Saturday, January 28, 2006

Review: Nitro - Welcome To The Jungle

Artist: Nitro
Album: Welcome To The Jungle
Year: 2001
Label: I.P.M. Records








Rating: 3 and a Half Daytons out of 5

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Graff Dedications

Here are a few R.I.P. dedications to hip hop artists over the last ten years. This is just a very few of many done.

^^Airbrush mural on canvas^^

Monday, January 23, 2006

In-A-Minute Records

One of my all time favourite labels ever would have to be Jason Blaine's Oakland based In-A-Minute Records. The label started back in the very early '90's after the success of early Too $hort material and M.C. Pooh's '89 hit "Fuckin' Wit Dank". Jason Blaine started In-A-Minute due to all the unsigned talent in the bay area at the time, infact Too $hort has even got a double cd on the label titled "Greatest Hits - The Player Years - 1983 - 1988".

The label is probably most known for artists such as Dre Dog (Andre Nickatina), Totally Insane, I.M.P. and probably the most successful of the list, Hunters Point group R.B.L. Posse who Blaine approached and offered $10,000 on the spot to sign to his new label. R.B.L. who were happy just slangin' tapes around Frisco grabbed the chance and recorded the bay classic "A Lesson To Be Learned" in '92. They also released "Ruthless By Law" in '94 and "An Eye For An Eye" in '97 which was also on Big Beat before releasing material on other labels. R.B.L. left the label after realizing that Blaine was ripping them off.

The most surprising signing that the label made was was East Coast legend Just Ice who dropped "Kill The Rhythm (Like A Homicide)" in '95. East Palo Alto's Totally Insane released "Direct From The Backstreet" in '92, followed by "Goin' Insane" in '93 and then "Backstreet Life" in '95.

The successful Frisco rapper Andre Nickatina also got his start on the label under the name of Dre Dog with the "New Jim Jones" in '93 and "I Hate You With A Passion" in '95. The late Cougnut was a part of the I.M.P. crew that released the sample filled masterpiece "Back In The Days" in '93 and the not quite as good "Ill Mannered Playas" in '96.

One of In-A-Minutes first releases was The Real Untouchables (T.R.U.) "Understanding The Criminal Mind" ('92) that was also on No Limit Records and features E-A Ski and Master P who's debut album "Mama's Bad Boy" was also on the label, as were Pooh Man's '94 "Ain't No Love" and "State Vs Poohman" in '97.

There are a few not quite as known releases from the label such as Dogg Pound Posse's "Dogg E Style" that came out in '93, Mac Mill's 1995 E.P. " One Mill-Yon", Oakland group Criminal Behavior released "Portrait Of A Killa" and the West Coast Rhyme Sayrz dropped "The Land Of Pimps And Hoes" in '95 .

The R.B.L. "Eye For An Eye" album was the last I heard from the label and my best guess is that it's not around any more, I may be wrong but even if it is, it's definately not the legendary "In-A-Minute" I remember from the '90's. I'm sure that I have missed out a few groups here but I'm sure they would all be quality. If you look at some of the artists that released stuff on In-A-Minute Records in the early years such as Dre Dog and R.B.L. I'm sure that as much as they would resent Blaine and the label, they would agree that without them their careers may not have been as successful.

Jason Blaine

The Real Untouchables - Fuck The System
Dre Dog ft Cougnut - Muthafucka
I.M.P. - The Bay Way
RBL Posse - Blue Bird
West Coast Rhyme Sayrz - Straight Bumpin'
Just Ice - Bring 'Em Back Alive

Friday, January 20, 2006

R.I.P. Ted Demme

Rest In Peace:

Ted Demme

Real Name: Edward Demme
Hailing From: New York
Born: October 26 1963
Died: January 13 2002
Cause of Death: Accidental cocaine induced thrombotic heart attack.

Ted Demme was the director and producer for the hip hop show "Yo! MTV Raps" that started in '88. He also directed the hip hop who done it "Who's The Man?" in '93, he collapsed after playing in a celebrity basketball game for the NBA Entertainment League and died a few hours later at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica.

Review: X Raided - The Unforgiven Vol. 1

Album: The Unforgiven Vol. 1
Year: 1999
Label: Black Market Records

Most people into bay rap would know the story of Sac rapper X Raided and his 31 year sentence he received for supposedly killing a rival gang members mother. His debut album "Psycho Active" was released on Black Market Records in 1992 and the cover had a picture of him holding a gun to his head which prosecutors claimed was the murder weapon in a '91 home invasion. In '91 X Raided and a few other gang members home-invaded the home of Patricia Harris and one of them shot her to death. Raided claims he was present but did not pull the trigger. He was locked up for the crime at the time of his debut release and has been ever since. Although X Raided admitted to being at the scene of the crime and denies pulling the trigger he has never snitched on the actual man who did.

^ His debut album "Psycho Active"^

In '95 he released "X-Orcist" also on Black Market recorded from prison over the phone which was a pretty crazy album, just let down by it's poor vocal quality which can be forgiven under the circumstances. This caused a bit of trouble over the fact he was able to release an album from prison.

In '95 he dropped my personal favourite X Raided album "Unforgiven Vol. 1". This caused mega amounts of controversy on the high standard of sound quality that lead to Californian prison officials investigating Black Market Records on how the album was recorded without the static and echos.

As for the album itself, it's pretty much incredible that all the vocals were done from prison. Every single track from start to finish is worthy of making the album, there are no fill in tracks rushed to make up the numbers. There are 16 tracks all together including the "Madman Intro" and the "Outro", track 2 which is actually the first track on the album is one of my fav's with a dope beat produced by Shareil, then it gets into the title track which is all about him getting locked up and all the rumours about him inside including getting shanked and dropped from the third tier. "Who Is Y'all Niggas" is pretty much dissin' those dissin' him and is quality, the beat to "Spitten Venom" which was also produced by Shareil is so perfect for X Raided's raps (or vice versa) that it makes me wonder whether the beat or the lyrics were made first?

"Macaframa" disses the bitches that leave their men after they get locked up amongst other things, "Cemetary Fulla G's" is kind of him having a dream about getting killed and gives R.I.P.'s to those already gone. "Dead On Arrival" is another favourite of mine focused on death, infact he makes so many comments about him dying on this album it makes you wonder what was on his mind while writing these tracks.

The next two tracks are simular in the way they're both about his upbringing as a youngsta, first "Land Of The Lost" and then "Mama's Pride And Joy" about his birth to his sentence with the hook:

"1974, the president was Nixon, they cut the umbilical cord and did the circumcision, I was 8 pounds 8 ounces a bouncin baby boy, Americas nightmare, my mamas pride and joy"

The last couple of tracks are also dope. After this was released The Source reviewed it and after crediting it, they gave it only 2 and 1/2 mics, X Raided got pissed off that they said it was all just gangsta rhymes and wrote a letter to them dissin' them for being hypocritical about other albums they review that talk about gangsta shit and even a DMX track where he mentions raping girls over 15 and giving it more mics than his album which X Raided personally thought deserved about 3 or 3 and 1/2 mics. He also said that after Master P put in thousands of dollars of advertising in the Source magazine, no "No Limit" album gets less than 3 mics and most get about 4.

After this release he dropped "Vengeance Is Mine" that caused even more drama that lead to courts holding thousands of dollars from record sales and sacking a prison guard who apparently brought in a recording device for X Raided to use to record his album with higher quality which was probably the reason why the Unforgiven album was so crystal clear.

X Raided has dropped a few other albums since including "X-Ology" (best of), "Deadly Game", "The X-Filez Vol 1", "The X-Filez Vol 2", "And He Shall Appear" and "The Initiation" I think there might be another one or two however some of these are just using his name to sell albums with X Raided on only a few tracks.

I'm not sure exactly what the case is with X Raided today, the last I heard was from a letter he wrote himself stating that they have done some investigating of their own and found out that the man that did the murder he's doing time for confessed to the crime and is in prison for the crime.

This is a message from X-Raided To: (2005)

First of all, thank you for sending all those messages to me! That landed at a good time...I was real frustrated that day... then I received the messages and actually felt better when I read them! Thanx to everyone who took the time to post something! Not enough artists express appreciation to the people, but my situation has taught me a lot about loyalty and betrayal. I've been in the penitentiary for nine years but my name is still hot... and that's becuz I've got a loyal core-group of people who support me no matter what! So I keep it all in perspective... y'all the best. Good lookin' out to everyone. I recently became aware that a man has pleaded GUILTY to the very murder I'm in prison for. No lie. We looked into it and it's true: a dude pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, the murder weapon, and burglary... specifically, someone has just admitted to killing the person that I am in prison for supposedly killing. I've said this for years but no one seemed to believe me; I didn NOT kill anyone that night! I am NOT guilty of this crime! So now we have ONE person who was killed by ONE bullet from ONE gun. A dude pleaded guilty to all of that, but I'm still in prison?! Wow! So my team is presently working to secure the necessary documents and have the lawyer present the situation to the judge. Pray for me, man! I swear, this is dead serious! Happening RIGHT NOW! I should be home before christmas... we are smashin' on it! Much love! X-Raided Loc


X-Raided - Misanthropy

Rating: 4 and 1/2 Daytons out of 5

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Battle On Wax: South Bronx VS Compton

Over a decade and a half ago in hip hop's golden era back in the late '80's, early '90's the city of Compton put it's name on the map through N.W.A. and to a lesser extent C.M.W. and then DJ Quik. The track and album "Straight Outta Compton" was heard the world over and the track "Fuck The Police" made controversial headlines everywhere and even prompted the F.B.I. to send a letter to Priority Records letter showing their disgust in a track that in their opinion creates the public to have a negative view of the police (the F.B.I. also tried to ban the "Niggaz4Life" album and succeeded for a short time in the U.K.)

Around this time it seems like every rapper in the CPT had beef with each other, Cube left Ruthless which led to N.W.A. dissing him and then Cube dissing N.W.A., Tweedy Bird Loc and the U.W.C. got a record deal and dissed the fuck out of their former homie Eazy E and the rest of his crew, Crip MC Eiht and Blood DJ Quik sent disses back and forth, Dre left N.W.A. hooked up with former L.A. Ram player and N.W.A. body guard Suge Knight and started "Death Row". Dre hooked up with Snoop Rock (later to be known as Snoopy Doggy Dogg), who he met through his brother-in-law Warren G, he later released "The Chronic" and dissed Eazy, before Eazy released an entire E.P. dedicated to diss the ex-cross dresser, ex-gangsta, dope producer.

Right in the middle of all that shit Ultra Magnetic M.C. Tim "The Bronx Nigga" Dog must have got pissed off with all the attention that the west coast city was getting and how Compton was getting the rep through the Country that it's a hard city. In 1991 Tim Dog released the album "Penicillin On Wax" on Ruff House with the skit "DJ Quik Beatdown", dissing the obvious.... along with "Michel'le Conversation", "Step To Me" and the more to the point "Fuck Compton" where he pretty much took on an entire city single handedly.

To no ones surprise the tracks started flowing in dissing the South Bronx and Tim Dog, Dre and Snoop had an average attempt on "Fuck Wit Dre Day" along with the intro and and skit. I don't think Eazy even had an attempt, Eiht and Quik's aren't really worth mentioning but the only one that was on the same level as Tim Dog's tracks was by someone not even in the "Fuck Compton" disses, Kelly Park Crip and Under World Connection member Tweedy Bird Loc, who took huge offense to the disses on his city. He not only gives it to Tim Dog but to the whole South Bronx including KRS One and D Nice.

The funniest part about all these disses is that Tim Dog put a spanner in the works of all the other disses going on in Compton at the time, Tweedy was dissing Eazy and Dre, Eazy was dissing Dre and Snoop, Dre and Snoop were dissing Eazy along with Tim Dog and Luke, Luke dissed Dre as well as Snoop and Compton, that made Tweedy diss Luke and Tim Dog ........ are you confused yet? After all the Tim Dog shit blew over most of the other beefs kept going a little longer, although Tim Dog did get pissed off with Snoop Doggy Dogg getting involved and for ganking the "DOG" from his name that led to the 12" only release "Bitch With A Perm" track in '93 putting the Long Beach chart topper in his place. It was mainly because of Tim Dog dissing Compton and vice-versa that the so called east coast,west coast shit all started. It was also a good way for everyone to get paid, including Ohio rapper Sweetenlo who released an album tittled "Compton Killa" in '94 on Wrap Records where he took the opportunity to diss a heap of Compton rappers including the Kelly Park Crip Tweedy Bird Loc (stupid or ballsy, I don't know).

Tim Dog - Fuck Compton
Tweedy Bird Loc - Fuck South Bronx
Tim Dog - Bitch With A Perm

R.I.P. Mausberg

Rest In Peace:

Real Name: Johnny Burns
Hailing From: Compton, CA
Born: Unknown
Died: July 4 2000
Cause of Death: Shot outside a friends house in Compton not long after completing his only album.

Non Fiction (2000)

DJ Quik ft Mausberg, AMG - Speak On It

Friday, January 13, 2006

Review: Menacide - The Drugz LP

Album: The Drugz LP
Year: 2004
Label: Shofiya/ So Sick

Menacide hails from West Michigan and was once a part of the "Low Mafia", a group from Lansing, Michigan who came up selling tapes to anyone in their local area who showed interest in their music. Menacide then went on to start his career as a solo rapper in 1995. After having to come to terms with personal tragedy he released the autobiographical release, the "In My World" EP, which came out in the year 2000. He later returned to drop the album "Knuckle Up" which was well received and featured artists such as Mars of 'Mad Insanity Records' and The Ca$hroll Criminalz.

This album, "The Drugz LP", has 19 tracks in total although a fair few of them are snippets rather than actual tracks. The first track on the album (after the Intro) is "Braggin Rightz", as soon as you hear this track you get a fair idea of what you are in for - hard hitting rhymes delivered with passion by a rapper with alot to say. The track has a few quality quotables, one of my personal favourites is: "Bitch please - how can ya undo me? - You actors weak like DMX in Segal movies". The next track "Walk With Me" features Majik Duce aka the Irish Killa. This is another quality track. The track is rapped over a fitting Bob E Nite beat and is about lifes struggles. Both Menacide and Majik Duce are impressive, Duce raps with near effortless flow and has one of the most original voices in hip hop.

"The Real" featuring female rapper Realistikk and Menacides emotional "Blood and Water" are both sick tracks and they are followed by another sick, although very short, track "Underground King" which samples various rappers including Eazy E, Eminem and Chuck D. Menacide's menacing delivery on this track is nothing short of crazy, even though this track goes for a meer 1:29 it is still one of the albums hilights for me. "I'm A Problem" featuring the Heavy Hittaz has a darker sound than the majority of the album. I love the beat (produced by Midwest's Finest), especially how the sound of a gun loading up was incorporated into the beat.

Next up is the relationship track "Dude Like Me", it isn't bad but it's definitely not up there with my favourites. After a snippet where White Boy Ric just talks a bit of shit, the title track then starts to play. "Drugz" featuring Proof from D12 and McNastee is one of the albums stand-out tracks. Although I'm not a fan of D12, Proof is pretty good on this track, as are both Menacide and McNastee. Following this track comes another of the albums hilights, "Bootleggaz" which again features the Heavy Hittaz. As you can probably gather by the title of the track, it is a diss to people who bootleg their music - "I don't give a shit if you 15 or 20, leave your ass bloody for fuckin' with my money". This was meant to be followed by "Die Slow" featuring Mr Sche and DJ Shy One (according to the CD cover) but instead the tempo of the album goes down a notch with "Hate Ballad" which is pretty depressing track.

"The Basement" featuring Rhode Island's Q Strange is next up, I first heard this track on when it was put up as a free download and although it's not Menacide or Q's best work I still listen to it on a regular basis. Both of their styles compliment each others well, I would definitely be keen to hear them on the same track again in the future! I love the hook for "The Basement", to be honest most of the tracks on this album have sick hooks.

Welcome To The Basement, down here we put ya head in vices/
Slice kids, we dice shit, wit' sick devices/
Light shit, you might get spiked wit' an icepick/ Fuck the nice shit, this is fight shit/

"Can't Compare" is next, another short yet mad track, Menacide disses people who think they're hardcore after watching gangster movies, this is another track with a fair ammount of quality quotables, ie: "Damn you a thug - you bust dudes with heaters, you so damn tough I caught a slug through the speakers". The album is closed out with another down-tempo track "Journey" and then 3 remixes, one for "Drugz" and the other 2 are for tracks that aren't on this album - all are well worth a listen.

All in all this is a solid album, my only complaint is the shortness of quite a few of the tracks, but the over-all quality of the album makes it easy to forgive. Menacide is another quality artist coming out of Michigan and this album is well worth buying (they should still have copies for sale over at 'Red Rum Media'). Being a white rapper coming out of Michigan some people compare Menacide to Eminem, to me there is no competition - give me a Menacide album any day!

Menacide - Drugz (Album Sampler)

Rating: 4 Daytons out of 5

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Cool C Faces Execution


The CEB Case
Rapper Cool C's Execution Warrant Signed by PA Governor Ed Rendell

Cool C - Pump It Up Now

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Hip Hop DVD's In Review

Title: Public Enemy - MKLVFCKWR Revolverlution Tour 2003
Label: SPV / ABC Entertainment

To me this is one of my favourite DVD's ever because it was all shot in Australia. Although this was the Melbourne show, I went to the Adelaide show and it was almost the same so I can almost re-live the incredible performance they put on. The sound quality for the show is to perfection and it shows a heap of promo footage like radio spots and instore signings. It also has Flav driving a boat under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It comes on 2 discs and goes for ever, it also has a bonus "best of" CD and is well worth the money.

Title: Breakin' & Enterin'
Label: Palace Films
Year: 1983

This never actually got released onto DVD but I love it so much I had to get it transfered onto DVD format and get Emvee to edit my VHS cover. It's a 1983 documentary about when breakin' first hit L.A. It's got some mad footage from L.A. club "Radio Tron" and the "Radio Crew" which has Ice T and The Egyptian Lover as members. There is some crazy must see footage on here, including Ice T breakin' along with performing a few old tracks like "Body Rock". A must for all old school heads.

Title: Yukmouth Presents - United Ghettos Of America
Label: Smoke-A-Lot / Rap-A-Lot
Year: 2003

This is one DVD I wish I had seen before handing over money for it. It is filled with footage of bay rappers trying to hog the camera, rapping average freestyles and showing off their piece n' chains and grills. There is actually a little bit of quality on this dvd when B Legit is getting interviewed because it's obvious he's not trying to impress anybody. Bottom line, if I want to watch people smoking weed and doing wack freestyles I'd go to my friends place.

K-Rino Live From Finland
Label: Mo Bang 4 Ya Buck
Year: 2005

This is what I want from a hip hop DVD, quality from start to finish. When I first got it I was a little surprised on why the colours on Finlands flag were the wrong way around? I was also I bit let down on the quality of both the paper used and the printless disc, but the quality of the footage is second to none. It shows K-Rino walking around Finland, talking to his fans, selling his cd's, recording a verse as well as live footage, the audio quality is sick. This DVD proves that the South Park Coalition are world wide and don't have to just rely on fans in Texas to sell albums. Hopefully he'll be able to make a "Live In Australia" DVD one day........

Title: DJ Surpreme Presents - Turntable Trixters (Hijack 1986-1992)
Year: 2005

As soon as I heard that there was a DVD out by Englands best hip hop group, Hijack, I ordered a copy off the net straight away. There a few dvd's that are set out as good as this one, each chapter is the next stage of their career starting back when Surpreme started the "Turntable Trixters" to 2005 (13 years since their break-up). It has some live footage from a show in Scotland from'92 and has interviews with Ice T, Donald D, Afrika Islam, Def Wish Cast, Q Bert, a heap of U.K. artists and fans. It goes for over 2 and a half hours, If you're not a Hijack fan I can imagine it getting boring pretty quickly, but other wise you're hanging on every word.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Pack FM - Rap Preview 2006

Pack FM - Rap Preview 2006

Here's a track by Pack FM of QN5 Music giving his preview on the year ahead in the hip hop world. It's pretty funny, giving out disses to Mike Jones, Ashton Kutcher, Eminem, The Game and a heap of other rappers in the spotlight. Definitely worth a listen.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Review: Awesome Dre & The Hardcore Committee - You Can't Hold Me Back

Artist: Awesome Dre & The Hardcore Committee
Album: You Can't Hold Me Back
Year: 1989
Label: Bentley Records / Priority

The way alotta people act you'd think that Eminem is a Detroit hip hop pioneer, but waaay back when Marshall was hanging his pink Alf T-Shirt on a piece of string between two trailors, artists like Kaos & Mystro, Bombshell, DMW and my personal favourite Awesome Dre were putting Detroit on the underground hip hop map.

"You Can't Hold Me Back" is Awesome Dre's first album and is probably a little bit better than the follow up "A.D.'s Revenge" although that is still a def album. Instead of giving a play by play of this album i'll put it like this, There are no wack tracks on it and almost every track is filled with sick scratches and hip hop samples that aren't the usual thrashed samples that you hear on alot of early '90's gangsta albums. Some of his rhymes are sick but others are a little simple but for some reason he makes them sound crazy. All the beats have an original sound to them that I can't really describe, but they are all crazy.

Anyone from Detroit thats into hip hop would have heard the name "Awesome Dre" and his side kick "Tony Tone" (backbone of stone) and i'm sure alot of the rappers that have come out of D-Town in the past decade or so would have been inspired by A.D., Esham mentioned his name on the "Repentance" album and Violent J from Insane Clown Posse (formerly Inner City Posse) mentioned how Dre was an inspiration to him on a documentary and also in an interview he did with Murder Dog Magazine where he said:

"I look at Awesome Dre. He was one of the greatest of all time in my book. Fuck that, he was the shit. I brought him back and put him in front of the juggalos and they booed him off stage, straight up. I had him open up the show. That was in 1995. I don’t know what the deal was, man."

The only flaws to this album are a few of the tracks could be a little longer and that Priority cut a couple of tracks on the vinyl (no fault of Dre). A couple of things that i'm curious about is what was behind the track "I Don't Like You" which is a Kool Moe Dee diss track and where Tony Tone is today, I heard a rumour that he was killed in a Detroit jail by the 1%ers, like I said it's just a rumour and could be a load of shit? Last of all, The album has one of the best covers i've seen and is probalbly one of the few albums thats harder to get on cd than wax. The hard part of this review is choosing the MP3's as every time I listen to the album my favourite track changes.

Awesome Dre & The Hardcore Committee - Killer On Wax
Awesome Dre & The Hardcore Committee - On The Rampage

Rating: 4 and 1/2 Daytons out of 5