Rest In Peace, DJ Stef + "Hip-Hop '94" (Mixtape, 1994)

Stephanie Ornelas aka DJ Stef is a Bay Area icon! "She was a gifted DJ with an enormous vinyl collection; a graphic designer and self-taught web developer with an impressive client base; a hip-hop journalist who enthusiastically embraced the internet before it became mainstream; and a gregarious networker who introduced future spouses, business partners, and creative collaborators to one another.... In the early ’90s, Stef founded an influential hip-hop zine called the Vinyl Exchange, where she covered underground artists like DJ Shadow and J-Rocc. The zine evolved into a message board and, eventually, an online magazine with a YouTube show. Up until her death, Stef remained active in the scene: She maintained a popular DJ residency at Drake’s Dealership in Oakland through this past summer, and she was prolific with her graphic and web design business, boasting clients like the show Entourage and the San Francisco nightclub Monarch.... The Bay Area is better for her having been here, and she won't be forgotten. - via Nastia Voynovskaya // Rest In Peace, DJ Stef... this is her Hip-Hop '94 mix tape, featuring artists like Smif-N-Wessun, Ultramagnetic MCs, Tribe, Gang Starr, Da King & I, Jeru, Mobb Deep, and lots more. Thanks, Mike, for the audio. Listen below...

Jean Grae "The Bootleg Of The Bootleg EP" (2003)

"Jean Grae is self-aware, if nothing else. At times captivated by a world of fantasy to hide her real thoughts, for the most part she is brutally honest with herself and the listener. Delivering her personal mantra on her second solo effort, the Babygrande release is as lyrically visceral as they come - a great irony for a woman who named herself after a fictitious comic book character. After venting throughout her solo debut, Attack of the Attacking Things, the former What? What? of the collective Natural Resource, is still using the mic as her therapist and the rolling tape as her personal diary. The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP, her second solo effort in as many years, is a perfect name for the record. Often used as a way to give the world what the major record distributors and marketing teams won’t touch, the bootleg is an open canvas for many rappers these days. It limits the constraints of other hands touching one’s product and goes directly to the consumer. The abstract thought of bootlegging an original bootleg allows for even less diluted material - simply a novel idea." Click play on Jean's Bootleg Of The Bootleg EP, and continue reading below...

"On Bootleg, Grae’s six full songs and a 45-minute freestyle session allow for plenty of quality material to reach the listener. “Hater’s Anthem” is her response to her detractors over an Alchemist -like beat, and the wah-wah of ’70s funk on “Take Me” is a cry for help, as Jean Grae admits, “I am blinded like a junkie shooting up with emotional Novocain.” And those are only the first two songs on the EP. “My Crew”, with its subtle Jay-Z sample in the background, is the admission to troubles of hip-hop today. “I represent for a nation/Thought we was in it together/But I guess it gets strange when money rains in sunny weather,” she raps. “….Rap’s dead/ Rap sucks/ But thanks to y’all for killing it/ Grilling it down and spilling its guts and filling it back up with trash/I mean cash….” Once again, self-aware and brutally honest. The most impressive of all the music are Grae’s rhymes over the relatively happy beat of Scarface’s “My Block.” The frank tone is striking as she recites lyrics that will leave the listener with raised eyebrows by the second line. “I’m feeling numb, thinking of changing my name to crystal meth/ Playing this game, holding my mic like a pistol/ Aiming at death/ And I love nobody/ Alone in this world, that how I came in it/ But shit can flash and reverse the same in a minute,” she raps.... Jean Grae also shines as she manages to rhyme over Jay-Z, Nas, and Eminem beats as well as the originals. During the 45-minute mix that follows the original six tracks, Grae provides her version of the hits.... For those who haven’t heard the first album, pick up the Bootleg." - HipHopSite. Revisit the EP, now available as a "Deluxe Version." 

Skyzoo "Peddler's Theme" (EP Stream)

Peddler Themes serves as a prelude to Skyzoo’s upcoming album In Celebration of Us, which is scheduled for a Winter 2017/early 2018 release. The EP picks up where Skyzoo left off on his previous project Music for My Friends, continuing the album’s sound and reflective/nostalgic content of what Sky learned from and did during his neighborhood days. A nice EP, listen below...

Jedi Mind Tricks "Before The Great Collapse" (2004)

"Before The Great Collapse" was released in 2004 by Jedi Mind Tricks on their fourth studio album, Legacy Of Blood on Babygrande Records. The track is essentially a suicide letter from Vinnie Paz to his mother. The song is the first single performed solely by Vinnie Paz and was followed up by a response in "Razorblade Salvation" on their Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell album. Stoupe's production and sample choices match the melancholy vibe of the song to near perfection. The chemistry between Paz and Stoupe on record was always palpable. I know there are fans that can directly point to these songs as the reason they are still alive today - that's the power of music. JMT's cult following was the one of the strongest in music at one time. If you don't believe me, click through and take a look at the comments below the audio posted below! These days we have 'emo rap' as a full-on-genre, but back then, it was just MCs being transparent and speaking their truth on the highs and lows of life outside of music. Music has always been therapy and ironically, many of our greatest artists have been the most tortured souls. Happy (40th) Birthday to Vinnie Paz! 

Eric B. & Rakim "We're The Opposite of the Beastie Boys" (1987)

Smash Hits was a pop magazine in the UK from the late 70s into the 2000s. This article with Eric B. & Rakim was featured in their November-December issue in 1987. In the brief interview, Eric B made reference to them being the opposite of the Beastie Boys and while it wasn't the focus of the article, headlines do sell, lol. "Yeah, we're like the opposite of the Beastie Boys in a way," Eric B says in response to being 'a serious pair.' "Now people see them as being rowdy and unpleasant but I just see them as living out everybody's fantasy. Everyone wants to behave loosely and badly and just do what they feel like doing. But we're not like that -- our stage act isn't a whole lot of laughing clowns dancing about on the stage -- it's a serious 45 minutes. Our songs are about serious everyday situations that people can relate to." The article, promoting their Paid In Full release, also includes the lyrics and a breakdown of some of the bars about positivity and their ultimate message on the song, 'Don't be a stick up kid!' That's sound advice! Peep the technique from Rakim below...

J-Zone "Root For The Villain" (Book) + Video

"My name is J-Zone. If you actually know who the hell I am, either you listen to way too much rap music, you're a Tim Dog fan, or you stood outside my distributor's warehouse the day my CDs and records were destroyed. I was on the hip-hop come-up, then I came down - hard. Splat. Some critical success, incessant praise from pop stars and hip-hop legends alike, and then...abysmal commercial failure. I did tours on Greyhound buses filled with wide-bodied, Jheri curled women and knife-wielding gang members. I witnessed my life-long passion for music dissolve in 12 hours and my final album sell a whopping 47 copies in its first month for sale. I left my little-known spot in a small, niche quadrant of the hip-hop world and joined my fellow overqualified stiffs with useless college degrees in the world of dead end jobs. For some sick reason, I find all of the above hilarious and have made an omelette out of any egg that wound up on my face. The book has chapters dedicated to cassette tapes, defunct record stores, the SP-1200 sampling drum machine, hip-hop recording studios of the 1990s, and overlooked rap artists all point to my fascination with the obscure. A collection of memoirs and think pieces written by a curmudgeonly commercial failure who is somehow laughing hysterically at both himself and the stupidity of the world large probably won't become a New York Times best-seller, either. Be honest though, you need something to place drinks on when you have company; at worst, my book is a perfect cocktail coaster...." Order a copy of Root For The Villain: Rap, Bullshit, And A Celebration Of Failure" HERE. And, as a bonus, check out this classic video of J-Zone arguing for cassettes as the greatest form of media ever created! Yes/No?

Boodah Bros Show Freestyles 90s (R.I.P. Kool DJ Law)

Props to Roc Smith, who uploaded these dope freestyles from Mad Skillz, SupaFriendz, Black Thought, Boot Camp Clik, Sadat X and Xzibit from the Boodah Bros Live From The Hood radio show on 103 Jamz back in the mid-90s. 103 Jamz is based in Norfolk, VA. Back in 2010, the hip-hop community mourned the death of 103 Jamz Program Director and radio personality, DJ Law, from the Boodah Brothers. DJ Law co-hosted the show with Big B, and Law had worked at the radio show since high school back in 1992. Rest In Peace, Kool DJ Law. Peep these freestyles below.

DJ Matman "Classic Material: 1995" (Vol. 1-2, Mixes)

"It's nineteen ninety-five..." DJ Matman dropped these 2 flawless mixes in 2011, representing some of the best tracks from 1995. On his Mixcloud, he provided some backstory: "Earlier this year (2011), I was asked to DJ a guest slot at London's Classic Material, a club night dedicated to chronicling the history of Hip-Hop, year by year. I was asked to spin at the 1995 event, a great year for hip hop and of particular relevance to me as it was around this time I started my addiction to buying Hip-Hop records, spending all my spare cash and lunch money on LPs & 12's! I ended up playing over 2 hours at Classic Material, and these mixes represent how I put it down that night, and in roughly the same order." The 2 volumes feature tracks from Big L, Lost Boyz, Blahzay Blahzay, Boot Camp Clik, Camp Lo, Show & AG, Heltah Skeltah, Biggie, Das Efx, Masta Ace, Mobb Deep, Junior M.A.F.I.A., Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, KRS, Group Home, Tribe and so much more. I recommend and support all his mixes; his track selection is dope and skills are always on point. Both mixes are below.