When the world first heard The Brand Nubians 1990 debut album "One For All", notorious for being praised with the much hyped five mics rating in The Source, few would think that Derreck X would be the artist out of that trio to have the highest profile and largest catalouge in a few years. In fact "One For All" treated Lord Jamar and Derreck X as Grand Puba's back up band, and didn't even appear on half of the album. But sometimes the tables turn, through hard work and dedication Sadat X (as he soon after changed his name to) crafted a unique style with an unmistakable voice with lyrics that often dealt with personal feelings and surviving in a world where friends and lovers often turn out to be willing to stab you in the back when you least expect it. The only problem was that he might have started to put quantity over quality a little too much in the last ten years or so.
It's been a long time since I've been really excited about an X album, though I did like his "Love, Hell or Right" album from 2013. Now the New York artist is back with "Agua" sporting a pretty damn impressive cast list of guest producers and emcee partners. How about Pete Rock, Diamond D, Da Beatminerz, Nick Wiz, DJ Scratch, Easy Mo Bee, Fokis, Dub Sonata and Will Tell? What about Lord Jamar, Dres, Edo G, A-F-R-O, Rahzel, Cella Dwellas' UG, Milano, Shabaam Sahdeeq, RA The Rugged Man, and Wordsmith? That's a lot of features and producers and as I haven't had the time to listen yet I'm not sure how cohessive the X-Man has managed to make it sound but one thing's for sure, there's bound to be several real bangers on here to cherish. Probably more than any Sadat X albums in ten years or so. Released on Tommy Boy, the album is available for purchase in both physical and digital form now, and can also be streamed and purchased (both digital and on CD) in full via X's official Bandcamp. One thing though, the last I heard from Sadat X was that he's working on a full-length album entirely produced by Diamond D, and as usual we get one track to show for it. Well, I for one hope it's still coming. But what the hell, with Pete Rock, Da Beatminerz and Nick Wiz I sure as hell can complain. I also wasn't a fan of Will Tell on some earlier X albums, but the single/video "Murder Soundtrack" (above) with AFRO and Rahzel has convinced me has stepped his game up big time. You can also cop the physical from UGHH where you can also see the credits for each track. TURN IT UP!
It's about time we get a proper tribute to the legend known as Phife Dawg that passed over to the other side on March 22 due to his long struggle with diabetes. One thing's for sure his conrtribution to Hip Hop will always be remembered as something special. Over a soul laced production by Jim B. fellow Natives Tongues member Dres rounds up DJ Red Alert, Chi-Ali and Sadat X - all original friends and collegoues of The Five Footer - and they all do a commendable job in putting a worthy song on wax in celeberation of the life and times of this great artist and man. Please support by purchasing the song from Dres Bandcamp as all proceeds will go straight to Phife's family.
Beneficence is a rapper from New Jersey who has been putting in work for a long time, gaining the respect of many of the hottest rappers and producers throughout the East Coast due to his skilled rhyming and down to earth persona. Though he put out his first 12"s in 1994 and 1998, respectively, it wasn't until he hooked up with Ill Adrenaline Records in 2010 that I and many with me really came across his work. On his debut album "Sidewalk Science" for the label he worked extensively with Diamond D on the production while Roc Marciano, Truth Enola, Rob-O, The Legion, Diamond D, Lord Tariq, Prince Po and Frank-N-Dank shared microphone duties. His follow up, "Concrete Soul" was released a year later in 2012 and was even more packed with big names that had a lot of underground fanatics drooling. I'm talking beats and rhymes from Buckwild, K-DEF, InI, Lord Tariq, DJ Doo Wop, Gensu Dean, Confidence, Roc Marciano, B1, Herb McGruff, Da Beatminerz, AG, El Da Sensei, Nature, Masta Ace and many more. A true '90s hip-hop extravaganza if I ever heard one and funny thing is that it all worked in bringing back that sound we all love and cherish.
Now Beneficence and Ill Adrenaline is back for round three, and as they say if the formula ain't broke, don't fix it. "Basement Chemistry" is a little lighter on the guest features but still manages to pull some impressive rhymes and beats from Inspectah Deck, DJ Spinna, Da Beatminerz, AG, Masta Ace, MC Eiht, El Da Sensei, L'Orange, Chubb Rock, MindsOne, Confidence, Black Sheep + The Legion and more. The latter two appears on the single and accompanying video for "Make It Hot (Jingle Jangle v.2)", the sequel of Dres and Legion's classic 1993 single. You can peep the video above and stream the entire album below. The LP is available on CD, cassette and vinyl and can be purchased from UGHH now.
Wow, I totally missed out on this, but this is F'n great right here. I've been a big fan of Dres and Mista Lawgne since they first burst onto the scene with their immaculate '91 debut album "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing", and though Lawgne has left the group, Dres is deifnitely one of the more slept on rhymeslingers the american hip-hop scene has to offer. Not all of Black Sheep's output has exactly been mindblowing, but there's plenty of hot material in that catalouge of theirs. Last year (or was it the year before) Dres album with Jairobi as evitaN went totally over heads heads, but now it seems that Dres The Black Sheep has signed a deal with Tommy Boy as they just have premiered a new single from the talented wordsmith called "Propagation". Pay attention to the lyrics on this one; as the press release says "this is not meant to get you moving, but to get you thinking". It will be interesting to see where this turns up!
As I've said before DITC is meaning business in 2014; not any crew have come close to releasing as many quality projects this year, not even close. AG recently dropped his slamming EP collabo with DeeJay Koss ("Natural High") and now he's the latest to be featured in DJ Premier's equally slamming "Bars in the Booth" series which so far has featured impressive verses by Papoose, Dres of Black Sheep, Jakk Frost, laid down live in the studio over original and exclusive Preemo breaks. When the series is completed we'll definitely need a compilation of these gems - my favorites so far are Dres and now AG, but they are all dope. Big up to Robbie and UNKUT.
DJ Premier got a lot of things going right now, one of them being his recently started Bars in the Booth series. The concept is that he invites various legendary emcees of all genres to HeadCQuarterz Studios, put on a Preemo beat and have them being filmed while they spazz out in the booth. First out was Papoose who went in over one of the instros from the "Beats Collected Dust" series that was also used by Bumpy Knuckles for "Fake" (click here if you missed that one). Now that was dope, but for Session 2 it's getting even sicker as Dres from Black Sheep (an emcee I always felt was criminally underrated emcee) really gets a chance to prove how extremely powerful he truly is with the wordplay. Shit what can I say, this is just... DAMN!
NYC emcee Awkword released a very interesting project late this Sunday; unfortunately it hit the net after I had gone to bed due to the dime difference over here, and since I haven't been on The Lost Tapes since then really I haven't been able at all to make any new updates. But better late than never, here's Awkword's anticipated concept album "World View" which featues Awkword and several A-list underground spitters going in over production collected from all over the world. Really interesting stuff, and especially when some of the producers include ATG, Numsonics, Domingo, DJ Fafu, The White Shadows, Tranzformers and many more, while guests include, but not limited to, Chaundon, Sean Price, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Punchline, Beretta 9, Jasiri X, Chino XL, Sha Stimuli, REKS, C-Rayz Walz, Dug Infinite, Mista Lawgne (!), ILLBILL, Slug, and Joell Ortiz. Despite featuring several producers "World View" clearly has a cohessive soun, and comes off as an homage to the Golden Age of true hip-hop. Be sure to check this one out, not least because it's a free digital project, sponsored by the always great DJBooth. TURN IT UP!!
Dres and Jarobi, legends of the Native Tounges crew, are joining forces under the name of EVITAN and are planing a soon-to-be-titled album together in the coming year. The first single is already available now however, and with "P.T.I. (Occupy Wall Street)" they manage to create by far the best song I've heard on the subject. I'm a bit suprised by how deep Dres' voice sounds these days but as usual he kills competition!
"“The 99% need to have not just a voice, but voices,” says Dres on what inspired he and Jarobi to write the song. “We need to have more voices that speak to our plight beyond what is given to us via the media.” And despite the logistical difficulties, Dres and Jarobi were adamant about shooting the video amongst the OWS protesters, noting that they “couldn’t be soldiers and not see the front line.”"
The Legion were a hardcore rap crew from The Bronx that first made their mark as associates of Showbiz & AG and Black Sheep. It's not unfair to say that their music forms as a fusion of the above mentioned groups and shares many similarities with both. The Legion was made up of a trio consisting of Chucky Smash, Cee-Low and Molecules who also produced most of the group's material. According to Smash, 'Cules was a real street cat who also worked the SP1200, Cee-Low a player and club-goer and himself heavily into graffiti and the culture of hip-hop. With all these styles combined The Legion was born. Chucky Smash also told in the UNKUT interview how they used to live together with Showbiz and Dres and moving in the same circles which certainly rubbed off heavily on their own music.
Like most, my first introduction to The Legion was through that banging interlude on Show & A's "Runaway Slave" where a hardboiled beat's rocking and a voice declares that "The Legion's in the house... Cee-Low's in the house....Molecules's in the house" and so on. The first time that interlude cut off I was pissed because I was so hyped by the sounds of it and was just starting to expect to hear the full thing. However, The Legion got signed to Mercury Records and one year after the "Runaway..." interlude, in 1993 that is, the trio came out with their debut single and video, for the song "Jingle Jangle". The hard cooking sounds with its strong jazz influence was a common sound at the time but the guys displayed a lyrical style and chemistry that was both humoros and hardcore and made them stand out on their own. "Jingle Jangle" also featured an excellent performance by Dres of Black Sheep which revealed another connection that would prove important for the future.
After some moderate success with the single, Mercury gave the group the thumbs up and a budget to record a full-length album for the label. The result was to be the strangely titled "Theme + Echo = Krill", a largely self-produced album that continued where the preceeding single had left off both from a lyrical perspective as well as with the beats. Cee-Low, Molecules and Chucky Smash all hold down their parts on the microphone well, but what really has made this album stand the test of time, at least for the initiated who actually knows about it, is the banging production. The record is full of jazz and funk samples, prominently with keys and all sorts of horns, pounding bass (often accoustic stand-up bass) and thick drums. Not suprisingly, the sounds are reminiscent of what D.I.T.C. and Mista Lawgne were doing in the early '90s. Several of the samples would much later be used by major artists like Mobb Deep, Smif-N-Wessun and MF DOOM. Molecules would later go on to produce slamming records for Mos Def and Dres although his placements has been few and far in between.
The album was completed and ready for release in the middle of 1994 but was heavily under promoted by Mercury, in fact the vinyl version were only pressed up in promo copies and both versions quickly went out of print. "Theme + Echo = Krill" was a great album with a bit of an old school feel to it but in 1994 hip-hop was starting to move on into new territory. Had this album been released at the same time as "Runaway Slave" or "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" I'm confident in saying that this LP would have been remembered much in the same way as those records. Unfortunately for the crew, the hard work they put into making a great album passed quietly above most hip-hop heads and both the vinyl and CD copies of "Theme + Echo" quickly became out of print and an eBay item. Could we get a reissue please? Traffic, I'm looking at you!
Besides the underground classic "Jingle Jangle", highlights include the second single, the bass heavy party anthem "Legion Groove" and the two Mista Lawgne productions, "Once Upon A Time" and "Zootie Bang". And of course it wouldn't be a early '90s album without the obligatory posse cut to show for, now would it? In this case, Show & A fans will be thrilled that "Who's It On Pt. 1" is the entire version of the "Runaway Slave" interlude and features a classic AG verse plus some Showbiz vocals over that addicting ruffneck beat. "...Part 2" in the same series adapts a different beat and features the trio going head to head with Black Sheep and Chi-Ali and you can bet it's a lyrical clashing that will take you back to the golen days of rap. It can't compare with the defining masterpieces of its time as there are moments of the album that does sound dated and unoriginal, especially as the album runs on for slightly too long, but these are mostly minor flaws and as a body of work it is a very good, and sadly very overlooked, one.
It's not all fun and games though; most of the latter part of "Theme + Echo" revolves around more serious subject matters including the use of the word nigga, it's origin and the meaning of it. Several important skits deals with this topic while songs like the dark and moody "New Niggas" has the crew spitting over a sinister piano-laced track where a murky bass clarinett gives a chilling effect as it floats in and out of the composition. One of the LP:s finest moments however comes with the closer, "Rest in Peace", a heartfelt tribute that deals with the pain of losing someone close and anyone who've done so should be able to relate. It's ill that Molecules flips the repetitive bass line (later used by Alchemist for Mobb Deep's "The Realest") for the basis of the song while he's adding several horns fading in and out to emphasize the theme. "Rest in Peace" is a great closer for a great album and will have you wishing these guys would've actually blewn up the way they deserved. After the album went wood, the group made the occassional guest apperance on albums by Black Sheep/Dres but has since faded into obscurity. I have a memory of reading somewhere in the mid-'90s that Dres was starting a record label and that he would sign The Legion as his main act; guess that never materialized.
01. "Enter The Realm"
02. "Jingle Jangle" (Ft. Dres)
03. "Buddah Break" (Ft. World Famous Brucie B)
04. "Legion Groove"
05. "Back in the Days"
06. "Step to the Stage" (Cuts by C.M.E.)
07. "Makin' Noise" (Ft. Dennis '3D' Scott)
08. "Krill Ill"
09. "Representanto"
10. "Zootie Bang" (Prod. by Mista Lawgne)
11. "Once Upon A Time" (Prod. by Mista Lawgne)
12. "I Like The Way It's Going Down"
13. "Bring It"
14. "It's Thorough"
15. "Who's It On Pt. 1" (Ft. Showbiz & AG)
16. "Who's It On Pt. 2" (Ft. Black Sheep & Chi-Ali)
17. "The Word Nigga"
18. "New Niggas"
19. "The Truth"
20. "Rest in Peace"
