Log Cabin Crew- “Trophies”
Log Cabin Crew- “1 Eyeball”
Log Cabin Crew- “Erotica”
Log Cabin Crew- “Submental“
unreleased, 199?
A few days ago in the comments emil fucked around and got me thinking about truehiphop.com and my days of west coast dubs and no coast dorks. So here are a bunch of songs from my favorite underground LA rap group that didn’t have any direct involvement in the project blowed (although there was a heavy influence). The Log Cabin Crew had Murs and Radioinactive and Eligh and Scarub and Tom Slick and a bunch of dudes who are irrelevant in it I honestly forgot just how much I loved this shit. When was the last time i posted FOUR mp3s? (answer: september 15th).
But yeah these dudes actually got clowned by the blowed cats on the regular. The afterlife faction in particular made a bunch of songs about how they were lumberjacks (geddit? chopping down log cabins! underground rap beef is by and for geniuses). But now they all love each other. Part of that might have something to do with most of the dudes who were in Log Cabin pretending like it never existed.
In this interview Anti-MC speaks on the blowed beef and the history of the crew in more detail than I’ve heard anybody in years:
A lot of it is shrouded in myth and mystery and egos… But really, it’s Eligh and Ellay Khule in the past. Eligh went to junior high with the East Side Badstads (a good life group consisting of c.r., misfit, and i can’t remember the other dude’s name. They did a tape called “The biggest of the baddest” or something like that, that had ellay khule on it) . They were definitely rapping before but he came to junior high already being a rapper. There’s videotapes of Eligh, Scarub, Demetrion (who was in the Badstads) and a couple of other dudes rapping together at 52 nd Street elementary school, all of them rapping fast as kids. I think that it all started because the Log Cabin said “we’re gonna do it ourselves, we don’t need you to have credibility”… It was a harsh attitude to have. People would say that the Log Cabin was biting Project Blowed, but the only persons that really rapped fast in Log Cabin were Kamal and Eligh. Tom Slick rapped kinda fast but not really, Malik the Problem Child sounded like a regular g-rapper, Pooridge didn’t really rap fast, I was on some bullshit, Murs never really flipped it very much, Saga could flip it but he didn’t very often… He had a song ‘Lake Under The Forest’ that never came out that was like a 130 bpm. I had never heard anybody rap like that. It was fucking ape-shit! But it never was released and he rapped pretty slow on the Log Cabin songs he was on. So I think a lot of it was between Kamal, Eligh and those dudes.
At the same time, it totally came back when Kamal and Omid were working together for some songs of “Pyramidi”. Kamal met Khule one night at the studio and he was wondering he was gonna get punched in the mouth. But Omid introduced them and was like “this is Radioinactive”. Khule was like “you were in Log Cabin, right? You were that dude rapping like the goat” Kamal was like “oh, shit”… But Khule said “that shit was crazy, man”. So it was all cool and now they see each other on a homie-vibe and they totally adopted him. But when I was with Xinxo on the plane to Hawaii, he was like “Log Cabin, y’all some biters!” and I was like “Fuck you!” But, anyway, the shit Elusive was producing and the shit Eligh or Conflict were producing didn’t sound like anything C.V.E. or other Afterlife guys were doing. It was more jazzy, almost more new-yorky… So I don’t know. I know Khule likes to say he broke up the Log Cabin, but money broke up the Log Cabin! There was a record deal on the table through the guy who had the studio where we recorded our songs. His name was Henry and he was from France and he had a French investor that wanted to sign us… Yeah! France always showed us some love! J’adore Paris ! (laughs) So there was a pretty good-size contract on the table and it got pretty ugly like “should the money be split evenly across or should it be based on work?” Because there were guys like Pooridge who was on one song. And it was like “should he get an equal share of money as Kamal or Tom Slick or Eligh who’s on every fucking song and produced even songs that he’s not on?” So what really took it under was people being young and inexperienced with a lot of money in front of them…
And it’s easy to write them off as merely blowed biters, but they notably did a lot more of the intentionally (?) offbeat sort of thing, altogether ignoring rhythm, where the blowedians were merely expanding it’s confines. And as far as content goes, I’d say the log cabins were much bigger nerds (and I think i mean that in a good way, but right now i got my nerd credibility and street credibility radars so twisted i’m not even sure anymore). They who were making ten minute songs about gnomes and sad loser in love anthems like “Erotica” or “Trophies”. And as such I think Log Cabin doesn’t really get their just due in the grand scheme of nerd rap – when I listen to anticon (err… not that i listen to anticon…), I get more of a log cabin sentiment than a blowed. This might be part of the reason the legends/3MGs branch of the group consistently overlooks particular period of their backcatalog. I guess they’re successful on that count because if I mention Mikah 9 or whoever to an Anticon fan (err… not that i talk to anticon fans…) they’ll get all starry eyed whether or not they’re actually familiar with their actual work, but I don’t think it would even register if I mentioned Tom Slick. But I digress.
I don’t really think I need to tell you what Murs, Scarub & Eligh are doing. They left one of the most innovative west coast underground crews for the most middle-of-the-road of them and have spent the past ten years making a half dozen goodnotgreat rap records a year. Murs dumbed down his style the most. He’s still a fun(ny) performer, but I think he’s yet to parlay that into making a record that fully makes use of his charisma (which has grown to be his strongest trait as his rapping deteriorated). Scarub is a beast of a performer and “Saavy Traveler” was pretty dope (incidentally, the success of this track was at least partially due to the involvement of almost in house blowed producer omid). And I can’t think of anything to say about Eligh right now, and i mean that with the upmost indifference. And I know some rabid legends will jump up like “why you hating on the greatest rappers ever?” and I hate to break their little hearts or scuff their kicks, but I’m just not. I can’t even muster up the emotion of hate with these guys. I mostly only think of them when I’m thinking of Log Cabin or if they open up for a rapper I actually like.
Radioinactive (often with Anti-MC) has gone completely off the deep end into weirdo rap territory, he’s expunged on the log cabin thing and adopted a very sun ra aesthetic. It’s nice, but in 2005 that sort of thing’s just not as cool as it would’ve been 10 years ago. I will still check for his shit on occasion and I did enjoy his last record Free Kaamal record quite a bit.
I don’t know where Tom Slick or any of those Universouls dudes who’s names I can’t remember are. If they are still making music I feel a little bad for them.
(by the way i realized i already made a similar post a year and a halfago, except i said the same thing in a much more succinct manner, and i don’t mention anticon, but i do mention walter/wendy carlos. i’m falling off.)
IN OTHER NEWS: I GOT MORE RAP RECORDS ON EBAY! BUY EM! BILLS ARE DUE! WHEN I WRITE IN CAPS IT MAKES YOU WANT TO BID!
