Demo-lition

 

Yesterday there was a lot of buzz around the web about this awesome mixtape from Rock Steady DJ, JS-1. It’s 3 hours of demo’s from major artists, most of which were big in the 1990’s. Don’t get me wrong, the line up looks stellar and there are quite a few that I’m eager to hear, but when you take a minute to consider some of these joints, I’m not convinced they are all true demo’s.

For example, we know from many different stories how Eric B & Rakim’s early material came to be, and there certainly wasn’t a Rakim demo tape kicking around. So what I think we really have here is a collection of tracks that are either cuts that didn’t make the album, unused remixes, or early versions before they were fully mixed down etc, with a few demos thrown in for good measure.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t make the mix any less interesting (in fact it probably makes it better as demo tapes can, understandably, sound very amateurish), but it’s good to keep things in perspective. I’ve included the full track list after the jump, along with the download link.

And if hearing a demo from your favourite golden era artist is your kind of thing, keep an eye out over the next few weeks as I’ll be posting 30 more demo tracks, and this time they will be the proper original demo tapes!

Mike Check.

A Fresh Lick of Paint

Hello peeps. The new site is now up and running, and there have been a few changes to the appearance and layout. It also seems to be operating a little slicker than before (not that we had any problems previously).

We've been running for nearly two years, and so it seemed a good time to tart the place up a little bit. Be careful as you look around though, there's still some patches of wet paint :)

Mike Check.

Do you know anything about this?

Whilst digging in my (digital) crates looking for something a little different to share with you, I stumbled across an mp3 rip that intrigued me. The file name simply said ‘UK Rappin Championships 1988’. I’ve had this for quite a while, so I can’t remember where, or who, I got it from. “Not a problem” I thought, I’ll just do a quick Google search to find out more.

But this is one of those items where the all knowing internet surprisingly returns zilch!!! I’ve got cassette rips that I consider more obscure or rarer than this, but most of them have turned up on blogs or YouTube. Yet this is a national championship akin to other competitions like the DMC, so it seems strange that it’s undocumented. I tried several popular search engines and numerous variations of search text, but the only thing I can find is an entry on Last.fm that has no description. This has just made me all the more curious. This is a part of UK hip hop history that is clearly undocumented, so if you know anything about it, however trivial, then please leave a comment below and let’s see if we can build a better picture of this event.  On the plus side, it does mean that this is probably an exclusive to FoaWP!

If you listen to the embedded music player below, you can hear that it sounds like an officially organised event and one of the first emcees to appear is an MC Einstein. I can only assume that this is the same Einstein that was signed to Music of Life records in 1988. Other named emcees are MC Brooklyn, Jazzy P and Miss Delight, but I think there are other uncredited emcees.

From what I can make out, the format was to line up a number of emcees and let them take turns, as opposed to the now traditional battle style of head to head dissing. However, there are still some nice little battles within this format (listen at around 6:15 for a good example of this). The host also makes a reference to ‘last year’ so this wasn’t the first or only event of its kind.

Whilst the judges are deliberating who the winner is, an unknown beatboxer entertains the audience which includes a nice little tribute to the kids TV programme Rainbow. The biggest travesty though is that whoever edited this from its original cassette omitted to include the announcing of the winner, duh!

The whole affair has been edited down to just less than 25 minutes. As you would expect with a recording of this age, it’s got the atmospheric cassette hiss in the background, but this doesn’t detract from the lyrics, if anything it’s a timely reminded of what we used to endure without really noticing it.

So, can you remember this event? Do you know where it was, who hosted it, or any of the contenders? Let’s hope someone can shed some light on it.  Leave a comment below if you have any info.

Update - Some of the questions here have now been answered.  Check out the update here.

Mike Check



Alternatively, download the mp3: https://hotfile.com/dl/156219942/d041742/UK_rappin_championships_1988.mp3.html

De La Soul

The month of April saw the (incredibly quiet) release of De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 presents... First Serve, the latest LP from the group’s front men.

I’d forgotten that this LP was in production and its stealthy release did nothing to bring it to my attention, nor will it help its sales.  As a result, I’ve not yet listened to it so I’m not going to comment on it.

Instead, when I accidentally spotted that the album is now out, it reminded me of several De La Soul videos I have sitting in my archive, and I subsequently realised that De La Soul haven’t made an appearance on this blog yet. So I think it’s time to put that right.

I wanted to upload the original 3 Feet High and Rising VHS release from 1990 that accompanied their debut LP, but I haven’t got the time to convert if from a vob file at the moment, so instead I’m going to hit you up with this rare concert footage from 1997.

This concert was filmed in Belgium at the Lokerse Festival. In an effort to make it a little more interesting than just the plain raw footage of Plug’s 1, 2 and 3 on stage, the editor has added some visual effects. Although the effects don’t detract from the concert or the music, they’re a little odd as the quality falls somewhere between amateur home video and authorised professional release. If these effects had been added to the video when it was recorded in 1997 then I probably wouldn’t have commented, but according to the closing credits the film was edited in 2008!

But don’t let any of this deter you from watching this DVD as the trio delivers a balanced mix of tracks from their early albums (which some might say was when they were at their best), all tightly pulled together and well performed.

Tracklist and embedded video after the jump.

Latest Bloggings

Here is this months round up of goodness from around the web and bloggasphere.  As is often the case with my highlights from the web, it's a mixed bag of old and new, but hopefully it's still full of the realness that us true hip hop heads are in need of (if not, please let me know in the comments section).

Before I get into some of these gems, I want to welcome Moyinka to the FoaWP team. He's an experienced blogger who shares many of his old school rarities (1986-1991) over at the To The Break of Dawn blog (which I recommend you check out). I think he's got something slightly different planned for this blog, but I don't want to spoil any surprises.

Up North Trips Presents The 10s

The fella's at Up North Trips have paid homage to one of the most significant album releases of the 90's, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth's Mecca and the Soul Brother which celebrated it's 20th anniversary earlier this month. 
They've picked 10 tracks from the album and focused on the samples and beat construction to highlight the complexity and ingenuity of Pete Rock's production and thus the major influence his work has had on other producers ever since.  The end product is a brilliant mix of the original samples blended with the finished tracks.
You can listen to the mix on the Soundcloud player below, but I'd strongly recommend reading the full article to gain the full appreciation of this mix. 
 

Large Professor - Part 2

Following on from last months update, Extra P continues to break down his classic records in part 2 of Complex's review.  He not only talks about his productions, but also the tracks he featured on as an emcee working with people like Nas, Pete Rock, Beatnuts etc.  He also gives insights behind Nas' groundbreaking track Rewind (the one where he tells the story in reverse). 
http://www.complex.com/music/2012/06/large-professor-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records-part-2/

Kurious & A.G.

Kurious is back with a new joint which features A.G. on the mic and Diamond D on the boards.  It's not what you might expect from Kurious or the DITC veteran, but it's still funky all the same.  Thanks to the DJ Premier Blog for sharing this.



Mike Check

Bomb The Bass - Megablast (Original Rap Version)

After many attempts at locating this particular version I finally had the good fortune of stumbling across it and I do mean stumbling. The recent bombardment of mix tapes with unknown or 'random' rap cuts have made me in to a bit of a wreck trying to track down certain records that I never knew existed, which admittedly is a lot easier nowadays what with the internet and all, but also actually owning quite a few that were featured is a surprise and also makes me glad I don't have to shell out silly money to get them. I'm referring in particular to the excellent 'Crown Jewels' series of mixes by King Aroe and the Sound Makers, volume 2 containing this excellent version of a reasonably popular record from the late eighties. It came free with a copy of the Record Mirror and on the back of the sleeve states, 'unavailable elsewhere' although I was told just yesterday by an online acquaintance that this was on the LP which made me feel slightly miffed but I only paid 99p so who could grumble at that? There's loads of these on discogs and they're all incredibly cheap, some starting at 75p and I only went for the 99p one because of the very reasonable p&p the seller was asking for. There's 3 other tracks on it too, all pretty ordinary and not worthy of a mention here but I ripped the whole thing anyway for the completists among us. All hail Michael Viner and his Incredible Bongo Band.

Download

Yo! Documented

First off I've got to say thanks to Warz over at the StyleWarriorzRevenge blog for digging this up.  For anyone who missed it, VH1 showed a documentary about Yo! MTV Raps a couple of weeks back.  Now don't let yourself be put off by the previous efforts that have feebly attempted to reflect on this iconic show, this is the real deal.  Firstly it was an hour long show (the minimum needed to do any kind of justice to a 7 year programme that hosted 100's of artists).  Ed and Dre are back reflecting on the highs and lows and some of the back stage drama that went on (like Chuck D being mad at Flava Flav for dropping crack on the stage during a live performance!).

If, like me, you had an episode of Yo! as part of your daily routine then this is essential viewing.  A copy of this documentary briefly appeared on DailyMotion for about a day, but it was quickly removed, so watch this pronto in case the same thing happens again!

The full episode is embedded after the jump

Mike Check

Update - If you haven't seen the first episode of Yo! (or maybe you've not seen it for a long time), then you can get it here in one of my previous posts.

My God!

Pace Won and Mr. Green have just leaked a new track, entitled My GOD, from their long awaited forthcoming album The Only Number That Matters is Won which follows up their 2008 LP The Only Colour That Matters is Green.  The new album has been talked about for the best part of a year and feels long overdue, but it's now got a release date of September 4th 2012.  The album features collaborations from Snoop Dogg, Masta Ace and Lee Scratch Perry.

These guys are the perfect blend.  Green's retro sounding beats perfectly compliment Pace's authentic, old school, rhyme style, yet neither sound outdated.  The end product is real, conscious hip hop that's reminiscent of how things used to be, but still contemporary enough to be fresh, new and innovative.  If you need more proof, see my previous post which contains two of their best pieces of recent work.

In the meantime check out their new track which represents what we can expect more of when the album drops.

Mike Check

Golden Era History

Large Pro breaks down his classic records

I think the title says it all.  Extra P tells Complex.com the stories behind some of his classic joints whilst this month sees him release his latest LP Professor @ Large.  Essential reading:

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/05/large-professor-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records-part-i/#gallery

Nas - The Making of It Was Written

Complex.com has produced a number of gems this month.  As well as the Large Pro stories, they've also produced something that is long overdue, a proper look at Nas' 2nd LP It Was Written.  His debut LP Illmatic has been analysed, dissected and digested to the point where there is nothing new left to say, but his 2nd LP is largely ignored.  As Complex rightly point out, it's his best selling LP to date and there was so much riding on it.  How the hell do you follow up Illmatic?  It could have easily been a flop and signalled the end of Nas' career, but it didn't, so how was this achieved:

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/05/the-making-of-nas-it-was-written/

Free Ice-T albums

The OG rapper has offered to share two of his lesser known albums for free. 

The first is an album that was originally recorded in 2004 when he was part of the SMG collective which consisted of Smoothe Da Hustler, Trigger Tha Gambler and the Ice man himself.  However this album was never released worldwide and therefore it is relatively unheard.

The second album is more recent and is released under his Twitter moniker, Final Level. 

To obtain your free copies, go to his bandcamp page and select to 'buy' the album.  Then enter 'zero' in the price box.

Peace
Mike Check

You got a little girl?

Peep Nas' new video for his single Daughters.  It's good to see Nas back doing more conscious tracks, and I'm sure that all of you Dad's with teenage daughters will certainly see Nas' perspective on this one.