Inspectah Deck - Let Me At Them (Demo Piano Version)

I first had this taped off the radio about 15 years ago, either from a WNWK or WKCR broadcast. I'm guessing around 1994

or 1995 was the time frame, being that the official soundtrack version on "Tales From The Hood" didn't drop until a good while after I first heard this. The one main difference on this demo is the piano sample that was curiously taken out of the soundtrack version. Hearing the demo first, every time I would hear the other version, it was like I was waiting for those pianos to drop in the mix. It got to be frustrating to even listen to this piano-less shell of a song. I can almost guarantee that after hearing this demo, you will not want to ever hear the official release again, well almost. The sound quality on the demo is much inferior to the other one. The reason for the pianos getting dissed would probably be due to sample clearance problems, but I guess only Deck knows for sure since he did the beat. All that is definite is that whether or not you found the version of this song you already knew to be memorable, it will be now. Sure the rest of the elements of the beat are all great on this but the pianos really are just that crucial to the illness of "Let Me At 'Em". They give it an added raw Wu sound, with the menacing darkness that would have fit right in a ghetto horror flick.

Let Me At Them (Demo Piano Version)

Let Me At Them (Soundtrack Version, No Pianos)

Download the demo and the other version both here.

Click on the cover to pick up the entire Tales From The Hood Soundtrack(at 320kbps) from our friends over at "Hq Hip Hop".

Thanks and peace to JR from the "Crates Of JR" blog for ripping this personally sought after demo from one of his old WBAI tapes, off the Underground Railroad. The show still broadcasts and even has a chat room/podcast thing going on every Saturday night at midnight. You can find that by clicking here at the broadcast time and then clicking the "Live Broadcast" button on the right. Also, the host for many years now, is this guy Jay Smooth from the Ill Doctrine hip hop video blog. Love it or hate it, you can't really dismiss it, the guy has valid points on many arguments.

--Verge

Raekwon The Chef “Latest & Greatest Hits [Promo Cassette]” (1995)

I had mentioned in the forum a few days ago that I stumbled across a box of old tapes in my basement. Some mixtapes, some promo samplers, some custom tapes from the days of trading. After posting a short list, it looks like the people have spoken and they want to hear just about all of them. So first up is Raekwon's 1995 promo cassette sampler for the upcoming release of "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx." Nothing mind blowing here, but an exclusive freestyle and (at the time) an advance opportunity to hear a couple album cuts. NOTE: all scans are included in the .rar file as well as a full scan of the sleeve.

DOWNLOAD

enjoy,
--dirt_dog

Random VLS Drops - Hyperdermic Needlz (1995)

I'm going to be dropping these random vinyl rips to quench that extra thirst for more T.R.O.Y. material that we all get sometimes. Just on some bonus treat end of the night steez.

(fresh 320kbps vinyl rip, cell phone cam scan)

A1 Hyperdermic Needlz - Always (raw mix)

A2 Hyperdermic Needlz - Always (radio)

A3 Hyperdermic Needlz - Always (instrumental)

B1 Hyperdermic Needlz - Word Up (raw mix)

B2 Hyperdermic Needlz - Word Up (radio)

B3 Hyperdermic Needlz - Word Up (instrumental)

[Download Here]

Previews:

Always (radio)

Word Up (radio)

This one is pretty nice. I'm partial to the b-side, "Word Up", because of the more mellow tone and the seemingly leisurely original flow that the second guy on the mic spits. And you can never go wrong with sampling Redman's quotable, "no matter who you are, you still catch a bullet scar." Don't sleep on "Always", though. It's dope, 'nuff said.

This was executive produced by Thirstin Howl III (legendary Lo Life skillionaire who was supposed to be working on an album with Sadat X in 2008 and they were recently seen in the studio together, peep the link on his name)and released on "Cook Rock Records". I believe this was their only release. I don't know who's who on these songs, but the record credits the writers as Napalm Bomb, Non DaScrip, and Breez, and was produced by Sonata.

Enjoy and expect a lot more of these ranging from known to unknown, but always dope.

And check the hyper links in the post. There's an article on the history of Lo Life and a great interview with Thirstin in there.

--Verge

Last Episode of Yo! MTV Raps

I'm sure everybody has seen this classic freestyle session at least once. The freestyle was cut into two parts. The first part had Rakim, Krs One, Erick Sermon, Chubb Rock, and MC Serch. After the commercial, they came back with Redman, Method Man, Large Pro, Special Ed, and Craig Mack. You can also see Rampage the Last Boy Scout in the crowd; I don't know why he didn't appear on the freestyle. Dj Skribble was on the turntables. They rhymed over the instrumentals of It's My Thing, Mad Izm, and Real Hip Hop(Pete Rock Remix). I've always loved it when Erick Sermon is rapping and the beat switches to "Real Hip Hop".

Download
Part 1
Part 2

--Thomas V

"One Little Indian Smoking In A Tree"

"One Little Indian Smoking In a Tree"

You might remember this from Buckwild's Diggin' in the Crates album which had the remix but I'm sure most of you haven't heard the original produced by Howie Tee(Chubb Rock, Special Ed, etc.). While Buckwild might be a better producer, I still have to say that I like the original version better. Howie Tee, unlike the Buckwild version, had the classic sample of Slick Rick in Indian Girl where he does the Indian chant for the hook. It also went well with the beat that used the sample from "Little Ghetto Boy". Like a lot of rappers around that time, this is the only thing that Little Indian released in his career. I still wonder why because he had production by Howie Tee, and remixes by Buckwild, and Jay-Dee(I think it's his first beat but it wasn't the CDS) and he also had a video for this. There might be a full unreleased album out there as you can see on the back of the cover.

There has been a lot of talking about CD singles recently in our forum and the first one that came to my mind was this. Enjoy

Little Indian - One Little Indian (Original Version)

Little Indian - One Little Indian (Buckwild Remix)


--Thomas V (New TROY BLOGGER)