random old rap you are loving

spottie otm. dj quik + saadiq + mid-90s = jam

this prompted me to relisten to lunitik muzik for the first time in well over two decades. just as solid as i remember. it got 3.5 mics from the source and i recall thinking "yeah, they got it right on this one." it's completely misogynist and gratuitous, but holy hot damn this beat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmvS8x6UkZM

luniz featuring 2 live crew — "20 blunts a day" (1997)

ps the redman feature also a big highlight.

the 2 live crew song is so good, but they really were just trying anything at that time. fumbled the bag... as they say.

the debut has some great stuff on it. 5150 (w/ shock g) and put the lead on ya (w/ dru down) are classic deep cuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDcQpiig51w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uN7F6Mmhd8

oh hell yeah, the first album i always considered a regional classic. i was a teenager in reno and it was just as popular as stuff like bone thugs and 2pac.

some delicious faux warren g funk for your thursday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNqts0--vE

mr mike — "where ya love at" (1996)

oh hell yea that is a jam!

jammin all the old suave house this morning. forgot about the female group they had! never released an album. sigh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNC69kb9LYA

nola — "life is crying" (1996)

alltimer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plhfkf2jhsk

tela — "piece of mind" (1996)

nice yeah I love this remix of “tired of ballin” that was a bonus track on the reissue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SsrmhCarQE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcbQaHfU_pA

i'd like to hear how anyone discovers these things, if it's memories being activated or something coming up on the algorithm... i recall owning a physical copy of piece of mind, which i probably picked up in a thrift store because i bought anything with a cover like that. i would not have ever thought about it again had i not seen it here. the other day, i found a picture of my bedroom that i had uploaded to photobucket in around 2005 that showed a row of cds. i couldn't pick most of them out from their spines.

before about a month ago, i had never heard the cam'ron and mariah original or seen the joseph kahn video taking the "doesn't really matter" near future japan thing to its limits. i'm sure it was somewhere at the bottom of a youtube mariah carey playlist, beside the bone thugs mariah song. and then came the remix with freeway, jim jones, and juelz. i wonder if it does anything for someone that can't plug it into memories of 2003.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEcCBH6oYmE

wow, tasty boom bap!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqMPPnrokOQ

very classic.

i really love that album. pure bap

what a wonderful way to start the day

"sometimes i don't speak."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJdhZXGBfvY

asheru+blue black (unspoken heard) - "jamboree" (1999)

asheru so underrated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDTzB48fMA

j-live feat asheru + probe dms - "kick it to the beat" prod by pete rock (???? dunno year, def late 90s tho)

"it's your culture, so be very very clear:
yours is the voice that they don't wanna hear."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fALtsJIg5Nw

asheru+blue black - "setting sun" (2002ish?)

actual lost classic. it was on so many of my mixtapes. love love love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fALtsJIg5Nw

asheru+blue black - "smiley (the woh woh song)" (2001)

blast. here's the song i was actually talkin bout there, sry-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBd8afws8tg

mobb deep - what can i do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYssmuNpWFE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXrsuQ1-Bsw

Da Youngstas - Pass da Mic

monday nights are for keepin it real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHp6zUYHFmg

3x krazy — "keep it on the real" (1997)

nineteen ninety two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdZH_0cQEuc

tlc — "ain't 2 proud 2 beg (rap version)"

also guys remember that time outkast featured on a tlc track and left eye embarrassed both of them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJBr3MgHn7Y

yeah, that was p cool

(tlc feat outkast — "what about your friends (extended mix)" [1992])

is it still cool to hate on this? was it ever?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSIRn3zBFAg

i don't think so either way.

(left eye — "the block party" [2001])

i honestly had no idea she had ever put out a solo record until like a year ago. apparently the album didn't even come out in the us??

it did not. unfortunately, it's pretty inconsistent.

here she is in 1989 (according to the description)—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Ig9ekXZiY

when i think of most influential rappers/musicians/pop stars/"FAMOUS PERSON"s of my lifetime, she's easily in that conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x361Lwf4x4E

Method Man - Say

funking love this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjsUyeR6t4E
diamond d. feat. big L - day one

very classic. also a very classic sample source. alltimers all around.

presenting this evening's feature: lyfe'n'tyme by the b.u.m.s

how was your 1995? mine was great. i saw the show. coolio was king of the summer, thanks to "gangsta's paradise." there was trouble brewin, but we didn't care because the beat was flames. however, my favorite album of the year was easily lyfe'n'tyme by the b.u.m.s, repping east oakland.

the brothas unda madness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC2mVQaI-uM

(the lead single, "elevation (free my mind)" with a sonorously souped up teddy pendergrass loop)

d-wyze and e-vocalist weren't the most impressive emcees, but much like the group home album, they got by on charisma and crack production (but okay, let's be honest - they were definitely better than malachi and lil dap on the mic). they had a decidedly nyc-centric sound at times; probably explains why i was such a big fan. the beats were handled mostly by sway+tech affiliate joe quixxx and remind me a lot of common's resurrection or maybe even gang starr's hard to earn - just that perfect jazzy boombap. jeep beats, i guess, is what they used to call it. kind of a conscious vibe at times, on tunes like "take a look around" or "flex uv a finga" it felt like a real earnest vibe; they genuinely wanted better. they were definitely righteous, too. just check out the spoken word closer "who gives you the right" which opens with the accusatory inquiry: "are you afraid of what can't be bought?" right on.

the album highlight -and one of my favorite songs of the 90s- applies feel good smoked out g-funk vibes to a blackbyrds sample and gives you smokey as the whipped cream. "let the music take your mind" is just pure perfection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6TIprVmgwU

the album flopped. priority spent a lot of money on it, too. they shot two videos, did a ton of remixes, and even got bay area legend saafir for an incredible b-side appearance. they disappeared. a year later, forgotten and never to be heard from again. i like to think they weren't just talking shit; they took whatever money they could from the label and straight up dipped. whatever the case, the one album they released will forever be a personal classic.

epilogue: ya'll remember mystic? her first appearance is on this album.

my bad, here's "let the music take your mind"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2WFiRYBHfA

WOO WOO WH-WHOOOOO

fuck your bad crew

fantastic, what's not to love abt this random old rap

Looks like D-Wyze is a barber now, but released a video this year. Nice beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pedq3uBeF_Y

O_O

okay random new rap you are loving

(omfg ty for posting)

one of the most ridiculous songs of all time. love love love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0gwmPjZL6g

jayo felony f method man + dmx - "whatcha gonna do" (1998)

love that one. love this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5R_YRi5yGE

No memory of The B.U.M.S but no idea how they slipped through the cracks. Guess they were never on Rap City, which along with late night radio was my source for new rap back then. I wonder if they're dissing Souls of Mischief on that first one you posted, Austin?

rap city is where i first saw the video for "elevation" - tho only a few times. they big up SoM in "let the music take your mind" so i don't think it was meant as a dis.

was not familiar with Jayo Felony but ovb loving it

Redman's verse on "whatcha gonna do" is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKpy6UPVAc
Black Rob - Make It Hot

random old Biggie flow I am loving

RIP, seems he had a hard life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P831fGL4HjU

Oh No - Beware [feat. Cali Agents]

i've had kool moe dee's knowledge is king album playing a lot and that still slaps

apani b + friends - "estragen" (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDc-QaS3XCw

https://www.discogs.com/release/719922-Apani-B-Fly-Emcee-Estragen-Soul-Control

planet asia - "handlin business" (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSRuBuqjW0s

sick beat.🔥

another lowkey west coast heavy hitter from 95. this time proper g-funk—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtWq5jl0ws

twinz featuring warren g and bo roc — "journey wit me"

warren g was so good in those days on the beats. it's basically like g funk smooth jazz vamps. very wah'd out aquatic sound. he was certainly doing more consistently better stuff than dr dre at the time. he had a hand in several albums and they're all very solid. some questionable sample choices at times, but i really do feel like he's been underrated in hindsight. he never really did "HARD" beats, so i can see why some people were not into it. maybe he should've been working with r+b acts the whole time? anyway, the whole twinz album is great and i don't think it's a coincidence that the best tracks are the mellower ones with r+b hooks. it's been a personal classic to me since it first came out. in the bigger picture, it's probably a solid 3.5 mics.

here's one of the singles and a tie-in, because i know how much ilxors like "free" by deniece williams. you'll either love or hate this one—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_45vTXgMes

"eastside lb"