Spacey Donuts

A meeting of the minds.

Spacek - Eve (Jay Dee mix)

My Way

Feelin' homesick and getting ready/looking forward to heading back for the holiday.

The Main Ingredient - California My Way

Princeps Nubae

Ahhh, sweet sweet neo-soul. These ladies were a breath of fresh Gallic air in the late 90s, and this was a great little remix from the man Spinna and the now much better known Ticklah. Enjoy.

Les Nubians - Makeda (DJ Spinna & Ticklah mix)

A Means To Be

Attica Blues were one of the better groups to emerge from the whole 'trip hop' craze in the mid-90s. We can thank the god James Lavelle for putting them on. This is one of my more coveted singles from that time because a good DJ buddy of mine at the time played the hell out of it at our weekly hip hop night, but also because it's on blue vinyl.

Attic Blues - Tender (Organized Konfusion mix)

Godfather Of Conga

It's kinda sad that there isn't that much info on Mongo Santamaria. All of the sites I went to had very short biographies and incomplete discographies at best. Dude was at the forefront of the Afro-Cuban jazz scene, and played with all of the greats. Anyways, I recently recorded a couple of LPs that my good buddy gave to me, and here is a slammin' cover of Soul Brother #1.

Mongo Santamaria - Cold Sweat

Parental Advisory

Nothin special this week, seeing as we elected our first black president, which kinda trumps everything else. So I just picked out an old school jammie that still holds up. Enjoy.

Redman - Rated "R"

I Got A Rock

Happy Halloween, Blockheads!

Side One




Side 2

What a career these guys have had. I mean, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik to Speakerboxx/The Love Below. How many hip-hop groups have had an arc like that? This was from their obligatory comic book influenced album.


Outkast - Jazzy Belle (Swift C remix)

Life Begins At 30

WTF ever happened to these guys? I mean, they were kinda big for a hot minute; I remember hearing about their 'get out of jail' rally/party for dude that was in their group all the way out in Cali, and within a year after they dropped their album :poof: gone.


Cru - Bubblin'

You Know The Steez

While I love Gang Starr, this shirt, unfortunately, is from the album that I see as the beginning of the end for them. This album was somewhat hotly contested as alot of fans who had been with them from the beginning didn't like it too much, but the new-jacks who maybe had only been on board since Daily Operation or Hard 2 Earn were all up on it. There were a few choice jams, not the least of which is this non-album, b-side cut.

Gang Starr - So Wassup?!

Come And Get Some Of This

Oh man, it was so great to be a white guy into hip hop when these guys came out.

House Of Pain - Put Your Head Out

All Hail The Thief

Ironically enough, this was from George H.W. Bush's administration. My dude Tragedy had some prescience, no?

Intelligent Hoodlum - Arrest The President

America's Pastimes

Another tragic victim of label politics, these dudes had a flippin sweet debut album, that unfortunately sat on the shelves for a couple of years, and by the time it did drop, their sound had already been overdone. These guys were from Texas, and had a very Cypress Hills sound to them, and they could have done a lot better if this album had come out during the peak of that sound.

Mad Flava - I Like 2 Smoke Weed And Listen 2 Hip Hop

I'd Blap!

Gotta represent for the hometown hero. Ok, he's not from Napa, but Vallejo is the closest that hip hop got to us with The Click, N2Deep and Mac Dre. So here's a little treat from dude's pre-Jive days.

E-40 - Mailman


E-40 - Federal

Not Typical

Ahhh, to be young and angsty and all antidisestablishmentarianism again. These dudes were ahead of their time politically for hip hop at that time, addressing not just the black/white racial divide, but also native Americans, Asians, gays, and abortion. This was right after the Rodney King riots, so there was a lot of anti-Asian sentiment in hip hop, especially in LA.

The Goats - Hip Hopola

Even Grosser Than 2 Live Crew

OK, this one is not technically promo swag since I bought it at a concert, but GWAR fucking rules. Oh, the joys of global warming!

GWAR - Have You Seen Me?

Blend Craftin'

It's kinda funny being a west coast hip hop dude living in NYC. There is still a HUGE bias against west coast hip hop that is not from the Dr. Dre camp. Just recently, a bunch of slightly big name dudes out here just discovered that DJ Nu-Mark is a good DJ. Uhhh...hello! Most west coast folks have known that for over 10 years now. Anyways, speaking of Nu, he had a little indy label for hot minute, and through the joys of working with him at another college radio show, got this little goodie here. Too bad, cause the label dropped some hot shit.

Al' Tariq - Peace Akki


Mannish - Expect That (B-Zar mix)

The Real Deal

This was a fucking cool ass project. Remember that Scared Straight movie from back in the day? Where they took troubled youth into prison and put their asses into a room with a bunch of inmates and they literally scared the shit out of these kids into staying in school and cleaning up their acts? Well, dudes made an album! Uncle Ralph McDaniels filmed a doc about it and the rest is history.

Lifers Group - Emotional Violence

Duck Down!

There are pluses and minuses to working in the record industry. The drawback, for me anyways, was a complete removal of any magic behind the music and realization of how many douchebags are behind the labels. The upside is getting swag, like this Boogie Down Productions Sex And Violence hoodie. This is the last BDP album, and probably their most overlooked.

Boogie Down Productions - Drug Dealer

The Funkiest

From Funkdoobiest's 2nd LP. Whatever happened to these guys? Oh, that's right, doing porn. Here's a little remix off that album by none other than battle-tested-G-Funk-approved DJ Rectangle!

Funkdoobiest - Papi Chulo ("The Funk" es DJ Rectangle)

Bozoriffic

Next up we got the West Coast's answer to Another Bad Creation, The Wascals. Basically a gimmicky Pharcyde knockoff aping the OG Our Gang kids, they had a couple of cool tracks that came out at the time. They were signed to Delicious Vinyl, but this tee is a promo from Brass Recordings, as they did a single release with them.



The Wascals - Class Clown

Crush! Kill! Destroy!

No need to say much here. Flippin sweet tee from what many consider OK's best album. It certainly was their last album that was widely lauded before they tried to go a little more mainstream and then eventually break up and go their separate ways. I'm sharing a special treat with the "lost" remix of Bring It On that was a white label radio only promo and is kinda hard to come by.

Organized Konfusion - Bring It On (The Lost Remix by Buckwild)

Money Money Money Money

Here's one from a great one-hit-wonder group, The Brothas Unda Madness. These guys did some nice jazzy, laid back raps, but just never really took off. Produced by Bay Area dudes Joe Quixx and Fredwreck Nassar who were the shit during that time period. They also were big fans of the whole phonetic spelling thing.

The B.U.M.S - 6 Figures And Up

A To The Muthafuckin Z

Next up we got our favorite blunted b-boys. This is from the Gavin Report rap department at the time, so it was kinda unique as it wasn't from the label and also because of the interesting purple/gold color way. I picked out a lesser known, non-album track from the Juice soundtrack for this one. This was the beginning of the whole 'music inspired by' soundtrack phenomena and one of the first of many kickass hip hop soundtracks that started up in the early 90s.

Cypress Hill - Shoot 'Em Up

Trifln' Honky

OK then, back from vacation, illness and a funeral, I'm ready to start doing this again. After a trip home, I unearthed all my old hip hop promo swag from when my brother and I were in college radio. There was so much cool shit, I figured I'd start a new project and post a pic of each item and a song by said artist/label/album/whatever.

Here we got one of those ridiculous tie-up beanies (remember Fresh Jive and 555Soul before they got all bougie?) with the Great One's name proudly embroidered. And next we got a great song off his Triflin' Album featuring one of the first appearances of Tha Alkaholiks.

King Tee - Bust Dat Ass feat. Tha Alkaholiks

P.U.T.S'n On The Ritz

I'm not ashamed to admit it: I like samples. I like em better than these crapola keyboard demo arpeggiator beats that seem to have taken over hip hop these days. Which is why I'm glad dudes like this are still around. This track is one of my favorites - B-Side Wins Again!

People Under The Stairs - Big Daddy Brown

Plane Clash

For all you newjacks who don't know, now you know...where M.I.A. got the source material for her song that is blowing up the Pineapple Express trailers on TV.

I dedicate this one to my girl cause she's a huuuuuge Clash fan, and totally got me back into them and learned me their deeper catalogue.

The Clash - Straight To Hell

Action Packed Adventure

Straight outta North Cak-a-laka! Yaggfu Front were a 90's 'one hit wonder' group, probably best known for the Diamond D produced "Slappin' Suckas Silly". They put out a single 'concept' album that was the 'soundtrack' to a fictional movie, with skits from in the theater and previews and everything. This joint right here was our favorite jam from their album. This is the remixed instrumental version that was only on the 12". Perfect for a summer day.

Yaggfu Front - Left Field (bonus beats)

Early Donuts

The beginning of the end for the Pharcyde, the beginning of the beginning for Jay Dee.

The Pharcyde - Runnin' (Jay Dee extended mix)

Ruff And Stuff

Back on some west coast shit now.

The Lady Of Rage - Afro Puffs extended remix

Simplicity

Okay, so I spoke a little too soon about my west coast parade, but I really can't pass some of these classics up as I record them to digital format. Classic DJ Spinna production, awesome instrumentals for mid-90s turntablist juggle routines, nice rhymes. 'Nuff said.

Mr. Complex - Visualize

Just Riden

Sheesh, it's been a minute. Anyways, I'm gonna be on some west coast shit cause people here in NY are STILL hating, and just kinda boggles my mind. So without further ado:

Saafir - Battle Drill

¡FUEGO!

This was a great little sidewalk find. I didn't know anything about it, and there's not a lot of info on it online, but it passed the smell test and was well worth the $2. After a little poking around, come to find out our man Jimmy Sabater was one of the group of musicians that helped to bring latin music to light in the US, and has been called the 'father of salsa' by some. What we have here is a disco version of a song he originally did with Joe Cuba back in 1957. The vocals are kinda whatever, but god damn if this shit isn't hot.

Jimmy Sabater - To Be With You

After listening to this song a bunch of times this last week, I'm convinced that the reason Paula is so batshit crazy from time to time is because she's just a simple girl who needs some good loving in the heat of the night. And she STILL looks good.

Paula Abdul - (It's Just) The Way That You Love Me dub

Wednesday Remix Club #13

Trying to find a picture of Natural Resource is like trying to find a democratic presidential candidate in 2008. They only put out 2 records, and only one of the group really went on to do anything major - What What aka Jean Grae. But those two records were pretty slamming.

Natural Resource - They Lied remix