Back in the day, maybe sometime in 1994(not positive), I remember listening to Stretch and Bobbito one night when the following occurred:
Stretch or Bob announced that they had received a certain demo in the mail. They played the first verse of said demo, check it out-
Lo Down - Mask Of The Phantom
Well, this verse sounded a little too familiar to the record breaking duo. It rang such a resounding bell because it was the same exact verse Tame One had kicked in a freestyle on their show in the past. They just happened to have that freestyle on hand and immediately played it after that demo. Peep it-
Tame One Freestyle
Yep. Same exact verse. I guess if this happened now a days, it wouldn't mean anything. But we all know that biting, especially straight lyric jacking, was not cool back then. And it still isn't, in our book, right?
I don't remember what exactly ensued after this was exposed, but I don't remember ever seeing many records by the Lo Down crew. It's a shame, too, they had some pretty good beats. Shouldn't have bit.
Download includes full Lo Down song and full Artifacts freestyle.
Thanks to Mad Human at the T.R.O.Y. forum for uploading the Lo Down EP in our definitive Ill EPs thread. Over a 100 EPs and counting, join in and add on.
Thanks to Roy Johnson for the Artifacts freestyle. I'm pretty sure that's who posted it. If not, claim your props in the comments.
Today, we're presenting you with 400 MB worth of freestyles from Bobbito's CM Famalam Radio Show (1998-2002). Most of the individual mp3s are lengthy sessions. Highlights include segments from J-Live, Atmosphere, Sir Menelik, Guru, MF Doom, Camp Lo, All Natural, Juggaknots, Non Phixion, Necro, Yak Ballz, Common Sense, etc. I acquired this stuff in a trade back in 2003.
All tracks are untitled. It wasn't worth the time for me to do playlists because I'm honestly not feeling the vast majority of these freestyle sessions, but I know that a lot of people love this stuff.
DJ Mike Nice recently uncovered this 1995 demo and brought it to the T.R.O.Y. forum fam.
Even if you have it already, download it again. I slowed it down a bit. For some reason, certain cassettes recorded at a slower rate which made the music sound a little faster than it was intended to sound.
Take a quick listen and start to understand what makes Half A Mil's mid 90's material so coveted-
Half A Mil - In The Projects (1995 demo)
[Download here or at the bottom of the page with everything in one folder.]
I remember having that and a few other Half A Mill demos from college radio, back in the day. I had a few of his legendary freestyles, too, but my WNYU tapes were always full of static because of their weak radio signal. I used to have the ill hook up for taping from 89.1. Hanger attached to the antenna with aluminum foil, and I had to hold the radio and point the antenna a certain way to get halfways decent reception. And still, right when you think you got it perfect, you hear some static start to creep in. And you either hope it doesn't get worse or start moving around just a little, hoping to get some clarity.
Anyway, I've probably listened to this demo over 30 times since Mike uploaded it. Shit is amazing. Lines like these put Half in the upper echolons of underground legends with the likes of the Natural Elements and Godfather Don:
"I'm from the projects, the pyramids
each room is a tomb, crack babies and boom,
we call jakes Legion of Doom, executioners, sorcerors,
modern day extortioners, they job is enforcing us..."
Moving right along, we're going to bring you a folder of freestyles, the Project Prophet mixtape, another unknown track and Half A Mill's self produced independent 12" release.
And here's another Half A Mill track that I caught over at HipHopGiant.blogspot.com. It says that it's off of a bootleg EP. It's listed as Executioner's Song and the quality was really bassed out, where you couldn't make out the lyrics too well. I did my best to fix it up and make the lyrics audible. I have no clue when this song is from. A ballpark guess would be that this was recorded sometime between 1995 and 1998.
Half A Mill - Executioner's Song
[Download here or at bottom of page with everything in one folder]
Now, we're going to move right on into the radio freestyles that also helped secure Half A Mill's place in my personal underground legend hall of fame.In all, we have 12 separate freestyles. The first five were uploaded straight from WNYU cassettes by Nes over at DirtyWaters. There are some classic verses on these, don't sleep. There is also a freestyle that was separated from the Roots 30 minute session at WNYU, that was posted here. There's one from a DJ Lazy K mixtape from 1998, called Justo Allstars freestyle. There's also one that's apparently from an old Stretch& Bobbito show and one that I have no idea of it's origins. And another 3 with
Personally, I wasn't too pleased with his two albums, but alot of people were. I thought they were really lacking on the beat tip. His label didn't do him justice either, hardly anybody even knew the albums dropped when they did. Check one of them out at Steady Bloggin'.
"You goin overboard with all that, fuck New York shit trying to dis Brooklyn, but the Boogie 'bout to talk shit and ain't no fun, if the Dullah can't get none risin in the East, I'm bout to set it on the West, son Listen, I ain't even down with who you dissen far as I'm concerned NY been ass-kissen for the longest, on the live side I'ma dead it you aint a trooper, I know that's all super-unleaded gas you inhaled from all your record sales cause you went to California and blew up, but you fail tryin to dis the big apple, I aint supposed to wanna battle for a million dollar raffle? You gettin gaffled soon as I see you got a million after the battle, I be like "oooh what a feeeelin" Toyota will be selling me they biggest Landcruiser money green so niggas could fiend like drug users winners slap users like pimp slap hoes and we know Suge is pimpin them hoes on Death Row you actin like you wanna beef, but talkin below me you ain't a real thug, you a real CaliPhoney ** Who Shot Ya? No it wasn't me and my peeps you're talking bout New York, wordup, like something sweet don't fool yourself, this ain't New York Undercover it's real like the history of your father and mother I'm sayin, think about that shit that you did had a shootout in NY, raped a bitch, did a bid like you proud of that, then let the world know it happened first of all you fuckin up for other niggas' rappin how you makin movies, selling records, doin tours, then be up in Denemora (sp), scrubbin other niggas' drawers? the whole point in being criminal is gettin paid son, you paid already, actin Crazy like Eddie fuck a Thug Life, niggas die being unlawful let that peer pressure stress ya somethin awful with the world in ya hand, fuck a man, be a King you aint even a man cause you under the wing Heltah Skeltah from the shelter, need protection now you're one of Suge Knight's sons, runnin for election against Snoop Dogg for that top dog spot Death Row, Prisoner-of-the-month on lock. *** Now everybody know you from them roles you be playin so all that make a record shit aint even worth sayin west coast rappers go platinum in a second cause west coast niggas go out and buy records but east coast rappers be on conceited shit the wack emcees here make repeated hits they get star-struck and stop giving a fuck and lyrically, half these niggas suck, and what just put the real rappers in the ring let your man bring the beats and whoever do they thing fuck a record sale, fuck a phoney reputation, fuck a pimp record label and them suck-dick stations. Show skills, how ya flow skills, rock a party- live from the heart, in front of everybody without a shotty, ain't no need for all that get your stupid ass some rikers & tracks, fuck the gats my people out in Cali aint got nothin to do with this you on your own dick, partner, and you new to this I could never dis my peeps in the west but, that dissin Biggie shit, we still ain't impressed..."
Here's a blog from King Sun on his Myspace about the diss:
"Ok, I was the first to respond with a dis record towards Tupac when he first dissed Tribe Called Quest at the Source Awards in '94. Since Tupac appeared on "California" wit Dre, I felt the need to respond wit "Califony" and derived the hook from the Die Hard movie when Bruce Willis was a cop from NY and had beef in Cali. Every time he killed an adversary his reply was "Yippie Kay Ya Mother Fucker."
The beat was produced by DJ Mark the 45 King and was cut up by Funk Master Flex in D&D Studios in Midtown Manhattan. Shout outs to Doug and Dave. I then allowed Doo Wop to put the song on his mixtape to generate a buzz. Tupac and I discussed the dis song after having Ice-T play it for Pac. We laughed together over the phone and Pac new it was nothing personal, but I had to rep NY to the fullest. Shout outs to Ice-T, who's like my older cousin from the Left Coast who has always held me down, to WC Crazy Toons, DJ Aladdin, DJ Pooh, Evil E and Hen G and Shawny Shawn.
Rest in peace Pac. Our love goes out to Mrs. Shakur. Tell BIG I said "Hold some equality for me and Lady Heron and be at the door with Jesus so we can get in!"
Doo Wop played his record with King Sun on his critically acclaimed Summer Jam '96 mixtape. Doo Wop also goes at 2Pac & The Dogg Pound at the end of the tape. Notice how the mixtape only features East Coast artists. This was around the time of Hit' Em Up. According to DJ King Shammek, King Sun had also recorded another diss record titled "Don't Know How To A.C.T." directed at Westside Connection
Ahhh... the summer of 1996. My first summer in Chicago and one of the first things I purchased. The guy at the record shop (The Beat Parlor) wouldn't let me leave the store without buying it. It came packaged in a jewel case, no cover, no notes, no nothing but shrink wrap.
While this cd is full of great freestyles, some of my favorites are the Mad Lion one and the beginning of the Channel Live track (tracks 25 and 26). Scan of cd included. And yes, that is blue paint over Doo Wop's contact number. It actually came like that.
And since it is Gang Starr month 2009, there is a nice Guru freestyle in there.
01 Doo Wop-Intro 02 Keith Murray-Freestyle 03 Q-Tip-Freestyle 04 Busta Rhymes-Freestyle 05 Rampage The Last Boyscout-Freestyle 06 Fat Joe-Freestyle 07 Uneek-Freestyle 08 M.O.P.-Freestyle 09 Guru-Freestyle 10 Raekwon & Carlton Fisk-Freestyle 11 Ill Al Skratch-Freestyle 12 Shabba Ranks-Freestyle 13 Tragedy Khadafi & Don Black-Freestyle 14 Smoothe Da Hustler & D.V. Alias Khrist-Freestyle 15 Doo Wop, Fat Joe, Akinyele, Pretty Boy Floyd & Lord Tariq-Freestyle 16 Doo Wop-Freestyle 17 KRS-One-Freestyle 18 Treach-Freestyle 19 Keith Murray & Redman-Freestyle 20 Mobb Deep & Big Noyd-Freestyle 21 AZ-Freestyle 22 Lost Boyz-Freestyle 23 Uneek-Freestyle 24 Cocoa Brovaz-Freestyle 25 Mad Lion & KRS-One-Freestyle 26 Channel Live-Freestyle 27 King Just-Freestyle 28 Buckshot Da B.D.I. Emcee-Freestyle
Back in the day, maybe sometime in 1994(not positive), I remember listening to Stretch and Bobbito one night when the following occurred:
