Here we have one of the best rap records from 2009, Fashawn's "Boy Meets World" LP. This is an excellent album and to this day is still Fashawn's crowning achievement. The entire album was produced by Exile, so all the instrumentals are fantastic. Fashawn has a unique Fresno style and is far from gangster, but is more inline with a backpacking skateboarder. However, this record does discuss some pretty heavy stuff. One track that always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up is "When She Calls", a track about his friend committing suicide with the lyrics reading like a devastating suicide letter. However, my two favorites are "Our Way" and "Sunny CA", two classics.
I've seen Fashawn live a few times and he always kills it. I chatted with him for a few minutes when I saw him in Santa Cruz and he was a super cool laid back guy. I look forward to his sophomore album ("The Ecology") to be released sometime this year. This version is on purple vinyl. If you haven't heard this record, I suggest you track it down ASAP.
In the rap game today, Action Bronson is surely one of the best MC's to grace the mic in the last decade. 90's revival rap that takes no prisoners and brings a fresh take on raps golden age. His EP "Saab Stories" seems to take a little bit more of a mainstream approach than his other releases, and I must admit that I prefer his other releases more than this one. However, seeing this get sold out really fast on red vinyl inspired me to grab it on white vinyl when I saw it at a local record store in Santa Cruz. Bronsalino is still the man, so anything he puts out on vinyl from here on out... I'm all over it. If you aren't familiar with him, check out the "Strictly 4 My Jeeps" video below. Bam bam in the buildin.
This years Record Store Day was very good to me. I never left the house, and did all of my shopping online. I ended up getting (almost) everything that I wanted, and a few releases I really wanted came out. This was the 2nd most important release for me to get. Above is the limited blue vinyl version of The UN's - UN or U Out album. The UN was a New York rap group fronted by one of my favorite rappers ever Roc Marciano before he went solo. This album is an underground classic and has been pretty much impossible to find since its release in 2004. Fat Beats decided to release this for the 10 year anniversary of this album. When I heard Fat Beats would be releasing this a few months back I was ecstatic. I was even able to grab the limited version on blue vinyl which sold out really fast.
This is such a cold ass album. Roc Marciano is simply one of the best MC's to ever grace the mic and it's great to hear him early in his career with the UN. If you get a chance to pick this up, do it!
Check out "Ain't No Thing" above. This is true hardcore gutter rap, not for the weak or faint of heart. The second verse from Roc Marci is BRUTAL.
Since Sean Price just released a new EP ("Land of the Crooks"), I figured I would put up one of my old Sean Price releases. Here is the infamous Telemundo single on black vinyl. Without a doubt a classic Sean Price track featuring Agallah. My favorite is the B-Side which is kind of a mystery. There is no name given to it and I can't seem to find anything about it on the internet. It's basically Sean P free styling over a couple main stream beats and absolutely ripping it. If anyone knows anything about the B-Side on this please leave a comment!
You just can't beat Sean P with the freestyle... "Sean P, call me Kimbo... On drugs paranoid 'Who's looking through my window?' My nerves bad, English class failure nigga my words bad!" He looks high as fuck on this one haha.
Every Thanksgiving, I have Thanksgiving dinner at my house and all the family comes over and it's usually alot of fun (and work, and money). Every year, my girlfriend starts to act like a psycho because she gets all stressed out and wants everything to be oh so perfect. In honor of the chaos going on in my house right now, I figured I would post this Eric B and Rakim "House Party" single. This is actually a classic track from the "Don't Sweat the Technique" LP. Don't let the involvement with the goofball movie fool you, this is a sweet ass 80's hip hop track. Rakim is arguably one of the best MC's to ever grace the microphone, so pretty much anything he's on is the shit. I was pretty happy to find this slightly damaged single in the 25 cent bin while shopping in San Francisco... Anyways, Have a good Thanksgiving everyone.
Recently Babygrande Records repressed arguably one of the best underground hip hop releases of all time, and one of my all time personal favorites "Legacy of Blood" by Jedi Mind Tricks. Just a brilliant, stunning album from front to finish with some of the most brutal raps over monster beats. This album is truly perfection! I've listened to this thing so much over the years I can receipt every lyric to every song pretty much by now. To me, this was Jedi Mind's best release and I don't know if they can ever reach the same level as this one. Above is my original pressing that I got in 2004 on black vinyl. I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since this came out? It just seems like yesterday, and now I'm feeling a bit old just thinking about it.
You can see the front and back art appears are a slightly different on the new repress, so for anyone looking to buy one on ebay that is the difference between the old and new copies.
Babygrande hit a home run on the new repress with the limited orange vinyl. Goes perfect with the fire on the cover. I don't really know the background behind this picture but that's a pretty wild picture.
On the repress the front art appears zoomed in while the back art appears zoomed out. Also the logos/bar code etc moved to the bottom of the back.
Check out one of my favorite tracks "Saviorself" feat. Killah Priest. Vinnie dropping some serious history lessons over a Spanish guitar inspired beat.
"This is war rap similar to Jacob's Ladder, walk around like Thor with the sacred hammer... and you don't really want the guns out, we some vampire motherfuckers burn when the suns out."
Ok, so follow me here. "Heavy Metal Kings" is a group consisting of Ill Bill and Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks. Before they were an official group, this was a single put out in 2006 for Jedi Mind Tricks LP "Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell" which featured Ill Bill. At the time the single was pressed on plain blue vinyl and has been extinct forever. I never even remember hearing about it and they are pretty impossible to find. Turns out, that 100 copies turned out on a turquoise vinyl as a pressing plant mistake and were held back by Babygrande. They just reissued these this year and they sold out right away, but luckily I was able to snag one before they were gone. This is a true piece of rap history and I'm glad I scored a copy!
Looking AMAZING on turquoise marble out of /100. This is a classic track to a classic album. Vinnie Paz and Ill Bill, does it get any better than that? For you hardcore kids out there, both of these rappers have been down with the hardcore scene for years and give shout outs in a bunch of their lyrics. If you don't know Jedi Mind Tricks, Vinnie Paz, or Ill Bill then I suggest you go check that shit out ASAP. Below is the original music video for when this came out.
Action Bronson is without a doubt one of the best "new" rappers to come out in the last few years. With a voice and delivery strikingly similar to Ghost Face Killah, what could go wrong? Action Bronson is a professional NYC chef turned rapper and alot of his lyrics reflect that. This is the first pressing of his album with Statik Selektah, "Well-Done". This may be remembered as the apex of his career, but time will tell. This release is an instant classic. They did a second pressing on red vinyl, which I failed to buy for some stupid reason. Maybe because hip hop LP's usually sell for $20-25 bucks (much more than punk/hardcore), so I have to be a bit more selective with what I buy. This dude is blowing the fuck up right now so keep an eye on him.
Statik Selektah as always comes through with amazing beats for this. Mixing one of the best up and coming rappers and one of the best producers in hip hop, this thing will be considered one of the best hip hop releases of the 2010's when it is all said and done. Check out one of the singles from this release, "Not Enough Words" below:
On 3/7/12 I posted only my third blog post onto this here blog. That post happened to be a post about R.A. The Rugged Man. That right there should show you that R.A. is one of my favorite rappers of all time. In 2009, R.A. released this compilation of a bunch of unreleased songs or songs he had done with other rappers. This compilation has some of his early 90's work all the way up to some 2009 stuff. This thing has so many classics on it that it's silly. He has one of his first songs ever, Cunt renaissance with Notorious BIG, tracks with Mobb Deep, Kool G Rap, and alot more. He also has his track with Jedi Mind Tricks named "Uncommon Valor" which many hip hop aficionados claim to be one of the best verses in recent years. RA's verse on that track actually won several awards in 2006 for Verse of the Year in different hip hop magazines and websites.
In 2009 I don't even think they released this on vinyl, and if they did I never heard about it or saw it anywhere. Anyways, when I heard they were going to put it out on vinyl this year with some limited copies on red vinyl, I was all over that shit.
Apparently everyone is trying to kill poor R.A. I love the artwork on this album.
Concrete shoes baby! The theme continues. So far this year, R.A.'s new album "Legends Never Die" is running off with my "Album of the Year" award. I don't know if any album, hardcore, punk, rap whatever can beat it. Check out one of my favorite tracks from this release, "Supa" below:
Whether you like rap or not, you cannot deny this man's skill. Rugged Man was even one of Biggie Smalls favorites.
Recently a color repress came out of one of my all time favorite albums (of any genre), "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" by Raekwon the Chef. I have never owned this on vinyl and I have been jamming this album hard since I was about 12 years old, so I was thrilled when I saw this while shopping around on Fat beats.
As I said in my Liquid Swords post, this is the best of all the Wu Tang Clan solo projects and in my opinion is better than anything Wu Tang put out as a group (yes, including 36 Chambers...). I know a majority of the people that follow my blog are into hardcore and punk rock, but if you haven't heard this album then you are seriously missing out. This is one of the most influential and classic rap albums ever made, and there's really nothing else I can say about it. From top to bottom some of the hardest lyrics and beats to ever make their way on wax. There is no happy "in the club" bullshit anywhere to be seen on this. It is dark as fuck. You will not hear any of these songs being played out of a strip club, these are more tracks you would hear bumping out of a '89 Cutlass about to do a drive by. Comparing this to mainstream rap is like comparing Negative Approach to Nickelback... Get the fuck outta here!
I got the limited edition on a beautiful purple wax. I put it up to the light to give you an idea, it really looks great. Sadly, I had to damage the purple tape sticker to get the record out, but I can live with that.
Check out some of these old Raekwon videos from this album. So sick!!!
Sean Price is one of my favorite rappers ever. You may know him as the rapper with Cold World on "How the Gods Chill", but he has had a 20 plus year career in underground hip hop. He is in my top 10 dead OR alive favorite rappers, and is criminally under rated. When I saw the pre order for his latest LP (and first album since his 2007 classic "Jesus Price Superstar"), I was all over it. I was thrilled to find out that the pre orders came on a limited "Ape Blood" splatter vinyl that goes perfectly with the cover. It is hard to see in my crappy pictures but he basically beat the hell out of a bunch of apes. This is kind of a play on his first album where he was on the cover fighting with a bunch of apes (see below).
Unfortunately, this is probably the weakest of all of Sean P's full lengths. However, weak for Sean Price standards is basically head and shoulders above 99% of the competition, so this is still a great album. Also, considering his other two LP's ("Monkey Bars" and "Jesus Price Superstars") are considered some of the best East Coast hardcore hip hop albums ever made. I was really hoping this would be on the same level as his first two albums, but rappers can't make classics with every release. It just doesn't happen. With all that being said, there are still some serious heaters on this album. Sean P really goes all out against main stream rap and bullshit in the hip hop culture. Lines like "you a happy meal nigga with a toy in the box, I clap the steel nigga, put your boy in a box" or "Wake up all the crack in the street talk... It's made up like Jack and the bean stalk" are just fucking brutal. At 40+ years old, Sean P still got it.
Here are the left overs for my RSD 2013 buys. Here is the Thelonius King 7" by Blu. I wasn't really excited about this one as I haven't been very impressed by Blu's latest releases. However, I didn't even realize that RA The Rugged Man was on this track as well. What a pleasant surprise. In all actually, this single is a serious banger and Rugged Man absolutely murders his verse on it. Out of /700 on black vinyl. Glad I got it! Check out the video for it below:
Next was the Earth Crisis 7". I have never been a big Earth Crisis fan so I guess it's whatever. I'd rather have it then not have it, in case some day I suddenly get into Earth Crisis. Out of /900 on red vinyl.
I almost didn't get this copy of the Misfits and Lemonheads split. The super tacky cover art really turned me off, but now I feel good about it. I must be honest with you, I have never really even heard of the Lemonheads. I was really impressed with their acoustic cover of this classic track though.
RECORD STORE DAY 2013 WRAP UP:
I guess now that I look at the pictures of the stuff I got, it doesn't feel like RSD was all that bad. However, the day of was a pretty shitty experience. My frustration levels were off the charts. I essentially waited in the line above at Streetlight Records in San Jose, CA for almost 2 and a half hours by the time I paid and got to my car. RSD has become a big deal and brings every bozo out of the woodwork that never goes to a record store all year long. I would put my paycheck on it that probably 90% of the people in that line don't even own a record player or give a shit about any of the music. I saw flipper after flipper walking out with shit I wanted and it was just so frustrating. Now, I can either not go next year and boycott it, or I can show up hours early like other people do and be patient...
But to me, it is more about the big picture of how big vinyl collecting has become. I made a conscious decision over 10 years ago to buy strictly vinyl. At the time, I could walk into my local record store and find all kinds of great shit all day long for killer prices. Now, the prices on everything are through the fucking roof and it will only get worse. Until the fad ends and all these sheeple move onto something else that is. It just really saddens me that people have to take a good thing like this and turn it into a chance to make a quick twenty bucks. All that being said, my dumb ass will probably be in line at like 6am next record store day. What did you guys pick up or miss out on this year???
For this Record Store Day, I was most excited to get Notorious BIG's "Ready to Die" and the GZA's "Liquid Swords" box set. I wasn't able to get Biggie's LP, but Liquid Swords was a great consolation price. Liquid Swords is not only one of the best Wu Tang solo side projects, but one of the best hip hop albums ever recorded. Mention Liquid Swords around any true hip hop head and they'll tell you whats up with it. GZA The Genius drops some serious knowledge over super grimey beats, with almost every song being a classic on this release.
Here was one of the stickers on the shrink wrap that I unfortunately had to rip off to get to the good stuff. If this was just a regular old LP maybe I would have kept it wrapped, but being that there was an entire chess box inside there is no way I could resist opening it!
As you can see this was a pretty huge box. I won't even be able to put this on my record shelves, I'll have to put it somewhere on display.
This is what it looked like when I first opened it up. Super cool artwork all over this thing!
A very cool sticker set that will surely never be used.
The cover of the insert booklet. This thing is amazing quality. It's super thick almost like a book more than a record insert.
The first page, going with the chessbox theme.
The book has a ton of pages and contains all the lyrics as well as really cool artwork all throughout.
This is a 4LP release. It contains the full length on 2 LP's and then the instrumentals on 2 LP's. Hip Hop shit really needs to be on 2LP's. Most of the old hip hop releases were all on one lp, and now everything is pretty much on two because it makes the sound quality so much better with the deep bass lines.
I was a bit disappointed that it was all on black vinyl. They went so over the top with this release on everything else, I really think it should have been on color vinyl. I think it would have been amazing on light blue or blood red to go with the album art.
Here it is with the actual chess box in full effect. The chess pieces are very nice quality, they are all wood with the little felt stuff on the bottom of them. I have no idea how to play chess, I just put a few pieces on to give ya'll an idea.
I am really impressed with this release and happy I picked this up. For those of you that aren't that familiar with Wu Tang, you really need to check this out and some of the other Wu side projects. For years there has been a huge argument on what the best Wu solo side project is within the hip hop community. Just search it on google and you'll see page after page of forums with people arguing which is the best. Well, I'm going to give you my top 10 list. 90% of people will agree that OBFCL and Liquid Swords are the top 2 releases, but the big argument is usually about which one is better. In my opinion, here are the top 10 best (in order):
1) Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx
2) GZA - Liquid Swords
3) Ghostface Killa - Iron Man
4) Ghostface Killa - Supreme Clientele
5) Ol Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers
6) Inspectah Deck - Uncontrolled Substance
7) Method Man - Tical
8) Masta Killa - No Said Date
9) Raekwon - Immobilarity
10) Killah Priest - Heavy Mental
Check out the video for "Cold World" feat. Inspectah Deck, one of the singles on this album. And yes, this is where the band Cold World got their name from, just so you know...
