Time for the Slammer

Ice Mike Slammin Theez Hoz
(Slaughterhouse, 1994) @ 320 kbps

NO Producer Ice Mike's 1994 full-length, Slammin Theez Hoz. I'm imagining Mike drawing this cover himself with a pack of crayolas. Don't necessarily think he did but it has the intimate look of work by a disturbed visionary. The production is all insane, tight and varied as hell. He lives up to the claim that his "records sell without a Triggaman Bell", packing 20 classic samples into one track where other NOLA producers would get stuck on one or two. Meanwhile, his MCing is all over the place, shifting freely between Geto Boys' brutalism, Too $hort pimping and Blowfly scatology in a way that suggests he could pull off any style he felt like. He comes off best on tracks like "Shittin' N Dat Hoe House" & "That Hoe Got Feet Like a Nigga", where he's more humorist than gangsta. In that sense he's got a lot in common with Mannie Fresh, though he's no doubt a better MC and certainly a comparable producer.

One Man Gang

Tommy Wright III On The Run
(1996, Street Smart Records)
[link removed: visit the Street Smart ebay store]

One of my top ten favorite rap records and maybe number one in covers, designed by this dude whose myspace features a john mayer music player, a bible verse widget and a picture titled "kitty bed time".

I've read that his first single was produced by DJ Paul, I wonder what that is and I wonder if I've heard it. And I wonder what Tommy could have pulled off if he hadn't spent the first five years of the new century on lockdown. Maybe he would have fulfilled the epic sized promise in On the Run's liner notes:

Everybody don't forget about the Nationwide Video that is associated to this release. Street Smart Records needs every one support as we intend on beginning an uncut radio station and a porno magazine following an underground rap magazine.

Anyways, nothing else really sounds quite like this. Not even other Street Smart records or earlier Tommy Wright tapes. Although there are guest production spots alluded to (Squeeky, MDB, Blackout), vague inner info suggests its really Tommy whose responsible for the distinct and completely horrific counterpoint gracing these tracks. Shit is so evil and dissonant... and complex. I can't help but imagine Tommy sitting in some blood-spattered dungeon slamming Old E 40s and listening to Bartok.

Oh and I've been enjoying the tracks on former CIA member Charlie Brown's myspace... does this record exist? God has truly fucked up by blessing a nigga like Tommy Wright III.

Caller Dickhead, Check Out My Crack

Blowfly's proto-rap masterpiece. Supposedly this song comes from 1965 though this version was re-recorded in 1980 for TK Disco, making it something like the first rap record.

Goin Mango On Jupiter

DJ Kid Slizzard presents..
Blapp! Blapp! Bay Slapp Vol. 1

I think I just make these mixes as an excuse to design covers (one a yall need to get me job doin that). Anyways, check it out - 80 minutes of new bay something or other. The "hyphy movement" always felt a bit more like the kind of ad campaign that never overtly mentions its product and I always felt the news story of the one dude dead from Ghost Riding in Canada was some deep metaphor for the movement that I couldn't quite rap my head around.

Anyways, whatever it is and whatever its called, there's plenty of bay bangers buried in the bullshit. Two artists I'm holding my breathe for are D-Lo (who maybe is locked up??) and the duo Bitch I Go, who get extra points for their unfuckwithable name and rap royalty bloodline (member Lil 4-Tay is daughter Jasmyn of Rappin 4tay and has been guest MCing on his records since she was an infant). Anyone who can hook up or point me towards more of their shit, whatup...

A rap lyric pet peeve of mine for the past couple of years has been shallow poop punchlines (though somehow I feel fine about R.Kelly piss / pedophile jabs which seem to have proliferated at the same rate) - NONETHELESS, I can't help but love the "Shittin on Fools" track on here. Maybe its because they truly bring the duke. Maybe its the fart synths' self awareness. Either way the ante is up and even in the worst game I gotta respect that.

Tracklist as comment.

In a Zag or a Pipe

The first in a series of Bay area related posts, as I attempt to connect a bit deeper to my new home in the Sco. Nickatina reminds me of DJ Spanish Fly in both flow and vocal timbre and I'm wondering if maybe the direction of influence runs the other way. Also, I can't say enough good things about RBL's "bammer" weed anthem - track or video: twirling condom, smoke overlay bay silhouette, dank breathing fence hallucinations.

Can't handle the dank - the reason: bammer joints.

And I apologize for the time lag, we ain't fallin off or nothin: Twankle&Glisten for life. I mean, until I get the boot or the wireless network I'm jacking turns secure on me. Oh, and let me say this: embedding disabled by request? Bitch, please.

Cheeky Black Let Me Get That Outcha
(1995, Tombstone) @ 320 kbps

By request, Cheeky's 1995 format-defying debut. Single? EP? Not sure: 5 street tracks, 2 instr. & 2 clean, though not the same ones. I think a prior version of this may have come out on Mobo Joe vinyl, so this Tombstone release may be an expanded CD version. The focus of the request and as such the reason for my posting is the instrumental version of "Bitch Get Off Me", samples of which you can hear all over the Money Rules Ent. post from yesterday. Think of it as Brown Beat & Triggaman's illegitimate child, growing up in a world of Mannie Fresh flourishes - dog barks, wobbly scratching and hard ass inline eighth notes stabs that sound like someone getting beat down with a baseball bat.

Oh yeah, and a new bounce dump in the hollerbox, pushed to the side because I'm not taking credit for it.

Roll Wit Da Nolia

VA, Money Rules: The Takeover
(2003, Money Rules Records)
@ 320, in two parts

More 21st century N.O. bounce so as to pick up where rarenolamusic left off (RIP?) . This comp came out right before the storm and the cover looks like a pack of stickers your first grade teacher would buy at Eckerd's. Production creds for the whole package go straight to DJ BlaqNmild, easy to confuse with fellow bounce DJ, Blacknmild. A quick look at the former's myspace suggests Blaqbiggiblaq has jumped bounce ship in favor of watered-down radio style production - thats too bad. I think maybe he's still doing his bounce thang as a side hustle but trying to get to that national paper.

Big Freedia's amped-up "Gin In My System" is a definite highlight and I'm wondering what the hell this down-by-the-water sounding environments sample is that I've heard in a bunch of newer bounce records - Psychologically Ultimate Seashore? Freedia is one of Money Rules' handful of Sissy rappers (or reverse Sissy in his/her case), a good example of how rap has been actually gay, not just hypersexualized. Sissy Nobby is all over this disc too. In the past couple of years Nobby has replaced Soulja Boy as Most Strange and Active Underground Down South Rap Youtube Account Holder.

Unexpected samples from Enya to the Rugrats theme littered throughout and I threw in a jpg of the water damaged album previews to give you another taste of what could have been but never was.

No Limit Worker's Union

Hi-lites from Beats by the Pound Murderdog feature (Vol. 12, #3) post to precede detailed No Limit family tree:

KLC: What were you doing before you got with No Limit? I had my own label called Parkway Pumpin Records. Where do you think the No Limit come from. I had Soulja Slim, Mystikal, Hound, Mr. Serv-On, Mac, Fiend! Serv brought me to No Limit because he knew P! P was interested in Serv and Serv was like I gotta bring my nigga up there. They were all on my label but I just didn't have the finances to put the niggaz out.

Did you ever work with Mannie Fresh back before you got with No Limit? Me and Mannie are real solid. A lot of niggaz don't know it because of the little beef between No Limit & Cash Money, but amongst all that shit we were cool. We worked on projects together and shared sounds. Some of the early Cash Money records with some of the songs he produced were some of the sounds he got from me, and some of the songs that I produced on Slims record were the sounds that I got from him.

Odell: I used to do music over at Cash Money. A lot of the records that was coming out of there me and Mannie would play music on. I wasn't a producer but more like a hired musician over there. I couldn't get on there as an actual producer for whatever reason so I had a point to prove.

What songs did you play instruments on for Cash Money? One of the most notable songs was "Drag Em In the River" which was a diss record from UNLV to Mystikal. All that music you hear on top of that is me playing and Mannie did the drums on that. We did that in Slim & Baby's house on their kitchen counter on a eps16 plus I believe. I did stuff on Ms. Tee's first album and BG's True Story. Also played on Mr. Ivan's 187 in a Hockey Mask. Some of the stuff I did they held and I think they used it after I left.

Craig B: On C-Murder: C was the black sheep of the Miller brothers so when he saw something wrong he already knew him and P was gonna have some words. He didn't care and would stand up to him! If we felt we needed to be compensated for something at a certain time we would take a break. This particular time happened when C was working on his first album, and we pretty much went on strike. He went up to bat and was like the negotiator between Beats By the Pound and Bout It Inc, so he could get his album done and make sure that we were straight.

By multiple request: Daddy Yo "I'm Not Your Trick Daddy"
(1993) m4a

NOLA bounce gem. Don't know much about Daddy Yo save for past beef with Magnolia Slim, expressed late in this track.

Early No Limit: Visine Dreams

Dangerous Dame Escape from the Mental Ward
(1995, No Limit) cassette rip @ 320

Back to the tape rips: a hot release from a pre-Beats by the lb, pre-Pen & Pixel and pre-NOLA No Limit and holy shit, what may be this blog's first Bay Area post. Most production by Dame himself, listed label address in Oakland and cover art by Phunky Phat Graph-X, and check out the job they did. Dame, warped in some raincoat straight-jacket, his female either trying to give him diarrhea or a seizure by slipping visine into his gin & tonic or maybe that’s LSD (stripper spikes dangerous convict's drink with life changing dose of acid)? Meanwhile, real Dame stands in front like “what the fuck you lookin out”, the text is on some Mind’s Eye bullshit and check that whip! A lot of these old tape covers leave me lamenting the P&P graphic takeover. I'm also lamenting that its 13 years too late to cop the Dangerous Dame Baseball Cap here advertised.

Soundwise, every track bumps hard but the sappy Be Their, (I don’t know if that’s a typo or some kind of pun), and Dame constantly kills it with his nasal bay flow. I think there's other web-floating rips of this, but if you ask me this max-bass, hi-res tape rip sounds better than a triple bootlegged 128 speed MP3 and even the tape format is going for gold in all online auctions.

Message from Dame (from lining): Fuck You To: To All You Wanta Be Rappin, Fake Busta, Runnin' Off at the Mouth Ass Tricks, If The Shoe Fits Wear It.

Three 6 Breaks

Mystic Pimpin: Triple 6 Mafia Breaks Da Mixtape (Side A, Side B)

Alright, I've ripped a pile of tapes for this blog, now I'm flipping it and its yall's turn to dub this mp3 on cassette. Just over 90 minutes of Three 6 sample sources brought to you in non-stop form, compiled and cut with listening (as opposed to re-sampling) in mind. That's why I left Marvin Gaye's "Is That Enough?" almost fully in tact but cut Teena Marie's "Out on a Limb" down to size.

Anyways, I'm serious about yall making a tape of this. It's like ten dollars for a new walkman that works better than any one from 10 years ago (if you don't still have an old one laying around), and if you're too young to have ever had one its not too late to feel the joy of that hard mechanical play button. I'm currently using these cheesy ass cassettes, which I have a pile of and am generally fond of since they remind me of taping the radio when I was 6 years old. I did do a double take, though, when I saw Maxell XLII's going for 5 dollars a double-pack at Amoeba. You could buy 25 of their budget cassettes for that price, tape the corners up and start killing music with home taping.

'Memphis Pimpin' music, the only genre designation I know of to reference the place and status of listener (not creator), is scattered all over this mixtape along with a lot of new age sounding shit that helped give Three 6 their mystic style. A lot of these breaks are standard rap fare - you'll surely recognize the meandering piano on "Ike's Mood" from like every Mannie Fresh production before '95. Others, like Willie Hutch's "I Choose You", they've completely owned, despite Hutch samples going back to Public Enemy & Pac. Actually, it was listening to "Souljah's Revenge" that helped me place the Bill Withers sample on here... I guess there's no sampling in a vacuum.

I tried not to retrace this blog's footsteps, omitting "Drag Rap" & "Bitches Reply", but also eventually decided to chunk the Exorcist and Halloween themes on the basis of flow disruption. Lamont Dozier's "Shine" was always intended but failed to make it due to time constraints.

Bass Game Breaks

A Lil Sumtn Sumtn

DJ Jimi It's Jimi
(1992, Soulin') cassette rip @ 320

DJ Jimi (the original) Where They At [single]
(1992, Soulin') cassette rip @ 320

PLUS selections from Juvenile's
Playaz of Da Game

DJ Jimi's debut cassette, the accompanying single and all tracks from Juvenile's Playaz of Da Game that feature him. There's overlap between all three releases - for archival purposes I left Where They At? the single in tact but removed duplicates from Juvie's release, which luckily you can purchase for 1 digital cent since the average consumer can't wrap their heads around a Juvenile that is both a) actually a juvenile and b) actually making straight bounce instead of the post-bounce thug pop of Universal era Cash Money. Check this pragmatic fiction from Amazon.com's customer reviews:

I read in a magazine all about this cd and I will explain what all of the other reviewers have gotten wrong. First of all, DJ Jimi is really Manny Fresh. Manny Fresh has changed his name to DJ Jimi because he though that was a lot more creative and it makes him sound more black. Juvenile is all over this record also. He simply changed the way he raps (he sound a little more girlish).

If homes only let on to what gangsta rap tabloid he's reading...Anyways, despite all the ana from disoriented Juvenile die-hards, these tracks are hard and funky as hell and probably the best examples of early Bounce you can cop without labored digging. Good interview with Juvenile here, where he claims ownership of Bounce music, calls everything "Where They At" and offers this explanation of his rapping style: It's considered an off-the-porch flow. It ain't nothing but some shit talkin. It ain't even rap to me. It's like a new line of parts. He also talks about his former life as an oil-rig supervisor.

Whether he owes it all to Juvie or not, Jimi earned his spot in rap history with the "Where They At" single which despite it's claims of being "the original" was more of an upgrade on TT Tucker's earlier model. Still my favorite spontaneous application of John Carpenter's Halloween theme and some of my favorite clean-edit lyric revision too, right up there with Big Boi swapping "bustin nutz in they mouth" with "playin cuts from the south" on Goodie MOb's Dirty South single.

A short Jimi bio here which seems to confirm the rumor that the inspired raw-ass vocals on "Bitch's Reply" are in fact his mother. Holler if you're able to upload or behind an Ebay auction for Jimi's second full-length I'm Back, I'm Back.

Three 6 Satellites

Broken Halos: Da Compilation Album Disc One, Disc Two

The first in what one can only hope will be an extensive T&G penetration of the Triple 6 periphery, today’s offering is the homemade Broken Halos compilation. Two discs (virtual or for real) of golden era Three 6 members or collaborators killing it on 4-track cassette in the garage, clubhouse or wherever.

The best of Paul & J’s old ass mixtapes have been shuffled and re-compiled into what is becoming a long list of Triple 6 Mafia reissues. No complaints from this author, the remastered versions sound a hell of a lot better than the tape-to-MP3-to-WMA-back-to-MP3 sloppies I have clogging up my hard drive (not to mention being just about the best music you can buy at Best Buy). But that handful is just the the tip of the Memphis iceberg. On here are solo efforts by all the 3-6 mainstays - Boo, La Chat, Pat, Lord Infamous & Koopsta Knicca - and a basket of MCs who got left behind in the race to fame or who were tangential to begin with. A cursory glance lets you know they're all young as hell - Lil Sko, Lil Ramsey, Lil Gin, Lil Fly (later Playa Fly), Lil Corb....

Completists may note the absence of Carmike, but I've never warmed to his exaggerated cartoon style and the only track I like on Comin Out Yo Azz is the instrumental. I also thought long and hard about the inclusion of 199nigga4 era Indo G & Lil Blunt, but that's really a whole different funk altogether.

COMING SOON: nonstop mixtape of unadulterated Three 6 sample material, from the Delfonics to Puppetmaster. Tracklisting in the comments section.