Posts Tagged ‘ras kass’

Ras Kass – Non-Album Tracks (1994-1996) (Re-Upped)

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Editor’s Note: Back by popular demand

Ras Kass is easily one of my favorite MCs of all time, but I’m mostly just a fan of his mid-90s discography. Fortunately, he recorded quite a few tracks in between the years of 1994 and 1996, and he also blessed several radio shows with ill pre-written freestyles. Three volumes worth of non-album tracks is no small feat – that’s more than Organized Konfusion had in between the years of 1989 and 1998.

I have also included a “Soul On Ice” instrumental companion as a bonus. Enjoy, and hit us up in the comments section if you have anything that isn’t included here. There’s an alternate version of “Won’t Catch Me Runnin” that I was hoping would surface before the completion of this post, but nobody seems to have it.

Ras Kass – Non-Album Tracks Volume 1
1. Live From C-Arson
2. Remain Anonymous
3. Etc (Extended Version)
4. Won’t Catch Me Runnin’
5. Riiiot! w/ Chino XL
6. Come Widdit w/ Saafir & Ahmad
7. Plastic Surgery w/ Xzibit & Saafir
8. Arch Angels w/ Xzibit
9. E=MC5 w/ Western Hemisfear
10. Jack Frost
11. Soul On Ice (Remix)
12. Anything Goes (Remix)
13. Won’t Catch Me Runnin’ (Remix)
14. On Earth As It Is… (Vaporized Blend)
15. Come Widdit w/ Saafir & Ahmad (Fredwreck Remix)
16. Soul On Ice (Explicit Remix)
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Roy’s West Coast Underground Volume 1 (Re-Upped)

Monday, April 1st, 2013

What’s up, TROY fans. I’ve been on hiatus for a couple months, but now I’m back in full effect. I got six volumes of my favorite early-to-mid 90s west coast underground tracks on tap, so check back regularly. You may have noticed that I have a severe east coast bias, but this is also reflected in the type of west coast hip hop that I enjoy. I’ll be adhering to a strict time frame (1992-1996), with a focus on artists such as Aceyalone, Freestyle Fellowship, Ras Kass, The Pharcyde, Del, Casual, Pep Love, Souls Of Mischief, Blackalicious, Saafir, Homeliss Derilex, Mannish, Chali 2na, Charizma, The Dereliks, Ahmad, Motion Man, E-Rule, Lateef, The Atban Klann, Funkytown Pros, The Nonce, Madlib, Mystik Journeymen, Abstract Rude, etc.

Before you download these compilations, give this track a listen:

James Sumbi – Sunshine Men (1991)

And with that, I present to you: The Sunshine Men.

Side One
1. Mannish – The Impact Of My Insanity
2. Aceyalone – The Greatest Show On Earth
3. Ras Kass – Remain Anonymous
4. Mannish – Mannish (Instrumental)
5. Dereliks – Iz On Some Other….
6. Blackalicious – Count And Estimate
7. Motion Man – 93 Swing
8. Peanut Butter Wolf – The Chronicles (Instrumental)
9. The Nonce – Mix Tapes
10. Charizma – Methods
11. Chali 2na – Who’s Gonna Be The Next Victim
12. Casual – Rock On (Instrumental)
13. Casual, Pep Love & Del – Who’s It On
14. Saafir – Can U Feel Me
15. Freestyle Fellowship – Hot Potato
16. Freestyle Fellowship – Pure Thought (Instrumental)

 

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T.R.O.Y. Presents – Sounds Like The 90′s Vol. 21

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

SLT90s 21-front

It’s been an awfully long time since we last dropped Sounds Like The 90′s, 586 days to be exact.

Moving forward I will be doing my best to produce this series every 6-8 weeks. It’s hard gathering select tracks because as many of you know, there just isn’t a lot of music these days that remind us of the 90s.

I make these compilations because it represents where we are today. It usually contains tracks that emphasize an era in which we all know will more than likely never be duplicated again.  Some tracks on these compilations contain contemporary music that might have a slight hint of that era. Others, well it may just contain an artist that was very relevant from the 90s. Overall, these are put together to showcase today’s music as a music time capsule.

So, whether you like one track, ten tracks or all of them, enjoy these compilations for what they are. While terms like “exclusives” have become extinct due to new age technology and the blogsophere, we do our best to hand pick relatively newer material.

Enjoy 21 and sorry for the wait.

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Ras Kass’ Goldyn Chyld 10 Years Later

Monday, October 29th, 2012


By now we’ve all heard the story… In the midst of various label issues with Priority Records, Ras Kass gets pinched for this third D.U.I. Granted an extension, he goes back to work, however, just two weeks before he’s scheduled to begin his sentence, Priority recants on their previous agreement, informing him that they will not be releasing Goldyn Chyld at all. The album masters then “disappeared,” and Ras Kass did his time, came home and moved on with his life. Though a few of the songs included on Goldyn Chyld have been out for a decade — as they’d originally been recorded for Ras’ third album, Van Gogh, which was bootlegged before it could ever be officially released — nobody, with the possible exception of a few lucky fans and other confidants, has since heard or seen the completed album… that is, until 2012.

New Philaflava board member madstadik (presumably that’s ‘mad static’ and not, well, you know) was kind enough to bless the T.R.O.Y. forum with what by all accounts appears to be a legitimate rip of the actual album masters, “which means correct sequencing, skits and not pieced together from parts of Van Gogh and leaked Goldyn Chyld tracks,” as he said. This time we’re not the first to receive the long lost album, but regardless, we’re more than happy to pass it along and extend our gratitude to madstadik.

As for the music itself, if you’ve been following Ras’ career since the beginning, it’s probably not far from what you’re expecting. You’ve already heard the album’s title track, so you know that’s a certified banger with Ras Kass delivering his trademark lyricism over some classic Premo production… but of course, you also know that Ras’ catalog post-Rassassination has been less than stellar. While I’m personally a fan of Van Gogh, I usually find myself in the minority there and honestly haven’t been able to defend too much of his work since then. That being said, after a few listens, I’m willing to rank this album on the same level as Van Gogh, maybe even a little higher actually. Of the 17 songs on here, a few fall flat but several are straight-up incredible. Of those I hadn’t heard before, “Revelationz 22:22 (Intro)” and “Happiness” are my favorites. Aside from them, what makes me prefer this album over Van Gogh is what I consider far superior sequencing and overall sound quality. Tracklist and download link are below. (more…)

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Remember when Ras Kass used to be dope?

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Remember those days? If you’re like me you probably held Mr. Austin in very high regard. I bet you thought he could be a top 5 lyricist one day too. Well, this isn’t about playa hating. Not about hating on anyone trying to get money because I can assure you this ain’t going to do it. This is about how one of the most gifted lyricists of all-time completely pissed away his career with horrible career decisions. I won’t even touch on the life decisions because we all make mistakes, but since Pac died the Leftcoast hasn’t been right.

Ras Kass had the ability to be one of the greatest. He completely has stayed fucking up with dumb decisions like these. Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong after you listen to this bullshit. Victor Maitland stays laughin’ at this crap.

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Ras Kass – “The Evil That Men Do”

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Ras Kass “The Evil That Men Do”

The “demo” version of Soul On Ice LP is celebrated among die-hard fans for its dark lo-fi sound, devil-may-care sampling strategy, and the presence of fellow Western Hemisfear crew members. It makes for quite the sonic artifact but the proper studio album is a far greater representation of Ras Kass’s talent. Soul On Ice has been famously maligned as an album whose production is underwhelming in comparison to its lyrics, but over the years I have grown to enjoy the beats provided by producers Bird, Voodou, and Flip. Ras Kass’s lyrics contain elaborate wordplay and turns of phrase, and his cadences are unorthodox, so he is served well by beats that are dark and moody and do not distract from his vocals. (more…)

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Sounds of The 90s: The Remixes V. 1

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Here is the debut of the newest T.R.O.Y. monthly series featuring undeniably dope must hear/have remixes.  Every month we’ll bring you 10 remixes of the 90s we all know and love. Don’t get the title twisted this isn’t Sounds Like The 90s, look for that series to return later this month. In the meantime, let’s get reacquainted with the sounds actually from the 90s. If you got a favorite remix be sure to send it our way or post it up on our forum. –Philaflava

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Single Series: Vooodu

Monday, November 22nd, 2010
As far as I know, Vooodu first appeared on the track “Nasty Nigga” from  True Sound sampler, which dropped in 1992  (correct me if i’m wrong.) He is also know for producing few dark tracks for Ras Kass’s pre-album tracks, as well as few on Soul On Ice itself, and also for killing some Wake Up Show freestyles. He was also a member of  defunct group Western HemisFear (Vooodu, Ras Kass, Byrd, Mykill Myers & Meen Green).
Vooodu released great, unfortunately slept on EP,  ”Dark Regions” in 1997, which was followed by two singles you can download below, after the jump.

Soon after that he just disappeared, but he again reappeared in 1999 with new single “Confessions” dropped on Lavish Recording under exclusive licence of Sony Germany. I read that this single ins’t that good and i was not able to find it. Maybe it’s better like that, to hear Vooodu in his prime days when he was ripping it.

Click on the download links are after the jump. Enjoy! (more…)

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Open Mike Eagle, Lil B, and L-Dash Rewrite The Epiphany Rap

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

A few months ago I found myself rolling my eyes at message board comments that criticized Nas and Damian Marley’s song “Africa Must Wake Up” for its romanticized depiction of the troubled continent and failure to serve as a musical TED Talk1 teeming with cogent insight and creative solutions to famine and war. For now, let’s put aside the implausibility of any song directly effecting measurable social change. The idea that rap music derives its primary worth from its ability to articulate academically supported geo-political analysis is silly and should probably not be engaged. I’m also willing for now to ignore the inability of many commenters to assess Nas’s lyrics inside of the more logical context of rap and reggae’s treatment of Africa as an extended metaphor for past and future utopias.  I am most peeved by the implicit assumption that the act of awaking to the world’s problems, the unsettling mental and emotional process that precedes any attempt at political action or even coherent ideological formation, is somehow too juvenile of a preoccupation for rap. How can that be close to true if rap is so damned good at capturing these epiphanies?
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  1. From ted.com: “TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.” []
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Bad Cop – No Gimmicks Rap Shit (1-6)

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

BAD COP – NO GIMMICKS RAP SHIT MIXTAPE

Synopsis: 6 part mixtape with 62 independent and underground hiphop cuts from the 90′s, including unreleased tracks from Natural Elements, Foul Play and Verbal Hoods. All tracks non-stop mixed, split with trackmarks and tagged with track information.

–and to all you Serato haters, vinyl were used everywhere, except from the unreleased tracks!

Unreleased Tracks:
Natural Elements – I Got Your Heart: Best rip out there upped by nythugism on the TROY forum.

Mister Voo – Return Of The 45 (Relax Your Mind) *Taken from the leaked Tommy Boy CD from 1999, widely available online.

Foul Play – Boo Yah: DAT rip fully mastered, not the hissy version from WKCR.

Foul Play – Nightfall (Demo): Different from the one available on Cocaine Blunts, punshier beat and different vocals. Guarantee you won’t have heard this one before!

Foul Play – Black Clouds (Demo): Full rip of the demo version, not the one of Wild Pitch Blends. This is the same version that was played on WKCR, but better quality.

Verbal Hoods – I’ll Be Damned: Taken from the 5 Deadly Venoms CD, but I’ve edited the last chorus to make it clean from other cuts.

Download Mix re-upped 4/08/12

PART 1
1. I’m The F*cking Bad Cop
2. Natural Elements – Set It Off
3. Shyheim Feat. Trigger, Rubbabandz, Smoothe & Dzalias – What Makes The World Go Round
4. Slomo Feat. Dead Poetz Society – Hip Hop Can’t Stop
5. Concrete Click – Keep it Street (Remix)
6. Blahzay Blahzay Feat. Verbal Hoods – Long Winded
7. Foul Play Feat. Heltah Skeltah – Boo Yah (That’s How It Be)
8. Sparrow The Movement – Inheritance
9. Half A Mill – Any Day Can Be Ya Last
10. E Dot – Look Out

PART 2
1. Mister Voodoo Feat. KA – Return Of The 45 (Relax Your Mind)
2. Hillfiguz – Pain
3. Mental Illness – Amazin’s Not Playin’
4. Foul Play – Nighfall (Demo)
5. Shadez Of Brooklyn – Diamond Mine
6. Amp Boogie – Bluntly Speaking
7. Mischief – Anticipation
8. Souls Of Mischief – Sho For Real
9. I-Power – Systematic
10. Ghetto Dwellas – Make It Official

PART 3
1. Gravity – Back To The Essence
2. Finsta Bundy – Sunnyside
3. Laster – Misery
4. Godfather Don – Frontin’ Ass Ducks
5. Chino XL Feat. Ras Kass – Riiiot!
6. Ras Kass – Soul On Ice
7. Mob Deep – Shook Ones Pt 1
8. Hillfiguz – Boom
9. Sons Of Sam – Nofin’ Nice
10. Choclair – What It Takes
11. Al Tariq – Peace Akki

PART 4
1. The Creators – Sounds Wunderful
2. The Creators Feat. The Rats & Delirious – Pros & Cons
3. Superscientifiku Feat. Kashal-Tee – Flip Fast
4. Foul Play – Black Coulds (Demo)
5. Pop Megga – Ghetto News
6. Hyndu – Faxinated
7. 5One6 – Rap Attack
8. Jed Dust – Strictly Kings & Better
9. Dark Skinned Assassin – Lock Shit Down
10. Hi-Tech – 24/7

PART 5
1. Das EFX – Can’t Have Nuttin’
2. Natural Elements – I Got Your Heart (What My Crew Do To You)
3. L-Swift – Live The Life
4. Originoo Gunn Clappaz – X-Unknown
5. Heltah Skeltah – Operation Lockdown
6. Mister Voodoo – Lyrical Tactics
7. Pure Genius – How We Go (Remix)
8. Cipher – Peeps (The Sequel)
9. The Korp Dynasty – We Comin’
10. Natural Elements – The Promo

PART 6
1. Verbal Hoods – I’ll Be Damned
2. 3rd Eye – Put Your Boots On
3. Shadez Of Brooklyn – Now A Dayz
4. Scientifik – Lawtown
5. Da Nation – What’s Ya Rep
6. Shadez Of Brooklyn – Nowhere To Run
7. Dynasty – Wildcat
8. I-Power – Free Da Dome
9. Kukoo Da Bag A Bones Feat. Ill Distracxion – Big Queens (Real Nigs)
10. Shadez Of Brooklyn – Pandemonium
11. Show & A.G. – You Know Now

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