If you dig dope piano loops, you're in a for a treat with Fierce's "Crab." Released on Wreck House Records in 1996, the track - which stood for Cowards Realistically Acting As Backstabbers - makes use of George Winston's "The Cradle" for the loop and the Newark, NJ MC tears into it. You might have caught him in The Source's highly-coveted "Unsigned Hype" section (9/96), check that above. Fierce had deals with both Elektra & Arista but nothing came of it, not even the mildly anticipated release of "Jersey Stand Up," which unfortunately never dropped. The beauty of the internet and our niche audience, there's always a label that'll cough up a lil' money for unreleased music from the Golden Era; especially if it's being discussed online with numbers on Discogs - labels look at that stuff, so maybe more to come? In the meantime, Fierce or Ferocious Intellect Equalling Rap's Cause and Effect can be heard below on both "Crabs" and "Come Close," check out the full 12" below...
In the 1996 World Series, the Yankees beat the NL champion Atlanta Braves. After losing the first two games, they came back to win four consecutive games and became the first team to lose the first two games at home and win the Series. At the time, it was their 23rd World Series title but their first since 1978 (the year I was born!). That said, this is Lord Finesse's 1996 mixtape, "World Series - Out the Blue, Volume 1." It kicks off with a championship intro at Yankee Stadium, which suffice to say, hooked me out the gate! The rest of the mix includes joints from the Artifacts, M.O.P., PMD, Natural Elements, Dr. Dre, The Firm, Money Boss Players, Wu-Tang, Fat Joe, Sadat X, Ghostface Killah and, of course, joints from Lord Finesse. Listen to it below, thanks to DJStepOne.
The 'Built To Last' Radio Show is hosted by Corrado and I Joe, each Thursday from 8-9pm on Radio campus FM in Toulouse, France. The latest mix in their series of tributes to classic emcees and producers shows love to two of the best emcees to come up out of the underground in recent memory: Conway The Machine and Westside Gunn of the mighty Griselda Records. Their track record is filled with some of the hardest records and their business model is impeccable, certainly a great blueprint of artists that will follow behind them. You should dig into the tags and listen to all the other quality mixes from Built To Last. The finest selected and mixed, now check it out below...
"Soundtracks are so important. Let's face it, life is an epic, about as long as Ghandi and sometimes as exciting as a 3 a.m. episode of Barney Miller. It's up to the hero of our movie - fo' self - to maintain or fall by the wayside. In the immortal words of Wayan #1, "Every hero deserves a theme song," and Big L is no exception. I first came across the hero of this story in Ego Trip magazine in the Ignorant Lyrics of the Month section. Straight off Lenox Ave., Big L gives the listener a view of Harlem that many never see, but always hear about. In his world, wack MCs and bitches are banished, and citizens, such as Lord Finesse, rule with an iron mic. Apprenticing under the likes of Finesse and Showbiz & A.G., Big L is leaving the nest with obvious influences from his mentors..."
"West Coast production to date is clearly based on love for the listener - the main concern is what appeals to the masses. East Coast preoccupations lie in abstraction or extreme simplicity, which results in a cloudy outing spanning all boroughs. The approach L takes clearly shows influences from both sides. The union of producers Lord Finesse, Showbiz and Buckwild was a wise move by L. You can hear they cared about this project. If you fight your way through $12 worth of testosterone and an occasional dead body of a family member, you're opened to legitimate hardcore East Coast battle rhymes that were sorely missed in 1994. Plus, these are some of the hardest beats from this particular crew in a while. Creating a listenable album in this genre is a goal not afforded by many, but Big L and his production team have provided a solid musical structure. Cleanliness is next to godliness in the heavens of Hip-Hop - the mix of vocal and production styles is immaculate here. No sloppy takeovers of beat to rhyme are in evidence. That's how L's living." - Rap Pages, May 1995.
Ahead of the 2011 Juno Awards, which are Canada's version of the Grammy's, Eternia was featured in Now Magazine.... "When Eternia hit the studio with Toronto hip-hop producer MoSS after meeting him at a concert in Winnipeg, the 26-year-old MC found a musical partner who could push the energy and vivid, honest storytelling she's best known for even further. So deep was their creative connection that, nine months after their Juno-nominated collaboration album, At Last (Fat Beats), dropped, she's now grappling with separation issues. "In the last couple of months, I got hundreds of beats from all different types of producers, MoSS gave me, like, 10, and literally the minute he gave me them I wanted to write a whole album," says Eternia (aka Silk Kaya) from her home base in Queens, New York. 'There's just something about them that plucks at my heartstrings'." Cont'd...
"One of his trippy boom-bap beats struck particularly deep, unearthing unpleasant memories she'd long tried to erase. When she sat down to write what would become the recent single To The Future, blunt rhymes about sexual abuse and violence ("That same year, I was assaulted with a gun / These dudes locked me in a room / molested me for fun") gushed out. "The violin kinda rips at you," she says. "It's haunting and it's ripping you bare; that was the unspoken vibe of the track. Then I literally said, 'What are all the skeletons in my closet that I don't want my future husband to know?' I'll just tell them to the world." Enough time has passed that she's gotten distance from the song, and she's using its video to raise awareness for Kids Help Phone and to draw attention to the crisis of self that young women often experience. 'At the end I say (to my future husband), 'Why would you wanna? I got problems, so go on,' and that's how I felt when I wrote it. I don't feel that way now. The song's hopefully collectively releasing us of the burden, the guilt, the shame, the demons, the lack of self-love'." - Now Magazine, March 2011. Article below, and Juno Award materials above.
Rest In Peace, Mailk "Phife Dawg" Taylor. Statik Selektah paid tribute to the 5-Foot Assassin on ShowOff Radio Show on Shade45, and shared the following message: “Touring with Q-tip & A Tribe Called Quest since 06 … it's been an amazing journey, especially growing up off them. Phife will be missed. Rest In Peace, my man, Phife Diggy…” I can relate, I feel like we all grew up off A Tribe Called Quest, and surely Phife's "Microphone Check, 1, 2 what is this..." is one of those memorable moments we all remember vividly. Tune in below. R.I.P. Phife, I wish I could say more right now.
"In the Spring of 2016, Elzhi will release his highly anticipated album, Lead Poison. Serving as a follow up to the instant classic, Elmatic, Lead Poison is poised to become Elzhi’s most desired album to date. With the help of Kickstarter backers, the album transitioned from an idea into reality. Highlighting a bevy of producers from 14KT to Karriem Riggins, the album serves as a recovery album that helps Elzhi confront the cloud. The album looks within himself and seeks peace of mind while fighting through the struggles in his life." Stream Elzhi's deeply personal Lead Poison below...
DJ Skarface mixes the rhymes of Madvillainy with the beats of J Dilla (R.I.P.) to produce the MadDILLAiny mixtape. Nashville repping/Atlanta based DJ Skarface mixed together DOOM’s rhymes from one the greatest hip hop albums of recent times (Madvillainy) with beats from one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time (J Dilla) and came out with MadDILLAiny. The lyricism and production quality don’t really need an explanation but the mixing is time perfect and the beats chosen for the words are spot on, making this a superb effort from DJ Skarface. - via SampleFace.
