The promo tape...
Before the internet and then the nessesity of the promobot, when music promotion was a bit more low-tech, there was the promo tape. Labels would press up roughly 10,000 tapes at a time and package them with new releases all over the country.
My collection of snippet tapes isn't huge, about 50, but there are certainly some goodies. Most are usual fare, snippets of tracks- sometimes with the courtessy of fading in and out instead of abruptly cutting off. Some tapes had exclusive freestyles and others had samples of tracks that weren't cleared for albums.
Today I'd like to tell you about some of my favorite snippet tapes.
3.) Rawkus' Lyricist Lounge 2 Snippet Tape Hosted by Funk Master Flex.
How can a snippet tape for such and underwhelming album make anyone's top three anything?
Yeah, this snippet tape is that bad. For starters it's entirely too long- twenty minutes- and Funk Flex is talking about all of these rappers like they are his personal freinds.
Oh, did I mention that there was only one "Flex Bomb" on this? As if it deserved that much credit.
The utter hypocrasy makes this peice stand out in my collection as well. When Rawkus first opened up its doors we were led to believe that they were in persuit of uncompromisingly innovative hip hop. This tape embodies everything their original fans hated: possible payola, manufactured attempts at hits, and the needless parading of mainstream acts who stopped giving a shit about indie hip hop a long time ago. Proof that when Rawkus fell she certainly fell hard.
http://rapidshare.de/files/9511512/Lyricist_Loung_II_Snippet_Tape-_Mixed_and_Hosted_by_Funkmaster_Flex.mp3.html
2.) Ghostface Kilah- Breakbeats
I dug this because at the time no one was paying any respect to the old school with the garbage they were putting out. Ghost brought it all back to the roots with this.
There was another blog that put this up as three separate files but my copy was blended together.
http://rapidshare.de/files/9511332/Ghostface-BreakBeatsFull.wma.html
1.) Fatal Hussien- Montage
It was March of 1998 and since late 1997 I had been feinding for a new DJ Honda album. Well, when I went to the store to cop H2 I was given a copy of this snippet tape by Honda's labelmate, Fatal. I knew who Fatal was and liked him a lot, his verse on "Made Niggaz" was sick. I remembered loving his verses on 2pac shit too.
Anyway, I don't know who mixed it, but this tape opens with a dj cutting up some of Fatal's best work and blending it with snippets of his new album. The result was a dope mix that utilizes one of hip-hop's less utilized arts, real mixing.
I have my suspicions that one of two people are responsible for this montage. First, this came with a DJ Honda album and was also released by the same label as Honda's album. Could he have mixed it? Or, Fatal was well known with the DJs in Montclair, NJ, a scene that boasts the likes of Channel Live and Chino Xl as well. I know that were was a team of DJs on some Montclair State mixshow that Fatal was close with, they could have done this as well. It sound's quite college-radio-ish.
http://rapidshare.de/files/9511192/Fatal_Hussien_Promo_Tape_Montage.mp3.html
That's it for now. Enjoy the goods.
-MGP
Before the internet and then the nessesity of the promobot, when music promotion was a bit more low-tech, there was the promo tape. Labels would press up roughly 10,000 tapes at a time and package them with new releases all over the country.
My collection of snippet tapes isn't huge, about 50, but there are certainly some goodies. Most are usual fare, snippets of tracks- sometimes with the courtessy of fading in and out instead of abruptly cutting off. Some tapes had exclusive freestyles and others had samples of tracks that weren't cleared for albums.
Today I'd like to tell you about some of my favorite snippet tapes.
3.) Rawkus' Lyricist Lounge 2 Snippet Tape Hosted by Funk Master Flex.
How can a snippet tape for such and underwhelming album make anyone's top three anything?
Yeah, this snippet tape is that bad. For starters it's entirely too long- twenty minutes- and Funk Flex is talking about all of these rappers like they are his personal freinds.
Oh, did I mention that there was only one "Flex Bomb" on this? As if it deserved that much credit.
The utter hypocrasy makes this peice stand out in my collection as well. When Rawkus first opened up its doors we were led to believe that they were in persuit of uncompromisingly innovative hip hop. This tape embodies everything their original fans hated: possible payola, manufactured attempts at hits, and the needless parading of mainstream acts who stopped giving a shit about indie hip hop a long time ago. Proof that when Rawkus fell she certainly fell hard.
http://rapidshare.de/files/9511512/Lyricist_Loung_II_Snippet_Tape-_Mixed_and_Hosted_by_Funkmaster_Flex.mp3.html
2.) Ghostface Kilah- Breakbeats
I dug this because at the time no one was paying any respect to the old school with the garbage they were putting out. Ghost brought it all back to the roots with this.
There was another blog that put this up as three separate files but my copy was blended together.
http://rapidshare.de/files/9511332/Ghostface-BreakBeatsFull.wma.html
1.) Fatal Hussien- Montage
It was March of 1998 and since late 1997 I had been feinding for a new DJ Honda album. Well, when I went to the store to cop H2 I was given a copy of this snippet tape by Honda's labelmate, Fatal. I knew who Fatal was and liked him a lot, his verse on "Made Niggaz" was sick. I remembered loving his verses on 2pac shit too.
Anyway, I don't know who mixed it, but this tape opens with a dj cutting up some of Fatal's best work and blending it with snippets of his new album. The result was a dope mix that utilizes one of hip-hop's less utilized arts, real mixing.
I have my suspicions that one of two people are responsible for this montage. First, this came with a DJ Honda album and was also released by the same label as Honda's album. Could he have mixed it? Or, Fatal was well known with the DJs in Montclair, NJ, a scene that boasts the likes of Channel Live and Chino Xl as well. I know that were was a team of DJs on some Montclair State mixshow that Fatal was close with, they could have done this as well. It sound's quite college-radio-ish.
http://rapidshare.de/files/9511192/Fatal_Hussien_Promo_Tape_Montage.mp3.html
That's it for now. Enjoy the goods.
-MGP
3 Comments:
Dope Post!
Hope that you make a "Demo-Tapes Vol.2" post
Glad you liked it.
I got tapes for days, brother.
nice blogs man.
my fam is from montclair/east orange, nj. fresh
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