Medina Green f/ Mos Def – “Crosstown Beef”

Medina Green f/ Mos Def – “Fa La Lashe“

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from Crosstown Beef 12″ (Rawkus, 1998)

Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Talib Kweli, Rah Digga & A-Butta – “Talkin To You“

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from CIA 12″ (Rawkus, 1998)

So this is shaping up to be a quarterly series. Because I’m a busy man – I have a formspring to tend, after all. (more…)

Call me crazy, but I consider the Outz to be one of my favorite rap groups of all time. They’re a top 5 private mind garden selection on the right day. Their hyper pronounced multi-syllabic flows were memorized by the few of us lucky enough to be jamming their tapes and brought Eminem coming out of his I-Wish-I-Was-AZ shell. Plus, like their big brother Reggie Noble, their sense of humor was so distinctively Jersey that maybe you had to have grown up in that state to really understand their off kilter punchlines. (Sometimes Gucci Mane seems like a spiritual descendant of that dumb dope style. Remember when Zee was licking icicles off bitches nipples in igloos and such?)

In my book they rank maybe just a rung lower than the Dungeon, Wu, Natives, etc. in the pantheon of great rap crews. Really the only thing preventing them from being truly great was that they never got a chance to cut those classic albums that they definitely had in their brains somewhere. Blame it on the politics of the business or blame it on the ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-acid tabs. Whatever the case they did manage to make a gang load of great singles (and demos). Here are just a few. I didn’t even know there were clips for “I’m Leavin” and “Money”. Not their best songs, admittedly, but I’m posting them in the name of completism. (more…)

YN & Noz Present: The Hard Body Female Spit Compilation Vol. 8

Today Elliott Wilson aka YN steps in to shill mightily for his television program Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme, the final episode of which airs this evening on VH1. I’m too broke for cable so I don’t know what’s up with MRS, but as the spiritual forefathers to both cynical music blogging and cereal hip hop journalism the Ego Trip collective gets my cosignature period. I’d rock ET branded diapers, no questions asked. Plus I’ve never been one to back down from a soundclash. So I’ll now pass the mic to the YNIC before he once again disappears in a fog or a mist. It’s the first time in five years anyone else has written for this site and the last time I will use the words “hard body”:

To Tha Rescue

Still no worries as DC’s Finest and I are gonna enlighten and brighten your fuckin’ Manic Monday by droppin’ gems on you unsuspecting rhyme connoisseurs. Remember the grand finale of ego trip’s Miss Rap Supreme is tonight at ten. That’s right, YN is through Internet thuggin’ and invading other cats’ rap sites like a demented Jehovah’s Witness. Thanks again, Noz for being a bigger class act than the wackest Kid N Play flick. Ha! As the wife would say, the kids don’t know.

Hit the jump for the audio and our commentary (more…)