You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
There's a trailer on TV at the minute that's got 'dont sweat the technique' on so just revisited a load of hip hop from the time. Not seen the video before. Ticks a lot of hip hop video boxes! Lots of nostalgia. Here's the ones I've been playing that remind me of those times. Just great beats. I've always said 'glaciers of ice' is my favourite hip hop song bit '93 til infinity' is just amazing. I've put in 'casualties of war' cos of the Funky drummer break
These aren't necessarily my fave rap tunes, just what I've been playing last week
My mistake casualties of war is the amen brother break
I used to take the train down to Manchester when I was 15 and buy hip hop vinyl in the era of Nas, Wu Tang, Gang Starr etc - I was obsessed. A lot of it still stands up really well.
Yeah it was the golden era. Just glanced at fine young cannibals thread and they put funky drummer to great use on on of their songs, I ain't the man I used to be. it was in my head
I've not put any RZA or DJ Premier but era of great beatsmen
That DITC above is really good. I love the 70s funk soul samples (i.e. most of them!)
Remember having this on vinyl:
Still think this is a great track...
If you want some blaxploitation beats then this Pete Rock instrumental is on fire. With Deck's rapping taken off
I like this thread
Cypress Hill
Eric B & Rakim
Talkin of cypress hill this is my fave tune of theirs. When DJ Muggs was doing his best RZA impression.
Instrumental version so B-real's annoying but funny rapping is taken off
Oh my goodness... what have you started!?
I remember having a tape from a Radio 1 show in about '91 that had this on it. I was already well into Ice Cube, NWA, ICE-T, Run DMC, Public Enemy, etc...
I didn't realise Slick Rick was British at the time, but this just blew the lid off for me.
This came off an awesome album.
So much good stuff. British hip hop was a bit sparse then, but i remember Gunshot:
I swear it's the incredible samples that make some of this still sound so fresh.
Black Sheep!!!
Had an American mate in the late '90s who ended up my best man... we always referenced this song as he was not your typical American:
I saw Jeru the Damaja live in Leeds yeeeears ago, it was brilliant.
Another classic DJ Premier beat with KRS ONE
Have you been on my youtube playlist?
No hip hop thread can be complete without one of the greatest ever
and
too many. Big L, Pharside, Beastie boys, Naughty by Nature, Arrested Development
Ooh..good thread. Smoke 'em if you got 'em
Another Muggs production, great album....
Every time I hear a gas cooker I think of the moob deep shock ones tune.
Arabian Prince(N.W.A)...actually we booked him for a party in London about 10years ago. Absolutely shite, play a bunch of Blur and Nirvana...shite.
Following on from Dumbbot above, the legend that is Afrika Bambaataa had everyone going WTAF at a gig many moons ago when he played a host of chart hip hop, pop & classics like 'who let the dogs out'. We were doing visuals for the gig & so on stage with him & the tension was palpable.
Premiere related beats again
YESSSSSSSSS, this is my sweet spot. Used to love getting up at the weekend to watch Yo MTV Raps, which was probably terrible but perfect for 13 year old me. Remember hearing Headcracker by Double XX Posse and falling in love with it. Still maintain they're one of the great (mostly) forgotten groups.
Also pretty sad that listening to Afrika Bambaataa is pretty difficult these days (I know he was more 80s, but still)...
@eskay did you post that mix last year? Feel like I might have listened to it before. Is there a track list?
Enjoying my Friday starting in a different direction
And it’s time for me to dig out Hilltop Hoods.
Yeah Hill top hoods! Introduced to them via this section!
There's a music venue in MK (MK11) that gets the 90's hip hop circuit visiting pretty frequently. i've seen pharoah monch, charlie 2na and a couple of others there. always good fun
Simon Says falls into the 90's just, that a serious song...
@dirtylyle - yes, I think I linked to it on a previous thread. I'll sort a track listing
Just a casual fan really, but my taste in hip-hop rarely goes beyond the 1990s. A couple of faves...
Late 80s pop rapper Heavy D managed to conceal this absolute banger midway through his otherwise poor Peaceful Journey album.
Some line up on this!
skee-lo - how had i forgotten about that!
this was always a favourite in the early 90's
I follow a really good Spotify 90s hip hop playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX186v583rmzp
Great thread, can someone set up a STW Spotify playlist to save me the effort!
Good thread! I used to listen to Hip Hop when I was in my early teens but lived in the constant fear that my parents would play one of my cassette tapes and hear the lyrics! Cypress Hill Black Sunday is as good today as it was back in '93.
Seeing as NWA and some others push us into the 80's I think we can go a few years the other way too....
Edit: not sure why the link is not embedding the video. Anyhow, Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance
This is one of the first rap singles that ever caught my attention and I still love it
did anyone listen to much of the UK stuff. I'm thinking Demon Boyz, London Posse etc also a guy in the north called pitman had some good stuff, can't find it anywhere though
Was just going to moan that no one had mentioned Naughty By Nature until I noticed the above.... Used to love them and have recently been listening to a lot of 90's stuff. Ace, absolutely ace! Current heavy rotation is N2N, NWA and some Ice T amongst others.
Anyone remember Hip Hop Connection mag? I used to have to get the bus over to Keighley to pick up a copy. Good times.
did anyone listen to much of the UK stuff
This stuck in my mind for some reason. Maybe it's the first time I heard someone rhyme 'tree climber' with 'vagina'
There's loads of good British stuff now. Just start with High Focus records.
Mark B & Blade
did anyone listen to much of the UK stuff. I’m thinking Demon Boyz, London Posse etc also a guy in the north called pitman had some good stuff, can’t find it anywhere though
Not taken to UK hip hop. I love Roots Manuva and we can claim Slick Rick and MF Doom. Two of the best. And Monie Love!
I like Loyle Carner's relaxed delivery. can't stand Grime though, there's no funk
I think best contribution UK has made to hip hop is trip hop and the Bristol sound. That's what the best US producers sat up and took notice of
This far and no J5? I am disappoint.
Dark nostalgia
I was in Childers, Queensland about a week before the hostel fire in 2000
The pub across from the hostel was a rural Aussie pub and it's jukebox was full of classic rock, Midnight Oil, men at work etc. But randomly they had this song on which I always put on when I went to the pub, played it constantly. Mid nineties public enemy:
This far and no J5? I am disappoint.
Yes, I think someone's posted concrete schoolyard above
Just one video from a channel on Youtube that features a lot of 90's hip hop mixes. Branches out into French, Italian and Japanese Hip Hop too. Well worth a listen
On 90s UK - there was some great stuff - I think it might be labelled 'Britcore' but I don't like that title, at the time it was just UK hip hop. Gunshot, Silver Bullet, Hijack, Hardnoise, Son of Noise, Caveman, the Kold Sweat stuff eg Pointblank, Prime Rhyme Masters. Spilling over to slammin dub beats and samples style stuff from Depthcharge, WBI Red Ninja etc the UK had some great contributions to the era.
Hard to choose, but I think this might be my fave track from that era - I still listen to it all the time now.
More UK rap:
It was a bit sparse back then, but there was some good stuff.
Not taken to UK hip hop. I love Roots Manuva and we can claim Slick Rick and MF Doom. Two of the best. And Monie Love!
Not a MC but dj yoda is a magnificent contributor to hip hop. Plus Cornwall's and to Jay Z (Si spex) is a brilliant beats producer.
Agree on the grime front. Crap beats.
UK - I just think back to Derek B <shudders>. I remember buying his album on cassette when it came out
This tune was a big deal at my high school when it came out. A big big deal. The Manc Vanilla Ice no less:
Also in the 90s I think a lot of good MC were rapping over jungle and drum and base. Different style but a bigger scene, HUGE crowds, loads of gigs, less of a sausage party as well.
Love this thread too! So many great tracks!
@fingerbang I watched an interview with B-Real recently. Apparently his original rapping voice was too low for the tracks they'd been producing. Muggs suggested he tried going a little higher to stand out from the bass.
The Herbaliser - 8 Point Agenda (Version 2) feat. Latyrx - 1999
Oh i forgot how good this is(has to be this version)....killer flow from start to end.
Also in the 90s I think a lot of good MC were rapping over jungle and drum and base. Different style but a bigger scene, HUGE crowds, loads of gigs, less of a sausage party as well.
This has just taken me down a DJ Hype with MC GQ & MC MC youtube rabbit hole!
Just bought 2 NWA albums on vinyl and am picking up a Beastie Boys one next week.
Early Hip Hop has no rivals today imo. Tribe called quest are superb.
Cyprus Hill gives me flashbacks to a particularly nasty whitey !
Needs more Big Daddy Kane
Not quite nineties (2001) but this was a big UK rap banger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGFFceZstZA
This thread has and will make my working days better, cheers guys
From Soundbombing Vol 1 in 1997
Big L RIP
This still hits hard but kinda blew my mind aged 13 in 1993.
Probably not everyones cup of tea but I used love this
And this
Big L was amazing. Scarily good. His old mate shot him dead in Harlem. On his front door. He died crying. ****in awful
Anyway,
My favourite Gangstarr tune, mainly cos of the Inspectah Deck guest spot
Gadz, "It was a good day", not heard that in years.
What a fantastic thread!
Speaking of Gangstarr
And Masta Ace
Ed OG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qg979C8PFY
And some Black Moon, so good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eVgV4PzX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JYHV4CtysQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dceorz43MwY
Just because ODB
Fu-Gee-La
Credit To The Nation - remember discovering them when they supported the Levellers back in the early 90s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVtf9tg9fxQ
grum, might have sold you a couple of tunes back in the day on Oldham Street, though you were probably more clued up on hip hop than me behind the counter, (I ordered the drum n bass / jungle) . Many of the above records passed through my hands and ears and a few of them ended up on my shelves.
To Brick's poimt, for every hip hop MC there were ten jungle MC's beck then and what hip hop MC's there were got more opportunities to perform on the drum n bass, jungle nights. Grime was inevitable.
Agree about the lack of funk in a lot of grime, probably because it grew up alongside dup-step, (which was UK garage with the swing taken out of it). Still like alot of grime artists though but more the stuff that leans towards dancehall, afrobeat or reworking old skool garage beats, putting some swing back into the groove.
Some great stuff posted,such a contrast to the clones we are presented with now.
@inkster I did buy some jungle/dnb in the late 90s but I went to uni in Leeds around then. I used to mostly frequent Fat City, plus Eastern Bloc, Vinyl Exchange and a couple of others I can't remember now.
It was a pretty exciting time for me and the most I've ever been into music really.
I was at university of Leeds between 96-99. I just listened exclusively to Wu tang as I was completely obsessed, which was a bit daft as there was so much great music elsewhere. That and Black Crowes for some reason
Also perhaps a reaction to Britpop as well
Obsessed with Wu tang and then they released 'triumph' and I thought it was the biggest pile of shit, although I appreciate the rhymes on it are now seen as classicm just a crap beat IMO
@DirtyLyle - Here is the tracklist:
Dead Prez - Propaganda
Nas - Project Windows
Mobb Deep - Shook Ones
Lost Boys - Renee
PRT Ft KRS One - Conscious Style
GZA - Killah Hills 10304
Blahzay Blahzay - Sendin' Dem Back
The Notorious B.I.G. - Things Done Changed
Group Home - Livin' Proof
Raekwon - Knowledge God
Cypress Hill Feat MC Eiht - Prelude to a Come Up
The Roots - Step Into The Relm
Wu-Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M.
Greg Osby - Mr Gutterman
Similar era but different sound on this mix, some old UK HipHop including Blade, Hijack, Ruthless Rap Assassins, Hardnoise, London Posse etc.
https://www.mixcloud.com/es_kay/hiphop-rewind-vol-3/
You can't do 90s hip hop without a bit of the Dream Warriors...