I just discovered this cassette-only mix that was made by K.Harrison aka Mad Squirrel from SF's Forest Fires Collective. The mix is already 3 years old but full of great nuggets, and some never-heard stuff.
Who heard about Jihad's "Soul Mate" tape from 98 for example? Same with that Conceit tape, and what about that Prego EP that's impossible to find too?
Have a taste to the link below.
GAMMA RAY & FATGUMS - Bay Tribute
BFAP - Intro Freestyle
MURS & ASOP - Lose My Mind
KONCEPTS - We & Dem
JIHAD! - Cali Stare
JUN DAX - 2000 AD/ Two Zero
CONCEIT - Fascinating
SKOTREL - Trainspotting
GAVIN - Verse One
ELIGH & SCARUB - Everything Goes
MEGABUSIVE - Anarhic Adjustment
AYENTEE & KONCEPTS - Falling Down
IND-RAY & THE "I" - Song 13
TOP RAMEN - Freestyle
PREGO W/ZEST (Aka JUST ONE) & FELLER QUENTIN - T-60 Slow
KARMA CHI & KIRBY DOMINANT - Jungle Repellents
MURS - Untitled
WONWAY - Regrets Freestyle
DESTINED & MAD SQUIRREL - Recipe Of We (Unreleased)
JUN DAX - Watch Where You Walk
I had no idea this tape existed until I stumbled on this youtube vid a few days ago.
Young Slim is none other than Slim Goodworth / Marcus Pimp West, og member of the 99th Demention (as an MC but also the guy that made most of the beats if I'm correct).
Credits says he produced this album in 1994-1995 on a SP-1200 while in high school.
This is just a rip of the video with separate tracks. If somebody got something better, please holla.
Also, if anyone know if the "Negativety" album the liner notes talk about was ever released..
New digital EP from Zest The Smoker, which seems to be a compilation with some older tracks he uploaded on his soundcloud and new stuff. I'm always down for some of his material.. I really hope he'll put out the full version of Camp Crystal Lake's "Souls Owed To The Lake" also.
By the way, years ago some connection made me a dub tape of some CCL material, including a track with a chorus that says "my name is Zono, aka Dracula" said x times. The track was very dope but it's on no official release. It seems to be an old demo from the CCL's Souls Owed '93 demo.
This one's just appeared on DJ Moves' bandcamp and it's very good.
Renegade Synapsis is him plus Checklove (Check Love Shakil), the 2 last tracks were already on his Hiss 2 : Hissteria comp but the rest is completely unreleased. Nice cameos too.
"After Hip Club Groove broke up this was the next group we started. Recorded in 1997 in Toronto.
Was supposed to be a 12'' on Four Ways To Rock but Marc Costanzo fucked us over."
Although Jibs over at thisisforthehustlers came up with the ultimate Rob One post, here's my small contribution.
And yes, it's still part of the dude-who-added-great-quality-digital-transfer-with-OG-cassettes file.
I noticed a similar item on said post above, called "Best Of Fly ID Show 1990", it turns out to be a slightly different version with different art cover.
This one is 2 hours long (the other one 1 hour) and a better quality rip.
Worth noticing: a Beastie Boys freestyle from '92 (!). Yes.
Plus, here's a dope posse cut from the first We Came From Beyond comp that gives you a hint who Rob was:
Remember when I told you about that guy on ebay who added a clean digital transfer cd with every OG cassette you were purchasing from him?
Here's another item I bought from him, Tommy V's first album under the Imprints moniker.
Now I don't usually repost stuff that's already posted somewhere else but this one got a way better sound that the previous one floating at 56kbps.
Also, it just made me remember that I interviewed TV a few years ago (13 years actually) for WCI, through emails. I edited a good portion of it and kept the most informative parts. Hope you'll enjoy.
Can you tell us about your childhood? Where did you grow up?
Ok well me and my lil' brother Antonio were born at Queen of Angels Hospital in LA, my mother (RIP) was from Montana and my father is from Mexico. When we were youngsters my mom wanted to leave LA (Mid-Wilshire area) and move back to Kalispell, Montana, where she was from. So there we were in good ol' Montana, soon after my parents got divorced, pops went back to LA and moms stayed in Montana. From then on I lived back n' forth from Montana to California, my pops then moved back to Mexico so a few times I went to live in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico.. I've also lived in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle...
How about your beginnings in hip hop? What was the LA scene looking like at that time? Back in the 5th grade I started getting into Hip-Hop, I had a friend named Chris aka Killa C and we used to make up raps about random nonsense and breakdance for school plays and stuff, we were always doing music related things. Then later on in my teen-age years I met my homie Steven Gomez aka Destruct 310 (RIP). One day in Montana I saw these 2 Mexican cats wearing LA hats (Mario and Steven), this was a rare thing in Montana which is mostly white people, so I approached them and asked where they were from, it turned out they had just moved from Whittier, California, that was the city where my dad lived at the time, so it was dope to meet some heads from LA and we became best friends. We started our crew "Imprints". Destruct was a good musician who could play drums, keys, and also he was dope at beatboxing, we use to battle each other, he was really witty and good at bagging on people, then his brother Mario aka Slopoke used to rhyme too, then there was DJ Shroom who was their cousin that was a DJ. So we used to take the Amtrak back and forth from Montana to LA. While living in Whittier around 1995 I became friends with Awol One, me and Destruct had an apartment in Uptown Whittier with his big sister Angie (who sang on "Ma' Despacio" on Quarter Life Crisis). We used to hop on the bus down Whittier Blvd. and go to Awols house with records and drum machines etc.. We would make beats and freestyle and whatnot. One of the beats that we made together came out on Quarter Life Crisis. About this time there was an event called "The Brainfish" that happened every full moon at a warehouse in Santa Fe Springs, this is where you could find Awol on the mic, I remember Circus used to be there with really long dreaded hair, then there was the Endangered Element crew who I used to battle but later on we became homies thru Awol, also this tagging crew known as LSD used to hang out there. I never went to the Good Life or Project Blowed back then. Around this time my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer, this was a wack time in my family's life, she lost her battle with cancer in 1996. Then tragically a year after Destruct was killed in a head on collision. This was devastating because he was so young and full of life, if he was still here you would definitely know of him in the LA underground. He was my best friend and I carry on his legacy through my music, along with my mothers..
I'm not really a full time rapper because I don't really consider myself to be a very good rapper, but I am a full time musician, everyday I work on music in one way or another. We had an old Hammond Organ in our house when I was a kid and my mom used to play everyday, she knew how to read music. I never learned how to read the notes but I always took interest. Now I carry around a pocket recorder that I use to capture melodies in my head, then I try to bring them to life later on in the studio... But for the most part Hip-Hop was my introduction to the music world and that's how I started off in music. Our 1st song was recorded in 1994 with Destruct, but that tape has since been lost..
You used to call yourself "Imprints", now Tommy V... Why that change? Well "Imprints" was our name back before we even recorded songs and just freestyled amongst each other. After Destruct passed on the vision kind of died, but I still carry the name for his sake and probably always will, "Tommy V." is a name that is just a breakdown of my real name which is Thomas Valencia...
Can you talk about your Fresh Produce album?
Yeah well I got tired of sampling music and wanted to make my own music. I began hanging out with more music type heads like my homie Devin17 who plays all kinds of instruments, then you got the homies from "Anonymous Inc" who play out all their music so all of this was inspiring and influential to me. I was living with Xololanxinxo and 2Mex at the time that "Fresh Produce" was recorded, Xolo has a big collection of instruments and I began picking up guitars and messing with keyboards, trying to play flutes, clarinets, horns, whatever I could get my hands on. I got more pleasure out of making an original song from the ground up as opposed to sampling..
What's your process to make a song? As far as music goes, usually a melody pops in my head, then I record it to my pocket recorder. This melody might be words or a phrase or might just be sounds. Then I go to the guitar or piano and try to bring it to life, or sometimes just messing around with some instruments a nice line will surface and will turn into a song. I usually have a concept that I'd like to work with, then it's just a matter of time to see if it fits with a certain piece of music or vice versa... I like short story writing, so sometimes you'll hear little stories in my songs...
I know you were part of The Evil Cow Burger album with Awol. Can you talk about these sessions?
Well Awol used to live on Colima in Whittier, he had a 4-track, a sampler, some 1200's and a bunch of crates of records and this old Shure SM-58 mic. We recorded those songs in his room, nothing like some gritty 4 track recording! Ask him and Circus about the time I was recording and I had this really bad sun burn, I was breaking out in cold sweats!
Oh yes. L'Roneous is back with a short album (20 minutes) produced by Brycon (Grand Killa Con, affiliated to SF's Gurp City) and it's banging. I love L'Ron's voice and technical flow (sometimes reminiscent to Aceyalone) but since Imaginarium the productions weren't always on par with his skills. On Maart One the beats are short, catchy, and it's a perfect match... There's also a 7'' released next week with a couple of cuts from this album.
Special bonus points to the title who refers to a brilliant John Irving novel (you need to check that out too)... and to the fact that there's a Z-Man cameo on it.
Another question-mark one. I discovered it on Feadz' SR2 mixtape, the vinyl is quite easy to cope although I never heard of them before nor I never heard anything else made by either Get It Together Productions or the Street Preachers. It's a one-and-only shot (only one track on the 12'', self-produced and released) reminiscent of the Rubberoom / Techno Animal / indus-rap of the early 00's (it's dated of 1998 and from NYC btw).
My cousin and I were (are) the Chocaholics. I posted our first collaborative mixtape here 5 years ago.
This is the second mix, from 2003, pressed on cd-r (with a nice artwork made by him) and sold to a couple of shops online.
Although it has some technical flaws, I still kinda like it 13 years ago.. You get uptempo stuff in the beginning then as the mix advance things get slower and darker.
You can stream it on mixcloud (lots of other mixes to check there too):
I already told you about my fascination for finnish mixtapes. Ever since that post, Abyss has been removed but the equally dope My Groundhog Day and I Like B-Sides appeared for free download on Anti-Party Music's bandcamp.
I recently got back a little batch of my tape collection left in a muddy garage down south and found a copy of this long pause mix cassette from 2006. It's 96 minutes long, full of dope indie rap and homemade remixes and served cold with a good old tape hiss.
This one is the first piece of vinyl by LA crew Bassline Xcursionists aka Gershwin BLX. I must admit I don't know much about the producer Nocturnal Ron, not even which year he released this. It seemed to be complete auto-production.
It's a pretty solid 4-track 12'', with "Rhymes / Riddles" being the highlight with it's infectious beat and chorus.
If you like it you should check BLX's first album, originally a cassette-only release (95-97 era) but put as a free download on their Bandcamp.
As far as BLX's solo joints I also own two 12"s by Omni that I really like and might put them out there one of these days.
I also recently checked on Malkovich's other projects and really liked his Skeletons album (free DL as well) among others.
The Forest Fires Collective is another short-lived crew from the Bay.
Originally formed around the duo The Latter (beatmakers/ MCs Edison Victrola aka Eddie Vic and Feller Quentin aka Smif Carnivorous -known these days as Tim Cohen from the Fresh & Onlys and various others indie rock bands). Add to this MC's Mad Squirrel (which met Smif from working at Amoeba) and Prego w/Zest (ex Just One) and two "ghost members", Dr Lester and a guy named Simile.
Allegedly the name FFC was inspired by Mad Squirrel's own pseudo and from that they build that whole concept of rapping about nature, animals, etc. (more backstory on M.S.'s book Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification you can find large extracts on the web).
They released 2 cd albums (self titled, 2001 and You Can't See, 2002) and two vinyl EP's collecting tracks from the cd's plus some unreleased cuts in some case.
Fresh Air is the second vinyl and last of their collective release. 11 tracks including 4 instros. 3 tracks are from their first cd, 2 from You Can't See.
Musically expect some solid productions, fast rap, light themes and adventurous posse cuts. Probably not for everyone but dope in my book.
This is the first piece of wax from the Sunset Leagues collective (from SF I think). It was released in 2000 and features the various members of the crew: D6 (Lazerus Jackson + Jason The Argonaut), PBS (Laz Jack + Mercury), Scratch Paper (Ehnertia + DJ Capsize) and producer Elon.is who offers 3 instrumentals. It's a good one and it's rather easy to spot.
This one is a tour-only cd-r from Lab Waste's 2008 Crev Or Die Tour. The tour was something like 8 shows in France (plus one in Netherlands I think).
Lab Waste was the super duo formed by 2 influential figures of the westcoast underground: Subtitle (aka Giovanni Marks, Westcoast Workforce and Shifters affiliate, released dope super lo-fi albums - some on GSL, giant and super-fast talker) and Thavius Beck (aka Adlib, Global Phlowtations, released dope instrumental albums on Mush, worked with Saul Williams and Trent Reznor, more the quiet type).
Their first album Zwarte Achtegrond (2005) is an underrated classic of rap & electronica blend (to put it in context it was the era "glitch rap" was the hip thing for the average rap fan.. so it was right on point and put them on some slight more media exposure despite a relatively unknown label).
Some tracks on this album where supposed to be featured on their next album, and it's still weird to think labels like Big Dada or Lex passed and prefered to bet on stuff like Jneiro Jarel or Spank Rock. Anyways... This is a collection of those unreleased tracks and remixes.
There's also a mix Subtitle did for the iHeartComix blog at the end, plus! I added another 24 minutes long continuous mix Lab Waste were selling as another merch cd on this very tour (it was another item with no title or artwork).
...Talking about LL classics.. even though only Murs of the 3 MCs is an official member of that crew, that album would be ranked #1 in my opinion. Weirdly enough, it was released on Chicago's label Galapagos 4 in 2000 ('weirdly' cause it sounds so westcoast and different from the rest of the G4 releases).
As a matter of fact, year after year there's not a summer when I don't find myself playing Pals at least once (but usually a couple more time). There's a special kind of vibe in this album. First of all Anacron's productions are at his all time best, it's not a short album but there's nothing to throw away, even the skits. Then, there's a real alchemy between the MC's (the third one being Himself), and they complement each other perfectly. Lots of nice punchlines, lots of slept on hits... This is one for the ages.
"for all those that only trust the written word: this is dope. Dope in an universal kind if way, and even doper for those that enjoy the left coast mentality, blueprint and ways of doing things." - Urban Smarts
If you don't know, you need to check it immediately through Anacron's bandcamp:
US Pros were a Living Legends- related group composed by ex Log Cabin member Knows (aka Pooridge), Very (also in AfroClassics with Scarub) and Timsears which is not featured on this third and last album of the Pros.
I chose this one because it's by far the most solid of the 3 and in a general way, US Pros are pretty underrated and their releases difficult to find.
Emceeing is on point all the way through with a few nice cameos. Productions are a great surprise: very diverse stylistically, and original without falling into "weird to be weird" traps... There's some true bangers on it too ('Ch'ps' for instance, but there's more), some more minimal ones, but it sounds right almost every time.
More ex-members of Log Cabin are featured on the production credits, like Sahga or Magi (aka Tom Slick), which left us wondering were are all the other dope post-Log Cabin projects? Do they even exist? Can we have some more?
It truly deserve a place next to the handful of LL classics although it didn't have half the exposure it deserved.
Back when paper rap magazine was still a thing in France, you could mailorder in each issue the latest cassette mixtapes from the local DJs. I copped a few this way but here's one I really wanted and missed at that time (2002).
It featured a promising tracklist (a good blend of new-york and westcoast indie rap plus some more obscure electro/breakbeat stuff), a nice abstract artwork reminiscent of Mo'Wax (at least it seemed to me at the time - and by the way most of the usual mixtape artworks were so ugly and generic that things like these couldn't go unnoticed) and a solid DJ (Feadz, who I only knew was closely related to Mr Oizo -which I loved). No need to say, I was sold way before even listening a second of it.
Thanks to the internet it resurfaced on various blogs a few years ago (last time I checked it was on a couple of soundclound accounts as well). So here you go.
And yes, it was all that was expected: well mixed, some adventurous blends (Oizo vs APC or Kool Keith), a good balance of uptempo tracks and some more weird electro-oriented productions.. no big discoveries but a good, solid mixtape overall.
This is one of the rare 12'' produced by Boston's Record Company Records crew (even if technically it was out on Emerge Music). RCR was a short-lived indie rap label managed by producer Jeep Jack. It had a rather confidential success although it managed to be highlighted in France's small indie rap circles in the early 00es (articles and mixtapes in HHSection and HHCore, various appearances in Waxexpress' seminal compilation Projet Chaos and various local mixtapes).
They had Aesop Rock's twin voice in Microft Holmes and a couple of real 'hits' (if I may say so), in Elation's Springfever 12'' and this one, Yukonn's Sweet Baby.
The parallel with the french indie rap scene is not over yet: I first heard of this track through Klub des Loosers' Fuzati (french rapper) rapping over Sweet Baby's instrumental on a mixtape freestyle. I didn't know who made that beat at first but always thought it fitted perfectly Fuzati's style, a kind of light, humorous beat sampled from maybe a cheap cartoon or something.
I stumbled upon the real version of Sweet Baby a few years later, bought the 12'' and had the pleasure to realise that the 2 other tracks on it (Lethal Weapon with Insight on both prod and raps and Underrated River) were as good as Sweet Baby if not better.
I didn't found a proper rip of the 12'' so I did one from my own copy, enjoy.
3 Years after the first EP between the Seattle band and MC, they did it again, unfortunately on digital only this time, still on the Fourth City label though.
Same recipe: an inspired blend of rap tracks and instrumentals, maybe missing the immediate appeal of tracks like 'Daily Bars' or 'Crunch Day' from Vol.1 but still overall pretty good and worth the check.
Here's a little pack of various things from this San Diego crew, Observatory Swivel.
I must admit I'm a little bit confused with who was part of the group. The discogs page mentions MCs Mer Ka Ba and 10 19 (plus Deejay A La Fu on the turntables - love the name) but you can see it also mentions Rune Orfeus and Scribe Sayar as MCs and John Henry as a producer.
So not too sure who is who and who does what, but if you know hit me on the comment section.
Once again I've been introduced to this band through a mixtape. It was the great "Provoked" with its bouncy and hypnotic bassline and the tape was Detect's 1st Adventure -who happens to be this blog's first post.
That tape was from 2001 and at the time this kind of 12'' was still pretty confidential so I was stoked when I stumbled upon a copy in a parisian shop back then. I like to think it was the actual copy Detect used for this very mixtape then get bored of and sold it to the shop. The kind of weird collector's chakra thing and all. I'm romantic like that.
The EP was "It's All There In Black And White" and features 3 tracks, Provoked being the obvious highlight.
What you got on this pack is this EP, a cd compilation called Relocated Joints and a rip from my vinyl copy of Orfeus "Mithalaje" with instro and such (never found a rip of the 12'' so here you go).
I'm still looking for a little bit more of background about OS. I know Scribe Sayar has a bandcamp with more recent solo stuff also.
Latest episodes of my mix series dedicated to the westcoast underground. enjoy!
Tracklist:
ANTIFICTION - #09 (2002)
PRIVATE SCHOOL - Typically All Over You (2007)
CONVENIENCE STORE - Just People (2007)
BLAK FOREST - Throw Em In The Sun (1997)
EVS - The Morning After (1999)
Tracklist:
Rob One's words of wisdom
CMA - The Best (1999)
THIRD DEGREE - Better Days (1997)
KANKICK ft. DROOP CAPONE - Finer Things (2001)
TWISTED MIND KINDS - I Feel You (1996)
CASUAL - Later On (Low Down Remix) (1994)
EMANON - Untitled (Separate Allocations) (unreleased, ?)
USEPHASAN - Fore The Lov (1998)
BAY AREA ART COLLECTIVE - Change (1998)
FUNDAMENTALS ft. THE ALL-SUN AVATARS - Dark Tower (1996)
Tracklist:
I SMOOTH 7 - Ghetto Life (1995)
THE GROUCH - The Afterlife (1995)
LOG CABIN - Erotica (Remix) (unreleased, circa 1995)
Outro
I just found a copy of that mix-cd that I once had, then lost, then looked for with no luck for quite some time until yesterday.
It's a special one because the guy selecting those tunes is DJ Hen Boogie, the DJ/ producer behind the short-lived San Jose duo The Dereliks that released very few materials that I cherish (the westcoast super-classic "Turn On The Wheel..." EP with the infamous 3-different hand-written back label, then a full album on cd a few years with older material- another one that should be on wax, just sayin, and a few month ago recently an EP with some demos on Chopped Herring).
It's special because yet it's another compilation of "breaks used in rap" I always came back to this particular one. There's ton of dope stuff in there, lots of stuff you probably never heard of, and he only uses super small parts of each record, which is at the same time fun (you'll find yourself hit the rewind button a lot, what's this one again.. c'mon, I know it!), frustrating (we want more!) and kind of overwhelming (needs multiple hearing to get the whole thing).
But yeah, I'm delighted I found it back and I wanted to share it with you. Hope you'll enjoy.
I interviewed him through e-mail the same year that mix-cd was released (2005) for the french webzine (now defunct) hiphopcore.net. Here's a very slightly edited version:
Tell us about your
very first contact with the hip hop world.
Wow, well I guess my first experience I
remember other than hearing "Rapper's Delight" was the first record I
bought with my own money which was "the Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on
the Wheels of Steel" I purchased it
just because I saw it was on the same label as the Sugar Hill Gang record. I remember when I first heard it I thought
that here was something wrong with the record because I had never heard
scratching before (Laughing)
But I remember playing that song over and
over again and wanting to figure out how it was done.
It's funny because as I say all of this I
realize that I was crate digging back then as a kid. You know?
Like checking out who was on what label and stuff.
What about your beginnings, Star Records, how you met Iz
and decided to start the Dereliks?
That's pretty long one. (laughs)
Well I was djing and I just really got the
bug to want to make the music I heard so I saved up my money and got a Roland
626. back then the 808 Bass sound was
the thing so I would try and run the Low Tom sound through the mixer and make
these wack drum patterns. But you
couldn't tell me then that I wasn't about to blow up.
So I kind of just put the music making
aspirations on hold and just kept spinning.
This one place I would buy records at all the time called Star records
basically was the hub of hip hop for years.
I never expected or thought I would ever work there. But it was one of the first DJ Counter models
so you had to give utmost respect to the person working the DJ counter. It was like they were the Guru of all music
information, you know what I mean?
So one day I hear they are hiring and I
came in and the owner loved me. There I
was thinking that it was because of my music knowledge but it was because I was
a big guy and she thought I would look pretty scary behind the counter
(Laughing)
Later I find out that it was actually a
combination of the two. You know what I
knew and my stature. Then I found out
the person I was replacing was Peanut Butter Wolf. He wasn't PB Wolf then but you know what I
mean.
So as I am working there the experience is
priceless you know what I mean? I mean
everyone came through. Artists on
labels, upcoming artists, you name it. I
was the "hip hop" guy there so I got to hang out with a lot of people
I don't think I would have ever met.
So while I was there I got back into making
music by going to studios that had the equipment I couldn't afford and working
with my good friend Ed Main on music. It
was a big progression from the old drum machine days but it still was missing
something.
I always talked to a bunch of people and
one day this dude came in who knew I was doing music said he knew of these two
dudes who need music. I met them and the
other guy was ok but Iz had this rap he did, that coincidentally became our
first song. That blew me away. I felt
bad but I got with Iz and said I could see working with him but I didn't see
much of a future with the two of them as a group. He actually had only started working with the
dude maybe a month before that so he didn't feel very committed to staying with
him.
So we kind of just looked at how we were as
dudes and we realized that we didn't really fit in with what was going on at
the time and we were cool with that so we were trying to come up with a word
that said all of that. So that's how we
came up with the Dereliks.
So we just clicked right away. It was weird because it just all came
together like that you know?
As
the Dereliks you released the infamous A Turn On The Wheel... EP which is now
very sought after (I saw a copy reaching 110$ a few days ago on eBay).
You released on a quite small label, Low Self Discipline, and I was wondering
if the opportunity of signing with a bigger label didn't show up?
Plus you had contact with people like Peanut Butter Wolf, etc..
Same with Change For The Bus Ride Home album released on Sublevel... It's
a classic to me and not too many people know about it.
Yeah it is a trip people want to pay that
much for it.
I don't know man I mean I'm torn because
it's flattering but I just think people tend to try and capitalize on things
when it's never the artist that gets the credit or compensation for it. But man, I wish there was a record I wanted
so bad to pay $100 for (laughing)
Anyways we put that out through this dude
named Brandon who found out about us from a demo review from Bomb Hip Hop
Magazine. He was the A&R for some
label and when they passed on us he basically quit and believed in it so much
he wanted to put it out. So basically
what we set out to do was to put out a classic piece of material that would be
a sought after item. So to actually do
what you set out to do means a lot. you know what I'm saying? Especially since this music game is so hit or
miss.
We definitely had labels approach us but we
would have ended up like all those other groups that came out with one album
got dropped and never heard of again. I
mean who knows maybe it would have blown on a whole other level but I like how
we did it. It just means more when you
can accomplish your goals on you own you know?
What happened with Iz? What do you think of his new group Tha High? Is there any chance to see another Dereliks album one day?
I think Iz and I both just got worn down by
it all. We were doing a lot of big
things but not getting paid for it. We
would pack a club to the point that they had to shut it down for fire hazard
reasons with people waiting outside and get paid pizza. We weren't very business savvy then. It made us more artistic but made us more
bitter at the end of the day.
I’m trying to see a situation that Iz and I
could come together on but it just doesn’t seem possible. I mean first and foremost there was a lot of
stuff recorded in between this time and “A turn on the Wheel” that no one
heard. How could anyone understand where
we would go unless you knew where we’ve been?
Me and Iz were like brothers. While we were doing the music he was living
in my mom’s house and he was like family.
But life went on. I did my thing
and Iz moved out and back to the old neighborhood and got with Tha High. Traxamillion who did the beats for that album
and also for Kaek da Sneak’s “Superhyphy” was part of our crew back in the day. We were grooming these kids and they were
pretty successful for what they did. So
it wasn’t like Iz just went off the deep end..he was just making neighborhood
music. That man has a daughter and had
to feed her dude so I mean you gotta do what you gotta to put food on the
table. I don’t doubt he could still
bring but there’s been a lot alof time and space between us so I just don’t see
it happening again.
So I think Tha High was an expression of
that. It's like you find out that your
girlfriend lied to you. The one you love
the most, you want to go out and just take it out on all the other females for
being hurt by it all. So personally I
don't fault him at all for how he handled it.
My coping mechanism was to close off and just make thousands of songs
and never let them be heard for years. I
just didn't think anyone deserved to hear it.
But I can say at least he never stopped which I can't say for me you
know? I mean I've been blessed that when
I was ready to return hip hop welcomed me back way more than I ever expected,
so I look forward to letting people hear what they should have heard long ago
and what I am doing now.
In the same vein you did a bunch of shows with Blackalicious, Black Eyed Peas
and De La Soul during the 90es, they all sound quite different now...
What
do you think about it?
I hope I don't sound the same now that I
did then (laughs). I mean there's always
an element of the person's original form in what hey are currently but I mean
as long as you don't get stuck in one state of mind I support it. Stagnation is the worse thing someone could
do to themselves.
That being said there's always something
magical about someone's first piece of work you know? It's when they are the hungriest and
artistically free. If you can maintain
that attitude of doing your craft like no one is listening so you don’t cater
to what ever you think people might want to hear it's always best.
But if you had told me that one day my kids
would go nuts over a Black Eyed Peas song I'd laugh at you back then. But they made their sound accessible to a
wider audience and I can't fault them for that.
It may not be the route I would take intentionally but if it happened
and I knew I was just being me and not formula based then I'd be able to live
with myself with that type of success. I
mean look at Arrested development man.
Speech basically sent up a prayer over a dope beat and it blew. So you can't ever really say.
Let's talk about records... What credits do you give to cratedigging as a producer
and DJ? What's the highest price you put on a record? Any nice anecdotes
about cratedigging?
Well definitely Peanut Butter Wolf because
he put me on to Ultimate Beats and Breaks.
It was nonchalant but after he told me about those I knew all I had to
do is find all the records that weren’t on there you know what I’m saying? But other than that man I’ve gotten so many
records just given to me for whatever reason from folks who were actually
there. It wasn’t like I went on a hunt
for the samples they found me. Most of
the stuff I didn’t even realize I had until listening to other tracks on the
records way later. That’s how the
FemaleFun project came about.
The most I paid for a record was $75 for a
Sun RA record. The 12” of Nuclear War
about 7 years ago. But other than that I
just don’t see putting a price on good music that high. I mean some of the biggest sampled classics
you can find in the dollar bin. It kind
of takes the fun out of it to pay all that money for something though. It’s like cheating. I’d rather tell a story about how I found
this record or that piece.
I still defy anyone to name all of the
samples on “A Turn On The Wheel” though.
That’s what’s been such a treat for me about it because most stuff on
there no one knows where it came from. I
like to keep people guessing like that.
I did get a few offers of money to let folks know what the sources of
some of the samples were. (Laughs) That between me and the records baby!
Can you tell us more about Nobody Beats The Boog?
Best way to describe it is me bragging
about some records I have. Not to be
conceited but it’s all part of it. It
also serves as a primer to those who never heard the originals. Most seasoned diggers would know a good majority
of them but I know they don’t know them all. I put some extra goodies on
there. But I fully hoped and expected
people to sample from it because I would rather hear some good music for a
change. (Laughing)
It’s just a fun cd you know. You can play it in the background or loud
too. I got a person who wrote me who
said she uses it for her dance class that she teaches her kids and they love
it. Another person said it’s like a hip
hop trivial pursuit game.
It’s one aspect of me and definitely not
the only one but it has opened a lot of doors for me definitely. So thanks again to Peter and DJ Fisher for
putting it out.
What advice would you give to young people that want to start a career in
hip hop?
Keep your nose clean, never stop, and don’t
burn bridges.
Thank you very much for your answers. Any last words?
