Oaktown Hip Hop

It's no secret that Oakland has got a massive hip hop back ground that goes way back to the very early 80's around the time Too Short and Freddy B slanged tapes on the back of busses around the bay to a few years later when Shock G was doing the Humpty Dance on tour with a young MC New York and MC Hammer would prey just to make it today. Although it wasn't until later on that Oakland would have a rush of endless dope emcees come out of nowhere and help put the bay at the forfront of hip hop in the 90's.

One of the early Oakland groups is 415 (not to be confused with IV-1-VI). 415 consists of DJ Daryl, J.E.D., D-Loc and of course Richie Rich. They released their debut in 1990 tittled '415in' on 'Big League Records' which is an under rated bay classic. 'Nu Niggaz On Tha Blokkk' also came out on 'Big League' along with Priority the next year, although Richie Rich was in prison during this album and didn't feature on it at all. These are both classic old bay gangsta albums that both came out on picture cover wax. The track I have put up from these boys is 'Lifestyle As A Gangsta' from 'Nu Niggaz On Tha Blokkk'.


Damon 'Dangerous Dame' Edwards is definately not the first name that comes into your head when it comes to Oakland rappers although he's been around since 88/89 on 'T-Cap Records' with tracks like 'I Call Your Name' and 'Powers That Be'. In '90 he released 'I Got What You Want' on Atlantic. He got signed to Master P's 'No Limit' and released an E.P. on cd and wax called 'Escape From The Mental Ward' and then signed to 'Snake Pit' to release 'Make Room 4 Daddy' in '94. He released somthing else around this time but I can't recall what it was but I haven't heard anything from him for years and wouldn't mind knowing where he is?

If you're into bay hip hop you have to be into The Coup, not the usual sort of bay group, these guys are a more political group with a difference. Any group that has a female DJ gets my attention straight away with Pam tha Funkstress behind the decks and Boots on the mic (E-Roc used to drop vocals along side Boots). Everyone may have their own personal favourite Coup album and alot of people have given their latest album 'Pick A Bigger Weapon' alot of hype but personally when it comes to the Coup, I can't go past 'Genocide & Juice' which to me is by far their best work. Tracks like 'Fat Cats, Bigger Fish', 'Pimps', 'Gun Smoke' and 'Repo Man' make 'Genocide & Juice' a classic.

I definately wouldn't put this next one as an absolute classic, it's from Kool Rock Jay. In 1989 Kool Rock Jay & DJ Slice released their debut album called 'Tales From The Dope Side' that had a fair few crazy tracks on it like 'Notorious'. Three years later Kool Rock Jay returned by himself to release this 'Street Life' E.P. on Triad Records (the same label that dropped AMW's 'Criminals' and Spice 1's early albums) To be honest this E.P. is nothing too special but it's got two good things going for it, the first is a feature by a young Seagram which is a rare find especially on a non Rap-A-Lot release, and the second is the last track 'You Dont Hear Me Doe' which is by no means an incredible track but is still pretty dope.

The last artist I put a track up by is the late Segram, Seagram came out hard with his debut, 'The Dark Roads' in '92 on Rap-A-Lot which was a strange label for the 69th Ville Oakland rapper to come out on back in those days. He then released 'Reality Check' and recorded 'Souls On Ice' that was released after he was killed. You hear alot about all these rappers who were killed by getting sprayed up in alleys or Vegas strips but you never really hear people talking about how Seagram went out by jumping infront of his friend/ fellow rapper Gangsta P when someone tried killing him. Seagram died P didn't, thats real goin' out like a soldier shit, although a huge shame because Seagram still had alot to give the rap game. The Seagram track I put up is 'Straight Mobbin', this was picked out incase there are any Snoop Dogg fans that have never heard Seagram before that want to find out where he took his lingo from...farilla.

By the way, I realize I just did a Oakland dedication without putting any tracks by Too Short, Spice 1 and Digital Underground. Those would have been obvious artists, I already had to leave out endless tracks by Oakland artists I wanted to put up.

MP3's:
415 - Lifestyle As A Gangsta
Dangerous Dame - Make Room 4 Daddy
The Coup - Fat Cats, Bigger Fish
Kool Rock Jay - You Dont Hear Me Doe
Seagram - Straight Mobbin
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Rappers Accessories..... ( Pt. 1 Foot Wear)

I'm seperating this post into 3 parts, footwear, clothing and jewellery. Going back about ten months ago we chucked up a sneaker tip post with some tracks, I've put most of them back up gain with some extras to make up part 1 of the posts.

Way before hip hop became hip hop kids in ghettos and suburbs were wearing the dopest sneakers that Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok etc had to offer. Getting a new pair usually took weeks of saving dollars if not by the guy wearing them, by the guy that 'was' wearing them. keeping them in pristine condition, washing the white leather with a tooth brush and getting fat laces washed in the machine, people took alot of time and effort to parade their sneakers. Once hip hop got into it's stride in the 80's and rappers, b boys and b girls would get real fuckin' serious about their shit, making sure the blue trim on their Nikes matched the stripe going down their trackies and their Kangol.

When Run DMC decided to Adidas themselves out head to shell toe with their famous jail style no laces it went to the next level. Run DMC were doing a show with an invited Adidas CEO in the crowd, Run took off his shell toe and held it in the air and told everyone in the crowd that is wearing Adidas sneakers to do the same. Once the Adidas CEO saw hundreds of kids holding shoes above their heads he signed Run DMC to a huge deal and released their own line of clothing worth millions of dollars and became the first non-sportsmen signed to a sports label . This opened the door for thousands of non sportsmen who have been signing muti-million dollar contracts ever since.

Jay Z signed a deal with RBK to release his S. Carter signiture sneaker he also recorded a track for the sneakers that was a free give away with every pair for a limited time. I was sad to hear that legendary U.G.K. member, Bun B signed a deal with Damon Dash to release his own signituture line sneaker for Pro-Keds. Bun B also represented the Reebok throwback tennis shoe that featured in the NBA 2006 All Star game. Reeboks "I Am What I Am" campaign released 50 Cent's 'G Unit' sneaker and also signed deals with Lil Wayne, Mike Jones and Lupe Fiasco, their sneakers were all the same but in a different colour for each rapper. One sneaker that I did like coming out was the RIP JMJ sneaker that came out with his face on them. I saw a pair of Public Enemy boots a few weeks back that are meant to be coming out as I'm sure their will be endless amounts of top 40 rappers signing deals with sneaker companies who are lerking with a ballpoint waiting to rape hip hop a little more.

It's sad that hip hop has been so exploited by these popstars and big corporatians that have givin a fake front to what 'hip hop' style and fassion is supposed to be. It's come along way since Run DMC dropped 'My Adidas' and Fresh Gordon dropped his answer record with 'My Filas' or back when Schoolly had his Filas on, Dana Dane wore Balleys and Mix-A-Lot rapped about his Gortex or Tim Dog repped his Timberlands. At least the underground will always keep it real with Gangsta Pat dropping 'My Gators' and Lexicon dropping 'Nike Head' and Houstons Chingo Bling made his own Ostrich boots with a Nike swoosh (alligator tale) on it, which is fine except... they're not Nikes.

MP3's:
Run DMC - My Adidas
Schoolly D - Put My Filas On
K Solo - Sneak Tip
Sir Mix-A-Lot - Gortex
Gangsta Pat - My Gators
Lexicon - Nike Head
Chingo Bling - Ostrich Boots
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Melle Mel Vinyl Rips

Everyone knows Melle Mel as a member of the Furious Five and the vocals on Grand Master Flash's 'The Message', he got his rightful dues with 'White Lines', but Melle Mel's best shit was the stuff he dropped in the late 80's with a harder, more direct style. The old school hip hop label called 'Posse Records' dropped some wax in the mid to late 80's that was sort of the start of Rhyme Syndicate. A couple of tracks were dropped on Posse that featured Ice T, Afrika Islam, Bronx Style Bob and of course Melle Mel.under the banner 'Zulu Kings', One was called 'The Beach', and the other 'Cars' which was alot better and I've put it up for download.

Another track I've put up from Melle Mel that is also on Posse Records is 'Whats The Matter With Your World' which is the theme track from 'Police Academy 6 City Under Siege' This was dropped in '89 and goes pretty hard. In '89 he also dropped a 12 called 'White Lines 89 Part II', don't let the name fool ya, although it's a updated version of his old classic this is a completely different track, different beat, different raps and on a completely different level. I also found the best remix of his OG White Lines on a 12 that came out in the 80's that has a U.S. mix on one side and a dope U.K. mix on the other, the U.K. one is the one I've put up. I hope you enjoy these harder styled Melle Mel tracks along with another couple I've put with 'em.

Melle Mel MP3's:
Cars Ft. Ice T, Bronx Style Bob & Afrika Islam
White Lines UK Remix
White Lines 89 Part II
Whats The Matter With Your World
China White
The New Message
>>DOWNLOAD<<

Hits From The Blog

Hits From The Blog
(Streets On Beats Vol 4)

It's called the bionic, the bomb, the puff, the blow, the black, the herb, the sensie, the chronic, the sweet Mary Jane, the shit, Ganja, split, reefa, the bad, the buddha, the home grown, the ill, the maui-maui, the method, pot, lethal turbo, tie, shake, skunk, stress, whacky, weed, glaze, the boot, dimebag, Scooby Doo, bob, bogey, back yard boogie....and numerous rappers have rapped about it on endless tracks on various albums over the years. Obviously the likes of Cypress Hill and the Kottonmouth Kingz are notorious for their weed smoking tracks, but here are just a selection of the many tracks by other artists/groups on the topic.



...::: TRACKLISTING :::...
1. Steady Mobb'n - Puff Puff Pass
2. Odd Squad - Smokin' Dat Weed
3. The D.E.E.P. - I'm High
4. The Goats - Wake And Bake
5. Tha Alkaholiks - Mary Jane
6. Dum Dum, Happy P, SPM, Low G, Diamond, Grimm, Baby Beesh, Lil Bing - 2 Joints
7. The Dayton Family - Billy Blunt
8. Murder Squad - Pass Da Dank
9. Los Marijuanos - Smoke Out
10. Schoolly D - Smoke Some Kill
11. K Stone - Puff The Magic Dragon
12. Sweetenlo - Fire Up A Fat One



>> DOWNLOAD <<

Rollin With The Posse Pt II

Following on from my last posse tracks post back in June here are three other dope posse cuts. Firstly, I'm gonna start with the Lifers Group and the track 'The Real Deal'. The lifers group arn't exactly a "posse" as much as cellmates. They are inmates in Rahway prison in New Jersey, they first released a short E.P. simply titled '#66064' before dropping the full length 'Livin Proof' that had the track and video for this track 'The Real Deal'. DJ Shadow even remixed the track as a 12". I'm not sure on all the exact details but one of these guys got out of prison a few years back and hosted a show called 'Scared Straight' which was about scaring youth so bad about what jail life is like that hopfully they stay away from crime... or at least try to. For any vinyl collectors reading this, there are two versions of 'Livin Proof' released on wax. One is a Hollywood Basic label sleeve that has a couple of tracks missing and the other is a full picture cover that has the missing tracks but has a couple of others missing.

When N.W.A. were at their peak just after 'Straight Outta Compton' but before Cube left the group the D.O.C. dropped his incredible debut album 'No One Can Do It Better' in '89. On it was 'The Grand Finale' which to this day is still one of my favourite posse tracks ever. The D.O.C. who was originally from Texas and in a group called The Fila Fresh Crew under the name Doc-T and even appeared on 'N.W.A. & The Posse' but he left the group after releasing one album with them and pretty much became the sixth member of N.W.A. sort of replacing the Arabian Prince. 'No One Can Do It Better' was produced by who else but Dre, the guy may like womens clothing and be fake as fuck but he can produce the dopest beats. 'The Grand Finale' is Cube, Ren, Eazy and of course the D.O.C. himself. Just after he released this album the D.O.C. had a serious car accident that fucked up his voice so after the Dre/Eazy split the D.O.C. went to Death Row with his friend Dre and stayed behind the scenes writing rhymes for Snoop and a shit load of The Chronic album for Dre. He dropped his second album tittled 'Helter Skelter' in '96 and I think made somthing since with a new group, not completely sure though but he apparently releaed an album called 'Deuce' in 2003 I find it pretty hard to even listen to him now with the different voice. There's also a version of 'The Grand Finale' by Chicago's Twista on that Speed Knot album too thats pretty incredible.

Last time I did some posse tracks I chucked on 'Bring It On' from The Geto Boys 'Till Death Do Us Part' album, this time i'm putting on another Rap-A-Lot posse track, this one is 'Came Na Gedown' from Odd Squads 'Fadanuf Fa Erybody' album from '94. The Odd Squad who's original DJ was the late legendary DJ Screw consists of Jugg Mugg, Devin The Dude who has come a fuckin' long way since this gem and also the only blind rapper I have ever heard of Rob Quest. The over seven minute track consists of a heap of the Rap-A-Lot roster from '92 and is sick, infact this whole album is a must have for any old Rap-A-Lot fan. Hope you enjoy these tracks.

MP3's:
Lifers Group - The Real Deal
The D.O.C. Ft N.W.A. - The Grand Finale
Odd Squad etc - Came Na Gedown
>>DOWNLOAD<<

Ripped From Wax

Over the last month or so Afects has been ripping some of my vinyls to mp3 format. I've been trying to put as many of them up as possible lately in different topics, here are three more of them that I couldn't actually find a topic to put them in under.



The first is from the Philly crew that has production by Joe 'The Butcher' Nicolo (known for Schoolly D production), I'm talking about 'The Goats', They first dropped 'Tricks Of The Shade' before releasing 'No Goats, No Glory' in '94, which is the album this track is from. The cassette tape/cd version has a different hook to the vinyl version, which is the version I have uploaded here for download. The Goats who had the original sounding Swayzak as the frontman have dropped another album under the name 'Incognegro' a few years back, although several members were different. The Goats may not have been for everyone but I personally love their sound back in the early 90's.



Secondly, I have put up a track by Rappinstein who recorded a track called 'Scream' for the original version of 'N.W.A. And The Posse' when it was originally released in '87 on Macola before Priority bought Macola out and after the huge success of Eazy E and N.W.A. Priority decided to cash in on it and re-release 'N.W.A. And The Posse' in '89 as if it was a new record and although the track listing was almost identical, 'Scream' by Rappinstein was missing from the '89 version and replaced with N.W.A.'s 'A Bitch Is A Bith'.



The last track for now is by Seattle's E-Dawg (originally E-Dog) featuring Filthy Rich called 'Little Locs' which was released both as the B' side to the 'Drop Top' 12" in the early 90's and on the 'Seattle...The Dark Side' compilation. E-Dawg is from Mix-A-Lot's click and featured on his 'You Cant Slp' track. Definately under rated as most of those Seattle rappers are for some unknown reason. I hope you enjoy these tracks as I still have alot more vinyl rips to chuck on here at a later stage.

MP3's:
The Goats - The Boom (Vinyl Version)
Rappinstein - Scream (From N.W.A. And The Posse O.G. Version)
E-Dawg ft Filthy Rich - Little Locs (B-Side to 'Drop Top')
>>DOWNLOAD<<

Tha Alkaholiks @ The German Club

Tha Alkaholiks
Friday 1st September 2006
@ The German Club



Tha Liks put on a show last night at the German Club in Adelaide, Australia. E-Swift, J-Ro and Tash put alot into the show doing tracks from their catalogue way back to shit off of '21 & Over', all in all it was pretty sick.

Represent II

Here is a follow up entry to the original 'Represent' post I made earlier this year. Here are another five tracks made by artists to represent where they come from. Enjoy.

Wildlife Society - Jacktown
Wildlife Society are a group consisting of four guys coming up out of Jackson, Mississippi. This mad dedication to their city is off of their 1995 'Jacktown (601)' album that dropped on Blunt Recordings (who at the time also had Mic Geronimo & Ca$h Money Click on their roster). The track starts off with a bit of dialogue before "Jackson, Mississippi" samples are accompanied by scratches by DJ Howie How. Each of the rappers drop quality verses in their smoothe southern style and the states name is spelt out as hook, I don't know what it is about the hook but it's almost hypnotic.The track closes out with the respective emcee's dropping names of all different places in their area. If I were from Jackson there is no doubt this track would be up their with my favourites. Wildlife Society rep their city well in this track and throughout the whole album, definately one of the best Mississippi hip hop albums I've heard.

Komain Ft Legacey - Indiana
Hailing from South Bend (Indiana), Komain is a member of the 'Block Monsters' crew. This track reppin' Indiana (featuring Legacey) is off of Komain's forthcoming release 'Monster Muzic', Komains 3rd solo album following on from 'N The Mouth Of Madness' and 'Livewire'. Komain has also dropped an album with his Block Monsters crew titled 'The Takeover'. This mid-west monster definitely has a sick flow and in his career to date he has worked with west coast icons such as Mac Mall, Celly Cel, Sean T and JT the Bigga Figga. Honestly, up until a couple of months ago I was oblivious to this guys music but since Alan from Italy told me about him I've liked most of what I have heard.

Dayton Family - Flint Town
Coming up out of Flint (Michigan), The Dayton Family are unquestionably one of the most gangsta groups to ever have dropped an album. The trio consisting of Bootleg (Ira Dorsey), Shoestring (Raheen Peterson), and Backstabber (Matt Hinkle) dropped their debut album release 'What's On My Mind?' in 1993 before seeing it achieve national distro in 1995 through 'Solar Music Group'. The final track on the incredible album is titled 'Flint Town' and as the name suggests it is a dedication to their city. The track is quality thanks to well delivered rhymes, great production care of Steve Pitts and a quality hook that combines scratching and repetetive 'Flint Town, Flint Town- F-F-F-F-Flint Town' vocals. The group have proudly repped their city on numerous tracks since which isn't surprising considering the group are named after an infamous street in Flint, Dayton Avenue.

Tela, Gangsta Boo, Yo Gotti, Haystak, Criminal Mane, Project Playaz, Maru - Tennessee Titans
The state that is most often heard in hip hop tracks when rhymed with hennessy has produced some top quality hip hop artists over the years; Three Six Mafia, Gangsta Pat, Haystak, Lowc and Eightball & MJG to name just a few. Former Suave House Records turned Rap-A-Lot recording artist Tela dropped the 'Double Dose' album in 2002, this included a cut featuring a cast of his fellow 'Tennessee Titans'. All of the respective rappers verses on this dedication track (named after the states NFL team) are short but sweet. For me, the highlights on this track come via verses from Haystak aka Crackervelli the Don and Three Six Mafia's ever-impressive female rapper Gangsta Boo.

O.C.U. - Streets Of Chicago
Claiming the mean streets of South Chicago, the Organized Crime Unit dropped the 'Penetentiary Bound' EP before coming back with the 'Stronger Than The Mafia' album which came out in 1991 on Kapone Records. The group consists of Homicidal MC, Impact, Murder 1, Sudden Death and DJ Tragic and although the album is dope the pre-album vinyl/cassette EP had better versions of a couple of the tracks and if all goes well Afects should be posting the vinly rips from the EP sometime soon. It is common knowledge that Chicago is hard city and is the home of the Mafia (hence the record label and album title) and in 'Streets Of Chicago' the OCU let everyone know just how hard it is.

MP3's:
Wildlife Society - Jacktown
Komain Ft Legacey - Indiana
Dayton Family - Flint Town
Tela - Tennessee Titans
O.C.U. - Streets Of Chicago
>>DOWNLOAD<<