More M-Town Tubing

Leading up to some things.... some full tapes ripped, new Memphis mix and old mixes formally cassetted, but on the way down that path I'd like to share a line of youtube mp3s from poster Redsavage24. The videos are all just cover images, but you'll enjoy that aspect just as much - notably Ever So Thick Fam's Daniel Johnston math class daydream.

Yall probably tired of me asking it, but does Ever So Thick Family's "Automatic" share a common sample with Mystikal's "Yall Ain't Ready"or is that track just this track's sample? As a collective audience, you are the best research resource on these matters.

I guess the internet is all dots with varying amounts of stems and as such lazy can be as useful as efforted blogging and if you're lost in the untwitterably large maze of this media overload skip straight to La Chat & Womack "Smokin On A Fat Sack".

Smoke Sumthin

Gangsta Pat's "Smoke Something" & G-Style's "Gangsta" videos from the Tha Memphis Underground DVD culled from clips of Ska Faced Al Kapone's cable access show. More or less all of the best vintage footage from Dirty States of America hails from this release, some from these videos plus more from Ball & G and Pretty Tony 1991 live performances.

Wayne-Giving & 3 Bounce Rap Classics

Lil Slim on his Cash Money departure. Not only is he responsible for 3 of the label's strongest pre-Universal records, but he also managed the statistically unlikely success of staying alive while so many of his partners passed.

Crankage!!

DO DYS SHIT CRANK OR DONT IT

Been catching up with DC by way of youtube poster TerrorizeSpeed. I realized today that this guy includes sendspace links in his more recent vid descriptions and that those sometimes link to single mp3s and sometimes link to a zip. A folder of my personal favorites coming to this site later today as well as a Reaction Band archive that's been floating about for a while.

The Other B-Low

B-Low
Ski Mask Over My Evil Grin
(2001, ????)

Thug rap's most underrated outsider and cocaine's greatest contribution to society since Fleetwood Mac's Tusk.

I fished this out of BotM's bottomless well and its been on laptop repeat ever since. Insane style, insane artwork, insane placement of cuss words like "goddammit".

I haven't been able to find any actual words written about this guy or hints about his background or label info, etc.. Someone needs to unveil this geek'd up funkytown freak.

Hilites include "Funkyville", "Ten Toes Down" and the title track.

B-Low is my fuckin name / and I'm on that fuckin funk / Roastin, Toastin all u hoes / Goddammit keep it crunk / Muthafuckin nose froze / Goddammit Ten Toes / Muthafuckin Jane Dos / Nuthin but sum Ana Hoe

Bee-low's Real Crib

Another respectable middle class home-made cribs episode to compliment the aforeposted Tommy Wright III (T&Gs favorite MC and now sworn enemy, and therefore least favorite MC) and Southern Hospitalities complimentary Bitch I Go tour post. A five figure salary from rapping is something to be proud of, something that requires talent and deserves respect.

Bee-low has a good sense of humor about his home, if still too-high hopes for his Thugz Gone Wild record and a misunderstanding of what constitutes a "self-portrait".

Y2K: Fact or Fiction

Loko Git Dat Money
(1999, Big Oomp)
cassette -> 320 mp3

Having already posted a couple of other pre-millennium B.O. junts, I'm filling in the cracks.

I used to visit the bigoomprecords website just for their introduction, a soothing Flash meditation on the city of Atlanta. I don't think it devalues their output proper to say that their greatest contribution has always been their mixtapes, which surely are the most dense, most active and most historically-aware CD-Rs of classic Atlanta/Southern rap available.

The production style on their earlier records seemed like a hybridization of bass tape mixing and No Limit Soldiering. I know people are quick to point out the similarities in Three 6 Mafia tearing the club up and Pastor Troy getting crunk, but all the late 90s murderdog interviews with ATL producers like Oomp's Jelly reference a real shift in culture they attribute to the No Limit boom. P Big Mac'd the sound, standardized the palate, threw out costly and legally treacherous sampling and held hostage a team of production talent and gave a lot of folks new ideas about how to make some $$$ (see album title). But BBtP had their hands tied in ways Oomp's DJs didn't. The Big Oomp sound owes a lot to that NL shift, but they seem somehow more careful with it. Even if the only true innovation they added was fusing Bass and Gangsta vibes on tracks like Sammy Sam's "Ridin with Some Killaz" or "Dance Freaks" from this cassette.

I was disappointed by the recent full-lengths - Baby D and the second Unk record. Its not that strange because most new rap has been disappointing to me for a while, but when the first Unk came out it seemed a solid start for Oomp's second wave.

Lethal T and the Outcast
Death by Lethal's Injection
(1994, Lethal Records)
cassette -> 320 mp3

Look's like this cover was designed by whoever did "I'm Back! I'm Back", same font and photo grade. And I think this is the first and last release on Lethal Records, which is too bad because their handgun logo deserved more printing. This may also be the first and last rip on this site to hail from San Antonio, Tx. Make that one more pin on the Triggaman cork board, except actually the "Triggaman" track on this cassette and the Showboys classic are mutually exclusive. Different Outcast, different Triggaman. This one is all funk-drums in the hallway and the Young & Restless theme stuck on one chord.

The great thing about LPs and cassettes is the splitting of identity into two sides, hinting at the ambiguity of everything. I have a strong preference for the B-Side of this one - more energy, less reliant on G-Funk squiggle. The "outro" music track reminds me of "pick a box its contents will help you on your way".

Shouts are shouted-out both inside and on this tape to Wink-D, I wonder if its the same one.

Can't Be Stopped

Vockah Redu & Tha Crew
Can't Be Stopped (Y2K, C2K) @ 320
[cover courtesy of poster N0LA]
[audio courtesy of poster ThugDoubt]

Another Sissy Bounce post which means another opportunity for you to remind me why racism is fundamentally different than other forms of prejudice.

If from nothing else, you'll remember Vockah from this post, where Katey Red complains "That's Jevakah. That's another homosexual. They called her Jevakah Re-Do, because she re-do all the songs that I do." She's referring to the track featured here called "Fuck Katey Red". The fact that every other Sissy Bounce rapper is obliged to make a Katey-diss has the unintended effect of painting Katey Red as the dominant Sissy.

"Bout It Night" is a strange meta-moment, remixing the record's single "Bout It Whoa", by way of an Erykah Badu parody. Its not the only hard-to-explain track on here - there is a general-MIDI second line instrumental that is listed as featuring "Derrick formerly of Rebirth" that doesn't seem to feature anyone or anything else. Its kind of cool, but at the same time lifeless (for second line) and disorienting (on this rap record).

Elsewhere, the record mostly sticks to the "Local New Orleans" call & response format. There's also a good instrumental all aspiring sissies can use on their next mixtape.

I'm Back, Jimi's Back, We all Back

DJ Jimi
I'm Back, I'm Back + Bonus
(1994, Gamtown) @ 320

The promo vinyl sampler to this record was generously shared by a reader last year but here's the full-on rip.

I had to listen to parts of this record on repeat to catch up with all the times I'd already listened to those tracks featured on Juvenile's "Playaz of the Game". I don't know whats up with that weird release by the curious California-based D3 label that put out similarly dubious looking best-of bootleggs by BB King and Barry White, but I assume they scooped up rights for cheap thinking they could bank on his later success. Those CDs are going for 9 cents on Amazon right now, with a lot of hilarious diss comments from people who have no idea what Bounce music might be.

Anyhow, once my familiarity leveled out and I could listen to this as a real full-length I realized this is a great record start to finish. Thick, smooth & funky cuts with plenty of humor and spliced triggaman bells. It would be great if these songs all had answers MC'd by "Bitches Reply"s uncredited vocalist.

Playa Funk

OJ Click *

"Pimps, Macs, Hustlas, Playas"
(1995, Black Temple) [VBR]

"Crazy Red"
(1996, Black Temple?) [VBR]

NUTHIN BUT THAT PLAYA FUNK BUMPS IN YA TRUNK. You have to pay your dues if you wanna be a playa.

I think whoever ripped these two OJ Click classics was expecting more dues on my part, but since its 2009, I'm not paying. Both came from an invite only blog, which as far as sharity goes, I don't believe in and as far as access goes - is there some other use of google's cache??

The sound quality is pretty clear, considering. Hopefully, you prefer Dolby NR in the off position. Some weird I's and O's on Crazy Red, though.

Great laid back cheap synths and tuned tom-toms. Perfect one finger piano part-writing. I've gotten nowhere searching for clues to the History of Memphis Rap Counterpoint. I'm still waiting for some impossible revelation, like the John Carpenter film with soundtrack credits split between JC and Bar-Kays, or archive footage of Isaac Hayes in the studio, smoking blunts, listening to Bartok, nameless little future-rap youngins running around, messing up gear.

A lot of samples I can't place that share space on 3-6 tape-catalogue tracks. I intend to come up with a way to drain the knowledge of their sources out of you the reader, because you've proven able time and time again, provided I make it a little easier for you.

Its the Return

And.... we're back! I couldn't really keep up my C&W protest, because I don't actually have a single country record. Actually, embarrassingly enough, though I listen to all sorts of music I don't really have any records other than rap 12's except the first three Meter's records, a small pile of Numero & Mississippi reissues and a scattered pile of Lyrichord and Sound Effects records (for artistic purposes), along with whatever comes free from being a States Rights recording artist. Oh yeah and some Florian Hecker to clean out the ears every now and again.

And Obama banner is back because I need some fucking health insurance. This is because I am in a pickle.

I was hoping for some contrast pen tap vids but as far as I am willing to peek this is the only middle/high-schooler on youtube who keep up the same tempo for longer than 30 secs. ID, please.

BRB.