Ei8trak "Cheers" (1998)

Ei8 is short for Ei8track; an MC out of the Bronx, New York. He was down with Mass Vinyl Recordings; a label discussed on here a few times from the 90s. Ei8 was part of the group Parallax (and now part of The Faculty). He dropped a couple 12" releases in the late 90s, and this one in particular had a B-Side joint called "Cheers," with production from Garsha Vega. He flips the popular television show theme to "Cheers," and with the hard drums, actually pulls it off. I first heard the track on a mixtape by DJ Promo, who serviced mixtapes to a spot called Numbers Records in Queens in the 90s. There was one on Fresh Pond Road that relocated to Myrtle Avenue and one in Jackson Heights. Anyhow, the 12" features another B-Side joint called "Are You Ready Son?" with fan-favorite Hi-Tech too - both songs making it worth picking up a copy of this 12". If anyone has any of those 90s tapes from DJ Promo, please shoot me an email about 'em. Listen below and props to Mike Nice.

Wildman Steve & DJ Riz "The Hip Hop Spot" (1/23/95)

Wild Man Steve jumps on the mic at 34:37 and talks a little before introducing Smif-N-Wessun at 36:38. Smif-N-Wessun come back again at 50:18 and then get into a freestyle at 54:41 along with their man The Mighty Mateen. In between all this, Riz gets busy with joints, and before long Steve is back (96:25) to chop it up some more and introduce Parallax (Ei8Trak) who shows up again at 112:10. Listening to these shows is sort of like the prequels to most people's career. We all know most of these artists now, but back then a lot of these groups were just starting to make a name for themselves. Like Steve asking Smif-N-Wessun "who's Mr. Walt?" (54:06). We've come a long way. Props to DJ Eclipse once again for the audio, 90.3 WBAU (January 23, 1995). Dig into it below...