DMX live in concert (1998)

RIP Earl. This is taken from a Westwood show in October '99 but the tracks are all circa Its Dark and Hell Is Hot. I think this is in New York and it sounds like Big Kap introducing him at the start. The crowd are hyped for this and X run's through a 25 minute set with all his early bangers and brings out The LOX for Money Power Respect and Redman and Method Man for 4,3,2,1. I never saw him live but he sounds like a great performer. If you somehow still haven't seen the video of him at Woodstock '99 go find that.

If you're in the mood for more DMX today, go back and check this tape I posted back in 2016 with a bunch of freestyles from 1996.  

There's also this tape of him guesting on Westwood's show in June 2000

It looks like Black Rob is in a bad way too, let's hope he pulls through. This remix of Mic Geronimo's track featuring Rob and X is dope and somewhat slept on.

 

DMX freestyles tape (1996)

It's easy to forget that in the late 90s DMX was one of the biggest artists on the planet. Admittedly alot of people weren't keen on him and Swizz Beatz's production wasn't for everyone, especially if you were bumping Shawn J Period and Hi Tek at the time. Dude is a more than competent rapper though so if the keyboards and barking put you off back in the day I'd still suggest giving this a try. I don't think this has been online before, and it finds the Darkman in a considerably less amped mode than he was known for. You'd expect a rapper on the come up in '96 to be rhyming off things like Shook Ones and Who Shot Ya but Earl goes with a less predictable selection of instrumentals. Omniscence's 'Touch Yall', LL's 'Hey Lover' and the 'Wu Wear' beat all get laced, plus there's 3 takes over 'If I Ruled The World'. They vary slightly so I left them all in. The tape itself is fully no frills. Literally just someone playing the beat and DMX rapping over it. No multitracking or added adlibs etc...

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I didn't have a cover or tracklist so I've just named the tracks after the instrumentals, apart from a few I couldn't recognise. Big up Grime & Lime for throwing this one my way. Go see him for mixtapes.

Don't Sleep #7 The Usual Suspects (1997)

A double header for this edition of Don't Sleep. One of my favourite tracks of the late 90s that kind of got lost in the shuffle of great posse cuts from that era - John Blaze, Banned From TV, The Firm joints, Reservoir Dogs, Benjamins etc . The notable thing about this particular cut is that it comes in two different versions. Both were officially released but neither seems to be considered the original or the remix. They both use the same beat but the line up of rappers varies. 

Version 1, taken from the How To Be A Player soundtrack features Mic Geronimo alongside DMX, Cormega, Fatal and Ja Rule. This was back when DMX was on the cusp of becoming the biggest rapper on the planet for 2 years and no one was entirely sure how Ja Rule spelt his name (he's listed as "Ja" on this). I believe Cormega was signed to Def Jam at this time which explains his appearance and Fatal was getting a bit of attention off the back of his 2Pac association. The beat is courtesy of one of the lesser know members of The Hitmen - Daven "Prestige" Vanderpool and is pretty simple and minimal with a nice Mandrill sample and a subtle bit of ESG in the background.

Version 2 featured on Mic's 'Vendetta' album and on the b side of the Nothin Move But The Money 12". Cormega and Fatal have been replaced by the more than capable line up of Tragedy, Jadakiss and Styles P. No idea why. Label politics would usually be the answer but I can't see why Def Jam would let DMX on there and not Cormega. They did drop him though so maybe that had something to do with it. Still dope. Don't sleep.

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Previous Don't Sleeps are here

The Unstoppable Def Jam Sampler (1999)

The late 90s saw Def Jam reclaim their spot at the top of the industry following a few years of dominance by Bad Boy and Death Row. The addition to the roster of the Rocafella and Murder Inc imprints alongside DMX and Redman & Method Man meant they pretty much had the East Coast locked down. This promo CD has a few things that weren't available elsewhere and is well worth checking out...

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Tracklist
Def Squad 'Full Cooperation'
DMX & Ja Rule 'I Shot Ya' freestyle
Ja Rule 'Criminology' freestyle
Jayo Felony ft Mack 10, WC, Method Man & DMX 'Whatcha Gonna Do'
LL Cool J 'The Ripper Strikes Back'
Method Man & Redman 'How High' (Live)
Method Man, Redman & DMX '4,3,2,1' (Live)
Onyx 'Freestyle'


NB: I've omitted the snippet tracks - if you really need a 90 second preview of Jay Z's 'Can I Get A...' this probably isn't the blog for you.

Eightball ft Canibus, DMX & McGruff 'Pure Uncut Raw' (1998)

Staying on the white label tip, this is something I'd been after ever since I heard it back in 98 on the Mastermind mixtape I posted recently. Its not an easy find on the net and as far as I can tell it never received an official release. It was only earlier this year that I chanced upon the 12" you see above.



8Ball isn't someone who's catalogue I'm familiar with but this appears to be a remix (its listed as 'Part 2' on the Mastermind tape) of a track from one of his solo albums. A nice dark beat featuring Canibus and DMX when they were at their peak and the always reliable Herb McGruff make this one worth checking out.

Shout out to TheBigSleep - a reliable source for anything with a Harlem connection!

Dirty Harry 'All Star Killers' (1998)

Another strange 12". I can't find it listed on Discogs but this is - I think - a blend put together mixtape king Dirty Harry, although it could well pass for an original track. Despite the big name line up I dont recognise the verses from any other songs and they flow together nicely. It opens with a sample from 'Menace II Society' and features Big Pun, DMX, Method Man, Fat Joe, Cam'ron, Noreaga, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz.

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Canibus, DMX & Noreaga - Hot 97 freestyle

As promised here’s the Canibus, DMX and Noreaga freestyle session from Hot 97. Its from late 97/early 98 when these 3 were about to drop their highly anticipated solo debuts.
This period was something of a changing of the guard in Hip Hop. Biggie had died, Death Row had lost Dre and 2Pac, Jay Z and Nas had just released slightly disappointing albums and Eminem was yet to blow up. The time was right for new artists to come through. Unfortunately Canibus could never really get his beat selection on point (possibly due to hanging out with Wyclef too much), DMX was huge for a while and then lost the plot completely and Noreaga managed some solid material but then decided Reggaeton was the future.
Anyway, this is heavy. Flex is on the tables cutting up a load of classic breaks for them to rhyme over. It went on a bit longer than the 30 minutes here but my tape ran out.

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Shout out to Supar Novar