Darc Mind - The Cellar Session

Darc Mind is my favorite MC-DJ duo. There is nothing else in hip-hop quite like the combination of Web D's beats and Kevroc's rhymes. How curious then that one of their best known songs, indeed their only single ever pressed, wasn't produced by Web D, but by New Jersey's Nick Wiz. When I spoke with the duo about this record, Web said, "Originally on Loud, we had a single deal. They was afraid of us. They didn’t know what to do with us ... They did think our sound was a little rough around the edges, so they sent us to Nick Wiz, and we did the single for them, which was 'Outside Looking In.' They put it out there for radio release. It was almost like a promo. They never released it in the stores or nothing like that. It was mad copies pressed up and they promo’ed the shit out of it."

As so many copies were pressed, the single isn't too hard to find, and in addition to radio and album versions of the song, it contains the instrumental and acapella tracks. Any Kevroc acapella is a thing to behold. Recently, however, it was revealed that these aren't the only versions. In 2025, Nick Wiz included an alternate mix of "Outside Looking In" on his Cellar Selections Volume 11 compilation. When I first heard this, I immediately lost my shit, getting so excited I somehow convinced myself there were actually different lyrics on this version. There aren't, but it's still very dope. Anyway, I'd resolved to do a post about it sometime, and when that time came a few days ago, I went looking for the song again only to find that it's actually not the only Nick Wiz-produced Darc Mind track available. 

In fact, the very first installment of Wiz's Cellar Sounds compilation series, released back in 2008, includes an otherwise unreleased Darc Mind song called "We In This." Additionally, Cellar Sounds Volume 5, released in 2017, has another unreleased track called "Femme Fatale," and Cellar Extras Part 3, from 2019, has an alternate take of that song. While there isn't any information available on these recordings beyond the compilations' limited credits, all of them are dated to 1996, the same year that "Outside Looking In" dropped. So, while Nick Wiz did not immediately respond to a request for comment, we can likely infer that the songs were recorded in or around the same time as one another, perhaps during the same session(s). Could it be that all of these songs were tracked as potential singles, and that a version of "Outside Looking In" was eventually chosen for release? 

If this was the case, I think everyone can agree that out of the three songs, the choice most faithfully represents what we've come to appreciate as the Darc Mind sound. It might not be the darkest of the bunch, but it is the most Darc. As for the others, "We In This" seems to recall the '80s basement parties Kev rocked in his youth, with one of its verses later appearing on "U Da One" off Symptomatic of a Greater Ill, while "Femme Fatale" appears to be a noirish take on "Fine Brown Frame" from Bipolar, with an extra verse and alternate hook. What did Nick Wiz's producorial role entail? How did it align with Web and Kev's vision? We may never know. Regardless, Darc Mind was here.

R.I.P. GM Web D aka X-Ray da Mindbenda aka King Cesar, a Long Island hip-hop institution unto himself

Raymond Davis, better known as Web D, X-Ray, or King Cesar, passed away earlier this month. No details about his death have been made public as far as I can tell. To say the least, his absence is a major loss not only for Long Island rap, but the greater global hip-hop community. 

The fact that Davis was known by three monikers, each with its own discography, only hints at the breadth of his impact. To many, he's best known for his connections with MF DOOM through Operation: Doomsday and the Monsta Island Czars. Lesser known is the fact that DOOM's first single was "recorded & mixed at Web's crib" (as per the center label), or that he served as a mentor to both DOOM and Subroc.

Even lesser known is the fact that Web D had groups called the East Side 5 and the Players Club running around Long Beach and WBAU in the early 1980s, or that he went to high school with Rick Rubin and sold him a mixer at one point. Think about this. When Rick Rubin was in high school, he was a punk rocker. Conceivably, Web D was one of the first people making rap music in Rick Rubin's vicinity. The same Rick Rubin went on to co-found Def Jam, produce some of Run DMC and LL Cool J's biggest hits, and thereby help bring rap music to the masses. Apocrypha or not, let that marinate.

I never met Ray in person, but he'd reached out to me online to premiere two King Cesar videos in 2016, and the "Bloody Knuckles" post remains one of the 10 most viewed in this site's history. Tragically, three of the four artists involved in that song are now gone. I was able to get back in contact with Ray through Dope Folks Records in 2020. He and Kevroc were kind enough to get on the phone with me for 52 minutes during the early days of lockdown. It's one of my favorite interviews I've ever done. Trust that if I'd known at the time about the Players Club or the Rick Rubin connections, I would've stretched the call well past an hour. 

Ray Davis was a true original. It’s hard to define his sound because as a producer, he was able to flip so many different styles, and his influence, even if unrecognized, filtered down to so many other artists. Raw, massive, funky, cinematic, his beats were like themes for drive-in movie concession stands operating out of time, selling exotic hybrids not yet crossed. 

He was one-half of Darc Mind, the best rapper-producer duo your friends, who listen to hip-hop but don't obsess over it the way you do, have never heard of. Fix that. Don’t let his music die with him.

  

B-Wyze - "If U Don't Know"

The world needs more drive-in movie theaters. I don't mean Ace Hardware parking lot pop-ups. I mean massive open areas with multiple fields, each with its own jumbo screen and radio frequency. Kids tossing frisbees in the lanes before the previews start. A nightly tailgate party for art, not sports. Long Island's last, in Westbury, closed in 1998. But the sound of the drive-in movie experience lived on through the turn of the 21st century via the beats of MF DOOM and X-Ray da Mindbenda. This 2005 X-Tacy Radio x-clusive featuring former Legion of D.U.M.E. member B-Wyze is a prime example. 

C.H.H.G. Interviews X-Ray da Mindbenda

I slept on this. Speaking with Uncle E of Long Beach's Get Yourz Posse and The Journalist Sinseer, X-Ray da Mindbenda went into great detail about his early days deejaying and making music in Long Beach. Historic revelations include the following:

• Not only did X-Ray da Mindbenda go to school with Rick Rubin (for those who don't know, Long Beach and Lido Beach share a school district), but Rubin bought a mixer from him.
• Rubin allegedly bit "the whole concept" for the Beastie Boys' "Paul Revere" from a song by Long Beach rapper Double P. "It was the same exact cadence and everything … we even had the beat going backwards at one time."
• Former KMD member Prime recorded a whole album with X-Ray for Idlers records, and Ray still has the masters, "the DAT tapes and all that shit."
• X-Ray also has a tape of an unreleased KMD song from when the group included Rodan (then Jade 1).
• And X-Ray produced Public Enemy's "Tie Goes to the Runner" as well as Serious Lee Fine's "Cut It Up Chip" (with Suga Bear, both uncredited).

Revelations from digging around on Instagram the other night while working on a Spiga tribute post (coming soon): the KMD-MF Doom Way sign didn't get stolen. Somebody crashed into it, and hopefully the City of Long Beach will be putting it back up in short order.

Darc Mind - Darc Mind Wuz Here

Drafting questions for my bucket-list interview with Darc Mind MC Kevroc and producer X-Ray Da Mindbenda, I briefly considered then quickly dismissed the idea of asking when their next project was coming. After all, 13 years separated the duo's 2nd and 3rd albums. So, you can imagine my surprise when, after I asked at the end of the interview if there was anything else they wanted to talk about, X-Ray volunteered that they had another project, an EP called Darc Mind Wuz Here, nearly completed. 

The coda on a brilliant if abbreviated body of work spanning multiple decades, Darc Mind Wuz Here landed at the top of 2022 true to its name; the writing on a crumbling wall, its section still standing strong even if destined for the rubble pile. Kevroc has one of the most marketable voices in the history of Hip-Hop; that it's never been "successfully" sold as such by the music industry is as much a testament to the genius of his lyrics as a casualty of '90s label politics. Simply put, he's not writing for the masses but for himself and those he might inspire. In liner notes and interviews, he cites as his major influences local MCs who never put out records and whose names virtually nobody else would be able to recognize today except maybe for their former neighbors and collaborators. Widespread recognition is not, has never been the point. 

Darc Mind's catalog is essential rap music, an ever-evolving oral tradition. Thus, even the bitter-sweet finality of this exclamatory installment comes with an unambiguous belly laugh. Its final song-proper is unironically titled "Now That I've Arrived." Its last track, "Phantom of the MLK Center," is not so much a rap song as a spoken-word lamentation, a love-hate letter from artist to art. Even after the tag fades from the broken bricks, after the last rhyme is done and the last boom bapped, this never ends. Its very existence is one of continuous advancement. That's what manifested it. That's what it manifests.

Whether or not there's a document to show for it, Darc Mind Wuz Here. "Cats who lived there will know what I'm talking about."

Darc Mind Was Here: Kevroc & X-Ray Reflect on 30 Years "Going Through It"

"Darc Mind was the theme, the thrust and the emphasis..." -Kevroc

Darc Mind has never been a household name, but if there’s ever been a time to get familiar it’s right now, when darkness abounds and mindfulness is needed like never before. Long Beach producer GM Web D aka X-Ray da Mindbenda and Elmont MC Kevroc have been making music together since the late ‘80s. Despite that, until the mid-00s, Darc Mind’s commercial discography consisted of one radio single and two soundtrack appearances. Over the past 15 years, however, the group has been rediscovered, their previously unheard works remastered and released. Still, as for public appearances, there have only been a couple interviews and a few photos. The duo didn’t put out a music video until 2019. If MF Doom is hip-hop’s masked supervillain, Darc Mind are The Watchers, cosmic beings surveying the universe from above, an unseen omnipresence inextricably woven into the culture’s quantum fabric.

Before Roc Marciano and The U.N., before I.G.T., Darc Mind was the first Long Island rap group to sign with Loud Records. In 1996, they were label mates of Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep, with rhymes equally cerebral to the former and beats damn near dustier than the latter. In the early to mid-2000s, when another longtime collaborator of X-Ray da Mindbenda, the aforementioned supervillain MF Doom, became the world's most popular underground rapper virtually overnight, and when his and X-Ray’s Monsta Island Czars crew released an album on Rhymesayers followed by a seemingly never-ending string of solo efforts, MC Kevroc remained on the “Outside Looking In,” his unmistakable bass vocals reserved almost exclusively for Darc Mind, album or no.

I first heard Darc Mind sometime shortly after their previously unreleased ‘90s sessions were issued on LP by Anticon Records in 2006 as Symptomatic of a Greater Ill. It immediately became one of my favorite Long Island rap records (hence one of my favorite albums in general) and has maintained that standing since. In fact, as I’ve aged, the duo’s music has taken on greater significance for me as a listener, the depth of Kevroc’s pitch exceeded by the depth of emotional resonance and lived meaning in his lyrics. Likewise, as more and more Darc Mind records have been unearthed over the years, it’s become increasingly apparent that X-Ray reserved some of his most progressive beats for Kev, that this MC could push this producer’s sound further than could any of the myriad talents in their shared cipher.

Now, a pandemic has engulfed the globe. We’re all inside looking out. Darc Mind has a new album. What Happened to the Art? is a rhetorical question posed by quietly prolific surveyors, as much an overview of the current post-cultural mileu as a retrospect of the moments leading up to this penultimate hour. It’s also their first collection of wholly new material in over a decade. The world might be about to end, but if it must, it first has to know: Darc Mind was here. Let it be known then.

Below: Long Island Rap Records humbly presents an extensive discussion with Darc Mind MC Kevroc and producer X-Ray da Mindbenda, which took place Saturday, March 21, 2020.

Conway - "50 Shots" (prod. by X-Ray da Mindbenda) / Mobb Deep - "Hoodlum" ft. Rakim (X-Ray Remix)

As a Griselda Gang co-founder and recent signee to Shady Records, Conway the Machine has one of the hottest brands in hip-hop right now, and it shows with the rate at which his physical releases go from "limited edition" to "sold out." Fifty or $100 for a CD or vinyl is far from unheard of this world. One piece of wax, which you can still get your hands on at an affordable price, is the 50 Shots 12" released by the UK's Heavy Crates label, featuring Conway over a beat by X-Ray da Mindbenda, with remixes by George Fields and Part Time aka Figure 42. X-Ray was kind enough to break us off with the stream, and as a (sadly) timely bonus I'm including a Mobb remix he dropped four years ago.

The Militant Messenger - "How It All Began"

"How It All Began," by The Militant Messenger, is, at least as far as Discogs can tell, the only project ever released by that artist or by Megadope Records. Containing five songs spread across six tracks (with one remix, one instrumental), it survives today via a lone YouTube stream (below) and the occasional online sale in which the wax fetches anywhere from $20-$90 (currently, it's only available from two overseas retailers that are asking for $57 and $75, plus shipping).

Perhaps one of the draws is the fact that this single is among the earliest productions from Ray "GM Web D" Davis, aka X-Ray Da Mindbenda who's achieved acclaim in the U.S., U.K. and abroad as a producer for DOOM, Monsta Island Czars and Darc Mind, as well as for his solo work, rapping under the name King Cesar. Below, a message worth listening to from him, B. McMoore and T. Campbell.


If you've any other info on this release, please drop a line in the comments.

King Cesar - "Bloody Knuckles" ft. Kamackeris, Kong & Spiga (Video Premiere)

Another woRRRRrrrrld premiere-premiere-premiere off King Cesar's new album All the King's Men, out now on Mindbenda Recordings.

This one features a trio of the aforementioned king's men, including Kamackeris and fan-favored cousins Kong & Spiga, with the latter MC providing the hook. Longtime fans of the Monsta Island Czars know these three well for their contributions to the M.I.C. album Escape from Monsta Island and Cesar's Monster Mixes Vol. 1 & 2, as well as a string of impressive solo projects, including Kamackeris' Artz & Craftz and Kong's Shackles Off.

Here, Cesar plays the cut, allowing an eerie loop to speak on his behalf. The perfectly demented supplement for your Saturday morning cartoons.

King Cesar - "Call Em Ceaz" (Video Premiere)

King Cesar a.k.a. X-Ray da Mindbenda a.k.a. 1/2 of Darc Mind and the producer responsible for putting out a sizable potion of the Monsta Island Czars discography has a new album out called All the King's Men, and Long Island Rap Blog has the distinct privilege of premiering its first video single, "Call Em Ceaz." All the King's Men is something of a reunion for the Czars as many of them lend features to the project. Check out the stacked tracklist below and order your copy here.

King Cesar - Body Of Work

King Cesar's a horned, bearded, fire spitting Monsta Island Czar who incinerates the townsfolk for sport. His Body Of Work, therefore, is like a road strewn with charred corpses, their blackened arms outstretched from ashen cars.

Or something.

Body Of Work is also like a little greatest hits compilation. Several of these songs were on the Monsta Island Czars' Escape album. A few are a bit more rare, like the "Die" remix off Kong's Gorilla Warfare EP.

Looks to be one of several new projects from King Cesar aka X-Ray da Mindbenda for 2016. He also appears on a number of records out now on vinyl via Heavy Crates, and he recently re-upped some old episodes of his X-Tacy Radio Show on mixcloud.

X-Ray Da Mindbenda Talks M.I.C., DOOM, Heavy Crates

In this video, X-Ray da Mindbenda a.k.a. King Cesar discusses the formation of the Monsta Island Czars, as well as his more contemporary work with Heavy Crates Records and some of his career highlights, including engineering Operation Doomsday and contributing to the Soul in the Hole OST. Though no longer availalbe from the label itself, several of the releases mentioned here can still be purchased via X-Ray's Bandcamp page.

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.

Darc Mind - Outside Looking In 12"

Released on Loud Records in 1996, Outside Looking In was the first and only single Kevroc and X-Ray Da Mindbenda put out under the name Darc Mind. It's also the only Darc Mind song that isn't produced by Ray "X-Ray Da Mindbenda" Davis — Nick Wiz is credited as producer, mixer and engineer. Perhaps most notably, it contains the only known Kevroc acappella track, which is a jewel unto itself by virtue of the MC's vocal range. Stream that below and download the Outside Looking In 12" here.

***Update 5/7/26**

Above I'd mistakenly stated that "Outside Looking In" is the only Darc Mind song not produced by X-Ray da Mindbenda. Clearly, at this point, I hadn't heard the Nick Wiz-produced "We In This," which dropped in 2008 but was recorded around the same time as "Outside Looking In," perhaps even during the same session(s). In the years since this post went up, Nick Wiz has put out yet another Darc Mind song as well as alternate version of it. Read more about all of this in my recent post, "Darc Mind - The Cellar Session."

Sugar Bear - Don't Scandalize Mine / Ready to Penetrate

Though celebrated in clubs across the U.K. and Europe, Sugar Bear's "Don't Scandalize Mine" single is today perhaps most significant for containing the first studio production of Ray Davis aka GM Web D aka X-Ray Da Mindbenda, who would of course go on to produce Darc Mind, MF Doom and the Monsta Island Czars among others. The record was also co-produced by Shabazz, who'd go on to provide arrangements for Ice Cube, Public Enemy and Mobb Deep. Sugar Bear The Powerful Powerlord, on the other hand, was basically never heard from again. Ah well. Stream the vocal mixes below and download the full single, containing both instrumentals, here.

Megalon - One In a Million 12"

What we have here is easily one of the best singles of the Fondle 'Em era. The A side features Megalon a.k.a. Tommy Gun rapping over a beat by Metal Fingers a.k.a. MF DOOM. The B side was produced by G.M. Web D a.k.a. X-Ray Da Mindbenda, with singing by the elusive Pebbs a.k.a. Pebbles the Invisible Girl, who's best known for lending vocals to MF's "Doomsday." In fact, that seems to be her only other attributable credit, at least as far as the Internet's concerned. There's actually a singer on the A side as well, with a voice that sounds like it could belong to Pebbs but remains uncredited. Regardless, both sides of this single are Long Beach legend-status, instrumentals included. Which do you prefer? Download and let us know below.

Darc Mind - Antediluvian Vol. 2

Antediluvian Vol. 2 is Dope Folks Records' third release to feature the talents  of Kevroc and X-Ray Da Mindbenda, following Antediluvian Vol. 1 and the Legion of D.U.M.E. '94 D.U.M.E. EP, both of which are all sold out. Limited to just 300 copies, this one is likely to do the same, so get yours now while you still can. All six songs on here, four of which are from '96 and two of which are from '93, can be streamed below via Dope Folks' YouTube channel. Respect due to Darc Mind for archiving all this material and allowing it to see the light of day decades later, to Justin Perkins for remastering it, and to Dope Folks Records for continuing to put out previously unreleased hip-hop of the highest caliber.

Darc Mind - Symptomatic of a Greater Ill

Symptomatic of a Greater Ill by Long Beach's Webb D (a.k.a. X-Ray Da Mindbenda a.k.a. King Cesar) and Elmont's Kevroc is one of the greatest albums in Long Island hip-hop history. Recorded between 1995 and 1997 for Loud Records, it didn't end up getting released until Anticon put it out in 2006. And thank the rap gods they did. I honestly feel that this album could be ranked up there with the likes of Paid In Full and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. An unheralded classic that has only recently begun to get the recognition it deserves, it can be streamed in its entirety below and purchased via X-Ray's Bandcamp.