Thoughts
Another Bandcamp Friday has come and gone and my wallet is a lot ligher that is forsure. I stopped the following things, I know there were w lot of emails and drops Friday so I thought I would shine some light the things I picked up.
We added some of my favourite people and incredible rappers and producers to the Saskatoon Rap Rap Music crew. I am excited to welcome sign one, Chadio and Grainbin to the crew. Exciting times as we build and scheme. There are some great ideas floating around and one that is already in motion. Shouts to Noblonksi for dropping the first release with a Saskatoon Rap Rap Music crew logo on it! It was really cool to see that on the back of the CD last Friday on Bandcamp, I can’t wait to see it when it arrives. Lots of excitement and I am sure lots of great music is on its way.
I got a few messages about RAP Feriera’s - 5 to the Eye with Stars vinyl record altho I ordered and at last weeks publication was in Malaysia. The record made it back to Richmond British Columbia on August 5th and after a quick visit with the homies in Winnipeg on August 8th made its way Saskatoon on the 9th and was delivered this afternoon in one piece. No damage to the record or the mailer which is shocking to me. The spine wasn’t even split on the record jacket form all that handling. I honestly kind of wrote this one off and charged to to the game to be honest. I am really happy it arrived safe though.
Issue 5 of Ugsmag is currently at the printers. It is the biggest one yet and features a indie rap legend who has not done an interview in over 10 years and only agreed to because it was UGSMAG. I can’t wait to read it!
Missed Third Verse last night? No cohosts, buts still a great show this week and as always Ugsmag has you covered once again to stream or download NOW! Catch Third Verse on CFCR 90.5 fm in Saskatoon, SK every Wednesday 9-10:30pm CST. Stream online via CFCR.ca or Radio Garden.
As always the last 10 episodes of my other weekly radio show You Know Know the Rules on UMFM in Winnipeg airing every Sunday night 10:00pm -11pm CST. Episodes available NOW!
Record One
Prose and Concepts - Everything Is Nice
Another really nice surprise from the folks at 90’s Tapes and HHV.de. This Seattle based hip hop group fist came on my radar one the clssic 14 Fathoms Deep Seattle hip hop compilation released in 1996. I never owned that compilation unfortunately but the homie Innate did and we listened to it a lot. I wish I owned it but it is too pricy for me on discogs. We always referred to is at the Project Blowed compilation of Seattle. We used to reference lots of stuff that way back then like The Centa Of Da Web record we dubbed it the East Coast Project Blowed. The Project Blowed Compilation was the gold standard so to use that as a comparison was very complimentary coming from us. When I saw this dropped on instagram it instantly took me to their track on the 14 Fathoms Deep Compilation. This is just super dope 90’s rap. The crew is big and features 6 members. The tracks are long and I love it that way. 19 tracks on double vinyl with a gatefold jacket with lots of great art and classic promo pictures. This is such a great record. If you are unfamiliar with them check it out!
Record Two
Fortunato & Sean One - Blue Collar 2
Coming off the super dope Blue Collar album, Fortunato and Sean One are back with Blue Collar 2 on Hand’Solo Records. The vinyl is worth it as it features a vinyl exclusive track called Barrel Brothers that features Rusty Juxx and Uncle Fester. I love vinyl exclusive songs. It is nice to be rewarded for copping the vinyl and it is extra nice when the track is slammin. Sean one comes correct on the beats with the smooth classic sound that compliments and brings the best out of Furtunato. These two are a perfect fit for one another styles. I really enjoyed the first Blue Collar album so I knew I would like this one but it has blow em away. Just really good rap music, no frills, no gimmicks just authentic. Breathe is my jam!
Classic Material
Maxell UR90
There used to be an audio visual chain store called Future Shop which was the precursor to Best Buy herein Canada. There was only one location and it was in a weird strip mall across from the Centre Mall here in Saskatoon. It was a pretty awesome store for electronics , DVD’s, CD’s etc. I bought my first Panasonic Shock Wave walkman there. It was yellow and the the XBS extra bass system headphones that shook when you cranked it up always broke and I exchanged them like 4 times. I also bought a JVC double cassette deck there that I used to make and record mixtapes. I no longer have the walkman or the tape deck the Walkman finally packed it after a solid five years of daily use and the tape deck got stolen in a B&E from my Dad’s place where I was storing it in-between places.
Future shop sold Maxell tapes by the case. I used to by them by the case all the time. It was so awesome. Everyone had cases of Maxell tapes near where they had their turntables set up. The were fairly cheap like a 1.50$ to 2.00$, if my memory serves me correct. Bored Stiff immortalized the Maxell cassette in my world forever on the track Survivin off the album Explainin’ with the lyric “I might as well be signed to Maxell, giving out demos, when they act slow”. Bored Stiff, like I have said previously really connected a lot of the feelings I had for hip hop and reflected the everyday in their lyrics and struggle. I felt like I was signed to Maxell as well and was like that was better than being signed to any label ever could be. Their rap ethos still linger and hold true in my mental. The way they rapped about Maxell cassette tapes made them sound like were made of 24 qt gold.
I still have a super size 7 pack of Maxell UR90 tapes that I have not broken open and I don’t know if I ever will break it open at this point. Looking at it brings back a lot of great memories. I also have a box with about 40 unmarked Maxell tapes in it that I really need to sort through. I know there are some gems of recordings on a few of those tapes. Freestyle cyphers and Third Verse radio shows. I should really make that a priority and go through them. I started to do that and found a pretty rare song that Awol One thought was lost forever.
There was this rap CD compilation that Knowskills got back in the day and it had phone numbers for the artists that were featured. I think it was a radio mailer promo cd. I really wish I could remember more about the CD but I can only remember two things about it. It featured a song by J-Live and one from Awol One. Knowskills called the numbers and both of those guys answered and they mailed records some of which were promo and some Knowskills copped to sell. One of the items that made its way to Knowskills was a tape of a demo recorded for an a 12” that was supposed to come out on the Beastie Boys label Grand Royal. It was the song NME, but a different version. It featured Volume 10 instead of 2Mex. I don’t know what happened to the tape. Knowskills doesn’t either. Many of times I have asked Awol One about this tape, he remembered it but said that was the only copy as something happen to the studio it was recorded at and for some reason the only copy was mailed to us. The last time he was in town in like 2019 I asked him again about it and we talked about it for a bit and that is when I learned to was demo tape recording for Grand Royal Records. Unfortunately yet again he said that no one had a copy.
My homie Funky was moving to Mexico in 2021 and he asked if I wanted his tapes and CD’s. Of course I did. I was sorting through them and lots of the Maxell tapes had my writing on them and I found this one that intrigued me and had some songs listed on it and one was NME. Could this be a copy of the version with Volume 10 on it? I immediately put it on and listened to it and it was that cut. It is such a wildly different version. A completely different feel. I had saved it form the going to the dump and being lost forever. I immediately ripped it and emailed it to Awol and he was greatly appreciative. So the moral of the story is check all your blank tapes, you never know what you might find.
Closing Ramblings
As always, thank you for reading and for the feedback!
**legal disclaimer all records and songs were run through the RAP NEST 5000 SUPER ANALYTIC COMPTROLLER MACHINE that is certified by the I.A.A.R.R.A (International Association of Analytical Rap Recordings Analysis) in layman’s terms, it means the machine is never wrong.
Catch you next week with more thoughts from the rap nest.
Peace
-chaps