Rewriting History?

Marely Marl & MC Shan in better times

Several months back I wrote about D-Nice's website, and in particular I suggested you might want to review some of his short documentaries where old school artists reflect on their rhymes, records and events from that era.

One of my personal favourites was from Masta Ace who gave his account of how Marley Marl's classic The Symphony came about (see the link above if you haven't yet seen it).  Well, in recent days, MC Shan has seen this clip and has decided to put up a response to it as he thinks Marley has misled Masta Ace and the others who appear on The Symphony and he wants to set the record straight.

Initially I was curious to hear the other side of the story and clarify the facts around this piece of history, but to my surprise what has started out as an attempt to set the record straight, has turned into something much bigger and in some ways it's more interesting.

Now I've never really been into gossip or hearsay, and I don't care much for hip hop beefs (unless of course they bring out the best in an artist and provide us with some banging tunes (Cool J vs Canibus and Jay-Z vs Nas spring to mind)).  But this is something different.  This is more about artist integrity.

Watch the series of clips for yourself and see what you think, but to me it seems as though Marley has something to hide.  Shan is explicit in his accusations towards Marley, yet Marley never calls Shan a liar.  Instead he attacks his skin complexion, who he hangs out with etc.  But aside the issue that started all of this debate, there are other interesting bits of history being shared, such as Shan's involvement with recording Rakim, Kane providing his own beats and plenty more.

Shan and Marley aren't going to acheive very much from these discussions, they'll no doubt end up agreeing to disagree, but whilst it continues I'm loving the little side stories that are embedded within this debate.
Shan also promises to record further (unrelated) videos that provide more hip hop history, and these are potential gems for us to look forward to.

Queensbridge History

In my recent Silver Anniversary review of one of Tragedy Khadafi's earliest singles, I promised to share the links to the documentary on his life called Tragedy: The Story of Queensbridge.

This documentary lasts approx 1 hour and was filmed in the Queensbridge projects across a two year period.  It attempts to capture the essential parts of his life that have ultimately shaped him to the be the man that he is, and it does this relatively well. 
Whilst following Tragedy on his journey, we are given a rare and honest insight into what Queensbridge was like in the 1980's when some of the biggest names in hip hop were exploding onto the scene.  Trag himself wears his heart on his sleeve and gives frank and open accounts of his past, each one helping to put pieces of the jigsaw into place.

There are plenty of fascinating bits of information, history, interviews etc that help to make this documentary a little different to most others.  Even those who may not be fans of Tragedy or QB hip hop will no doubt appreciate this documentary for the historical perspective it portrays.
There are appearances and commentary from Marley Marl, Mobb Deep, Capone & Noreaga amongst others.

You can either watch this documentary on YouTube (in 7 parts) or download a copy to view in a single part.  Either way it's the same version. 

Silver Anniversary Series - An Intelligent Tragedy?

In this edition of the series, I’m going to shine the spotlight on an emcee who has been in the game for so long, has done so much, but seen so little success when compared to his peers, partners and accomplices.  I'm talking about Intelligent Hoodlum aka Tragedy Khadafi aka Jayski!!!!

We all know that Tragedy Khadafi originally went under the name Intelligent Hoodlum when his debut album (of the same name) dropped in 1990.  But not so many know that 5 years before this, he went under the name Jayski and was one half of a duo who called themselves the Super Kids?  The other half of Super Kids was DJ Hot Day.

Super kids dropped several 12”s in 1985 and 1986 when Tragedy was only 14 years old (although when listening to these tracks now, you would be forgiven for thinking that he was a bit younger)! Still, these early self releases on the classic Nia record label caught the attention of Marley Marl.  Marley recruited Tragedy as a junior member of the Juice Crew and then featured him on several of the tracks on his 1988 In Control – Vol 1 album and again on the follow up album (In Control – Vol 2) released in 1991.

Unfortunately, the name Tragedy was an unintentionally prophetic one, as it seems that his life was to be full of turmoil and misfortune.  Before Marley’s first album was released, Tragedy was convicted of robbery and sent to jail for 3 years, so he never got to enjoy his success.  This probably also explains why he never blew up like all the other members of the Juice Crew, their prime years were mainly 1988 to 1990.  By 1990, hip hop had moved on dramatically and he was effectively starting from scratch (again).