Ray Robinson - Black Suit

Do you like this? "What do you mean? Do you?" I mean, of course I do. I wouldn't do it otherwise, but there is something to be said for a second set of ears, or in this case, eyes and ears and maybe more than two. Relevant trivia from the Spiderman Wiki: the black suit started as a fan idea. Marvel bought it for cheap. Fans hated it, so Marvel decided to can it, but then fans came around to it, so Marvel kept it around for longer—or something to that effect. The point is most people don't really know what they like aside from the obvious. Then there are people who know all too well. I'm thinking of Henry Rollins living with a massive archive of vinyl and paper records, all meticulously sorted and stored in an acid-free environment, all alone. I figure the trick is landing somewhere in the middle, like creating the Long Island Hip Hop Wiki so that such a thing does exist, but not taking the time to actually build the thing by oneself. After all, I've already compiled the records. You're looking at them. Now hear this.

Ray Robinson - Yasiin Ray

Placing Talking Book and In Control, Volume 1 toward the front of their respective stacks for the first-time shoppers, filing the Juggaknots single in its rightful place, the 12-inch crate, not pulling it or The Leon Thomas Album just to claim doubles: a man got to have a code-type beats.

There are no windows, but every LP in the room costs $5. These are the breaks? To be clear, I don't work here: a man got to have a hobby-type beats. 

Dust settles like collective unconscious. Day vanishes. Emerge into evening like a time traveler. Head home: a man got to eat-type beats.

(See also Essentials.) 

Armand Hammer & JPEGMAFIA - My Thoughts On Barbarians Dying

Extrasensory perception is just extra-sensitive hearing, the ability to tap someone's subvocalization, i.e,. thought patterning its way to speech. Ever go to a rap show and feel like you knew all the words to a song even though you'd only heard it once or twice? Or never? Ever rap along to a song's first performance? Of course, this could go the other way, too—a much more common occurrence I'd imagine. ROME is my favorite album of all time. "Barbarians" runs neck and neck with "Pakistani Brain" for my favorite song on my favorite album of all time. A fun little aside here: one time in Minneapolis, when Armand Hammer was supporting Ceschi, they opened with "Pakistani Brain" (as they often did for a stretch), and I forgot the opening lines to woods' first verse three times in a row. Living out there, imagining some rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin sports teams, I kept wanting to jump into "Whitey swept through like Green Bay," the beginning of his second verse. I believe I only made the mistake aloud once. But I digress. One might could say the way "Barbarians" bled into "Overseas" set the stage for the sequencing of every Armand Hammer album thereafter. It also made putting together this blend of "Barbarians" and "My Thoughts On Neogaf Dying" significantly more challenging than it sounds. In celebration of Peggy's placements all over We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, a phenomenal musical reunion, albeit one potentially overshadowed by DJ Stitches' involvement with the WBDTS Players, here's that blend. After after you might be surprised who’d clap, who scattered, who’d survive, who captured, with the Jew in the rafters. Free every goddamn body. Happy Chanukah.

Cashmere P & Ray Robinson connect like the GWB

Sixth-borough ties between Long Island and New Jersey go back generations, from Redman dropping acid on Erick Sermon's couch to Hammond organ rascals rocking the Austin Boulevard pothole tract. Into this tradition comes the collaboration of Jersey City rapper Cashmere P and Deer Park-by-way-of-Roosevelt producer Ray Robinson. Their latest Seven Bakin arrives in the wake of 2022's Skyberry. Those and more dwell below like boardwalk miscreants. And it's all marvelously deadly as the '90s comics that today's comic nerds now pretend to hate even though their entire mental aesthetic is based off of that shit.

Pozy One - "This Is Life"

Poz lives! מוֹדָה אֲנִי לְפָנֶֽיךָ מֶֽלֶךְ חַי וְקַיָּים. שֶׁהֶֽחֱזַֽרְתָּ בִּי נִשְׁמָתִי ,בְּחֶמְלָה. רַבָּה אֱמֽוּנָתֶֽךָ׃‎. I just finished Snowfall and will politely resist the urge to spoil the final season for all of my friends out of a futile hope that they one day might enjoy it for themselves. But if you've seen it, you know what I'm getting at! Alternate take: never have I ever watched Stranger Things, but from what I can gather it's about how an abandoned top secret government facility out east inadvertently sent a warship back in time. Convince me otherwise. Poz lives! וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃ דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם וְעָשׂ֨וּ לָהֶ֥ם צִיצִ֛ת עַל־כַּנְפֵ֥י בִגְדֵיהֶ֖ם לְדֹרֹתָ֑ם וְנָֽתְנ֛וּ עַל־צִיצִ֥ת הַכָּנָ֖ף פְּתִ֥יל תְּכֵֽלֶת׃ וְהָיָ֣ה לָכֶם֮ לְצִיצִת֒ וּרְאִיתֶ֣ם אֹת֗וֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם֙ אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוות יְהוָ֔ה וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹֽא־תָתֻ֜רוּ אַחֲרֵ֤י לְבַבְכֶם֙ וְאַחֲרֵ֣י עֵֽינֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּ֥ם זֹנִ֖ים אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃ לְמַ֣עַן תִּזְכְּר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֶת־כָּל־מִצְותָ֑י וִהְיִיתֶ֥ם קְדֹשִׁ֖ים לֵֽאלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ אֲנִ֞י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֗ם אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹצֵ֤אתִי אֶתְכֶם֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לִהְי֥וֹת לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִ֑ים אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

Cult Favorite - For Madmen Only (Dicennial Awakening)

For the most part, the salvage sale had the usual fare, not quite scrapyard-ready architectural elements and the like. But in one corner, wedged underneath a broken-legged writing desk, might've that brownish heap of papery rot once someplace, sometime been a cardboard box? Disintegrating on contact like acidic brain receptors, the sheath unfurls a heretofore undisturbed stack of perfectly preserved hand-stamped wax records.

Even unplayed, their contents abound like candles so aged they can stink up a warehouse floor.

Arrow Santi - Roanoke

Make the mystery of the lost (abandoned?) colony of Roanoke a powerful metaphor for emotional (romantic?) isolation. 

Challenge accepted, said Arrow Santi to (himself?) the universe and anyone in it who would listen. 

Like the Croatoan tree carving or that one engraved rock dug from a swamp in 1937 (not the 50-some-odd subsequent findings proven forgeries), the songs from the Roanoke EP carry the weight of historic artifacts. 

This is history as in one man's story, the lōn in colony.

Murgolo De ArchiMago - "Psych Eval"

Typically submissions to this website include a song or a longer project possibly accompanied by a brief bio of the artist. Murgolo De ArchiMago submitted what can only be described as a screed attesting his undying love for hip-hop. No music. He asked me to hook him up with a producer. Asked for samples of his work, he followed up with a string of freestyled voice recordings made right there on spot. I put him in touch with a producer. I don't know what came of that. But here's a song he sent out of the blue the other day.

Zilla Rocca - Favors Are Bad News ft. Armand Hammer (prod. by Disco Vietnam)

Pozy One - "The Crazy Never Die"

Break Plissken - The World's A Graveyard and Every Day Is Halloween

Pozy One - "Train to Heaven" / "One of Those Days"

Pozy is not the best rapper on Long Island, but he's definitely one of the most consistently creative and courageous. The kid is constantly pushing the envelope, and it's one he stuffed and sealed by his own damn self, which is something you have to respect. Here are two new visuals from the Pozy One, with an assist from Rob-O on the first.

Elucid - Valley Of Grace

translated from the dutch word genadendal, valley of grace was a haven for runaway slaves in present cape town, za

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

i wrote and produced vog in joburg & capetown during their own controversial presidential elections

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

the white supremacist/colonialist paralells in za were immediately evident and arguably more violent than whats experienced in the us

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

being in a place 23 yrs removed from apartheid its impossible to not be acutely aware of race

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

watching america burn from distant shores/i learned to walk hot coals before i left the east coast

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

i knew what it was gonna be when i touched back in america and making vog synthesized alot of emotions for me

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

every song was born from conversations with za born black folk in bars cabs airports markets squares restaurants

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) January 30, 2017

Elucid - "I Want A President"

Elucid takes a cue from Mykki Blanco by covering Zoe Leonard's "I Want A President," but takes it a step further by producing an instrumental accompaniment.

I also have a poem for you. Here goes:

Panic attack
Packing my bags
O Canada

"Yo, I met Parish Smith today, man."LIRB Interviews Elucid

Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of sitting down with rapper/producer Elucid in his East New York home for an extensive interview with Tiny Mix Tapes. Our conversation focused mainly on his 2016 solo album, my front-runner for AOTY, Save Yourself, but among its many brilliant lyrics we discussed, there were two lines I asked about specifically because of their relevance to Long Island. Read what he had to say and watch the videos for "Son Still Shine" x "Obama Incense" off Save Yourself and the title cut off Never 2ndary, the new mixtape by his crew Lessondary.


I wanted to ask a couple things just on some Long Island shit. "Babies wave guns out in Plainview?"

Ha! Yo, definitely, I wasn’t thinking Plainview, Long Island, BUT, yeah, that’s kind of interesting. I’ve never thought about that.

You weren’t thinking about that at all?

I wasn’t. I was thinking plain view like broad day. That is kind of ill. Nobody’s waving guns out in Plainview, I don’t think. Did Plainview take a turn for the worse?

Well, that’s what I thought was funny about it.

That’s hilarious. Ahhhh, that’s great. That’s funny as shit.

It’s one of my favorite lines!

On the way out the Bar Mitzvah, b-dddddd-dah.


And the other one is "Lest They Forget," where you meet Parish Smith in a fast food restaurant in the boondocks?

That was a fact. First job: Deer Park location of McDonald’s, Deer Park Avenue. I’m fucking behind the counter, sweeping up, and Parish Smith just walks in and orders a Big Mac Extra Value Meal super-sized, and he got like two apple pies. All I had the time to say was like, "Yo, what up? You’re dope."

How old were you?

Like 15, 16, I’d just gotten working papers, literally the first real job. I just gave him a dap and that was it, straight up. That area is wild, though. It’s got a lot of weird kind of stars.

There was a studio, I don’t know if it’s still there anymore.

Charlie Marotta was there in Deer Park. Charlie Marotta engineered all of the EPMD records, so yeah, that’s in Deer Park, but Lobo Studios in Dix Hills, the next town over. Guys like Nas were recoding at Lobo, DMX was recording at Lobo. I don’t know why guys were trooping in from the City to record in Dix Hills.

It’s always been like that. Hempstead had 510 Gant Studios where tons of people recorded.

Yeah, all of these guys are out there, so I would randomly see rappers of that time.

I think it’s just because engineers, by and large, are just regular dudes who are audio professionals. They live out on the Island and open up studios. It’s always been that way. If you look at the credits on psych rock records from the ‘60s and ‘70s, you’ll see weird studio names in random villages on Long Island.

Yeah, yeah, I thought that was really dope. I mean, I don’t know what the fuck [Parish Smith] was doing out there. He was out there in the McDonald’s eating bad food, and I was like, "Yo, I met Parish Smith today, man."

Elucid - "Colonizer's Corpse" (Laptop Demo Series)

colonizers corpse (laptop demo series) pic.twitter.com/KkvqQSbtYS

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) July 21, 2016

Update from Elucid on sojourn in South Africa: "I'm in Madiba's prison cell having a panic attack / Don't look me in the eye right now."

Elucid - "Dutch Wax"

dutch wax pic.twitter.com/wneJoLVlrw

— E L U C I D (@elucidwho) July 8, 2016

Elucid and his girl took a trip to Africa. Or as he said, "I'm six hours ahead of my old self. I've got two winters, no summer and a bad bitch."

Elucid - "Heavy Rotation" ft. Jay Supreme

With Elucid's Backwoodz Studioz solo debut, Save Yourself, just five days away, now seems as good a time as any to unearth some music from the sessions that mark the true beginning of this young old veteran's recording career. If you've been following this site for a while, you might've already heard Elucid's early '00s hometown anthem "Strong Island Part One," which was produced by his uncle, DJ Stitches. What we didn't realize when we posted that song was that it came from the rapper's first EP, a four-song affair called The One In Man, recorded and produced entirely by DJ Stitches. Elucid told me about this release some time after the song was posted here, but it was actually an old post from Stitches' now-defunct blogspot that put me on the trail of the song you're hearing here today. Much linkage has disappeared from THE REAL DJ STITCHES PRESENTZ WAXWERKZ over the years, so the EP itself is no longer available (not there at least), but the site does still show the tracklist, which led me to the Amazing Tunes link above. (I don't know wtf Amazing Tunes is either, but apparently you can download this cut for £0.79 via Paypal from there.) Rewind then Save Yourself April 15.

Elucid - Bird Eat Snake // The Love Offering

Save Yourself dropping April, 2016.

Pozy One - "Next 2 U" / SNAKES ON CRACK

This dude Pozy One is really on one. Dude shaved his head, then posted a 9-minute music video for a song from 2013, a 15-minute "behind the scenes" video called SNAKES ON CRACK (episode 1), a 50-minute rant, a beat tape by Alan Wattage called 日本のディスコ and god knows what else. Regardless of how you feel about his music, nobody can deny that Pozy is a true character.