AWOL Da Mindwriter & JHershey - SEGA-AM2 (Part II)

Super Mario World, TMNT: Turtles in Time, Mortal Kombat games with four buttons instead of three. Take it from someone who was there. Super Nintendo was the better system than Sega Genesis. But then again, Sega had Road Rash, Beavis & Butthead, and Mortal Kombat 1 with blood. So even if it was an overall inferior gaming platform, it did have SNES beat in terms of corrupting the minds of America's youth, as Joe Lieberman might have said. AWOL Da Mindwriter and JHershey's SEGA-AM2 (Part II) offers much the same appeal, steam-letting mischievousness with mad replay value.

"But Sega-AM2 was a game developer, not a system, you schmuck!" Word and "My Baby" does not fit the above description either, except for the replay value part. 

Samfl3 - The Kamara Method

Just like anyplace north of Yonkers is Upstate, anywhere east of Islip is Out East. 

And now I am become life goals of purchasing a home close enough to the City to feel civilized yet far enough from civilization to retreat into my own world of sand, paper, and vinyl (material, girl). The complications that make people human also make life sufferable and Samfl3's music personable despite any obscurity. The most-hidden gem of LongIslandRap.Comp v4 continues to shine like one despite possibly having relocated to a town upstate with a name so upstate it sounds made up but isn't.

NERO//FLESH - Disposition of Intimacy

Flesh tones bleat drone-pop cyber-dreams like ketamine therapy for electric sheep as Lucy's lullabies lapse the blood-brain barrier. (But yo, if I wrote that like this would you pay for it?

Flesh tones bleat
drone-pop cyber-dreams 
like 
ketamine therapy 
for electric sheep 
as 
Lucy's lullabies lapse the
blood-brain barrier.

Because if so, the kid's novella-cum-microfiction-collection contains myriad chapbooks. And that too, my friends, is a motherfucking metaphor.)

Glamorous, the first lady of Long Island hip-hop?

How's pioneer for a loaded term? Hear it now and think innovator. But the word has bodies and battle scars. Merriam-Webster traces its origins from the Middle-French pionnier, a "worker employed on field fortifications who accompanies an army," from Old French peonier, a "foot soldier, laborer tasked with excavation," to peon, a "foot soldier." Pawn also comes from this word. Insert sinister cynic-critic sexploitation plotlines. I for one am more drawn to the Juice Crew's having three Long Island rappers (Biz, Glam, and I.U.), and (speaking of foot soliders) this one with personal ties to Public Enemy's Professor Griff. 

Mike Street - Rubba Clip / Matt X

Take a month off, and the authorities might fuck around and find a LISK, burner profiles and all. If I ever followed you on Instagram, I apologize. I must've assumed you were a Long Island rapper, or else my finger slipped. "I'm freaking out bae smh," read the Unknown Sender's text. Down in the basement, there's a page of original art from Rick Veitch's Unknown Soldier #21 (Vertigo, 2010), purchased direct from the artist, the email about "I Gave You Power" unanswered, the seller's silence a clear admission that yes, he and Joshua Dysert knew damn well they bit off of Nas' shit. Me thinks Ebay may be in the cards, or at least a spot at the record fair in September.

Hus Kingpin & SmooVth - Paid In Full

I have owned multiple copies of the film, Paid In Full, all of which have either been lost or stolen. I prefer to assume the latter because it not only makes for a better story, but also speaks to the unique brand of cult fandom the film attracts; that it would be more larceny prone than other films, that a fan would reacquire it post-theft knowing the risk. Of late, Macapella has channeled the wave that made early Connection records sing universal. Now, he does the impossible, improving the "Paid In Full" beat. Hus and SmooVth follow suit.

Often Spaced - Yeptunes

They say do a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. As if it were so easy. As if every mobile device included a free, full version of  Adobe Creative Suite. As if primary schools transitioned from keyboard class to not-getting-obsoleted-by-Apple class. As if Le Guinian utopia were here now and not another planet in the future. Instead, it's languish for 10 years in heartless work figuring out how to translate your passion into something that can make someone else enough money that it makes economic sense for them to pay you to pursue your passion. And then you still die! Ah well, you can always buy the doofus Nikes and board the comet.

G-Stro, Early Rhyming Partner of Rakim

In the mid-1980s, before adopting the name Rakim, William "Pops" Griffin rapped as Kid Wizard in two groups. First there was the Almighty 5 MCs and then there was the Love Brothers. Just who was in each group is difficult to pin down as accounts vary (see "Rakim: The Early Years"), but one name that has popped up in relation to both is G-Stro. One day on a whim I looked him up and found his Instagram and YouTube profiles. Both accounts contain tracks that appear to have been recorded in the past few years. The tracks vary from verse-length demos to complete songs, but all of them showcase a voice that is truly one of a kind. G-Stro's writing and delivery have clearly been honed over decades of personal attention. Sadly, three of them may have been spent in Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Regardless, G-Stro is out now and rapping on a level to do his early rhyming partner proud, an original elite master class. 

And as an added bonus, he's doing so over music composed by his peers, fellow Wyandanch legends DJ Kaos and Nate Tinsley. Stream several choice selections below then connect with G-Stro on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for more.

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Big Breakfast - BEACHBOY (mega bastard mix)

Just in time for summer, the sky's on fire! When NY said "all the smoke," this is not what it had in mind. Penelope's deviated septum and spotted eye do not approve. Holly's holding it down, though. Speaking of Mastic mammals, Mikey Breakfast is back to the BEACHBOY, having "kissed Alicia Keys six weeks before her and Swizz Beatz conceived (that's true)." It's like a ritual to lift the smog and fertilize the mosh (not where some guy from John Hancock goes every Thursday to get a fucking blowjob ... don't laugh, this ain't reality TV).

Son of Bazerk, Leaders of the New School, JVC Force members at Long Island Music Hall of Fame, June 11

Hip-Hop, now 50 years old, will be partying like a 50-year-old Long Islander this weekend. Which is to say partying hard at 2 p.m. on a Sunday. There will be performances by Son of Bazerk,  Bomb Squad/Public Enemy DJ Johnny Juice, DJ Jazzy Jay, and Fat Boy MC Kool-Rock Ski. There will be a panel discussion featuring JVC Force MC AJ Rok, Leaders of the New School members Dinco D and Milo In De Dance, and Video Music Box's Ralph McDaniels. The event is "free with admission" to the Long Island Music Hall of Fame at 97 Main Street in Stony Brook: $15 for students with ID, $17 for veterans and seniors, and $19.50 for everyone else. Additional details here. See you there?