MeccaGodZilla - "Tread" ft. thekeenone & Eric Bobo

MeccaGodZilla was a flagship producer for billy woods' Backwoodz Studioz, Eric Bobo was a percussionist on Ill Communication, and thekeenone was the first person to express to me the value of streaming platforms for sharing one's music. This was in the days of divshare, which still exists somehow—wild. All of these artists are also much more than these minor credits. And in 2008 they coalesced for a Bobo song soon to appear on MeccaGodZilla's compilation, Hidden Jewels of Mecca.

Thekeenone obliterates everything here, on some BFG-9000 clear the room, take no prisoners shit. 

88-Keys' The Death of Adam, the Long Island Hip-Hop Album Co-Produced by Kanye West

Where have I been all month? Listening to Donda of course. J/K, just "Lord I Need You" on repeat. Nah but really work, birthday, work, ring shopping, etc. That album is great, though, and that's thanks in part to West Hempstead's 88-Keys, whose production appears on six tracks, including standouts "Jail," "Heaven and Hell" and "New Again." Of course, to those who know, Kanye's chemistry with 88-Keys comes as no surprise; the man contributed to "Blood on the Leaves" and "No Church in the Wild." Less well known is that Kanye executive produced 88-Keys' only solo album, 2008's The Death of Adam. Fun fact: Ye also rapped on it, on the song "Stay Up! (Viagra)," in which, to the point of the title, he rhymes, "Try imagining something passionate / Between you, Cassie and Kim Kardashian / Maybe that'll work when you get to hit that ass again." Talk about prescient!

All jokes aside, this album has aged really damn well, musically, lyrically and conceptually. As for its ties to Long Island, on the one hand, it's any high school's toilet stall graffiti as a brilliant album; on the other, there's a clear through-line from 3 Feet High & Rising to the entire backpack era to this. The Death of Adam retains all the humor of the former while building on the record crates of the latter.

  

Prafit - "Nice Weather" (prod. Disco Vietnam)

Now that the temperature's risen, it feels like an appropriate time to post this feel-good chune by Wyandanch MC Prafit and Huntington Station producer Disco Vietnam. Fun fact: this song was recorded by LI legend Nate Tinsley. Do the knowledge.

Tha Connection - Moon Water

In honor of tonight's super blood moon eclipse (which is happening right now -- go outside), here's Tha Connection's 2008 Goon Trax album, which was released at the time in Japan only. Now available via iTunes. For the record, Hus' opening verse one of his best to date, possibly.

Tommy Gunn & Ray Long - The Nickel Bag

Released in a "VERY limited pressing of on CD" by Godsendant Music and Backwoodz Studioz in 2008, The Nickel Bag was pushed as Tommy Gunn's followup to his 2004 album, A Penny for Your Thoughts, released under his Monsta Island Czar moniker, Megalon. You can see the similarity in the cover art, done by Ravage the MeccaGodZilla. Also like that album, the production here was handled almost entirely by X-Ray da Mindbenda, except for one track, "5 in Change," which was produced by Da Muslim Brother from Germany. The main difference between the two albums is that for this one Tommy was joined by his brother Raylong, who contributes vocals to about half the songs.According to Backwoodz, the duo of Tommy and Ray actually went by the name Hearts ov Darkness, although, as you can see, that group name didn't appear on the album cover. Another important difference, for our purposes at least, is that while A Penny For Your Thoughts is selling for $50+ on CD via Discogs and still available on iTunes, this album is no longer purchasable either digitally or on CD. Hence, stream a couple standout tracks, including the MF DOOM diss "You Was My Son," below and download The Nickel Bag in full here.

Tha Connection - Universal Dominance

A few years before Hus Kingpin built Digi Crate Records to be the international platform it is today, he and SmooVth were working with a number of different labels including Libyus Music, Goon Trax, and Domination Recordings, which released The Connection's Universal Dominance in 2008 as a free download. Somewhat surprisingly, this album is still available to stream and download. And though Hus "tha" Kingpin and SmooVth "Dude" have clearly honed their skills since, the raw artistic talents were already there, as you'll hear. Also appearing on this album were several artists with whom Hus and SmooVth are still collaborating today, including rapper Rozewood and producers SciFi and DJ Kryptonite. Download Universal Dominance here.

Kong - Shackles Off (Re-Release)

Originally released in 2008 by Classified Recordings, Shackles Off is the debut solo LP by Monsta Island Czars member and Long Beach native Kong aka Kongcrete. The album — to which Freeport's MeccaGodZilla contributed cover art, five beats and a guest verse — was reissued this week by Mecca's own label, Manafest Vision Media, and is now available on mp3 via iTunes, Google Play and ONErpm. CD copies are coming soon too.

Below you can stream the entire album, as well as a fan-made video for "Ultimate Sacrifice," one of the MeccaGodZilla-produced songs that appears on it.

Sense Wondah - While You Were Sleeping

Sense Wondah first came to my attention in the MySpace days. Back then, before Roc Marciano's solo career took off, before I'd even heard of Tha Connection, Sense was easily my favorite contemporary MC on the Island. He hasn't been too active since 2008's While You Were Sleeping, at least not in terms of new releases, but it looks like he'll be doing a couple benefit shows in August. More on those later. For now, enjoy the aforementioned mixtape, which is streaming below via datpiff and can be downloaded directly from All Business Records.