DJ Surrup & Makeda Iroquois - Demo (Chopped Not Slopped)

It's been nearly seven years since #BarcelonaBrazy3 dropped. Though long gone from the internet, the genre-defying mixtape has stayed in heavy rotation 'round here. Oh, you don't rip streams so you can return to them long past their DMCA-allotted shelf life? That's wild to me. It's been almost three years since Zero Klique songstress Makeda Iroquois released her Demo album and over two since DJ Surrup gave it his Chopped Not Slopped treatment. You could say we slept 'round here. But then, you might also say all time begins and ends with zeroes — what goes around comes around like. 

KILLKURT - KURT MUST DIE 3

Just because you're paranoid do[es]n't mean they're not after you. The best freestyles ever recorded likely live only in a megamarket corporate office's Google Drive folder labeled surveillance footage. May a sentient language model one day learn from it to unironically obsolete another executive position. Get rich and dine tyrant, the most dangerous game. In this sense, KURT MUST DIE 3 recalls an anecdote, mysteriously wiped from the internet, about Marx and Engels walking the streets of London. Passing some royal estate or another, Engels says imagine, one day nobody will live like this anymore, to which Marx goes nah, bro, everyone's going to live like this, like, that's the whole point.

KILLKURT - "New York Fashion Week"

Having the fashion sense of a color-blind 37-year-old Long Islander so fortunate as to have come of age during an era when flannel shirts and Dickies jeans were cool, I've dressed essentially the same since 6th grade, so every 10 years, give or take, I look with the times. When it comes to fits, I run them back compulsively like this latest KILLKURT track. But try taking the remote away when I'm watching my fashion competition programs and see what happens. Come find out!

Fka Kurt Hazard? I'm f the fk. Long Island Rap Records rocked with Hazardous. This song's something else, though. Hi-fi, lo-res audio-virtual catwalk companion clutch gets you in one of seven or eight pockets. (I'm partial to the Dickies carpenter cuts these days.)

The Chopstars & Busta Rhymes - The Coming (ChopNotSlop Remix)

Over a million people bought each of Busta Rhymes' first two solo albums, yet they remain two of the most underappreciated rap records of all time. That's how dope Busta Rhymes is. Even two million sales can't begin to explain the brilliance, the inventiveness, the unprecedentedness. Chopstar DJ Surrup breaks it down nice and slow for those who still haven't caught on.

Midnite Society - "Familiar Stranger"/"Midnite Crypto"

From crypt to crypto, Midnite Society have two new(ish) videos shot by the Diggers — "Familiar Stranger" featuring Dunny Cold Facts and Petey Max and "Midnite Crypto" on which those two are joined by Y2the3rd — both produced by the maestro Shozae.

DJ Surrup - Trappin Out Tha Bandwidth VI

Like Alchemist telling Wapo he'd been living under a rock not knowing about Armand Hammer, I couldn't name one of the artists on this choptape, slowed or not. To be fair, we've all been living under our own rocks for the past 12 months, masked up, time stretched, trapped, hearing only what's on our bandwidth, what the algorithm allows.

How long has it been like this? Has it always?

Oh wait, I think that's A$AP Ferg. Yeah, that's him. How's it going!?

{Slowed down lady laugh}

Grandmilly - Cookies For Santa (Hosted by Shozae)

"This is more than music to me, this shit is everything / Sun, moon, and stars, the science of being / Chris Kringle, I'll call him Santa, that means Satan to me / When you black they be looking at you like you got a disease / So I keep a mask like it's Halloween for the quarantine." Grandmilly and Shozae are back with some seasonal presents of mind, produced by Zenan. This the same duo that brought us 2 Stoopid Dogs, Motel Six, Mausoleum, and Adventureland, so don't be surprised when the whole tape bangs. Great minds think alike. Touch the tracklist to download via Mediafire, or stream below sans outro due to Soundcloud being a tool of neo-capitalist oppression.

Busta Rhymes Freestyles 10 Minutes for UK Radio

 Today feels like a 1995 Busta Rhymes freestyle kind of day.

Roc Marciano: The Flipmode Era

Busta Rhymes & Roc Marciano in Hollywood, circa 1999.

As a Roc Marciano fan who's long aware of his roots in the Flipmode Squad, I've always wondered why the MC seemingly appeared on so few songs with Busta Rhymes, let alone the rest of the crew. Of course, most everyone who's a fan has already heard "The Heist" (also featuring Raekwon and Ghostface Killah) off Busta Rhymes' Anarchy album and "Let's Make a Toast" (featuring Roc, Busta, Chip Banks and Raekwon) off Easy Mo Bee's Now or Never: Odyssey 2000. Thanks to House Shoes, we've now also heard the version of "Modern Day Gangstas" where Roc raps alongside Biggie, Busta and Labba on a Dilla beat. But none of those are technically Flipmode Squad songs, and of course, Roc Marciano isn't on any songs from the crew's only studio album, The Imperial. However, that doesn't mean Marc never appeared alongside the rest of the squad.

In fact, much of Flipmode's output from the late '90s and early '00s is preserved on mixtapes of that era, as well as the crew's guest spots on other artists' albums. Searching Google and YouTube for such Flipmode Squad apperances yielded several songs I'd never heard. Not including "Modern Day Gangstas," I now have a YouTube playlist of 10 tracks featuring Flipmode-era Roc Marciano. Some standouts are the ferocious "Set It On Fire" from Tony Touch's first Piecemaker album (2000) and the "Talk Too Much" freestyle, a Petey Pablo diss that appeared on a P-Cutta mixtape in 2001 (probably on a Kay Slay tape as well, though I'm not sure which one). Perhaps most unexpected is "What It Is (Part II)" off  the Dr. Dolittle 2 soundtrack (yes, Roc Marciano is on the Dr. Dolittle 2 soundtrack). The earliest cut, though, is "Whatcha Come Around Here For" from Violator the Album (1999). I'm betting there are many more, so I'll try to continue adding on to this list in the future. For now, enjoy Flipmode-Era Roc Marciano.

DJ Surrup - Aja (ChopNotSlop Remix)

It's been a minute since we posted something from ZeroKlique's resident remixer DJ Surrup. Thankfully while this site's been quiet, the world's taken notice. In 2019, DJ Surrup surpassed 1 million plays on Audiomack and became an official member of the OG Ron C's Chopstars camp, hence the logo that appears on the covers for all his most recent releases including this one. If you're not familiar, Aja is probably the best known album by '70s jazz-rock outfit Steely Dan. You have most likely seen a dad or uncle grooving to several joints on here, or you are one and that should be you. The album was also a favorite among hip-hop produers of the '80s and '90s, yielding samples for at least one classic Long Island rap record and at least one hit single.

Vanzetti Da Boss - The Tsunami Mix

Vik Shade - Crooklyn Freestyle

Vik Shade goes in over the classic Crooklyn Dogers track produced by Q-Tip.

Grandmilly & DJ Surrup - Toad

A collaboration of Zero Klique MC Grandmilly (left) and DJ Surrup (right) has been long overdue, so when Surrup and Klique creative director BigZeem started tweeting about a triple ZERO radio mix featuring the two artists, it started to sound like such a meeting of the minds might actually materialize. A few days later it did. On October 25, Grandmilly and DJ Surrup released Toad, a three-song EP featuring beats and rhymes by Milly, with scratches and mixing by Surrup under the creative direction of Zeem. A celebration of character, Toad is grimy, sticky and dissectible. Stream/support below, then head to ZeroKlique.com to cop some exlusive merch, including the long awaited Adventureland cassette.

ShoZae - Coffy

Shozae and Grandmilly's long-anticipated Adventureland album drops later this summer on Stones Throw. Look for that, as well as an interview with the duo, coming soon. In the meantime, here's something in the way of a funky followup to Sho's Beneath the Mantle Volume 1.

Midnite Society - "MidniteIzm"

Dunny Cold Facts, Sho da Flo Man, and Petey Max warn, "Don't walk in the park after dark," from what appear to be a basement apartment and the World's Fair Playground in Flushing Meadows. You might remember an earlier, rougher mix of this track from LongIslandRap.Comp Volume 2. In today's edition: an emphasis on the Izm.

Vik Sh@de - Vik

Vik Sh@de currently resides in the Miami area, where, according to one of the illest Reverbnation bios ever, he makes his living as a licensed funeral director. You might hear some mortuary influence in his music, but Miami? Not so much. Vik went to school in Hempstead and Uniondale before heading south during his senior year, and says he "was able to grow up in a very organic time on the Island. He also says "dirt rules everything around me, DREAM" and "rugged like your mama, don't wander far or you'll get smacked up." If you don't get either reference, there's little chance you'll dig this. We can still be cool, though. However, I'm moving to Minneapolis, so not really.

Jimmy Jump - "Wild Thoughts" / "Act Like You"

"Right now there's a youngin from Uniondale that got the golden touch in the booth," Lisaan'dro told me. "His name is Jimmy Jump. Look out for him. He’s only 21 and has the potential to be an extra blown-up superstar. All he got to do is stay focused, keep out of trouble, and the world could be his. He’s the young homie from around the way. I’m going to send you some of his music." Said music streams above.

Rakim Does Dubstep w/ Busta Rhymes & The Lox

Seven thoughts to end Rakim Week IV:

1) Ahhhhhh 2011;

2) Rakim has a Soundcloud, weird;

3) Holy shit, a behind-the-scenes;

4) A three-song live set;

5) And a pretty cool hat;

6) The non-dubstep version though;

7) Busta's definitely paying homage here with his flow and lyrics, a clear nod to "Microphone Fiend."

Busta Rhymes, Notorious B.I.G., Roc Marciano, J. Dilla - "Modern Day Gangstas"

Busta Rhymes, Roc Marciano, Knowledge the Pirate, and Rockwilder
(presumably backstage at Highline Ballroom),
December 26, 2017, via KP's Insta.

Strap in because there's some history behind this one ... or just scroll down to the track. Story goes that the original version of Busta Rhymes and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Modern Day Gangstas" aka "Dangerous MC's" aka "The Ugliest" was recorded over a J. Dilla beat in 1996 for Busta's debut, The Coming, but was shelved because Biggie went hard at Pac in his verse (like borderline self-incriminatory hard), and Bus didn't want to get mixed up in the beef.

Puffy retained the masters, because he's Puffy I guess, and then released a remix of the song over a Nottz beat on Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous 1999 album, Born Again. This version featured Snoop Dogg and Mark Curry, whereas the original Dilla version features Busta Rhymes affiliate Labba. (Peace to The Lost Tapes for shedding light on the above back in 2014.) There's also a 12" promo release of "Dangerous MC's" on Bad Boy, featuring Mark Curry, Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes, with "Who Shot Ya" on the b-side. Discogs doesn't give a date for this release, it's not up on YouTube, and I'm not cracking the seal on my copy, so who knows when that came out or what it sounds like. Alas, none of these versions, as far as anyone knows, featured Roc Marciano.

Fast-forward to December 8, 2017. Roc Marciano Tweets, "Please tell my big bro @BustaRhymes to please find his unreleased song with biggie smalls on the dilla beat with my verse on it." Shortly thereafter, DJ, producer and friend of the late J. Dilla, House Shoes implies that he has the unreleased song in question.

Sure enough, five days later, Shoes kicks off the December 13, 2017 edition of his dublab program, Magic, with a track he lists as "Biggie Dilla Busta Rhymes ft. Flipmode – Modern Day Gangsters / Dangerous M.C.’s." The full program is available to download. All I did was cut out the first song, using Audacity. Stream/download Busta Rhymes and J. Dilla's "Modern Day Gangstas" ft. Notorious B.I.G., Labba and Roc Marciano below.


(P.S. It has been suggested, due to some differences in volume between the Roc verse and the rest of the vocals, that this track was Frankensteined using several different versions of the song. Note the DJ Kay Slay drops over Roc's verse and DJ Whoo Kid drops over Big's, which support that theory, as the Dilla version without Roc appeared on Busta Rhymes and DJ Whoo Kid's Surrender mixtape. But do you really care?)

***Update 2/13/20***
Roc Marciano's manager, Jazz, confirms on Twitter that the Roc Marciano verse comes from a DJ Kay Slay radio broadcast, hence the drops. He adds that it was played only on the radio and did not appear on any Kay Slay mixtapes.

***Update 4/14/21***

Props to Civilian3030 for pointing out that because The Coming was recorded before "Hit 'Em Up," it's highly unlikely, if not impossible, that "The Ugliest" was recorded for those sessions. Alternately it could have been intended for When Disaster Strikes or perhaps another project altogether.

Y2The3rd - "Memory Graveyard"