T.R.O.Y.

Friday, April 9, 2010

DJ Stretch Armstrong “Volume Four” Mixtape (1996)

As I continue on through the box of tapes that I located in my basement, here is a semi mysterious DJ Stretch Armstrong "Volume Four" tape. I could find zero info on this one, so I turned to (the mixtape master of the Philaflava forum) Andyman187 for some help. He determined that this tape is a recording from a Stretch & Bobbito show on Hot97 that aired Sundays from 12pm-2pm sometime in 1996. Andyman187 was also kind enough to study the audio and put together a tracklist for me. If anyone out there can help by filling in the blanks or correcting any mistakes, please leave a comment. And the .rar files contain all the scans plus the full j-card.

Side A
01 KRS-One & Lord Finesse - SP-1200 Freestyle
02 Jay-Z - I Shot Ya (Remix) Freestyle
03 Busta Rhymes - Freestyle
04 Capone-N-Noreaga - Freestyle
05 Beatnuts - Find That
06 Bahamadia - Three The Hard Way
07 Pete Rock & The Large Professor - The Rap World
08 Capone-N-Noreaga - Illegal Life
09 Artifacts - Art Of Facts
10 M.O.P. - World Famous
11 McGruff feat. LOX - Reppin Uptown
12 Sun Dullah (aka King Sun) feat. Doo Wop - NY Love (2Pac Diss)

Side B
01 Heltah Skeltah - Intro (Here We Come)
02 Heltah Skeltah - Freestyle
03 Heltah Skeltah - Sean Price (Exclusive)
04 Heltah Skeltah - Soldiers Gone Psycho
05 Akinyele feat. CJ Moore - Freaky
06 Mobb Deep - Street Life
07 Shadez Of Brooklyn - Change
08 De La Soul - Itzsoeezze
09 Shabaam Shadeeq - Freestyle
10 Shabaam Shadeeq - On A Mission
11 Stretch & Bobbito - Shout Outs

DOWNLOAD SIDE A

DOWNLOAD SIDE B

enjoy,
--dirt_dog

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Timeline of the T.R.O.Y. Weekly Request Threads

Part of the mass appeal of the T.R.O.Y. blog and forum is that we constantly put in work.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Spring Break

It's about that time here on TROY. No worries, we will be back in full effect shortly. We'll even be posting sporadically for the next week while we enjoy our break. Take the time to catch-up on all of our greatest hits, misses and '10 darts. Remember about our ever-growing forum, which is hands down the BEST FORUM on the internet dedicated to the Golden Era where we drop knowledge, share music and relive the best of times. We're still all up on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook so don't forget to add us too!

Lastly, our sister blog, Steady Bloggin' is still grinding so feel free to check them out and lend your support. Enjoy the spring back and see you soon.

Important Links:
Philaflava Forums
Steady Bloggin'
T.R.O.Y. Facebook
Actual Facts
Cold Rock Da Spot
Scratch Reaction

Monday, April 5, 2010

Touring The States: Chicago, IL

This is just a meagre text off the M-Doc wikipedia page:

"M-Doc is a rap artist and producer who was signed to RCA Records in the 1990s. He scored minor chart success with the singles "Free" and "It's a Summer Thang" featuring Chantay Savage.
In the late 90s he produced remixes for Madonna, Janet Jackson and Keith Sweat. Billboard called him "one of the R&B worlds top remixers".

If anyone have any of his other releases and is willing to share with us, please do it, it will be mad appreciated and we will make sure you'll get your deserved props on The T.R.O.Y. Blog community.

M-Doc - It's A Summer Thang (1994)

01. It's A Summer Thang (M-Doc Remix)
02. It's A Summer Thang (Underground Gangsta Remix)
03. It's A Summer Thang (Doc Strumental)
04. It's A Summer Thang (Gangsta Mental)
05. It's A Summer Thang (Silk's Old Skool)
06. It's A Summer Thang (Gangsta Remix Clean Version)
07. It's A Summer Thang (M-Doc Remix Clean Version)
08. It's A Summer Thang (Accapella)

DOWNLOAD

-- Markshot

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Inspectah Deck - Let Me At Them (Demo Piano Version)

I first had this taped off the radio about 15 years ago, either from a WNWK or WKCR broadcast. I'm guessing around 1994

or 1995 was the time frame, being that the official soundtrack version on "Tales From The Hood" didn't drop until a good while after I first heard this. The one main difference on this demo is the piano sample that was curiously taken out of the soundtrack version. Hearing the demo first, every time I would hear the other version, it was like I was waiting for those pianos to drop in the mix. It got to be frustrating to even listen to this piano-less shell of a song. I can almost guarantee that after hearing this demo, you will not want to ever hear the official release again, well almost. The sound quality on the demo is much inferior to the other one. The reason for the pianos getting dissed would probably be due to sample clearance problems, but I guess only Deck knows for sure since he did the beat. All that is definite is that whether or not you found the version of this song you already knew to be memorable, it will be now. Sure the rest of the elements of the beat are all great on this but the pianos really are just that crucial to the illness of "Let Me At 'Em". They give it an added raw Wu sound, with the menacing darkness that would have fit right in a ghetto horror flick.

Let Me At Them (Demo Piano Version)

Let Me At Them (Soundtrack Version, No Pianos)

Download the demo and the other version both here.

Click on the cover to pick up the entire Tales From The Hood Soundtrack(at 320kbps) from our friends over at "Hq Hip Hop".

Thanks and peace to JR from the "Crates Of JR" blog for ripping this personally sought after demo from one of his old WBAI tapes, off the Underground Railroad. The show still broadcasts and even has a chat room/podcast thing going on every Saturday night at midnight. You can find that by clicking here at the broadcast time and then clicking the "Live Broadcast" button on the right. Also, the host for many years now, is this guy Jay Smooth from the Ill Doctrine hip hop video blog. Love it or hate it, you can't really dismiss it, the guy has valid points on many arguments.

--Verge

My Tapes by Basta aka KYOZAI Pt. 5

You might know Basta (aka Kyozai) as being the owner of the rare cassette blog, Music-Thingz. Recently, he blessed us with a nice portion of his tape collection at philaflava T.R.O.Y. forum.

Here at The T.R.O.Y. blog, we wanted to give these tapes their deserved shine and Basta the proper recognition he's earned, to the people outside of the philaflava forum.

I will split his tapes in several posts, giving you enough time to digest this massive work.

There will be no previews, but c'mon, the hilariously awesome covers alone warrant a download.

Enjoy!

Underground Impact - Trapped in da Hood (1993, Philadelphia)

DOWNLOAD UNDERGROUND IMPACT

Sakoo - Tricks Pon Me (1992) (Brooklyn)

DOWNLOAD SAKOO

Warlord - It Ain't Easy bw Nothing to Lose (199x Queens)

DOWNLOAD WARLORD

Posse Deep - Candy (1991)

DOWNLOAD POSSE DEEP

Succes -N- Effect - Ultimate Drive-By (1992)

DOWNLOAD SUCCESS-N-EFFECT

-- Markshot

Rick Rubin

Not much to say about this man, other than he is a fucking GOD. Peep Robbie's piece on Ricky Rubin @ Unkut. Props to him and his site for always delivering the freshness. --Philaflava

When Rick Rubin is written about in the media, he is either portrayed as “the most important producer of the last 20 years” or as the shaggy ‘Wolfboy’ guru who carries lapis lazuli Buddhist prayer beads and dislikes footwear. While many of the startlingly broad range of musicians that have worked with Rick gush his praises, there seem to be just as many who were left disappointed by the experience. For every successful creative rebirth that Rubin has been involved in – such as reviving the careers of Metallica, Johnny Cash and The Dixie Chicks – there are also the aborted projects with groups like U2 and Muse.

Rubin’s approach seems to be all about making a connection with the artist he’s working with: “I have no training, no technical skill — it’s only this ability to listen and try to coach the artist to be the best they can from the perspective of a fan”. This approach doesn’t sit well with everyone, as bands such as Slipknot have complained that they didn’t enjoy working with him since he was barely present during the project he produced (but they were happy with the album), while shots were fired by British rockers Muse earlier this year when they thanked Rick for “showing us how not to produce” during an acceptance speech at the Music Producers Guild (amusingly, it turns out that Rubin won ‘International Producer of the Year’ that same evening).

But sour grapes seem to be the exception rather than the rule, as groups like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers can attest to after five albums with Rick’s involvement. “He basically goes into the engineer’s booth, removes everything in the room and has his people bring in the most comfortable couch-bed-type object that you’ll ever see. Then he’ll cover it with pillows and blankets, and that becomes his station.” Through this process, he often becomes ‘the fifth Beatle’, dating back to his stint as DJ Double R for the Beastie Boys first national exposure on Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ tour. Even though Jazzy Jay and Ad Rock did some the programming for some of Rick’s early Def Jam records, there’s no denying that he was able to bring a sorely-needed, stripped-down aesthetic to the rap records of the era.

“I was going to NYU [New York University] and I was into rap music at the time, but there weren’t a lot of rap records coming out; and the rap records that were coming out weren’t representative of what the rap scene really was. I used to go to the rap clubs in New York—I’d be the only white guy there—and they’d be playing rock ‘n roll records with guys rapping over them. Like ‘Walk This Way’. ‘Walk This Way’ was an original record that every rap DJ would have and use. Billy Squire’s ‘Big Beat’ was another one. And the rap records that were coming out at the time were like Sugar Hill Records, which were essentially disco records with people rapping over them. Kids who liked rap bought them because there weren’t any records representative of their rap scene. So, I saw this void and starting making those records, just because I was a fan and wanted them to exist.”

The result? Radio, Licensed to Ill and Raising Hell – three of the most influential hip-hop albums of the 80’s – all of which combined abrasive, speaker-smashing drums with hard guitar stabs and traditional song structures. The last point being the most significant in terms of getting the music to a wider (read: white) audience who’d been raised on rock. He also championed the cause of Public Enemy: “I remember my old partner Russell Simmons, when I signed Public Enemy – I’d just made the Less Than Zero soundtrack and it was really good and The Bangles’ record was a hit – and Russell said, ‘You’re wasting your time. This is black punk rock. This is garbage. You could make pop records, why are you wasting your time on Public Enemy?’ I said, ‘Because they’re the greatest group in the world. Because the pop records are the ones that aren’t important. This is what’s important, you’ll see.’ And two years later, he saw”.

Rick directed his attention to heavy metal following his departure from Def Jam, but when he started the Def American label he proved that he still had an ear for great rap by re-recording the best of the Geto Boys for their self-titled third LP, as well as an under-appreciated EP from former Audio Two MC Milk D. It wasn’t until Jay-Z reached out to Rick that he would produced another rap track, but the result was another prime example of minimalist beat science at it’s best. Since being appointed as co-head of Columbia records in 2007, Rubin has only signed one rap act – The Clipse. Last year it was announced that the crew would be working with Rick on their new album, but Till The Casket Drops was eventually released without any Rubin beats. “We went out to Malibu man, busted out with him. He gave us a lot of insight on the album and gave us some gems man. We came back, sorta re-vamped a few things and uh, you know, made the album a lot better due to that talk, for real. Definitely, it’s the reason he’s sitting in that [executive] seat”.

Something that came as a shock to me was the discovery that Rubin doesn’t drink booze or get high. It seems that even in his college days, White Castle burgers and porn were his only vices. “I’m just not interested. I need to be in control” he told German magazine Shark, while in a USA Today profile, Rick explained, “It’s the combination of meditating and always being deeply into something. When I was young, I was into magic. Kids I knew did drugs or got drunk out of boredom. I didn’t want to give up my time.” Some of the projects that he’s chosen to take on board might also have fans scratching their heads. Linkin Park? Mars Volta? Mel C from the Spice Girls? I guess that trying to challenge yourself musically requires sacrificing good taste on occasion. But when you’re able to convince Johnny Cash to record a version of a Nine Inch Nails track – and in the process create one of the greatest cover songs ever made – it’s hard to complain. I think this 2007 piece in TIME sum him up best: “Rick Rubin enjoys long walks on the beach, sushi dinners and hugs that warm the corners of the soul. Behind the ZZ Top exterior lurks the soul of a Playmate”.

http://www.unkut.com/2010/04/rick-rubin-the-man-the-myth