Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Classic Material: James Brown Live


Very random but very necessary. The Godfather of Soul. Above is an in-fucking-credible performance of the B Boy anthem "Give It Up Turn It Loose" guaranteed to make your day. Below is a short clip of James Brown giving his blessing and words of advice to the "rappers" who sample him.




Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Rap Treats #68: Marley Marl's In Control + BDK WBLS Promo


This is a Rap Treat for two reasons. The first is the news that Hot Chillin' is releasing a DVD full of footage from Marley Marl's legendary In Control Mixshow on WBLS (the radio show he named his In Control Juice Crew compilations after). In the late 80's there was no Hot 97's or Power 106's where Hip-Hop was on the radio all day so shows like In Control were one of the few places you could here all the newest and freshest shit. If you aren't familiar I included a show from 1989 featuring Pete Rock on the tables. The second reason this is a Rap Treat is the promo that Big Daddy Kane did for Marley Marl and WBLS back in '88. It's been floating around Blogland for a while but for some reason I just heard it and wanted to add it to the archives. This one is strictly for my old school Hip-Hop heads.

Marley Marl In Control w/ DJ Pete Rock

Big Daddy Kane


Records: El Michels Affair - "C.R.E.A.M." 7"


This shit is pretty fresh. If you're not up on El Michels Affair, they are a Brooklyn funk band (and sometimes Wu-Tang's backing band) who put out the "C.R.E.A.M." b/w "Glaciers Of Ice" 7inch a few years back. They basically take Wu-Tang tracks and give them the live instrumental funk treatment. FatBeats just released their Enter The 37th Chamber LP where they reinterperate a grip of Wu-Tang classics. Here is the the "C.R.E.A.M." 7inch as well as a recording of Wu-Tang and El Michels Affair performing "Criminology". WU-TANG!

El Michels Affair
(Truth & Soul Records)

A1 - "C.R.E.A.M."
B1 - "Glaciers Of Ice"


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Vinyl People


This is about people who REALLY like records. I belong to this group, although not as much as the dudes in this video do. These are actually the people who REALLY REALLY like records.

"A portrait of Vinyl collectors and producers and aficionados. From the owner of a Charlie Parker album worth 10,000 who believes in playing it and prefers mono to stereo to the producers at Norton Records where rock musicians who had fallen off the charts are restored to vinyl to be heard again. To that add the proprietor of Fynl Vinyl, straight out of a Nick Hornsby novel and a homemade Gramophone brought by it's owner and maker to Washington Square Park every Sunday to play a collection of 78's."


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

CD Turntable


I want one of these bitches!

"Pete Verrando in an audio engineer who has 20 years of experience in Production Sound Recording for film and television. He works all over the world doing on-location recording.

Pete has built something that is part innovative, part steampunk and part crazy-geek-inventor-guy. It’s something I’ve often tossed around in my mind, but he has taken things one step further and has actually built one: A CD turntable.

Actually, he’s built four of them. They look just like regular turntables, with a rotating disc and a tonearm, but they don’t play vinyl records, they play CD’s."


Friday, April 3, 2009

Rap Treats #67: Unreleased Eric B & Rakim (1996)


Personally ripped by me for you. This bootleg came out in 1996 and features Rakim's best unreleased material. It all sounds like it was supposed to be on the Don't Sweat the Technique album (which is rumoured to have been co-produced by Large Professor, can anybody corroborate that?) My cut on here is "Hypnotic", straight b boy badness but the whole record is > all rap 2001-present.

Also, I saw Biz Markie pick this up at BASSIX (r.i.p.) record store back when Biz first came to Vancouver in 1996.

Enjoy!

Eric B & Rakim

A1 - Everything's Cool
A2 - Hypnotic
A3 - You Don't Fool Me
B1 - Don't Sweat the Technique (Original Version)
B2 - Complicatem (Pass The Hand Grenade Pt2)


Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Rap Treats #66: Jay-Z on Tim Westwood (1996)


This is a recording of Hov on Tim Westwoods's Radio 1 Rap Show from April 1996. This is a hungry Jay-Z making the interview rounds for his Reasonable Doubt album when he is fresh in this rap game (as opposed to the 14 year seasoned vet in the photo above). It was also a "New York Rap Exchange" thing that Westwood did on his show so Funkmaster Flex is on the tables. Vintage radio shit here.

Tim Westwood Radio 1 Rap Show


Clyde Stubblefield vs. Marley Marl


This is crazy! The legend Clyde Stubblefield (aka the drummer on James Brown's "Funky Drummer") being interviewed by the legend Marley Marl. Class is in session.