I was digging for records this past Spetember and picked up a really nice find in the dollar bin by a DC rapper named Southpaw.

The songs on the record are called "Homicide" and "Sun Up to Sun Down."

What's really cool about this record is the drug-kingpin theme. While not new and bordering on hackneyed today, this shit came out in 2001 and comes off as genuine, almost like listening to a Mobstyle cassette or an Azie demo. The production, provided by Bear1, is light and almost airy; quite removed from the trap-hop soundscapes of today that employ the same lyrical theme.

Southpaw is a good writer and his laid-back flow is as soothing as the beats are. He does a good job switching up from his views as a drug dealer to that of a man trapped in his project frustratedly pointing out the hypocrassies of Jessie Jackson.

Oh, and as you'll hear, Southpaw really doesn't like whitey all that much.

As for where Southpaw is today, no one really knows. He did do some work with Lord Finesse just after this 12' dropped but nothing has come out from those sessions.

Producer Bear1 has moved to Philly and works at Def Jam. Word is that he has some beats on Jim Jones album. He is half of the production duo "The Control Freaks" with Kleph Dollaz and word is those guys have some serious heat. The work on the Southpaw record is really nice so I don't doubt it.

For your enjoyment:

Southpaw- Homicide

Southpaw- Sun Up to Sun Down

Some more West Coast love...

After getting hit off with a link to Rappin 4tay's album Don't Fight The Feelin' and revisiting the music that helped define my pre-teen years I decided to revisit another West Coast album that I played the fuck out of: True Game by Mad CJ Mac.

Being located on the East Coast created a bit of a problem in getting ahold of this album. Unlike the 4tay album, which had two moderate hits, the Mad CJ Mac album didn't have the radio exposure to get a widespread release on the East Coast. The reason I even knew about it was because I was addicted to BET's Rap City. If I wasn't glued to the videos I was jerking my meat to Big Lez and let's face it, even though she was dumber than a box of turds (anyone remember when she hit the Stretch and Bob Show and asked "What moves are people like Puffy making in the underground" and they laughed in her face?) she was the black version of the dumb white blonde and her stupidity made her even sexier.

Anyway, what captivated me the most about this album was how mature the subject matter was. While Death Row artists were shooting up the strip and the Wu was bringing the motherfucking ruckus, Mad CJ Mac was telling the world about the harsh realities of the prison system and how it functions as a billion dollar business. To that end, a justifiably mad CJ Mac expounded on how laws were passed to oppress the poor and vulnerable to keep the prison business profitable. As a young white boy who would grow into a teen and later into a man who had too many run-ins with the law to accurately recount, my anger toward the police became better focused because of this album. If only my actions and behavior durring those years were as advanced as my mindstate...

Mad CJ Mac brought his own brand of thinking-man's rap to the table but don't think this album was a complete downer. There are a lot of enjoyable tracks suitable to ride to and of course their is also Mac's infamous dis to Spice One on the track "Powder Puff." For all of you people on the East who only bumped Dr. Dre and Tupac in your West Coast rotation, please do yourself a favor and download this album. It is really one of the best in the genre for its period.

Mad CJ Mac- True Game

Underated like a motherfucker:

1.) Tha Dogg Pound's "What Would You Do" from Murder Was the Case.

Prolly the hardest beat I've ever heard from the West Coast. I'm glad that I've been revisiting old shit as of late. This bodies any thing out right now. Throw it on your next mix cd and bump this in your car.

There are so many classic songs on this soundtrack. Shit, Nate Dogg's song is even good.

2.) NYC indie rapper Naturel. If you're old enough to rememeber "Live People" and "Make It Or You Die" you'll know what's up. That was a great 12'. The artwork for it is great too.

These mp3s came straight from my vinyl.

Producer SPK deserves half of this spot because he produced those tracks for Naturel. He provided Akinyele some BANGERS for Aktapuss. Thugged Out Entertainment had beats for days.

Side note: WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO BI-COASTAL RECORDINGS? CAN ANYONE PROVIDE ME WITH A COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY?

I WANT AN MP3 OF "BIG DADDY ANTHEM."

HOOK IT UP OR DIE IN PAIN YOU FUCKING FAGGOTS.

3.) Joey Jihad. Yeah, I've praised him before but this guy is just getting sicker and sicker with each appearance.

Remember when rappers would come up to radio stations and tear the fucker down? Well, I think Jihad is the the only one doing it now. This little treat recently made it onto Gillie the Kid's new mixtape. Don't buy it, Gillie is trash. All that shit about Gillie writing for Lil Wayne has to be bullshit, but I don't think it's out of the question to think that Jihad was writing for Wanye. The have a lot of similarities in terms of content, speed, and flow. Jihad just does it a lot better.

Joey Jihad, Reed Dollaz, and Gillie the Kid on Cosmic Kev's "Come Up Show."

Shouts to Reed Dollaz too, homeboy bodied just as many beats a Jihad did.

4.) Rappin 4tay- Don't Fight the Feelin' (1995)

In the early 90s I was tansfixed by the revolution in hip hop that was being initiated by the new breed of West Coast artists.

As a young boy of 12 I remember hearing "Playaz Club" for the first time. When I stole the album I was disapointed because none of the songs on it sounded as rich as the two singles (the other being "I'll Be Around.") and you can blame that on my age, location, and bias for boom-bap shit. But, it didn't take long for me to develop an ear for the sparse production that was provided by Franky J, Black C, and J Mack. 4tay's buttery fow is what really made this a great album to me. The laid-back confidence that became a trademark of 4tay's rhymes and the verbal blueprints he provided for becoming a self-actualized hustler really kept this album close to my heart.

For years I only owned this on cassette and I lost that in 1999. I recently was provided with an mp3 link to the album and I've been playing it non-stop. I've already been to half.com to get a legit copy.

If you haven't heard this album and are intentionally putting it off you are doing yourself a great diservice.

Rappin' 4tay- Don't Fight the Feelin'

One of the most slept-on groups ever to do it.

My favorite group of the Philadelphia underground is Ill Advised. Comprised of rappers Baby Blak, Mr. Lish, and occasionally Rasheed (aka the Rebel Rasheed aka Maylay Sparks) the crew put out a number of 12s in the mid-to-late 1990s on Quake City and later Eastern Conference Records.

Basically the story is this: Quake City is a label out of Philly. Ill Advised recorded two albums for them that were only released in Japan under the "Blue Dolphin" imprint. In the States Quake City Records a released number of 12s from the Ill Advised crew, the first being obscure "Against the Grain/Kwestions/Through the Eye," the second being the college radio hit "N.A.M.E.S./Encore," and the last two the 1986/Internal Affairs joint and another pressing with a remix featuring The Roots. Ill Advised were also featured heavily on the first or second Eastern Conference Records 12 with the songs "Captivating Cultivating," "All In Together Now" which featured Pauly Yams, and "Know A Little Nigga." Baby Blak is also featured on the original version of "Open Mic Night."

The crew fell off the map in 1999 when Mr. Lish went on a "judicial vacation" somewhere "up north." There were a lot of problems with Quake City Records, I believe that they went under in 2000 the the two albums they released in Japan (Wasabi and Can U Smell Me) never made it to stores in America. The problems for the crew only magnified with Eastern Conference Records. Milo Berger, aka DJ Might Mi aka DJ Mighty Bi, never paid Ill Advised a dime for anything. Word on the street (and straight from Baby Blak's mouth in an interview with Elemtree) was that they took Mi by force to an ATM machine and um, uh, well... "intimidated" him into draining his account for them on the spot. Also, Ill Advised affiliate Rasheed is said to have thrown a stack of Eastern Conference 12s into the Delaware River in the video for his track (and first release on Quake City Records for all you vinyl geeks out there) "Industry Party Bumrusha." I've never seen this myself, just read about it one the internet. If someone can hook that video up for me though that'd be dope.

Ill Advised has gotten their shit together somewhat as of late. Baby Blak put out a nice album in 2003 called Blak Is Back. Blak has also put out a lot of 12s with DJ Revolution. He's also done a lot of work with hip hop legend DJ Jazzy Jeff. Lish is supposedly out of jail and the duo are currently preparing their American debut on BBE records.

For all of you vinyl collectors out there I want to let you know that there are some seriously rare Ill Advised joint floating around that have never made it to the internet. The first two are the crew's Japan-only releases Wasabi and Can U Smell Me?. The third is a version of 1.9.8.6. (I think, not sure which song it is from their catalog, but it's from one of their 12's) with Mr Eon on it and a different beat. It was played a few times on 89.1 and 89.9 in NYC. I'm not sure if it's test-pressing only or just an isolated acetate. If anyone remembers the "Neuman" skit on High and Mighty's debut album Home Field Advantage that's what that whole thing was about; Ill Advised thinking Eon was wack and Milo not paying them what they were owed so they pulled Eon's vocals off of all their new songs. The skit kinda backfired on High and Mighty in my opinion because everyone from Cage to Tame One to Necro has aired out Mighty Mi for his sloppy business dealings. Also a word of warning for the vinyl collectors (and maybe Ill Advised if they are reading this), there are two versions of the Through the Eye/Kwestions/Against the Grain 12' floatring around out there. I am not sure if one is a bootleg but I've seen pictures of a version with a faded rainbow-colored label being sold in Japan. I have a different version with an off-white-colored label. I am not too sure which one is the original or if the crew knows about the second pressing because when labels are running low on money, and this is especially true of smaller indie labels, they normally start bootlegging shit in Japan. Wild Pitch did it. Ask that Oasis-looking faggot Cage about Bobbito pressing up some of his shit (The Muppet Show) and releasing it in Japan behind his back. It happens all the time so I'm not sure of one of the pressings is legit.

And now the good part, the music. I've ripped a number of Ill Advised tracks from the original vinyl and uploaded them here for all of you. A few people have the N.A.M.E.S 12', it hardly comes up for sale, and fewer people even know about the 12' they released before that. Most rap fans missed the great shit they did on EC because it was never released on CD (and it's the best material EC ever put out in my opinion). A lot of people know about the shit they did with the Roots.

Here's the tracklisting, and remember that the quality of the actual vinyl for a lot of these records is dodgey and unmastered. Don't expect CD-quality sound, just good music.

1.9.8.6. Remix with the Roots
Against the Grain
All in Together Now
Captivating Cultivating
Encore
Internal Affairs
Know a Little Nigga
Kwestions
Names
Push
Renaisance
Through the Eye

Ill Advised- Collected Songs from 1996 to 2000 by Mustafa Goodprose

One of the things I always enjoyed about Ill Advised is their ear for beats. A lot of these beats are heavy as fuck. I'm sure you'll agreee. The fact that they are great MCs helps a lot too.

I have a little bonus for you cats today too, an obscure Baby Blak joint called "Dangerzone." It's actually a DJ Sat One joint which features Blak and Babygrande rappers Outerspace.

DJ Sat One ft. Baby Blak and Outerspace- Dangerzone

Someday I hope that I can track down original copies of Ill Advised's Japan-only releases. If they are anything like the shit they put out here in the States on vinyl I'm sure they're great records. If anyone has it in mp3, I'll settle for that. Chances are I have whatever it is you might want in return. If you're sensitive about the prospect of me handing that shit out to people have no fears, I'm sitting on a lot of stuff that will never leave the crates that they are sitting it.

For now though, enjoy the music.

By now you should know that here at FuckYou's blog we support Cor-motherfucking-mega. Well, here is some new shit from QB's finest:

Vinnie Da Don ft. Cormega- Born Wit It

Now what else do we have today? Two things...

The first order of business is warning everyone that the new Channel Live album is garbage. Why is my opinion on this so strong? Because I've been a fan since 1994 and have bought Station Identification three times on CD, once on vinyl, and once on cassette. I own almost all of their 12s as well. The new CD is two steps back lyrically and five steps back as far as the beats go, which are all contrived synth beats by the way.

Basically, the new Ron Artest album is better than the new Channel Live joint. This is no joke, and the Artest album isn't that good at all except for the Now and Laterz contributions on the production end of things.

The second order of business is to make up for that sad bit about Channel Live's new album. For your downloading pleasure I present to you an unreleased track from the mid-90s:

KRS One featuring Mo Money and Apocalypse- Gun Play

Mindbender's Imaginary Roledex

OK, what is this?

Basically there was a little mixtape contest I entered called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Basically you start with group or artist and create a track list where the songs interconnect by way of the artist or producer. The goal was to start with any artist from 3rd Bass and end with any artist from 3rd Bass.

What I did was start with MC Serch when he was in Non Phixion and connect him to some of the most popular and underground artists at the same time. The title of the mix cd comes from my man Mindbender Futurama, an MC from Canada.

If you don't know by now, 2006 is the year of the Mindbender.

So, even though the tape was supposed to start and end with some form of 3rd Bass, I made this shit a Mindbender mixtape and connected Mindbender, an artist who isn't well known in America, to Jay Z, G Rap, RA the Rugged Man, Kanye West, Ill Bill, Mobb Deep, Nas, Papoose, and many others.

This tape is loaded with exclusives.

1.) Non Phixion, Serch, and DV Alais Khrist Freestyle [Full Version, you won't find this online anywhere else except here]
2.) Nizam, Retsam, Papoose, DV Alais Khrist, Pain, Smoothe da Hustler, and Trigger the Gamber- Past the Basic [From Pap's DR Period Demo]
3.) Papoose and G Rap- Thug Connection
4.) Kool G. Rap on Westwood in 1990 [Yeah, you read the year correctly.]
5.) Nas and Kool G. Rap- Fast Life
6.) Cormega and Nas- Goodfellas Demo [This was an exclusive until J Love put it on the new Cormega tape last week. Fuck that guy]
7.) Jay Z- Can't Knock the Hustle [Exclusive. Rough Draft with different 2nd verse and no Mary J. Blige]
8.) Kanye West ft Nas- We Major
9.) Grav featuring Al Tariq and Lil Ray- City to City [Kanye West's first production credit from 1995]
10.) The Beatnuts- Do You Believe [Vinyl Reanimators Remix- Vinyl Only Exclusive]
11.) The Beatnuts featuring Screwball- Thinking Bout Cash [Props to Y@k]
12.) PHD- Set It (Part Three) ft. Havoc (Mixtape-only remix)
13.) RA the Rugged Man- Don't Wanna Fuck With (Havoc Production, in case you didn't see the connection)
14.) RA the Rugged Man- Freestyle Over "Do You Believe" [Exclusive]
15.) Mobb Deep- Quiet Storm (Clem Remix) [Exclusive]
16.) Ill Bill featuring Big Noyd- Street Villian
17.) Chuggo- The People are Shit ft. Immortal Technique
18.) MINDBENDER FUTURAMA FT. 4TH PYRAMID, CHUGGO, AND LIKE 10 OTHER PEOPLE- BEAUTIFUL MUTANT
19.) Chuggo- Danger Us ft. Brooklyn Ak and Timmy TwoGats
20.) Non Phixion- Revoltionize [First demo from 1995 with MC Serch]

Hip Hop is never going to die.

Fuck Nas, Fuck Skillz, fuck every Southern rapper who says otherwise.

Hip Hop is not dead and it's far from being on its last leg.

Hip hop is where is belongs, underground and hidden from trendy followers. If that doesn't make sense to you, just know that what you see on television isn't hip hop.

To prove my point I've made a little mix that makes a good case that hip hop is here to stay. It's got enough exclusives to make the most up-to-date listener happy and the tracklist is well balanced between establish veterans, "greatest of all time candidates," "where are the now" features, and newer acts that deserve your attention.

It even has some instrumentals and an R&B-ish type joint that would have made it on to one of Clue's mix tapes in the mid-90s.

01- Tony Tank Intro
02- Joey Jihad- Stand Up
03- King Just- Return of the Redi
04- Shakespare- Fresh
05- Sean Strange- Depressed Beat
06- Big Punisher and Fat Joe- Twinz (Evil Beats Remix)
07- Snagglepuss- It Won't Happen (EXCLUSIVE)
08- D Serious ft. Ill Bill- Untitled (EXCLUSIVE)
09- Joe Budden- Broken Wing Freestyle
10- Raekwon- Cocaine World
11- Rugged Intellect ft. Kool G. Rap- All Fair (EXCLUSIVE)
12- King Just- Outlaw
13- D Serious ft. RA the Rugged Man- Untitled (EXCLUSIVE)
14- Snagglepuss- Throwback (EXCLUSIVE)
15- Tony Tank- This is the End (EXCLUSIVE)
16- Sean Strange- Give It Up Bonus Beat

Hip Hop Isn't Dead

EDITED ON 10/23
Due to my negligence I uploaded some things that an artist on this mix didn't aprove of. The mix has since been takn down but will be re-upped later with different songs.

Early next week I'll be dropping another mix with a few more exclusives on it from G. Rap, Jay Z, and more.

-Mustafa