Fundamentals

Koncepts – “It’s The Beat”

from Koncepts Presents The Bomb Shelter (Unreleased, 1993-95)

Today our in house Bay Area Rap analyst Jonny Paycheck pka Koncepts gets personal with this sixteen track compilation of previously unreleased high school era demos that he and his crew recorded in the converted boiler room under his Mom’s house. Hit the jump for Jonny’s very detailed history of the artists involved. (more…)

After spending many months circumnavigating Murs’ unidread, our resident Bay underground historian Jonny Paychecks has returned with another round of his Bay Area Rap Tapes series. Today he looks at “It’s Going Down” by Oakland’s Misfitz Ov Stylz. (Apologies for the ugly jpg, Discogs is all we have to go on. If you have a better scan or old photos of the group then you know what to do.)

Misfitz Ov Stylz – “It’s Going Down”

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from Black Death (Underground, 1998, recorded ’93/’94?)

Despite appearing formally on the Black Death tape in 1998, I think this particular track predates that substantially. “It’s Going Down” was a mainstay of M.O.S.’s sets at the Unsigned & Hella Broke shows going back to the early days (I remember hearing this at Jackson Street Studios, but I might be confusing venues here). This cut was a crowd favorite, to the point that folks knew it well enough to sing along at the hook, “La la la la laaaa…” (more…)

Our favorite rapper ternt record slanga Jonny Paycheck is back again with the second half of the West Coast Underground video collection. For those who missed it Bomb Magazine founder David Paul turned up in the comments of the first for some clarification about the video’s origins. It combines footage from Bomb’s ’94 and ’95 showcases, both at SF’s DNA Lounge. However, Bomb was not involved with the release of this video, it was instead an overseas bootleg compiled by unnamed hand cam bandits (proto-flipcammers?) So now we’re bootleging the bootleggers. More Journeymen as well as clips of Mixmaster Mike, Underbombers, Urban Soul, 10 Bass T and KNT after the jump. (more…)

Cocaine Blunts Bay Area Rap Tape representative Jonny Paycheck has ripped this batch of vintage footage from Bomb Hip Hop Magazine’s West Coast Underground Vol. 1. The footage itself is pretty low quality but the audio sounds solid enough. We’re not entirely sure of the venue or date of recording, but based on the songs being performed one might roughly estimate that it was from 94 or 95. (Anyone have more specific info?) Performances by Blackalicious, Raw Soul and Soul Kitchen as well as LA’s Abstract Tribe Unique and Jurassic 5 after the jump. Part two coming soon.

Update from Bomb Hip Hop’s David Paul: “The footage is from the 94 and the 95 parties. Both at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco presented by The Bomb Hip-Hop Magazine. These West Coast Underground video tapes are bootlegs from the UK and are of bad visual & audio quality. Someone had taken the tapes and decided to edit and make their own compilations (yuck). They don’t seem to sync up either. Glad everyone is enjoying the footage but we had nothing to do with the posting or the quality of this.” (more…)

Jonny Paycheck just sent over this nice youtube companion to his Mixed Practice post. It’s some old footage of Eclipse of Mixed Practice and Karma of Kemetic Suns hitting the streets of Berkeley to push their wares. Interspersed is also performance footage from Murs and DJ Vin Roc.

Jon’s got some more ill shit planned for this series in the near future. Keep your third eye open.