random old rap you are loving

ctrl+f found no instance of VONTEL. stumbled on this lost g-funk gem from phoenix AZ, album is full of dj battlecat beats and a few troutman features

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpAB16lVE04

https://www.passionweiss.com/2015/08/19/vontel-vision-of-a-dream-battlecat-g-funk/

not at all random but I caught the Pharcyde (minus Bootie Brown) yesterday, very joyful, and wow what a jam Runnin' is - those kicks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwHuEDCM7xs

In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas recounts the story of the attempted subterfuge of Dilla’s first major beat placement. As crafted by the young producer, “Runnin’” feels wholly different from anything else from its era, mainly thanks to its unconventional kick drums, which hit in unexpected places and don’t repeat in a discernible pattern. But Fatlip didn’t think they sounded right. So during the session for the song, when the rest of his Pharcyde cohorts were out of the studio, he moved the kicks to fall in predictable places. When group member Tre returned, he was incensed. He and Fatlip came to blows over it. “All this over a beat?” Dilla thought to himself. But when the dust settled, Tre’s viewpoint won out. “We’re not changing it,” he told Dilla. “That’s your signature.”

https://www.theringer.com/2022/2/1/22911750/40-best-j-dilla-beats-common-jay-dee-de-la-soul-tribe-donuts

never heard that vonte before! i love battlecat. listened to the whole album last night.

Yeah! Surprisingly above average MC and solid production. Love the Chaka interpolation on Don't Nobody.

That article above speculated on some "funded by drug money" lore and digging into the label Fo Life's discog it seems not at all shocking. Their only other full length release, "Stressin" by Bookie is chockfull of Battlecat beats, features Kurupt, E-40, Kool G Rap and Vontel himself. And is mastered by...Bernie Grundman!? lol. unfortunately not streaming but can be heard in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBTp1T7XgiI

been missing bankroll fresh lately. guy could write a song. rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5CIhUyJLmw

a long time ago somebody told me one of my beats sounded like nujabes and i never took the cue to check him out. rectifying that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orZdl3KqgzU

nujabes feat shing02 - "luv(sic) pt 2" (mid 2000s)

...and yeah, they were absolutely right. sadboi jazz chords+stiff drums is what i wanted to hear, so that's the kind of beats i made. granted, nothing near as stellar as this. shing02 is passable on the mic, but with a beat that dope he could've been rapping ABCs and it would've worked.

elsewhere, nujabes gets tf down-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XJFSTYryv4

nujabes - "world's end rhapsody" (2005)

not really relevant to the main topic here; essentially a re-edit of a northern soul 45. but much too hot of a jam not to post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV11KxIF6hM

Chill Rob G - Rob's World (unreleased)

I'd somehow never heard this epic before. Produced by--and featuring!--Stevie Wonder!!

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

This article references plenty of random old rap

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/magazine/hip-hop-deaths.html

pretty insensitive way to frame this article, man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsIu8RN7ivU

Prob not random enough but i'm liking EPMD's Strictly Business a whole lot lately.

loving that e bros

Prob not random enough but i'm liking EPMD's Strictly Business a whole lot lately.

― Deflatormouse, Tuesday, August 8, 2023 3:37 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

greatest rap group ever imo

this is SOOOOOOOOO FUCKING HYPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy9Fun9CuZ4

^^ straight up classic

the C stands for Cool Breeze
known as the champ
Freddy Calhoun
the coolest cutter at camp

been listening to a lot of jungle bros. hadn't really dove into their catalog before, beyond the first album. 'done by the forces of nature' is excellent, but i recently listened to their "lost" album 'j beez wit da remedy' for the first time, and it blew my mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO1pg39-AHw

oh dang yeah that's awesome I wish I could hear that stuff for the first time again

there's the original (supposedly even weirder) version of Remedy that they did with Bill Laswell called Crazy Wisdom Masters which is floating around out there

I haven't heard it but I think Laswell put it up on bandcamp for a couple days before it was removed

haha yeah this is wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoBlsDzc3Tg

oh shit i need to dig those up, this is crazy

i found an article about it being available on laswell's bandcamp but the link went to a dead page :/

if you see it out there lmk!

i have it, idk if i can post it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR7VbTbeIzI

love this beat, they use the same little whistle sound as U.M.C.s on "Blue Cheese"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2asgFXe4Wgc

I remember my gamer friends went nuts for “12 sided dice” on that album

Loved Dream Warriors as a kid. I still go back and listen to a few songs now and then.

just a random observation about random old rap-
why was it that hiphop beats were always getting commandeered for r+b songs? like how was it that these hardcare hiphop heads were having such a delicate ear for samples? i always think of redman's "tonight's da nite" - they even literally pause the record to call him out for the "punk smooth shit" only to have the exact same beat come back on while he swears more freely lol. sure enough, that same isaac hayes sample showed up on a tlc remix a couple years later - and it sounded great!

anyway, always thought it was funny how so much 90s hiphop would go on about its own hardness. but so many of the beats were loops from old slow jams and then would get repurposed and flourish on as r+b hits for the next year or so.

(lol remember when jlo jacked the beatnuts? that was... huh yeah, that happened)

wasn't it the other way around? crate diggers and producers would come across great rnb samples but to some degree couldn't themselves put them to use in that context because of a perceived schism between rap vs. rnb

That Beatnuts bite definitely annoyed younger me.

same, but that really was snobbish of me

Yeah, I mean the bite is pretty hard, like they barely even tweaked it at all. But I care less about that stuff now.

(lol remember when jlo jacked the beatnuts? that was... huh yeah, that happened)

stopped into the old bucksters just now and you'll never guess what was playing...

anyway—
ya'll remember sporty thievz? they were dope! i think "no pigeons" was one of the last true "answer records" to gain any sort of traction. they were one of the groups that i always liked because they were basically picking up on the too $hort/snoop school of not givin a fuck "we don't luv dem hoez" rhyming and jeep beats. i was mostly into backpacker shit at the time, but always checked for them because these dudes could fucking rap circles around most folks. and you knew they were certified because when rawkus did the amadou diallo benfit album (not on streaming, grrrr), they were on it.

besides "no pigeons" i always thought it was funny that the thing they were most known for previously was... basically the same song with a different beat lol—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdJzbH3nBtc
sporty thievz — "cheapskate" (1997)

of course, they got cut short when marlon brando (not to be confused with the hollywood actor) died in a freak car accident. i remember reports at the time saying that he saw the car coming and was only in harm's way to get other people out of there. idk if he "saved someone's life" or whatever, but damn: twenty fucking two. respect.

going back to some old indie mixtape favorites and i can't believe i'm posting a song featuring talib kweli, but even he can't fuck this one up...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VdTrvddaM
makeba mooncycle feat talib kweli — "lunchroom classics" (1999)
prod by j rawls from lone catalysts

this old school mama came to save ya!

definitive feel good backpack jams.

i love random old rap

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5968tbRsiY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gLw5j-Wxu0

wonderful beat

Same sample as Sally got a one track mind though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEOOXtvUc3g

this is my "Ante Up" just beyond ignorant lyrical box cutter shit

hi i'm a pendant. can we please post artist and track titles in addition to videos?

going back to spottie's first post, we have:
mr doctor - '40 oz+chronic dice'
the jacka, fed-x+rydah j. klyde - 'the same thing everyday'
and then ums with smoothe da hustler's 'broken language'

(smoothe da hustler+trigger tha gambler-- there's a sorely forgetton ultra charismatic 90s duo!)

lol don't fuck with me, i'm a PENDANT YA'LL.

(pedant, obvs lol)

yeah that's a good idea esp when the youtube links go dead sometimes

xpost I don't know why Smoothe's Once Upon a Time in America isn't held up with stuff like The Infamous or Cuban Links

im always on the hunt to find tracks where rappers take on the broken language flow
ie chance the return
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npgLWoBZZfU

what does "ignorant lyrical box cutter shit" mean, serious q

was an thing old ny street rappers would mention, sneaking a box cutter into a club as a weapon

Kind of became shorthand for a certain type of raw East Coast street rap