FOR ALL MASTERS

Exclusive music and interviews with legends of the classic mixtape era; analysis of contemporary rap culture from a hip-hop scholar's perspective.

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TRILLFIT 9.16.17 Run Track

For my second TRILLFIT x Unnamed Run Crew mix, I drew inspiration from all the great compilations in history- Jock Jams, Liquid Television, Bombomzee Pt.3, and of course, the Trainspotting Soundtrack. Starts off on a clear straightaway and proceeds to take several sharp left turns. Ideal for high-itensity cardio exercise in unwashed jeans. Overall, it’s a trip…

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Proudly carrying on the ALL OUT tradition, I touch down in Providence again tomorrow night! Oh my God so many records to get to! Everything from A Boogie to Zoey Dollaz. Gonna be a real good time, no hard sell necessary.

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Alright you mutants- next weekend, Providence, Rhode Island... Young-ish Professor X on the set! Jawns of future past! Been rocking with The Salon every month for the past few years and the nights have never disappointed. Always free, always a live crowd; STRONGLY recommend this one!

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Just re-upped with GoDaddy so I figured this would be as good a space as any to let y'all know what I'm doing out here. Very excited to be a part of this and once again share the set with DJ Slick Vick. Probablyyyyy gonna keep the soundtrack fairly current, but I’ll tell you this dear reader: if you make your way over on Wednesday and ask me to play “Slow Down Baby” by Cormega & Foxy, you will not be refused!

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Grafh - Get at Me Dog Freestyle

I was inspired to write something. Of course, my last several posts have been pretty self-centric so I thought I’d attempt, at least, to turn the attention elsewhere for this one. As I’ve stated before, you can spell it yourself-era Grafh is Top 5 Dead or Alive(-ish) for me. This freestyle, from a mixtape that spelled his name “Graph,” is what first put me on to this maniac.

My God, can you believe this freestyle is getting ready to enter high school after this summer? I downloaded Hood Legends Pt.5 off of Audiogalaxy. Apologies to Kool Kid for the bootlegging. I really had no expectations whatsoever as this mp3 cued up on my Winamp player, but already swayed by the choice beat selection, I felt myself being won over midway through “soda pop, soda with scotch.” Nevermind that he was doing full-volume, over the top, Mortal Kombat adlibs a good decade and a half before the Year of the Panda. For a split second you could almost entertain the notion that somewhere amidst all of Future’s strong genes there’s a sprinkle of Big Grafh in Desiigner’s DNA, until you realize he’s probably too young to have even experienced the “Myspace Jumpoff” antiviral.

A great man once asked “Where the fuck is Hitch? And what the fuck happened?” These days I only care about the second part. Voices change, I guess. You think about the wittiest, gotta catch ‘em all freestyle rappers of that 2002 class, and I ask you, can you even recognize them anymore? Honestly, have you understood a word Lloyd Banks has said in the last 5 years? I was so ready for that Drake diss from Joe Budden, but I needed to pitch it down like 15% to catch any of the entendres. I guess I’m listening too slow. Grafh’s latest shit is cool, if not a little overly Kevin Gates-ish, but at least he isn’t rapping like Gollum anymore. 

I don’t know, I thought I was already well into the grumpy old man phase of my music fandom, but I might have hit grumpier old men status this week. This recording though, this verse from a man with the ability to “turn the courtroom into a gentleman’s club,” will always be dear to me.

Grafh - Get at Me Dog Freestyle

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44 Minutes

I could’t swing the full 120, but allow me to Matt Pinfield your ear-buds for the next 3/4th of an hour. I never have a fully formed game plan when I sit down to record one of these things, but I found as the first few sequences of songs came together I was gravitating toward music I first heard on a Sunday night between 12-2AM. True to the series that inspired it, it’s a wide-reaching selection of new and old, hits and obscure. “Ich Bin ein Ausländer,” “Your Woman,” and “Caught a Lite Sneeze” are all represented, but so is Coca Vango, Newz and Travis Porter.  Other than myself, I can’t imagine anyone liking everything here, but I guarantee there’s definitely something in there for everyone.

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TRILLFIT / TRILLyoga Mix

Been meant to post this up on here, but better late than never, right? In the same vein as the previous post, but at a much lower heart rate: 45+ minutes that's equal parts inner peace and side piece. I tried to set the tone from the jump by matching up Enya with Jay Burna; but that's just how I like to get my mind, body and soul alligned. I invited Bryson Tiller, Michael Aristotle, FKA Twigs and a gang of others to chill with us as well. Enjoy.

Check out Trill.Fit for future events

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TRILLFIT / UNNAMEDRUNCREW Mix

Despite dubious qualifications concerning my trill or fit-ness, I was entrusted with the honor to assemble the soundtrack to the #UnnamedRunCrew’s 2-mile excursion through Boston (the mean streets of Boston.) As someone who struggles to muster the sufficient motivation to place one foot in front of the other, I chose music that would encourage me to keep striving. Infrequent though it may be, when I do get my Prefontaine on, I choose the pavement over the treadmill every time. I find myself driven by the change of scenery, so with that in mind I tried to keep the pace brisk; about a song a minute. For no particular reason, it ended up being a mostly 80s/90s hip-hop affair, but we cover a lot of ground here. If navigating through Jethro Tull, E-40, Big Daddy Kane, TLC, and Folk Implosion in the span of a half-hour is your kind of exercise, you might get some mileage out of this.

Check out Trill.Fit for future events

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Lifers - Discography

Hey, I'm allowed a vanity post every once in a while! For the past week I've been feeling very nostalgic about this project. Alex, one of our guitarists, unearthed the footage you see above and it really brought my back. In the brief while that we were together, it was a pure and great thing to create exactly the music that was in my head/heart with some of my best friends. (You have to excuse me, I came up in the 90s, so I don’t know how to express my feelings about hardcore without resorting to vague emotional cliches.) A few years removed and I still feel this stuff holds up pretty well. If you enjoyed any of the previous hardcore-related posts, this may be for you.

The good people at nbrock.net, the New Bedford Preservation Society, have a link to our collected works. Two proper studio recordings: “Early Trauma”  + “Want For Nothing,” a radio performance at Brown University, and a live set recorded at AS220 in Providence. Oh, and a loose practice tape of a Folk Implosion cover. A very sincere thank you to everyone.

LIFERS - discography

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place 7"

For my money, the best pound for pound screamo label of the late 90s was the super-collectible Witching Hour Records. The mad genius behind Witching Hour was Chris Williams, who was also one of the original singers for Racebannon (back when they were intercontinental tag-team champions.) This twisted mind who brought you the skull-shaped Jeromes Dream/Orchid split, as well as the Usurp Synapse "penis" 7" was also responsible for wrangling together these 4 bands for this Between a Rock and a Hard Place compilation in 1997. I joke of course, as a kid who used to harass him constantly on AIM I can attest that Chris was a good-natured, down to earth dude. No doubt he just used some of his mid-western charm.

Of course the name that leaps off the hand-screened cardboard is Cave In. The version of "Pivotal" that sets off this 4 track 7" is different from the one you've grown to love through repeated headbanging sessions set to Beyond Hypothermia. I concede, that revamped recorded is the superior of the 2, as the spacey distorted droning makes more contextual sense than the odd, clean-channel plucking that takes it's place in the original here. Fans of this band tend to be a bit obsessive, so this is will no doubt be of interest to any who haven't heard it.

Next up is Reversal of Man's "I'm a New York City Detective-- there's no way I'm typing out all of that ridiculous song title. Easily one of my favorites from their catalog. However, If you have their misleadingly incomplete "Discography" CD, then you already have a better quality rip of this song. As these posts always seem to generate more interest than the rap offerings, maybe I'll get around to uploading the version of "Mercy" that's on the Brave Do Not Fear the Grave compilation some day.

The End of the Century Party never really tickled my fancy. Maybe it's a Florida thing. Revisiting this 7" in 2015, I'm not sure what about this disagreed with me. Might have been too groovy for my tastes at the time.

But let's bring this compilation home (LITERALLY) and take it to New Bedford real quick! Roswell may be known in other corners of the hardcore globe as one of those 'random' bands in the Hydrahead legacy, but please don't lump them in with The Hollomen! Hometown bias aside, these guys did that mid-90s dogpile metalcore as well as or better than any of their better-known peers; and may I add, way less cringe-inducing retrospectively. Members went on to form All Chrome, Blue/Green Heart & Voices Forming Weapons among other noteworthies.

Download the Between a Rock and a Hard Place Compilation

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DJ Red Alert - Propmaster Retro Show 1.11.15

No exaggeration: every year I base my holiday plans around locking in to Hot97 on Christmas Eve for Funk Flex & Red Alert’s annual show. The greatest gift of all came when they announced that Red would have his own Sunday night show on the station where hip-hop lives. The Koolest Legend is a national treasure so there was no doubt in my mind this would be another classic moment in radio, of course I had my tape decks ready! Running through a lineup of mid-90s – early-00s records, this was all up my alley. I saw some people online searching for the full audio of this, so I figured I’d share the wealth. This is what you’ve been missing!

DJ Red Alert - Propmaster Retro Show on Hot97 (1-11-15)

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FAM #32 - Ted Smooth

With an uncanny talent for extending the lifespan of some of the biggest  records out, producer/DJ Ted Smooth currently has a presence on the radio that rivals your favorite rap star. I caught up with Ted to talk about his incredible catalog of remixes: everyone from Uncle Murda to Beyoncé! Whether you know him as the man behind Lumidee's smash "Almost Famous" album or simply by his unmistakable tag (Straight face! You Remember!) take a listen and learn about the dude with "a folder in every DJ's laptop!"

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FAM #31 - DJ Self

It's been over a year since our last FAM interview, so this unexpected drop may come as a surprise to you. Well, it was definitely a shock for me to find myself in New York's Power 105 studio, sitting across the console from DJ Self! I was having my own 'just happy to be here' moment, but when he said he had a quick window to do an interview, I had to make it happen. In this 15 minute, unedited conversation with the Prince of New York we try to cover everything from his upbringing in Brooklyn (a place where stars are born), to the Lox Family tape that put him on the map, to his recently released app. Hands down our Gwinin'est episode yet, and hopefully just one of many more to come.

Download the Interview Here

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Tom Gist - Cuffin Season Freestyle

What a pleasant surprise to see this come across my timeline! As much as I've already played the hell out of the original, and a select few of the other remakes & remixes to pop up, this beat just sounds tailor made for Tom Gist. I mean, you're getting my attention when your first punchline is "Screaming What! like N.O.R.E before the weight gain." But you should already know what to expect from the man. My only complaint is: fam, give us that download option!

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Loaded Lux - Candy Shop Freestyle

Long before anybody got any work, Loaded Lux caught my attention with this freestyle over the "Magic Stick Remix (with Olivia.)" Of course I caught the Smack DVD battle with Murda Mook, but that was a bit of a draw in my opinion and I really needed to hear how he would sound flowing over a beat. For that round, it was a decisive victory over Mookie who sounded a little shaky alongside Papoose on "You Can't Murder Me."

There's more than a few witty punchlines if you're able to listen fast enough to catch what Lux is spitting. What really won me over was the reference to being the 26th man on Kay Slay's (then very recently released) "Rollin 25 Deep," a who's who of mid-00s mixtape rappers. This recording was pulled from DJ L's Street Confessions Part 3, originally released in early 2005.

Loaded Lux - Candy Shop Freestyle

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A-Team - Power 105 Freestyle (feat. Tay Rock & Mike Classic)

The recently reunited A-Team of Hitchcock & Ransom, along with Tay Rock (remember him from The Ransom Note mixtape??) and Mike Classic (pictured above) came through Power 105 last night for the Presidential takeover of Jovonn's New NY show. A lot of bars administered here! Scott Da Animal's wolf-pack air out the U Don't Know, Black Republican and Pound Cake instrumentals and a whole lot of bars get administered in the process. Really dope to hear those guys get it live on the radio again. I'm not sure if a higher quality rip of this will eventually surface, but since I had my "tape deck" ready last night, y'all get it first!

A-Team - Power 105 Freestyle (feat. Tay Rock & Mike Classic)

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ALL OUT - November 23rd

Really just an excuse to post this exquisite flier, my humble little remix of Tasha Holiday's "Just The Way You Like It" CD single. To get you in that same '96 mentality that I'm in, take a listen to DJ Camilo's treatment of this record on his R&B II mixtape. And it's not just because the official recording would get swiftly taken down! Nah, the fact is that hiss, that bass distortion adds that extra dimension to a record like this. It's like seeing a movie in the theater, projected onto a screen from the original film. There's nothing else like it. This is the type of ambiance I'll be setting tonight from 10 to 11:30ish before kicking it up a couple quads for the remainder of the evening!

Tasha Holiday - Just The Way You Like It (Feat. Mase)