Joint of The Week : A+ "Me and My Microphone" (1996)

This week's Joint of The Week is a butter track from 1996 from A+ featuring Q-Tip over a Buckwild track, it's a dope little ode to his microphone and the trials and tribulations that come with owning a microphone and contains samples from Hugo Montenegro and the late, great Issac Hayes

Kid Rap was pretty popular in the 90's and A+'s debut album The Latch Key Child certainly had it's moments but it wasn't an overly essential album but it was definitely an impressive debut for a 13 year old East Coast kid that was doing tracks with Tip, Prodigy, AZ and also had a dope remix from Da Beatminerz.

I have always enjoyed this one though and thought Tip and Plus made a good combination...God bless the child that can hold his own...



Next post will be a 15 track compilation of all of the Joints of The Week so far.

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Joint of The Week: Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - "It's A Demo" (1986)

It was a soul crushing and devastating blow to hear of the passing of Clyde Stubblefield (check all of the links on his Wikipedia page because there is a great deal on information) at 73 years of age of kidney failure, Clyde was not only one of the greatest drummers known to mankind but a Man whose contributions stretch to everything from Hip Hop, Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Breaks to Dance, Indie and Pop records and is still often sampled today, you have to understand that "Funky Drummer" completely dominated the 80's and 90's (and some of the 00's) musical landscape.



To actually decide on ONE track out of literally thousands was not an easy feat at all.

I thought it was best to go right back to one of the first ever uses of the infamous"Funky Drummer" loop in Hip Hop.



"It's A Demo" recorded by the legendary Kool G Rap & D.J. Polo and produced and mixed by the legendary Marley Marl, this timeless track definitely still holds up well some 30 odd years later.

I remember dubbing this off the Uncut Funk Radio Show and seriously playing the tape till it popped...so let's go back, way back into a time when Hip Hop was pure and undiluted.

R.I.P. Clyde Stubblefield

NB: My all time favourite usage of "Funky Drummer" goes to the legendary Eric B & Rakim on "Lyrics of Fury" I have still never heard those drums sound so sinister and The R absolutely murders the track to shreds!

2016-JMS Presents-It's A Remix! Vol 6 ('95 Edition)

Peace...It was pointed out to me that I hadn't yet posted up the sixth installment of the It's A Remix! series...so here is the '95 edition, 1995 was a prime year from both coasts (East and West) actually make that all coasts!

I hope this compilation delivers a great trip down memory lane or if you are not accustomed to these remixes then I hope you enjoy them.

Peace to my man Tim Burton, this is especially dedicated to you :)

2016-JMS Presents-It's A Remix! Vol 6 ('95 Edition)

01-Red Hot Lover Lover Tone ft Notorious B.I.G, Organized Konfusion & M.O.P.-4 My Peeps [Remix]
02-Ill Al Skratch-Don't Shut Down On A Player (Remix)
03-Mobb Deep-Survival Of The Fittest [Remix]
04-Champ MC-Funkhouse (Remix) (Reggie & Rockwilder)
05-Ol Dirty Bastard-Give It To Ya Raw (SD50 Remix)
06-Mic Geronimo-Masta I.C. (Remix)
07-The B.U.M.S.-Take A Look Around (Groovebumz Remix)
08-Keith Murray-Dip Dip Di (You Remix Me)
09-Erick Sermon-Bomdigi (Remix ft Tommy Gunn)
10-Troopa Deal-Brooklyn Swinga (Remix)
11-Black Moon-Headz Aint Redee (Beatminerz Remix)
12-Artifacts ft Mad Skillz-Dynamite Soul II (Lip Service Remix)
13-Kam-Pull Ya Hoe Card (Remix)
14-Big-L-MVP (Summer Smooth Mix)

R.I.P. Notorious B.I.G.
R.I.P Ol' Dirty Bastard
R.I.P Big L
R.I.P Tommy Gunn

Joint of the Week: Basement Khemists - Everybody (1999)

This week's joint of the week is from the highly underrated Kansas crew known as the Basement Khemists (J Lee, Taha aka Bro Neves, and Joc Max) who first came
to prominence with their "Vibrate" 12" (1999) which included this classic B-Side produced by Joc Max (who was also one half of Domecrackers alongside DJ Spinna)



* This was taken from the superb and essential best of Beyond Real Recordings compilation (2003)

Everything works incredibly well here...The Bob Marley & The Wailers vocal clip and bass line samples, the fat drums and conscious rhymes and sadly when you look at what pollutes and poisons the Hip Hop well in this day and age then this just seems like it was centuries ago before being absolutely talent-less and ignorant unfortunately became an acceptable part of the landscape.

Everything else that this crew released was dope as well and I hope someday they officially release the unreleased material that is floating around out there.

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Joint of The Week: Sweatshop Union - "Feelin' Alright" (2002)

This week's Joint of The Week is lifted from Canadian Hip Hop outfit Sweatshop Union's debut album Local.604  but more precisely from the artist that was previously part of the crew: Kyprios

"Feelin' Alright" uses an infamous Joe Cocker sample of the same name to lovely effect and combined with a classic drum break (the original artists escape these dusty memory cells at the moment) just works well, I can't say that I was a big fan of all of their materiel but the first couple of SU albums are differently worth checking out.



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Jigmastas - The Resurge (Music Video)

Buy / Stream: https://BBEmusic.lnk.to/TheResurge

A scintillating introduction to 'Resurgence', their first collection of unreleased material in more than a decade, 'Resurge' is the brand new single from New York hip hop veterans DJ Spinna & Kriminul aka Jigmastas. Earning their stripes during the 'second golden era' of East Coast hip hop 20 years ago, Spinna & Krim have continued to create together consistently, finally deciding this year to begin releasing music again.

Why now? As Spinna puts it "There's a void to be filled. We are from that era of classic boom bap, funky beats with jazzy and soulful elements, lyrical witticism and slickness, and most importantly originality…" In the opening chorus of 'Resurge', rapper Kriminul answers the same question in his distinctive lyrical style: "so much dummies in the game that you know I feel ashamed, but you know we got this, aint a damn thing changed."

Smooth, relaxed piano and horn loops ride over classic beats with Spinna's trademarked synth bass bubbling away at the low end; a track which calls to mind the very best DITC productions from back in the day. Kriminul's flow is just as flawless as ever; the perfect balance of conscious messages and gritty street-knowledge. With a new-found global interest in classic hip hop, the return of Jigmastas could not be more timely. Long may they keep on rockin'.

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Southpaw Chop...

Tokyo, Japan's Southpaw Chop aka DJ Hisa has just released 3 really dope singles featuring truly legendary East Coast artists Diamond-D







Kool G Rap and Craig-G



and A.G.



All tracks produced by Southpaw Chop are available for purchase on 7" inch vinyl for the vinyl collectors and in high quality audio for the digi heads

Don't forget to check for his earlier works and DJ mixes, you won't be disappointed.

http://www.southpaw-chop.com

Joint of The Week: Midrange - Youths In The Ghetto (1991)

Peace, it's a public holiday down my way today due to Waitangi Day but it is also the 72nd birthday of the late, great Robert Nesta Marley so this week's Joint of the Week is a classic and socially concious tune from the UK titled "Youths In The Ghetto" produced by Overlord X that samples Bob's "Could You Be Loved" and is taken from the Ragga Hip Hop Volume 2 compilation released in 1991.

Not much is known about Midrange his debut was on a 12" in 1987 and he followed that up with a promo 12" in 1988, he also appeared on Bassomatic's debut album and was part of Overlord X's X Possee.

I only have this track as a vinyl rip, please contact me if you have a CD rip of this compilation.

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Joint of The Week: Mother Superia - "Most of All" (Produced by Reggie Noble) (1996)

Miami's Mother Superia was (at least to these ears) a cross between Roz, Lauryn Hill (you can hear a mad lovely la la vocal sample through this track) Champ MC and Passion and that wasn't a bad thing at all.

I think the reason her debut and only album Levitation didn't fare so well was due to some of the production choices, the album was in essence a mixed bag but this Redman produced track (also released as a single) was a definite winner and could have easily been placed on Erick Sermon's Insomnia compilation album.



A lot of people always look at Redman as a great MC and they would be right but he was nice behind the boards too and this smooth slice of Noble funk is just one fine example.





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