Crate Diggers - J Dilla

Not much else needs to be said. Enjoy.

Classic Material: Jive Records Showcase (Circa 1987)

This is a nice find. Video of this Jive Records showcase has been floating around for years but only in clips.This is the extended version with 37 plus minutes of footage! In order of appearance are Steady B, Boogie Down Productions, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and Kool Moe Dee.

Kendrick Lamar feat. Jay-Z "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" Remix

I just spent a week in Austin at the SXSW music conference/festival/party. This song was the talk of the conference when Young Guru debuted it a party that him and Just Blaze were playing. The illest MC of today gets the illest MC ever (in my opinion) to jump on the remix of his next single. New verses from K. Dot too. While we are on the topic of SXSW, hit my Instagram HERE for the flicks. That Prince x A Tribe Called Quest show can't be topped. It's all downhill for me from here as far as concerts go.

Kendrick Lamar feat. Jay-Z
"Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" Remix

Classic Material: 2Pac & Biggie Smokin' and Drinkin' and eventually Rappin' (circa 94)

Filmed the day this photo was taken, here is some footage of Pac & Biggie, Biggie & Pac hanging out and being friends. This was obviously pre beef, a much better time.

Classic Material: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - Live in Germany (circa 1983)

Fantastic, clear live footage of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 

in Germany, circa 1983. Here they are performing "The Message." This is the same year Run-DMC's "Sucker MC's" came out which signalled a changing of the guard in rap style, fashion, and music. GMF and company would slowly fade from the hip-hop spotlight, but would return as old school hip-hop would experience a renaissance years later. The Bronx sextet was rightly inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Flash's DJ career also took an upswing as he regularly tours to highly appreciative audiences. 

SXSW: The Freshest & Friends Showcase 2013

If you are heading to SXSW next week, then I highly suggest that you check my friends party! All info above.

Marley Marl and MC Shan - Marley Marl Scratch (1985)

I've never seen a video for this Juice Crew classic until now. The odd thing is the Pop-Up Video-like text mentioning Shan as producer of Snow's "Informer," which wasn't released until 1992. Enjoy this short and sweet Queensbridge clip.

"Marley, can we hear your funky fresh scratchin', again?"

Classic Material: Random 90's Hip-Hop TV Clips

This is pretty cool. Somebody took the time to go through all their old video tapes of random 90's cable access Rap shows (and Yo! MYV Raps) and put them together on one 7 minute video. The highlight is most def a bare foot ODB standing on the block with Sunz Of Man waiting for some dude named Panther to bring him that "get high" while going on about how there are good white devils and bad white devils and how he is for the children even though children are bad bastards just like he used to be and a bunch of other shit that made no sense. 90's Rap TV at its finest!

Demos: A Tribe Called Quest (Snippets)

This is just something for the Tribe heads. Even though it is just snippets, it is a dope listen to hear some pre record deal Tribe as well as a couple of unreleased songs. Somebody has this demo tape, and if you are that person lets talk! 

1) Description Of A Fool
2) Pubic Enemy
3) Native Tongue (Unreleased)
4) Left My Wallet In El Segundo
5) Dust (My Pal) (Unreleased)

Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ

Hip-hop has slowly gathered steam as a topic of study in universities around the globe. However, most of the literature focuses on the lyrics, and not the music itself. Mark Katz, an associate professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has written a book on not just hip-hop, not just DJing, but hip-hop DJing specifically, and the result is nothing short of brilliant. It is a thorough and in-depth examination of the DJs centrality in hip-hop and Katz digs deeper than others before him to archive the roots, major players, innovations, and the massive cultural significance of hip-hop DJs. Katz documents Kool Herc's first party, the early battle scene between DJs in the Bronx, and even dedicates several pages to the significance of the often scratched "aaaah" and "fresh!" samples from Fab 5 Freddy's "Change Le Beat."  Interviews include GrandWizzard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmixer D.ST, DJ Cash Money, DJ Steve Dee, DJ Q Bert, DJ Craze, Rob Swift, and countless others. It's a must have.

Michael Jordan: Gotta Be The Shoes

Happy Birthday Mike.

Rap Treat #103: Big Daddy Kane b/w Ultramagnetic MCs (Rare)

Once again the wonderful world of the inter web comes through with something for the Rap Nerds that was unexpected, but most appreciated. I'm not sure who is responsible for this (and neither are the folks at TROY where I jacked it from), but somebody needs to high five that MF. A while back, a couple of unreleased 80's Ultra acetates popped up on ebay which saw one of them go for $3000 f'n dollars! That song was "Simple Metaphore" and it has now popped up on bootleg wax that was limited to 100 copies. Added to the bootleg is a couple of Kane songs - one from '91 - that have been floating around the net (but these are the tag less/no annoying DJ yelling all over it versions) and the other Ultra acetate. Again, whoever got their hands on one of those acetates and pressed this up deserve a rap blog gold metal. Same with the dude over at TROY who got his hands on one of the 100 copies and ripped it to mp3 for the rest of us. Salute!

Big Daddy Kane b/w Ultramagnetic MCs

Bootleg 12"

A1. Big Daddy Kanye "Sing My Song"

A2. Big Daddy Kanye "Give A Demonstration"

B1. Ultramagnetic MCs "Simple Metaphore"

B2. Ultramagnetic MCs "Ain't It Good To You" remix