Earthquake - WKCR Freestyle December 15, 1994

Last month, we (re)introduced readers to Earthquake, a little-known Long Island rapper who used to roll with KMD and later, DOOM. Not much else is known about him, except that DOOM suggested in an interview that he was from Freeport. The song "Checkmate" featuring both rappers, might call this origin into question as Quake shouts out Long Beach numerous times in his verses, but I was willing to take DOOM's word for it, for the time being at least. Mostly, I just wanted to hear more from Earthquake. Which brings us to today and another installment of that sacred radio program, the Stretch and Bobbito show. On the December 15, 1994 show, Stretch and Bob's featured guests were Born Allah and none other than Earthquake, who spent the majority of his airtime rapping live in the studio. It should be noted that he once again shouts out Long Beach extensively, even rapping "born and brewed in Long Beach," though he does give it up to cousins in Freeport as well, so even if DOOM misspoke or was misquoted in the aforementioned interview, it's safe to say Quake reps for both areas. For your listening pleasure, I've clipped the Earthquake freestyle session and uploaded it to Soundcloud (above). Props go out to HipHop-TheGoldenEra blog for uploading the original broadcast, and Serch4Beatz over at the Philaflava forums for passing it along to him. In addition to giving Earthquake some airtime, Stretch and Bob played one of Quake's solo songs later in the show. You can check that tune out below courtesy of YouTuber Senutunes.
 

MF Doom - Checkmate ft. Earthquake

"Checkmate" is an unreleased MF Doom track from 1994 that found its way online in 2012 thanks to the Dirty Waters blog. As you can see, the song also features an MC by the name of Earthquake (also formatted as Earth Quake sometimes). Not much is known about Earthquake except that he also appears on the classic KMD song "Stop Smokin' That Shit" off Black Bastards, and that he's from Freeport, or at least that's what Doom told author Brian Coleman during an interview for his book, Check the Technique Volume 2: More Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies. Regardless, the song depicts Daniel Dumile at an interesting phase of his career, before he'd made the transition from Zev Luv X to Doom (hear how he refers to himself several times here) but after Subroc's death and the final Black Bastards recordings. In that regard, it's one of a kind.
 
If anyone out there has any additional info on Earthquake, please let us know in the comments.