T.R.O.Y.

Posted: 22 Jan 2009 03:00 PM PST

D-Stroy "D-Sturbed Words"

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?myugczmq2nj

Every so often, a work of genius is produced that contains the transcendent power to shatter the conventions of society. From Stravinsky to Miles to Nas, each generation is blessed with frozen moments so acutely inspired that eardrums are left frostbitten. Forget about dependency on the consumer for dissemination - a work of prescience lost in the annals of history can be (re)discovered in a sympathetic future. With this in mind, I present a work of poetry rivaled only by The Wasteland in depth, foresight, technical innovation, and emotional resonance. Let me first set the mood.

1999. Spoken word poetry is surging into national prominence in the wake of dual Saul Williams vehicles, Slam and SlamNation. The scene expanding outward from the Nuyorican dilutes the art into a competition where Egocentricity masquerades as Afrocentricity and mimicry runs rampant. On a parallel track, Hip Hop continues to colonize every genre and subjugate Billboard. So many dope releases in so little time means that many slip through the cracks.

As the World Burns, the debut LP of the thirteen-strong football squad of a rap group The Arsonists, is one such release. Replete with battlestance grandiloquence, horrorcore absurdity, and sophomoric wit, it is loved by critics and underground heads, though sales lag. Detractors point to an obvious detriment in its lack of variety, and honestly, they have a point.

Then I hit the penultimate track and everything changes. (Now would be a good time to hit the geometry in your media player.)

"D-Sturbed Words" by D-Stroy is one of, if not the, defining moments of modern pop culture. A chaotic patchwork of symbolic rhetoric. A veritable San Diego Zoo of animal sound FX. D-stroy's egalitarian aesthetic is best described at the piece's very beginning: "Now two frogs that got burned on a radiator. Two flushed in the toilet and the two cookies fell."

Don't let the peculiar syntax play you, D-Stroy is all about relativity. He draws a line in the dirt with one hand while building an ark with the other. He doesn't "care what school you go to." Is he a peace lover tree hugger? Hell no. Name an artist without conflicting elements boiling within and win a prize. Later, he insists "Yo, you don't know me! I'm not real!" only to declare "I know who I am!" in a less than self-aggrandizing moment.

Other classic schizoid symptoms abound. Progenitor approval anxiety ("Daddy daddy don't like me") or simply dementia ("The sky was black, it almost looked like candy-apple green"). Paranoia creeps into the most casual slip of the tongue: "Nah. NaaaAH. Sell…tell. Naah. Flaah. Tuueh." Reaffirming Louis Carroll's Jabberwocky - gibberish has never held so much meaning.

Tourette's Syndrome gobbledygook suggests a Zen-existential ontology. He confesses "Yo, the deal isn't real," which seems as much an indictment of the record industry ("everybody knows my style/cuz the pimp said I was for 99 cents") as a denial of true reality, leading to theology: "I said yo! Who's your God? And he said 'lahunpluueeh!"

He returns to the subject with an astonishing insight, repeating "I was with the chicken by the hippo" twice, ending the second go-round in an erudite whisper. Clearly referencing the chicken/egg enigma, the artist splices the elegance of the question with the dangerous buffoonery of a hippopotamus. Is the hippo God? If it is, D-Stroy doesn't think too much of divinity.

The piece climaxes on a bright note as "the sun comes down to the bus!" is bellowed not once or twice, but thrice. There is hope, even for those Gnostics cursed to linger for millenia in Hell's vestibule. It is restored in one instance of master craftsmanship. D-Sturbed Words is an event horizon, a fragile borderland between our universe and a place where the laws of physics aren't applicable and imagination fails. Where space tumbles over itself like a Mobius strip and chronological order is immaterial. If it gives you meaning, you have understood. If all you hear is a garbled bedlam, you have understood.

Suffice it to say, the 20th century didn't end with a whimper. This is Art with a capital "A" AND italicized. It knows what it is. "Do you know who you am?" -- Loki

IV Life

Posted: 22 Jan 2009 11:00 AM PST

[click image to download]

IV Life is the fourth album by King Tee. and my personal favorite by Mr. McBride. It was also his first album released by MCA Records in 1994 after his split with Capitol Records, where he was signed to since 1987. To many, this is Tee's most multifaceted album to date. On the production end Tee enlists the help of longtime homies DJ Pooh, E-Swift and Ultramagnetic MC's producer, T.R. Love or as credited on this album, T.R. Funk Ignitor. He also taps on a few then-relatively unknown producers such as DJ Broadway, Mark Sparks, Rashad, Thayad and female rapper/producer Nikke Nicole who was best known for her contribution "Old Time's Sake" off of the Above The Rim soundtrack.

The production on this album is sample reliant and artists sampled include A Tribe Called Quest (on "You Can't See Me"), The Four Tops (on "Dippin'"), Freddie Hubbard (on "3 Strikes Ya' Out") and Grover Washington, Jr. (on "Down Ass Loc"). Peep the video for "Dippin" below.

--Philaflava

BONUS ALBUM:

[click image to download]

1. Act A Fool
2. Bass
3. Played Like a Piano
4. Ruff Rhyme (Back Again)
5. Payback's a Mutha
6. At Your Own Risk
7. Guitar Playin'
8. Diss You
9. Can This Be Real
10. Bus Dat Ass - feat. Tha Alkaholiks
11. The Coolest
12. Just Clowning
13. I Got It Bad Y'All
14. Ya Better Bring a Gun

East Coast 12 Inch Rarities Volume 1

Posted: 22 Jan 2009 03:00 AM PST

This little collection of tracks is the start of something big. When I began I did not realize how big the project would become. This is volume one of my east coast 12 inch (and ep) mix series. I just put together volume 108 the other day. I will be bringing all 108 of them to the table so keep checking back. Track 2 is something that I recorded on tape from kaos 89.3 fm, in Olympia, Washington, during the fall of 1993. F Mob is so obscure that it took 12 years to find a copy of the song on a compilation. Then it took another year or more to find the full album ! All New York artists except as far as I know except for the exceptions listed next to the track titles.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=01GP6JK5

ruggedness madd drama - 01 checkin down the menu (1994) philadelphia
f mob - 02 pump pump (the vibe) (1994) philadelphia
children of the corn - 03 uptown connection (1993) harlem
dredknotz - 04 causin a menace (remix) (1994)
now born click - 05 now born soldiers (raw mix) (1993)
da mad scientist - 06 never fear (1994)
black maddness - 07 wild brooklyn bandits (1993) brooklyn
the almighty rso - 08 hellbound (the rso saga part 2) (1994) boston
crossfire - 09 fill the void (wreck mix) (1994)
shadez of brooklyn - 10 when it rains it pours (1994) brooklyn
live squad - 11 murderahh (1992) new jersey
kenny dope gonzalez - 12 dondadda (original rama jama mix) (1993) brooklyn
a to the d - 13 the renegade jew (remix) (1992)
mental illness - 14 amazins not playin brooklyn 1994
greyboy - 15 outerlude (1993)
dark skinned assassin - 16 the horror (1994)
two outta millions - 17 land of lyricism (1995)

Not sure track 17 is actually east coast so if anyone knows for sure feel free to clear that up for me. Thanks and enjoy! Also, the track from greyboy is from a full album, but it fit well.

--Schenectadyfan