Great EPs: E-40 - "The Mailman"

Fresh from the "Illest EPs Ever" thread over at the forum, here's a Bay Area classic from the legendary 40 Fonzarelli.

Originally released in 1994, The Mail Man follows the trends set on previous efforts such as Mr. Flamboyant and Federal; E-40 kicks rapid-fire, humorous tales thick with his trademark "slanguage" over slumping mobb-style beats produced by Studio Ton and 40-Water himself. However, what distinguishes this EP from those earlier releases is a more polished, consistent sound; this most likely stems from the major-label backing bestowed upon 40 by Jive Record, the imprint that would later re-release his earlier efforts. Along with this improved production, The Mail Man shows 40 really solidifying his now-trademark style, and it shows. So many solid tunes on this record, including the all-time classics "Captain Save-A-Ho" and "Practice Lookin' Hard."

Despite the transgressions made by E-40 over the past 6 years and numerous attempts to tarnish his legacy as a Bay legend, the grip of full-lengths and extended plays that he dropped from 1991 to 1996 more than make up for it. The Mail Man is no exception. So drop ya drawls and get some 40 Water in ya life, yadadibooboo?

1. "Neva Broke"

2. "Bring the Yellow Tape"

3. "Practice Lookin' Hard"

4. "Ballin' Out of Control" (featuring Levitti)

5. "Where the Party At" (featuring The Mossie)

6. "Captain Save a Hoe" (featuring The Click)

7. "Mailman"

8. "Captain Save a Hoe" (Remix) (featuring The Click)

E-40 - "The Mailman" EP

Great EPs: Digital Underground: "This Is An EP Release"

You really ain't know hip hop if you ain't know the legendary Digital Underground. Likewise, if you've never danced your ass off to this song at a house party while singing "I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom," then you should probably bounce and go listen to some Flo-Rida or something. These dudes are Oaktown legends, and are unfairly remembered more for the fact that they gave Tupac his start in the industry than the music that they made.

Digital Underground is a fantastic rap group, don't get me wrong. However, I've got to admit that they have their faults, at least musically. As the mighty ego trip Monkey Academy once said, D.U. has "one great album, one decent EP, and far too much bullshit after that." Whereas this may be perceived as a little harsh, there's a modicum of truth to it. Sex Packets is indeed a classic hip hop album; it's bawdy, rambunctious, and totally fun. Unfortunately, after releasing this seminal piece of music, something caused D.U. to fade away into the ether.

So what happened? Too ambitious, indulgent? The constant revolving-door cycle of artists coming in and out of the D.U. camp? The actual bloatation (is that even a word?) of the group into near-Funkadelic status, with dozens of musicians, graphic artists, dancers shuffled into the collective? Who knows. I suppose that's a question for another day and another blog post. For now, we'll be focusing on just one of the other high-quality releases by Digital Underground: 1991's This Is An EP Release.

Essentially a continuation of the Sex Packets sound and themes, This Is An EP Release rides the Parliament vibe, eschewing the sample-driven sound and embracing live instrumentation; this is some of the funkiest organ work you'll ever hear on a rap record. 6 songs deep, all killer and no filler. It might not be the perfect EP but it's pretty damn close. Do yourself a favor: scoop this up and play it next Saturday night. I guarantee it will not disappoint.

1. Same Song

2. Tie the Knot

3. Way We Swing

4. Nuttin' Nis Funky

5. Packet Man (Worth a Packet Remix)

6. Arguin' on the Funk

Grab it!

- Echo Leader

Murder Dog Presents: Pirhana Killer Fish 5823 & Ride Or Die 5810

Murder Dog is, quite simply, one of the best hip hop publications ever to hit newsstands. Though not as hilariously demented as ego trip or as comprehensive as The Source during it's Golden Age, every single issue is saturated with a wealth of artist interviews and articles. Black Dog Bone and the Murder Dog team have had their collective fingers to the pulse of underground rap music for a decade and a half and have managed to consistently put out a magazine that is almost completely devoid of industry politricks. Also, where else could you find side-by-side interviews with UGK, Haji Springer, and Danny Trejo along with a ten-page spread on the Sri Lankan hip hop scene?

Along with their interviews, scene coverage, and producer biopsies Murder Dog has also been dedicated to bringing the underground to light through extremely comprehensive regional compilations. The two I bring to you today were actually packaged with early issues of Murder Dog, and are entitled "5823 Pirhana Killer Fish" and "5810 Ride Or Die." They are ridiculously rare in physical form, and as such command top dollar from caked-up rap nerds that have no problem blowing $200 on an out-of-print cd.

Although I wouldn't spend that much cash, the music contained within is indeed top-quality. Low budget environments striving for perfection, naw'mean? Real underground 4-track, recorded-in-a-washing-room sounding records. If you like the obscure regional compilations that schenectadyfan brings us on the reg, you will love these discs. True to first-generation Murder Dog, they have a exclusive focus on the southern and west-coast scene, with raps from Al Kapone, the Botany Boys, and Kool Daddy Fresh, and lesser known talents such as the Funxsouljaz. There's even an old Mac Dre song on "5810 Ride Or Die." These definitely get the EL stamp-of-approval

Grab these compilations while they're hot; I guarantee they won't disappoint.

- Echo Leader

Murder Dog Presents: 5823 Pirhana Killer Fish

1. El Kaye & Nino Brown - Leave The Light On
2. Ska Face Al Kapone - To Tha Death
3. NonFiktion, Lo-Skee & Mr. K Geeta - Raw Game
4. Pat Chilla, H-Bomb & Ski Loc - Watch Your Back
5. Land of Da Lost & DJ T-Ski - Nutt'n
6. Young Dre-D & Sonya Dinkins - Sucka Free
7. Skip Dog - By Any Means
8. Lil' Gene (aka The Sandman), Von OP & Mo-B - Tow-O-Sic-Shit
9. 11/5 & UDI - Kill-a-Hoe
10. Mad Dog Clique - Only Made 2 Bump
11. Kool Daddy Fresh - Born To Slang (Part 2)
12. Funxsouljaz - Ill Gott'N Gain
13. Closed Caption - Greens
14. KNS - Survival's In The Game
15. No Face Phantom - The Island
16. Squeek Nutty Bug & Kevin Gardner - 3 Cides of Life
17. 51/50, MsChief, Solo, Masta G & Popcorn - Automatically

Mediafire

Murder Dog Presents: 5810 Ride Or Die

1. Ska-Face Al Kapone - Ride or Die
2. Hollow Tip - Chasin' $'s
3. Botany Boys - Thought of Many Ways
4. JD Walker - Bogus Bangin'
5. Pistol - High 'Til I Die
6. Tha Funxsouljaz & Ska-Face Al Kapone - Don't Nobody Know Me
7. Crooked Path - Mo' Mail
8. STN - Richmond Rulaz
9. Elite G'z - Planet G
10. Triple Deep - Imagine This
11. Lil' Milt - The Prophecy
12. Doff Kapone - Saussy Lifestyle
13. Fat Kev & Mac Dre - The Game Will Neva Change
14. Central Dynasty - Ghetto Greed
15. Iceburg - Ghetto Therapy
16. Ballers Ona Mission (BOM) - Da Game'z Tryna Take Me Out
17. Kriz & Big D (Major Weight Media) - Maintain'n
18. Mob Related & Snook Tha Crook - Strictly Grind'n
19. Ball Player & Andre - This One's For You
20. Black Rhino - No Seeds (Tax Evasion)

Mediafire

Project Blowed Spotlight: The Afterlife / Curbserver Camp

Here's a quick primer one of Los Angeles' most ground-breaking yet under-appreciated rap crews.

Curbserver / Afterlife Recordz was an outgrowth of the legendary Project Blowed collective, which I briefly touched on in this post. Although they've always been a little more hardcore / gangsta, the Afterlife MC's are absolute style kings. They switch from hyper-fast rhyming displays to slower, almost free-form jazz-influenced flows with ease and although this is the hardest pill for new listeners to swallow, if you take the time to interpret their labyrinthine lyrical showcases you'll begin realize that the rappers in question aren't being overly technical simply for the sake of it. They're great writers and storytellers too, in the true griot tradition. These dudes (and ladies) pour a lot of truth and soul into their music, concocting didactic Cali narratives that serve as the logical counterpart (at least in my mind) to their more commercial cousins such as NWA, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Cypress Hill.


The origins of the Curbservers can be traced back to the Good Life Cafe and it's inception in 1989. During the early 90's, Good Life regulars such as Freestyle Fellowship, Aceyalone, and Abstract Rude would begin to gel and form the original Project Blowed family. Although many luminaries in the LA underground scene would pass through the 'Life, the Blowdians were there nearly every damn week, freestyling, competing, and observing each other's respective styles. One Blowdian, Ellay Khule (aka Rifleman) began to form his own little family of rappers within the Blowed clique that came to utilize a unique form of rapping called "chopping" almost exclusively. This family would eventually be known as the Afterlife MCs/Curbserver camp of Project Blowed.
The sub-collective's roster has fluctuated throughout the years as MCs have come and gone, but the main gravitational forces are the Hip Hop KClan (Rifleman Ellay Khule & Pterradacto) and the Chillin Villain Empire (NgaFsh, Riddlore?, Wreccless, and bunch of other cats). Satellite members include The Eastside Badstads, Of Mexican Descent, Cypher 7, and Legion. Unfortunately, various factors including lack of monetary funds and jail time over the past 15 years have left their physical output spotty at best. The recordings that do surface (usually homemade, retrospective-style compilations burned onto low-quality cd-rs), however, are mostly excellent slices of low-fi four-track madness. No Pro-Tools allowed, cuddy!

What I've composed here is a 19-track compilation of my favorite Afterlife/Curbserver-related material. This mix is by no means comprehensive; it's merely a collection of the songs I feel the most out of the material I have heard. Some of the tracks have been taken from post-"TROY era" releases, but since a lot of those releases were compilations of previously recorded material, I would estimate the years covered by this material span from roughly 1994 to 2005. If anyone actually takes offense to material post-1997 being represented here, bounce. That's not the point. Anyway, here's the compilation:

Echo Leader's Afterlife/Curbserver Picks

1. NgaFsh, Riddlore?, & Chu - "Crack Kills"
2. Otherwize, Riddlore?, & Chu - "Writin' Unda Pressure"
3. Chu, NgaFsh, & Riddlore? - "Hut 2, 3, 4"
4. Hip Hop KClan - "Show'em How 2 Chop"
5. The Eastside Badstads - "Bluntheadz"
6. (Rifleman) Ellay Khule - "Fuck A Cop'
7. NgaFsh - "Cause & Effect"
8. NgaFsh & Tray Loc - "Party N My Trunk!"
9. (Rifleman) Ellay Khule - "Boogie On"
10. Hip Hop KClan - "Massive Meltdown"
11. NgaFsh, Riddlore?, & D-Mac - "Role Model"
12. Busdriver - "Life Or Death"
13. Otherwize - "A Wize Man's Advice"
14. Hip Hop KClan - "Everyday Things"
15. Tray Loc - "Once Upon A Freak"
16. Pterradacto - "As The World Turns"
17. NgaFsh, Riddlore?, & (Rifleman) Ellay Khule - "Street Lightz"
18. Hip Hop KClan - "Full Speed Ahead"
19. Of Mexican Descent - "Mosh 2 Da Sun"

Mediafire

Enjoy...and leave comments if you like the mix. If response is positive enough, I could be persuaded to do another one of these.


-Echo Leader

Vintage Rap-A-Lot (1988-1996)

Chances are, if you read this site (or listen to rap music at all) you know about Rap-A-Lot Records. Legendary in the southern hip hop scene, RAL is one of my favorite labels and a sure-shot candidate for "greatest independent ever to do it." Admittedly, they have enjoyed major-label distribution over the past decade and a half or so, but J. Prince and company rarely have rarely made commercial concessions and have never, ever sold out on their fan base. Not only have they remained staunchly underground for over twenty damn years, they've brought us talents such as the Geto Boys (Scarface, Willie D, Bushwick Bill and/or Big Mike), the Convicts, Devin the Dude, and Z-Ro.

Most people know the names above either because of their popularity or their overall impact on rap music (re: 'Face), but RAL was also home to a gang of damn-near unknown and criminally underrated rappers that released albums through the label. What you know about Mad CJ Mac? Poppa LQ? Blac Monks? What about Menace Clan, or Seagram? These dudes smashed records that people north of the Mason-Dixon line rarely got a chance to hear...or maybe they just ignored them. Because of both limited release and (unfortunately) limited interest, many of Rap-A-Lot's best offerings are now out of print. Most of these albums can still be found with ease on sites like Amazon or eBay, but expect to drop some serious coin. Last time I checked, Willie D's solo debut was still pushing three figures.



Thus, in the interest of bringing some shine to these oft-ignored released, I present to you a compilation of hand-picked Rap-A-Lot tracks spanning from 1988 to 1996. Those years are generally revered as the RAL Golden Age, during which most of the label's classic records were released. I tried not to include any super obvious material like "Straight Gangstaism," "Mind Playin' Tricks On Me," or anything from "The Diary." If I included some obvious stuff (and I did), well then that's because the obvious is so damn good, and I'm really only skimming the surface here anyway. I'm not trying to impress anybody with some esoteric b-side mixdown of a forgotten Choice single here. In fact, I'm not really sure who would be impressed by that in the first place. But I digress.


Simply put, these are 15 of my personal throwed-ass favorites. Nothing more, nothing less. I guarantee you will like at least one of these tracks. Hopefully you will like more.



Enjoy.

Echo Leader's Vintage Rap-A-Lot Mix (1988-1996)

1. Geto Boys - "Read These Nikes"
2. Willie D - "Bald Headed Hoes"
3. Ganksta NIP - "Psycho"
4. The Convicts - "1-900-Dial-A-Crook (featuring Geto Boys)"
5. Scarface - "A Minute To Pray & A Second To Die"
6. Seagram - "The Dark Roads"
7. Menace Clan - "Da Bullet"
8. Too Much Trouble - "Invasion Of The Purse Snatchers"
9. 5th Ward Boyz - "Swing Wide (featuring UGK)"
10. Big Mike - "Havin' Thangs"
11. 3-2 - "Coming Down"
12. Poppa LQ - "Why Hate Me?"
13. Odd Squad - "Fa' Sho"
14. Mad CJ Mac - "Powda Puff"
15. The Terrorists - "Make A Life Out Of Living"


Mediafire

-Echo Leader

Ganjah K - Unreleased Material

Ganjah K's name is one that rarely comes up when discussions are held of the mighty Project Blowed, an unfortunate oversight when K's musical pedigree is more than enough to hold him in the same lofty regard as the rest of the seminal Left Coast collective. Simply put, the man makes damn good rap music. Though legendary in the Los Angeles underground circles, his own legacy is overshadowed by his more prolific contemporaries including Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Tribe Unique, and the Curbserver/Afterlife camp. This is more than likely due to the fact that K could never seem to get an officially-released full-length record. Let's face it, in an industry where putting out six mixtapes worth of material in as many months is often not enough to get you noticed, a lack of recorded material is a serious hindrance.

At least two Ganjah K albums were produced, despite constant murmurs of their non-existence amongst Blowed heads and tape traders. The first, Danksta Life, seems to be a cassette-only underground release and features Snoop Dogg on one of the choruses ("Ups & Downs")...in-studio, no samples! Consensus on a release date seems to fall between 1992 and 1994, although I would guess closer to late 1992 or early 1993 given the Snoop appearance. K's sophomore album and major label debut, Harvest For The World, was supposed to be released in 1995 on Pallas Records, and was shelved when the label folded. I'm not sure if the album was ever actually completed as only eight songs seem to exist in tangible form.

After Pallas folded, K languished in the underground, dropping guest appearances here and there and even appearing on the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence flick "A Thin Line Between Love & Hate." After lacing Fat Jack the Elephant with a track for his 1999 double-disc opus Cater To The DJ, Ganjah K seemingly disappeared into a haze of his own chronic smoke. According to this website, he was supposed to drop an album entitled Puff Daddy in the summer of 2002, but nothing ever materialized. Really a shame, as I always felt that K was a superbly talented cat.

Now, on to the music itself.

Ganjah K was never as stylistically monstrous as his Curbserver compatriots, but as he proved on the intermittent "Heavyweights" cuts that he could easily hold his own in a cipher. Song concepts are often limited to the man's namesake; smoking and dealing bud are the prevailing themes, although K never limits himself strictly that. The beats, which I would assume are mostly self-produced, hit you like the breeze coming off of the Pacific Ocean. Boom-bap to the core but no rough-and-rugged Timb boot stomp here; you can feel both the East and West Coast influences equally. Definitely the type of rap you'll want to crack a brew and lounge to. In my mind, there are really no weak tracks on either of these albums so all I can say is give 'em a listen and form your own opinions.

Here are a couple of links to K's two albums. Be forewarned, as the sound quality on Harvest For The World is extremely muddled as a result of multi-generation dubbing. I won't lie, they literally sound like someone ran the DATs through a meat grinder. But if you can get beyond the awful EQ levels, you're in for some dope music. One demo track, "Scene Of The Green," is tacked onto Harvest as well.


Enjoy.

Danksta Life (1992?-1994?, self-released)

1. Poverty Is A Crime
2. Paper Chase
3. Ya Too Strong
4. Danksta Life
5. When Ya Homie Dies
6. Everybody Wants To Be A G
7. Bud Berries
8. Smoke Buds & Down Brew
9. Medicine Man
10. Dis Type Of Shit
11. Ups & Downs (featuring Snoop Dogg)
12. Love Got My Mind Trippin’

Mediafire

Harvest For The World (1995, Pallas Records)

1. It Don’t Stop
2. Pound Of Herb
3. Can You Feel The High?
4. You’re All I Need
5. Untitled
6. Bud Berries
7. Untitled
8. Untitled
9. Scene Of The Green (Demo)

Mediafire

Props to TROY forum members basta & bignormy for the original uploads.

-Echo Leader