This is major! The homie DJ Dirrty from over at Baller's Eve was commissioned to do a mixtape for DGK, and based on the shit I've heard, it's definitely gonna bang. Also, if you're not already listening to Baller's Eve on East Village Radio at 10pm on Wednesday nights, you should just kill yrself.
SIDE A -ST 2 LETTAZ - HEART N' SOUL -FREDDIE GIBBS FEAT. PILL - DO WRONG -KD - BETTER THAN MINE -PO - RESPECT MY PIMPIN -LOWE FEAT. CLOVA - FLINSTONES -GRIP PLYAZ FEAT. TUKI CARTER - WHAT DA HELL ARE DOZE -G-SIDE - DREAMZ
SIDE B -SHAWTY FATT - YEAH -BENTLEY FEAT. KRISTMAS - ALL OVA -JACKIE CHAIN FEAT. ST 2 LETTAZ & CEE CEE - MIDDLE OF DA CLUB -MARC DECOCA - WILD DOG -LIL HOT FEAT. ALLEY BOY - GRAMS UP -UNTAMED FEAT. JHI-ALI - GANGSTA
DGK Stevie Presents: Baller's Eve's DJ Dirrty, Vol. 1 (Side A, Side B)
The lead single off of Alley Boy's forthcoming album Definition of Fuck Shit is out today and it is FIRE. I honestly haven't really been checking for Alley Boy but everything I've heard from him has been dope. However this is definitely the best thing I've heard by some measure. Dro is finally off his stupid-fruity-crazy-swag shit and back to comparing his cars to food and colors. On a scale of 10 this track is a 14 from everyone involved. CHECK THIS SHIT OUT.
Alley Boy feat. Young Dro- Tall (from Definition of Fuck Shit) (via the homies DirtyGloveBastard)
Literally the only image I could find of The Box logo
Noz' post today about Common included the video for "One-Nine-Nine-Nine", one of my favorite videos and songs from my childhood. That song still has a strong resonance with me, remaining one of the only Common songs I've ever really liked, and one of the few tracks from the Rawkus discography I listen to with any regularity. There is a frustratingly scattershot revue of rap songs I remember playing a formative role in my childhood, and which I still cherish to this day, all of which came via the holy grail of bootleg television channels, The Box.
When I was growing up, up until my freshmen year of high school, I did not have cable television in my house. We were a strictly network TV family, which means I had access to CBS, ABC, NBC, two PBS channels, Fox, and sometimes UPN. The only real access I had to MTV or BET was when I was hanging out at a friend's house or something like that. Instead, most of the music I heard outside of the radio came from channel 14, the scratchy, grainy, might-have-been-pirated channel known as The Box. Except for maybe The Simpsons, The Box is the favorite thing I remember from my childhood experience with television.
According to its Wikipedia page, The Box started in 1985 as a byproduct of the Miami Bass scene, and by the early 90s has spread to a number of different locales around the country. The "catch" about The Box, which I still think is a great look, is that they offered a constantly rotating list of videos which were like a really good radio playlist that were tailored to the region each channel was broadcasting in, which meant it was possible to see huge hit videos and obscure local videos. Richmond's list was almost entirely (though as you'll see in a second, not completely) rap; the only other Box channel I ever experienced was the in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and the playlist for that was virtually all nu-metal bands- I distinctly remember seeing videos for Good Charlotte and Kittie on there (it was also vastly clearer than The Box in Richmond, which was sometimes unable to be picked up by my TV).
On top of that, viewers could call in, and for 99 cents a pop, choose whichever video they wanted to see on the channel. This was kind of a gift and a curse for a small network. On the one hand, viewers had almost total control over the programming for the channel; it was possible to watch the "Can I Get A..." video 50 times in a row if you wanted to. However, The Box was a small channel, and at least in Richmond it would sometimes sit desolate for hours. However, there were at least a few other people watching, as I never called in since I was like 10 and had no credit rating, and videos were playing on there at least semi-regularly.
Given the grainy video I was watching constantly, which was oftentimes punctuated by the surreal, low budget violence and sex so often seen in low-budget rap videos from the 90s, The Box has left me with a Videodrome-esque memory of a lot of rap music: many images and melodies etched into my brain, which I sometimes recall for no reason at all, but are often mostly lost to me. I distinctly remember loving a video by the Okayplayer-associated French duo Les Nubianes, but I don't remember anything about it other than I thought they were really attractive sisters (were they sisters?). There was also a commercial that aired for a Richmond-area rapper (I think) that was sepia-toned that included the lyric "try to find the key so I can open up the door", but that's all I can recall about it.
However, there were many, many videos which I was first exposed to there which I have come to love and cherish. Common feat. Talib Kweli and Sadat X- "One-Nine-Nine-Nine" was definitely one of them. I remember Common sitting in the wicker chair with the staff, as well as DJ Babu randomly showing up:
There were a lot of Cash Money videos that appeared on there, but the two that I remember the most were, obviously, Juvenile's "Ha" and, less obviously, Tear Da Club Up Thugs feat. the Hot Boys- "Playa Why U Hatin'":
Two of the craziest and weirdest rap videos ever, Wu-Tang's "Triumph" and Missy Elliott's "The Rain" (which has disabled embedding but you can see here):
Three random stray shots: JT Money's "Who Dat", E-40's "Earl, That's Yo Life" and Craig Mack's "Jockin' My Style"
Remember how I said there were a couple videos that were non-rap? I definitely remember Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff" inexplicably being in heavy rotation:
These two were probably two of my favorites on the channel, and the two which sparked a casual interest in backpack rap around the turn of the milennium- Jurassic 5's "Quality Control", and Dilated People's "Worse Comes to Worst" (again, embedding disabled but available here):
The two best East Coast videos I remember, Gang Starr's "Full Clip" and Nas' "Nas Is Like":
Finally, the two videos which really unknowingly got me into Texas rap, as I would remember these songs the most after The Box was absorbed by MTV2 in 2001, DJ DMD's deathless "25 Lighters" and UGK's "Wood Wheel":
There are about a hundred more videos I could put up here, but I'm gonna stop here for now.
Another great video from Marc Decoca, dude that made one of my favorite videos/songs from last year, "My Trigga". Dude's so strange, and it really works for him. KE on the track so you know it's good. Below is the video to "My Trigga".
Killa Kyleon just put out a new song with Z-Ro entitled "Swang Real Wide", and it's probably one of the best songs released this year so far. The beat's a classic Texas country rap tune that you might find on a Z-Ro album, all chunky basslines and lugubrious string samples. Z-Ro goes about as hard as you'd expect, and anyone that knows Killa Ky should expect his greatness on the track. But not many outside of Texas know Kyleon, and that's a problem.
I've been aware of Kyleon's existence ever since I got into Houston rap around 2004, but I didn't really pay him much mind until a couple years later. As I suspect is the case with a lot of other people outside of Houston, I just assumed he was a Slim Thug weed carrier, or at most the OJ to Thugga's Gucci. This is probably because he seems to pretty much have fallen comfortably into the role as the lieutenant of the Boss Hogg Outlawz crew. This position, however, belies his talent. Kyleon is probably the best lyricist of that crew, even better than Slim Thug, and he's definitely one of the best punchline rappers out of Texas, something pretty apparent on his solo cut from the 2nd BHO album, "Badge On My Neck" ("Rubberband banks, pockets full of dead honkeys"). That album, Serve and Collect, is the best compilation album of the 2000s and probably deserves its own post, but that's really when I first started checking for Killa on a more consistent basis.
He's also got a really great voice for Screw tapes, and his mixtape Purple Punch, is great to ride out to. I hope he starts getting more shine from "Swang Real Wide", and he's able to put together some more successful tracks like it. He definitely deserves it.
I'm not usually into this sorta thing but Waka Flocka tells the story about how he was recently shot during an armed robbery attempt at a gas station in Atlanta. Pretty interesting story. Glad he's alright. (via Miss Info):
