Troubleneck Brothers "Love/Hate" (Album Release)

Love/Hate combines several demo tracks from the Troubleneck Brothers' early-to-mid 90's tapes including instant classics such as "Back 2 The Hip Hop". Hailing from New York's Harlem and Uptown, the crew consisting of Soundwave, Moetown, Prophet, Blunt, Stepchild, Shaft and Nat 1 created some heavy buzz on the underground scene with their classic East Coast sound. Man, "Troubleneck Wreck" was one of my favorite pieces of vinyl back in the 90s. This release includes a demo version of that track and many others. Their early joints were released on StepSun Music Entertainment, whose parent label was Tommy Boy Records. Bill Stephney had a real ear for music. It's nice to see these rare demo joints unearthed from the Troubleneck Brothers, listen to it via 90s Tapes below...

Troubleneck Brothers "Troubleneck Wreck" (12", 1993)

The Troubleneck Brothers were a 7-man posse from Harlem & Uptown consisting of: Soundwave, Prophet, Blunt, Stepchild, Moetown, Natural One, and Shaft. Their debut album was an unreleased project called "Fuck All Y'All" on Bill Stephney's StepSun Entertainment. Returning a year later in '93, they released a remixed version of "Troubleneck Brothers" that caught more attention as the climate of music had shifted to a more aggressive sound. There were obvious comparisons to Onyx and Wu-Tang, the latter mostly due the number of members in the crew. In 1994, they released an EP entitled "Release Me" and a more popular track in "Back To The Hip-Hop." With disagreements and legal issues mounting with StepSun, they changed names to 36Zero and released their "Maintain" EP. None of the releases stuck like "Troubleneck Brothers" and "Back To The Hip-Hop," and the group went separate ways in '95. Blunt (Steven Samuel) went on to create the popular hip-hop news site SOHH with his wife. In 2010, their debut release "Fuck All Y'All" was released on vinyl and CD with 20 tracks, plus a bonus CD of alternate mixes, demo tracks and instrumentals. More below...

As a bonus, The Source's Sure Shot Single review, September, 1993...