Mo' Fo'

Take Fo Superstars Party @ the Luau
(2000,Take Fo') part 1, part 2

DJ Jubilee 20 Years in the Jets
(1996, Take Fo') part 1, part 2

More Take Fo posting to make up for the dearth of it elsewhere on the WWW. Consider it part of this blog’s NOLA cultural preservation effort, something my homie over here has been killing at (lookout for the recent DJ Duck & Wartime posts).

First up is DJ Jubilee’s full-length debut built around a UNLV diss title track and accompanying skit. Mr. Temple offers the kind of disses you might expect from your gradeschool teacher (droppin outta school wasn’t fun / all you was good for was beatin that drum), so long as you’re in the kind of school where recess is more like a block party. Its a response to UNLV’s “Nigga I’m Bout It” where Lil Ya disses Jubilee’s Eddie Bow dance, accuses him of almost catching “that rape charge” and calls him a “substitute teacher.” Ya is spitting fast as fuck here and I always miss the part where he calls Jube a "Lemonhead". Anyways, I think its mostly an extension of UNLV – PNC beef, which had something to do with simple addition (2 + 1 > 2 + 1?). Either way, beef is squashed: UNLV’s Tec-9 and Lil Ya turn up as features on Jube tracks a few years later, Tec-9 even put out a Take Fo solo record, Ready 4 War in the year 2 thousand.

Also in here: the Party @ the Luau compilation. I think the only exclusives here are the title track and the Josephine Johnny offering, though that may have found home on a different label.

I heard a rumor that KC Redd passed away around the time of the storm. True or not, I’m sorry to hear that. Holler if you can fill in the gaps.

Old Dirty South

DJ Jelly & MC Assault Lay It Down: Old Dirty South Mix

Oomp Camp elevating the mixtape to another level. The Bass Game series is off the hook for sure, but these old school Gangsta mixes are a personal favorite. They never reach the point of over-saturation but still give you the feeling of being 5 places at once. They also seem to reinvigorate raps that don't seem as hard now as they must have when they first dropped. Don't know much about their mix DVDs, though, holler if you do.

8ball & MJG - 9 Milli
Master P - Bounce Dat Azz
2Pac - I Came To Bring The Pain
TRU - No Limit Soldiers
NWA - Dopeman
Too $hort - Couldn't Be A Better Player
Silkk The Shocker - Let Me Hit It
UGK - Murda
Sammy Sam - Intoxicated
8ball & MJG - Pimp In My Own Rhyme
Eazy E - Eazy Duz It
8ball & MJG - Mr. Bigg
Oomp Camp - Down South Slum
Triple Six Mafia - Who Run It
2Pac - Ambitionz Of Ridah
Juvenile - We On Fire
8ball & MJG - Armed Robbery
Mystikal - The Man Right Chea
T-Slabb - Na Confessions

Blamin the Funk

Indo G & Lil Blunt "Blame it on the Funk" from 1994's The Antidote on the unlikely Luke Records.

Holla If Ya Hear Me

MC Spud & DJ Def - Holla If Ya Hear Me
and as a bonus: MC Spud - Creepin

On the Wire

C-Loc presents Concentration Camp III Thug Brothers: The Swishahouse Chopped-Up Remix.

Centex Ballaz recently posted the straight version of this which I'd never heard before. Its kind of like waking from a dream, reaching in your mouth and finding all your teeth are still there to hear the regular version of a record once you've spent so much time with the slowed mix. The opening skit surely shines stronger at promethazine pace, the rest too in my opinion, but I realize the bias of the First Listen. Either way Loc's screwed drawl is hypnotic and I always laugh when I hear him sigh "aww shit just way...way...too...real" at the beginning of track 10, probably because the sound environment is making me feel really really unreal.

I'm not entirely confident that this is his debut, but I definitely haven't heard anything by a younger Boosie, who would have been 17 when this dropped.

Ya Boy Choppa

Choppa Choppa Style (2001, Take Fo')

Mid-period Take Fo' at its best. Its Budget Bounce: vocals deep in the red, heavy syncopation making up for the cheap synth sounds (like the slap bass on "That Bounce Shit" that sounds straight out of fucking Seinfeld). Without strong lyrics or even a smooth flow, Choppa Style relies heavily on some other kind of charm, something Choppa hasn't recaptured on his past 2 releases. He sounds perfect inbetween verses by DJ Jubilee or Katey Red, all seeming like the same kind of outcasts. Apparently he's back with the Take Fo camp. They already made their round as the New Take Fo', teaming up with the New No Limit for his follow-up Straight from the N.O., so maybe now they're the New New Take Fo', which sounds better anyways.

GZA in Alaska

Funny ass video of Soulja Boy's pimple getting busted. Also funny is this interview:

On GZA: I wouldn’t even rap against the Genius. I’d put up someone who was born in ’66 to go against the Genius so it can be a tie. He’s got like 50 years on me. I wouldn’t even associate with the Genius. [In the video] he was looking like I stole his money or something. He’s in Alaska. He’s cold. I just heard 50 Cent talking about the Genius saying he had an Impala his age. Well, that’s the Genius for you. [Laughs.] He has no choice. He got famous for five little minutes, but he had to sacrifice a relationship with Soulja Boy. Now it’s gone. I ain’t gonna be like “F the GZA” ‘cause I ain’t never met that dude. But he says, “F Soulja Boy” ‘cause he needed a buzz. Now he’s back in Alaska.
On Pop It Off Boyz’ “Crank Dat Batman”: I know POB. They cool. They getting their money. It’s all a movement. What I started, people want to continue. They can do that. I stopped cranking it in ’07.[In] ’08, we getting the brand new money. It’s no animosity. The Batmans, Spidermans and the Fantastic Four are cool. Maybe the GZA need to make “Crank Dat GZA.”

Years Later....

Magnolia Slim aka Soulja Slim
Soulja Fa Lyfe
(Parkway Pumpin,1994) &
Dark Side (Hype, 1995) @ 224 kbps.

5 years since Slim passed and its still nearly impossible to check his early work, with the exception of "You Got It" which slipped through the cracks onto No Limit's Bouncin'& Swingin double-disc. How much time must pass before some boutique European label with an endless cash supply starts reissuing long lost NOLA bounce classics on 180 gram double vinyl?

I have no idea what the cover to Soulja Fa Lyfe looks like, though if its as good as 39 Posse's 39 Automatic (also on KLC's label) then you aren't missing much. Rest In Peace.

Bitch U Ride the MARTA Bus

SHAWTY I GOT THAT BREEZE CARD! Youtube Crank Rap gets game stepped up enough to remain funny. And Luch Million$ responds: "dis dat nigga luch millions .. i fucks wit dis shit allday .. holla at me 404-425-9216".

Holy South

Not exactly new news, but news to me: Chuckwick undergoes miraculous Christian conversion? It appears from this clip that he's also on some David Icke shit but he doesn't stay on topic enough to verify. Now I'm sitting here sorting out which parts of "Dr. Wolfgang Von Bushwickin the Barbarian Mother Funky Stay High Dollar Billstir" need changing. Here's wondering if his conversion lasts longer than Lady Boo's and I'll take this chance to get off topic and express deep interest in the future Gangsta Boo / La Chat collabo, We the Hardest. What I'm also wondering is how come Boo didn't fear for her life when she found god like fellow ex-triple-6-er Mr. Del, who insists Paul and Juice put out a hit on him. "I was so afraid because I know what they are capable of. I know what they've done." Luckily, through the power of Jesus he found the strength to return to Memphis. Also, I found out today that Gangsta Boo listens to Alanis Morissette.

Lifted Links to Mr. Del's Hope Dealer in 2 parts: 1, 2

Y2G's

Year 2 thousand remake of the Showboy's 1986 Bounce/Buck construction set "Drag Rap". James Brown may deserve the Lifted Samples Lifetime Achievement award, but I can't think of another track thats been pillaged so boldly and so completely. And considering the near infinite love and respect these 2 either get or deserve, how come they couldn't get something above this highschool photoshop job for the cover to their only full-length? I'm not bitching too hard because I love when record a title incorporates the expression 'Y2K'. I would also love to see a list of titles they actually received royalties from. I imagine Mannie Fresh contemplating the reissue of CM's pre-universal discography and then writing it off like, "Goddamn, I'm tired of sending all my cheese to those motherfuckers." Complete discography to follow shortly (as soon as I replace my needle).

30318

Born Hustler Inc (BHI)'s 30318 Project. 2 covers here and I can't prove either one is legit. My copy has the incoherent space theme featured to the right and is a CD-R with a printed surface that features a "Snap King" parody of the Burger King logo. Bootlegg begets bootlegg. The link is the full shit and at a bit-rate too booji for the casual rap.zip hoarder.

Lord Infamous

Selections from Scott Bejda's interview with Lord Infamous from the latest Murderdog (Vol.5 #1). Dude asks him if he was nervous the first time he performed as a 9 yr old, Infamous says "yes". Actually, he says a lot of shit (no help from Bejda), like inadvertently (or maybe advertently?) revealing what went wrong with Three 6. Yall got your grammy, now get back with the dark arts:

I switched up my style because Paul use to always tell me, “You need to simplify your style because some brothers don’t read the stuff you read, and they are not into the dark arts like you are.” I tried to simplify, but it wan’t my fault that people weren’t educated or into the things that I was into. I was diluting my own style and I had to stop doing that. I felt that unless you put them up on some knowledge then they won’t be on no knowledge… …I love cats like Spice 1, MC Eiht, WC and DOC. They got that sick flow. I also like the dark rappers like Gangsta Nip, Point Blank and K-Rino. I have always been on the wicked side of things. I call it the dark art…We live in a world of turmoil. This is Satan’s Realm. This is not God’s realm at all. I try not to love things of this world because if you’re a worldly man then you’re not a godly man. That is why I don’t glamorize the bling. I only have one song about that and it’s a mockery of ice. I’m talking about robbing the rappers who support that shit… …I’m not one of them cats who will just hop on a record and wear all this jewelry because I don’t do that. I don’t drive no big fancy-ass car. I roll with my girl because they took my license a long time ago, and I don’t drive Bentleys either! The money that is spent on a Bentley can feed many children. What would you spend 100-200 grand on? When I get a check like that I give some of it to my mom. I might take my girl out, pay bills and I just try to survive…Do you think you will ever be in Three 6 again? I’m always Three 6 Mafia. I am one of the founders of the group. I am the one who came up with the name “Triple Six Mafia”; a lot of people may not know that. I created that name. Me and Paul grew together and one of the first places we ever did song was in church. How old were you? Were you nervous? I was only 10 years old. I was nervous as hell. We did “Amazing Grace”.

Sista Sista

4 of the better tracks off Silky's Bouncin in a 6 Tray. Best known for her 1992 "Where They At" answer record, "Sista Sista" (Profile 1992). Not to be confused with Snoop Dog’s character in Doggy Dog World or the male Baton Rouge MC.

Calm like a lawyer, bad like a 2nd grader

Tim Smooth's seminal "I Gotsta' Have It" from 1991 on Yo Records (produced by DJ Lil Daddy). One gets the impression Tim could rap for days without falling off (or asleep).

The All Music Guide claims he was ghostwriting lyrics for rappers on the Big Boy label under alternate pseudonym Playboy Sha-Burnke. It seems if you need a moniker its not 'ghost', just 'writing', though if there was a Big Boy artist at the time in need of ghosting I bet you a cassette tape copy of DJ Jimi's Where They At it was Mystikal, who you can check (lil braids and all) mouthing the chorus to Tim's Comin Real from 94.

A bonus for the dirty minded: J-Dawg (of Black Menace) f/ Playboy Sha-Burnke "Freak Nasty"

An Army, A Navy

Enough Cash Money .rar files to make even the most dedicated bling devotee bash their brains in here (not always at the most desirable bitrate). Most essential (besides the obvious Ms. Tee full-lengths) is Baby's lone independent production, I Need A Bag of Dope. I'm hooking it up direct because rap board trading german link protector karma bullshit gives me a headache, though I understand the attempt to hold on to some notion of authenticity in a world gone inter-nutz. Bird was going by B-32 (as in Baby with the 32 Golds) at the time (92 or 3); Mannie listed as "DJ Crackout". Its a short release, only approaching EP length thanks to Fresh's bonus beats which are the real meat here anyways. For more of that checkout "Mannie Fresh Mix" from UNLV's 6th & Baronne.

As a bonus I'm throwing in the Ninja Crew's "We Destroy", the earliest Crackout production I've landed my virtual hands on. A fairly small 'crew', just Sporty T & Gregory D with Fresh manning the boards, but I'm not holding that against them.