Rakim - The Last Platoon

For day three of Rakim Week, we turn to The Lost Tapes blog, which, in September 2014, posted a dynamite compilation of unreleased tracks recorded in the mid '90s between Eric B. & Rakim's split and the beginning of The God's solo career. In fact, it's almost an injustice to call this a compilation, because it is so cohesive and well-sequenced that it sounds like it could just as easily be a true-to-life unreleased album. As lost-tape compiler Claaa7 writes, "It works as the perfect bridge between Don't Sweat The Technique and The 18th Letter." Download The Last Platoon, listen to it exclusively and consecutively for a week, as I did, then head over to The Lost Tapes blog to give props.

1. "Bring It On" [Dominic Owens] (1995)

2. "Shades Of Black" [Easy Mo Bee] (1995)

3. "The Original Style" [Domingo] (1995)

4. "Last Resort" [Buckwild] (1995)

5. "Living For the City" [Pete Rock] (1995)

6. "New York to Cali" [Dominic Owens] (1995]

7. "We All Got Plans" [Marley Marl] (1996)

8. "Show Me Love" (Rugged) [Nick Wiz] (1996)

9. "Heat It Up" [Gary "G-Wiz"] (1993)

10. "Remember Dat" [Clark Kent] (1995)

11. "Once Upon A Rhyme" [Nick Wiz] (1995)

12. *"Bring It On" [Domingo Mix] (1995)

13. "I Get Visual" [Dominic Owens] (1995)

Rakim 2013 RBMA Lecture

Here, Rakim discusses his illustrious career at a lecture moderated by ego trip's Chairman Mao.
Do the knowledge.

Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em Singles

The God turns 47 this Wednesday, so to celebrate the birth of the greatest MC of all time, it's all Rakim all week at the Long Island Rap Blog. (We're overdue anyway, I know.)

We're kicking it off with a selection of four 12-inch singles released on MCA Records from 1990-91, including firstly my personal favorite Rakim song, "In The Ghetto," which features one of my all-time favorite rhymes:

I learn to relax in my room and Escape from New York /  And return through the womb of the world as a thought.

We've also got two "Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em" singles, including a total of nine (yes, count 'em, nine) versions of that song:

12" vocal version
45 King club mix
A cappella
The riddim mix
The riddim dub
The radio riddim mix
Brixton bass mix
Upso mix
Upso dub

And last but definitely not least, we have the "Mahogany" single, which includes extended remixes of that song and "No Omega," as well as an instrumental of the latter.

Download Eric B. & Rakim 90-91 Singles

Please remember to keep us in your tab this week as we'll be dropping nothing but God jewels all seven days.

Yo what happened to peace?
...PEACE!!!

MC Just Divine - "Get Right" / Hype Sound Productions - "We Got the Hype Sounds"

MC Just Divine a.k.a. Oxygen a.k.a. Ox the Architect has roots that run deep in the Long Island hip-hop scene.

How deep?

Well, for starters these demos that he's repressed on wax date back to 1991 and 1987. A classmate of Freddie Foxxx, Oxygen is actually the original source of the Rakim Wyandanch High School talent show recording that appeared in this site's fourth ever post.

That deep.

To start at the beginning, preview his early demos below, then cart your copy of this limited edition release (only 300 available) before you dig deeper through his extensive discography.

SmooVth - "Last Breath"

Produced by Giallo Point, off that Portrait Of A Pimp album out now on CD and mp3, limited vinyl shipping in February.

R.A. The Rugged Man - "Media Midgets"

With the video for "Media Midgets" off his 2014 album Legends Never Die, Rugged Man re-stakes his claim to the title of rap's biggest cinephile, by paying homage to Werner Herzog's absurdist masterpiece Even Dwarfs Started Small in what R.A. describes as his "most ambitious, biggest, most cinematic video so far."

Pipomixes - Sounds Like Porridge

This mix kicks so much ass, it's almost pointless to write anything about it, but here's roughly how I described it while inebriated last night: "It's like this guy [Pipomixes] had four turntables set up, with one playing a Roc Marciano single, one playing the acappella version, one playing an instrumental to a different Roc Marc song, the other playing its sample source, and all of them are mixed together perfectly." Add in some interview clips from Roc's memorable Combat Jack Show appearance and what you get is a recipe for porridge that puts my humble Piece & Carats mix to shame in all ways (except for cover art; cats can't catch Young BeenDead).

Big Breakfast - "Dominoes"

Big Breakfast might currently reside in Queens County, but the kid is clearly Long Island in all the right/wrong ways (depending on where you're from and how you feel about that place). Brash, nasal and ambiguously financially (in)secure, the self-proclaimed "Mastic bastard" reps bad booze and worse pizza on "Dominoes," the lead single off his Smokers Cough LP Luxury. Stream both below.

Roc Marciano - "Stop Me" (Prod. by Just Blaze)

The fact that Roc Marciano's sophomore LP Reloaded is no worse off for not including this Just Blaze banger only speaks to that album's flawlessness. As a matter of fact, one of the things that was so ill about that release is that few of the loose tracks leading up to it appeared on the final product. Don't get me wrong: all of these loosies were great in their own right, but the album was all the better for consisting almost entirely of fresh material we hadn't heard before. Leaky rap labels, take notes.

Kong - Shackles Off (Re-Release)

Originally released in 2008 by Classified Recordings, Shackles Off is the debut solo LP by Monsta Island Czars member and Long Beach native Kong aka Kongcrete. The album — to which Freeport's MeccaGodZilla contributed cover art, five beats and a guest verse — was reissued this week by Mecca's own label, Manafest Vision Media, and is now available on mp3 via iTunes, Google Play and ONErpm. CD copies are coming soon too.

Below you can stream the entire album, as well as a fan-made video for "Ultimate Sacrifice," one of the MeccaGodZilla-produced songs that appears on it.