Saturday Night Jams

I'm a child of rap's middle school and middle ground. Compared to some of the other contributors to this blog, I'm practically a teeny-bopper. I've owned about three crates of vinyl in my life (all purchased between '97 and '01) and 95% of my hip-hop listening consists of Native Tongue, Wu-Tang, Boot Camp Clik, Hit Squad, and DITC. This is bad because I always feel like an imposter claiming critical expertise when there is so much freakin' "underground" vinyl only stuff from the 90s that half the world (particularly Scandinavia) seems to be up on. But this is good because I frequently stumble upon things I didn't know existed.

Today, thanks to the good ol' T.R.O.Y. Forum, I discovered the following two songs which I feel entirely comfortable playing on repeat loop all goddamned night long if I so please:

Grand Puba "Hip Hop" (from Echo's Underground Airplay: Volume IV"

Okay, I KNOW that I had this tape but I only vaguely remember hearing the song. I must've liked it, right? Ah, thirty may be the new twenty but you can't revive brain cells, eh? In any event, this is classic Grand Puba comical punchline and smooth flow here, striking the perfect sonic and thematic balance between Guess n' Lo crisp flyness and goretex tough. Blast this in a jeep and if you don't have a jeep, just sip on E&J until you're too faded to remember what year it is.

Tung Twista ft. Dres "React With A Mic" (from Resurrection, 1994 - nope not that Resurrection from 1994 by a Chicago artist, but a different one)

OMG TWISTA BEFORE HE DROPPED THE TUNG RHYMING WITH BIG WORDS BLAH BLAH YADDA YADDA. Save it, Chi-town fanatics, this song is only worth a listen because Dres is on it in top form, ripping high speed flows that make young Twista sound like a souped up apprentice in comparison. Note to rappers: once you have flow, you need some fucking lyrics. This jam is super disgusting raw. Get with the program.

There's gems aplenty at the forum, so stop sleeping.

-- Thun

Chi-Ali - The Youngest Native Tonguer

Chi-Ali Griffith. I think everyone already knows the story behind this guy, but let's recapitulate it once more, in short notes.

Chi-Ali started rapping around age 12-13. He has made his first appearance in The Apollo club in London, together with Queen Latifah and Jungle Brothers. He jumped in after Afrika from the Jungle Brothers missed his flight to London. He also said that he had wrote around 40% of his first and only album and the rest had been done by Dres, De La Soul, Q-tip and Phife and of course The Beatnuts who were involved in the production of the album as well.
In the interviews which you can see if you scroll down the whole page, Chi-Ali talks about those days and about the time after he has commited that famous murder in 2000.

Age Ain't Nothin' But A # (1992)

A1 Age Ain't Nothin' But A #

A2 Maniac Psycho
B2 Age Ain't Nothin' But A # (Instrumental)

DOWNLOAD




Let The Horns Blow / Funky Lemonade (1992)

A1 Let The Horns Blow
A2 Let The Horns Blow (Instrumental)
B1 Funky Lemonade (Remix)
B2 Funky Lemonade (Remix Instrumental)

DOWNLOAD

*This version of Let The Horns Blow is without Fashion's verse, but with Chi-Ali's new verse and new, matured voice.

CHI-ALI - Funky Lemonade

Roadrunner (1992)

A1 Roadrunner (LP Version)
A2 Roadrunner (Puberty Mix)
B1 Roadrunner (Puberty Instrumental)
B2 The Fabulous Chi

DOWNLOAD

Funky Lemonade (Promo, 1992)

A1 Funky Lemonade (Radio Edit)
B1 Funky Lemonade (Instrumental)

DOWNLOAD

Chi-Ali - Funky Lemonade (Remix) in better quality than vinyl rip

http://www.divshare.com/download/7532025-a86

Check also Roadrunner version with Dove rapping. Thanks to Roy Johnson.
My guessing about this would be that Dove probably wanted to show to Chi-Ali how to rap and flow over that beat.

Dove - Roadrunner

http://www.divshare.com/download/7395038-018

Chi-Ali's interviews from the correction facility

-- Markshot

Resurrection 1994 (The Lost Twista Album)

Resurrection(1994) is the name of the second album from Chicago rapper Twista. Twista slowed his flow and deepened his voice on his second effort; he also took a darker, rougher production. This album was never released officially, it could only be found on the streets of Chicago. The album also shares the same title as Common's Resurrection from 1994 as well. Dres of Black Sheep can be heard sharing the mic with Twista on Track 5 "Re-Act With A Mic". The highlight track of the album is "Suicide", a diss directed at Naughty By Nature, The Beatnuts, and Del The Funky Homosapien. To those who were thinking that Twista was just a gimmick, this album clearly showed his true mc skills.

And to those wondering where I got this "re-issue", I bought it from thetipcds.com a few years ago. Unfortunately, it's no longer available. Here's the tracklist and the download link.

1. "Da Resurrection" (Intro)
2. "Suicide" (Remix)
3. "Anomosity Kills"
4. "Street Paranoia"
5. "Re-act With a Mic" ft. Dres
6. "Scat Like Dat"
7. "Return"
8. "Dirt On The Down Low"
9. "Shadow Boxin'"
10. "All About the Papes"
11. "One Shot, One Kill"
12. "Suicide" (Original Version)

Download


-- Thomas V

De La Soul - What Yo Life Can Truly Be

De La Soul have released many compilations with remixes & rare tracks. But one track I never see is "What Yo Life Can Truly Be", a posse cut featuring A Tribe Called Quest and Dres of Black Sheep. It was featured on the single release of "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturday." This is when the Native Tongues were "Doin' THEIR Own Dang".

Here's the track off the CD Single

Divshare is down, Download in the meantime

--Thomas V