Das Efx

Das Efx was a little past their prime in '95, but they still had a pretty good album with 'Hold it Down.' IMO. Here is Das Efx live on the Stretch Armstrong Show with DJ Dice on the wheels. You'll hear two rounds of freestyles in between DJ Dice cutting up 'Real Hip Hop'...









Das Efx live on Stretch & Bobbito, 1995.


Das Efx performing 'Real Hip Hop' live.

Diamond D

I think it goes without saying that Diamond D is one of the best, most original, influential hip hop producers around. We're gonna break down some D squizzy production from the sample up, 2 different versions of one beat.





In the early 90's Diamond made a couple tracks using the bass line from the song 'Crazy Girl' from Michal Urbaniak & Urzula Dudziak's 'Tribute to Komeda' LP. Michael Urbaniak & Urzula Dudziak are/were husband and wife jazz musicians prominent in the 1970's and 80's. They are regarded as pioneers of jazz fusion, and they both have a thick catalogue with many sampled LP's, particularly Urzula Dudziak's vocals, which were electronically altered to create strange effects on her five-octave range. The tracks used with 'Crazy Girl' were Big Red's 'Created a Monster', and Diamond D featuring Lakim Shabazz 'I can't take it no mo'.



Diamond D & Lakim Shabazz - I can't take it


Michael Urbaniak - Crazy Girl





Here is a take on the Urbaniak beat, this time featuring Diamond D on the mic, followed by Jersey's own Lakim Shabazz. The track is called 'I Can't take it no mo', talking about crime. I got this off a white label 12" I picked up sometime in 1994. I didn't know where this track was originally from until a few days ago when some of my peoples in the philaflava forums told me about the Class A Felony LP from 1993 where this was apparently some kind of bonus track. Unlike the Big Red version, on this track Diamond uses some jazzy horns for the hook, and I think I even heard a little Grover Washington sample thrown in there.


I'm not sure which of these tracks was made first, but this is Big Red's take. This is a promo only 12" from the Payday label. I'm pretty sure he had an album deal or some kind of deal that fell through when the label went under.

Some pieces done by my boy Kes DW and TameOne...

Brand Nubian Freestyles

Since we got some Grand Puba in the mix,
check out the rest of Brand Nubian with
Sadat X & Lord Jamar live on the XL Show
from August of 1998, first with a
Showbiz beat, and then one from Mathematics
used for Ghostface's 'Cobra Clutch'.
This was a month before the 'Foundation' LP
came out.




Sadat X & Lord Jamar Freestyles Hot 97 1998



Wu-Tang - Cobra Clutch (Instrumental)

the 411

I got kicked off of youtube for uploading this video, lucky for us, JC has created his own video embedder and uploaded it for me. This is Grand Puba and Mary J doing 'what's the 411?' live on MTV raps. I have a bunch more of these performances that will come in the future, enjoy...

DJ Slyce Interview

DJ Slyce

has been a prominent figure on the DJ battle scene for over a decade, consistently coming up with new routines, sick juggles, and crazy shit to make you wonder where he gets his ideas from. After winning the US DMC finals in 1997 and taking 3rd in the 1999 US finals, Slyce has made a return to the DMC battles this year, taking first place in both the east coast finals and US finals. Right now, we have the pleasure of hearing from this year's champion before he heads out to London for the 2008 World DMC Finals.

Stones Throw Podcasts

Just checked out some of the new Stones Throw podcasts and they sound pretty good. Check out Peanut Butter Wolf's 'Area Codes' mix, James Pants 'Music from the Forest', and two groups I'm not too familiar with Gaslamp Killer Vs. Hieliocentrics. The PBW mix is my favorite, a nice mix of old school hip hop.

DW Jazz

What's up peoples? Not to sound like I'm sleeping on my stomach, but I'm siked to see the Dirty Water Jazz mix reaching 2000 downloads. Not exactly a huge number, but enough to get me excited. In case you missed it, peep it. I want to say thanks to everyone who was nice to enough to post it on their blogs, forums, etc; also thanks to the people who emailed with positive feedback, and track ID questions (which I'm always glad to answer). I'm trying to find out the consensus on this one, so if you have the time, please leave some feeback, positive or negative.


DJ NES _ DIRTY WATER JAZZ

After a long gap, and several different career choices, I've decided to return to college. Today was my first day back and already I can tell this is going to be a long, grueling process that will consume most of my time. Unfortunately, you may see a decline in the amount of posts that go up here, but I will do my best to continue to bring the treats...