random old rap you are loving

I've been listening to a lot of early hip-hop. (Is the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap still coming out this year?) Anyway, I programmed a brief historical survey - 30 songs from 1979 to 1992 - and I put it in strict chronological order. Within that context, I found a greater appreciation for Run-DMC. It's amazing how many a-holes I run into who are down on Run-DMC, like "why was this so great?" Never believed in that line of thought, but place within their context, it sinks in how radical they may have sounded to many listeners. The production, the beats, the overall sound of "It's Like That" (the original 12" single) is especially stark and minimalist compared to the songs that came before it - those Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa singles were lean in their own ways too, but all the basic musical elements are stripped down even further. Even less movement in melody and even less notes in general. Even compared to earlier Run-DMC recordings like "Here We Go" and "Together Forever" (both live performances), there's a pronounced change in "It's Like That." The single more or less became the blueprint of their debut LP, which came about 6 or 7 months later (it's on there too, albeit in a shorter version), and it's amazing that it became the first hip-hop album to be certified gold - intuitively, I think of bigger selling records (records that are more accessible and more "pop") as being more tuneful and more lush, and yet a lot of the music on that album went in the opposite direction. ("Rock Box" is an exception on that album, and that's basically a blueprint for their next big development.)

This is a bit later than the stuff you're talking about, but I got way into Raising Hell earlier this year. Absolutely holds up IMO.

Yeah, "Raising Hell" is a great album. Their first four LP's (self-titled, King of Rock, Raising Hell, Tougher than Leather) are all really good-to-great. I love hearing them back-to-back because there is a continuous growth from one to the next that I really enjoy hearing in the way it unfolds. (It's frustrating that none of their compilations are in chronological order, because in their case it's not really a perfunctory way of sequencing their music - it actually works in their favor to hear their singles that way.)

anyone who disputes the classic status of run-dmc in the 80s is on the wrong side of history.

me, i'm still on an organized noize kick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYUDZl21-g
this original extended version of "player's ball" is unbelievably good. always been my favorite version and it still somewhat frustrates me that most people still only know it in the unsatisfying reprise on their first album.

No one ever disputes the first four Ramones records

Ive been enjoying the album Doomsday by Agallah

so there's a really old black eyed peas b-side called "le rox" that i've been looking for. it pre-dates even their first album. discogs seems to think it's a remix for fallin up but it's 100% not. i used to have that 12" single, but it's been lost to several moves over the years. i liked bep a lot when they first came out for those first two albums and i'm not even joking when i say that's probably their best song. i can't find it anywhere online.

i lieu of that, here's the 12" remix for "karma", which is probably the second best song they ever did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPlB9ADkc40

It's on YouTube xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A5RmYPNAPk

I'm absolutely loving Nate P's new book on the history of hip-hop/sampling except that every other sentence I want to put it down and listen to a track he references.

Like, I love old rap and Bill Laswell, and this is one of the most sampled song of all time, yet I'm somehow not sure I've ever heard it before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqauvQkC6VQ

Scanning over the bazillion songs I have on file, it shows up on literally one comp I have! Allmusic shows it on only two random comps, at least one of which may be out of print. How is that even possible?

There was a really good DJ Tools primer in The Wire a month or so back and they discuss the F5F LP (which I too had never heard of)

jfc why doesn't it show up when i search for it on youtube??!?! i'm not exaggerating when i say that i've checked youtube periodically searching "black eyed peas le rox" for the last six months and it's never once showed up.

me and andy made another one of our super long spotify playlists with a focus on 90s and early 2000s hiphop. andy has a way of finding a specific vibe in beats that unifies the weirdest stuff sometimes, but there's lots of deep cuts and plenty of that soulful jazzy head nodding vibe. check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/34k3fXtlyerybcdRiJTqQR?si=HTu3a-7BT6G-DmXiFpfd1w

https://youtu.be/rBLuvEwIF5E

yukmouth - do my thang ft kurupt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwxWb2-4Onw

so it's recently come to my attention that there was an entire album of mid-90s camp lo demos released some years back and holy hell i'm in heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHZxHPH5zJA

the mc blowfish verse from this in my head all day; why do I still remember every word of this 30 years later?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru7RVQs3P6o

but it also keeps morphing into this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDhdOOBbFo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o6y1xAO9-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2BR0pHmizw

Be Easy was my ringtone for several years and the last one I had prior to Uppers.gif

wow, i sort of love super wolf and i've never heard it before right now.

(looks up info)

produced by denise lasalle. what a find!

as for me, xpost to the scritti politti thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kwjosqoNDs

(scritti featuring lee majors + mos def — "tinseltown to boogiedown (ali shaheed remix)"

not "old" but there's no thread for "random 2019 rap you are loving"

shy glizzy - volcano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2VGlcb8Pf8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPqh57zxEpQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2BR0pHmizw

Made this for a friend

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1vK7oYXE9RxcxbZ8rQYjg2?si=Dlr_BrhgRySb0xQGaZ3YUg&utm_source=copy-link

Mama said knock you out. Marley Marl was so funky on this. Often weirdly understated too. Milky cereal is also a lot of fun.

OMG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnefJySR1nI

(da 5 footaz — "short times" featuring roger troutman)

okay, this album is legitimately great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHrWqgTPTA

(da 5 footaz — "5 foot city" featuring warren g and a terrific riff on an old prince b-side i mean holy shit this beat)

and now the next track is produced by and featuring erik sermon. WHY WAS THE ALBUM SHELVED I AM ANGRY

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTMSvdYZJ8o;>ice mike</a> layin'it on the stick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WccF90kVl78

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2avNR80F4gw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOmmLjvC8B8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRS62nccwmw

o.g. piggo

the rootin' tootin' roots

i have a pigmeat movie poster card framed in my kitchen for https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135460/

reposting this from the ODB thread because holy shit this is a major ODB find IMO

WOW

so this is a track called "Drug Free" off the Deadly Venoms album (a Wu affiliated all-woman group - all vets N-Tyce, J-Boo, Champ MC, and Finesse) which was never formally released but I guess CD promos escaped.

anyway, this is up there with the all-time unhinged ODB performances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_Plk87qwI

wow! on US spotify too.

N Tyce "Hush Hush Tip" is one of my fav songs w/ Method Man on the hook i remember hearing on the radio as a kid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV7aOnX7XeE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Ae31yMfSc

`meaningless composition lacking purpose.`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOpB_EKY_4

treblefree featuring plee — "irony" (2008)

shoutout to schematix \m/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOFKU_hwj2o

hehe that hits the spot

I'd never seen this video before. Really incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z5aFdvE2jc

what a find!

Whoa cool, ty for sharing D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb3TgyF1Zbc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76FaSHrH7XI

MOOD - Info for the Streets