Next week I will have at least one super-awesome post! And the week after that I promise to have my damn guide to ripping vinyl complete!

Right now I promise to offer some classic hip-hop with minimal editorial comment.

Cypress Hill
Insane In The Brain (Extended Version)
When The Shit Goes Down (Extended Version)
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview B Real for a story on something I’d rather not mention here. It was a phone interview. Like many phone interviews, I am not given the actual artist’s number. Instead I am given a number to a PR rep, who then transfers me to the artist in question.

When I called in for this interview, the PR rep said to me “do you mind holding for a few minutes? B Real is just wrapping something up.”

It took every fiber in my being not to immediately ask “Is it a joint?”

Because the dudes in Cypress Hill kind of like weed. In case you didn’t know.

Anyways, B Real is a cool dude, real chill…and I think he was high.

Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde
Genius Rap
Genius Of Love (Instrumental)
I love the absolute brazen nature of old school rap when it came to samples. Today a rap group can’t sample a note from a pop tune without getting sued to oblivion, but back in “the day” when no one knew what the hell they were doing, rappers would take the instrumental of a song and just rap over it. Prime example is this cut from Golden Age rappers Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde. In case you can’t tell from the track title, “Genius Rap” is barely nothing more than the duo rapping over a modified instrumental track of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius Of Love.” Imagine if someone tried that today. If Kanye grabbed the backing track to “Rolling In the Deep,” cut a rap track over it and released it as “Rappin’ In The Deep.” Sure, there are mixtapes, and rappers use less-than-legal samples for those, but there’s something to be said for the day when rappers could just steal shit and get away with it. Fucking copyrights.

Also, I love the cover to Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde’s lone album.

Too bad the “Wall Street accountant” look never caught on in hip-hop.