Akinyele & Sadat X on Funk Flex – 1996

“I’ll be pushing your wig back like those girls in chemotherapy” – Aknel was savage !

DJ Hollywood – Live at a BBQ…

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary…

Marley morals & the Noose Crew Law…

For reference: Im proud to inform you that I have been listening to the works of MC SHAN & MARLEY MARL since August 1987, and even though we normally stay a long way away from this type of ‘beef’ crap, all the small-talk is windin me up, you dig what im saying ?

An open letter to Shawn Moltke, Marlon Williams and the rest of the hater-nation actually enjoying this crud out there. Jesus, yer a bunch of grown-ass men, cant we all just get along? Why is it fashionable or even necessary to create these kinda rants, this form of ‘beef’. Beef my arse. Shame on you  Shawn. This is garbage, this is pompous, this is self-glorification of the highest order, and from where im sittin, its ugly, and none of ye’ even have a release to promote; Black Gus, you get a late pass on that.

These videos are not a good example of how technology should be harnassed, these are signs of adults acting like a bunch of children. Kids would do things in a higher-res and set cams on a shelf for a start !

Long after the glory days of the Juice Crews achievements and successes, Marley remained a progressive guy that recognised the importance of furthering himself. He continued his career in music production after his legendary Rap Attack performances behind the wheels on WBLS with Mr Magic, the Future Flavas shows, the nutty amount of remixes and productions he has created over the years and kept on pushing himself even in the face of illness, and tbh, good on him.

Kane is a great example of getting older and still enjoying the lime-light, he was wise enough to utilise what talent he’d been blessed with. Kane aint been young for a minute, and you KNOW that Kane destroys a stage when he performs, that is a perfect example of giving the audience/ consumer what they want. Shan didnt do that. I saw Shan perform at a PUMA launch a few years ago with Kane and Doug E Fresh in London, and the difference between the 2 Juice Crew members was like watching a professional and an amateur, like Shan hadnt held a mic in front of an audience before that.

Marley furthered himself by continuing his career in broadcasting, he can currently be heard on WBLS on two seperate slots, on the Midday Mix with Marley Marl and again on drive-time, and of course he still drops the Golden Era Radio show with Shante on a Friday night. As if that wasnt enough, of course, he’s been working on production of a DVD called The Vapors for a while now [when yer ready Mr Williams, take yer time there slow-poke], not forgetting his ability to create interest around unreleased gems from the back cat by working with good folk like DWG and Roots Forward. Again, Marleys morals come into question with a supposed unreleased track from 88 which was released recently by Canadian imprint Roots Forward. I dont care what anyone tells ye, that record was NOT produced in 1988, the lyrics may have been written back then but cmon sons, yeh I said it…

And furthermore…

http://wernervonwallenrod.blogspot.com/2012/01/return-of-hot-chillin.html

Alotta these cats are enjoying fame from their musical heritage but in business terms, progression is the key to success, yeh of course its great to look back, maybe make a buck or two on the side, but the most important issue is going forward, and not letting the past keep you there. Shan did not stay current, even to a throwback/ younger crowd.

Marley is like any producer from any form of music, every genre has the artists that come to the table with ideas, and its the engineers / producers that bring those ideas to life. Shan may have brought the concepts and ideas, but Marley gave them colour and definition, Shan hasnt truly comprehended that formula IMO. So feckin what if Aaron Fuchs brought a copy of Impeach the President to the studio that time…

Personally, I think Shan wants to be held in higher esteem, but this kinda school-yard shit is the last thing that is gonna offer him a new found respect, no one likes a tell-tale. Its a shame that Marley has to call out Shan on his addictions, its a shame we’ll never see a reunion, its a shame that yall are hanging yourselves collectively, as the relationships between the members have become ruinous in the scheme of things.

Remembering that Shan had records with his name on em released on NIA and MCA in 1985, as I see it, its real simple. The Juice Crew artists didnt sign any contracts during those embryonic stages cos, well, nobody was signing contracts. They wanted fame, and they were already gettin round the way fame at that point. It took a while for people to catch on to the importance of signing contracts I think. At the very start, its a bet that, as Marley explains, they just wanted success, share some of the light that was shining their direction. They wouldve got paid well off tours and shows et cetera but that only kept them sweet in the short-term.

Okay, Marley MUST HAVE known about credit at that point, and surely thats the rub, Marley chose not be transparent in terms of the business relations and the contractual minutia, or in the good faith element of it all… Instead of sharing the information with Shan and therefore sharing the royalties down the line, he as he says, shares the small percentage of the ASCAPs and according to the  ‘All-Star Engineer’ they are for small amounts, because Shan had signed contracts alot later rather than sooner. How manipulative Marley was in the scheme of all this we’ll never know. Its clear that it took Shan a while for him to realise the importance of writing credits, performance and publishing rights.

I can see how Shan is bitter, what im troubled about now is not only what was Masta Ace talkin about in D-Nices video that sparked all this, but how Shan is going to respond, if he’s ‘wrong’ enough to yell at his sleeping baby girl just for giggles and shits, then how the eff is he gonna react to Marlons giggles directly squarely at him. I hope Shan doesnt suffer a heart-attack from ‘his worries about being a good father’ like Marley. Doubt it.

Prodigy – The Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson EP [Reduced by HOTASBALLS] AKA Dunnthing for the Weekend

Prodigy – The Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson EP – [Reduced by HOTASBALLS]

Prodigy from Mobb Deeps’ first piece of branded promo came in the shape of an EP via the good people at Complex Magazine a few weeks back. This Reduced version-excursion of the highly anticipated release was created by ourselves out of sheer impatience, an unwilling to sift through songs, no other reason, dont get it twisted. We got nothin but love for Mobb shit, that why we made this, and the fact that the P is free once again after three years locked away, is good news for anyone that understands and appreciates ‘Top of the Line’ reality Rap.

Over the years, there have been shed-loads of full-length alblums that have utilised dialogue from movies, skits, sound-bites et cetera, but the only way the listener can truly enjoy the experience is NOT having to fassy around with fast-forward keys, click wheels and the like. Unfortunately, the segue material on this is a little ancillary for our tastes. We aint professin to be some big-time internets nor are we too big or too proud to hit rewind, but sometimes we just wanna hear things as they should be heard, one track after another, without too much interruption. Too much to ask? The aural impediments if you didnt know, are from the 97 movie, Hoodlum.

Musically the EP has some great moments on it, and lyrically, P is on fire at times too, on the whole, it’s an interesting return to form but lets face it, listening to this EP is a wind-up. Were not here to review the content of the EP, mainly cos its a feckin mixtape, an undersized mixtape for an artist that is evidently holding the finest Sid Roams and Alchemist productions back until the finished product drops.

We respected the sequence, but in addition to the tracks and our updated transitions, we decided, for ease of access, to drop the majority of the Larry Fishburne dialogue and just lace the tracks one after each other [with sprinkles of a few specially and specifically chosen sound-bites and sample sources of our own]. This is the result. To P, to Alan, Benny, Joey & Bravo, big respect is automatic…

Bonus Proclamations

Phillip Mlynar – Top 10 Prodigy Prison Rants

Gary Warnett – My Infamous Overflow

Hip-Hop Isnt Dead – Gut Reactions

City Of Paranoia DVD release

There’s a certain beauty in vandalism, it has the ability to arouse something in a number of us that others may not be able to comprehend, unless theyve experienced it first-hand.

This latest in a long line of Graffiti DVDs, City Of Paranoia, highlights the risk involved in these activities and just how fresh some of the style and artwork still is in 2011. It’s all London and home counties based, with South West trains and the London Underground gettin savaged. Remembering that alot of this material is buffed soon after it appears, sometimes without the trains getting commercial runs, or alternate documentation other than this footage, major props to the folk behind the film. Dap also goes to the writers with their bolt-cutters, beer boosting and other shenanigans. Some shots of the rolling stock as London ‘stretches and yawns’ during the early hours are truly enchanting.

The eery backdrop and the accurate portrayal of the atmosphere of these acts of vandalism is captured perfectly, adding another dimension to this subterranean world. The background music is intriguing too [Aerosmith, in a graff vid? Skinnyman is standard, but Aerosmith?]. From the crackin Trail of The Dead opening track to the grimey wobble-step that gets used as a bed at times in this film, the music has its moments good and bad, but generally it sounds as youd expect, the editing is bang on and makes up for any over-usage of a stereo-typical soundtrack. Read a real review of it on a real graff site here

Naturally, watchin this kind of thing on YT compared to the real deal sucks butt, so keep an eye out for the DVD at http://chromeandblack.blogspot.com

Katt Williams Pimp Chronicles rehearsals AKA Get your paper boo-boo

A few bullet points about this footage

• It’s RAW like Black Rock n Ron
• It looks like a typical pre big show tester in a smaller local venue, rehearsing and testin segments for the Pimp Chronicles concert in Atlanta in 2006 which went on to be a DVD release for HBO
• Be prepared for people walking in front of the camera on the reg
• Steady-cam? More like unsettling camera work that was being shot by someone using a keep-fit waist massager
• It has all the atmosphere of a Redd Foxx or LaWanda Page show, at times sounding like a LAFF RECORDS release from early 70s !
• The timing, as well as the calculated and perceptive observations about everything he discusses, make for some of the sharpest comedic deliveries
• The editing on this is frustratingly safe, the Michael Jackson section has blatantly been chopped out, listen to the actual show for full unexpurgated disclosure

NIKE WORLD BASKETBALL FESTIVAL [RUCKER] 2010 AKA The cage takes no prisoners

Biggest shouts to Bobb for keepin it kept

80 Blocks from Tiffanys DVD/ Live Convention 77-79

If you understand the true origins of Hip-Hop and Rap, youll be fully aware that it was born out of decay, the decay of New York City boroughs like the South Bronx. However, the depreciation of these boroughs; the abandoned buildings, the perishing surroundings, the upturned mattresses et cetera, has been pretty rare outside of the chronicles of gold school photographers like official Cold Crush snapper Joey Kane [Joe Conzo] and Sue Kwon. Aside from the photographic testaments, one of the finest film documentaries defining true New York gang and street culture will finally be commercially available, for the 1st time since its short VHS run in1985, before the end of 2010.

Filmed during the Summer of 79, the film concentrates on the day to day lives of gang members, simple social outlaws, just hangin out. Sometimes we see them drinkin and carryin on in their safe house, at times we see them throwin bows during fights late at night, sometimes we see them bumper-hoppin in the bright sunshine of a lazy afternoon. These are the same gang members that Bambaataa allegedly took off the streets and into the parks and community centres during that period, creating the Hip-Hop artists and audience as we know it.

The gang members were just teens doing their thing on their local streets, the only way they knew how, some of them taking a violent path but still holding it down for their community. 80 Blocks highlights the menacing mentality of these gang members and balances it with the community element via footage featuring the cops that tailed them, the community leaders, the teachers they avoided, as well as the film makers themselves.

As well as being able to watch the full thing on Video Google and watchable in a bunch of seperate segments on YT, this version [judging it on the quality of the sound on the trailer alone] has been lovingly remastered and carefully reconstructed by amongst others, Bostonian Will C, the same man that gave us the Mr Magic package Dont Touch That Dial a while back. The film even in its grainy wobbly VHS form is cosmetically stunning, from the clothes being worn, to the many variations of music, from the denim jackets with the gang affiliations embroidered in the back panelling, to the embryonic elements of New York graffiti culture, not too many whole cars in this sadly, but keeps yer eyes peeled for some nutty Cliff 159 action.

As well as the 67 minute feature, there will be alot of extras, a 40 page hard-back book, the OG feature on the Skulls from a 1977 issue of Esquire and a bunch of interviews that havent seen the light of day previously either. If you dont know anything about this documentary, it’s essentially a snap-shot of the heady days during the late 70s when gangs of kids and n’er do well adolescent types that shouldve known better, were running rampant on the streets of their own neighbourhoods. Full length films like Across 110th Street and The Warriors were probably the closest re-enactment of the times transferred to the big screen, but it gets no realer than this.

A hefty dose of the dialogue from the film was used in, well, in my opinion, one of the tightest mixtapes/ compilations ever. It utilises live sets from the gold school era of park jams, discos and community centre parties like the T-Connection and The Armory – the Live Convention 77-79 compilation.

The mix is without a doubt, the best of its kind, maybe that’s because there aint too many like it, blending live jams and adding the aural crutch theyve always required. The segments of poor quality sounds from the live shows are bedded and bolstered with the underlying funk, rock, disco etc of original block party classics like Bustin Loose, Got to be Real and even Walk This Way, so that the music and blends are seemless, the punch of the original tracks are enhanced to give em some balls, and naturally, you have the flow, the innocence and the glorious banality of the young park jam MCs like Melle Mel, Kool Kyle and if memory serves me well, even a slice of Johnny Wa and Rayvon.

The mix is dipped in dialogue from a number of sources including The Warriors, but talk of seeing ‘hand grenades’ and ’12 guage shotguns on the streets’ by members of OG street gangs the Savage Skulls and the Savage Nomads, carefully chopped from 80 Blocks, really made me sit up and listen.

VARIOUS -  LIVE CONVENTION 77-79

A – www.mediafire.com/?hdezzignmzn

B – www.mediafire.com/?njezdtioke4

FYI. The GoldenReaal folk are from Brixton, allegedly. South London strikes again?