80s keyboard thing is in full effect on MC Story (along with a bizarre and very out of place guitar solo at the end). The chorus is kind of cheesy but you do get a class verse from the one and only Melle Mell which makes things well worth the price of admission.

Obviously '86 was a changing of the guard for the music once Rakim and BDP came along so this was very much the end of an era for this kind of rap. It's not a track you would necessarily be into if you didn't hear it at the time, but very much a nostalgia piece for me personally so thought I'd shed a bit of light on it.

It's mad that the Streetsounds series didn't make it to CD, let alone digital or streaming outlets. You can listen to Electro 12 on Soundcloud though.

Blood Money - Breezes Volumes 1 & 2

Blood Money is Tobes and DJ Dub and their latest project for your quarantined dome piece is two hours of smoothed out hip hop instrumentals from '95-'99...

Download Volume 1

Download Volume 2

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Time Bomb: 1995

In come the 1995 edition of the HHTB. 2 hours long because how do you fit everything in otherwise?

DJ Skully - Gully Breaks (2006)

Another OB4ZL exclusive courtesy of the venerable DJ Skully...

"I made this in 2006 and was supposed to be released in 2007 but life kinda got in the way that year. It started out as a breaks/hip hop mix for the car when I was on the road djing, but my mates loved it and convinced me to get some pressed. Its kinda influenced by what Doom, Madlib, Dilla, 9th Wonder, Kanye, Alchemist, Pete, Premier etc were producing around that time, as well as the classics.
I sent out about 50 CD’s for promo, and the rest ended up in my loft without release. There is no track list as it has 120+ tracks, but probably better off for this type of mix. Anyway, hope you like it.. took me fookin’ ages to make (and before Serato haha)"

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Time Bomb: 2001

Jaguar Skills keeps on keepin on and drops this weeks Time Bomb, going in on 2001.

Radio 1 Rap Show 27.04.01

Some 2001 Westwood for you, on this day 19 years ago...

playlist

Cadillac Tah - Pov City Anthem

Coo Coo Cal - In My Projects

Yukmouth - Oh Boy

Missy Elliot ft Redman & Method Man - Dogs In Heat

Black Rob - That's Crazy

NORE - Grimey

Busta Rhymes - What It Is

Ja Rule - I Cry

2Pac - Letter To My Unborn

Missy Elliot ft Nelly Furtado - Get Ur Freak On (remix)

Big Pun, Notorious BIG, 2Pac, Big L - Peter Piper blend

Sticky Fingaz - Come On

Cam'ron ft Juelz Santana - unknown

Big Pun & Cuban Link - Toe To Toe (remix)

AZ - Problems

El Gant - El Gant

Musaliny N Maze ft Capone N Noreaga - Thugmania (Rock Wit Us)

Adam F ft Capone N Noreaga - Listen Here

Memphis Bleek - Do My...

Memphis Bleek - My Mind Right

G Dep, Black Rob & P Diddy - Lets Get It

Jadakiss - Put Your Hand Up

Project Pat - Chickenhead

Jay Z, Memphis Bleek & Missy Elliot - Is That Yo Chick

Rah Digga - Break Fool

DJ Eclipse on the XFM All CIty Show (2004)

DJ Eclipse in the mix on Dan Greenpeace's All City Show on XFM back in 2004. Some nice underground joints on here that I had forgotten about.or hadn't heard before.

Kanye West - School Spirit

J Live, Oddisee & Kenn Starr - Quest To Find Him

Mr Complex ft El Fudge - Scrape Your Back Out

Madvillain - All Caps

Alchemist ft Lloyd Banks - Bangers

Redman - The Saga Continues

Cormega ft MOP - Let It Go

Rusty Chains ft Matlock - Get Drunk part 2

Murs - 3:16

Kanye West ft Ludacris - Breathe In Breathe Out

OC - The Professional

Organic Thoughts ft Large Professor - World Renowned

Wildchild - Wonder Years (remix)

Bumpy Knuckles ft Nas - Turn Up The Mic

Spectac ft Phonte - Reasons

unknown - unknown

Pete Rock ft Grap Luva - Collector's Item

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Time Bomb: 1991

Jaguar Skills keeps the mixes coming, comprehensively rounding up the best of a different year in hip hop every week. It's 1991's turn this time and of course it's flames.

He recently appeared on the Hip Hop Saved My Life podcast, discussing how he makes these mixes and dropping some great stories about his time as a hip hop journalist in the 90s.

Operation Lockdown

The rap internet stays busy. Here's a few bits from this past week...

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Timebomb 1983


Mr Magic's Rap Attack, 1987 (courtesy of Andy Smith)


Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR, 11th April '96 (+ Grap Luva interview here, courtesy of Random Rap Radio


Tony Touch - Hip Hop #25, 1993 (courtesy of Dailey Maddawg 76)

Nuthin But A 5G Thang

DJs be busy right now. Quick round-up for you and yours...

Filthy Rich has dropped 2 mixes recently - a tribute for Big L's debut, and a Pete Rock x Q Tip mix

DJ Yoda - A Written DOOM (the Jay Electronica album, minus Jay Z, with MF Doom beats)

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Timebomb 2010

Tobes & DJ Dub - Heatwavez (80s freestyle & electro)

DJ MK - Foundation Vol 1 and Vol 2 (breaks, electro and early hip hop)

Mighty Mi on Hot 97 (1997)

"Mighty Mi is going from records made this afternoon to records made when Lord Sear was thin..."

Mighty Mi takes over the 1210s on Stretch & Bobbito's Hot 97 show back in August 97. Some of this was on Soundcloud years ago but this version is longer. Shout out to Milo for hooking this up.

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Time Bomb: 2000

Jaguar Skills drops the second installment of the Hip Hop Timebomb, this time focusing on the best joints from 2000.

GO HERE

DJ On-Point - Point Of No Return (2004)

Canal Street purchase from Sept 2004. Headlining tracks were the new Nas (You Know My Style) and Fab's Breathe which was ringing off everywhere at the time, alongside Lean Back, Why and New York. The usual NYC mixtape suspects are present and correct here - D Block, Mobb Deep, Dipset, G Unit - alongside some up and comers.

Jaguar Skills - Hip Hop Time Bomb: 1990

This is big. Jaguar Skills drops the first mix of his Hip Hop Time Bomb Series. Just over an hour dedicated to a different year each week., with the best tracks mixed the F up ninja style. Get on it now, there's some treats to come.

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Capital Rap Show - LA Gear Rap Exchange 29.07.89

One of few positives of this current shit show is that DJs are having to focus their attention on whatever they can do their homes. In MK's case he's gone into his stash of tapes and commenced to ripping some gems. First up is the first LA Gear Rap Exchange where Tim linked with Marley Marl. You already know what to do...

DJ Rectangle - Wax Assassin (1998)

1998 was a good year right? Nice amount of new acts coming through that would go on to be mainstays of the genre, a solid number of good albums, underground/indie, mainstream and everything in between on both coasts was in pretty good health, So a DJ Rectangle mix from 1998 is going to be good innit?

Check the 'Cogs for the TL. I had to cut off the last 2 tracks as the CD was skipping but I think the rest of it is fine

Biggie - Wake Up Show freestyle (1997)

March 9th. A date Canibus imprinted on listeners' brains as the day Biggie died and also my 11th Blogiversary (?). We still here. This freestyle has done the rounds over the years but I've been playing it over the last few months since I picked up one of those not-entirely-official compilation albums that was somehow on sale in HMV in the mid 00s.

The interesting thing about this Wake Up Show appearance, aside from being the week before he was shot dead, is that he speaks about how 2Pac's death affected him ("maybe more than anybody else") but then what lyrics does he go to for the freestyle?

Long Kiss Goodnight! I mean..."slugs missed ya, I ain't mad at ya", "maniacs put my names in raps", "look what you made me do, brains blew, my team in the marine blue 6 coupe"

Oh for social media to have been around when Fat Chris (@KONY or @FrankWhite maybe? )went on LA radio and threw all sorts of subliminals at 2Pac 6 months after he died. Your favourite rapper would never. Unless your favourite rapper is 50 Cent. He probably would.

Nice beat selection for this too, and unusually for such a great moment in 90s rap radio, there's video footage too.

Deejay Random - ASBO (2004)

Had this one for a while (think it was the batch Mr Pepaseed gave me years ago) but it got lost in the shuffle and I've only just ripped it. The OG Deejay Random cutting up a bunch of breakbeats, new and old hip hop and funky stuff as he is known to do.

Funkmaster Flex - Friday Night Street Jams (16.04.93)

Early Flex on Hot 97. Grabbed this off Soundcloud ages ago. 128 kbps so its kind of tinny, but still a vibe regardless.
Not much else to post right now so thought I'd put this up.

Westwood live from Notting Hill Carnival '96 with Heltah Skeltah, Lost Boyz, Blak Twang, Foxy Brown & Montell Jordan

Following on from the tape of Carnival '95 I posted a few weeks ago, here's the recording of the 1996 broadcast, which I think takes in Sunday and Monday's performances. If I recall correctly, it was broadcast on Monday evening, and the swears are edited so it's not live and direct from the Westway. Westwood and Goldfinger hold down the selection with live performances by Heltah Skeltah, Lost Boyz, Blak Twang, Foxy Brown (who had no solo records at this point but was killing every feature) and Montell Jordan.
I've posted parts of this before but it's always better to have the whole thing uninterrupted. Highlights include Foxy having to back track when the crowd starts booing after her hypeman disses 2Pac and Jeru, a ruck kicking off during Montell's set ("they too busy fightin over there") and the whistle & horn posse greeting each banger with the appropriate response. 4th Chamber goes off. A GZA b-side. Your favourite Soundcloud rapper could never.

Wojavelli - The Best Of Eightball

I get the impression that Eightball is one of those artists revered by those that know about Southern hip hop but perhaps those not as familiar with that pocket of the genre aren't really up on him at all*. He has a huge catalogue of music that stretches back to 1993, as part of the duo Eightball & MJG so there's plenty to investigate if you enjoy this, which has been put together by Wojavelli.

GO HERE

Special mention to the fantastic artwork. This mix might've escaped my attention if that hadn't caught my eye this morning.



Seems like as time goes on and people have exhausted their initial sub-genres of choice they're increasingly branching out to try artists and regions they'd slept on or hadn't been exposed to in the past, which can only be a good thing. It only gets annoying when they suddenly disown their past and try to pretend they'd always been huge Three 6 Mafia fans and definitely didn't spend the late 90s exclusively bumping Soundbombing and Lyricist Lounge and making fun of No Limit album covers.

*I'm definitely lacking in Eightball knowledge although he has featured on this site once before.

Always up for posting your mixes. Keep in mind the nature of the site so at the moment I'd say anything after 2004-05 is generally a no-go (there's plenty of other places your Drake vs Griselda mixtape can be seen). Good quality and preferably some type of artwork is nice. Don't get mad if I don't post it.

DJ Filthy Rich - Supreme Clientele: 20th Anniversary mix

Filthy Richard done did it again. I hit him up about doing this towards the end of last year when I realised the 20th anniversary of Ghost's sophomore album was coming up, and he had already set the wheels in motion. This dropped last week so here's the link if you didn't check it out already.

Radio 1 Rap Show 26.10.96 with Ghostface, Cappadonna & Jeru The Damaja

More Westwood action. The previous night had been a Live To The UK jam broadcast from Adrenalin Village in Chelsea where Ghost & Cappa performed. I posted the tape of that years ago (and it's also been added to the Hip Hop Radio Archive and the Mixcloud page). Off the back of that someone sent me the freestyle where Jeru is also in the house. Now, over 10 years later, I finally have 90 minutes of the show for you. Bobby J is in the mix for the first part, before then you get the freestyle and live callers in the second half.

Shout to DJ Kryptonn for the rip.

Westwood live from Notting Hill Carnival '95 with Jeru The Damaja & Mad Lion

I've posted parts of this tape over the years but here's the full 2 hour show (now in 320), with Jeru and Mad Lion performing and Westwood and his crew running through a ton of rap, ragga, miami bass and R&B. Whistles and horns are in full effect and the reactions to certain tunes really let you know what was big on the street at the time, as opposed to an extensive twitter debate with William from Worcestershire who's adamant everyone was listening to Outkast and Jay Z back then and GZA and Smoothe Da Hustler was just some backpack shit.

Also, I know it's (finally fucking) February but you can pretend it's August.

I've got the Carnival '96 tape so I'll post that up at some point. Anyone holding 1997? I'm not sure if they did a live broadcast for that one.

Capital Rap Show 19.11.93 with Onyx

"we just found out about somethin we don't like out here, knowumsayin, called the BNP or summ'n like that, and we ain't havin it..."

Onyx pass through Westwood's show on a Friday night in 1993 having just performed on The Word (here on youtube at 3:30). They mention they had a 2nd album with a planned release date for early 94 and it wasn't called All We Got Iz Us so who knows what became of that and whether it was scrapped, pushed back or they just changed the title.

Main Source - What You Need

Nas - Ain't Hard To Tell (original version)

Das EFX - Kaught In Da Ak

Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice

Domino - Getto Jam

Lords Of The Underground - Here Come The Lords

Onyx - interview

Ice Cube - Ghetto Bird

Wu Tang Clan - 7th Chamber

Wu Tang Clan - 7th Chamber pt 2

Onyx - interview

Slick Rick - Behind Bars

Shaquille O'Neal - Shoot Pass Slam

live callers

Onyx - freestyle

The Principle ft Silent Eclipse - Reality

Forte - Run Don't Stop

Ice Cube ft K Dee - Make It Ruff, Make It Smooth

Das EFX - Krazy Wit Da Books

UMCs - Time To Set It Straight

Download at the Hip Hop Radio Archive

As usual with these shows from the early 90s, there's always at least 1 track I don't recognise. This time it was Run Don't Stop by Forte, which is an early Funkmaster Flex production. Shout out to Rob Pursey for the knowledge on that one.

Another one out of the RRR collection - limited edition Live On Air mixtape available now! 

A big ass Wake Up Show freestyle cipher (1997)

Freestyles were a regular part of rap radio by 1997 but this is like a Mr Bongo regular's wet dream. It's a 37 minute freestyle session on Sway & Tech's Wake Up Show from late 1997 and the line up is immense. Kool G Rap, Craig G, Juice, Shorty Wreck, Eminem, Kwest Tha Madd Lad, Thirstin Howl, Wordsworth & Mos Def and Talib Kweli all step up and do their thing. A lot of those names were new on the scene at the time so there's definitely an element of hungry MCs with something to prove when their time on the mic comes around.
As far as I can tell, this is a simultaneous broadcast with Marley Marl who's on the radio in NYC with G Rap and the lads. At one point you'll hear Eminem (of all people) get told to hold off rhyming so they can switch over for some rhymes from the east coast.

The full tape (with the 50 mins of the show before the freestyle) is available on  the Hip Hop Radio Archive

There's a snippet of this on YouTube but I don't think the whole thing has been online before



Thanks to Random Rap Radio for supplying the tape of this (and a few others soon to come). He's about to drop a very dope limited edition cassette mix of super rare live 80s Hip Hop with the latest issue of Dig Mag, so get that.

Black Rob - Gun Hell (2001)

New tapes are on the way soon but it's been a while since I posted some rare or unreleased Black Rob (a year next week to be precise) so here's a song from an obscure 12" that seems to be comprised of tracks taken from an early 00s DJ Khaled mixtape. You might be aware that before becoming an internationally successful meme clown and playlist creator, Khaled was a credible club DJ and had some half decent production credits on songs that didn't feature 47 different rappers, autotune or Justin Bieber. His remix of Heads High by Mr Vegas is definitely worth picking up if you see it. Anyway, back to Black Rob and he's got a healthy amount of unreleased heat in his catalogue. Gun Hell sounds like it might be a demo track - like the Espacio demo the chorus is a bit sketchy - but he comes with his trademark thugged out wordplay and its a worthy addition to the collection if you're fan of BR (and you should be by now or I've been wasting my time).

Not sure if Khaled did the beat on this. I'm guessing no. This might be his first appearance on OB4ZL but let's not get carried away.

Rodney P & Riddla freestyle (1999)

Rodney P and Riddla get on the mic on Westwood's show and buss a quick freestyle. Full tape below.