Keda Face - MOTIVATED

Keda Face's recent birthday bash was deejayed by the rap radio institution, Funk Master Flex. Thus, please feel free to read this post in his voice(💣🔥). New York, I'm so serious right now (💣🔥). I've been doing this a long time, OK? For those who don't know, Long Island is very much in the building. But there's one rapper from Long Island in particular right now, a young lady by the name of Keda Face (💣💣🔥🔥), who has really impressed me. She's a lovely young woman who is very much about her business, OK. And that business ... is bars (💣💣💣🔥🔥🔥). {Growling.} Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, please understand I am so MOTIVATED right now (💣💣🔥🔥🔥).

One Single, Many Sides: A Closer Listen to Burnt Clique's Dipladoekisss / Wild Wild East

Before delving any deeper, due credit must be given to the always dope HipHop-TheGoldenEra blog, whose coverage of "Wild Wild East" brought Burnt Clique and their sole single to my attention in the first place. Reading about and listening to J-Boogie the Journalist, Capital the Crimelord, and S-ON the Terrible, I thought I recognized at least one of the Burnt Clique members from somewhere, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I kept digging.

As the post linked above explains, Burnt Clique dropped their debut single on Blank Records in 1996. As far as one can tell, it's also their only single. Burnt Clique also released The Album on CD in 2004, but without any audio floating around at present date, "Dipladoekisss" and "Wild Wild East" would appear to be the only tracks you can hear from them, a shame as they only leave the listener wanting more.

Thankfully, the post linked to J-Boogie's Facebook page, where we find the rapper today continues to release music under his given name, Jay Hill. Moreoever, he continues to rep Long Island, with anthems such as "Long Island State of Mind" off his 2013 mixtape, Strong Like the Island I'm From (the title referencing a Posdnuos line from "The Bizness"). Jay has most definitely updated his sound since 1996 — check out "No Benefits" released just a few days ago, for example — but the unmistakable voice and talent he showcased on "Dipladoekisss" remain sharp as ever. As nice as this was to hear, though, I wasn't sure it was ringing the same bells that I thought I'd heard on first hearing Burnt Clique, so further I searched.



And as it turns out, Capital the Crimelord actually has connections to two of Long Island's most prominent artists, Biz Markie and R.A. the Rugged Man. In talking about his song, "Stanley Kubrick," off Rawkus' popular Soundbombing 2 compilation, R.A. told Rap Genius, "The real producer of that beat is Capital the Crime Lord, out in Long Island." Indeed, you can hear Cap's name shouted out on the song. R.A. Continued: "[Capital] was a big rapper, one of the better rappers in my neighborhood growing up. A little white, Italian and Puerto Rican kid, he rapped on Biz Markie's album. His name's Capital T. He rapped on I Need a Haircut. He rapped on Diamond Shell's album. He was a really, really good rapper/producer, you know?" Well, if we didn't, we definitely do now. In addition to appearing alongside Biz and Biz's brother from Brentwood, Diamond Shell, on 1991's "Take It From the Top," Capital T raps with both of them on "Bugged Out Day at Powerplay" off Diamond Shell's 1991 album, The Grand Imperial Diamond Shell. How's that for some history? Actually, there's even more...

Capital the Crime Lord did more than produce for R.A. the Rugged Man. He also lent vocals to a bonus mix of Rugged Man's 1996 single with Sadat X, "50,000 Heads" and provided scratches on R.A.'s 2001 single, "Don't Wanna Fuck Wit," featuring Havoc. And not only that! Seven years back, while promoting his Legends Never Die album, R.A. did a reddit "Ask Me Anything" session in which one participant asked how he developed his flow or if it came naturally. Rugged Man responded, "nah.. when I was like 12 my boy Capital the Crime Lord was older than older than me and told me yo! you got an ill rhyme but you dont got no flow. And we sat in his basement rocking to beats and he taught me how to flow like a pro and ever since I was obsessed with improving on it." So, Capital T the Crime Lord not only appeared on multiple tracks with Biz Markie and produced one of R.A. the Rugged Man's best known songs — he also helped teach R.A. how to rap!



It's amazing how much history can be connected to one 12" VLS. Maybe that's why it fetches up to $150, but more likely it's just because the raps and beats contained therein are every bit as fiery as the sticker would have you believe. Here's hoping that The Album surfaces sometime soon along with more from Jay "Boogie the Journalist" Hill, Capital T the Crimelord, and S-ON the Terrible.

Clarity & Buddy Holly Flight Simulator - Hot Wire Heart

If you've ever grown tired of programmed beat patterns and their live-drummed alternatives and wondered what it might sound like for an MC to rhyme over instrumentals that aren't necessarily immediately identifiable as belonging to one genre or another, well, there are actually plenty of examples of that out there, but, without knocking any of those, this one sounds like it wasn't forced into existence as much as it was called up out of it. There's syncopation and groove and reverence for psychedelics, yes, but not necessarily an indebtedness to that milieu, or any other, for one gets the sense that any bill of service rendered, psychological or otherwise, has now been settled in full. By all means, name your price though.

GEDA & Grand Wizzard MC - "Kenn vs. R.Y.U." (Long Island Rap Exclusive)

An exclusive world premiere brought to you by the Green Enk Society label and a bunch of companies that presumably do things, "Kenn vs. R.Y.U." features Bay Shore titans GEDA and Grand Wizzard MC in out-the-box-style home-arcade entertainment, like kick back, take two Hadokens to the face, and call it an evening. Side note: Grand Wizzard MC is a classy name, and I dig it.

Diabolic - Lost Tracks From Kavork's Crates

If you're unfamiliar with the Bandcamp page of Conceptual Elements member Sargon, get familiar because it's a treasure trove of Big Trouble in Little China-type "where'd you get that?" tapes ... like this collection of undated Diabolic tracks, some of which sound like they're even older than the Triple Optix EP. From unrelenting, multi-packed punches to lo-fi tape hiss, there's plenty here for the nostalgia-minded hip-hop purist to enjoy: demos, collabos, "Beats for Bolic," even a "Cipher Example" over a DJ Krush beat, and a super-duper old off-top freestyle over a Company Flow beat (track 13). It's this cut that hints Kavork may be from Bay Shore (also Sargon's neck of the woods), so let's go with that for now...

Green Enk Society Presents GEDA - It's Always Sunny in New Amsterdam (Premiere)

Pour out some riot punch because Long Island Rap Blog is proud to bring you the latest release from Bay Shore's Green Enk Society, It's Always Sunny in New Amsterdam by GEDA the Genius. A five-song EP about life in these New York streets, it features DJ Amazin (former DJ of the late Chinx), as well as Dos Cold, Grand Wizzard MC and Munch Pilot. But with lines like "These cops ain't nicer than me / I live my life in these streets, they just work 9-5 in these streets" and "My president is black whenever it's convenient / Fam got my back as long as I never need shit," GEDA clearly has the bars to hold down top billing. To hear more from GEDA and the Green team, check them out at greenenkgallery.wordpress.com.

Meditation Chamber Recording Presents: Olympus Monz Full Anthology

Long Island's local hip-hop scene is in a very healthy place right now, with probably enough talented MCs, DJs and producers to create a little hamlet unto itself, but it hasn't always been like this. In the mid '00s, it seemed like there was really only one collective out here that was making a sound that was both unique and united. That is to say, each member of the group had his own sound, but the group itself had its own sound as well. That group was of course Conceptual Elements.

I'm not sure how many members there were at the height of the group, or how many of them remain active today, but much of he group's extensive discography has been posted to member Sargon's bandcamp page. The release above, for example, consists of 261 tracks featuring Bay Shore's Sargon and Copiague's Olympus Monz. Dig in.