Contradictory Hiphop opinion, with a bitter and twisted attitude…
Posts tagged Freestyles
The world’s largest posse cut… (WVFS 89.7fm 05/24/2008)
May 26th
Two DJs (fully Seratoed-up), two spoken word performers, and EIGHTEEN emcees spread across two production rooms, broadcasted live to Tallahassee (and the world) for 3 crazy hours on Saturday night, marking the beginning of a memorable Memorial Day weekend. (Pics to follow, once the email flood starts…)
Amond Jackson held down the ones and twos for the first hour of the show while the emcees and the equipment got set up in the production room. Once the hardware was ready, I spun for 30 minutes or so while the lyricists chilled out and argued on the merits of the San Antonio Spurs.
Mix Tracklist
01) Theory Hazit – Ghetto
02) CL Smooth & Skyzoo – Perfect Timing
03) Count Bass D – Violatin’
04) Big Shug – The Way It Iz
05) Godfather Don – Piece Of The Action
06) Dilated Peoples – The Platform*
07) De La Soul – Fallin’
08) Common – Be
09) Kev Brown – Albany
10) Louis Logic – Watching You
11) Marco Polo & Skoob – How I Get Down
12) Outkast – She Lives In My Lap
13) Cocoa Brovaz – Super Brooklyn
14) Juganot ft Joel Ortiz & Uncle Murder – En Why Cee
15) Notorious BIG, P Diddy, Black Rob – Live At The BBQ 2007
16) Main Source – Live At The BBQ
17) EPMD – Gold Digger (Instrumental)**
*apologies to the 3 people I offended by accidentally dropping the dirty version… apologies to everyone else, because the closest thing I had to hand to drop to get out of it in a hurry was that awful De La track
** this was only dropped to cover the last-minute checks before the emcees went on… which is why it lasts for a couple of minutes…
—————————-
Amond then spent a couple of minutes chatting with Stess, who holds down Blazin’ 102.3′s Hiphop show on Sunday nights with DJ E-Zone. This was definitely a landmark moment for the Underground Railroad as bridges were crossed, hands were shook, pounds were exchanged, and everyone made nicey-nicey…
Stess jumped out of the main studio into the performance studio for the emcee freestyles… which meant I had eighteen cats all waiting to demolish whatever beats were tossed out to them. The lineup was as follows…
2nice, Duck 13, Leaf, BK, S.B.E. (K.C. and GV), Fred DVS, Bostic, Rico, Stess, Jwhari, E&J, Critical, Al Fushay, Josh Stoy, Isreal, Jay-C, Jeff
…and we started things off with a platter of p-funk…
…before moving onto something a little more soulful…
Throughout, everybody held it down and represented. Don’tcha agree?
Also before each emcee freestyle session we had a couple of spoken word artists come through and do their thing…
Alabama Blakk
Lorreal
Overall, a milestone day in the history of lil ol’ Tallahassee’s Hiphop scene.
Previous WVFS episodes (with audio)
Here
Here
Here
Here
8 months late… Live Mix & Emcee Freestyle Session (WVFS 89.7fm 09/01/2007)
May 26th
This is back from last year, and I realised I’d never put it up before…
A short mix by moi, and then 30 minutes or so of emcee freestyles…
Emcees involved: Ike Hayes, K.C. and Gainstaville from S.B.E, E&J, Oplex from Crossbreed…
Mix Tracklist
01) LL Cool J – Eat Em Up, L
02) KRS-One – Mad Crew
03) Black Moon – How Many Emcees
04) Beastie Boys – Johnny Ryall
05) Queen Latifah – Wrath Of My Madness
06) Queen Latifah – Wrath Of My Madness (DJ Premier Remix)
07) Kurious – I’m Kurious
08) Jehst – People Under The Weather
09) Task Force – Its Us We’re Back
A to the L’s DJ Premier Tribute Mix (WVFS 89.7fm 12/04/2007)
Dec 4th
…and a superstrong freestyle session from the talented Tallahassee taskforce…
–edit– I just noticed a great big cock on the doorframe in the front of that photo above… cocks are Hiphop (but only on Tuesdays)
I’d had this Primo tribute mix planned for a slot on the station since September but the old/new school mix and the freestyle session with K.C. that went off that day overran (audio link updated), which meant I had to put the shit on hold to a later date… which just happened to be Saturday past.
So… um… here it is…
Mix Tracklist
01) Gang Starr – Mass Appeal
02) Gang Starr – The ? Remains
03) Gang Starr – Code Of The Streets
04) Gang Starr – Bust Ya Shit
05) Group Home – Livin’ Proof
06) Nas – Nas Is Like…
07) Tony Touch – The Piecemaker
08) Freddie Foxxx – R.N.S
09) Termanology – Watch How It Go Down (Instrumental)
10) Capone-N-Norega – Invincible
11) Common – The 6th Sense
12) Jeru The Damaja – D.Original
13) Big L ft Big Daddy Kane – Platinum Plus
14) Arrested Development – Ease My Mind (Primo Remix)
15) Gang Starr – Take It Personal*
16) Gang Starr – 2 Deep (City Lick Mix)
17) Jeru The Damaja – Ya Playin’ Yaself
18) Screwball – F.A.Y.B.A.N. (Instrumental)**
19) The Lox – Recognize (Instrumental)
20) The Notorious BIG – Kick In The Door (Instrumental)
21) Gang Starr – Speak Ya Clout
22) O.C. – Time’s Up***
Not really that much to say about it except that
- its a Primo mix, so you know the tracks will be illy,
- the DJ is a handsome bastard,
* going out of ‘Take It Personal’ into ’2 Deep’ you’ll hear the audio turn to poo for a minute or so – the master recording at the station gapped out (because of a cd change out) so I pasted in the super-low quality audio stream to keep things flowing nicely, and as I’ve already pointed out to a few people, if you pretend you’re listening to a dub of a dub of a dub of your brother’s cousin’s friend’s neighbor’s cassette tape that he recorded off the radio, then you get a ‘Keeps It Really Real’ badge – hiss IS Hiphop.
** wouldn’t it be fun to slip up and play the raw version of this on air?
*** yes pedants (and paedophiles) I know this isn’t a Primo beat, but the run of all instrumentalss at the end of the mix was because I thought the emcees were ready to freestyle… instead they were mic-checking, looking moody, fixing afros, keeping it real (yo), and all other kinds of bullshit that stopped them actually stepping up to the plate, so when I ran the O.C. joint they were ready… and then they weren’t… being late for interviews (and freestyles) IS Hiphop.
So once the freestyles started, I switched beats up fairly regularly, and fun was had by all. This was probably THE super duperest freestyle session that I’ve been a part of up at the station, and K.C., Isreal, Jay-C & the CrossBreed fellas all deserve a cyber pound (nh) for their efforts. Extra props to the gracious host, the inimitable Mr Jackson , who couldn’t resist bringing some heat himself and DJ Acrojam for shouting my name very loudly, and for going out to get a Freeway CD (and for all the other station coordinator type things she does.)
Yeah.
“My flow is off the chain like it was a turd.” (WVFS 89.7fm 09/29/07)
Sep 30th
Peace to Synergy Raves (whoever you are) – I couldn’t think of a good picture to sum up this post, so I ganked yours.
Now lets start with a warning. This post has a lot of links to cool peoples and music, so feel free to click around till your heart’s content, THEN come back here and leave some comments.
Anyway, Saturday night (9/29), I headed up to spin on WFVS 89.7fm’s Underground Railroad show, once again accepting the gracious once-a-month invite from host Amond Jackson. I know the general feeling in our little Hiphop community is that the show is going from strength to strength, with each week seemingly surpassing the next in terms of quality, vibes, and overall good-showness, and Mr Jackson has to take the credit for this – he’s always working hard to make each show tight, and his plans for the continuing success of the show should see it continue to blaze trails in the future.
Positive language-containing ‘press blurb speak’ ends here.
So anyway the clip below is of my mix set, and my man Killa Cali from S.B.E. on the mic. I’d planned to spin for an hour or so, but the vibe with K.C. was so good (nh) that his freestyle session kept going, and going, and going to the point where my second half hour slot (a best-of-Primo type thing) was thrown on the backburner – next time for that.
(Apologies for the poor sound quality – F.S.U. needs a streaming-audio upgrade – pretend you’re listening to a cassette or something.)
Breakdown of the audio…
I set out on the first 15 mins of the mix to go waaaaaaaaaaaay back, and then gradually bring things up to date…
1) Cutmaster DC – Brooklyn’s In The House
2) Mantronix – Bassline
3) Run DMC – Is It Live?
4) T-Ski Valley – Catch The Beat
5) Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew – Keep Rising To The Top
6) Black Sheep – Flavor Of The Month
7) Masta Ace Inc – Eastbound
Gang Starr – Speak Ya Clout
Then we got K.C. on the mic. One of the coolest dudes I’ve met around these parts – approachable, always down to build, and fucking crazy on the mic – a plus when it comes to these little freestyle sessions that we like to throw down.
So first of all, K.C. performed a cut that he debuted at a recent meeting of F.S.U.’s chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. (video of the F.S.U. performance at the bottom of this post.) A thought-provoking piece of social commentary that touches on the Jena 6 situation and several other recent events that have made the news for all the wrong reasons, it definitely deserves a wider audience.
Following that (I mean, IMMEDIATELY following it) we went into the freestyle session. As much as all these cats in our little circle like to rock the little underground Hiphop steelo from time to time, I’d decided to take the next radio freestyle session in a different direction this time – the fact that only K.C. was here to take advantage of a shitload of Southern beats, was um… everyone else’s loss and K.C.’s gain – homeboy fucking RIPPED the mic continuously. ABL, Maestro, Jay-C, E&J, Big Lo – y’all missed out. Put on the spot, K.C. came super-correct – off the head the way it should be. Props.
With K.C. finally done, and a certain Irish old boy itching to get back on the mix, Amond dropped the leaked Wu-Tang single. As much as I love my Wu brethren… the shit is wack. Back to the drawing board, fellas.
Then Part 2 of the mix brought things bang up to date…
1) DL Incognito – Spit Forever (Remix)
2) Median – How Big Is Your World?
3) Deep Rooted – Memories
4) J*Davey – No More
5) Grand Agent & DJ Noize – G.A.
6) Ill Biskits – A Better Day
7) Count Bass D – Kumbuka Watu Penda Pese (Part 1)
Count Bass D – Kumbuka Watu Penda Pese (Part 2)
9) The Cool Kids – Black Mags
That Cool Kids track is bloody superb. Ya know it.
That’s it. Abrupt ending, but hey – there’s not much else to say except stay tuned for more shit like this, and more stupid videos, and maybe a review or too if I can be arsed. I have last month’s mixslot from the radio show that I haven’t thrown up yet – maybe in a couple of days, I’ll toss up a link.
K.C. at F.S.U.
Hiphop is alive… (on WVFS)
Aug 5th
Now that we’ve got the cheesy post title out of the way, lets talk brass tacks…
Last night I spun live on Florida State University’s radio station, WVFS 89.7FM. The invitation came to me from one Amond Jackson, newly-installed host of the station’s Saturday evening Hiphop show, Underground Railroad, and if the temptation to spin classic 80′s and 90′s Hiphop for a minute wasn’t enough, the fact that later in the show I’d be rocking the tables for some of Tally’s hottest underground emcees made the decision a no-brainer.
So once I arrived at the station and got set up, and after giving away two copies of this (you know you want it), I set to work. The Count, Redman, Pete Rock, Rodney P, Blak Twang and shitloads more made the cut… unfortunately at times I didn’t – listening back to the first part of the show, my shit was mad sloppy (and I fell foul of the no-curse rules, when a few no-no’s slipped under the radar)… overall, I came away from the first part of the set feeling that I really could have done much better.
Since the audio of that part of the show isn’t going to be made available, you’ll never know how bad it was. So there. And that’s not what this post is really about, anyway… so lets move on…
Finally the emcees arrive… pounds are exchanged, and the chorus line of Leaf Qwembi from ABL, KC from S.B.E, Maestro, Jay-Cee and E&J from Dead Broke Records get to work.
(In fact the only cats who were really missing who also wrecked shop at last month’s Resurrection joint were Isreal and Big Lo. Next time fellas, huh?)
You know how all these big-time cats drop ‘freestyle’ after ‘freestyle’ on the radio, that ends up down the line on their album, proving that they’re just reciting written lyrics? You know how
< KRS-One 'Temple Of Hiphop' cliche alert >
true freestyling off the top of the dome (nh) is one of the truest expressions of Hiphop Culture?
< KRS-One 'Temple Of Hiphop' cliche alert ends >
It took everyone a few minutes to get warmed up, and then things got bananas. These cats came fresh off the top of the head, and brought straight heat. I had so much fun listening to them that at one point I fucked up and dropped the vocal version of ‘Ice Cream’ instead of the instrumental. Extra props to Leaf who destroyed the mic over the Liks/ODB instrumental.
These cats are putting in some real work in the North Florida region (and beyond) and it was a pleasure to work with them all (ayo!) last night. I don’t think its the last time that this group will link up either (nh) and if the shit is as fresh as it was last night, then look for it making it into a post or two here.
Pics and audio below.
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From left: KC, Jay-C, E&J, Maestro, Leaf, some dude with a turkey neck.
From left: Amond Jackson KC, Jay-C, E&J, Maestro, Leaf, some dude with a turkey neck sweating over some plastic turntables.
Free Hiphop or we behead this innocent emcee.
Jay-C, Maestro, KC lighting the mic up.
The arty, album artwork shot. (Five minutes later they were all arrested.)
