HTIKMM: Ron G – Got The Fat Beats (Mix 11)
Home Taping Is Killing Music Month Presents… Ron G – Got The Fat Beats (Mix 11)
This was one of a series of double tapes that I copped from Depth Charge in Leeds York. They used to advertise in HHC all the time, even before the full-page inside back cover ads that Assassin used to run, plus they were cheaper too. At the height of transactions with them, I was easily dropping 200 to 300 quid A WEEK on tapes, cds, and vinyl… crazy money… but you do silly things like that when you don’t have any real responsibilities and can blow a week’s wages on Hiphop, don’t you?
This was one of my favorite tapes at the time, because Ron worked really hard to take his blends in a different direction from many of the other DJs who were dropping tapes during this period – he’d drop many combinations that worked perfectly, but that you’d also curse because you never thought of them yourself; and in addition he was really putting in some work on looping bits and pieces of records to create a background for the acapellas… something I hadn’t really seen from anyone else on a mix tape. Imagine how my eagerness turned to disappointment when I came across this (nh)…
Things to note: Miss Jone’s horrible singing on the intro, the looping of ‘Dre Day’ with ‘Ill Street Blues’ dropped over the top (banonkas!), Prince and ‘Mona Lisa’, the retouching of Silk’s ‘Freak Me’ and Shai’s ‘If I Ever Fall’, Scarface over Isaac Haye’s finest loop, and the DOC’s most famous song getting a summery spruce up.
No track list for this – apollergeez.
Ron G – Got The Fat Beats (Mix 11)
bse said,
June 6, 2007 @ 8:13 am
Depth Charge mail order. Takes me back.
And they say MP3s are killing music! « Mad Nice said,
June 6, 2007 @ 11:39 am
[...] Ron G – Got The Fat Beats (mixtape) [...]
thebridgeisover said,
June 19, 2007 @ 2:06 am
I wonder why we dont see more Ron G mixtapes in the cyber world in 2007? Ron G made several great mixtapes back in the 90′s.
Wasteland Drifter said,
June 19, 2007 @ 7:45 am
Not about the tape but Depth Charge was in York. Are you thinking of Jumbo in Leeds maybe?
Depth Charge was the shit though, a real grimey small shop on the edge of the main shopping area of York. Given the ads in HHC you’d expect it to have had tonnes of Hip Hop but the Hip Hop section was only a few racks of vinyl, one small set of shelves for tapes and a smallish CD rack. The rest of the shop was mainly ‘indie’ and the various incarnations of ‘dance’.
It was quality not quantity there though, if it was dope you could gurantee Depth Charge would have it in (and usually be quite blahzay about it because they’d had it a while when I’d only just read about it in HHC or heard Timmy play it the night before.)
Sadly it closed some time in the late 90′s.
Talking of old HHC ads for shops Assassin Records in Cambridge(?) they always had the full page ads at the back. My aim was always to try and get down there at some point but I never did, it seemed a long way to go when Depth Charge was basically on my doorstep and the train ticket would have cut too far into the limited pocket money/dinner money budget I had at the time.
A to the L said,
June 19, 2007 @ 10:23 am
you’re right… its York… and I knew this… which made me think of Yorkshire, which made me think of Leeds…
I never ordered anything from Assassin, but they ran this full page ads on the back page for ages… always seemed to have a decent selection too…
I miss those days. Remember the LL Cool J flexi-disc on the cover of HHC?
Wasteland Drifter said,
June 19, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
Easy mistake to make because York is not Hip Hop at all (except Part 2 & New Flesh.)
Assassin were alright for mail order, I only bought a couple of things from them but the fact they always had a full page ad made it seem like it’d be a special shop where you could just bug out because there’d be just too much to buy (the complete opposite of the record shops locally.)
The LL flexi disc must have been before my time, although the first issue of HHC I bought had Rebel MC on the cover and he was talking about Black Meaning Good… Also had the news that MC Trouble had died in it, if I remember right (I’ve still got it somewhere.) HHC’s appearance in WH Smiths round here wasn’t regular until about 92/93 so I think the only other one from before that that I bought was one with Tribe on the cover promoting LET.
I miss those days as well, it was much more exciting. Having to travel around to find the record shops that actually sold quality imported vinyl and tapes (and later CD’s), waiting for Depth Charge to send something through the post only having a few mumbles from a HHC reviewer to base a purchase on, MC Jason Squires… Pete Tong’s Rap Selection on Radio One (I’ve still got a tape of one of those shows, I think somewhere, in the top ten are Interception Squad and Shut Em Down.)
Aye when I were a lad this was all fields…
Tony Tone said,
June 28, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Assassin was my mail order of choice. Used to spend every pound I got my hands on. The main drawback was that they started receiving cassette releases a week or two before the vinyl and I just couldn’t wait most of the time. Ended up with a collection of tapes I would have preferred to be vinyl and some albums on both formats. Generally the service was good and only took a few days to arrive. Used to buy HHC back in the MC Duke/Overlord X days when hip hop was still fresh. Now we are in The Source era where the magazines are more glossy and about lifestyle not the music. I am not really interested in the ‘Crib’ of some multi platinum selling dodgy CD cover having yank rap artist. Probably rents it anyway. Back to the music- I pop into Tempest in Birmingham (going back to student days here) to check out the CDs now and then but they still want mid 90s prices i.e. £19.99 for stuff you can get on e bay for half that. One day they’ll have a sale and I will miss a few gems that no doubt still collect dust on their shelves.
Mossadon said,
March 6, 2008 @ 11:50 am
WOW! Great to see some love for the old shop where I used to work!!!
Depth Charge (RIP) was a great shop started By Gary Adinall after the closure of Red Rhino Records (where a few of us used to work), also in York and also once a main force in the UK indie distribution bizz (The Dist’ bisiness was bought out and later became, along with most of the staff from York, part of Vital Dist’).
In the early days (1992) we did have more racks of Rap wax but as time went on and the whole independent record shop industry was suffering, we knocked back a bit on the stock carried in the shop and were a lot more careful about what we ordered into the shop.
Taking with us the knowledge and industry contacts from Red Rhino and a love for Rap that a lot of us who worked their had (both myself and fellow shop assistant & UK intelligent techno guru Beaumont Hannant had been scratch mix DJs since the mid 80′s), we sought out and stocked only the best and most interesting labels and artists and were able to continue trading at the shop during the last few years simply on the back of the mail order profits!!!
I still kinda live the life but from the Electro angle…and I don’t mean that crappy new cheesey club music! having worked with Legends such as Arabian Prince (NWA), Egyptian Lover, Newcleus, Maggatron & Debonaire Records in the last few years, altho primarily electronic music orientated, I still retain the love and support for the original Rap element alongside the REAL electro from the new school.
Big thanx to those of you who supported us….it was most likely me who packed and mailed orders. =D