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