The Roots - Illadelph Halflife Demos

If you didn't already know, Vincent Lopez at Thimk.Wordpress.com[The Source Magazine Archives] has posted volume 1 of the Illadelph Halflife demos at his page. Volume 2 is available only through the T.R.O.Y. blog's Skypager google group. You can sign up for the Skypager by clicking here or by entering your email under the Skypager icon on the right side of this page. Like I said, just letting you know if you didn't already. I really wouldn't want you to miss out on these.

Get volume 1 here.

Get volume 2 through Skypager.

--Verge

Brand Nubian - Slow Down (Waterfalls Remix and Sample)

What we have here is a pretty rare remix of the Nubians' classic anti- girlfriend stealing your sneakers and trading them for crack anthem, produced by Frankenstein from Canada.

You'll either love it or hate it. I first heard this when Kimani uploaded it in a remix compilation at the T.R.O.Y. forum, which then got posted here.

Right away, you'll notice that you can still here the original beat drowned out a little bit in the background. My first thought was that maybe there was an acapella for Slow Down that left elements of the beat in. Kind of like how Eric B and Rakim had that mix of 'In The Ghetto' with only the drums and vocals. And Mf Doom had that mix of 'Go With The Flow' with just the rhymes and drums on that Fondle 'Em single.

But I didn't remember anything like that for Slow Down, so I brought my question back to the forum. Kimani, vaporized, and myself all agree that this Frankenstein guy must have just eq'ed most of the low end out of 'Slow Down' and threw his beat over it. If you have any other ideas or info, hit up the comments.

Due to some household inconveniences, to put it very mildly, I spent last weekend up at my girl's family's house in Allentown, PA. During my visit, of course I had to find somewhere to dig for some gems. Luckily, I found this little record store about 5 miles from where I was staying, in the town of Bethlehem, PA. I managed to round up a good dozen or so bangers for a small price.

Among them was John Klemmer's 1972 album, 'Waterfalls', on ABC Impulse. This record would be where I caught the sample used for the Brand Nubian remix in question. I also found the original vinyl with the cut that was sampled by Buckwild for the Beastie Boys 'Get It Together' remix and a couple of other gem pieces. Another time for all of that.

Previews:

Sample source snippet

Brand Nubian - Slow Down (Waterfalls Remix)

As a bonus, the vinyl single of the original Slow Down and the entire sample source song are included in this download.

[Download it all here.]

The Slow Down VLS was originally uploaded at the T.R.O.Y. forum by pradadon.

If you like the Frankenstein Waterfalls remix, check kimani's blog for a lot more Frankenstein material here.

--Verge

Black Sabbath Vs. Hip-Hop

From KRS-One kickin' crazy fresh lyrics over the iconic main riff of AC/DC's "Back in Black" on "Dope Beat" to Chuck D and Flava Flav lambasting chicken heads amidst the monstrous riffage of Slayer's "Angel of Death" on "She Watch Channel Zero?!", hip hop's greatest emcees and hard rock and metal's greatest groups have coalesced to form unholy alliances. Moreover, hard rock and metal songs have provided some of the most memorable breaks - Mountain's "Mississippi Queen", Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks", and Rolling Stone's "Honky Tonk Women" are all prime examples. Do a little research and you'll see the influence of rock and metal is not just centered on production, but also lyrics, choruses, and name checks.

In the history of hip hop's convergence with hard rock/metal one group, however, is conspicuous by their absence because they are the most influential metal band of all-time - of course, I speak of the almighty Black Sabbath. The list of songs that sample Black Sabbath is pretty short (as you will see). Even their most "famous" drum break from "Behind The Wall of Sleep" was used by only a handful of artists. The thoroughly mediocre Steve Miller Band, on the other hand, probably stacks more chips off of "Fly Like An Eagle" during a single year than Sabbath has in their entire illustrious career.

You might contend that plenty of greats like Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple are not exactly caking off royalties from sampling licensing either. True, but this is Black FUCKING Sabbath. Why hasn't Black Sabbath had as large an impact on hip hop as they have had on the greater musical world? Maybe it's because they're too metal; but if that were the case, would Slayer be front-and-center on what many consider the greatest hip hop album of all-time? Okay, so maybe it's because Sabbath couldn't lay down a chunky groove? No. No fucking way. Have you heard "The Wizard"? "N.I.B."? "War Pigs"? "Faries Wear Boots"? "Supernaut"? "Hole In The Sky"? Well, maybe Sabbath is reluctant to give sampling clearance in fear of tarnishing their legacy? Well, first of all, guitarist Tony Iommi has had no problem trying to tarnish their legacy (see Born Again). Second, there is the matter of the Busta Rhymes remake (or human rights violation, depending on your perspective) of "Iron Man" on Extinction Level Event featuring...Ozzy!?!?!? *shudders*

So the question remains - why aren't producers exploiting Sabbath's catalog of incredible music? After compiling this mix of songs that sample Sabbath, I think this is partly due to a lack of imagination and partly to ignorance. When most people think of Black Sabbath they think of the chugging "Paranoid" or the plodding "Iron Man" but I would argue that is akin to thinking if you downloaded "Streets of New York" and "Ill Street Blues" you would have "heard" Kool G. Rap. In both cases, there is a lot more depth and variety in the artist's catalog than most casual listeners think.

There are tons of amazing grooves and sick breaks waiting to be extracted from Sabbath's records and made into filthy beats, but few producers have either the skill and/or vision to accomplish this. Hopefully this modest compilation will show the small impact Black Sabbath has made in hip hop. Better yet, perhaps some producer out there will see the potential to craft amazing beats from Sabbath source material and bless us with a masterpiece like Muggs did on "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That". In the meantime, download the tracks and praise Satan for giving the world Black Sabbath.

Without further ado, here are 12 songs that sample Sabbath as well as the 9 Sabbath songs in their original form. (Note: The Sabbath song appears before the tracks that sample it.)

DOWNLOAD

1. Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath" from Black Sabbath (1970)
2. Ice-T "Midnight" from OG: Original Gangster (1991)
3. Busta Rhymes "Blackout" from Busta's Back (2008) - Busta gives us another lazy use of a Sabbath sample with horrible rapping to boot.
4. Presage "Why?" from Outer Perimeter
5. Black Sabbath "The Wizard" from Black Sabbath (1970)
6. Cypress Hill "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" from Black Sunday (1993) - Perhaps the best song that makes heavy use of a Black Sabbath sample. I'm almost positive the eerie sounding feedback is from the end of "Behind the Wall of Sleep". Can anyone confirm/deny?
7. Black Sabbath "Behind the Wall of Sleep" from Black Sabbath (1970)
8. Jungle Brothers "Beeds on a String" from Done by the Forces of Nature (1989)
9. Too $hort "Paystyle" from Cocktails (1995)
10. Black Sabbath "Wicked World" from Black Sabbath (1970)
11. The Beatnuts "Reign of the Tec" from Intoxicated Demons (1993) - Neck and neck with "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" for best song to use a Sabbath sample although the sample is short and only used during the chorus.
12. Black Sabbath "A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning" from Black Sabbath (1970)
13. DJ Mayonniase "DJ's Shouldn't Talk/Ozzy Rules" from 55 Stories (1999)
14. Black Sabbath "War Pigs/Luke's Wall" from Paranoid (1970)
15. Ice-T "Intro/Rhyme Pays" from Rhyme Pays (1987)
16. Black Sabbath "Planet Caravan" from Paranoid (1970)
17. L Roneous Da'Versifier "In the C.O.R.N." from Imaginarium (1998) - Great song from an underappreciated album. Beautiful use of the sample.
18. Black Sabbath "Iron Man" from Paranoid (1970)
19. Busta Rhymes feat. Ozzy "This Means War!!!" from Extention Level Event (1998) - I had to listen to it so you have to listen to it.
20. Black Sabbath "Sweet Leaf" from Master of Reality (1971)
21. Beastie Boys "Rhymin& Stealin" from Licensed to Ill (1986) - First use of a Sabbath sample in hip hop?

-- Money Gripp

Hiero Producer Series: Snupe

Installment #4 of the Hiero Producer Series: Snupe

Snupe is the oddball of the Hieroglyphics camp. He got kicked out of the group back in '96 over "creative differences". The Hiero crew is incredibly tight-knit, so I'm not sure how Snupe managed to piss off enough members to the point where they'd kick him out. Whose girl did he step to, and did he mean to?

You can't front on the beats, though. Most of the tracks that he produced on his '94 debut "Like It Should Be" are outstanding, and while he hooked up the rest of the crew with only four tracks, they're all excellent.

Snupe - Production Files Volume 1
1. Extra Prolific - Weak Shit (Demo)
2. Del - You're In Shambles
3. Souls Of Mischief - Never No More (76 Seville Mix)
4. Souls Of Mischief - That's When Ya Lost (Remix)
5. Extra Prolific - First Sermon (The Town Mix)
6. Extra Prolific & Pep Love - Go Back To School
7. Extra Prolific - Give It Up
8. Extra Prolific - First Sermon
9. Extra Prolific - Never Changing
10. Extra Prolific - In Front Of The Kids
11. Extra Prolific - It's Alright
12. Extra Prolific - Sweet Potato Pie
13. Souls Of Mischief - Dirty D's Theme
http://www.mediafire.com/?jngytedwedv

Snupe - Production Files Volume 2
1. Extra Prolific, Opio & Tajai - Now What Pt. 2
2. Extra Prolific - You A Fool
3. Extra Prolific - Having Fun
4. Extra Prolific - You Don't Know Me
5. Extra Prolific - Going Down (Ray's Theme)
6. Extra Prolific - Break It Down
7. Extra Prolific - Jump On It
8. Extra Prolific - Searching
9. Extra Prolific - 2 For 15 Outro
10. Extra Prolific - Master Piece Intro
11. Extra Prolific - Action Set In Flight
12. Extra Prolific - Second Sermon
13. Extra Prolific - Call Me
14. Extra Prolific - I Don't Know Why
15. Extra Prolific - Can't Reap Til You Sow
http://www.mediafire.com/?w1zy3jdkjoj

Snupe - Production Files Volume 3
1. Extra Prolific - When You Hoes (Remix)
2. Extra Prolific - Old E Commercial
3. Extra Prolific - Bo Bo
4. Extra Prolific - Going Down
5. Extra Prolific - When You Hoes
6. Extra Prolific - That's A Shame
7. Extra Prolific - From Block To Block
8. Extra Prolific - Security Please
9. Extra Prolific & Pep Love - Hitting Corners
10. Del - You're In Shambles (Instrumental)
11. Souls Of Mischief - Never No More (76 Seville Instrumental)
12. Extra Prolific - First Sermon Remix (Instrumental)
http://www.mediafire.com/?mwdm22zwnwm

Preview:

Extra Prolific - Weak Shit (Demo)


Del - You're In Shambles


Souls Of Mischief - Never No More (76 Seville Mix)


Souls Of Mischief - That's When Ya Lost (Remix)


Extra Prolific - First Sermon (The Town Mix)


Extra Prolific & Pep Love - Go Back To School


Extra Prolific - Give It Up


Extra Prolific - First Sermon


Souls Of Mischief - Dirty D's Theme


Extra Prolific - You A Fool


--Roy Johnson

Ras Kass - What Could Have Been?

(Many hyperlinks contain actual MP3s)

It was October 1, 1996, a Tuesday to be exact. I ran to my local music spot (then called Peaches) to pick up the most anticipated album of that year, to me at least. If you recall '96 was chock-full of releases such as Ironman, Illadelph Halflife, Stakes Is High, It Was Written, The Score, All Eyez On Me, Hell On Earth, Reasonable Doubt, Dr. Octagon and Entroducing just to name a few.

But there was one album that had me marking off my calendar since the start of the year. None other than John Austin hailing out of Carson, California, a pint size ferocious lyricist, at the time was still relatively unknown, debuted with Soul On Ice. I remember back in '94 landing a promo copy of Remain AnonymouS b/w Etc and instantly labeling it my prized possession. Shortly after that Ras appeared with Ahmad and Saafir on the track "Come Widdit" found on the Street Fighter soundtrack, then followed the official 12" release of Remain AnoymouS (I bought a few copies from Sandbox) that had "Won't Catch Me Runnin" on the flip.

[click to download]

By this time, those like me who were in need of a true west coast lyricist were finally about to get their wish. The early 90's was pretty dominated by the left coast and while they spit out tons of classics, there wasn't an artist out from Cali at the time that displayed sheer lyrical supremacy like Ras Kass. He was their Rakim, their Nas, their Pharoahe Monch. And at one point, Ras Kass was the future of lyricism.

Prepping the release of the Priority debut, we (the fans) were given an appetizer. In addition to the leaked S.O.I. demo, we also had the sampler tape which featured the infamous "Jack Frost." The combination between Ras, Nat King Cole and the precise DJ Rhettmatic laced sample of Nas' "I'll leave them froze like heroine in ya nose" was perfection. By this time people got hip to Ras Kass and magazine like Rap Pages and The Source were getting ready to call him the second coming. I must admit, once Soul On Ice dropped it took awhile to warm up to.

Many of us were expecting something Illmatic-like. There was a lot of fence sitting but for the most part you either you loved it or you hated it. To this day the most common discussion about the album is its production. Whether you thought it was lackluster or lustrous, the reality is the album left heads wanting more. In retrospect, the album was indeed a lot better than the credit it originally received but I'll let you decide should you revisit Soul On Ice 13 years later.

Fellow Carson native and Stanford stand-out pro-football player Bob Whitfield (Atlanta Falcons) agreed to help out Ras Kass when he opened up his Patchwerk studios to him, which also allowed Ras Kass to align with the Western Hemisphere alongside Meen Green, Bird & Vooodu, who by the way are largely responsible of the production found on Soul On Ice. There was plenty of promise for Western Hem when Key Kool & Rhettmatic dropped "E=MC5" featuring Vooodu, LMNO, Meen Green & Ras Kass. But the group projects (super or not) that have included Ras Kass never seem to pan out (see: Golden State Warriors, Four Horsemen).



So while the jury is still out on Ras Kass' career, it's pretty evident that in the mid 90's if you weren't up on Rassy Kassy you just weren't up on hip-hop. And despite what your opinions may be about him, his career decisions, or his inability to stay out of trouble with the law, you cannot deny the fact he was one of the best lyricists to ever come out of California. If there was ever a West coast lyricist with an east coast mentality it was Ras Kass.

Not proof of New York residence and an accent
Who expresses the freshest
The West Coast was resurrected
By me, I'm the mother fuckin' man like homo erectus
So why it matter where rap started
If I wanted to hear from asshole I would have farted
I'm a West Coast artist down wit' clicks from 510 to 516
But dis indiscriminately and you gets me
Fundamentally is the ability to smother suckas
So if rap was born to another then that makes me your muthafucka
Cause I'm the type of nigga to go to yo' show
Fuck yo' ho
Then nut on yo' promotional T-shirt
Eternally, verbally I fucks your head up like
Florence and Normandy normally (Easily I approach)

(chorus)
Now I'm a rap fan who never saw Bam Rock the park in the Bronx but I still snap skulls in the dark

What are your thoughts on Ras Kass?

Click here to join our Ras Kass discussion

T.R.O.Y. related links:
Ras Kass - On Earth As It Is...Remix?
All The Ras Kass Singles That Really Matter
Ras Kass - Soul On Ice Demo (Remastered)

Touring The States: Cleveland, OH

Johhny Paycheck and Pratt Attack on the mics and DJ/Producer Mixmaster Quik form this tremendous, Cleveland rap group. They were on the same label (Solar) which dropped the Deep Cover soundtrack, but for whatever reason they haven't gained fame outside of Cleveland, where they were known as one of the best rap acts. I've visited numerous forums and blogs in a search for some info about this album and I have not seen one bad comment about it. As a matter of fact, plenty of people are saying this is a true classic. After listening to it thoroughly, I can say I'm not far from agreeing with that notion. So, there's only one task left for you - download it, listen to it from start to finish and see if you can give it a passing grade or even consider it a classic.

01. Intro

02. Chop Chops
03. Date Rape
04. Let Go My Ego
05. Tops & The Ball
06. Frantic
07 Stuck On Stupid
08 It's Over!
09 Before The Bell Rings
10 Message From Michael McGhee
11 KracKKa Season
12 Wait A Minute
13 Fuck Crime Stoppers
14 Niggas Scared
15 Down In The Valley
16 All Rise
17 Miss Right

Samples:


-->DOWNLOAD HERE<--

-- Markshot

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - The Basement Demos EP

One Leg Up kicks off their new series of rarities ["Crispy Nuggets"] with this EP of unreleased demos from Pete Rock and CL Smooth. This was ripped from my vinyl as soon as I got it and uploaded here, so I can't really give you a proper critique yet. But I listened while ripping, so I know it is worth a download. Shit, it's Pete Rock and CL Smooth. Of course it's worthy of being posted at the T.R.O.Y. blog.

Here's One Leg Up's description:

OLU Records has connected with C.L. Smooth to finally unearth some of the legendary sessions that were not included on the seminal "All Souled Out" EP. While these sessions always seemed to be a bit of an urban legend, a few of them had actually leaked on WBLS "In Control" back in the day. Once the debut EP was released, the duo quickly went on to change hip-hop history and these early tracks were all but forgotten! Fast forward to 2009.....Thought lost forever, 4XL has done the unexpected in working with C.L. to unearth these vintage treasures. Mastered and restored to optimum quality, this is a hip-hop goldmine, and this 5 track EP is a testament to the late 80's sound merging into the early 90's one. Of course, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth were two of the main architects of this sharp turn in the golden era....Songs like the one-time WBLS exclusive "The Midnight Wrecka" and the fast-rap "Go C.L." sport an aggressive 1989/1990 feel that was probably scrapped in favor of updated material like "The Creator" or "The Good Life". Still the laid back "Cool and Calm" and "Down To Wreck Ya Body" head in the direction of the vintage "All Souled Out" flavor. Last, we are treated to a somewhat alternate version of "Go With The Flow". All the cuts are heavy on the scratching, courtesy of Pete Rock and it is lovely indeed! This is vintage Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth goodness and an essential to any Hip-Hop collection!

This alternate mix of Go With The Flow is probably my favorite cut upon first hearing this record-

http://www.divshare.com/direct/7416148-1ed.mp3

Apparently, there was an error when I zipped the folder and the Go With The Flow track didn't work.

So right above I added a separate link for that cut for those who already downloaded the original and below I fixed the mediafire link with the entire EP on it. Hopefully it works this time.

[Download EP here.]fixed

[Backup link here]missing Go with The Flow

Check for other rarities throughout the T.R.O.Y. blog here.

--Verge