Troy Blog Test

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

DJ Premier WBLS Thunderstorm Vol.2

Here we have the second volume of the DJ Premier Thunder Storm radio show on WBLS. Check out the new cover art done by the T.R.O.Y. Blog's newest addition dirt_dog. Make sure to replace the old vol.1's cover with the new version by clicking here.

Tracklist
01. Smif N Wessun - Bucktown
02. Heavy D. & The Boyz - Got Me Waiting
03. Mr Voodoo - Come Off Hard
04. Trends Of Culture - Who Got My Back
05. Private Investigators - Mom Dukes
06. LOTUG - Flow On (Pete Rock Remix)
07. Black Moon - I Got Cha Opin (Remix)
08. Ed O.G. And Da Bulldogs - Love Comes And Goes
09. PHD - Keep It Real
10. Operation Ratification - Tray Pound God
11. M.O.P. - How About Some Hardcore
12. A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
13. Krs One - Mortal Thought
14. Controversy - To Da Beat Y'all
15. Terminator X - It All Comes Down To The Money

Download

Shout Outs to Serch4beatz & Ho1ogramz!
Cover Done By Dirt_Dog

-- Thomas V

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Kwame - A Day In The Life (A Pokadelick Adventure) 1990

Here is Kwame's second album titled A Day in the Life: A Pokadelick Aventure from 1990. A strong follow-up to his '89 debut album "Kwame The Boy Genius".

Below is a legitimate review of the album written by Steve Huey of allmusic.com,

"A Day in the Life: A Pokadelick Adventure is the definitive Kwamé album, a concept record about his life as a high schooler, and also the one where he created his signature visual style with a wardrobe full of polka dots. A self-described "quiet nerd type" who even brags about his excellent grammar on one cut, Kwamé navigates a world of bullies, crushes, immature girls, gossip-mongers, parties, bad report cards, and -- of course -- sucker MCs. A few songs don't seem to have much to do with the concept, but it hangs together pretty well musically, with buoyant, Daisy Age-flavored production (partly by Kwamé himself). "Ownlee Eue" and "Oneovdabigboiz" are underrated singles, and Kwamé shows off his storytelling talents on album cuts like "Da Man," "Therez a Partee Goinz On," and "Whoz Dat Guy." A Day in the Life is filled with cartoonish, electronically altered voices commenting on the action and interacting with the bemused hero. It's all good-humored and colorful, if completely non-threatening, and it's too bad that Kwamé seems best-remembered today through disses by hardcore rappers like Tim Dog and the Notorious B.I.G. Sure, the polka dots are goofy, but in light of everything that's happened since then in hip-hop, they also hark back to a simpler, more innocent era, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that."

1		Da' Man (4:15)
2		Skinee Muva (4:44)
3		Yes Yes Yall (4:27)
4		A Day In The Life (4:12)
5		Itz Oh Kay (4:04)
6		Therez A Partee Goinz On (4:53)
7		Oneovdabigboiz (4:45)
8		Hai (Heart Symbol) (4:02)
9		Whoz Dat Guy (4:18)
10		Doin' Ma Thang (3:42)
11		Ownlee Eue (5:20)
12		Ownlee Eue (Reprise) (2:19)

Download

-- Thomas V

Guru Behind The Boards

We hope our readers have dug our spotlight this month on Gangstarr. As part of that effort I assembled a collection of underground hip hop produced by the legendary mc Guru. Originally from Boston, Guru moved to New York and went to work with Dj Premier. The rest is history. This compilation however, is a "somewhat" unknown part of that history. Largely known for his vocal skills, Guru collaborated with Dj Premier for Jeru The Damaja's 1st album 'The Sun Rises In The East', as well as the Gangstarr albums. The sound here is that dark moody boom bap which is so timeless and still celebrated with reverence all these years later.

Most of the artists featured were affiliated with the Gangstarr Foundation/Ill Kid Records. Exceptions might be Deams, Cutthroats and Poverty. If anyone out there has background info about them let us know. Some of the obscure surprises on this compilation include tracks 2, 6 (co-produced by Guru), 7, 16, and 19. I have to say, the Deams track is off the hook. Holy shit that one is dope! This compilation is a tasty slice of Guru's early/mid 90's work behind the boards. I am sure however, that there are cuts out there I haven't heard. The man is a legend and it's certainly possible that in his huge volume of studio time he produced other artists who never made it onto legit releases. I salivate at the possibility of hearing these sorts of unreleased archives.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2ALVV52X

01 (4:20) Operation Radification - Tray Pound 1993
02 (3:25) Deams - Mad Game 1996
03 (4:46) Stikken Moov - Beware 1993
04 (4:15) Group Home - Serious Rap Shit 1995
05 (4:09) Hl Rock (the Sly Fox) - Put You 1993
06 (3:52) Chapter 3 - Sounds Of Claps 1993
07 (3:59) Cutthroats - Stop Lookin' At Me 1993
08 (3:27) Bahamadia - Total Wreck 1993
09 (3:58) Guru - Feel the Music 1995
10 (3:00) Bahamadia - Wordplay 1995
11 (2:59) Big Shug - P.D.S. 1995
12 (5:23) M.O.P., Guru & Stikken Moov - Life 1995
13 (5:26) Stikken Moov, Guru, & Mash Out Posse - Life 1995
14 (3:48) Fabidden Frut - From Within Out 1995
15 (2:59) Guru & Big Shug - Momentum
16 (2:57) Poverty - Comin' Up 1993
17 (2:55) Group Home - So Called Friends 1993
18 (4:17) Gangstarr - Lovesick Upbeat Mix 1991
19 (3:05) Poverty - Peace With A Piece 1993
20 (3:40) Gangstarr - Form Of Intellect 1991
21 (3:01) Fabidden Fruit ft. Bu & Mic Rone - Cup Of Life 1995
22 (4:48) Operation Ratification - Rotten Apple 1995

I really hope our readers like this collection! Let me know what you think.

--Schenectadyfan

Monday, April 20, 2009

Best Of VLS (Vol.5): "Clouds Of Smoke - 4/20"

Once again, you can find Volumes 1 and 3 of this series here on the blog. But Volumes 2, 4 and maybe a few future drops will be exclusive to the Skypager mailing list. You can sign up by clicking here or by typing your email underneath the Skypager to the right of the page. There's a few other things you might be interested in at the Skypager group, too. And you can also refer to the link above to the past volumes to see the list of VLS blogs that have been linked and scoured in the making of these compilations. I must give Crates Of AG another shout for posting that Ill Distracxion track that I had been looking for.

Okay, so I never really got into the 420 thing myself, but I know there are heads out there that might not mind a little 'get high' compilation. I figured I would meld some known weed cuts with some of the obscure tracks from them VLS blogs out there and the finished product is pretty heavy. The instrumental supplemental only contains beats for half of the songs on the compilation this time around. Sorry about that but I couldn't find the rest.

Clouds Of Smoke:

01. Top Quality - Magnum Opus

02. Nice N Smooth - How Many Blunts (Vin Roc Mix)

03. Boodah An Da Bandit - Brain On Drugz

04. Lord Digga - High Like A Bird

05. Call O Da Wild - Clouds Of Smoke

06. Mike Zoot - Live and Stink

07. 50 Grand - Max Mode

08. Chief Kamachi, Rahsheed, Rich Medina - J. Edgar Hoover

09. Ill Distracxion - Calm Wit Da Trom

10. Supernatural - Buddah Blessed It

11. Rubbabandz - Purple Rain

12. HDM - Real MC's

13. Izm Da Mad Soul - Who Lit Dat

14. Finsta Bundy - Feel The High

15. PHD - Kick That Shit And Get High (ft.KL[RIP])

16. Channel Live - Mad Izm (Buckwild 95 Remix)

17. Royal Flush, Channel Live, Mic Geronimo - Smoke Session

18. Diamond D - Never (ft. Sadat X & K. Terribul)

Previews:

Download Compilation Here

Download Instrumental Supplemental Here

Back-Up Compilation Link Here

Don't sleep on the links. There's some bonus downloads, videos[besides the 2 above], information, and overlooked posts. Enjoy.

--Verge

Editor's Note: Certain installments of the "The Best Of VLS" series were only made available to members of our Skypager Google Group/ Mailing List, so sign up here or at the pager in the sidebar.

Gang Starr - Non-Album Tracks Volume 5

Here is installment #5 of the Gang Starr Non-Album Tracks Series. This volume contains Guru guest appearances from between the years of 1995 and 2000. Stay tuned for volumes 6 & 7.

Gang Starr - Non-Album Tracks Volume 5
1. House Of Pain - Fed Up (Remix)
2. Ini Kamoze - Who Goes There
3. Buckshot Lefonque - Black Monday
4. EZD - For Da Love
5. M.O.P. - Salute II
6. N'Dea Davenport - Bring It On (Remix)
7. Afu Ra - Trilogy Of Terror
8. Everlast - Guru
9. Group Home - The Legacy
10. Group Home - Be Like That
11. AG - Weed Scented
12. Choclair - Bear Witness
13. D.B.D. - Unknown Song
14. Masta Ace - Conflict
15. Masta Ace - Conflict (Remix)
16. Masta Ace - Conflict (Illmind Remix)
17. D-Flame - Universal
18. D-Flame - Universal (Remix)
http://www.mediafire.com/?towezk4mro4

Preview:

House Of Pain - Fed Up (Remix)

EZD - For Da Love

Buckshot Lefonque - Black Monday

--Roy Johnson

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Blog Building: Peace To The Blogs

Before I get to the main topic of this post, I'll hit you off with some thoughts and ideas:

Gang Starr Month is still in effect, and this week will be densely packed with Gang Starr related posts. Also, in last week's poll you chose "Soliloquy Of Chaos" as having the best lyrics out of the bunch. In this week's poll you'll be deciding who has dropped the illest cameo verse on a Gang Starr track, so head for the sidebar and cast your ballot.
Skypager is our Google Group/ Mailing List. Members get access to music downloads and new items that will not appear on the blog. Over 120 of you have joined, but I suspect that many of you are not aware of its features. It is both a Google Group and a Mailing List. Once you sign up you can choose to receive updates by mail or choose simply to visit the group directly, where you can click on "Discussions" and review any previously posted topic (meaning you can get those compilations that were posted before you joined). You can post messages of your own to the whole group (please don't spam) from there, or email the group. You have to sign up first to do any of this, though, so look for the pager in the sidbar and get to it, already.
To our friends on Twitter, if you like any of our posts, keep tweeting and retweeting them. And thanks for your support for us on followfridays - keep that up too!
A reader has alerted us to the fact that the embedded DivShare players, which we use with nearly every post, do not display in Google Reader. This is odd because they display just fine in the actual site feed. This is hugely inconvenient to our subscribers who use Google Reader, and if any one reading this knows of an alternative to DivShare (we like them because the players are compact and easy to embed and their deals on storage and bandwidth are great) or a fix to the problem, please let us know.
Are you keeping track of our a-alike blog, Steady Bloggin? Add them to your RSS Reader, or just check for their recent posts in the fancy dedicated widget in our sidebar.

Okay, now to today's business. I'd like to send a special shout-out to the blogs that have sent us the most traffic since we've been keeping track (three months). It may seem odd for us to show love to other blogs for a statistical reason, but it just so happens that our top blog referrers are blogs that we respect and check for on the regular. So, without further adieu, I'd like to direct the readers to these purveyors of that ol' blog bap:

It's Coming Out Of Your Speaker - They are temporarily de-funked, but their generous redirect to T.R.O.Y. has played a huge part in building our base in these competitive blogosphere. Thanks, duns, and we got your back when you return.

Cocaine Blunts - One of the most respected music blogs, period, and also among the most thought provoking. I rarely agree with Noz on contemporary music taste, but I fully support his notion that blogging should be about new ideas, first and foremost.

OhWord - My first home as a blogger. Rafi, if you're reading this, bring it back in full force.

Grandgood - If it wasn't for Ming-Tzu and co. I'd be even more clueless about contemporary rap than I am.

Wake Your Daughter Up - One of the first blogs out there to place a significant emphasis on throwback material and do it well.

Those are the top five, by far; following them are blogs like THIMK, When They Reminisce, Isako-Hardcore, Bust The Facts, Crystaline, CRDS, and others that regularly appear in our shared items. Props to all.

-- Thun