Mike Van Olden Interview

It took some time for Mike to get back to me about this interview, but I'm glad he finally took the time out because he definitely dropped some knowledge for me. All my fellow diggers/producers get a real treat with this one. For those who don't know, Mike Van Olden aka Fishguhlish is the creator of the Drum Crazy series (fat beats/drum loops for DJ's and producers) distributed by Ubiquity records. He's done quite a lot more than just this series as you will see, under a variety of different aliases (Molasses, MikeTheMusicGuy, Starchild Excalibur). He has also worked on projects with two of my personal favorite producers, Prince Paul and Dan The Automator.

Jersey Post 4 - The Escorts

Continuing on with the Jersey posts, this next group, The Escorts, recorded these two albums live from Rahway, NJ. Unfortunately it was live from the state prison. They were discovered by Motown producer George Kerr, who was visiting the prison to see one of the group's live performances.

(background info from the Escorts website) On April 23, 1973 The Escorts recorded their first album "All We Need Is Another Chance." As if the recording itself were not enough of a miracle, The Escorts recorded all vocals for all seven songs in less than nine hours. The event received mass media coverage worldwide and was hailed with phenomenal applause and respect. My favorite track on here 'Look over your shoulder', sounds like something Wu-Tang might sample. This record also features vocal samples that were used on Public Enemy's 'It Takes a Nation of Millions' LP.

(from the Escorts website) In the spring of 1974 The Escorts recorded a second album, "3 Down & 4 To Go". The message of the album was that three members of the group were free and four more were still seeking freedom. Like its predecessor, this album was also recorded behind the walls of Rahway State Prison and was equally embraced by audiences screaming for more. The song 'I can't stand (to see you cry)' you make recognize as the sample used for Dilla's 'Don't Cry' from his Donuts LP. For more infoabout the Escorts, check out their website.

Dirty Water Brakes

Here's a 30 minute mix of breaks and samples. Enjoy...

Radio's Most Dynamic Artist . .

Here's a set from
DJ Citizen Kane
live on Bobbito's CM Fam radio
18 min. of old school 80's hip hop
go go go to work!


If anyone out there can identify the track that comes in around 8:30 in the mix let me know..

Check it out...

Just wanted to highlight some good things going down in the blogworld right about now..


Mr Mass has posted a really good interview with Phil The Soulman, legendary crate digger and mixtape king.

DJ Soul has posted a really dope mix of some of DJ Premier's best B-sides, remixes, and other overlooked tracks, Pizza @ Primo's by DJ Jaycee.

Dust to Dust has posted every volume of the Dusty Fingers series, volumes 1-15.

DJ Sorce-1 from the blog Heavy in the streets has just done an interview with yours truly, in a series of interviews about crate digging called 'can u dig it?'

A blog I have just recently discovered, The Essential Elements has posted the Scratch tour video.

The good folks at Martini & Jopparelli's Music Selections have posted up a number of good old school radio shows from the 80's, including shows from Red Alert, Chuck Chillout, Marly Marl, and Clark Kent.

Be sure to check all the blogs linked on the left of this page for more good stuff.

Jersey Post 3 - Diesel Don & Tha Govna/ Redman

Diesel Don & Govna Mattic are from Newark, NJ. They fuse a reggae style with their rhymes, and they pull it off well. Check out these freestyles from the Halftime Show...

Diezzle Don & Da Govna Freestyles (Halftime Show WNYU Jun 1998)







Redman has been synonymous with Jersey since his debut with EPMD. I believe his first vinyl appearance was on EPMD's 'Hardcore' from the 'Business as Usual' LP in 1990. Redman's first three albums are classics to me. Not to take away from his later LP's, but his first three were insane. One of my favorite unreleased-ish Redman tracks was the freestyle session he did for Stretch Armstrong's Bad Boy 3 mix tape where he rhymes on the Fugee's 'How Many Mic's' instrumental. Here's a version Stretch played live on his show (without Puff Daddy screaming on it).



Also check these Halftime freestyles with Redman and Method Man...

Rockin on the radio

For those who caught Radio Ruckus last night I was up there playing some breaks. Just wanted to say thanks to AB and DJ Force for welcoming me back up to the station for a set after all these years. Also big shout to DJ Phillee Blunt, DJ Sammy Sam, Cy Marshall Law, and everyone else I met up there last night. I have a tape of my set but the bass levels came out way too high so I might just re-record it live in the lab. Either that or save it for a break mixtape that I've been meaning to do for a long time now. Check out the show every Sunday from 10pm- 4am live online @ wrsu.org.

Jersey post 2 - DJ Slyce/ DJ Mysterio

Slyce is the 1997 US DMC Champion, from Teaneck, NJ. This dude has an interesting selection of records used for his routines, as you will hear on this set from his appearance on the Underground Railroad radio show.










DJ Mysterio is from Plainfield, NJ. Mysterio is definitely on some other shit. If you have seen the movie 'Scratch' you may remember the short part they had about him. Mysterio has a great stage show, and some crazy, I mean crazy turntable tricks that noone out there is doing. Check out this video short featuring some of his routines...

Nas Live

I just got this in my inbox, it's a Nas/Busta Rhymes performance (video clip), here is summary from the e-mail...


Street Knowledge/Cheap Thrills Prods. was in the house to capture Nas live and in rare form at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC on Dec. 26th. The show presented by Live Nation, produced a sold-out crowd,eager to see their favorite m.c Nas aka God's Son. After a warm-up performance by DJ Mister Cee and introduction by Funk Master Flex, Nas came out to the sounds blaring through the sound system of Marley Maul (*I think its Marly Marl unless there's a Marly Maul I don't know about?-DW) and was warmly greeted by his loyal fans. Nas started the show with the classic cut " New York State of Mind" and continued to run through his catalog from the beginning of his career to his most recent album Hip hop is Dead.

This one courtesy of Street Knowledge

Stay Tuned...

Dirty Waters Valentine's Day Mix on the way...

Preview...

Slaves

For those who don't know, The Cenubites LP was the first release on Bobbito's Fondle 'Em records. It was a 7 track EP that consisted of demos from Godfather Don and Kool Keith, as well as some unreleased material from the Ultramagnetic MC's 'Four Horsemen' LP. It's been re-released a few times with some additional tracks that weren't on the original pressing from 1995. These tracks included a remix for 'Kick a dope verse' and a track called 'Keep On'.



From what I hear there are there are a bunch of more unreleased tracks from that Cenubites EP. This track 'Slaves', from what I read, is one of them. I had this one on a dusty old Bobbito tape from back in the day.

Cenubites - Slaves

Jersey post 1 - The Outsidaz

I'm really not all that thorough with my reviews, I can be lazy when it comes to that kind of shit, so here is a little background info from Wikipedia:

The Outsidaz are a crew from Newark, New Jersey, perhaps best known through their affiliation with Eminem and Bizarre, who were former members of the group.

The group formed in 1991 after Young Zee and Pacewon met at a New Year's Eve party. At the time they met, Young Zee and Pacewon were rival MCs. Pacewon was a member of a crew named PNS, while Zee headed a crew named Skitzo. They decided to unite into one group, The Outsidaz, following a lengthy microphone battle that it was decided ended in a tie. Along with Pacewon and Young Zee, The Outsidaz consisted of Ax, Azz-Iz, BSkills, DJ Muhammed, D.U., Denton, Leun One, Nawshis, Rah Digga, Slang Ton (R.I.P.), and Yah Ya.

The Outsidaz were very successful on the underground scene, although their commercial success has been limited. They were featured on The Fugees' multi-platinum album The Score, released in 1996. Rah Digga would later go on to be successful with Busta Rhymes' crew Flipmode Squad, and would go onto marry her former crew-mate Young Zee.

Here is a record PaceWon put out in 2000, with an illustrated cover done by El Da Sensei. I should have added this one to my post on album covers with fresh artwork, but oh well. I couldn't decide which track I liked better, so I'm putting them both up, cause they are both pretty bangin.

Here is Young Zee's first 12" release from 1995 'No Brains class/Milk/Juice'. Milk has production from KRS-One and an intro from Busta Rhymes, and the track I'm going to feature here 'Juice' has appearances from Pace and Rah Digga (maybe also their first vinyl appearances as well?). 'Juice' is produced by Ski.




Here are two radio freestyle sessions from the Outz, the first one is Young Zee and Rah Digga on Stretch's hot 97 show, the second is Pace and Young Zee from WNYU's Halftime radio show, both are from around 1998.

Looking for exposure...

I've had a number of people e-mail me in regards to getting their CD's/music reviewed for my blog. Please don't take it personally if I'm not interested, this site is primarily focused on older hip hop, old radio shows, freestyles, demos, samples, break mixes, etc. However, I am interested in trading break/sample mixtapes, turntablist mixes, old radio shows, etc, so if you have any of this kind of stuff, please do e-mail me. *Shout out to Rob C for getting me that Rekonstrukted Elements mix from Shortkut.

If you are an up and coming MC/DJ/producer/artist looking for exposure, looking to get your music out to a wider audience, feel free to contact my boy AB from Radio Ruckus. Radio Ruckus is one of the longest running underground hip hop shows in New Jersey. The show started in the early 90's, and is still going, every Sunday night from 10pm-4am in New Brunswick, NJ, on 88.7 WRSU fm, Rutgers University. Originally the show held a 2 hour time slot, but it has now opened up to a full 6 hours. Your boy DJ Nes held it down as resident DJ on the show from 1999- 2001, and I can tell you first hand there have been a lot of well known MC's/DJ's/producers that have come through, and the show has maintained a wide audience. You can contact AB at his e-mail radioruckusshow@gmail.com, or through his myspace. Feel free to send him your music, and if he likes it he will probably give it some spins. You can also check the WRSU website to listen to the show online, every Sunday from 10pm-4am.

DJ Nes - Break set Radio Ruckus (2000)



EPMD - Please listen to my demo (live)

Just Say NO!!!

Videos have

been removed

This video is hilarious. It's a film called 'Narcotics part 1: Goofballs and tea', and it was made back in 1957. It's a "police science" film made to show cops what happens when kids get mixed up with drugs. The film is most notable for basically showing you how to harvest your own weed farm, step by step. For those of you who have Comcast as your cable service, there's a section on the 'on demand' menu called something weird. Every month or so they bless you with all kinds of old classroom scare films from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. I had to upload this one to youtube, hopefully they won't gank it like they did my last couple of videos. Parts 2 & 3 are probably the highlights of the film.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

Dirty Water is thicker than blood

Hope everyone out there had a safe and Happy New Year. I'm going to have a theme here for the next couple of months. Every Sunday I'm going to highlight the best artists/music from New Jersey. When people hear Jersey, they usually think of fools like this guy, who I seem to run into at every club in Jersey when I'm out over here...



...but you also have a lot of talented people coming out of New Jersey. Every Sunday stay tuned for the best of Jersey MC's, DJ's, recording artists, etc. Peace to The Nets, The Jets, and The Devils.

For those who read the tribute post to Nace, here is another site I found recently that you can visit to see more pictures of his work.

New Jersey trivia:

• Parliament-Funkadelic, the pioneering funk music collective, was formed in Plainfield by George Clinton.


• In 1964, the Isley Brothers founded the record label T-Neck Records, named after Teaneck, their home at the time.


• Sugarhill Gang, who achieved fame for their early rap hit "Rapper's Delight" in 1979, were from New York City, but their recordings were based in Englewood, New Jersey, as was their label, Sugar Hill Records.


• Rudy Van Gelder, Blue Note records recording engioneer, regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, was born in Jersey City, NJ.


• Famous jazz pianist Bill Evans was born in Plainfield, NJ, in 1929.


• Singer Dionne Warwick was born in East Orange, NJ.


• Legendary jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie was born in Red Bank in 1904. In the 1960s, he collaborated on several albums with fellow New Jersey native Frank Sinatra.


• Sarah Vaughan, Larry Young, Ice-T, Shaquille O'Neil, and Joe Pesci were all born in Newark, NJ.


• Allen Ginsberg, American poet, and outspoken member of the beat generation, was born in Paterson, NJ.


• New Jersey is the birthplace of many modern inventions such as: FM radio, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, the lithium battery, the light bulb, transistors, the electric train, the drive-in movie, the cultivated blueberry, cranberry sauce, the postcard, the boardwalk, the zipper, saltwater taffy, the dirigible, the seedless watermelon, the first use of a submarine in warfare, and the ice cream cone.


• The first officially recorded baseball game in history was played at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the New York Knickerbockers with a score of 23-1.


• The first intercollegiate football game in history was played in New Brunswick, New Jersey on November 6, 1869, with home team Rutgers University defeating Princeton University 6-4. Rutgers University is considered "The Birthplace of College Football."


• Area code 201, assigned to Bergen and Hudson Counties, was the first area code assigned as part of the North American Numbering Plan.


• Cape May holds the distinction of being the oldest seashore resort in the United States and one of the most unique.