Weakest Links

S.A.W. Soldiers At War (1999, Military Recordz)
Ghetto Twinz Surrounded By Criminals (1995, Big Boy Records)
Ceaser The Life And Times (199?, Fat Bank Records)

Triple Threat! 3 cassettes I ripped without preview and won't be listening to again and I need to get rid of them. But I think of this site as an archive and I think of my preferences as singular. It seems like the internet should have conquered the human desire to have opinions made for you but all it did was shift who the makers were. Download, try, delete - discover gems in trashcan rap.

Otherwise, enjoy the cover art.

Nigga Behind the Trigga

Code 6
Let's Go Get'Em
(1998, Ice Mike Ent.)
cassette -> 320 mp3

My return visits to HQhiphop.net leave me asking this question: should I be posting FLACs? All interested parties raise hands. Space is cheap!

I was going to post the "Let's Go Get'Em" 12" with the instrumental to accompany this, but that will have to wait on account of turntable tech issues. Ice Mike Ent logo! And some of the best production I have heard from him though I bet there is a lot of shit he worked on I don't know about. Official request for listing Ice Mike prod creds in the comment box and Official T&G endorsements of the following tracks "Only in the Fischer", "This a Stick Up", "Load Up Yo Tec Pt. 2".

Curious to see if Treme makes cameo room for Bounce legends, I'm picturing Lester Freeman in the Lets Go Get'Em vid (peep the comments btw). In my opinion The Wire used way too little local club music for a show committed to uncompromised realism.

More Ice Mike and a Magnolia Slim feature coming with the next post...

Everyfuckinbody in the world a Player-Hater.

B for Bounce

Ricky B (B for Bounce)
(1994, Mobo) [MOBO1]
cassette rip -> 320 mp3

Back to work, if thats what you call this and finally upping something you don't yet have. Ricky B - I heard he was the Bounce Legend Still Unaccounted For, but maybe thats changed. 2 feel good bounce anthems featured on a later CD release and also the Greatest Rap Hits Down South New Orleans compilations but this tape, I think, is the only home to the "nite" version of "Shake It" tailored for the "rastafaris" by way of ad-libbed imitation horn mouth sounds. Blowin shit out of proportion like a trombone. It may also be the only place to find this Mobo records commercial and let me also say that I've appreciated every word of history posted in the comments section lately.

I'm surprised no one save Tommy Wright has made a living bootlegging these sort of easy-replica demo cassette classics.

Yall fuckin with Jdownloader yet?

NOLA Tapes: 96 sounds of Cise

Fiend Won't Be Denied
(1996, Big Boy) cassette -> 320

I'm reflecting on the expression "Rest In Unimaginary Peace". More excellent prod work from "Precise" - man, my favorite thang about the guy is those lone crybaby guitar notes. Actually, zoom the thing out and its like a single line split four ways masterfully. Basketball-like teamwork in part-writing. And I'm thinking about early work by Magnolia Slim, Mac, KLC and this tape providing both great evidence against the claim "No Limit Had No Talent" & for the claim "Rap Might Have Been Better Off Without Them". And not that it needs to be said but P&P productions at their peak here, wtf.

Sorry, anyways, for so diligently and obnoxiously ripping every tape on the rack and then writing one small blip of surprise about some record that everyone who wants already has but its surely more social and more meaningful than me reorganizing records from by-BPM to by-region-based-alphabetized then back again and besides Sharity is a respected blog format even without Noz's endorsement. I saw a headline about in the Wire Adventures In Modern Music. I wish, though, that I could justify this post on the basis of fidelity but shit! I don't have a "chrome" setting on my deck! Sounds kinda like I rubbed motor oil on the tape heads.

Like other Rap Bloggers I like the sound of my fingers smacking away at the keyboard. I type in rhythms like a middle-schooler playing pens.

I haven't been keeping complete track but I think this is the first tape feat. Wild Wayne since Da Rangaz.

We Remember... "It's All on U"s

ß G∑∑zy
It's All øn U & It's All øn U Vøl. II
(1999, Ca$h Møney) cassette -> 320

Funky. Dirty. Serious. I know these are higher profile releases than I usually post but I wanted these up here as contemporaneous context to the other tapes I'm posting. Because sometimes you have to take it to that triller level. Also, I thought a nice white-noise water-in-the-ears tape rip would help you relive the experience of hearing these for the first time in your older brother's jeep. I'm still thinking about replacing the CD player in my car with a tape deck.

I was thinking recently, listening to these and to "Chopper City" how much I like how his old records have these long-winded unhookable hooks. Its shit R. Kelly should have been listening to when he was working on the later chapters of Trapped in the Closet.

Hearts pumping Battle Juice.

NOLA Tapes: Fonkey Monkey

Tim Smooth Da Franchise Player
(1998, Mobo) cassette -> 320 kbps

This Smooth Playboy needs no introduction.

NOLA Tapes: KC Redd

K.C. Redd It's a G-Thing
(1999, Take Fo) cassette -> 320 kbps

I uploaded more or less every Take Fo release from this period to this blog last year, but had to skip this one because I lost my disc. In a way my empty jewel case was fitting since Kasey "K.C. Redd" Segue is no longer with us. I'm not sure of the details of her passing, may she rest in peace.

It seems her recorded output was limited too - several tracks on here reappear on other Take Fo' releases including its strongest singles, "Hot Girlz on Fire" and "Do the Mario."

NOLA Tapes: Karaoke to a Trophy

Blaxuede Dey Don't Kno
(1999, Avatar) cassette -> 320 kbps

Good single on this one, "Bring Da Pain" f/ Lil Wayne & Turk. I kind of miss Turk and also Wayne before he was the monster brat prince of radio rap. Video is up on youtube via jjcenterprises who must have 4 yrs worth of the Box on home vhs's in his closet.

And thanks for the recent comments. I'd like to stress that I am an enthusiast, not an expert, distant in both time and space from this shit and the only time my documentation and other clerical duties pay off is when yall fill in history.

I promise that more essential / classic tapes are coming along with these more disposable ones.

NOLA Tapes: Mo Mobo

Surrender Gangsta Gangsta
(1999, Mobo) cassette -> 320 kbps

Found an efforted though incomplete Mobo timeline on the Amoeba records blog. This guy has done a bunch of posts about bounce rap, and he probably lives here in Los Angeles. Another Californian scrambling to document New Orleans rap history from across the world. Anyways, I'll be upping a lot of the shit he mentions and hopefully a couple he missed this week as T&G's insane NOLA tape free-for-all continues.

The label does have this split personality with Bounce and Thug sides. What's strange is that its on the Thug side where shit gets the weirdest.

A short tape, considering 2/3 of the tape reappears in radio-friendly form. My favorite track on here: the Oomp Camp Bass styled "Get Da Club Start It"

It goes on!

NOLA Tapes: Socca Ball

S.A.C. Mafia Socca Ballin
(1998, Untouchable) cassette -> 320 kbps

This is one of several cassettes I recently purchased from an Ebayer out of Kentucky that has been handled so much that all of the white on chrome text has been obliterated. Its impossible to even tell which side is A, which is B. I imagine dude in his backyard methlab, popping open his yellow Sports Walkman with his nitrile gloved hands and flipping the thing over.

To my surprise the tape sounds great when played. This is already available on BotM but here it is at the better / worse quality you crave - clean rip, hi-res, grimey cassette. An immaculate portrait of a dirty street.

Production mostly by Sinista but T-Bone some (again). Feat.'s by Ms. Tee, Charlie Hanseen, Lokee, Fila Phil, L.O.G. and other rappers I've never heard of - Yada, Lil Rugged, Al Roc Capone.

Sorry but the only track I can whole-heartedly endorse on here is the Ms. Tee feature.

NOLA Tapes: Funky Lycanthropy

Various Artists
Too Loaded Records pres.
The South Coast Compilation • STR-8-BALLIN
(1997, 2 Loaded) cassette -> 320 kbps

I was watching LA Story the other day and noticed the pre-text messaging text-message style text and this tape title is like that too. The tracklist lists prod. credits but no artist credits. Is that indicative of who got paid? They do list the artists randomly to note "appears courtesy of" creds, so I can use that to let you know whose buried here: Skull Dugrey, Kilo-G, Tre-8, Zeeda, Ceasar, Lil E, Ms. Kim, Southern Comfort, Ace-Lo, Shorty Roc, Lil Jinx, Big Bop, Fischer Fools, Recon, Hell Raisers.

Fischer Fools - "Caps Peeled" is really good but DL this zip to hear "Loaded as a Wolf", a really genius narrative that subs out weed for full-moons in a psycho-werewolf fantasy. Getting the munchies, eating children's brains, its all in there.

NOLA Tapes: Mo Menace, Mo Drama

Black Menace Mo Drama
(Y2K, Menace Ent.) cassette -> 320 kbps

To follow the last post, a late tape from Threat's group, Black Menace. Not as strong of an effort as the Threat tape, but a piece of this Black Menace puzzle and I don't see it on offer elsewhere.

Producer Kajun Phunk borrowed Mannie's lasers and he can't let go. That name rings bells, give those bells names in the comments section. I like "4 of the Realest" from the B-side and I think the closing joint is an Insane bonus track intended to advertise for his record (see insert). Its good dessert, maybe better than the main course.