Thoughts
Another week another birthday! Happy 40th to the big homie Dren this week!!
A big happy birthday to the best dogger and worst cuddler in the game Mick! He turned 10 on Tuesday!!
I want to give a huge shout out to the homie Noyz for another incredible effort in releasing UGSMAG issue 4. I know the amount of effort that has gone into getting this out and it has been an honour to have been a part of yet another incredible issue. I received my copy in the mail this week and it is always so exciting opening it up and seeing your contributions in print. I think on some level I always wanted to be a hip hop “journalist”, not that I consider myself a journalist by any stretch of the imagination, but it is really fun to work with a bunch of hip hop fanatics who lend their talents each issue to share things they are interested in and passionate about. I love being a part of this community. Thanks to the few people that reached out about my TFTRN piece where I shared my ramblings about my dj mixer journey. It was nice to hear at least a few of you really enjoyed it. There are still copies available and a few back issues are still available including a third or fourth printing of the inaugural issue. They are running a special 4 issue special right now as well. You can buy them HERE.
Big week for UGSMAG they dropped t-shirts of the covers of issues 3 and 4! So if you like either or both head on over to the UGSMAG shop NOW!
If you are in Saskatoon Friday night then you will want to be at Amigo’s for Factor’s Spinning Like A Planet release party.
Ceschi and Factor are taking the show on the road The next night to Edmonton so if you are in the area you don’t want to miss that.
Rove let me hang around and bug him while he painted this master piece last Saturday. Hanging with Rove and watching him paint is one of my favourite things to do. Killed it as usual!
Missed Third Verse last night? Well so did Ceschi and Factor. 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
AJ Seude - Parthian Shots
Another one from the Seude God himself. This time courtesy of the good folks at Fake Four, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at record. There is no logo or mention of Fake Four on the sleeve or record labels. That seems really odd to me. I wonder what the deal is with that. Hopefully nothing more than it was already designed or at press or something before Fake Four got involved. Anyways the more AJ Seude on vinyl the better. I got word this week that my Indica Music record shipped this week. So definitely back to back Seude God releases. AJ Suede is pretty much my favourite new to me rapper in the past few years and everything he does is the best. My favourite track all time of his may just be his upcoming track on Rove’s Poke The Bear. It has so many great lines. Is there anyone one cooler on the mic rapping right now? If there is I haven't heard them. The vibe of each track is so good and each track just flows off of one another and the production from Televangel is incredible as to be expected. My jam on this one is Rosicrucian Rolls Royce. I don’t know if Rosicrucian is a real word or a rap word and I have no idea what it means either way, but if the Seude God is rocking it, I am down with it. You already know what time is.
Record Two
Sensational X The Dirty Sample - The Spot Rocker
I was not familiar with Sensational prior to this release. The word on the street is he worked with the Jungle Brothers back in the day or something along those lines. I was really excited when Rove mentioned he was remixing one of the tracks that was going to be on the vinyl release. I got even way more excited when I heard Awol One was also going to be on it. The production is super on point as you would expect from The Dirty Sample on any given record. If Hand’Solo Records was to have a sort of in house producer you couldn’t pick a better producer really. The Dirty Sample is able to craft super dope records for a variety of MC’s including himself. I can waif for Ol’ Gorilla Bones’ Revenge Vol.2 to drop. Sensational is a super talented MC and one I would like to explore further after listening to this album a few time through. I really like Blamp, The Game original and remix and Boom Carry On. Those are my jams from this one. On a behind the scenes note, Hand’Solo Records reached out to me to do some cuts on a track but I couldn’t make their vision work unfortunately. Sometimes those things happen and it is all love. Except for when Noblonksi scrubs my cuts hahaha.
Rap Shirt
Classic Material
Frek Sho- People in Your Neighbourhood
This album came out in 2000. I was in Winnipeg in December of 1999 as for a few years Knowskills and I used to drive out to Winnipeg when we finished up our Christmas Finals. We would typically go and hangout with Dj Hunnicutt at his place at the time on 808 Fleet. An iconic adress I could never forget for obvious reasons. It was very fitting. Another iconic thing about about that house I will never forget was the compete television series, M.A.S.H. on of all formats Betamax. That was mind blowing to me in so many ways. If I remember correctly Hunnicutt ended up trading those Betamax tapes for some turntable flight cases which in hindsight seems like an awful trade but but it was probably a win win trade.
We used to watch a lot of movies and listen to music and just hangout. There was this pizza spot by his house and they had a one topping medium pizza special that was really cheap. I remember one time, not sure if it was this trip but it sure could have been. I ordered a pizza late night and choose onions as my only topping. I didn’t live that one down for a while. They clowned me pretty good for that one. I honestly can remember as clear as day walking into that pizza shop and ordering that pizza and everyone looking at me all perplexed. I also can totally taste that pizza to this day when I think about it. It was a solid cheap pizza, which is one of life’s best pleasures.
Hunnicutt had mentioned that he had to drop some cuts for this track for an upcoming Frek Sho album. He said the song was titled Afro Kats and he needed to find a cut that would fit the track. Another Winnipeg Jeru The Damaja connection coming up right now. I, being the big Jeru The Damaja I was piped up, “yo, Jeru says, But you Can’t Take the Jungle out the cat on a track on his Wrath of The Math album. Hunnicutt went down to the coal room as I believe it was called and grabed the album and brought it back upstairs. He put the record on and we found the sample. He was like I think this will work and it ended up becoming the main sample that he cut up on on the track. It fit perfect and he did an amazing job executing the cuts on the track. I have always been a huge fan of his cuts on tracks. It was really nice to get an assist on that one as I was and have always been such a big Frek Sho fan.
At some point I lost the the cd jacket/cover from my original copy. It always really bugged me for a lot of reasons but the biggest being the iconic street hockey goalie on the cover. It really resonated with em and captured the essence of the people in your neighbourhood theme of the album. Nolto a couple yers back linked me with a copy with a cover and I am forever grateful to have it back in my collection.
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
I have the album on tape. Honestly I live that album and listened it so much when it came out. I just never made the connection to Sensational being on it with this Sensational.
Looking forward to reading mine, too! In addition to the past two UGSMAGs, I've got the Cadence, Dante Ross, and J Dilla books to read. It's too much, but it's not a bad problem to have.
Wasn't Sensational on J Beez wit The Remedy? Truthfully, I don't think I know anyone that has that album.