Group Home

Lil Dap and the Nutcracker got their start as members of the Gangstarr Foundation, making appearances on the tracks 'I'm the Man' and 'Speak ya Clout'. They released their first LP as the Group Home in 1995 on Payday records. These two aren't going to win any awards for their lyrics, but the 'Livin Proof' album was a classic with the help of DJ Premier producing practically every track. Here is a clip from Group Home's appearance on the Stretch Armstrong show in November 1995, dropping some of the verses from the album over Kool G Rap's "for the brothas" instrumental.



Update: Here's an old interview with Group Home

from a free magazine called 'The Flavor' from November of 1995

Click on the photos to enlarge and adjust the size

Stainless Soul

Here's one of my favorite records from the crates, The New Apocalypse with their album 'Stainless Soul' on TMA/Decca records. They came through with some Meters style grooves and some really nice cuts on this album. My personal favorite is their cover of 'Get outta my life woman', a song that tons of bands have covered, and famous among crate diggers for the drum solo intro. Their take is an instrumental version (until the last few seconds) with a nice usage of a trumpet, saxophone, guitar, bass, drums, and what makes the track for me, the organ. I guess you would find this in the rock section but it has that funk feel to it.

Blogs you should be up on

Just got back from a short trip to L.A., always nice to be over there on the west coast. I wanna thank everyone for passing through the site showing love. Don't be afraid to post some comments on the posts or on the C-Box, let me know what you think about the site, and if you link me up I'll link you up. Here are three blogs well worth checking out for some good music...

Fans of the Stretch Armstrong Show should check out Stretch's blog, filled with old KCR shows, rare joints, and some other treats.
http://konstantkontakt.blogspot.com/


For those who know Soulman from the world of beats website, or his many mixtapes, you should check out his newest blog. He's putting up some old mixes, remixes, and random treats with some good write-ups.
http://thatrealschitt.blogspot.com/


Mr Mass at Masscorporation has a grip of old mixes you can download. Classic mixes to recent mixes, everything from break mixes, hip hop mixes, to mash ups from the best who do it.
http://www.masscorporation.blogspot.com/

Half A Mill

As a listener of 'New York Live' (89.1, WNYU, now the Halftime Show), I got to hear from Half a Mill some time before a lot of people. Anyone who listened to the show around 94-98 knew that he was a regular there, dropping freestyles, and playing exclusive demo tracks way before he had a spot on the Firm album in 1997, which was considered his mainstream debut. Half a Mill was in my opinion one of the nicer MC's out at the time. He had a unique voice, witty lyrics, rhymed about some street shit, but at the same time had a good sense of humor. Unfortunately Half A Mill is no longer with us, so in tribute, a Half a Mill freestyle from sometime in 1996 (over Big Noy'd recognize instrumental) on 89.1 New York Live. For anyone who hasn't heard Half A Mill, you should check out his stuff.

Yo MTV Raps

I'm waiting for someone somewhere to rerelease some old Yo MTV raps episodes. Not just the videos but entire episodes with inteviews and live freestyle sessions. Someone at MTV needs to think about making a DVD box set. The last episode that played on August 17, 1995, featured a freestyle session with Rakim, KRS, Eric Sermon, Chubb Rock, MC Serch, Redman, Method Man, Large Professor, Special Ed, and Craig Mack. Peep it. R.I.P. MTV Raps...

Old School

Here goes 3 random old school hip hop records from the crates. All 3 are pretty rare and slept on.



This one is a promo only remix for EPMD's 'Get off the Bandwagon' from their debut LP 'Strictly Business'. I like this remix just as much, if not more, than the original version. In the beginning of the song PMD shouts out a gang of MC's who were 'getting busy' back in 1989. The beat is different, a little slower, but the lyrics are pretty much the same.






This one is Loose J and the Master of Wax doing 'The Hi Lo Cut' on Ragin' records. This is back when hip hop was fun, when a group could dedicate an entire track to getting a haircut. No year on the wax but I'm guessing late 80's.

This is Sir Ibu's 1989 solo joint 'The Peacemaker'. It's a dope track with a positive message about unity between different races. Slept on classic hip hop. Get it while you can.