Here’s a couple of goodies for those of you who dig Golden Era Hip-Hop.
First, is MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps page (kudos to Cliff for hipping me to it):
Bada:
Bing:
Secondly, here is an SI.com bonus piece by a guy named Benjamin Wallace on the rise, and apparent fall, of Pete Nash, aka Pete Nice:
Nash sits in a café in lower Manhattan. At 42 he wears cuffed khaki pants and a short-sleeved button-down cotton shirt. He lives in a rental home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with his wife and young son, and he has driven a sensible Honda SUV to this meeting. Since his moment of fame as a rapper for Def Jam Records, Nash has achieved a markedly different kind of renown — among hard-core baseball memorabilia collectors who wouldn’t know Def Jam from Def Leppard. Over the past two decades Nash has become known as the most prolific source of the rarest old-school material, especially from the 19th century.
But on this afternoon in late July the tough-guy rapper turned baseball historian is mired in a widening scandal over the holiest relics of America’s pastime. Nash recently lost a lawsuit against a leading memorabilia auctioneer in which he admitted to fraud, and, according to sources, the FBI is investigating whether he sold forged memorabilia. (Nash declined to comment on the investigation.)
Even so, he retains some of the old Prime Minister’s swagger, seemingly confident that he has turned the tables on his antagonist. He riffles through a fat case stuffed with files of evidence he says he has compiled, and tells stories about innocently buying memorabilia that turned out not to be authentic. “In the baseball field, you have to question pretty much every single thing that’s out there,” he says. “It’s like the Wild West.”
As he sits in the café talking, his car is ticketed. The next day a judge in New Jersey will issue a bench warrant for his arrest for repeatedly ignoring court orders.
Long before his unlikely rise to fame as a white rapper, Peter Nash was obsessed with the history of baseball. MC Serch, also of 3rd Bass, recalls the first time he visited the home of Nash’s parents on Long Island, in the late 1980s. “Here was this 20-year-old kid,” Serch says, “and he had all this stuff: three-fingered mitts and Ty Cobb baseball cards. It was his passion, more than I think emceeing was his passion.”
I've been on a big Digital Underground/Leaders of the New School/Arrested Development kick lately...its fun.
If there is an industry shadier than sports memoribilia, I'd like to see it. Drug dealers and porn producers are less sketchy than the people you'll find at a card show.
also, Rakim has gotta be in the lead for "Most Underrated MC of All Time" It has to be between him and Kane.
Dude, I'd like to know in what circles Rakim is underrated. Dag, I've always been under the assumption that he was, without a doubt, the best MC of all time. And anyone sleeping on Kane is a Herb.
Loved Leaders of the New, the first record anyway, and some of DU, but never warmed to A Development.
Who knew that Ralph Houk was a chef?
http://twitpic.com/t3abn
i used to tape yo on a regular basis.
i still have that last episode on vhs - which has followed me through a handful of moves. seeing that range of mcs was really interesting.
[3] yeah i don't think any heads sleep on rakim for sure or kane.
i read another piece on this whole thing with pete nice maybe over the summer - i don't know.
Grandmasters:
Rakim
Kane
KRS
LL
G Rap
Slick Rick
Ice Cube
There are many, many more, of course. But these guys are in or around the top for me. Also, Mr. Scarface, Chuck D, Nas, Plug One, of hell, there are too many to name.
[6] that's a good list of grandmasters alex. the next groups are where is gets tricky.
this post made me think of this - which i think you'll appreciate alex. growing up in alabama was hell for a lot of things for me, but especially for hip hop when i was younger. one day when i was at some bookstore i got a hold of a copy of the source and saw an ad for beat street in the back. holy hell! i could finally get hip hop albums, which were scarce for a while or at some point you could get either west coast stuff or some southern shit. anyway beat street was a life saver for me and it was larger than life. when i moved to bk one of the first places i went was beat street and i could not believe how small it was. nevertheless it will always be magical to me.
Pete Nice - still the only rapper to ever be in my bookstore,
[3] Agreed on all accounts. It was bittersweet watching those videos; seeing how young those guys were and how much technique, a quick and strong wit and articulation were heralded skills in rap once upon a time (sniff)...
I've seen very mixed reviews about Rakim's latest joint Seventh Seal which came out last month (and ten years in the making), so I gotta check it out myself and report back. I doubt it's prime back-inda-day R, but I hope he didn't give into the current fads either...
[9] Well, I listened to a preview and I'm mixed, too. On the one hand, and I have to say it's the only real positive, he's still articulate and studied; he's still a perfectionist when it comes to verbalizing his subject. Given a mic and any hot track, he can do damage.
On the other hand, and this is why I won't listen to the full album, it sounds a lot like a Swizz Beats mixtape (I orginally said Fat Joe considering the subject of many of the songs, but that's a non-sequitur lyrically and technique-wise). Too much singing in the beginning of each song and too many Now&B hooks. It's not a hot mess, but it definitely speaks to the presently average hip-hop head; a slower-to-wit audience who only appreciates the sound of the rhythm as opposed to the actual rhythm and technique. It's not even Rakim for Dummies, though that's obviously who he's aiming for.
I kept thinking, "Man, he shouldda at least stuck with Premier, Pete Rock and RZA" throughout, but with the vibe I get from it is that he couldn't afford them, and since few commercial outlets want to hear that vibe anymore, he's stuck slumming. There are a couple of moments where you can see him trying to shine through, but the music is very restraining for a rapper of his caliber. I can see why he and Dr. Dre would have been such a major mismatch since they obviously have completely different vibes, but this is not much of a step up. I hope it's just transitional...
I'm disappointed, but I went into this not expecting to hear prime stuff. The skill sets are still there, but it's like Gary Sheffield playing on the Mets. A regretful pass... Here's hoping he takes a page from Ice T and steps up his game with an O.G.-like turn on the next comeback; reach back into what brought the best out of him and challenge himself and us again.
Will,
Very interesting stuff, man, thanks for sharing that. I am so out of the loop with Hip Hop I didn't even know Rakim had a new record out. I know KRS did something with Marley Marl a few years ago and heard a sampling and then just left it alone. Know my man Sadat X just put a new record out too, but like you say, it's very tough for these guys to have the same impact, not so much because they are older, but because the music has changed so much, and they are generally still targeting a young audience sonically. Or even if they are looking to keep up an older vibe you sure can't sample anymore.
I don't know enough about what is on the radio and what is in the clubs to make any calls on contemporary rappers.
I wonder if the guys we love--from the Eighties and early-to-mid Nineties--have any great music left in them. It is a particularly high burn out medium, one that is filled with great singles more than even great lps. So much has to do with youth, with that beat that drives you crazy and makes you move--from lyrical gems like "Ain't No Half Steppin," to anthem's like "Top Billin," or even Biggie's "Dreams." It's not that you don't dance when you are older, but things are different.
I do know that the cost of sampling now is crazy, and that you can't even scratch hooks from other rap records without paying through the nose for it. That strikes me as a damn shame, part of the self-reverential element of Hip Hop that was so compelling.
Yo, Ms. October, classic story about Beat Street. I heard about it for years before I ever visited. First time I went there must have been 94 when I moved to BK. I lived there until 2000, and often spent my Saturdays down there. I'd go to Beat Street and buy records and then to Espisito's for cured pork products--a good combination! You said you were disappointed that it was so small. When did you first go? Cause it seemed big back when I was going there. But I think I heard that they cut it down in recent years. I remember there was this dude Goldfinger working in the record department, and he was a DJ of some note at that moment. I got some good buys there over the years including an EP by the Lootpack in the cut-out bin that was worth some cash for a few years before they re-released it and hence killed the value of the original.
I started listening to Hip Hop in 88. That summer, a kid I was working with as a messenger gave me a copy of BDP's second record and that kind of started to really get me into it. It didn't happen over night, but the next year, De La Soul's record came out, and the JBS and Tribe and EPMD and I just started to get hooked, espeically through college (89-93). But I didn't start buying records until I moved to Brooklyn and for the rest of the decade that was my biggest nerd addiction until Yankees and baseball took over again by the end of the decade.
Anyone remember when Chuck Knoblauch used "South Bronx" as his warm up song at the Stadium? Or when David Justice used "Eric B for President"? Ah, those wuz the days...
"Rakim for Dummies"... lol
Have you guys seen this?
http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman/status/6573572404
I mean, Holy Shit!
Boris must have bowling balls for testicles!
[13] I saw that. I wish JD all the best. Better get moving on signing Matsui.
[12] I honestly thought you'd react to the Fat Joe remark, but thanks >;)
Alex, you're not missing much. Less than a handful of rappers dominate the urban airwaves, with some crossover appeal of course: Jay Z, Kanye and Lil' Wayne. Snoop and Busta drop in every now and then, but they seem like OGs compared to these three. Everyone else just tries to sound like them so they get some play. That's nothing new, but I swear there's never been such a dearth of style and star power as there is now. And lets face it, Lil' Wayne is crap, Jay Z isn't hungry and Kanye is not as good as he thinks he is; though he's got the most imagination.
There are some cats who are trying to break through, but you really have to look around. Truthfully, there are a lot more outlets to find them on the internet with podcasts and MySpace and Youtube, but I dunno, the motivation at least for me is a lot less, especially since I have more insight on the biz than I ever did growing up. I might make videos for some of them, but only if we can respect each other's craft.
[11] i moved to bk in 2001. it wasn't that i was disappointed - just surprised - i thought it would be a huge, huge place.
love that bdp's second album got you hooked. i had a friend i went to middle school with whose father was from the bx and he had a bootleg of ll cool j's radio that he sent my friend and that was it for me (that connect dried up very quickly though - his father got into some stuff)
[11] [15] interesting insights on why mcs from the golden era are for lack of a better word struggling alex; and good take chyll on where things are at now.
considering we are most definitely not the only ones with these thought, i keep wondering if hip-hop will move past this current malaise.
alright everyone stay warm today
i keep wondering if hip-hop will move past this current malaise.
Nah, hip hop is dead. Nas said so. :)
I just meant that Rakim is a little underrated in a mainstream sense...true Hip Hop fans know how great he is, but I feel like he never gets any real love from casual fans/radio/etc. Thats just my read on it though...same with Kane.
Then again you's guys are a little older than me so that might skew the perception, I only grew up with Rakim and Kane being considered "old school"
I remember when Knobby came out to KRS and thought that was awesome...then I remember he switched to Eminem and thinking that wasn't as awesome.
[18] New jack! >;) I should get around to making a long post about this very topic, but I'll let my best friend and fellow founding SC blogger Macedonia tell you the real deal; he's more of an music curator than I am, and he has many more resources and info to share...