As you know DJs invented Hip-Hop, and with the control and skill involved with rhythm and turntable techniques, skratch DJs have transformed the music, technology, and the style behind it. On Saturday May 14th, 2011 Rap Music Guide had the rare opportunity to see the world champion skratch turntablist DJ QBert perform live at the Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco, CA.
Yogafrog (Ritche Desuasido) was there to introduce DJ QBert and two skratch shaolins, who all took the wheels of the 6 turntables. The skratch shaolins had some skills and showed off their mastery during the intermissions which consisted of QBert throwing out free Thud Rumble merchandise such as T-Shirts, DVD’s, rare skratch DJ vinyl, butter rugs (slip mats), and even his own vinyl off the turntable he was just using! It was quite a show.
DJ QBert is known worldwide for forming the group Invisibl Skratch Piklz, who were later acknowledged as the pioneers of the Turntablist DJ movement. The Invisibl Skratch Piklz consisted of a lineup of San Francisco based innovators such as MixMaster Mike, DJ Shortkut, DJ D-Styles, DJ Apollo, DJ Disk, DJ Flare, and the only member outside of the USA, DJ A-Trak.
If you missed the show, I hate to say it, but it was amazing. DJ QBert on two turntables, with 2 skratch shaolins, free merchandise, and front row seats! Thankfully I took some video so you can see the master at work.
Misprints and misspellings account for only a small number of rap albums, but when they do happen, they’re rarely leaked into the market. Recently Rap Music Guide found a Be Gee album titled The Postcard 95822 that made it through the cracks. If you look at the spine, the artists name “Be Gee” is misspelled as “Ben Gee”. Then it was even changed and re-released as “Bee Gee” (Woops!) I’m sure Be Gee’s graphic artists got an earful for this mistake!
If you’re not familiar with Be Gee, he released his first first solo album titled “Ya Gotta B.G.” in 1993. During that year he that sold enough copies to place him as one of Sacramento’s top selling underground rap artists. While continuing to do local rap shows and perform at parties, Be Gee released his second album “BlackGorillaMila Tactics” in 1996. Since then he’s appeared on numerous compilations and solo albums, such as Leaving The Life featuring Brotha Lynch, Loki & First Degree The D.E. Be Gee’s latest album titled Still Gotta B.G. was released in 2011 and is available at CDBaby.
Gil Scott-Heron the poet and musician, renowned as the Godfather of Rap, died at the age of 62 from unknown causes in New York on Friday May 27th, 2011. The music community first found out about Scott-Heron’s death when it was confirmed by the legendary spoken word artist’s publisher Jamie Byng via Twitter with the tweet reading, “Just heard the very sad news that my dear friend and one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, the great Gil Scott-Heron, died today.”
Highly regarded as one of the leaders and chief influences in the precursory stages of rap & hip-hop music, Gil Scott-Heron helped to define a turbulent time for African-Americans and black militarism in the 1970s with his well-known politically charged poem and song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, which is perhaps Scott-Heron’s most notable work. His 1971 single from Pieces Of A Man has been sampled by hip hop artists and quoted in numerous albums.
Thanks to Twitter, the rap & hip-hop music community has been remembering the late artist. Eminem was among the first artist to recognize his inspiration, tweeting, “R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron. He influenced all of hip-hop,” while Chuck D shared the sentiment, “we do what we do and how we do because of you. And to those that don’t know tip your hat with a hand over your heart & recognize.” Chuck D also revealed via his Twitter account that he was to be featured on an upcoming project with Scott-Heron. Even Ghostface Killah asked everyone to “Salute Mr. Gil Scott-Heron for his wisdom and poetry!” adding, “May he rest in paradise.” Snoop Dogg kept it simple posting, “#rip to 1 of tha greats gil scott heron.”
Gil Scott-Heron’s recording and performing career spanned four decades, with a discography of 15 studio albums, 11 compilation albums and 9 live recordings. In remembrance, here is an official music video titled “Me And The Devil” from the album “I’m New Here”.
Since eBay is the main pipeline for rare and out of print rap and hip-hop music, cassette tape collectors have a safe marketplace to buy and sell their rare albums for a pretty penny. Even with the national unemployment rate rising, prices for these out of print cassette tapes are still selling for hundreds of dollars. For all those tape collectors out there on the hunt for hard to find music, you understand our passion, and can understand why we spend our hard earned money on old pieces of plastic! Below you will find screen shots of some recent eBay auctions of rare rap cassettes tapes that ended for some impressive prices. Do you have any of these in your collection? What was the most you paid for a cassette tape?
We had another package touchdown at Rap Music Guide. This time it came from the Northwest; Portland, Oregon.
Shots out to Jake Webb at Atrium Records for sending over his 2009 compilation titled Atrium Records Presents Tha Line-Up. Along with sending the album, he also included a bunch of promotional stickers bearing the labels logo and name. We’ll be sure to slap the stickers in some high traffic spots for ya!
Tha Line-Up is a 20 track album with production by Jake Webb and Royal-T Beats. It features Portland rappers such as Preach, Fireface Loc, String Bean, Greedy, Skech Artist & E’$ Ya Boi. This album is not only out of print, but only 300 albums were ever pressed up before the group split. So if you’re a true Portland, Oregon rap fan, good luck on getting your hands on one of these!
Sacramento, CA has its fair share of classic gangster rap albums, but when it comes to CD releases, one of the most sought after is the album Young Dre-D Troubled Mind released in 1996 on Recognize Records.
Lately we’ve been seeing the market become flooded with these bootlegs claiming to be the original release, simply because the ringcodes match. I hate to break it to you, but if you bought one of these, the re-release has the exact same ringcode as the original. That means you should not make a decision as to which version you have strictly by the ringcode! So allow us to give you some sure fire tips to help you tell the difference between the original and the bootleg.
When it comes to properly identifying the original from the fake, normally you look for different bar codes, blurriness on the printing, or just other obvious flaws, but in this case it’s the exact opposite. Let me explain by first pointing out the difference between the rear traycard inserts. If you take a look at the original on the left, it is dithered, blurry, and hard to read the booking information found in the bottom right hand corner. Now take a look at the Young Dre D Troubled Mind re-release on the right. The image is sharpened, crisp, and you can easily read the booking information without squinting your eyes. If you also notice the font is more bold, and has darker shadowing which makes it easier to read and pop off the page.
Now let’s take a look at the differences between the cover art. Again the original is on the left side, and the bootleg is the right. This time the one that noticeably has less color and is not as sharp is the re-release, not the original! If you look closely at the original, the photos of Young Dre-D are sharpened, his braids are more pronounced, and you can see the whiskers in his beard more clearly, while in the re-release it all just blends in.
Below is the original cd on the left and the re-release on the right. The original obviously looks like it was pressed in the 90’s, but for those of you who can’t tell, the original does not have printing on the inner ring. Also the ring code should be totally visible when you look at the compact disc from the top. Young Dre-D’s nose was printed on the OG, but it’s very faint and almost impossible to see in certain light.
Next up, lets take a look at the bottom of the CD. It’s unfortunate, but whoever re-released this album was smart enough to use the same ringcode as the original, but thankfully they did not use the same font. On the left is the original cd, when you look at the ringcodes they’re clearly spaced out and centered in the ring. When you look at the re-release on the right, the letters are small with no spacing, and are top aligned to the ring, not centered.
If you still can’t figure out the difference between the original and the bootleg, then this final test should be the deciding factor. On the front cover there is a dead giveaway as to which one is the authentic original, and which one is the bootleg. Below I drew arrows pointing to Young Dre-D’s shoe, the original version on the left you can noticeably see some black under the white of his shoe, and its a complete shoe. I also drew arrows to the tire of the Mercedes to point out that you can see some rubber under the bottom portion of the rim. Now look at the same things on the re-release located on the right. Young Dre-D’s shoe is clearly cut off and almost nonexistent. Next, look at the rim of the Mercedes, there is no portion of the tire showing on beneath the rim, its totally cut off!
After pointing out all those obvious flaws you should now easily be able to tell which version you have!
Rap Music Guide would like to say thanks to Gabe over at Apt.3/DNA Entertainment for sending over their latest album titled Known Associates 3 Homeboys -N- Killahoes. When we heard that Apt.3/DNA Entertainment released their third Known Associates albums, we had to get our hands on it as soon as possible. Their last album, Known Associates 2 was a double disc set that included a re-release of Theme Music To Drug Dealins And Killins. It featured tracks with Cougnut and C-Fresh of IMP, along with the RBL Posse, San Quinn, 11/5, Cold World, U.D.I., Totally Insane, Young Ed, Baldhead Rick, Young Droop, Ray Luv, Noble of the Outlawz & many more! So there was no doubt that third release would become an instant classic as well.
Known Associates 3 is a 2 CD project that is filled front to back with classic mobb style beats and raps. The entire first disc was produced by the Bay Area sound pioneer T.C. From the intro, to The Grand Finale featuring Cougnut of IMP (R.I.P.), the entire album is a mob music masterpiece. With slappin production and the long list of features by Bay Area legends, there is no doubt you get your money’s worth when coppin’ this album! Checkout the sneak peak here: Known Associates 3 Homeboys -N- Killahoes.
So what are you waiting for? Get your official copy now directly from Apt.3/DNA Entertainment by visiting their website www.illmanneredtakeover.com!
On Tuesday, March 15th, 2011, Long Beach rapper Nate Dogg died at the age of 41. The Long Beach Press Telegram which first reported the performer’s passing noted that Nate Dogg, real name: Nathaniel D. Hale; suffered a stroke in 2007 that left him partially paralyzed, and another the following year in 2008. There was no official cause of death announced.
“We lost a true legend in hip-hop and R&B. One of my best friends and a brother to me since 1986 when I was a sophomore at Poly High where we met,” Snoop Dogg said on Twitter. “You will always be with me forever and a day. You put the ‘G’ in ‘G funk’, you put the ‘1’ in ‘213’ and you put your stamp on everybody you ever did it with. I miss you because I am so sad but so happy I got to grow up with you, and I will see you again in heaven, because you know the slogan about ‘all doggs go to heaven.’ ”
After hearing the tragic news of Nate Dogg’s death, R8R, Rap Music Guide’s Senior Rap Editor and official DJ, dug up one of his favorite songs by the G-Funk legend, OG Nate. With one of the most recognized voices in Rap, Hip-Hop & R&B, Nate Dogg blessed many tracks with legends such as Dr. Dre, Warren G, Snoop Doggy Dogg, 2Pac, Biggie, E-40, & the list goes on. He was a legend in his own time that will be missed by everyone. Thanks for the music Nate Dogg!
Since Twitter has become widely adopted by almost every rapper in the game, it’s easy to stay up to date with your favorite artists, their latest releases, and live shows. For this article, I selected a group of random Twitter accounts that keeps us on our toes. I’d call this more of a “beginners list”; it’s purpose is to get you started off if you’re new to twitter, or to help your current follow list list if you’re already a user. All Twitter accounts on this list are arranged alphabetically, just click on their avatar and you’ll be directed to their official account. Also, don’t forget to follow Rap Music Guide while you’re at it.
Flavor Flav is at it again! This time he’s cooking with fire showing off his fried chicken cooking skills live at KVVU-TV in Las Vegas, NV. Rap Music Guide would like to thank John Finn for capturing the master at work, and allowing us to share it with our readers in such stunning high definition.
Considered a rapper to most, and a television star to others, we will always remember Flavor Flav as a member of the controversial rap group Public Enemy. If you’re not familiar with where Flavor Flav got his big break, you better check out Public Enemy’s first release titled Yo! Bum Rush The Show released in 1987 on Def Jam Records.
So here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Get your pencil and paper ready for chef Flavor Flav’s secret fried chicken recipe!
As you know DJs invented Hip-Hop, and with the control and skill involved with rhythm and turntable techniques, skratch DJs have transformed the music, technology, and the style behind it. On Saturday May 14th, 2011 Rap Music Guide had the rare opportunity to see the world champion skratch turntablist DJ QBert perform live at the Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco, CA.
Since eBay is the main pipeline for rare and out of print rap and hip-hop music, cassette tape collectors have a safe marketplace to buy and sell their rare albums for a pretty penny. Even with the national unemployment rate rising, prices for these out of print cassette tapes are still selling for hundreds of dollars. For all those tape collectors out there on the hunt for hard to find music, you understand our passion, and can understand why we spend our hard earned money on old pieces of plastic! Below you will find screen shots of some recent eBay auctions of rare rap cassettes tapes that ended for some impressive prices. Do you have any of these in your collection? What was the most you paid for a cassette tape?
Sacramento, CA has its fair share of classic gangster rap albums, but when it comes to CD releases, one of the most sought after is the album 
