Nascent NOLA 12s: Nuthin Nice

MC J Ro J "Ain't Nuthin Nice"
(1988, Enoja) @ 320 kbps

One more piece in the J Roget puzzle. This 12 doesn't capture the same timeless New Orleans vibe as the "Let's Jump" single, but its still a varied and interesting document. There seems to be a correlation between the music on his records and the oufit he wears on the front but I've haven't quite figured what it is. How similar is the production on Mia X's "Mommie Dearest"? Does it sound more like this or the Westbank tracks we're familiar with? Please yall, if anyone's holding that one don't hold out.

Funny dated samples and references: "Sometimes, I feel like a nut", "Homie don't play that", Snap!'s "I've Got the Power".

Scratches by DJ KLC (& DJ Treble) and that makes this the earliest record to feature Craig Lawson I know of (his wikipedia page claims he was "active" since 87). And though this is tangential I like this anglefire bio:

KLC is a sleepy-eyed B-Boy turned producer. He comes with the "Michael Meyer" beats, that are eerie and wicked. He's also the one who usually produces the rowdy Soldier songs. They say that, to get him to produce a hit beat, the keyword is, "food". He can produce well on a full stomach than on an empty one. Also, the beat to the rowdy anthem, "Bout It, Bout It" was an accident gone right. After KLC's one year old daughter Crashan, started messing with his equipment, he realized the beat she added was what he was looking for. He also raps, which he made his debut act on Mia X's, "Mama's Family" off, Unladylike.

Nascent M-Town 12s: Motherfuck the Cops

Men of the Hour
Cop's Aint Shit 2 Me / Psycho
(1991, Bazooka) @ 320 kbps

Noz already streamed this shit, but I've giving it out fully and including the instrumentals too because I really like this release and not just as a historical document but as music.

And maybe being a guitarist makes me more sympathetic to the instrument's rap inclusion. I also love the orchestra hit synth sounds in both tracks because they sound so dated but their arrangement makes it hard. A much rawer sound than the contemporary Radical T features.

Instrumentalwise, "Psycho" works well as a stand-alone. The crowd sounds, drums & samples, no-reservations funk wah guitar and whispered "psycho" all combine to make a really unexpected music.

Animal Life in the Great Swamp

Swamp click S/T
(1996, Big Easy Records)
from cassette to 320 mp3

Here are the current internet CD prices for this album: Amazon - $132.94, New. $57.97 Used. Ebay - $39.99. On cassette a month ago it cost 4 dollars at Peaches (thanks 2 IV).

I think that the presence of an animal in a Pen & Pixel cover really drives up the demand from internet bidders and this cover has 4 of them. And it might be the most varied, though the dog/vulture combo of 8ball's "Lost" comes close.

The double dog is the iconic standard (Backyard 196 "Wicked Wayz", Big Swiss "The Inaugaration), outdone (thru opposite extremes) by the bloody disc biting beast on Mersonary Kilaz "Blood Thirsty" and the very many mutts of Big Pokey's "Hardest Pit in the Litter". The white tiger is a personal favorite of mine (and one I've put to use in my own ripping off) but one that toes the line and no one need mention the Big Bear of CMP covers at this point. Not that they haven't once brought me joy.

I wouldn't want to not mention the race horse in flight on Criminal Elament's "Hit Em Where It Hurt". And someone explain to me what the geodesic dome on the back of SC's swamp jeep is for.

I can only hope that available downloading drives down the price of releases like this. No one should have to pay more than $20 for a release that is not that good, not that rare and not at all historically significant, alligators or no alligators.

There is shit on here I like. Three quarters thru, things starts picking up with a short swamp instrumental. Then a moment of self-reflection: "Yo B, we ain't got no hype shit on dis album dawg", after which things stay better.

I really like the noodling instrumental behind the "Shoutz Out", I wish it was a proper track.

Queens of Hip-Hop

I just wanted to announce the arrival of (or actually just my arrival to) the Sexy But Deadly blog. Its a Female MC sharity blog that posts women rap full-lengths indiscriminate of coast, country, style or scene.

I haven't yet "used" this site, so no testament to the quality, but I'm glad to see someone doing it and at least some of the kinds of things I hope would be there are there. Kind of seems like an aggregate link-list blog but in an exponential mess I appreciate a little bit of organizing.

Red side, Rum side

Doleamite Ruff-n-Da Ghetto
(1997, Red Rum)
320 kbps MP3 from cassette

Weird full-length by bounce eccentric Doleamite. I like the cover - posing with the Mortality/American History themed funeral folk art. Reminds me of this tape. Exaggerated soulful singing kind of like the Souljas of Sorrow or that Death full-length. Even stranger is this different-key a cappella Frankie Beverly sample on "Stress Got Me Tripping".

This is a good followup to tonight's earlier Elt post: DJ Tee produced most of this record and Lil Elt is feat. on "Lil 5'0". Elsewhere feats by Lill Vill, M&M Slim, Queen D, Big Slack, Face Forever, Lok'ee.

Scared to Kick Reality

Lil Elt AKA 5foota
UNDAGROUND HITZ
(2003, N.O.E.) @ that 320

Lil Elt of "Get the Gat" fame and this disc features two versions of that track that differ from the "gemix" version: the original and the slowed-down 10 year anniversary revisit. Both are good and there's plenty of other worthwhile shit before them. I recommend "Bootin Up".

A greatest hits cd presupposes an existing body of releases. Anyone know those releases? And the related question for Noz: How many Parkway Pumpin cat. #'s are in your head or are you fronting?

I have this one in a vinyl-style blank-spine sleeve. Whenever I buy used promos I wonder what radio station or magazine they were mistakenly sent to.

"All songs produced and mixed by DJ Tee (50 Gran)".

One Man Gang - One Stop Shopping

Sometime recently T&G's hands-down favorite MC, Tommy Wright the third, reclaimed the TW3 market by creating the Street Smart Ebay store and stocking it full of everything we ever wanted. Posters, cassettes, bumper stickers...

The cost is still on the high side but its still worlds away from the obscene net deals I've seen the past couple of years. I bought "On the Run" from an Amazon seller 5 years ago for 8 dollars. I saw it offered last year on the same site for 300, and though maybe no one ended up paying that much I saw it go for at least 100 on Ebay.

Hit it up and realize I'll be pulling all TW3 links ASAP. And look forward to an interview with Tommy by T&G poster Rob in these pages if it turns out he's serious.

Bounce Tapes: the Diceman

MC Dice Down for my Crown
(1995?, Mugz/Spiral Records)
cassette rip @ 320 kbps

I recently read Luke Rhinehart's the Diceman, which is a book about a psychologist who one day rolls a dice to decide whether or not to rape his neighbor and colleagues' wife. The dice tell him to go ahead with it and it works out so well he converts thousands of followers across the nation who all let chance take over their lives.

This might not be too far off from what Dice had in mind about going "nation wide".

All production (and post-production too) by future Beats by the lb member Carlos Stephens, the only Medicine Man to stick with No Limit after they became "New".

I have to request that someone upload this related Mugz release because I've had a real high success rate with requests lately.

Three 6 - Chinese Blues

A real highlight from Adventures in Hollyhood: Paul & Juicy chinese blues a cappella improvisation. This shit sounds significantly better than anything on Last 2 Walk.

Bounce Tapes: Second Line Jump

2 Blakk
The Game [single]
(1995, TTH Marketing)
cassette rip @ 320

Liner notes credit DJ Mannie Fresh and DJ Duck and I wonder how those credits are split. I think "Nigga Is Real" is a giveaway Fresh track but then again none of these stray too far from the template, so its hard to tell. 2 Blakk shouts out to both producers in "Second Line Jump" so the division of labor may be overlapping.

I'm interested the history of this dated explicit lyrics sticker. I was thinking at first that this might be a pre-Tipper sticker, but it turns out that's been around since Ice-T's Rhyme Pays. I've actually only seen this sticker on New Orleans tapes, but that's likely coincidental.

All three songs are good enough on here, I really do appreciate having the "Second Line Jump" instrumental, though. Partly because I may want to put it to extra-curricular use someday but also because I think instrumental NOLA Brass Rap is in itself something worth listening to. I'm curious: how many other people listen to instrumentals like its full music?

Bounce Tapes: Nero Bounce

Nero
Fool Whut You Talkin Bout?
(1997, Dice Records)

MC Nero
I Gotta Lotta Respect: Da Album
(1996, Slimpicket)

Two content-overlapping cassette tapes by different name variations of Shelton "Doesn't Cuss" Nero of Baton Rouge. What's strange is that the only other release I know of his is the Warlock 12" "Where You From (Dat Rouge)" which uses a third variation: MC Nero Baby. I'm trying to figure out what sort of situation could have left him dodging lawsuits filed against himself by himself.

Its possible the name change corresponds with with a shift in visual representation. Like Dots, Before the Dots and After the Dots.

I don't actually have anything to say about the music in these half-good cassettes (except that there are things there that interest me) but I don't want that to stop or slow down my posting at a point when I've been negligent and am sitting on a pile of need-to-rip shit.

I decided its not worth it to try and figure out how these releases relate to each other. They're in some no man's land beyond singles/EPs/LPs. I can't ever figure out which tape I'm listening to.

"Lookie Here Yall" from Fool Whut You Talkin Bout?. More Bounce tropes on this than any track on either tape, Nero Bounce included.

Bounce Tapes: The Double Stack

Warren Mayes and Da Posse
AIN'T NO STOPPIN' US NOW
See Me When I Get There
(1998?, Bomb Records)
Tape 1, Tape 2
double cassette rip @ 504 kbps

What is this beast of a cassette double-album? 37 songs, 4 sides, 2 titles and 1 giant insane cassette case like I've never seen or even imagined. An all over the place extravaganza - good tracks, bad tracks, some bounce and some not.. great micro-chopped triggaman bells somewhere in there and the unexplained gift of two bangin Rebirth Brass tracks to kick off the fourth quarter.

For this post there are media options, you can enter this music from any door, hole or window: download either or both tapes above or without commitment check a few different cuts via youtube:

I like the weird production on "I Am Gone Get's Mine", which like Playa Fly's "Nappy Hair & Gold Teeth" reminds me of the soundtrack to Tetris Attack for Super NES. Or "Are You Ready" which is the Comin Out Hard sort of Mission Impossible funk. Or "Stack That Ass Up"s Hammered Dulcimer Brown Beats.

Wait, I think I didn't draw enough attention to the case of this thing. It is almost the same proportions as a single case but twice as big and fits 2 tapes but sidewise.

Violent Cus its Really Fabulous Music

Parts two and three of LArap poster Turlet's generous WMV upload.

I'd like to know the details about 2 UNLV songs whose instrumentals were repackaged for other Cash Money artists' singles: Wayne's "Go DJ" and Juvie's "Set It Off". "Yella's Revenge" seems like its a Sinista junt and "Set it Off" a Mannie Fresh production - so what's up with that? I've always had a lot of respect for the Yella/Setitoff instr. which pairs the drag-net riff with the Halloween theme but slowed down and phrased instead of sampled. In my imagination I see all MIDI programmed rap played live - some asian teenager furiously plucking away the crazy pizzicato octaves while some drunk, blind man bangs piano low notes with one finger.

Bounce Bounce for UNLV

Yo Rob, is this what you were talking about? UNLV live on Lousiana Jukebox performing "Bootie Bop". This was uploaded at Louisiana Rap (what up turlet? don't stop, don't quit) whose Cbox is increasingly becoming the internet's de facto bounce mini-forum in much the same way as I have become one of the internet's de facto bounce experts and I can only hope I get backseated stat by some true bootstate professionals.

I know a lot of bounce-curious people who are intimidated by stockpiles of downloadable data and so in the coming days I'll be posting more streaming media (youtube) to supplement the shipments. I suppose even some of you foreal mpeg archivists can't afford the extra harddrive or even CD-R stack having been layed off or looking for work for god knows how long. From now on, everyone can Twankle. At least a little bit. If you have a computer. And the internet...

So many NOLA tape rips and the other parts of this vid coming ASAP. All time lost will be found, I promise.