The 8th in the series and this time DJ Skully steps up. Skully is a former DMC Champion, DJ'd for Klashnekoff's Terra Firma crew and hosted the rap show on Kiss FM for a few years in the early 00s. He's recently been sharing some mixes and shows from his archives exclusively on this site and here's his Top 3 + 1...
DJ Greenpeace - Fat Lace Volume 1 (1998)
An important tape for me at a time when hip hop was changing quite drastically and I was favouring that underground sound. It's not really a skills tape, but the selection of exclusive joints on this was incredible and the placement of tracks is just right. Classic Lootpack, Dilated, Medina Green, Scaramanga, Rugged Man and loads more. Heavy rotation for months and months, from a dj/journalist who spread the word on independent artists more than most!
DJ Riz - In The Mix (1997)
Riz was a hero of mine throughout the 90’s and this mix is a great example of why. The choice of underground tracks was exactly to my taste at that point in time, and I rushed out to purchase any vinyl that was available in the record shops. The selection is consistently on point, with a perfect amount of deadly turntable skills. I still get a buzz when Tragedy, Beatnuts or Dwellas drop, DITC gets cut up, or Das EFX gets juggled!
PF Cuttin - 5 Deadly Venomz of Brooklyn (1997)
Even though this is just a small section from a classic mixtape, it still deserves a mention, it’s that good! I owned a record shop around this time and spent most of my days trying to perfect those raw PF skills. From the transform cuts on the intro, to Verbal Hoods, Breez Evahflowin, the Busta juggle, Powerule and everything in between, this short mix has some superb tracks and the sickest, most stylish table techniques.
Honourable mention: DJ Spinbad - Needle To The Groove
Spinbad has to be one of the cleanest djs to ever do it, surely? Some of my mates used to be quite stubborn when listening to genres other than underground hip hop, but anyone who heard Needle To The Groove could not help but fall in love with it. Such a great mix of classics, tight mixing and super clean skills. I used to carry this cassette around with me and play it anywhere that had a tape deck, and still play it to this day. A truly superb mix from a world class dj.
Next up in the Tape Kingz series is DJ Ayres, perhaps best known for co-promoting legendary Brooklyn club night The Rub. Along with the acclaimed History Of Hip Hop mix series he has also DJ'd for no less than Ghostface and Bun B. In these uncertain, unprecedentedtimes you can check him out on Twitch and you can also check out his Top 3 mixtapes right here:
DJ Daze - Hip-Hop From the Good Old Daze Vol. 2DJ Daze is a bit of a mystery to me. I bought this cassette at Fat Beats in the 90s, and I know he did scratches on some High & Mighty songs. The cuts and arrangement on this tape are super clean and sharp, and the tracklist is golden age 80s rap perfection. Daze is very democratic in his selection, mixing some bigger names like Special Ed, Heavy D and NWA with lesser-known singles from Sid & B-Tonn, Markey Fresh & Bizzey Boys. The JVC Force album cut he chose, "Stop-N-Listen," sent me on a mission to find their underappreciated second album. It's a perfect mixtape to me.
Green Lantern - Best of 2000 (Cornerstone)Cornerstone is a marketing agency which is probably best known because the founders also started The Fader magazine, but their monthly mix CDs were legendary. They tapped mixshow DJs from all over the US to record mixes, which went out to tons of DJs, creative people and music journalists. Because they were recording for an audience of their peers, the DJs put a ton of work into the mixtapes, and it's hard to think of one more creative than this Green Lantern set. At the time, monophonic midi ringtones were extremely hot, in some cases outselling the music itself, and Green Lantern recorded them into Pro Tools and arranged them over the songs, which was mind-blowing at the time. But the section that fucks me up to this day is when he mixes Cam'ron "What Means The World To You" -> The Police "Roxanne" -> Outkast "Bombs Over Baghdad" -> Foreigner "Cold As Ice" -> M.O.P. -> "Cold As Ice," cutting the Outkast drums into halftime and back to 150 BPM to bridge the whole thing together. The Evil Genius!
P.F. Cuttin - Da 4-Oh
This tape still gets me so hype! P.F. Cuttin is best known for producing Danger for his group Blahzay Blahzay, and his mixtapes were right up there with Tony Touch and Mister Cee. 'Da 4-O' is my favorite, with huge street anthems by Wu-Tang Clan, Notorious B.I.G., O.C. & Jay-Z alongside more underground 12"s by Brainsick Mob, Goodie Mob, and, well, Mobb Deep. What I love about this mix is the layering, with long blends, instrumentals teased over choruses, and little sound effects scratched in; plus his doubles skills approach the levels of the X-Men or the Beat Junkies without losing the flow of the tape.
Those Kay Slay CDs are doing big numbers so I wasn't going to post anything else til 2015 but I've come across a few things that might be of interest to you and yours as we're in that part of the year where its likely you'll have a bit more time to kill than usual....
Courtesy of Tobes, this is the first PF Cuttin mixtape I've ever posted on here. I'm still after his Volume 26 tape if anyone can help me out with that. Westwood played about 20 minutes of it on air when it dropped and it sounded dope. Anyway, this is pretty nice aswell.
