There are a ton of '90s rap acts that released killer singles but never dropped an album. NYC duo Brothers of the Mind just might be the quintessential '90s rap act that never dropped an album. Consider their names. Brothers of the Mind consisted of DJ Krazy Kraz and MC Lyrical Freestyle. I rest my case.
That being said, their music, while very much of its era, also holds up exceedingly well today and not only because '90s rap has come back into vogue. Krazy Kraz and Lyrical Freestyle were clearly skilled in their craft, which would explain why, according to Kraz, in April 1992, renowned DJ, engineer and producer Pal Joey judged them best out of 85 acts he auditioned for a deal.
The group released two singles, both produced by Pal Joey and recorded in his Astoria studio, The Temple. However, apparently they did a lot more songs with Joey than that, as, in 2010, his Foot Stompin Records issued a compilation of 15 Brothers of Mind tracks Pal Joey produced between 1992 and 1996. In addition to showcasing the unsung talents of both Krazy Kraz and Lyrical Freestyle, the project demonstrates that Pal Joey clearly knew his way around a rap tune. It's likely Kraz also had a hand in the production, as he worked as an assistant engineer and co-producer with Joey during the time these songs were recorded (you can also hear Kraz scratching on a bunch of instrumental 12 inches Joey dropped in this period). Regardless of who did what on which beat, it seems the project was very much Pal Joey's baby since he still put it out 14 years after the fact. Eleven years since then, it's my pleasure to share it here with you.
Joseph "Pal Joey" Longo's name rings loudest in halls of house, but the Central Islip raised, SUNY Farmingdale educated DJ has never been shy about his hip-hop roots. After coming up making pause tapes, he was present for the recording of many a classic as second engineer at Power Play Studios, went on to produce for the likes of Boogie Down Productions and even claims to have done demos with a young Nas. Below, four hip-hop mixes from 1993, '94, '95 and '96, all taken from Pal Joey's Mixcloud page. If you're unfamiliar, definitely check that out along with his online "diary."
In the annals of Long Island rap, Sidney "S.I.D." Reynolds is probably best known as a protege of Rakim, one half of the group Sid & B-Tonn and founder of the short-lived Crimedanch Cartel. However, his mark on the music industry is much bigger than his local ties.
Lyor Cohen helped link S.I.D. with New Jersey rapper Nikki D for whom he produced the hit song, "Dadddy's Little Girl," which reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot Rap Singles Chart. With this credit on his resume, S.I.D. was called on to produce or remix numerous singles, including songs by Slick Rick and Freddie Foxx. He saw perhaps his greatest success as the in-house producer for the Flavor Unit, doing beats for a large chunk of Queen Latifah's Gold album, Black Reign,as well as songs for Apache and Naughty By Nature.
In listening through his discography, it occurs to me that a sizable portion of it — including several of his biggest singles — featured him producing or remixing songs for female rappers and singers. This might have been a result of labels hiring him in an attempt to duplicate his successes with Nikki D and Queen Latifah, or it could be due to his penchant for sampling soulful jazz songs that lent themselves to the '90s R&B sound, or maybe he was just a lady's man. Whatever the reason, I put together the following playlist showcasing 11 songs he produced or remixed for female singers and rappers. (Oddly enough, not one of these ladies was from Long Island.) For more information on S.I.D., I encourage you to read his interviews with Jesse Serwer and Jaz.
Now here's something that's both an interesting find and a shining example of how YouTube can simultaneously be one of the best and worst platforms on the internet. Above is a 9-minute clip from Tony Touch's Hip-Hop 35 mixtape, featuring a here-untitled track by De La Soul, followed by Tha Alkoholiks' "Bullshit," with plenty of Tony's cuts included. One of the YouTube commenters identifies the song as the ostensibly unreleased "Come On, Yeah," based apparently on the fact that the words for that song on several lyrics sites match the words here. The commenter also takes issue with Tony's scratching, saying it "ruins the song." Which, I mean, come on... Further, if we check the Discogs page for Hip-Hop 35 (which, to be fair, might not have been around eight years ago when this was posted on YouTube), we find that the title of the song is "Ego Trippin' (Part 3) (Egoristic Mix)."
(So, you might ask, why even post the YouTube stream if I've found the source? Simply because this is how it came to my attention in the first place and I like Tony Touch's scratching.)
Far from unreleased, "Ego Trippin' (Part 3)" appears on the Ego Trippin' (Part Two) single, which was released by a well known record label in 1993 as the second single off De La Soul's third LP, Buhloone Mind State. (Fun fact: Discogs catalogs 21 editions of this single!) However, unlike the A side's LA Jay Remix, "Ego Trippin' (Part 3)" is not really a remix at all. "Ego Trippin' (Part 3)" is a whole other song, with completely different lyrics from Pos and Dave and music by Xavier Hardgrove aka Spearhead X, who's credited with co-remixing the track along with The Beat Messiahs. Curiously, this is the Messiahs' only credit on Discogs. Hardgrove, however, you might also recognize as the producer of "Dinninit" off De La Soul's next album, Stakes Is High. There's also another connection to Stakes Is High here, as Posdnuos spits a line that would later appear on that album's intro ... I won't give it away, though, as his whole verse is utterly fantastic.
Speaking of incredible and incredibly overlooked Posdnuos lines from this single that would pop up elsewhere, later on the B side we get to "Lovely How I Let My Mind Float," which features Biz Markie and also does not appear on any other De La Soul albums (though it was on some versions of the Breakadawn single). Here, Posdnuos drops another ingenious couplet that might sound somewhat familiar: "Now, I'm a rap fan who never saw Bam rock the parks in the Bronx / But I still snap skulls in the dark." Can you remember where else you've heard that?
Here's a hint: it's not on a De La Soul song — in fact, it's not from a Pos verse at all...
...Give up?
Ras Kass delivers those lines verabatim as the hook of "Sonset," his response to the East Coast/West Coast beef, which appeared on his debut album, Soul On Ice, from 1996. For those keeping track, that's three years after this single was released, so there can be no doubt as to who came up with the bars. However, before we accuse Ras Kass of biting, we should consider the context. Again, "Sonset" is Ras Kass's response to the East vs. West bullshit that had engulfed hip-hop in 1996. Like many other rappers, Ras Kass took a critical view of the situation, basically at once representing the West while showing love for the East. Quoting De La Soul on the hook — and not just any De La Soul song but a semi-obscure, three-year-old b-side to "Ego Trippin' Part 2," itself a critical forerunner to the East/West beef, homage to the Ultramagnetic MCs' classic, and really a gushing love letter to the hip-hop medium — could have been Ras Kass's way of showing just how much of a "rap fan" he truly was at heart. As if to say, "If you get this reference and what it stands for, you really get where I'm coming from."
It took me 24 years to get it, but I see you, Ras Kass.
Returning focus to De La Soul, I find it somewhat odd that neither of these songs were included by the group on their Impossible Mssion TV Series Pt. 1 compilation. Maybe they were saving them for Part 2? Maybe they were deemed insufficiently obscure? Or maybe the masters were lost in the label's vaults? At any rate, "Ego Trippin' (Part 3)" did find its way onto De La Soul Rarities & Remixes, which is apparently a GZ Vinyl bootleg, as well as onto a fan-made mix by one El Rey, wishfully titled Impossible Mission pt. 2: The Search for AOI3. In the spirit of rap-nerdom, I'll leave you with that. (Also, props to Montreal's WEFUNK radio show archive, from which both of the above mp3s were ripped, and to Tony Toca of course.)
R.A. The Rugged Man appeared on the Stretch & Bobbito Show at least three times by my count: May 20, 1993; October 20, 1994; and March 20, 1997 (dates from playlists on Stretch & Bobbito blog.)
As funny as the freestyles are, the on-air banter is equally hilarious, like in '97 when R.A. discussed living with brother-in-law One-Eyed Jake, or in '94 when he (successfully?) propositioned a woman in the studio before leaving.
Stream the '97 & '94 freestyles below. Download all three appearances here.
To answer the question posed by this Long Island hip-hop cult classic, a Rumpletilskin is any of the three Uniondale MCs named Shanow "The Remedy Man," Jeranimo and Capital LS, and the DJ, DJ RPM. A Rumpletilskin could also be a former dancer for Leader of the New School (Jeranimo), or a former roommate of Busta Rhymes himself (Capital LS).
No matter which group member you're talking about, a Rumpletilskin is a hip-hop artist who left an indelible mark on the face of '90s hip-hop before fading into obscurity, so much so that the group's RCA Records LP has never been reissued in any format. With that said, we're happy to include their song "I-N-I" on LongIslandRap.Comp V1 and invite you to stream the videos for "Attitudes" and "Is It Alright" below, while you download What is a Rumpletilskin?, which we've packaged with scans of the album's review from the September 1993 issue of The Source, courtesy of HipHop - The Golden Era.
Brian Coleman includes in his latest book, Check The Technique Volume 2: More Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies, a chapter on KMD's classic sophomore album, Black Bastards. Over the weekend, he put this chapter online via Cuepoint. Most probably already know the basic story of KMD, a rap group that consisted of MF Doom (then known as Zev Luv X) and his brother Subroc, who died in 1993, but Coleman, a true hip-hop historian, goes beyond the basics, sharing intimate knowledge gleaned from primary sources like Pete Nice and DOOM himself.
A thorough track-by-track breakdown of Black Bastards follows firsthand accounts of the meeting at which Zev was informed that Elektra wouldn't be releasing the album, as well as heart-wrenching details of Subroc's wake. This is the stuff of legend.
This EP collects the vocal tracks from DJ Stitches and Rhyme Va-Lor's long out-of-print "These Are The Dayz" / "Top Emcee" 12-inch, as well as five previously unreleased artifacts of early-mid '90s Long Island hip-hop, each of which evoke a particular kind of creepiness, perhaps presaging Rhyme Va-Lor's coming work with Prince Paul and Superstar in Horror City.
This Dope Folks Records release is "limited to 300 copies and will never be repressed," so give it a listen below and get it here while you still can.
Antediluvian Vol. 2 is Dope Folks Records' third release to feature the talents of Kevroc and X-Ray Da Mindbenda, following Antediluvian Vol. 1 and the Legion of D.U.M.E. '94 D.U.M.E. EP, both of which are all sold out. Limited to just 300 copies, this one is likely to do the same, so get yours now while you still can. All six songs on here, four of which are from '96 and two of which are from '93, can be streamed below via Dope Folks' YouTube channel. Respect due to Darc Mind for archiving all this material and allowing it to see the light of day decades later, to Justin Perkins for remastering it, and to Dope Folks Records for continuing to put out previously unreleased hip-hop of the highest caliber.
