Thoughts
A little strapped for time this week. Spent most of my time on the Classic material section. So this section is a bit scarce. There is something I want to touch on in a continuation from last weeks post and I hope to do that next week.
This is a pretty amazing GI Joe inspired video and song from the homie The Wordburglar. It is so perfect.
Pick up a digital copy of the EP from his Bandcamp. I hope this gets a physical release at some point.
Missed Third Verse last night? Well you are in luck as it is back up and streaming at UGSMAG!!! 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
Mickey O’Brien - Orebody
This is my favourite Mickey O’Brien album to date. I think he really found himself in this one and although his last album, Shift Change is personal, this one takes it to the next level. It is refined and polished in that good way while still maintaining that classic rawness that you have come to expect with Mickey O’Brien’s music. There are some super sick features with heavyweights Myka 9, Adam Bomb and Dsisive. My jam is the Medicine, I love the cuts and sample on this one! Classic! Only thing that could made this one better is if it were pressed onto Standard Chaps Black vinyl.
Record Two
Video Dave + Controller 7 - ArticulatedTexTiles
This album is like all the amazing parts of the the Native Tongue family meets the new rap renaissance that is going on right now. I really didn’t know what to expect with this one but it became a real favourite own the streams for me this summer. I generally don’t digest an album that way for the most part, as I like to wait for the physical to show up so I can digest it and spend some time with it. I am glad I did because it will always be the soundtrack to the summer of 2023 and will remind me fondly of Noblonski’s visit to Canada every time I listen to it. ThePlugTune is my jam on this one! They pulled a fast one on old Chaps on this one. They pictured the vinyl on Standard Chaps Black but did the old switcheroo and pressed it on a grey/black/white marble type colour with spalted of yellow and blue in them which was super disappointing when I opened it pop and say it. Oh well, you can’t win them all. Going 0 for 2 this week on the black vinyl tip. C’est La Vie.
Stevie staying warm during this cold dip in the weather.
Classic Material
10, Tapes to rule them all…
I really enjoyed writing last weeks post about these tapes. In gathering the remaining 5 for this weeks post, I realized I am missing probably my favourite and most important one that really changed my life in so many ways for the better. I looked high and low and could not locate it. So, before I panicked, I did what any insane music collector would do and turned to Discogs to see what what the damage would be on a new one. I was pleasantly suprised that they were plentiful and on the cheap side. I immediately bought one, however it did not arrive yet, so I will leave that one for next week. It is probably how it was supposed to be with that particular album profiled on its own. It means that much to me. Enough about next week, without further ramblings, I present this weeks 4.
The Nonce - World Ultimate
I had seen adds for this album in Rap Pages magazine. I knew what the album cover looked like and that was critical in my acquiring it. I went to the HMV in Lawson Heights Mall and after exhausting my search for Rap Music I wanted to buy that I didn’t already own, I relinquished my fate that I was not getting a new album that day as I didn’t find anything I was looking for. This was often the case growing up in Saskatoon. We were wandering around the store kind of killing time and loitering when I all of the sudden spotted the cover of the album on a tape in the Jazz section. I was like WTF, and I immediately picked it up to confirm that was the album I had seen in Rap Pages. I was 90% sure it was and I bought it. What are the changes it was a front facing album and not in the stacks. It was really meant to be. This album was a game changer for me and opened up the best rap scene ever in the West Coast Underground scene. It was the gateway into a scene that would change my life in so many incredible ways.
Das Efx - Dead Serious
This album was always a favourite of mine. I loved their whole style. They way the dressed was the ultimate. I couldn’t buy clothes like that around here or if I could I didn’t know where to get them. I sure did want them. They just seemed so cool to me at that time. They had so much charisma and the rhyme styles with the miggidy miggidy’s were so fresh and something I had never heard before. I had heard the They Want EFX song by seeing the video on Rap City at the time. That video remix version was so insanely dope compared to the album version. This was a tough lesson to be learned about remixes and album cuts. I was devastated when I first put the tape in my walkman. I was like what the hell is this? This record didn’t have any super profound affects on me other than I just really loved that aesthetic of it and the tracks. I remember buying it at Market Mall when I was at the Mall with my parents one Saturday afternoon. This is just a fun feel good record for me.
Mc Ren - Shock Of The Hour
Mc Ren was my favourite rapper in NWA. He had something the rest didn’t have, and I felt that was a raw authentic edge that really resonated with me. I had not purchased any of his solo albums to this point prior to this release. I was just starting to peripherally get into Gangsta rap. My homie Funky loved Gangsta rap so he was the impedious for me to get into it myself. I remember quite vividly driving with him to Market Mall on the East Side of Saskatoon to check out the Music City store there. I saw this tape and I had heard the Same Old Shit video on Much Music’s Rap city, and really liked it so I bought it. I was a cool crisp but super sunny fall day. It was just warm enough to be able to put the windows down while you drove. We were in his mint 1970’s Mazda RX3 with the rotary engine and the 2 x 12” Rockford Fosgate Subs that took up his entire trunk with alpine amp and 6 disc cd changer, he had a Sony cassette deck in the console. So many first times I listened to an album were in that car, on that stereo. It is pretty much the sole reason I put subwoofers in my wagon a couple summers back.
I was reading Malcolm X’s Autobiography for the first time when I got this tape. I think this album hit at a perfect time where I was young, angry and was dealing first hand with Racist attacks on my homies. I was angry and I didn’t have the skills to combat what I was seeing, hearing and what was happening in any other way than using my fists. I was a hair trigger in that era and could throw a punch before anyone even knew what was going on. This album just seemed to be a soundtrack to what I was experiencing at that time and those events of that time left some monumental impressions on me that I won’t ever forget. I don’t know there is a harder more real track than Attack On Babylon. If you have never heard this album I would suggest you give that one a listen. It still gives my butterflies each time I hear it and it takes me back to those adolescent days of knocking out racists.
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnights Marauders
This one should be no surprise on any list like this. This is the best rep album front to back ever created without question. It is perfect in its sequence, flow and vibe. It has no flaws, no skips and never gets tiresome. It is the perfect album for all moods and is an album that transcends the culture and is its own cultural icon. It is bigger than hip hop as they like to say. The lead up to this album and the anticipation for it was for myself unparrleed at that time. I had the first two albums and The Low End Theory was such a transformative and important record for me. I honestly didn’t think it could be topped, but I was young and didn’t know about artist falling off, I thought they just kept getting better with each release and that was how it worked. Don’t get me wrong there are many artists that I have listened to for over 20 years that I feel keep getting better with each release. This was not the case though for many. I didn’t get this tape right away. I was very fortunate that M.Phasis did and we wore out his copy. I finally got a copy through one of those BMG deals where you paid a penny for like 10 albums if you bought two or something like that. I was a sucker apparently or so I learned as I fulfiled the commitments on that deal. I have since learned that so many people I know scammed and defrauded these types of deals.
I may have mentioned this before but Sony blank cassettes in this era had these super sick cassette cases that were tinted black. We loved them at the time and would swap out the retail casses albums came in at the time with these tinted tapes. In our minds they made the albums so much cooler. It is fun to pick up tapes in my collection that still have these cases. It takes me back to high school instantly and the times driving around doing loser laps as Karlie would call them, listening to rap music and making memories that have lasted to this point and will last until my last breathe. I will take solace in these memories as I transition in this life when the time comes.
It is wild how much of you life’s experiences are tied up in these physical music object. It is kind of insane to me actually when I think about it. So many memories, both good and bad, so many people, experiences and events wrapped around and intertwined with them. They have taken me to more places than I ever imagined I would be. Provided me with the best friends and friendships anyone could ever ask for.
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