DJ Paul & Juicy J – “Playa Hatas“

from Pt. 3: Spring Mix ‘95 (Underground 1995)

What I wouldn’t give for an afternoon with Juice’s tape bag. (||?)

Imma holler and scream “DF”

Dungeon Family reunion spread from the final issue of Vibe. Sadly, part 2 will not be running. A Lil Will CD, a fuckin poster and eternal props to whichever disgruntled ex-Vibe employee liberates it for the web. (via Rap Radar)

UPDATE Maurice upped some video footage from the shoot. Check it after the jump. [Read more]

Noel Rockwell f/ The Poet – “Beat You Down“

from Beat You Down 12? (11-A, 1987)

Poet – “All Hell Breakin’ Loose“

from All Hell Breakin’ Loose 12? (Nu-Sound, 1987)

The Fedz (Rockwell Noel & The Poet) – “Taking-U-Out“

from Taking U Out 12? (11-A, 1988)

Rockwell Noel & The Poet – “Massacre“

from Massacre 12? (Sam, 1989)

And here’s a quick re-up on (Blaq) Poet’s complete 1980s catalog (give or take a few forgettable remixes). Every one of these tracks is a KRS One diss in some shape, except for “The Wopp Sensation.” That’s a dance craze record. Read more at the original post from 2005.

Blaq Poet – “S.O.S.” (Prod. By DJ Premier)

from The Blaqprint (Year Round, 2009)

Willie Isz (Khujo Goodie & Jneiro Jarel) – “Blast Off“

from Georgiavania (Lex, 2009)

It’s been a long time since I had a good rant here. But two old heads dropped albums on Tuesday and the blogs are basically pretending they didn’t when they did. [Read more]

S.L.A.B. f/ Z-Ro – “Everytime”

from The Anthem (BCD, 2006)

Ah mayn ya boi dun came down wit a bad mafuckin virus mayn. I be out here coughin like a mafucka fo like a whole dayum week now! Usually mayn i heal real quick from deze colds mayn mah immune system cant be fucked wit u alreddy kno, so i wuz juss waitin it out but taday i wuz like mayn hol up i need ta go see de d.o.c. an git dem antibiotics mayn. [Read more]

Sniper Unit – “Burnt Up City”

Sniper Unit f/ Cool Breeze & Backbone – “Realism”

Sniper Unit – “Atlanta“

from Burnt Up City (Conquest/Ichiban, 1996)

More forgotten mid 90s A-Town heat. Sniper Unit was the duo of Big L (no DITC) and Splack Pack/D-Rock dj/producer ternt rapper Swift C. They ran with MC Breed and released just this one album of hyper dramatic apocolyptic post-mobb rap. “Realism” is their Dungeon Family connection track being (I think) the earliest appearance of Backbone and featuring Cool Breeze kicking what would eventually become his closing “Watch For The Hook” verse. Sniper Unit later added Breeze to their lineup officially and re-christened the group The Calhouns. That album was sort of uninspired.

Triflin Pac – “College Park“

from Triflin’s Da Word EP (Po Hustlin, 1997)

Hailing from Collipark, Georgia this nigh-ungooglable act originally came out in 1993 kicking that diggity iggity Das Efx flow. They dropped just one 12″ on Elektra before getting dropped themselves. In 1997 they relaunched the group with more of a post-Dungeon Fam/Ghetto Mafia street oriented vibe. You know, sounding a little like rappers who actually came from where they came from. I have a copy of the full EP here on vinyl but it looks like the Gravediggaz have been sharpening knives on it for the past twelve years so I had to grab “College Park” from this bootleggish Cool Breeze compilation. It would be nice if somebody could up a clean rip of the whole tape…

The evolution of this post you are reading goes like this. The life imitating rap gchat conversation. To rap imitating life. To theatrical/operatic rap. To rap sketch comedy. To the appropriately short lived Lyricist Lounge MTV show. To the ODB with a second frog in his throat cast member Masta Fu’ol. To this early underground tape with Thirstin Howl. To my cassette cases under the bed. To the realization that I no longer have this tape. To the mighty TROY forums. To Rapidshare. To my harddrive. To my itunes. To the internet. To you, the reader. Ayo technology and tangents.

Anyway I like the idea of rapping about being thirsty instead of hungry. Rappers are always hungry. This tape is thirsty. JBs/PE squelches for the win. Bilingual tag team rapps for the win. Fakey Wu Tang moves for the win. This shit just is stupid in the best way possible. Like the Outsidaz, Thirstin and Fu’ol seemed better equipped when on some lo-fi shit. Like so many of that era these guys were totally aping the Wu kung fu obsession but doing a good enough job of it to get a pass. Or maybe I’m just temporarily deafened by nostalgia. It’s interesting that this sort of unfinished, unpolished, two minute song has become an aesthetic (see: that new Mos Def album that’s pretty good). It seemed more utilitarian when it happened in the era of Thirsty Greedy – “no labels wanted to press it”. Though in retrospect there was no reason that they couldn’t have written actual songs with chorus and such and just mixed them down to four track. Still when Thirstin started doing just that he seemed to lose some of his original charm. “Brooklyn Hard Rock” was pretty nice though. Fu’ol seemed to have disappeared completely a few years after the LL show, but nope, he’s back and on myspace. He even has a song with the actual ODB.

Sorry about the skipping, I didn’t rip this.

After the jump is a crazy clip of a 16 year old Thirstin (then Big Vic Lo) freestyling with his folks way back in 1986. [Read more]

Freddie Gibbs

Local Product is a new and hopefully reoccurring series where current day artists from smaller market hip hop scenes break down the untold histories of their cities. Freddie Gibbs, of Gary, Indiana seemed like a good place to start. His Miseducation Of Freddie Gibbs is one of the stronger mixtapes to drop in recent months, but the community that birthed him has been taking form since the mid to late 90s with groups like The Grind Family, CCA and the MCG’z. Here Freddie tells their story and introduces you to some of their classic records. He even gets Grind Family’s incarcerated founder Will Scrilla in on the conversation. [Read more]

XO f/ Allison Carney – “FRNO”

XO f/ Gorda Brega – “Idle Hands“

from Monumental (Mixtape/Studio 43, 2009)

Yet another tape from hyper prolific DC emcee XO, who you might have heard on the Diamond District project with Oddisee and Yu. There are at least a half dozen rappers in this city who deserve the sort of press that Wale has been getting and XO is one of them. Hopefully he’ll get just that now that he’s linked up with Kenny Burns and Studio 43. This has more of a mellow vibe than his previous Realmatic, but it suits him well. AB The Producer handled all the beats here. Tracklisting after the jump. (via Illroots) [Read more]