Sure Shot : It Ain’t Hard To Tell in The Source (1994)

Unsigned review of Nasty Nas’ second single in february 1994.
The audio companion is an early demo with totally different lyrics and slightly different beat.

Second Coming : Nas in The Source (1994)

Classic article on the Illmatic sessions written by Jon Shecter in april 1994.

Categories : feature, queens, Jon Shecter, Demo.

Taking You There : Pete Rock & CL Smooth in Rap Pages (1994)

Lenghty interview with Pete Rock and CL Smooth in Rap Pages, september 1994 .

Categories : Interview, Demo, Ghetto Communicator.

A Point Of Clarification : CL Smooth letter to the Editor in The Source (1992)

After the august interview CL Smooth took time to write to The Source to make sure his manager-mate LL Cool J didn’t take offense of his remark.

Categories : Letter, Demo.

Evolve : Pharoahe Monch editorial in The Source (1995)

Editorial written by rappers’ rapper Pharoahe Monch for The Source in may 1995. As far as I know he never used the lyrics that mysteriously appeared in his rhyme book, if they did, I’d really like to hear the song. And you should know how much I love this Simply II Positive demo, so that’s where the MP3 of the day comes from. 

Simply II Positive : International Arrival (demo) (Divshare)

Categories : Queens, Demo, Editorial.

Classic Review : KRS One in The Source (1995)

Review of an advance copy of KRS self-titled album, which was then titled Hip-Hop vs. Rap and was supposed to include “What I Know”.

Hip-Hop vs. Rap is like a greatest hits album from KRS and BDP, meaning that the best elements from his past albums are exhumed, brushed off, pumped up with new life and made FRESH for ’95, you suckers ! Armed with fierce, lyrical voracity, the king of self-hype and promotion truculently challenges any MC and aims to back up whatever he claims. So with “MCs Act Like They Don’t Know”, battle mode is pressed. Kris opens using the melody from Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” to rock his flow. as DJ Premier provides the break beats. The beat is caressed with chiming bells, monotonous piano keys and cuts and scratches, all meshed over a slick bass line. Delivering for the hardcore. Kris proceeds to flip different styles, drop punchllnes, sing different melodies and challenge, harass, spank and punish all wick, wick, wack MCs. The gauntlet tossed. Kris is ready to go skills for skills, toe to toe, in a battle for worldwide rap supremacy.

This theme only builds and manifests further with tracks like “Build Your Skillz” (featuring Busta Rhymes), “Ah Yeah !” and “Rappers Are in Danger.” Droppin’ ill styles, flows and lyrics, Kris proceeds to “run shit like diarrhea” and volunteers to “get you open like a prostitute’s butt cheeks.“ “Ah Yeah !” offers classic BDP deep bass, marching drums, aggravated trebles and enough “Bo ! Bo ! Bo !”s that you’ll think he’s Riddick. A swinging beat and repetitive digital sound reminiscent of the classic “Jimmy” allow Kris to continue his barrage, enveloping you with his lyrical dexterity. In “Rappers Are in Danger.” a sampled O.C. informs MCs he’s takin’ respect while KRS explains that any MC can battle for glory, but to kick a dope rhyme to wake up your peoples is another story.

Interwoven with battle lyrics, there always looms knowledge. “Natural” speaks on God and Jesus, rearranging the popularly accepted God picture with pure KRS facts. A Diamond D supplied track brings “What I Know”, which speaks on the untaught history of brutality against Blacks from 1906 to the present. Kris rocks your knot and schools ya at the same lime. “Give Me Relief”” is “Stop The Violence” 1995 style, as it’s made clear that we shouldn’t be afraid to apologize. grant forgiveness, say you‘re sorry or be a neutral vegetarian‘; or quite simply to not indulge in beefs. A couple of tracks manage to slow down the pace and subtract from the full value of this offering, but not enough to hinder the overall tight production and lyrical intensity. Blessed with years of consistency, an MC‘s skills can be taken for granted and thus slept on. Caution : don’t sleep.

A.L. DRE

Classic Review : Organized Konfusion in The Source (1992)

Published in the Source, january of 1992, a review of Organized Konfusion first album, penned by Matty C. The audio is a track from their famous demo produced by the late Paul C, back when they called themselves Simply II Positive MC’s.

Livin Proof review in The Source (1995)

You know you suck when the guy who review your album can’t find one decent line in your rhymes and can only quote an interlude ! You gotta appreciate how Joe Charles tries hard not to make fun of their lyrics. Lyrical enthusiast will surely appreciate the demo version of Supa Star, with different lyrics ! Have fun.

36 Chambers Of Death… Choose One : Wu-Tang in Rap Pages (1994)

Early feature on Wu-Tang Clan from Rap Pages written by Cheo H. Coker with the controversial illustrations by Elika. This created a brawl between the writer and Masta Killa, as exposed later in a Source editorial (see below). This created a strange situation in hip-hop where many artists from Keith Murray to Chuck D justify the beating down of journalists.

Wu-Tang Clan : Bring The Ruckus (demo) 

Category Feature, Wu-Tang, Editorial, Demo, Cheo H. Coker

The Mayor Of St James : Notorious Big in The Source (1994)

Chris Wilder followed Chris Wallace when he wasn’t the King Of New-York yet, from The Source, october 1994.

the Mayor of ST.  JAMES
THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. CAN MAKE ANYTHING HAPPEN ON THE STREETS OF BROOKLYN.

YO,THEY NOT FRISKIN’. Get down here right now!” The Notorious BIG. is talking into a cellu-lar phone. He’s rolling about 12 or 13 deep, but with Craig Mack’s crew, the posse’s at least 20 strong and everybody’s outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music smoking blunts and drinking an Olde English and Guineas Stout mix. The show tonight is actually a pre-Jones Beach Greek thing, so while this scene goes on outside, the Kappas or some-body is stepping inside.

‘They gonna flip when we drop “R&B Bitch’ on ’em,” says an anonymous voice out of the blunt haze. The voice is talking about “Dreams,” a fantasy song about Big sexing several of the ladies of B&B. The only problem is they can’t decide whether to do “Dreams” or “Juicy,” which is pretty much Big rhyming over the old Mtume jam.

Later inside, the decision is made. “R&B Bitch.” Let’s do this. It was a little hard to get the a cappella “Dreams of fuckin’ an R&B bitch” hook over on the mostly female, collegiate crowd. For a crew of ruffneck B-boys, sure. But in this setting, no way. Women run New York.

The show takes a lot out of Big because after the show, instead of going to Hot 97 for an on-air interview that had been scheduled for days, he opts to stay around the way and chill. Chances are he’s out on his block or around the corner or hanging on Fulton Street—known to the locals simply as “The Ave.”

Biggie is the mayor of his block of St. lames. Not St. James between Gates and Greene, the block that Chubb Rock propped up on wax, but St lizzy between Fulton and Gates, the next block down. “Chubb had a little honey that lived on St. lames between Gates and Greene. I guess he thought the kids in the neighborhood was sweatin’ him,” recounts Big.

He’s a big, Black celebrity checking in at about 63″, 280. He can’t stand on the block without people speaking to him. “I’ve lived here my whole life, from the first day,” he explains. “I’m the mayor.”

He was the mayor of the block when he was hustling, he was the mayor when he seas making demo tapes, and he was mayor each time he came home from jail. If you’ve ever been to jail, even if it’s only for one night, you know the feeling when you get back around the way, it’s like getting back with family. The block is always there for you. But that’s exactly why Biggie didn’t trust it when his peeps would tell him that his demo tapes were dope ‘Your family will always support you,” he says. “But when niggas wanted to sign me. I knew’ I had something.”

But it was actually his fam that hooked him up. His tape made its way to Kane’s DJ, Mr. Cee, who brought it up to THE SOURCE, where he won Unsigned Hype in March ’92. Puffy, Uptown’s A&R director at the time, quickly signed him and put him out there on a couple of things—a Mary J. Bilge remix, a Supercat remix and video. But when they had him do a song for the Who’s The Man? soundtrack, Big turned in “Party and Bullshit”, the fattest underground piece New York had put out in a long time.

When Puffy left to held up his own label and management company. Bad Boy Entertainment, Uptown let Biggie go with him. “This is what we always wanted: insists Biggie. I wanted to go to Puffs shit because I knew if I went to that niggs shit it’d be 100 percent correct.”

No argument from Uptown. “We just felt like Puffy could allow Biggie to grow the way he needed to grow,” claims senior marketing director Brett Wright

One day kickin’ it in front of the mayor’s crib, I wanted to hear the album since we were talking about it. I didn’t have a copy, and Big didn’t either. “Don’t worry,” he says. “We’ll get it.”

A couple of minutes later. here comes his man down the street. Big asks if he has the tape on him. He does, but there’s still the problem of where to listen to it. Even that problem only lasts a few minutes because here comes another kid walking up the block with a box. It’s on. For Big, anything is possible on St. James.

Funny. Biggie Smalls’s debut album, Ready to Die, starts off with a birth. With Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up,” a record released around the time Biggie was born, playing in the background, loud enough to be the foreground, a baby is born lorries of “Yeah, you did it, baby.” Then “Rapper’s Delight”—parents arguing—”You can’t control that boy!? What’s wrong with you!” Next is Audio Two’s ‘Top Billin” and a plot to rob a train, presumably the subway. Obviously the train robbery didn’t work out because next, with a Snoop track playing, we hear Biggie getting out of jail and telling the CO he won’t be back, “I got big plans.”

Now that we’ve been brought up to date with Biggie’s life, the rest of the album is a series of intricately detailed post-jail stories. The first song is about how the streets have changed since he’s been away. On the next, he plans a robbery along with his “alter ego,” and so on. All these stories are told via Big’s loud, fat-guy voice, first made famous by Big Bank Hank and carried on by the likes of Kool Rock Ski, The Chubbster and any other fat guy with rhyme skills you can think of.

But still, you need to understand just how clear and thorough his lyrics are. At the end of every track you’re left with a Kodak moment—an exact pic-ture of everything that happened over the last three minutes and change, right down to the smallest detail.

There’s one detail Big forgot about, though. And that was copyrighting his name. We call him Biggie Smalls, but offi-cially it’s The Notorious BIG. What hap-pened was, some Jesse Jaymes-looking kid came out with a record early last year, “I Like Black Girls, Too.” He was out first. He had the name.

“Yeah, that’s my name,” Biggie sighs. “But it don’t matter. Niggas know me.”

Categories : Chris Wilder, Feature, Brooklyn, Demo

Bronx Bombers : Ultramagnetic MC’s in The Source (1992)

Interview from 1992 with Ultramagnetic MC’s in The Source reminiscing about the good old days, talking about how I Like Your Style is a great song and discussing Kool Keith mental state.

Ultramagnetic MC’s : Message From The Boss (demo version) (zShare)
Ultramagnetic MC’s : Message From The Boss (demo version) (Send Space)

Classic Review : Whut Thee Album in The Source (1992)

Review of Redman first album in The Source, commented by Matty C. Only 4.5 mics, but that’s probably because Reginald C. Dennis had a no five-mic policy at that time.

Redman, Tame 1 & Rah Digga : Stretch Armstrong Promo (prod Redman) (zShare)
Redman, Tame 1 & Rah Digga : Stretch Armstrong Promo (prod Redman) (You Send It)