Sampled is a new series of posts I’ll be doing that takes my favorite hip-hop songs and compares them to the original song they sampled. Growing up listening to rap I was curious about where producers got their records and what genres they’d dig through to make their tracks. This opened up a door for me to a whole bunch of other forms of music, soul, rock, jazz, even obscure international stuff. For this first edition, I picked Gang Starr’s Just To Get A Rep. Who else could I have started with besides DJ Premier? In 1991 Primo somehow got his …read more

Wu Tang Saga is a new feature length documentary directed by Jeremy Mack. It is claiming to be the ultimate doc, that spans over the last two years the Wu worked collectively as a crew.  Besides live concert footage, it will include tour bus debauchery, exclusive freestyles, photoshoots and even a tour of Statin Island. The entire movie is narrated by members of the group, so we don’t have to listen to somebody we don’t care about. The film is over two hours long and the DVD includes music videos, extended interviews and much more. Goes on sale February 25th, so get …read more

Fat Joe is about to drop his 10th album… 10th!!! Can you believe it? Feels like only yesterday I heard him lay his first verse on Showbiz & AG’s classic Represent in 1992. Fat Joe has gone through a lot of phases, he always keeps up with the latest trends so it didn’t surprise me that Jeezy was on his new single Slow Down. Also to make sure the beat was as bangin’ as possible, he got Scoop De Ville to lace him with something fierce. Scoop if you didn’t know, was the man who produced Snoop Dogg’s I Wanna …read more

Beef is a pretty common thing in hip-hop, amongst the biggest are Biggie and 2Pac, MC Shan and KRS, Roxanne Shante and the Real Roxanne. Tonight I was reminded of a pretty down low beef that included Naughty By Nature and a lesser known Jersey cat named Tony D. When Naughty’s debut single OPP dropped in 1991, they blew up pretty fast, that jam was playing everywhere. It Probably took one day for Tony D to hear and and start laughing. See the thing is, Tony made the exact same beat two years prior called Adam’s Nightmare on Sure Shot …read more

Hey what’s Brand Nubian been up to lately? It’s been a minute since their classic One For All album dropped. Puba went solo after that, I’m kind of glad he did. Lord Jamar did something, Sadat did Wild Cowboys, I know all this. I mean recently where have they been… Well I know what Sadat X is doing! Drinking lots of wine and sounding like ODB! Sadat’s True Wine Connoisseur is a Youtube series, where he rates wines that are under twenty dollars. In this episode, our favorite Five Percenter rapper opens up a bottle of Castle Rock ($12.99) and …read more

I was listening to more Juan Epstein podcasts yesterday, a second one with Pete Rock. I really like nerding out to these because it makes me go back and listen to tunes I haven’t pulled out in a while. I forgot that Heavy D was Pete Rock’s cousin, and how Pete produced a lot of the songs on the Blue Funk album. Pete also talks about songs he produced, but never got credit for. He talks about how back in 1993 he was chilling with Biggie when he put on the beat for Juicy. Biggie tripped and was like “yo …read more

I learned something new today, it’s a thing called Youtube Doubler. It allows you to do your own personal mashup of two Youtube videos. I’m sure I’ll be going nuts in the future with this, but my first attempt was inspired by my current winter blahs. So please sit back in a comfy chair, close your eyes, and let the  ocean waves and Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince carry you somewhere care-free and warm… At least for four minutes.
Click here for my mashup…
As a bonus, here is the original break by Kool & the Gang; Summer …read more

Well then, a day has passed since I heard the Busta Rhymes version of Snoop Dogg’s single I Wanna Rock (which I am still bumping). The thing is, I came across another one featuring Jay-Z which is the official remix that will be on Snoop’s re-release album entitled More Malice.  Then, after that, I came across A TON of others. It appears many rappers have decided upon themselves to record unofficial tracks with the Doggfather (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  A quick internet search will find versions with Young Jeezy, Fat Joe, Raekwon, Lloyd Banks, Kardinal Offishall, Bow …read more

We’ve mentioned it before, Snoop Dogg’s new album Malice In Wonderland is the shiz.  Saturday night I was in a car on my way to my monthly dj gig, when I tuned into CIUT and the Masterplan show layed a gem on me.  The beat dropped I recognized it as Snoop’s debut single I Wanna Rock Right Now, but then Busta came in… Holy crap. It’s been a while since I’ve heard Busta Rhymes, his voice seems to have gotten a bit deeper but his flow still kills it. I have not stopped playing this song all day. Here it …read more

It’s always interesting hearing the back stories of how my favorite song came to be, or what went down when they were recording, or if there were any changes that took place in the process. Yeah, I know I’m kind of a nerd like that. Anyway, about two years ago I started watching some amazing mini-documentaries made by the legendary rapper D-Nice, I’m sorry I haven’t shared them with you yet. In each episode he picks one rapper to talk about one of their songs, plain and simple. Masta Ace talks about doing The Symphony with the rest of the …read more