Tony's Influence

Def Jam Presents Scarface: Origins Of A Hip Hop Classic

I only recently came across this short documentary that looks at the immense impact and influence the movie Scarface has had on hip hop.  With contributions from many of the major artists who have used Scarface references within their rhymes, the film takes a look at the parallels between the life of Tony Montana and many of those who create hip hop.

There Be Pirates!

This is only a 10 minute mini documentary, but it begins to spotlight the importance of UK pirate radio in the early 80’s and how it brought black music to the masses. Anyone who grew up in a major city during these times is likely to know the importance of pirate radio. It was the only way most of us could hear hip hop music in its early days and right up until the shift towards internet radio, it remained a key method of keeping up to date with the true underground scene. 

As someone who was raised listening to these stations, and was then later a part of them, it would be great for me to see something like this expanded into a full length documentary. These early innovators who set up the masts, funded the equipment and took the risks are as critical to our hip hop history as the original DJ’s and emcees. For the UK, pirate radio was the equivalent of a Bronx DJ throwing a party in their local parks.

Comic Underground

It's widely known that Shock G of Digital Underground drew all of the artworks used for their early 12"s and albums, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that as well as being a gifted producer and dual personality emcee,  he's also a pretty good artist too.
But I was completely unaware that he had produced a comic book that never saw publication, and only recently have some of his original sketches from 1999 come to light.  The comic was called The Assholes: Hole Invasion and personally I found the content particularly amusing (see image above for a good example!).

Further images and information can be found here.

More Bounce Than Spring

Well March has been a busy month for me, and it still feels more like winter than spring, so this is a brief wrap up of my internet travels over the last 4 weeks.  Despite my lack of free time, there are still some gems to bring to your attention in case you've been sleeping (or hibernating from the extremely cold temperatures!).

Rubble Kings

No, this isn't the new TV series on Discovery that follows demolition guys blowing up buildings, despite it sounding like it could be.  This looks like it could be a really interesting documentary when it comes out, as it looks at the New York city street gangs of the late ‘60s & ‘70s and their influence on hip-hop culture.  If you grew up watching films like The Warriors then this is the era and events that influenced them.
Unfortunately the film needs financial support before it can be released, but I'm sure after watching this short trailer you'll agree it's an essential chapter of history that needs to be told.  Thanks to 238Beats for promoting this.

More goodness after the jump......

Notts Graffiti

When I was in my very early twenties me and a few fellows would periodically take a trip down the road to Nottingham on a record buying mission to the famous Arcade records. One of my mates already knew where it was and this knowledge came as a surprise to me as he barely left the house - still doesn't - and to this very day he still hasn't learned to drive. On one particular trip we got a little lost as there was a diversion in place and I only knew one way as sat navs weren't invented and we ended up spotting a community centre type building with a perimeter wall that was bombed to hell. The building itself was also shrouded in graffiti and there wasn't a space left that wasn't 'written' on. I parked up, got the camera out - I always carried it, just in case - and snapped away. We'd already discovered the Cifton Youth Centre as we'd been to a graffiti competition/exhibition before - it was there that I'd heard 'The Magic Number' by De La Soul for the first time having already been down to Warp records to try and get it that very morning only to be told that 'it wasn't out yet'. - hence the reason for the out of town buying trips. This place, we later learned, was St. Anns. We went back once more with a mate who worked at the Kodak shop in the city - can't think why I invited him - and took loads more between us and swapped when he'd developed them. The very last time we returned was about a year later and we were disappointed to find it all nicely painted in neutral, bland colours with no sign of the colourful and vibrant artwork that took us by surprise the first time we happened to drive by. A shame really as that's what Clifton looked like after we went back there too a few years later. Good job I always traveled with the trusty, non-digital camera that was really hard to load.
I've chosen a few pics for you to download and have a look at and labelled them as best I can remember. If you are a native of the area or traveled around a bit like we did well. you never know, they might trigger a few fond memories.

Download

UPDATE July 13 - If you want to see more graffiti from Nottingham's well respected past, there's a facebook group dedicated to its history. Its an active group with hundreds of old school photos. You can find it here: - https://www.facebook.com/groups/118592520553/

SBX - Holding Down The Tradition

Classic mini documentary from the D.I.T.C crew.  Featuring clips from the infamous freestyle battle between Lord Finesse and Percy P (the whole battle is on YouTube so check it out), and the friendly rematch that was made specifically for this DVD.  R.I.P. to Party Arty.

Also features performance of the tracks:
1. A.G. - Inspiration
2. D-Flow - Don't Know Me
3. Party Arty - Everyday
4. G.D. - Ghetto Dwellas
5. A.G. - Little Big Man

Warren Mills - Sunshine

 I was watching football focus the other week and Ledley King was on with some local kids at some kind of get-the-kids-off-the-streets-through-sport type project and they described him as 'Spurs legend, Ledley King'. He was an excellent player but legend he ain't. I think Masterscratch, however, deserves legendary status. His tapes were the best around and he was pretty darned good. If you had one it was your prized possession and other people who heard it instantly asked for it too.
 He played the break from this record, if you can call it a break, on quite a lot of his tapes and I wanted it so badly but never knew what it was called. I was browsing in a used record shop we used to visit once a fortnight on a trip with a few mates. One of them saw it and told me it was 'that record Masterscratch used on all his tapes' and proceeded to describe it to me human beatbox style. I didn't believe him at first; how the hell did he know what it was?. It was 50p so I got it anyway, played it and was most pleased with my purchase.
 I searched around for some info on Warren Mills but no-one appears to know where he is or what he's doing now. The record on the whole is pretty lame and I'm sure Jive thought little Warren would be the next Michael Jackson but there's only ever one of anyone and there's certainly only one Masterscratch. Legend.

Download

Ed Piskor Revisited

Almost a year ago, I recommended that you take a look at a hip hop comic strip that had been created by cartoonist Ed Piskor.  Even more intriguing than the creation of a credible hip hop comic, was Ed's 'family tree' format that really helped you to piece together the jigsaw pieces of hip hop history.

Well the comic strip is still going strong with more pieces of the puzzle being added all the time.  But now we get an in depth interview with the man behind it all.  Ed let's us in on how the idea came to fruition, where he intends to take it, and the publication of his first hop hop comic book later this year.  If you've enjoyed the comics, then you'll need to read his interview.

In depth interview: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/11/the-ed-piskor-interview.html

Hip Hop Family Tree Comic: http://boingboing.net/tag/hip-hop-family-tree

28 Days Later

There may only be 28 days in Feb (excluding leap years of course!), but the internet has been a busy place.  Here the latest crop of stuff that grabbed my attention over the last 4 weeks.  Follow the jump link after the first item for much more.

The People's Champ

R.A. The Rugged Man has begun promoting his new album (due April 30th) with this blistering track which sets expectations pretty high.  Despite his own Demigodz album about to drop, Apathy still finds time to get on the production boards and conjure up this perfect backdrop for R.A.'s tongue tying, verb flipping style.  

Its been 9 years since R.A.'s last official release, so he's had plenty of time to work on this long overdue (and long promised) follow up.  Let's hope this is a sign of things to come.

Jam Jay Crime File

US television channel, TV One, recently covered the death of Jam Master Jay as part of their Crime File series.  But before looking at the tragic death of Jam Jay, the episode begins by documenting the formation of Run DMC, them getting signed to Profile Records and the influence Jay had on his band members. 
Also covered is the demise of Run DMC in the late 80's, supposedly caused by Russell Simmons' law suit against Profile Records, although I'm not sure that I'd entirely agree with that perspective.  Run DMC had a distinct sound, but the late 80's saw the hip hop landscape change dramatically.  To me, the group no longer fitted so neatly into this new era and they failed to adapt.

Other angles explored are Jam Jay's signing of Onyx and 50 Cent, and the financial difficulties he later faced.  Then we get to the night of the murder.  Don't expect any revelations here, we see the well documented links to Kenneth 'Supreme' McGriff touched upon, but then dismissed!  The occupants of the studio that night are all named and we see a reconstruction of the events, but ultimately we're not given anything new or led to any different conclusions.

But don't let this put you off, this is still a good documentary that, for the most part, explores Run DMC's history and influence and only the last 10 minutes is given to examining the night of the murder.  It contains contributions from a range of industry associates and his friends Eric B and Fredro Starr.