Ripped Open By Metal Explosions

DEEP LIKE A SOCRATES, FOUL LIKE ATROCITIES

2009-11-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

At the urging of Smooth Triumph, I've vowed to only post 12" rips till 2010. Let's go back to 1997 with one of my all time favorite MC's: the God, Percy Chapman aka Tragedy Khadafi. The Iron Sheiks 12" served both as vehicle to get some Noreaga disses into the hands of mixtape djs as well as an introduction to Trag's next QB protege, Imam T.H.U.G. "Allumaniti" is pure grimey 90's perfection,

EASY RIDER/ 01: A CLASSY UNDERGROUND BAY AREA RAP 7" FROM 2002

2009-11-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

You might not have this one. In fact, I think it's kinda rare. I know it's dope. Executive produced and manufactured by the great Johnny LeMasters, who used to go under the moniker Sarge Shitface and once rode along with Joe Dub and Sacred Hoop to a legendary show in Chico that involved mushrooms and aluminum foil made jewlery, this piece of wax defines cutty. Around this time Mr. LeMasters (

I KNOW I WON'T SUCCEED, BORN A BAD BREED

2009-11-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

Alright kids, here's another Phil Blunts banger. This time around he goes under the Philly Bathgate alias. One of only 2 releases on the short lived Harvey Records label manned by one Harvey L. Frierson Jr. aka Harvey Jr who seems to have had his hands all over construction of the infamous 360° 12"! And to get even more gully on your ass, this 12" was recorded at Keith Shocklee's crib!! This

DJ QUEST NEW VIDEO "WHO!WHAT!" FEAT. BAS1

2009-10-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Fresh off the hella fresh Questolous cd:DJ Quest is the dopest hip-hop DJ ever born. I saw him two Saturdays ago on Oct. 17th DJing for TopR, proving that he is the last master of the scratch showcase routine right in the middle of TopR's set (props to Topski for givin' my man the much deserved light!). Why'd the rest of you scratch DJs stop doing that shit? Got tired of practicing for DMCs

THE DRUM: KZSU NINETEEN NINETY SIX

2009-10-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here's another rip of a tape of a Drum show from sometime in 1996. Not sure on the month, but Mad Skillz was playing Club Deco in SF, anyone remember that show? Kevvy Kev goes for delf for a bulk of the tape playing lots of the hot 12"'s of the time. Dan Charnas strikes through with Chino XL who drops a bit about his forthcoming solo joint and plays what sounds like a cassette copy of "Waiting

Q-BERT’S CRIB DECEMBER 26th, 1994 3/3: SAAFIR IN THE CHAOS

2009-10-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

Outside takin’ a smoke break and… Next thing you know, up walks a West Oakland soldier in a burgundy lumberjack and beanie; it’s fuckin’ Saafir!, just 4 months into the release of his debut, “Boxcar Sessions” and fresh off the battlefield from picking Casual’s pocket at Crash Palace and cutting heads against Hiero with his crew on the radio, like an ancient warrior still bloody and fuming from

Q-BERT’S CRIB DECEMBER 26th, 1994 2/3: BORED STIFF MEETS TMC

2009-10-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

A bevy of all kinds of hip-hoppers (not just DJs) came thru to represent in Q-bert’s catacombs of records that day. Here Kwanz (aka Dubstar now known as Rick Flare) an original member of the legendary Bored Stiff rap crew from the Lower Haight fresh off mentioning that he drops tons of acid on the song "Therapy" off the Bomb Hip Hop Compilation came thru to bust a freestyle with MC Chill (I think

Q-BERT’S CRIB DECEMBER 26th, 1994 1/3: BIONIC BOOGERS

2009-10-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

DJ Fondouglas (formerly of Sacred Hoop) and good friend Todd Hurvitz (aka Hurb, recently a co-producer for the show Punk’d) shot this footage for a long defunct documentary project that never got off the ground way back in the hoodies and Tims days. Q-bert’s stoner jean jacket with the sheep wool lining means absolute business and nothin’ else. Also peep how DJ Disk has his old real-as-fuck,

FOUR OF US MADE THE PAPERS AIN’T NONE OF US SEEN THE GRAVE YET…

2009-09-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

We'll get back to the old Bay Area content in-a-minute, but right now I gotta take a station break to shine light on a raw talent from the Bronx.Bounce yer fists together and then cross your arms up. BX all day. Money Boss don’t play. I don’t know how old this is, but I can’t stop bumpin’ it. When Cheeba points out his drinkin’ buddy I crack up. Just had to give it some shine, shit is too dope,

THIRD SIGHT “MURDER DEATH KILL” LIVE VIDEO

2009-09-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

To further honor Spiderman, here’s a clip of one of his favorite local rap groups, Third Sight, performing their anti-social 12” single “Murder Death Kill” for the Fuck Pop Convention at Maritime Hall sometime between 2001 and 2002 (I forget when exactly). Third Sight’s onstage line-up at that point consisted of Jihad (lead emcee), Sir Limpdic (aka Fat Flash) and Palo Alto’s own Insomniac (as the

SCAMS, SCANS & GRAMS

2009-09-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

I admit, I fell behind with working on the blog the past couple weeks. Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of ROBME and it kinda snuck up on us. I had an idea for a special megapost, but it became somewhat of a larger project than I anticipated so it will not see the light of day for a minute. BUT we do have some DOPE exclusive shit that will be dropping later this week. Just need to hook up

SPIDERMAN: THE MONDAY BEATDOWN, WINTER 98

2009-09-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

Our good friend the Black Stamp has blessed us with another tape from his mysterious shed of analog treats. This time it's a 60 minute tape with 2 excerpts from a late 1998 episode of Spiderman's Monday Beatdown radio show which was on 89.7FM KFJC. For us heads in the Bay, the Monday Beatdown started your week off on right foot and I was a loyal listener. Spiderman aka Ken Hamilton's

SNAFU!: RANDOM BAG CHECK - CHARLOTTE, COMPTON

2009-08-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

I found this one while digging in San Diego with the Funeral Shock guys. The store (the name escapes right now) had a bunch of hip hop 12"s priced at .50 and dude was saying all hip hop was half price. Shit. For .25 I couldn't pass up a private press looking joint from Compton with a song called "Blunt Smokers". What I heard when the needle hit the wax had me bugged though. Rugged East

JUNKIN' WIT JERRY PART 3: JUNKER'S HIGHWAY

2009-08-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the final installment of our 3 part series presented by our ace in Chico, Heathakilla, aka Hardcore 'Miah. We recommend that you crack a bottle of Racer 5 and click the title link before you start reading and let Jerry's own mixed sounds of the excavations mentioned below enhance the experience, ya junky!The end of Highway 99The end of last week I was housesitting. I decided to use it as

RIPPED OPEN RADIO #3, PART 2

2009-08-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Finally ripped the 2nd half of the show. I gotta say, we pulled out some great records for this one. The "rave cave" Luke referred to was a massive DJ set up some norms were erecting in the studio next to ours. They had it jacked into a live PA system inside the radio station and were BLASTING techno beats while we were live on the air. We had the door closed and the speakers cranked trying

NITROUS OX TAPE FOUND! FOR MY HOSTILES WIT BLOODY NOSTRILS!

2009-08-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here's four of the better tracks off it. Peace to Ajent Orange, Pokerface, Messy Flesh, Kiilani, Jazz-E, Mr. Ooh, and Angela Bautista. The heavy "Remain Anonymous" era Ras Kass influence here makes this pretty backpacker, but what do you expect from the Bay in '97. And is more of that nasty style necessarily a bad thing? No, it is not. Further proof that even Bay-bred backpackers were generally

ON THAT JUNK PART 2

2009-08-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Once again our man in the field, Hardcore Jerry a.k.a. Heathkilla, breaks you off something proper, and Eons and I put in our two cents. This post is true to the lifestyle. In this junkin' life we must cherish the adventures as well as the treasures they bring, because a digger spends 99% of his time looking and about 1% finding, and how depressed would we be if we viewed that 99% as wasted,

RIPPED OPEN RADIO #3 - PART 1

2009-07-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

My old school homie Arthur Groom hit me about some open KZSU spots a couple months ago and I managed to get two Sunday slots. I did a metal show for one (archive here) and Smooth Triumph and I did the 3rd installment of Ripped Open Radio for the other one. Outside of the danked confines of 66.6FM KOLD's studios, we were forced to play it cool, PSA's and all. The sound of rugged drums and

JUNKIN' WITH JERRY...

2009-07-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post from our cohort out in Chico, CA, Hardcore Jerry (AKA Heathakilla)... the man is simply an excavator extrordinaire! Reap the junk whirlwind! Oh, yeah and this is one in a series of three, so be checkin' for the next two, yo...i went to oroville today and bought some records. i did better then last time, which was the time i copped the kimmy fresh and the people cassette that

"I'LL BE THE ONE TO SMOKE THE COPS IN THE COURTS"

2009-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

First time I recall hearing Black Mafia was deep in the not so dark basement of 90.1FM KZSU. My grindcore homies Noisear were in town to play a couple shows and work on a recording with Portland's Superbad. I caught wind that Big Chief was attempting to have both bands perform live during during a shorter than usual time slot. Seeing that they would need all the help they could get, I extended

BAY AREA DEMO PARADE TRILOGY 3/3: NEXT OF KIN

2009-07-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Copped this demo same time I got Charizma and PB Wolf's black and yellow demo with "Red light, Green Light" and all that shit on it (the one with the now famous black-n-white photo on the inside with Charizma holding up a picture of PB Wolf from grade school, they put actual developed copies of the photgraph in every tape case they distributed, I lost mine, I'm pissed that I just remembered that)

BAY AREA DEMO PARADE TRILOGY 2/3: BAZOOKA JOE GOTTI

2009-06-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the obscurity, where shit's the best! This time we time travel forward to the mid-90s: 1996.This time I present the SF MC I mentioned in the Cult of Isis post: Bazooka Joe Gotti.I met Joe thru Jason Slater as well, around the same time he introduced me to Adisa. I always thought he had natural mic skills (no matter what coastal perspective you choose to take) with that wonderful

BAY AREA DEMO PARADE TRILOGY 1/3: THE INCLINE

2009-06-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

The confessional style of this post was inspired by the writing of TJ Smith of "Sea of Seed" whose handcrafted ‘zines about the rural midwest I’ve been revisiting as of late. I stole this tape from my old radio cohort on KSCU Rob “Rock B” Jackson’s crib back in like ’93-’95 (???). It was after a show he had set up for the Sole Sides Crew, when “Melodica” was still a

THAT'LL BE $500, $WEETHEART

2009-06-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Mac: predecessor to other rhyme virtuosos from Vallejo like Mac Dre and E-40. Super producer Khayree’s first beats on wax. Khayree would go on to concoct a slew of Bay Area classics for legends like Mac Mall, Mac Dre, Young Lay and Ray Luv (just to name a few), but it was mainly Mac Dre who kept The Mac’s name in the street for at least a decade after the pioneer was gunned down in cold

RIPPED OPEN RADIO #2

2009-06-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Second episode. Eons on the tables and Luke gets down with the Realistic talk box with the wood paneling. Once again, the selections are bonkers. No one called in and won the contest for the life-size Diamond Shell cardboard stand up. We gotta check these phonelines. Better luck next week!Ripped Open Radio #2 1. Beatnuts - "Get Funky" (remix)2. P Bros. feat Sadat X and Money Boss - "Come