I was at the video shoot for this way back in 1998 with Mic Meech of the legendary Fightins Phillies blog. For years I wanted to see the final video but I just never caught it on any late night hiphop video shows.
But that changed last week when I randomly searched for it on Youtube and BOOM — There it was. And posted online just the month prior, no less! Nearly 15 years later (!!) I finally get to see it, and it doesn't disappoint.
One of the greatest Philly hiphop tracks ever, check out the official video for Rahsheed (aka Maylay Sparks) and Ill Advised's "1.9.8.6." below. And look for Meech and I somewhere in the b-boy crowd shot:
Between 1998-1999, I was a member of the Philadelphia-based group, BBR: Big Brother Resistance. We were a politically charged and socially-minded hiphop group focusing strongly on technology, the media, politics, and the control and abuse of information by corrupt corporations.
It was me on production as Binyameen and occasionally “Stinke”, and MCs Tim T and PCP. I produced all of the tracks and had a lot of “firsts” with the crew: First time in my own recording session in a real studio; first time on vinyl; first time paying my share of the rent with beats; first music video…It was a pretty prolific one or two years to be honest.
BBR would dissolve in 2000 but the label bandmate PCP created to publish the BBR music would continue well into the new milenium. That label was Arrakis Records and it was part of the Philly indie hiphop movement of the late 90′s and early 2000′s.
All that said though, I’d like to share the 15 track BBR Sessions as a free MP3 download:
01. The 2nd Revolution
02. 2013
03. Briz Beat
04. The Girl Next Door
05. Goin Out to The Censors
06. Let Me Be
07. Newspeak
08. Porn Styles
09. Propa
10. Quake
11. Stereo Correct
12. Tee’s Break
13. Transient Groove
14. Verbal Leviathan
15. Whale Beat
I was digging through the (virtual) crates and came up on my man Stitch’s EP, Before We Go Any Further. This is a true gem from a producer I really respect and admire. This has never been released before and I asked Stitch if it would be cool to share it here on the blog. Not only was he down but he was MAD DOWN and excited for ya’ll to hear some of his earlier work.
Stitch says,
HOLY SHIT!!! Yes those are all mine. What a trip, I havent heard those tunes in YEARS!
I added a little bonus: “G-Way” featuring Philly MC’s, Indy 500 & Peedi Crakk (now known as Peedi Peedi). This particular track was produced by the Superchimps — That’s Stitch and Benny Brows. And that’ll in fact be the *next* EP I’ll be uploading next week.
But for now, dig into Stitch’s EP of raw beats. I love this album and I’m glad ya’ll can check it out too!
New video from the upcoming album. Produced by yours truly.
Check it:
I love working with Maylay aka Rahsheed. He’s one of my favorite Philly MC’s of all time. So he and I started this track together and he came up with the verse: “Don’t talk shit / pull ya cash out”…As I was listening to it I was like, “Shit, know who else would rip this track? Reef.”
I had never worked with Reef, so I hollered at him and sent him a rough copy of what Rahsheed and I had done already. Reef was like, “Bet.” But even better: Reef was going to be in town in a week for a show, so I arranged some studio time with my engineer to cut the vocals.
First of all, if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Reef yet, he’s mad funny. Right off the bat, he was cracking jokes. But then homie pulls out his Sidekick and I’m like, “Oh shit, is he reading his lyrics off his two-way??” Lol. Homeboy hits the booth and is kicking his shits right off the screen. I don’t know, maybe I’m slow with it, but that was the first time I saw that.
So word, Reef comes in, smacks his verse up and the song is sounding pretty damn dope at this point. But it needed cuts…I always wanted cuts on it cause I knew it was gonna be kindof raw. DJ Icewater is my go-to DJ, so it was a no-brainer.
I knew I wanted that “What-What-What?” on Maylay’s verse to invoke some some good, classic shit talking (“I been at it 20 years / your catalog is a fraction / your catalog is a fraction / your catalog is a fraction!”). Reminded me of popping junk in the arcade over a game of Street Fighter. Then for the cuts at the end I told Icewater, “All you, mang” and he kilt it…
So there ya go. “Pull Ya Cash Out”. Definitely a highlight of the new record for me personally. We recorded the song on November 7th, 2008, literally days after Barack Obama was elected President. Later that night, Reef performed at Slim’s here in San Francisco and rocked the Barack Obama t-shirt my jawn got him on stage (pics here).
Mr. Matt Kelley on the engineering tip, FYI. Hope ya’ll like it. Hit off the comments and let me know what you think! One!
Just caught word Philadelphia-based musical luminaries King Britt and my homeboy Big Rich Medina were awarded the titles of Creative Ambassadors to the City by the Philadelphia Tourism Bureau the other week, much to their delighted surprise. I don’t know Britt, but am a huge fan of his music. But I’ve known Big Rich for yeeeears, going “all the way back” to the Footwork Illadelph days where he was co-owner, I believe, with Bobbito Garcia of the Philly store on my old block, 3rd and Market (wotup, Rich!?).
Check out the video Rich posted on YouTube:
Also presented with awards were Bahamdia, Stacey Wilson, Taayib Smith of Two One Five Magazine, SetFree Richardson of Undercrwn and more.
Congrats to all. And big ups to the Philly Tourism Bureau for looking out for Philly artists that have been putting it down for years.
Imagine my surprise this week when two videos from The Roots’ debut album, Organix popped up on YouTube? I have never seen either of these videos before. I even went to my man, Efertlis who ran TheRoots.com back in the day (pre-Okayplayer.com) and he never saw either of the videos either. The first video from The Roots that I ever saw was “Distortion to Static” on The Box around 93-94.
So here are the videos, complete with young bucks Ahmir Brother ? and Tariq Black Thought. Not to mention a long-haired Scott Storch and former Roots member, Kid Crumbs aka Kenyatta.
