Shad "TAO" (Album Stream)

The word “TAO” in Chinese means “The Way.” As in the way of living that conforms to the truths of the moral universe, nature, etc. TAO is also an acronym for The Abolition Of, the book by CS Lewis, which is what we risk (the abolition of man/ourselves) if we lose fully touch with these aspects of our humanity. Each song on the album is about a different part (or parts) of our humanity/humanness we’ve slowly been losing touch with. Shad's 12-track effort, as a fan says, "speaks volumes in such a limited quantity. Warning and admonishing us as human beings not to conform to the grand scale plan woven in the fabric of our lives. Whether we're just browsing the internet or playing games on our apps. the abolition of us is front and center. This album is a signal flare to awake us and keep us from throwing away what's precious due to the trends. I can dig it. Lyrically, he's as sharp as ever. Getting better with age." While the production is drastically left of my normal listening pleasure, Shad delivers on his promise of lyrics and message. It's a great project to sit with and digest fully, so definitely give it a listen below and if you haven't listen to "HOME" off Eternia & Rel McCoy's "FREE" album, check out Shad's incredible verse on that track, as well. Peace...

Eddie Kaine & Big Ghost "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" (Album Stream)

Words by Big Ghost Ltd, as usual: "In the midst of this renaissance we been witnessing in the underground…as beautiful n raw as the output has been…we also started to see a lot of cookie cutter nonsense take place. Seems like we got more rappers n producers than listeners n supporters sometimes. You cant stop art tho. Creators gon create. That being said…yall MFs cant ALL be Westside Gunn or Conway. Yall cant all be Mach Hommy or Roc Marci... Yall beatmakers cant all be Alchemist.. Yall designers cant all be CEP. So on n so on... Not referring to the hierarchy that exists in all cultures or subculture…I’m sayin stop tryna duplicate the end results of what somebody else created by mimicking everything THEY DO. What you should do is pay attention to the process of what THEY DID. Which was found a lane n did what THEY did best. If some youngbuck asks me why 80s artists get held in the reverence they get held in.. or why 90s rappers get to be considered some type of rap gods while in this generation it seems like “dope” is the highest accolade obtainable for the average young artist… I say it’s uniqueness. Thats how Griselda n Mach n Roc etc ascended past “dope”.. What it comes down to is filling a void. A Tribe Called Quest wasnt tryna be Public Enemy. Nas wasnt tryna be Snoop..n vice versa. Thats where Eddie Kaine comes in. Not tryna rap like nobody or sound like nobody or rap about what they rap bout. Still street. But 1000% just him. For somebody like Kaino a backdrop was needed that could be considered familiar…yet unique n raw in its own way too. I like to think it was achieved on this project. But we leave it to the listener to decide. Available at midnight exclusively at the link in the bio. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Peace x blessings." Well said. Now, celebrate Big Ghost's latest album contribution below...

Gravediggaz "The Pick, The Sickle & The Shovel" (October 14, 1997)

After the arduous ordeal of the latest Wu-Tang Clan album, you'd imagine the RZA would take some time off, perhaps potter around in the garden, tend to his geraniums... Hardly. No-one doubts that the RZA is the hardest-working producer in rap, a foul to the in-built laziness of west coast contemporaries like Dr Dre who can barely manage a new album every two years, but this saturation is specific to New York. Public Enemy took years off their commercial achievements by hogging the airwaves, and if the fickleness of rap audiences has taught us anything in the '90s, it must be the ever-widening quest for something new. Maybe that's why Gravediggaz have sough not to repeat the Hammer-inspired horrorcore of their debut, 'Six Feet Deep'. Gangsta rap itself has dealt 'reality' the kind of horrors even Vincent Price and Christopher Lee would have had trouble realizing. So 'The Pick, The Shovel & The Sickle' is a change of tack, a re-evaluation. Out go the impatient tones of 'Six Feet Deep' -- all thudding percussion and insistent bass -- replaced by the moodiness of tracks like 'Dangerous Mindz' and 'Hidden Emotions.' Revisit their sophomore LP below...

The RZA and Prince Paul certainly seem to have woken up to the fact that the deeper hip-hop searches for 'reality', the more fantastical its descent into urban ridicule. So 'The Pick..." amalgamates the pseudo-Islamic philosophy of the Wu as well as the educated contemplation of De La Soul. The inclusion of some Neolithic imagery -- another metaphor for the dark seediness of New York's urban areas -- also bodes well or a greater understanding of rap. But there's something else here, a romanticism with African-American lore. And pain. The Gravediggaz understand fine well rap's global reach -- where whites yearn to be black, and blacks blacker still. 'The Pick...' gives out everything it promises, but often at a cost. In short: imagine taking two of hip-hop's greatest auteurs and asking them to record an album together. This would surely be it -- convolutes in aesthetic, but always a sum of its individual parts. - Hip Hop Connection (November, 1997). It a gem? 

Body Bag Ben & J Scienide "Enough To Plague A Saint" (Album Stream)

Oxnard CA, Triple Threat Producer/Emcee/DJ Body Bag Ben drops new album with Washington DC based Emcee/Producer J Scienide "Enough To Plague A Saint." Ben has been busy with production credits from MOP, Canibus, and his latest project "Hide The Body Bag" with BSF/Griselda affiliate Rick Hyde. J Scienide is coming off the massive success of his latest album "Stray From the Pack" with legendary Producer/Emcee Kev Brown. "We started working on this album right at the height of the pandemic while on lockdown. Ben kept sending me beat after beat daily. My creativity was sparked after many nights of listening to straight up head nodders. The album features some of hip hops elite wordsmiths Rome Streetz, Rasheed Chappell, Napoleon Da Legend, Wordsworth and Ill Conscious. Enough To Plague A Saint was released on J Scienide's label imprint Static King Records via Fat Beats. Dig in the archives for more from the homie, J Scienide and listen to the latest below...

Mos Def "Black On Both Sides" (October 12, 1999)

As passionate a lobbyist for hip-hop's expressive potential as you're likely to find in '99, Mos Def has already enjoyed a storied minor-league career. He's stolen scenes from De La Soul and Q-Tip, lively'd up the studious beats of DJs Krush and Honda, and loomed large as half of Black Star, the only hip-hop duo that owns its own Africana bookstore. And while singles like the almost Ellingtonian "Travellin' Man" are a tough act to follow, his solo debut Black On Both Sides is a stunner, cultivating a surprisingly hard edge (on tracks like the darkly trenchant "Hip-Hop"), while stepping knee-deep into the sumptuous soul-jazz Black Star only flirted with. The problem with Both Sides is that its sweep can feel a little preordained. Mos is clearly out to craft a hip-hop classic, as epochal as A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory or Eric B & Rakim's Follow The Leader. But those albums defined eras only in retrospect. By comparison, the self referential gravitas of Both Sides, especially coming from the once gloriously-casual Mos, make it feel like a compelling novel that's already (to quote Mr. Def) "a screenplay sold to Miramax." Still, for a fresh-faced MC's coming-out jam, this set is as front-to-back stacked as the love object in Mos's "Ms. Fat Booty." And if the man behind it quits striving for timelessness, the prospects are tantalizing. (Besides, you gotta love an MC who takes time out to put Limp Bizkit in their place). - CMJ (January, 2000). An interesting review... it makes me wonder if Mos took it to heart, because he's since lived a career of pivots and genre-bending music, while still remaining one of thee greatest lyricists of our generation! Ironically, we can now say in retrospect, that Both Sides was surely a classic that helped define the independent era of hip-hop, especially in NYC! I'm waiting for a big comeback project from Mos Def!

A definitive classic in the independent era of NYC hip-hop...

Thug Life "Thug Life: Volume 1" (October 11, 1994)

Some may only recognize Thug Life as the two words infamously tattooed across 2Pac's abdomen, but interviews from the mid-90s reveal that he had big plans for the brand—he foresaw it as the name of a worldwide movement, culture, and lifestyle of a revolutionary urban lower class. As we all know, Shakur never lived to see this dream realized, and before any of these ideas could be put into effect Thug Life was the name of a group and an album by 'Pac and his friends. Already infamous for his first two solo albums and various run-ins with the law yet not quite the household name he would become in his final two years of life, "Thug Life: Volume 1" was released by Interscope in September 1994, just two months before the New York shooting that embattled the star with Bad Boy Records, five months before beginning his eleven-month stay at Clinton Correctional Facility, a year before signing on with Suge Knight and Death Row, and two years before his Las Vegas murder. This album thus provides a snapshot of a pivotal albeit overlooked time in Shakur's life. His incarceration strongly influenced the volatile and deeply philosophical recordings of his Death Row days, which produced the most celebrated and controversial music of his catalog, and his output immediately before might serve as a suggestion of another path his career may have taken had he faced different circumstances. Perhaps most significantly, the Thug Life project is the only full album that places 2Pac in the context of a rap group. Shakur was affiliated with a few different lineups in his recording years, beginning of course with Digital Underground in the early 1990s. After achieving superstardom as a solo entity, another group of friends and frequent collaborators credited as Dramacydal began to appear on his records, the group that would later evolve into Outlawz. With 2Pac as the obvious focal point, the Thug Life lineup included Inglewood's Big Syke, who would go on to a moderately successful solo career and record with Outlawz as Mussolini; Los Angeles rappers Macodoshis and Rated R, who would later be convicted of murder; and 'Pac's elder stepbrother Mopreme. While not an official member, 'Pac's friend Stretch from the Digital Underground days, a frequent producer and guest rapper on the first two 2Pac LPs, raps on two tracks and produces five; he too would be gunned down in late 1995. Revisit it/Cont'd below...

"Thug Life: Volume 1" maintains an unusual balance between a group album and a 2Pac project. A far greater rapper and character than his buddies, 'Pac's larger than life persona is the immediate star, and he is the only member afforded solo cuts. He's also the driving creative force; more often than not his verses provide the backbone and direction of the songs, and the others merely echo his sentiments. As their name suggests, the Thug Life boys seek to engrain the listener into the day-to-day existence of a West Coast thug. While this may sound terribly proverbial on paper, they share with 2Pac passion and charisma that usually compensates for any lyrical and conceptual deficiencies. The conviction that each exhibits makes it hard not to feel the desperation, entrapment, injustice, and do-or-die mentality that they purvey, and this is what makes their narratives so compelling. At an age where most young folks hope to explore and enjoy the world's myriad opportunities, these men barely into their twenties felt hopelessly ensnared by societal factors beyond their control and turned to lives of crime—lives for which their criminal records indicate were hardly embellished in their rhymes.... "Thug Life: Volume 1" is an essential and frequently overlooked chapter of the 2Pac saga, bearing the fruits of the West Coast renaissance and the great year that was 1994. Like most of Shakur's music, its intangibles make it a better record than the sum of its parts, and the case for classic status could be made for half of these ten tracks. "Thug Life: Volume 1" is classic 'Pac, exhibiting all the apparent inconsistencies and contradictions that made him the world's most compelling rapper: a conscientious yet shameless thug, at times brooding and others exuberant, and seemingly obsessed with his own death, which ironically awaited him less than two years down the road. Listening to it, it boasts all the qualities that led to his being labeled a visionary, a martyr, and an icon, but it also features timeless, impeccably produced music from an unheralded group, comprising an essential listen that captures rap's most fascinating and polarizing figure. - RapReviews. Rest In eternal Peace, Tupac Shakur!!!

AZ "Doe or Die" (October 10, 1995 / Spin Magazine)

The season has been good for B-Boy acquisitionists. From the hustler-turned-Versace-shade-wearer lingo of the Notorious B.I.G. to Chef Raekwon's episodic narratives of Lexus drivers and Cuban Link sporters, to Mobb Deep's stark pronouncements of need-the-loot-now-don't-fuck-wit-me-or-catch-a-bad-one, New York's latest crop of rhyme animals are living the "gimme" ethic to the fullest. Call it the Eastern sibling of the West's gangsta ethos. But New York's hardcore skips racial and cultural divides in its quest for inspiration. Heads have appropriated the mythos of figures like celluloid Cuban druglord Tony Montana, and real life New York crime boss John Gotti, to produce work marked by a curious balance of earnest yearning and bad-bwoy talk. On the surface, newcomer AZ would appear to fit into this mode quite snugly. First introduced to the hip-hop arena through a guest appearance on Nas's Illmatic, AZ has returned with a debut of his own, Doe or Die. His lead single, "Sugar Hill," does delve wholeheartedly into the material pool: "At times I window watch out the Marriott / Zonin' on ownin' co-ops / Foreign drop top coupes and yachts." However, the song is sprinkled throughout with the element that sets AZ apart from his capital-collectin' peers, acute political awareness: "Making it hard trying to figure out who's out to trap me / Pataki [Governor of New York] got all kind of undercovers that's coming at me / Perhaps he won't be happy till they snatch me and place me / Where half us blacks be / Sittin' in Coxsackie." Nas steadily rips on Christianity. Biggie may be invested with suicidal tendencies. But only AZ offers a grounded critique of the larger structures wreaking havoc upon the urban-dwelling body. Revisit/more below...

Doe or Die unfolds in a well-sketched procession. On the appropriately title "Gimme," AZ pours forth a tale of loot capers and ghetto aspirations in a rapid-patterned delivery reminiscent--but for the high tonality--of the godfather of the hip-hop hustle ethic, Kool G Rap. A duet with Nas, "Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide," hypnotically peruses the pleasures and pitfalls of fast cash. Much like Illmatic, Doe or Die's most significant letdown occurs on the musical end. Pete Rock's swing rhythms and smooth keyboard textures, N.O. Joe's Southern-style funk, and D.R.'s lead-out, bass heavy Brooklyn sound do manage to give AZ a powerful platform for half of the album. The other beat-crafters simply can't keep pace. Nevertheless, Doe or Die achieves its purpose: AZ has breathed new air into the lungs of New York hard-rocks. - Spin Magazine (December, 1995). Interesting to read back and see that mild critique of Illmatic's production, however I do agree with some of the beats on Doe or Die, which is why I've always argued that if the unreleased tracks and the few 12" remixes were added, Doe or Die would've surely been an undeniable classic!

Redman "Whut...Thee Album" (Rap Pages, 1992)

For all the grannies out there hollering about the evils of rap music, Whut...Thee Album kicks off with a comeback. Opening skit, "Psycho Ward" finds menace-to-society Redman undergoing psychotherapy, with the doc telling him to let loose on some rhymes and get all the "unnecessary anger" out of his system. Being the socially responsible, cooperative (and, in this scenario, incarcerated) brotha that he is, Redman proceeds to bust some wicked loaded lyrics, boosted by tasty, fat grooves courtesy of fellow Hit Squad bomber Erick "EPMD" Sermon, who drops a few words here as well. In typical debut fashion, lyrics on Whut are aimed primarily at making sure suckas appreciate what it is they're hearing. Nothing too mind-bending there, okay, but Redman's got the musical momentum and sense of humor to keep things rolling. Hardcore funk jams like "Blow Your Mind" and "I'm a Bad" playing alongside skits bagging on Hammer ("Funky Uncles"), confrontations between Redman and himself ("Redman Meets Reggie Noble") and just flatout toasted directives on getting bent ("How To Roll A Blunt"). Slapstick track "A Day of Sooperman Lover" follows the exploits of one superfly Romeo who can "slam King Kong and pick up freight trains," but doesn't have a clue what it is he's about to bone: "Stuck my hand between her legs and I felt the bozack--as big as mine!" Definitely not an album for the grandkids, but then again Redman told us straight out he was "Rated R." - Rap Pages (December, 1992). Revisit Redman's debut classic LP below, but please by advised that the exact date of the album's release has been debated for several years. Based on adverts and Def Jam's Friday release schedule, October 9, 1992 is the likely release date.

I still listen to -- and enjoy -- this album to this day... an absolute classic!