You kids have it easy in this day in age….

When I was coming up Hip Hop was all about secrecy….During the Pre- Internet era you had to be connected if you wanted the jewels to get passed down to you..All the way from the kicks to the illest new mixtapes, you had to be on your motherfuckin toes in order to be in the know..

Now you can click a button and find out the sample source of a particular record within seconds…..CRAZY…

Things have definitely changed, but I’m not complaining at all especially when you have cats like Large Pro, Lord Finesse, K-Def, and J-Zone going in….

” Ultramagnetic MCs – “When I Burn” (Next Plateau, 1988)
Producer: Ced Gee

The funny shit about this, I didn’t actually own Critical Beatdown ‘til 1993. I had Funk Your Head Up and The Four Horsemen first and then went back to get this. I always loved the “Cookies” break beat and I’d started making beats already, so I’d always try to loop it. But there was that loud car horn at the end of the loop that kind of threw it off. I heard this and lost my mind. Ced Gee chopped it at the snare and got the effectiveness of it as a drum loop and cut out the horn. Plus he piled all that other crazy shit on top. I still want to flip “Cookies” so bad, but I’ve never come up with anything that can top this. From the first three Ultra albums to Tim Dog’s Penicillin on Wax, Ultra’s shit has never been duplicated “.

READ THE REST HERE….

A couple weeks ago I posted up Calhoun’s “Dust Your Tape Deck” mix part one, now I’m going to splash ya’ll with part two to keep your Hip Hop morale up…

You know the drill : under the radar rockets, B-Sides, and remixes…

TRACKLIST-

Odd Squad : I Can’t See
The Future Sound : Bop Step
Raw G : Busykickinrhymes2therythem
Sham and The Professor : Coney Island
Tony D : Tony Don’t Play That
Mcm : I Got Soul (Trunk A Funk Mix)
Run Dmc : Get Open
Cypress Hill : Lick A Shot (Baka Boyz Remix)
Jaz B Lat’n : Set It Off
Strange Behavior : 2 Peas In A Bucket
Asphalt Poetry : Lyrical Decay
Undaworld : Fuck Work
Yaggfu Front : Slappin Suckas Silly
Lord Finesse : You Know What I’m About
Onyx : Shiftee Remix
Doomsday Project : Step Up Front
Freestyle Professors : Your Pocket’s Been Picked
Mc Essential & Awol : Bring It Up
Da Henchmen : What U Gonna Do ?
Black Madness : Wild Brooklyn Bandits
Greyson and Jasun : Livin Like A Troopa Remix
Legion Of Dume : Son Of Sam
The Hoodz : Pull Out Your Gatz Remix
Okey Doke : Who’s Da One Rappin
Apple and Orange : I Kick Da Flava
Born Discipline : Brothers Wanna Clown Around
2 To The Heat : Dance Wit The Devil
Funkmaster Flex & Nine Double M : Talk About The Green
Rahmel : Straight Out Of Brooklyn
Renaissance : Flyz In Da Attic
Finsta : Payday Is Bliss
Mc Cash : At The Drop Of A Dime
Double X Possee : Girls Be Frontin
No Concept : Help Us We’re Dope
The Runaways Slave : Booty Mission
Little Shawn : Keep Ya Distance
Ll Cool J : I Get Busy
Percee P : Lung Collapsing Lyrics
Rough House Survivers : Straight From The Soul
Red Hot Lover Tone : Gigalow Thing
Phase N’ Rhythm : Swollen Pockets
The Chief Groovy Lou : Ain’t Got Nuttin
Lord Ishawn and The Bronx Outlaws : Microphone Check
Crazy Sam and Da Verbal Assassins : 5 Boros
Del Tha Funky Homosapien : Ahonetwo, Ahonetwo Remix
The Hansoul Project : For The Niggas
Da Bush Babees : Swing It (Jazzyness)
Umc’s : Staten Island Comes First
Kaotic Style : Let A Nigga Flow
Money Boss Players : Nighty Night
Dougie Dee : Do You Wanna Ride Remix
Black Poets : The Hand That Robs The Cradle
Shadasious : Phunck What You Heard Remix
Fatal : Pass The Kronz
Kool G Rap : Hey Mister
Crusaders Of Real Hip-Hop : La Cosa Nostra
Gello Tha Hip-Hop Scholar : Unified Hip-Hop Nation

DOWNLOAD…

This past weekend I caught this nice piece of wax by the consistently funky KENNY DOPE.

“Rama Jama – Trooper Super Version” featuring the Mad Racket is the type of joint you play when your in full party preservation mode and you want to kick things into high gear…

Give it a listen, but prepare yourself for heavy turbulence.HAHA.

1993 Big Beat Records..

DOWNLOAD…

God damn this compilation of scorchers (Brand New Wayo-Funk, Fast Times & Nigerian Boogie Badness) will put you in the right frame of mind….

Soul power, freak mode beats, and that special extra dash of African funk on deck…DONT SLEEP..

“Comb & Razor Sound launches its exploration of the colourful world of popular music from Nigeria, starting with the post-disco era of the late 1970s and early 80s.The years between 1979 and 1983 were Nigeria’s Second Republic, when democracy finally returned after 23 years of uninterrupted military dictatorship. They were also the crest of Nigeria’s oil boom, when surging crude prices made the country a land of plenty, prosperity and profligacy. The influx of petrodollars meant an expansion in industry, and the music industry in particular. Record companies upgraded their technology and cranked out a staggering level of output to an audience hungry for music to celebrate the country’s prospective rise as global power of the future”.

DOWNLOAD…

Tracklisting :

A1. Mixed Grill – A Brand New Wayo
A2. Kris Okotie – Show Me Your Backside
A3. Murphy Williams – Get On Up
A4. Joe Moks – Boys and Girls
B1. Amas – Slow Down
B2. Oby Onyioha – I Want To Feel Your Love
B3. Dizzy K. Falola – Excuse Me Baby
B4. Chris Mba – Funky Situation
C1. Bayo Damazio – Listen to the Music
C2. Martha Ulaeto – Music Alone
C3. Segun Robert – Big Race
C4. Amel Addmore – Jane
D1. Honey Machine – Pleasure
D2. The Stormmers – Love or Money
D3. Emma Baloka – Let’s Love Each Other

Do yourself a favor and watch Mr. Ali Shaheed Muhammad drop extensive jewelry with the Red Bull Music Academy……Over an hour of Hip Hop history, nostalgia, production techniques, and all types of other goodies that will hold your attention…

TUNE IN.

Lecture: Ali Shaheed Muhammad (Los Angeles 2012) from Red Bull Music Academy on Vimeo.

These days I get so many E-Mails that it’s impossible to sift through all that shit without wasting a tremendous amount of time….While scanning through the inbox, I noticed that the good people over at “Slice Of Spice” are taking pre-orders for a Lord Finesse 7 inch (Hands In The Air, Mouth Shut/ Isn’t he Something Remix)..

Awww shit, I’m going to cop doubles ASAP on general principle……If your thinking along the same lines do the right thing and check in…

PEEP…

Here is a sure shot heat rock from Gensu Dean’s “Lo-Fi Fingaz” project on Mellow Music Group, “Yen” featuring Roc Marciano…..Turn the motherfuckin volume up a couple notches..

POW.

Earlier this week while doing some heavy digging I ran into “Goretex” formerly of Non Phixion…

There are a lot of rumors surrounding the break up of the group, but I’m not a motherfuckin gossip reporter so I didn’t bother asking him any cornball questions…We just chopped it up about Hip Hop, records, and how phony cats are these days…

I’m definitely familiar with the material that the trio put out during NYC’s independent boom in the late 90’s – but I wasn’t really up to speed on Goretex’s recent releases, so I did a little investigating to see what the Brooklynite has been up to…In 2004 he dropped “The Art Of Dying”, and last year he came with the “Coffin Syrup” project that contained various versus he recorded throughout the years…

Conspiracy theory murder rap is the steez….

“Dedication” featuring Timbo King & Killa Sha (R.I.P.).

“Mother Natures Son”

Last year 86’D put out a rugged beat tape “Skyler – The Reanimator” that had a few joints on it….

My top pick out of the bunch is the awkwardly titled “Peace Based Gods”…..It features a bouncy reggae sample that gets shattered into a million pieces under cracking drum hits..

PEEP..

86’D – Piece Based Gawds by beat_tape.coop

It’s been awhile since I rocked a “Attack Of the Killer Demos” joint for the HIP HOP BATTLEFIELD posse, so I will do the right thing and slap you cats with a doozy…

Strong Island’s “Keefy Keef” also known as Keith Murray comes correct on this demo from the early 90’s…I’m quite sure many of you have never heard this before, so quit stalling and give it a listen….BLAM,BLAM…

DOWNLOAD…

To help celebrate the launch of their new website, “SAS” are offering up a free download of Phil The Agony’s “Steady Aromatic” mixtape….It features collabs with King-T, Self Scientific, Defari, Tash, and many others..

You know the motherfucking drill.

DOWNLOAD…

Former Beat Miner “Baby Paul” recently sat down with those dudes over at Nod Factor for a in-depth interview that will hold your attention….I highly suggest that you take time out to soak up the gems famo…

“Did anyone show you how to use the equipment?

The SP-12 was self taught. The first MPC I invested in was the MPC 2000. I never had a MPC drum machine until the 2000 came out. I never had the MPC 60 or 62. I had the SP-12 Turbo that had the Commodore 64 external hard drive. Then I had the SP-1200 and then a bunch of AKAI racks. That was my starting gear.

Then when the MPC 2000 came out I called Evil Dee for some advice and pointers and then I taught myself (the rest) after he gave me some pointers. A lot of the gear was self taught. I feel blessed that I took initiative, experimented and I learned how to filter my samples myself.

As far as programming the drum machines I did watch Large Pro do a few tricks here and there on the 1200 and then I experimented and taught myself how to sequence, truncate my sounds, as far as my drums. As far as synching the Akai rack sampler with the Sp 12, the drum machine was the master and the Akai was the part I’d synch all my loop samples in and sequence everything in the 1200.

Eventually I started getting into integrating live sounds and midi synching keyboards, keyboard racks to now we’re in the software game”.

READ THE REST HERE….

Grief Pedigree is finally out folks….

After a lengthy wait, and numerous videos now we can finally hear the project in it’s entirety….I’m on a straight up mission to get a copy today by any means necessary….If you guys can track it down before me- slide a brother the goods..

Anyway here is his latest visuals…

“Vessel”

“Feast or famine, in the streets with a canon / peace to my man’s deceased, I’m still standing “…….SAY WORD.

Back when I first started this blog over four years ago (damn, time is literally flying), I rocked a short lived segment entitled, “Actual Facts”…I would hit ya’ll off with 10 lesser known Hip Hop facts just to keep things interesting over here..Since I’m in a giving mood today I decided to resurrect “AF” in the 2012 season to help raise your Hip Hop morale levels..So without further delay here it is folks.

Grab your popcorn, ice cold beverages, and stop eating all those god damn sweets for a minute (it is Valentines Day right ?), and prepare for some BATTLEFIELD jewelry..

1. Contrary to popular belief, Q-Bert is not the inventor of the hamster scratch technique….That title would go to DJ Quest from the “Bulletproof Scratch Hamsters”, hence the name…

2. I love Fab Five Freddy just like everyone else (He helped the movie Wild Style get created, and he also directed the BDP “My Philosophy” video for christ sake, not to mention hosting MTV raps, etc), but it is a fact that he recently took credit for some artwork that wasn’t 100 % his own…READ MORE HERE IF YOU THINK I’M BULLSHITTING…

3..Please let it be known that Money Boss Player “Minnesota” is responsible for the production on Big Pun’s classic song, “I’m Not A Player”…R.I.P.

4.That cornball from the Black Eyed Peas “Will. I. Am.”, was once signed by the late great Eazy E to Ruthless Records as part of the group Atban Klan..They were a hybrid of the Pharcyde & Arrested Development…IMAGINE THAT..

5.. According to King Sun on the Preserving The Culture podcast, he helped ghostwrite bars for Fat Joe on his debut album “Represent”…..For some reason I wasn’t surprised by that one in the least…HA.

6.. DRASAR is a acronym for DANGEROUS-RHYMES-ASSASSINATE-SUCKERS-AT-RANDOM…….Yeah I make beats, spin, and rap circles around most of these lames I hear trying to clutch mics…..Get your motherfuckin bars up !!!

7..Funky Four Plus One were the first Hip Hop act on National T.V. (Saturday Night Live)…

8..M.C. Hammers album “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em” from 1990 is ten times platinum……That goes to show you that it wasn’t all good during Hip Hop’s golden age people….

9..9th Prince (Killarmy) and the RZA are biological brothers….

10..That’s it for now troopers…Be on the lookout for more heat on the BATTLEFIELD this week duke, and that’s a motherfuckin fact jack.

Never heard of this cat Synopsis from Kooley High before….I decided to give his newest release a listen last night and there were some beats on it that caught my attention…

The Buzzfactory Volume 1 runs ten songs deep which is the perfect length for this project in my opinion….Don’t get it twisted though trooper- this is a solid effort that you should peep..

DOWNLOAD….