State Property "The Roc-A-Fella Takeover" (Hot 97, 1/12/01)

Hot 97 was an ally, a safe space, a platform to break records. It was where Jay Z turned to for both promotion and to share professional dirt.... Hot 97 was Jay Z’s home for the six straight summers he ran rap.... Flex’s nightly show was also where Jay turned when he wanted to introduce his new artists. In the early days, Roc-A-Fella had a scant roster: mixtape legend DJ Clue; a ferocious rapper from South Philadelphia named Beanie Sigel; Jay Z’s longtime protégé Memphis Bleek; and Amil.... With the label’s next wave of artists on deck—a handful of Philly MCs in Sigel’s mold—Jay needed a platform. On the morning of January 12, 2001, he called Funkmaster Flex. Following a conversation between Flex, Jay Z, and then-Def Jam VP Mike Kyser, it was settled: Jay would appear on Flex’s show later that evening, new acts in tow. And though he wouldn’t rap, he instructed Flex to “get the beats ready.” The Roc’s untested squad of battle rappers—Freeway, Oschino, Sparks, and Young Chris—also prepared for a potentially career altering event. Freestyles during Flex’s nightly primetime shift reached audiences beyond Hot 97’s broadcast range. DJs often packaged the rhymes onto mixtapes and compilations, while newfound peer-to-peer file-sharing services such as Napster spread the music online. The freestyles also lived on at Hot 97—a peerless self-aggrandizer, Flex often replayed highlights from his own show.... The mood was celebratory inside Hot 97’s downtown Manhattan studios on that evening. Freeway and the future members of what would become Philly rap group State Property, along with Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek, popped bottles, and rhymed over classic boom-bap productions for nearly an hour of gripping radio. “It was the spark to their careers,” Cipha Sounds remembers. “Everybody was wondering about these guys afterwards. Everybody wanted to hear more from them.” Jay Z executed the hardhat duties of a hype man throughout, chuckling at the hottest lines and punctuating verses with cries of “It’s the Roc!” He then thanked Flex and Tracy Cloherty for permitting what was dubbed “The Roc-A-Fella Takeover,” a talent showcase for the label that doubled as free advertising. “That was a little unusual for me to have a bunch of unknown rappers freestyling,” Flex says. “I probably wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for Jay Z.” - Props to Pitchfork, and DJStepOne for the audio.

Sa-Roc "Tiny Desk Concert" (NPR, Video)

If you want protest music for the uprising of the American consciousness, then look no further. Sa-Roc (born Assata Perkins) is an emcee from southeast Washington, D.C., and the second woman signed to Minneapolis-based hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment, home to Atmosphere and Brother Ali among many others. In this Tiny Desk (home) concert, she debuted two exclusives, "Deliverance" and "r(E)volution," both from her upcoming album, The Sharecropper's Daughter, which is produced by her partner in life, Sol Messiah, and scheduled for release this fall. Sa-Roc bears her heart and soul here, weaving together influential threads from her upbringing; Pan-Africanism, the hardship of her father's experience as a sharecropper in Virginia and her own childhood in Congress Heights, D.C., an area ravaged by violence and the crack epidemic in the 1980s. On "r(E)volution" she spits bars: "Embedded in the home of the brave, the darkest of interiors. / Saw street scholars and soldiers defect cuz they post-traumatic stressed from the American experience." "Music I was exposed to, as well as their ideology, was all politically minded and African centered," she expressed to me on the phone. "The culture of DC go-go, Gil Scott Heron, and The Last Poets shaped me." Sa-Roc is a modern day griot whose aura radiates calm in a world of chaos. This Tiny Desk (home) concert is as close as it gets to required viewing. - NPR // An important voice, please watch below.

Preservation "Eastern Medicine, Western Illness" (Album Stream)

Everything about Preservation’s 20+ year career as a producer and DJ feels like it’s been leading to his new album, Eastern Medicine, Western Illness. The New York native has been incorporating samples of Chinese music into his beats since the late ‘90s—a result of the combined influence of the Shaw Brothers, Wu-Tang Clan, and Bruce Lee—but Eastern Medicine is the first record to be sourced entirely from LPs the producer found while crate-digging in Hong Kong. “There was a purity to the approach for this project,” he explains. “I wanted every track to be sourced only from Chinese records, which was an exciting challenge.” Rounded out by appearances from some of the biggest names in underground hip-hop—Quelle Chris, Billy Woods, Roc Marciano, Navy Blue, and Mach-Hommy to name a few—the album feels like a defining moment for Pres, the culmination of two decades of discipline and a singular vision that makes a career-defining LP. - Bandcamp. Dig in...

Wu-Tang Clan "Wu-Tang Forever" (June 3, 1997) + Sampler

On this day in 1997, Wu-Tang Clan released their sophomore album, an enhanced double-CD entitled Wu-Tang Forever. The album "reasserted the group's dominance at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and going quadruple platinum in its first four months." (Billboard, 11/15/97) Ahead of the album, Billboard posted an early article on January 11, 1997, saying, "The forthcoming set, a double album, according to the Wu's chief sound craftsman, RZA, is one of the most eagerly awaited collections this season. It will follow the 1.5 million-selling "Enter The Wu-Tang Clan: 36 Chambers"  (Loud/RCA, 1993) and the several successful solo sets it has spawned: Method Man's "Tical" (Def Jam, 1.1 million units), Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version" (Elektra, 650,000 units), Ghostface Killah's "Ironman" (Razor Sharp/Epic, 500,000 units), and Genius' "Liquid Swords" (Geffen, 700,000 units). The new long-player was supposed to emerge Feb. 14 with the title "Valentine's Day Massacre," but it will drop later, probably in March, with a new name, according to executives at Loud. In the four years since it made its debut with pockmarked, slightly irregular soundscapes wrapping emotionally charged, hard-edged reality rhymes (everything from the good, bad, and lovely to the ugly and crazy), Wu-Tang Clan has developed into a consistent hip-hop conglomerate by ignoring established rules of commerce. The secret of its success is its ability to expand on what has come before while staying in touch with the audience that first embraced its members' style." Truth is, Wu-Tang Forever was the soundtrack to my summer in '97 - I cop'd the 2-CD at Sam Goody in Manhattan on pre-order, which came with a $3-off coupon and - of equal importance - I serendipitously ended up in a serious relationship with the girl that worked behind the counter, lol. Although I've posted it before, you can listen to the official snippet tape for Wu-Tang Forever below the two-page advert for the album that was posted in Spin magazine - the cassette sampler includes a few tracks and commentary from RZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Raekwon. 

Original Wu-Tang Forever "Snippet Tape" from 1997...

Jaguar Skills "F#ck Racism" (Mix)

Jaguar Skills uses his platform as a DJ/Producer to communicate his frustrations with the use of hip-hop music. His "Fuck Racism" mix blends together vocal samples and culturally impactful tracks speaking to racism, inequality, and police brutality from artists like Ice-T, Intelligent Hoodlum, Public Enemy, Pharoahe Monch, Killer Mike, KRS-One, Main Source, O.C., Cypress Hill, Boogie Down Productions, Geto Boys, Kool G Rap, Immortal Technique, Paris, Ice Cube, Jay-Z, Nipsey Hussle, Dr. Dre, Big Pun, N.W.A., as well as original samples from Roy Ayers, Gil Scott-Heron, The Isley Brothers and more. Much respect to Jaguar Skills for helping to amplify these messages. Listen to it below...

DJ Geo Roc "Queens Get The Money" (Mixtape, 1998)

This is 1998's Queens Get The Money from DJ Geo Roc. Ironically, at one point DJ Geo Roc lived in the same neighborhood I was born in out in Queens, a small piece of Queens called Middle Village. Similar to DJ Rip One, DJ Geo Roc utilized a 4-track for his mixes, which was a special and laborious way to make a mix tape, but they were always especially dope. His Queens Get The Money mix tape from '98 has a lot of dope freestyles, blends, and solid cuts from ACD, Mobb Deep, Royal Flush, Nas, Mic Geronimo, Capone-N-Noreaga, LL Cool J, Infamous Mobb, The Beatnuts, Big Noyd, Cormega, Lost Boyz, Kool G Rap, Nature and lots more. The mix sounds just as good today, give it a listen...

The 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers (Playlist)

Tun·nel bang·er (noun): Circa 1994-2000, a record—often hardcore and aggressive—that whipped the crowd into a frenzy during the prime-time hour after 1 a.m. at the NYC club’s Sunday-night party. To truly understand the definition of a “Tunnel banger,” you first need to know about the Tunnel itself. Peter Gatien’s NYC nightclub was a hotspot for house music and techno in the early ’90s, but it wasn’t until the creation of a Sunday-night party called “Mecca” that the Tunnel would cement its place in hip-hop lore. When Funkmaster Flex took over the party’s prime-time slot—roughly 1 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.—in the mid-’90s, the “Tunnel banger” was born. So what was the Tunnel like on a Sunday night? As Flex’s warm-up DJ (along with Big Kap), Cipha Sounds was there for it all. The crowd? “The thugs, the drug dealers, the fucking jail dudes. Even the security guards were hustlers,” says Ciph. The mood? “It wasn’t a ‘dance’ club, people weren’t really dancing,” he says. “But records would just make people go crazy, hands in the sky, jumping.” And the music? “The records you would not hear at any other club because they were too hard,” says Ciph. “Street records, which would usually just be album cuts, became their own genre.” Yep: Tunnel bangers. This all sound kinda crazy? Well, it was—the Tunnel was shut down nearly every year because of violence, and eventually closed for good in 2001. All that remains are the memories…and the music. With a Flex co-sign, Cipha Sounds went back to the good ol’ days—when hardcore rap and NYC still mattered—for this epic countdown of the 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers. Now take your shoes off and get in a single-file line… - Complex / Cipha Sounds. The Tunnel: 220 12th Avenue (1986-2001).

DJ Matman "Hip-Hop Back In The Day" (Mix)

DJ Matman recorded this guest mix of 80s and 90s throwback Hip-Hop for the "Hip Hop Back In The Day" show on Westside FM out in London. According to DJ Matman, "I went in pretty hard with tons of routines, edits, scratching and wordplay using some of my favorite old school tracks. I recorded way more than I needed for a half hour slot, so this is an extended edit with an extra 20 minutes of unaired mixing." The mix includes joints from EPMD, Wu-Tang Clan, Nine, Rakim, M.O.P., Jay-Z, Big L, Lost Boyz, Busta Rhymes, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Redman, Mobb Deep, INI, Pete Rock, Lady of Rage, Queen Latifah and more. The mix represents a blend of classics and some deeper album cuts from the 80s to later 90s, enjoy it below. Props to DJ Matman.