A-Lot

Rap-A-Lot has come out with or is coming out with* some kind of 25th Year Anniversary box set, so lately label founder James "J.Prince" Smith has been giving a bunch of interviews that I'd recommend to anyone who is a fan of rap. In the early 1990s Rap-A-Lot radically altered people's expectations about what rap songs could be about, what parts of the country they could come from and how they could be marketed and distributed. Along the way, J.Prince released some incredible music by the likes of the Geto Boys, Scarface, Devin the Dude, Z-Ro and others.

Over on NPR's The Record blog, Noz talks with J.Prince about the label's history. Predictably, a bunch of people in the comments section are outraged that NPR is covering something that they don't approve of.

Complex also recently featured two scattered but often fascinating interviews by Rob Kenner: one in which J.Prince talks about the origins of the label, the government's conspiracy to kill him and owning an island and one in which he talks about the 25th anniversary and signing Drake. (Choice quote: "So I asked my son, I said, 'Man, do you really like this? Cause I ain’t really feeling this too much.'") It's a pity that Kenner wasn't able to get J.Prince to speak more directly; several times in the former interview he goes from vague to completely impenetrable.

A few other things that have had me thinking about Rap-A-Lot recently:


Willie D of the Geto Boys' Formspring account. In most people's hands, Formspring is an abomination-- I can't tell you how much eyerolling and unfollowing I was doing when that brief link-your-twitter-account-to-Formspring craze was going on. But Willie D is as funny, smart, ignorant and informed as you would hope, and when he gets good questions his Formspring is outstanding.


Rapper/producer/author/wiseass J-Zone recently did an interview where he talked about his five favorite Rap-A-Lot albums from the 1990s. As usual, his taste is great and he's funny and perceptive. (For what it's worth, J-Zone is directly responsible for turning me on to Rap-A-Lot's The Convicts; I first heard them on his Ignant mix many years ago.)

I'm not totally sure what I'd pick if I were asked to name my favorite Rap-A-Lot LPs from that era, but lately I've been listening to Big Mello's Wegonefunkwichamind album a lot. Big Mello was a member of DJ Screw's Screwed Up Click who cut two records for Rap-A-Lot and three for other labels before dying in a car crash in 2002. Most people seem to focus on his first LP, 1992's Bone Hard Zaggin', the ultra-pauseworthy title of which was repurposed by Girl Talk a few years ago.


I prefer Wegonefunkwichamind by a long ways. It's from two year later but feels ages more mature. It's definitely a post-The Chronic album; at times, it feels like producers Big Mello and Crazy C are trying to maintain the smooth, mid-tempo slump of Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride" for the length of a whole album. But they do so interesting ways, sampling "Trans-Europe Express" multiple times, replaying "Back Together Again", "Lowdown" and "Slide" at Screw tempos, and coming up with some grooves that feel as unique and soulful as anything Organized Noize were doing at the time:


Big Mello: "Back Do Akshun" (Rap-a-Lot, 1994)

Rap-A-Lot reissued and remastered Wegonefunkwichamind a couple years ago, so once again it's easy to find.

* Hard to say which; the release date was supposed to be last year but it's not available digitally and no one seems to be carrying it.

Bet I got some

I was listening to Schoolboy Q's new album, which caused me to listen to Schoolboy Q's old album, which caused me to pull this because it was sampled for "#BETiGOTSUMWEED", which is a lot better than its title suggests and which has a beat I love:



The Earth Disciples: "Spirit of the Bells" (Solid State, 1970)

The Earth Disciples were a four-piece jazz band that cut one LP. I'm guessing they were from L.A., although the liner notes don't yield any clues other than a grainy photo of them playing a concert at UCLA.

Etta James, R.I.P.

On a lot of days I think this is the best soul song there is:


Etta James: "I'd Rather Go Blind" (Chess, 1968)

This isn't the year

I'm told that the 49ers prevailed in some kind of athletic contest Saturday, so I can now post this without having to do a lot of explaining to my San Francisco friends.



Skrap: "The Bum Rap" (Escapade, 1983)

I have zero interest in football but I do enjoy faulty predictions, absurd nicknames (the crawfish sack! the crunch bunch!) and sports novelty records with drum breaks and pseudo-rap interludes.

2 Busy Saying Yeah - Last year's raps

To recap 2011, I made a mix of my favorite rap songs from last year.

I hadn't made a mix of new raps in about a year and a half, although for much of the last year I've been steadily playing and talking about new raps through the Stay Hatin' podcast I do with my friends Serg Dun and Soft Money. People who follow that podcast closely will have heard about half of these songs there; a few even ended up in our year-end spectacular that featured homeboy Noz. Doing the podcast has pushed me to listen to a lot more rap than I might otherwise do; I'm always afraid of showing up and being the guy with all of the shitty or obvious songs. I try to listen as widely as I can, but honestly whenever it begins to feel like work I usually hang it up and go listen to some old records.

There's no overriding theme to the songs in the mix, just a lot of raps I like in a lot of different styles and from a lot of different places. I limited the selections to one song per artist, otherwise there would have been a lot more E-40, Kendrick Lamar and Starlito. (As it is, a couple of those guys snuck in twice.)

I broke the mix into two parts to make it more manageable. If there's interest, I may bounce it out as individual tracks and upload a .zip. I will not upload a double cup, however nicely or persistently you ask.

Download pt. 1
Download pt. 2
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1. Mr. Collipark – Let’s Have Some Fun (Intro)
2. Travis Porter – Bring It Back
3. Swizz Beatz – Everyday (Coolin’) feat. Eve
4. iamsu! – Swaggin’ feat. Loverance, Skipper & Kool John
5. Lil Phat & Mannie Fresh – Talk Some Mo Shit
6. Killer Mike – Ready Set Go Remix feat. T.I. & Big Boi
7. Dorrough Music – Blake Griffin
8. Stevie Joe – Raccoons
9. Meek Mill – House Party feat. Young Chris
10. B.o.B – Epic feat. Playboy Tre & Meek Mill
11. Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers
12. ADd+/Picnictyme – Likeamug feat. Sore Losers
13. STS – Bullshit feat. Kyle Lucas
14. LoLo C-4 – Poor Ppl Smiles feat. MondreM.A.N
15. Willie Joe – Blown Away feat. Aftah Sum & A Money
16. Curren$y – Scottie Pippens feat. Freddie Gibbs
17. Lil B – Motivation
18. Jay-Z & Kanye West – New Day
19. Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire – Build-a-Bitch
20. 50 Cent – Sunday Morning
21. Black Milk & Danny Brown – LOL
22. Hail Mary Mallon – Grubstake
23. Willie Evans Jr. – Dumbtron
24. Nas – Nasty
25. NhT Boyz – Chee$e
26. Roach Gigz – Gina
27. DJ Quik – Nobody feat. Suga Free
28. E-40 – Serious feat. T-Pain
29. Husalah – Da Mob
30. Lil Ill & Dashdcadet – I Just Wanna Smoke



1. Juicy J – A Zip & a Double Cup (Remix) feat. Tity Boi
2. Gucci Mane & Future – Stevie Wonder
3. Webbie – Trilla Than a Bitch feat. Lil Phat
4. Big K.R.I.T – Money On the Floor feat. 2 Chainz, 8Ball & MJG
5. Starlito & Don Trip – L Word
6. Sir Kashflow – Eat a Dick feat. Kamonster
7. Zilla – Bitch Dawg feat. Monster & Junebug
8. Bo Deal – Safe Sex feat. Mello & G Blanca
9. Shady Nate – Baby Sit Part 2
10. Fam-Lay – Money Makin’ Trick feat. Project Pat
11. A$AP Rocky – Trilla feat. ASAP Twelvy & ASAP Nast
12. Corner Boy P – Lala Pt. 2 feat. Smoke DZA, Fiend & Killa Kyleon
13. Starlito – Thinking of You
14. Young Jeezy – I Do feat. Jay-Z & Andre 3000
15. Waka Flocka – Round of Applause
16. Main Attrakionz – Chuch
17. Schoolboy Q – Birds & the Beez feat. Kendrick Lamar
18. Danny Brown – 30
19. Kendrick Lamar – The Spiteful Chant
20. Kristmas – I Need a Drink feat. Codie G & Joi Tiffany
21. G-Side – Gettin It feat. Stalley & Joi Tiffany

Some statistics:

Geography
Songs by artists from the Bay: 13
Songs by artists from California: 18
Songs by artists from Atlanta: 7
Songs by artists from New York: 6
Songs by artists from Tennessee: 4
Songs by artists from Louisiana: 4
Songs by artists from Alabama: 3
Songs by artists from Texas: 2
Songs by artists from Pennsylvania: 2

Demographics
Songs featuring artists who were popular in the 1980s: 0
Songs featuring artists who were popular in the 1990s: 11
Songs featuring artists who were popular in the 2000s: 13
Songs by artists who spell their names with non-standard spellings or messed-up typography: 22

Topics
Songs that refer to Scottie Pippen: 2
Songs that refer to Stewie: 2
Songs that refer to Quagmire: 1
Songs that refer to Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Brian or Cleveland: 0

Other
Artists that appear in the mix twice: 9
Songs produced by Lex Luger: 2
Songs that Lex Luger productions: 3
Songs that previously appeared on Stay Hatin': 25
Songs I've heard on KMEL: 3

Hatin'/A trip down memory lane

On Friday, Serg Dun, Soft Money and I taped a new installment of Stay Hatin', which you can stream or download here.

In it, we play a lot of new rap songs we like and also speak on important topics of the day, such as the singer Lloyd's resemblance to Gonzo and the genius of Los Masters Plus and Frank Frazetta.

These are the songs we played, most of which are available in a .zip file here:

1. A.Dd+ - Genocide
2. Mobb Deep - Conquer
3. Andre Nickatina - Call the Dealer
4. Juicy J - Stoner’s Night 2 feat. Wiz Khalifa
5. Z-Ro - Stompin
6. Ghost8800 - California Hot Boy feat. Birch Boy Barie & Gigs510
7. Nacho Picasso - Moor Gang feat. Jarv Dee
8. SL Jones - Gas Station
9. SpaceGhostPurrp - Dont Give a Damn (Miami Bass)
10. Fat Tony - Lotus
11. Willie Evans Jr. – Introducin’
12. Lakutis - Lakutis In the House
13. Keak Da Sneak - Punk Ho
14. Twelve - So High feat. Lil Goofy

Although I didn't manage to work it in, I had hoped to play this song:


Rick Flare: "Family" (The Good Look Movement, 2011)

Rick Fairley a/k/a Rick Flare a/k/a Kwanz a/k/a K-Dub a/k/a Dubstar Infamous passed away last year. The video was made posthumously and (I'm guessing) released to mark the anniversary of his death.

I didn't know Kwanz personally but he touched a lot of people I know. He was a member of SF's long-running Bored Stiff crew.

Back in the early 1990s, I used to work at the Groove Merchant record store. I think all of the guys in Bored Stiff lived in the neighborhood and they would come through often, usually in a big group. I never really became friendly with them, but over the years I admired a lot of the stuff they did both as a group and in the production Equipto and TD Camp did for Andre Nickatina, Mac Dre and others.

The Rick Flare song made me think of this, which I hadn't listened to in many years:



Marvin Holmes and Justice: "I Can't See You" (Brown Door, 1973)

Then I got to thinking about how we value things differently as times change. Back in the day, Groove Merchant used to regularly put copies of The Summer of '73 on the wall, usually priced at about $12. In those days, any time a record was marked over $10 it seemed to draw a lot of eye-rolling and questions about why our records were so expensive. Even so, people often shelled out for The Summer of '73 when we played "All Night Into Day", a snare-tight funk instrumental, over the store's system.

At the time I don't think any of us really appreciated "I Can't See You", "Got to Be There" or some of the more soulful songs on the album, but these days those resonate with me a lot more. I remember picking up a lot of copies in those days for two or three dollars; the record also sells for way more money now.

I feel very thankful to have come up in a time when there was so much low-hanging fruit and also that I've been given the time to savor it.

Howard Tate, R.I.P.

Howard Tate died Friday. Although a cause of death hasn't been announced, he experienced a lot of ups and downs in his 72 years.

Tate was a hugely gifted soul singer who is best remembered for a handful of soul classics he cut with writer/producer Jerry Ragovoy in the mid-60s, this among them:


Howard Tate: "Get It While You Can" (Verve, 1967)

Ragovoy produced all and wrote most of two of Tate's three albums from the late 1960s/early 1970s, 1967's Get It While You Can and 1972's self-titled album on Atlantic. Although Ragovoy wrote some indisputably great songs in his day ("Time Is On My Side" and "Piece of My Heart"), I've never really warmed to the stuff he did for Tate the way I wanted to. Here are two favorites:


Howard Tate: "The Bitter End" (Atlantic, 1972)

Howard Tate: "Ain't Got Nobody to Give It To" (Epic, 1974)

The song takes a while to get going, but when it gets to the chorus and Tate's voice soars, it's an amazing moment.