Mid-90's Underground "Pre-Backpack" Hip Hop Saved My...

[NESK]

this thread is wicked. i cant beleive theres other hhi readers on here. that shit blows my mind.

- CVE is fucking stellar, whoever name dropped them is the man.

- masta ace was huge way before the period being discussed. before being on DV he was still a respected member of the juice crew and did tracks with marley/biz/kane

- latyrx is insane. lady dont tek no is the greatest song youll ever see live.

- why has no one mentioned channel live and blahzay blahzay yet?

- anticon gets the bozack.

- fuck jedi mind/non phix, et al. yes ive heard the early stuff, no it isnt that dope.

- i never got the fondle em reissue of bl_ck b_st_rds, i had the hhi limited repress. i saw a white label of it and didnt get it, i regret that.

- remember when souls of mischeif used to brag about being signed to jive like being on a major was end game then heiro became the template for upstart indie labels?

- how come mad skillz never blew of the strength of nod factor? from where was pretty dope. how did he have to wait for missy to scoop him before he came back out?

- mic geronimo had the sickest 1st album then fell off huge.

- would big l have sucked if hed lived to be on rocafella?

- the flip squad allstars album was awesome.

- bootcamp grandfathered that rawkus shit.

... to be continued.

[heBAY]

Hebay, what's up with that mixtape you mentioned putting together earlier? Did you complete it? What artists were on it? Were there any heads you wanted on the tape but you couldn't get to come through?

Haha...i just found a box in storage full of tapes...some mine and some from stretch n bob and shit like the first few X-Men mixtapes and Charlie Uprock and Bobbito's breakbeats. I'ma see if I still have em around. I had Mr. Complex on one. I think J-Live was on the 2nd one. Apex (from Dujeous) came through and did some shit over that old Masterminds 12"...I was trying for a minute to get Ill Bill, Kinetic and QUnique to go off on a few ODB beats ("Damage" and "Protect Ya Neck 2")...they did all of their verses one day I came through to Fat Beats, but just kinda flaked. Q said they had a cipher and recorded over the 4-track tape that had the odb beats on it (I had cut them up all DJ-like). I took it as them frontin' on a youngin' like me (at the time I was 16/barely 17).

I just remembered! J-Treads (cool motherfucker) also came through and did some shit...as did MFW...on separate occassions. I forget what beat he rocked over...but it was good shit. I also wanted to get El and Juss on some shit...spoke to them and Len about it but never happened...Breeze too (thanks to Vaz TCK from Footwork).

That's how I got up with Atoms Family and what not...my boy had the old Centa Uv Da Web EP...Cryptic One's first group with Jest, and two other cats from Queens. It was kinda ill for the time...and my boy hit me with the number...I called it...it was Cryptic's house phone...spoke to him for a while about shit and he said they always are down for freestyle shit since that's what they do. I started going up to his home studio for while and he'd throw me joints and we'd do joints with other heads...thus began the saga. I stopped making tapes and was more interested in songs (rhyming and producing...and cuttin' on 'em) so it was a different game by then. Cipher rats.

[heBAY]

this thread is wicked. i cant beleive theres other hhi readers on here. that shit blows my mind.

- CVE is fucking stellar, whoever name dropped them is the man.

- masta ace was huge way before the period being discussed. before being on DV he was still a respected member of the juice crew and did tracks with marley/biz/kane

- latyrx is insane. lady dont tek no is the greatest song youll ever see live.

- why has no one mentioned channel live and blahzay blahzay yet?

- anticon gets the bozack.

- fuck jedi mind/non phix, et al. yes ive heard the early stuff, no it isnt that dope.

- i never got the fondle em reissue of bl_ck b_st_rds, i had the hhi limited repress. i saw a white label of it and didnt get it, i regret that.

- remember when souls of mischeif used to brag about being signed to jive like being on a major was end game then heiro became the template for upstart indie labels?

- how come mad skillz never blew of the strength of nod factor? from where was pretty dope. how did he have to wait for missy to scoop him before he came back out?

- mic geronimo had the sickest 1st album then fell off huge.

- would big l have sucked if hed lived to be on rocafella?

- the flip squad allstars album was awesome.

- bootcamp grandfathered that rawkus shit.

... to be continued.

Hahaha...I never really posted on HHI except to KILL shit with my eBAY auction posts. Funny how many people knew me off of that. I remember that whole situation with a board member and Def Jux...not talking Anticon neither. Shit was fucked up in more ways than one.

I never considered Mic G, Blahzay Blahzay, Channel Live, Mad Skillz, or Masta Ase to be indie...all of them were either on Majors or had major backing...Ase, as you pointed out, was doing major level shit before the time of this thread...and then became indie like everyone else AFTER the time period this thread is focusing on.

Skillz was on a major when "Nod Factor" came out...if you wanna talk about the shit he did with Lonnie B and the VA click he had...that's a diff. story...and "Nod Factor" was actually pretty big over here, but he just wasn't the deal...he can stick to "yearly round ups"...I just won't ever listen to 'em)

Yeah I knew cats who fucked with CVE...dudes in Texas and Cali who either worked with them or distributed their shit (Foolblown)...gangbangin' motherfuckers (except Bus Driver).

You heard the first Non Phixion 12" "Legacy" and "No Tomorrow"?? As much as I dslike anything they've done since like '98...I can't front on that early shit. It was almost on some Wu Tang Killarmy/Sunz of Man shit.

Big L would not have sucked...he would've been with Cam and McGruff...old COC cats...none of them sucked at the time of the attempted signing.

How did BCC father Rawkus? Duck Down founded Rawkus or something? They weren't on Rawkus if that's what you're saying...and they were definitely not the first indie label. They were distributed by Priority Records...same cats who put out WC , Mack 10 and all that shit...not a true indie in the sense of this thread.

[the breaks]

Good thread. Some of my favourites from the golden age that was the 90s:

Organized Konfusion - Stress: Extinction agenda

Brand Nubian - Everything is everything

Shyheim - AKA the Rugged Child

Real Live - The Turnaround

Blahzay Blahzey - Blah Blah Blah

AZ - Doe or Die

Danja Mowf - Word Of Mowf

Al Tariq - God Connections

Lords of the Underground - Here Come the Lords

Mad Skillz - From Where?!?!

Kurious: A Constipated Monkey

Chino XL - Here to save you all

KMD - Mr. Hood

and sooo many more... I need to go digging for some of this shit i just realized i haven't listened to a lot of it in aaaages

[notesee]

You heard the first Non Phixion 12" "Legacy" and "No Tomorrow"?? As much as I dslike anything they've done since like '98...I can't front on that early shit. It was almost on some Wu Tang Killarmy/Sunz of Man shit.

Yeah, I have that 12" ripped to my comp somewhere. Haven't listened to it in years, but I was really into NP for an extended period of time. No Tomorrow was my shit, loved that beat. It's too bad that crew never got their shit together and ended up just falling apart in the end. Don't like the direction Necro went in either, loved a lot of his early beats.

[tanqueray]

YO heBAY!

Here's the link to that Major Stress track as promised; that real grimey shit.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1080492079285353/

My bad on the lag. I was still hungover the next day and that's when the site was down.

[heBAY]

Wow.

Since I just got my needles and Serato...I set it all up today and dug through my crates...I must say I'm fuckin' happy as all shit that I didn't sell both copies of certain records (Shabazz The Disciple, KGB, DSA, L The Head Toucha, Cage's 1st, etc.)...

Also...I'm tight that I seemingly sold the one Mass Vinyl release with Hi-Tech and J-Treads.

Speaking of J-Treads...anyone remember the old group he was in called Parallax? I have an old Stretch and Bobbito tape with a freestyle from them that is nuts.

ALso...anyone remember AK SKILLS? He was on the same label as F.T. The God Sunz...Tru Criminial Recs (with the Timb boot logo). I had his first two 12"'s and "Nights of Fear" was my shit!

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[heBAY]

...OOOOH yeah...another funny thing about all of this shit...is where the heads end up.

Speaking of Mass Vinyl...DJ Shok was a producer on there who was doing all of these crazy S-950/SP1200'ish beats in the mid-90's. He disappeared and I am 99% sure that he went on to resurface and make Triton keyboard beats for Ruff Ryders and primarily D-Block (The Lox "Training Day" being one of his most notable joints).

[heBAY]

Another crazy name/single...the first one by Lace Da Booms...on Guesswhyld. Had a joint over the old sample used by Big Daddy Kane on "Young, Black and Gifted"...with Royal Flush and I THINK KRS-ONE was either on it or sampled on it. "Weak Shit" was the title...Domingo produced a craaazy flipside joint on that record. Madness.

[NESK]

whoever said kurious is my new favorite member of the board. they rereleased that lp a few months ago so i could finally stop trying to track down the old 12"s. thank god for that.

[the breaks]

yea Constipated Monkey by Kurious and Black Bastards by KMD are prolly the albums i've listened to the most over the years... they just dont age one bit