More from our favorite wiseass. Iphone dashcam status.
I happened to be doing some research online for my next few blog posts and came across some dope videos and songs that I remember as a teen coming up in this hip-hop shit. So I decided to put a nice collection together and pay homage for all the heads over 25 to reminisce over. If you are a young gun in the game I suggest you study this shit and recognize where it came from. Hip-hop didn't start with B.I.G., Jay-Z, DMX, Eminem, or even 50 Cent. No disrespect to any of them, they came, some went, some are still around....it's what you set in stone that matters the most. Take it from these guys.
The Vinylcologist-Gone But Not Forgotten (The Video Edition)
Big Daddy Kane - Ain't No Half Steppin'
I taped this song off of 88.3 WVCR way back when it came out and played this shit over and over again. My mom actually took the ac cord to my radio and hid it because she was sick of this song.
Eric B. and Rakim - Follow The Leader
So ahead of it's time even today. Rakim and Eric B made a great team. Did you ever wonder what hip hop would be like if those two never even met. Damn.
Two Kings in a Cipher - Kings are People Too
This one you may not know...my boy Dino put me on to these dudes in like the 7th grade and I always loved their shit. Another fun fact that most people wouldn't know is that one of the members of this group (the one without the crazy african hat on) is "The Madd Rapper" that gave 50 cent his start when he put the song How to Rob on his album back in '99. If you listen close, You'll notice something very familiar to ATCQ's Senerio.
Diamond Shell - Oh What A Night feat. Biz Markie
Classic funnyman style. Right around the time his brother Biz Markie was topping the charts with Just A Friend, Diamond Shell dropped this piece of shit. The rest of the album was dope, but this song just didn't do it for me.
Ed O.G. and Da Bulldogs - I Got Ta Have It
The Roxbury album that followed this shit was an instant rewind and not to mention and end to end burner. Don't even think about sleeping on My Own Worst Enemy, the album he did with Pete Rock. That shit was pure lava.
Son of Berzerk - Change the Style
Son of Berzerk was just crazy and that's why I liked them. Originality. It still lives on today. Just go download anyone of my songs. <<<<---shameless plug. Speakin of plugs....
De La Soul - Keepin' The Faith
This was when hip hop was positive and people had fun at parties dancing among fly girlie girls, people of all color, and Egyptian musk incents. I bet you Tahrir Square stunk like hella Egyptian musk when all those sweaty protesters wouldn't go the fuck home and were sleeping in the streets. I wonder if they even sell that shit over there or if they can just hop on a treadmill for 20 minutes and then bottle up the sweat. Don't forget that neon green label though. That was my shit.
'lighting incent'
Little Shawn - I Made Love (4 the very 1st time)
My boy gave me doubles of this and this one on like every mixtape I released for like 6-9 months. It is to this day a great song to chop up. Little Shawn is now known as Shawn Pen and was breifly signed to G-Unit. They dropped him when he took his shirt off and 50 saw Vivica's hickies on his chest.<---corny joke, i just couldn't resist.
UMC's - One to Grow On
All of UMC's songs were dope, but this and Never Never Land were my personal fav's. I almost shit my pants when I walked into Fatbeats in Manhattan and they actually had brand new copies of Neverland. I bought 2, just cause I had to have a backup if the first one got scratched. You know what they say....one to stock, one to rock.
Zhigge - Toss It Up
These cats had this as their major hit, but everything on the full length was dope. They are still getting love today courtesy of Dusty but Digital. We pay homage to the heads that paved the way. Don't front and get left behind.
Diamond D - Sally Got A One Track Mind
If you front on Diamond D you should just quit altogether. He is the original king of diggin'. This baseline echoed throughout the walls of hip hop culture for years and continues to have resonance today. Stunts, Blunts, and Hip Hop, serious creative juices were flowing when that shit was laid down. I'd give up my record collection to have been able to sit in some of those sessions. Ok, maybe not the whole collection. I would've kept a few crates and this next record.
Leaders Of The New School - International Zone Coaster
Jack, P.J. Katz and myself rocked over the remix of this that I remade from scratch on the Jack and Vinyl mixtape. Grab it and check it....if you can still find it. 80 Proof homie. Their call and response style had everyone trying to imitate what they had coined.
A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhyme
I love this song and the album The Low End Theory is #2 in my top 10 hip hop albums ever. Waht I want to know is what the fuck ever happened to those ill Starter jerseys. There used to be a store in Colonie Center that I would go and blow all my dough at. I had the Colt 45's jump and the matching hat. Super rare, nobody had that shit. Everyone and their mother was rocking the Yankees joint. I just couldn't see myself rocking the same gear as Kris Kross at that time.
Trendz of Culture - Valley of the Skinz
Man, this brings me back to parties that got out of control when heads from all points of the cap district showed up at my mans party and trashed the house. All i can remember is this song still paying in the background while people were throwing fists and getting 40 bottles cracked over their heads. We had to actually drag the turntables out on the back deck so that they wouldn't get fucked up. Crazy nights, Crazy horse, Mad Dog 20/20 and we used to have to hide the mic so that all the stank breff muthafuckas wound wanna kick a battle rap.
Nasty Nas - Halftime
I can still remember this shit playing in the background while we were twistin Phillies like it was yesterday. there was only two things to argue about back then. Who was better than Lord Finesse on the mic, and why didn't you bring back my Ron G. tape. This was around the time I met my man Treez whom to this day is one of of my best friends. Mista JP and Excel were spinning your house party jammy jam, and if they weren't, nobody showed up.
Das Efx - Mic Checka
The flip side of this record had one of the illest Pete Rock remixes I have ever heard to this day. Jussummen. Those Slick Rick cuts and that Xylophone sample he overlayed was just fucking insane! God do I miss that shit. Fuck it.
#NowPlaying "Jussummen" (Pete Rock Remix)
Brand Nubian - Love Me Or Leave Me Alone
To this day one of the best Brand Nubian songs ever released. The remix was even better. What the fuck happened to remixes that blew away the original? Puffy didn't invent the remix, I think he played it out.
Black Sheep - Flavor of the Month
When this song dropped everyone was sweating it. The beat was dope, the idea was original, the hook was catchy, and they promoted the shit out of it on YO MTV raps. Who knew that they would follow it with the smash that has hamsters in the Kia commercials busting a move. I always thought that Dres had one of the dopest voices in the game. That's one cat I would love to have a track with. They recently released a new album 'The Black Pool of Genius' which is a great effort, but I personally liked the web only release 8WM/Novakane that they released in 2006.
Guru said it best "It's mostly the voice".
Cypress Hill - Hand On The Pump
The Tuesday that this tape dropped I walked all the way to Record Town and bought a copy. i played it so much the first week I had it the shit broke. "I let my tape rock, till my tape popped" as Biggie would say.
Redman - Time 4 Sum Aksion
Def Squad was rockin the airwaves and when you threw this on at a party the whole fuckin place went apeshit. Erick Sermon had a great ear for what was dope. His album No Pressure was super ill as well. Most people forgot about that. Brother from Brentwood L.I. was my joint off there. You welcome for giving you a ton of shit to download from just this post alone.
Grand Puba - 360 (What Goes Around)
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...the really really really real yo. Ya'll know the flav."
Fu-Schhnickens - True Fuschnick
I chose this song because it wasn't the obvious...plus this shit is pure lyrical skills over a rugged beat. Everyone else would've picked Ring the Alarm or La-Schmoove. What can I say, I'm just a B-side kinda guy.
Digable Planets - Where I'm From (original/remix)
Digable has to be one of my favorite groups of all time. From the production to the lyrics and the overall vibe, their shit was tight as fuck.
Snow - Lonely Lonely Monday Morning
I remember trooping to school through the snow wearing a pair of white on black Nike Air Raid with this shit in the Novas. For all you who don't know what Novas are I'll fill you in. Nova was a high end line of headphones released by Radio Shack abck in the early '90's. If you wanted your shit to sound crispy as fuck these were the headphones you had on your ears. I can't tell you how many pairs of these I stole and sold for that matter. These were yesterday's version of the Beats By Dre headphones. I still have a few pairs kicking around in a box somewhere...I'ma haveta break dose shits out.
Super Cat - Ghetto Red Hot
This song was probably the dopest joint to cut up for a reggae song. It was the reggae underground that everyone knew like it was mainstream. I couldn't do a party or leave the house without this in the crate. It wasn't just for them, I loved this song and had to do all i could not to blow my load and play this early. You had to drop this at just the right time and then people start grindin like bedbugs were unheard of. Which brings me to the next jam.
Jamal Ski - Jump Spread Out (Move Ya Body)
This full LP was in my CD player on repeat for at least 5 months. Funny story with this disc too. One of my girl's friends at the time had the house to herself cause her parents went away to Germany. We all crashed over there and this was one of the 5 CD's I brought. Also in the backpack was 2 ounces of dank tree (that's what it was called back then), a bottle of Goldschlager, and a 2ft glass bong. The first night was cool cause we all had to get up for school the next morning. After school Friday night was crazy. We watched Clerks and I did shot after shot and bong rip after bong rip until I was on the floor of the bathroom thinking that I was going to die that night. Somehow I made it into bed (after puking, of course) and woke up next to my girl and her best friend. For all I know they could've molested me the whole night and I wouldn't have remembered shit. Breakfast was the best I ever had although nothing was really said. The following night I took it easy (easier than the last night, but still got hammered) and ended up fooling around with my girls friend. It was great, as anyone would I did feel guilty that I didn't shower before sleeping with my girl. Overall a great weekend with Jamal Ski bumping out the stereo. The other 4 Cds were:
Ice T - Original Gangster
Pete Rock and CL Smooth - The Main Ingredient
Black Sheep - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Mauraders
Onyx - Bacdafucup
I can't believe i even remember this shit with all the tree that got blazed that weekend.
Gang Starr - DWYCK feat. Nice and Smooth
This song was on every Young Wise tape from #30-#37...I don't know if he just loved the record that much, or if it was the only one he kept in the sleeves that didn't skip all over the fucking place. Either way this was a classic and still is. I had the opportunity to perform this live with Nice and Smooth at Club Extreme back in like '99. During the soundcheck the fucking DAT machine shit the bed. So I told Greg Nice that I could just shoot to my crib and grab all my Nice and Smooth records I had with the instrumentals. He agreed and said they really had no choice. I ended up saving the day, spinning for them because they had no DJ, and continued the party over at the Econolodge after the show. It was blunt after blunt and we all had some good laughs. There were plenty of women and booze too, the dope thing was, they pushed all that shit aside and told me to go get the beats I had made out in my car. They capped off the night by having a hilarious freestyle session in front of all the girls going around the room snapping and saying everyone's names. God damn, I wish I had that on video for Youtube. Classic material right there. Smog can attest to this because after the session was done at 330AM I showed up to his house to blaze a vega and fill him in. We were all super excited that I got to DJ for some of hip hop's finest. I have to thank my man Anthony from G-Spot Clothing for the hookup though. If he didn't have them come to the store in Crossgates to sign autographs, I never would've lucked out and got that connect. Good looks Ant, I know you still got some of those pix we took. Send those fuckers over my man.
MTV: What does 'DWYCK' mean?
Some people on the Internet say it means 'Do What You Can Kid'.
What does 'DWYCK' really mean?
Guru: No, but that's pretty good though actually. 'Do What You Can Kid'. It probably could've meant that. It was just a slang that we used to use back then. It was like a slang thing we used to do. Greg Nice used to do it to everybody. Biz Markie started it actually. You used be in a crowd and say someone's name and go 'Yo! Son!' The person would turn around and go 'What? What?' and you would say: 'Dwyck!'. It's like 'My dick!'. It means the male genitalia. We switched it up to 'Dwyck'. It was just some sh*t to psyche each other out.
There you go. More tidbits for ya braindroplet.
Smif N Wessun - Sound Bwoy Bureill (Remix)
One of the best Beatminers beats ever produced. Nuff said.
I hoped you all enjoyed this post, as much as I did putting it together. It was fun going back through time in my mind to sharing some of the moments that keep me involved heavily in this game. It's this kind of music that inspires me and makes me want to strive to someday work with all these artists. "can it be that it was all so simple" or is it just that we've held everything to a higher standard because this is what we will always love. Whatever your reason for following hip hop, whatever you do, don't compromise for half-ass garbage. Remember most of this was done in home studios and with equipment that would be labeled as archaic today. It was about the fun in the ideas and the originality. I'm still debating if I should actually make this into a real mixtape and do it the way it would've been done back then. We'll see.
Here's some more funny shit.
Dirt Nasty - Tiger Hoods Freestyle
I guess Dirt is new Dorf of the golf world. This dude is always entertaining.
Chuck, what did you think of this post?
Yeah, I though so.
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