A message from DJ Premier…

In the days that we are living, in this very moment, we purists of true music are witnessing the decline of the so-called major label. Another shift in the Matrix must come with medicine to heal the wounds of negativity… I, DJ Premier along with my partner Gordon Franklin, are here to bring all of you a label that you can depend on for credible music. The name of that label is Year Round Records, and it does just that. First out are the NYGz (pronounced EN-Why-Geez). It stands for New York Giantz which we all know cannot be used, but the name represents all of the above. The new album called “Welcome 2 G-Dom” provides the street landscape of skills from the Underground Hip Hop sound. MCs Panchi and Shabeeno drop it down like no other in this flooded pool of nonsense. Thanx to all the producers on this album: Emile, Kingdom, Thorotracks, Harlem Fatz and Biggest Gord… and of course me, for another job well done. Engineered by the legendary King Of Chill (MC Lyte, Audio Two, Alliance), you know you re getting nothing but Class “A” Hip Hop. The only way I can close out this one sheet is to say we live by our motto, “you get what you pay for”… Enjoy the album!

I gotta say it… Primo needs to run for office with words like that. Enter his new group the NYGz, with DJ Premier running the show off his new label, there’s no doubt “Welcome to G-Dom” is an album that delivers.
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…More vintage tracks collected from the 93-95 circa of Hip-Hop are on the horizon. This time around Kutmasta Kurt and Kool Keith unlock previously unreleased tracks from the “Sex Style” archives blessing us with unheard of material packaged in a single disc. Prior to the release of “Dr. Octagon”, KutMasta Kurt and Kool Keith were busy producing tracks as far back as 1993. On the original “Sex Style” album, Keith gets perverted utilizing his new concept dubbed as “pornocore” explicitly spitting flows about sexual Hip-hop escapades. These days, while your typical Rapper gets nasty on the mic by “typically” calling out womens vaginal parts, Keith always kept it a step up and imaginative showcasing his perverted rhyme and creativity through his verbal word play capturing that explicit style we’ve grown to love.
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My favorite Jurassic 5 album (out of the 4 dropped) is J5’s debut LP that dropped in 1998. An EP had dropped a year earlier but I had upgraded my collection for a few dollars more (The LP had included bonus material. ) How refreshing was it to here this album for the first time in 1997? It felt real good. J5 had abandoned the industry bullshit of rap mainstream and delivered old-school vibes , excellent rhythmatic raps, (always on cue) and the production stylings of crate prevailers Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark. Tracks like “Jayou” and “Concrete School Yard” were just a few of the tracks that were responsible for the appreciation I had even more towards the Golden Age of Hip-Hop. Their style which was a tribute to everything that was old school and mattered was a bit tough for me to catagorize when I was mixing songs. Is it new school? Is it old school? At the time I had started calling J5’s material… True School as in true to it’s form of Hip-Hop. Bridging the gap between old school happenings and the New school surroundings of today. (to put it in mellow) The industry ushered their new found style as “The 1990’s alternative hip hop movement” (ah, same shit different toilet)
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Blame this mistreatment on Geffen records for never letting Large Pro’s solo “The LP” debut make it’s official release to the masses. Although the album had been bootlegged and reproduced worldwide numerous times, Geffen just wouldn’t give Large Pro a break. Back in 1996, if you got your hands on this true school classic maxi-singe you were treated to Xtra P’s souled out “Ijuswannachill” single accompanied with 2 raw singles “Hard” and “The Mad Scientist” remix. The single was accompanied with all the bells and whistles including Pro’s instrumentals to the tracks. It’s the closest thing to a legit release from Large Pro I had in my collection at the time. (He later released the heavily slept on “First Class” album on Matador records)

My homies always told me he was gonna drop a solo album after his debut on Main Source’s “Breaking atoms” and throughout the years I waited patiently for the release. This single embodies things to come from his “The LP” album and had me stoked for it’s release. When the album never dropped, I was blessed to have held on to this incredible single. “Ijuswannachill” was my summer anthem of 1996 with its mellow sample and chilled out groves. “The Mad Scientist” was an equal companion to “Ijuswannachill,” with a beat that was wickedly sinister. This single was another chapter in my appreciation towards Hip-Hop as a culture. 6 years later I finally got “The LP” on burned cd from a friend in Germany. The quality was real bad but I was happy tp own it. It’s a shame Geffen shelved such a personal reflection upon Large Professor’s talents.

Video’s are posted… (more after the jump…)

Anybody remember this album? I sure do… it’s The Boogie Monsters! I was about 17 when I first picked this up, I was hyped off of the success of Digable Planets, and knew this would be a great album since BM and Digable shared the same label. The excitement that got me going was seeing the video to “Recognized Thresholds of Negative Stress” on a local Bay area music video show called CMC. (California Music Channel) The Video had these 4 kids trading rhymes (2 of em’ actually) and doin’ back flips, etc. in an open field. (It just looked cool alright!) Back than it was hard to figure out what was hot or not since we didn’t have the internet and mags like The Source and Vibe never plugged groups like this. I think the Boogie Monsters were under-appreciated in the industry and without a huge boost in radio play, heads thought they were street kids buggin’ or religious Hip-Hop heads preaching the good word. That shouldn’t have been the case since the positive messages and dope beats held it’s share of being a solid debut album.There isn’t much info on the group found on the world wide web except for the same stuff everyone is reposting on their sites. I will give you my 2 cents on this “not to be slept on” release…
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Consider this album to be comedy at it’s finest! During the 9 years of this release I had always wanted to hear just what was inside this disc but didn’t want to fork over the $20 dollar price tag it fronted. Luck changed when I found it yesterday at Rasputins Bargain Bin for $1.95! Though the discs were extremely damaged, it was still burnable for my computer to rip. With all that said and done, The Chronic 2000: “Still Smokin’!” is a complete knock off effort that forced Dr. Dre to change the name to his album. (2001) While guest appearances from the likes of E-40, Scarface, DJ Quik and Richie Rich don’t serve it’s justice and although the beats are somewhat OG to West coast standards, the album is a complete knock off. Possibly one of the worst compilations of 1999, the album simply lacks any creativity. Been there, done that… It’s the new generation of Death Row!
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Shouts to The Automator for reissuing this EP as a full length LP back in July of 2000. “A much better tomorrow” was billed as “somewhat new and improved”, and is an update of Dan the Automator’s 1996 EP of the same name. The reissue album is complemented with the Addition of SIX never-before-released tracks featuring Kool Keith. Fun fact number 2… These Automator produced tracks are originally from the “Dr. Octagon” recording sessions. Instead of taking the mad doctor route, Kool Keiths rhymes are mainly focused on old-school bragging rights. The “King Of New York” bounces with a nice touch of piano loops alongside some hollowed-out beats. While “Cartoon Capers” plugs Keith’s trademark loopy lyrics dedicated to everybody’s favorite cartoon characters. The title tracks (part 1 and 2) boasts The Automator’s usual style of production with big ass beats and jazzy snares that compliment each track with just the right amount of flavor behind Kool Keith’s gut busting vocals. The instrumental tracks featured on the album are fairly solid mid-tempo tunes with a nice jazzy touch through out For the price of the release, there’s no going wrong.

I dug out “A much better tomorrow” accidentally in my crates while looking for one of my old Lord Finesse LP’s and it had been quite some time since I last listened to it as a whole. The album is an absolute joy to bump respecting the culture and preserving Hip-Hops sound. It’s also a reminder of how solid Hip-Hop was miday into the 90’s. From the looks of it, the album has become out-of-print. Luckily I managed to swoop up the LP and cd upon its release in 2000. Big ups to Automator for sharing the vaulted material.

Traffic Entertainment has done it again! The good folks at Traffic have released yet another vaulted classic, this time around featuring the talents of Brand Nubian! In 1997, after contributing a reunion track for the Sole in the hole soundtrack, (“a star is born”) Grand Puba, Lord Jamar, Sadat X and DJ Alamo reunite for their return album as a group, “The Foundation.” What many of us didn’t realize is tracks collected in this new album “Time’s Running Out” are the shelved jewels Brand Nubian never released until now and features the “underground hit” (as stated in the press release, lol) “Rockin’ it. (produced by Buckwild of D.I.T.C.) An album like this calls for celebration. Unfortunately, with heads sleeping on any type of review, we just couldn’t pass up giving our 2 cents.
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One of the best trends occuring in Hip-Hop right now is something I can’t complain about. Legitimate old school Emcee’s are finally releasing unreleased, Vinyl only material seeing the light of day on compact disc and mp3 formats. (some for the very first time on digital media) It’s a huge bonus for Hip-Hop purists and collectors who had an even harder time finding these releases when they first dropped. A lot of thanks are in order for this one… Edo G.’s “Acting” EP is finally released thanks to the Good people at Traffic Entertainment. Joe Mansfield and Edo dug out all the original reels and dats from the sessions and packaged it into an 18-track full length album with all new artwork, the original track listing as well as a gang of unreleased bonus tracks, remixes, interludes and a capellas. What more can you ask for?
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It’s like picking a needle in the haystack. Before there was a follow up album that introduced me to Blackalicious (which was their A2G ep) there was talk amongst friends of an earlier EP called “Melodica.” We didn’t have any Hip-Hop related websites (or a computer) at the time so it was strictly “word on the street” type shit. Just trying to cop this album, we travelled up to Berkley, the City, and had friends as far as LA look for the Melodica EP which was out of print at the time due to a limited amount printed (alongside sample issues that stopped production of the EP). This was around 1994, so my friends and I figured it was as rare as the Death of Superman comic at that time. Honestly, I didn’t care How I got the album. Bootleg tape, a snippet tape or hearing it bump from someone’s car- it was sure to be a hunt to find!

Let’s get into the music after the jump…
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