Thoughts From The Rap Nest

vol023-092

Thoughts

The holidays are fast approaching and I can’t wait. I get a week off at Christmas time and it will be my first full week off since last Christmas. I am really looking forward to it. I am thinking I may finally try and catalogue my music collection on Discogs, finally. It is a daunting task and I usually give up pretty quickly as soon as I run into items not on there. I have 2,110 items currently catalogued on there but I am thinking from a rough count there are 3000 plus more to add. I am terrible at adding things. Even new things that come in. It always seems like an after thought. I wish I had the discipline that Rove has in adding things when he get them. he has a great system and has even organized his collection in real life to mirror it on Discogs. Wish me luck’s I am going to need it!

Work has been kicking my ass lately and I have not had the energy I wish I had to write, but I am always just doing the best with what I got! Enjoy, take care ands stay safe!

Missed Third Verse last night? Well, are you ever in luck as UGSMAG once again has you covered!! 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

Biz Markie Super 7 Reaction Figure

Another sure shot from the mighty Super 7 company. I am surprised it took this long for us to see a Biz Markie figure, probably due to his passing and estate stuff. This might be my favourite so far in my collection. The sculpting. on the figure is really good and the card back is super fresh. I honestly can’t stop looking at it since I got it. I am such a sucker for these things. I am glad I can show some restraint and only pick up one variant of each rap related figure. Toy collecting is no joke. I need less things to collect at this point, not more.

Record Two

Rob Crooks & Kitz Willman - Gazogene

I have been super fortunate to have had this CD for a few weeks now. I am really excited that it was finally released to the world this week! If you have not had a chance to check it out yet, I would suggest you do so right now. Kitz told me in the summer when we were chatting before one of his shows here in Saskatoon that this was in the works. I was really excited as they are both two of my favourites and a team up from them is a perfect match. They both rap with a ferocity and intensity and they match each other bar for bar with that on this release. Crooks on the beats is never disappointing and he delivers another 8 heaters on this one. Everything about this album is perfect in every way. It is complex, layered and intense in the best way. Great work on this one. I think Kitz said they were going to do a second one where he produces it all. I really hope that happens and I wasn’t just dreaming it up! My jam is Helipad Target Practice.

Classic Material

Above The Law - Uncle Sam’s Curse

This has always been an all timer album for me. The memories wrapped up in it with the homies have engrained it within the fabric of my life. This came out at very pivotal point in my life. It was the Sumer of 1994, we had finished grade 10 and were starting grade 11 in the fall. Probably the most important factor was we all had our drivers licenses. Music migrated from the walkman and a solitary experience to the car and a shared experience. This new way of listening to music was a game changer. Sharing albums and tracks with one another and always fighting with one another over what we should listen to was the best . There were always a handful of releases that there was never an argument over if we should listen to them and this was one of them.

Funky was the one who had this album on Cassette. I for some weird reason never got a copy of it until he gave me his a couple years back. The beats were so perfect on this record. it was highly anticipated for us as we had worn out the Black Mafia Life album. We were not ready for how good this one was going to be. It exceeded all of our expectations and then some. It is their best album in their discography in my opinion. Nothing they released after even came close to how dope this one was. When I put subwoofers in my Wagon a couple of summers ago this was one of the first albums I bumped and it instantly took me back to rolling around squished in Funk’y 1970’s Mazda Rx3 with the rotary engine. That car was mint but tiny as hell. This is such a great summer album to roll around to with the windows down and bumping real loud.

This album has always been really expensive on the resale market on all formats. I have always wanted a vinyl copy but I have never seen one for under 240$ and that is out of my price range. I have always wondered why it never got a reissue but I assumed it was tied up in label licensing and would just be one of those albums that wood never see a repress. Well today I got an email from Hip Hop Enterprise a really dope label out of Belgium that reissues a wide variety of releases. I have ordered a handful of records from them in the past and recently a couple of Homeliss Derilex release a couple weeks back. I appreciate that they generally have a couple week preorder window from when they drop the release to when it ships. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I saw that they were dropping this one on a double LP gatefold release on black vinyl too. I was like oh shit it drops at 7pm CET today and quickly did the google time search to see what time that was here. It was noon so I was like okay 5 hours until go time. I ordered it almost as soon as it went on sale and the read that it was a 1000 LP release which made me happy as a lot of people will be able to add this classic to their collection. They also dropped a double LP version Black Mafia Life but I have two singles LP copies so I couldn't justify it even though I really wanted to get it. Today was such a great day. I can’t wait for this one to arrive in January. It has been a long elusive vinyl release.

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