Onyx - Flip Dat Shit (Featuring Treach, Biggie Smalls, 3rd Eye)

Has this been on the demo circuit? I don't recall ever hearing about it. 

Hip Hop Demos b/w DJ JS-1: Demolition Mix

I love demos.

To be clear, I used the term loosely, for the most part including anything that hasn't been released commercially, but mostly focusing on those unmixed, un-mastered, tape hiss fests that were traded like baseball cards, pre-dating the MP3 explosion.

Many cringe the moment they realize the sound quality isn't close to meeting their standards, but while I do appreciate excellent sound, it has never been a deal breaker for me, especially with Hip-Hop. If there's a rhythm I can latch onto, interesting samples, and a competent mcing, I'm good. I'm just as comfortable bumping Scenario by the Beastie Boys, as I am with a track from 2001.

Sound politics aside, I think the biggest draw of demos is their historical, archaeological, anthropological value. (I think I just did a Hiero there) It's a great way to try to find some insight and clues concerning the history and development of your favorite artists.

DJ JS-1 has put together a mix containing over 3 hours of demo tracks. You might have already heard some (or many) of these tracks, but you may find a gem or two previously unheard.

Download: Link

Also, here are a few random favorites which I don't believe are included in the above-noted mix.

CRU - Understand Me


Snoop Doggy Dogg - The Next Episode (featuring Dr. Dre)


Ras Kass - Everything I Love


Souls of Mischief - Towaway Zone

Jungle Brothers - Crazy Wisdom Masters

Afrika, Mike G, Torch, Sammy B

Quick Recap: The JBs were to follow their second album with a collaboration between themselves and Bill Laswell (with David Williams) titled Crazy Wisdom Masters. Long story short, the label thought it was too out there (early 90s? hell yeah...), and it was toned down (a bit) and released as J. Beez Wit The Remedy, which Hip Hop (myself included) deemed...still too much out there.

Happy to finally be able to hear this at a time when I'm able to accept something that's a little to the left of center.

Jungle Brothers - Mysterious Monkey


Jungle Brothers - Good Ole Hype Shit


Unearthed here: Much appreciation to The Unheard Music

Gravediggaz - The House That Hatred Built

Today I had a conversation with Done about the Wu-Tang Clan and their minor league affiliates. Even though they weren't conceived as a Wu side project, the Gravediggaz were brought up. We both agreed that the first album was enjoyable, largely a result of being guided by the capable hands of Prince Paul.

Funny though, when he decided(?) to lessen his involvement in the project, the group transformed into this...



Not at all wack, but you could throw this on a Sunz of Man album and it wouldn't miss a beat. What happened to levity of the debut album? The RZA's influence for better or worse, is all over this song (and probably the album, which I'll admit to not peeping). Unfortunately for them, it was released on the wrong side of Wu Tang Clan's apex, so it kinda got lost in the shuffle with the likes of Immobilarity, and Inspectah Deck's solo release (what was that called again?).

In the spirit of October 31st, Prince Paul released this demo from their early recording sessions. Even on non-single type tracks, Paul had a knack for making his productions interesting. The MCs also sound like they're having fun with it.

Gravediggaz - The House That Hatred Built

This is the First song we recorded as the Gravediggaz in 92". It was the intro to our demo and it was actually recorded the day I introduced these guys to each other at my house . This track never made the album but it was one of my favorite productions. This was the track that started it all .. RIP Poetic. Enjoy

Prince Paul > RZA4thDicipleTruMaster

3rd Bass - Green Eggs and Swine (Unreleased Original Mix)

Very bold, Peter.

Download: Link

"Green eggs and swine, this was a song that was recorded for the derelicts of dialect album. Unfortunately this mix never made the album but was one of my favorites. The song is a bit too long but this was 1990 hip hop style production ..Hopefully you will enjoy the Prince Paul unreleased series of goodies. more to come! Why let it rot...share music" - Prince Paul

I think I like the album version better, but it's always good to hear different beats, and vocal takes.

"But my balls itch"

The Chase Pt. 3: or how i learned how far i would go (though not far enough) to obtain unreleased music.

Yesterday, my co-worker approaches me, asking if I've seen the ebay auction for the Tribe tape.

"The whut tape?"

"The Tribe tape. Someone is selling one of their original demo cassettes on ebay. Description, Pubic Enemy, El Segundo...and 2 unreleased tracks"

"..." (mind blown)

I tell him to send me the link immediately. Sure enough it's already over $200. As a joke, I make a posting on my Facebook page. An attempt to gather a group of people to contribute money to acquiring this cassette.

There were a few joke replies, but then my friend Ryan tells me that he's willing to go splitsies. I got an adding machine by my side, so i'm figuring out how high we should go. Ryan tells me that he's willing to spend $200. Damn...he's serious. I'm nervous about dropping that much loot, but I agree to the total. We put in our bid. Less than an hour left, and we're the high bidder.

At this point, my reservations about spending $200 on a cassette are starting to disappear. I'm actually getting excited about it. In my mind I'm making dates on my calendar for sharing the cassette, Lord Stanley styles with Ryan. I'm thinking about future blog posts, and how I would share this rare item with the hip hop nation. Basically I'm getting a little carried away.

Moments before the auction ends, I get an email saying that we've been outbid. Reality kicks in. I check the auction, and it's now closed. The winning bid? $879.99!

I told my co-worker that I had got in on the auction item, but didn't win. He laughed at me and commented that "I guess you're not really that big of a Tribe fan". Shit...not enough to go that much out of pocket.

Thanks for indulging me and my story. The most I can offer now, are snippets, pics, and the description provided in the auction. I made sure to copy it all. I tiny piece of this hip hop history is better than nothing I suppose.

I only hope that someone shares these tracks in the future.

------

MEGA RARE 1ST DEMO TAPE BY HIP HOP LEGENDS A TRIBE CALLED QUEST!!!

THIS DEMO TAPE WAS GIVEN TO A FEW DJS IN THE LATE 80'S WHILE ATCQ WERE SHOPPING THEIR WORK!! I ACQUIRED IT WHEN A PROMINENT DJ LOST HIS STORAGE UNIT AT AUCTION!! HAND DRAWN ART WORK QUITE POSSIBLY BY Q-TIP OR RED ALERT! THIS DEMO WAS RECORDED AND SHOPPED BEFORE PHIFE WAS EVEN IN THE GROUP AND RED ALERT WAS HANDLING ALL THE PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT! THERE IS A RUMORED DEMO THAT WAS SHOPPED TO GEFFEN RECORDS AROUND THIS TIME WITH "CAN I KICK IT?" ON THE TAPE BUT THIS DEMO DOESN'T HAVE THAT SONG ON IT!! WHICH LEADS ME TO BELIEVE IT WAS RECORDED PRIOR TO THAT!

THE DEMO HAS 5 SONGS. 3 OF THE 5 ARE PRE MIXES OF WHAT EVENTUALLY SURFACE ON "PEOPLES INSTINCTIVE PATHS" WHILE THE OTHER 2 WERE NEVER RELEASED! I HAVE PLAYED THESE FOR FRIENDS AND THE LIKE AND NO ONE I KNOW HAS EVER HEARD THESE SONGS BEFORE!!

BY PURCHASING THIS TAPE YOU DON'T OWN THE RIGHT TO ANY OF THE UNRELEASED MATERIAL AT ALL!! AS I DON'T. I JUST HAVE THE TAPE!!! CHECK OUT THE SNIPPETS! TRACK LIST IS AS FOLLOWS AND CAN BE SEEN IN THE PICTURES!!

  
Beautiful...

1) DESCRIPTION OF A FOOL
2) PUBIC ENEMY
3) NATIVE TONGUE (UNRELEASED)
4) LEFT MY WALLET IN EL SEGUNDO
5) DUST (MY PAL) (UNRELEASED)

THE TAPE ITSELF IS IN GREAT CONDITION! I HAVE PLAYED IT THROUGH AND IT IS WOUND TIGHTLY. THERE ARE NO CRACKS. IT IS HOWEVER A BLANK TAPE WITH A DEMO ON IT. IT ISN'T A MIND BLOWING AESTHETICALLY PLEASING CASSETTE BUT IT IS A PIECE OF HIP HOP HISTORY!!!



UPDATE

Q-Tip Says:

"The tribe demo on ebay is not even the 1st one. About 20-30 of those circulated. The original one w/1st bonita is the real."

"the demo is still a worthwhile purchase."

A (Very) Brief Conversation: L.A. Jay

John Barnes III aka L.A. Jay recently joined Philaflava's message board, where he answered some questions regarding production credits on tracks by The Pharcyde. Shameless fan that I am, I decided to hit up Mr. Barnes on twitter with a few questions of my own.

I had questions regarding the Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde chapter in Brian Coleman's excellent book Check The Technique: Liner Notes For Hip Hop Junkies -- which I'm certain we've all read.

When discussing the track Otha Fish, Slim Kid Tre mentions that the version included on the album (produced by L.A. Jay & Tre) was not the original version recorded. The original version was produced by M-Love; a friend of the group. I asked Jay if he could recall the original track. He sent me a link to this track...

The Pharcyde - Otha Fish (The Heavy-Head O.G. Mix)


I have this version!

I've had it for years as an owner of the Otha Fish CDS. I guess the "O.G." in the title was referring to recording history, and not, errr...original gangsters. Was a little disappointed as I hoping to unearth a gem. Of the mixes included on the single, this was always my least favorite. What Jay and Tre did with the Herbie Mann sample was perfect, and I believe we all can agree that the sentiment in the lyrics was better conveyed on the final album version.

L.A. Jay - "yeah, he went into the zone over my beat. the tempo change let his verse breathe more, accentuating the emotion in the lyrics."



Another track discussed in Brian Coleman's book was "My Man". Described as "Funny, daffy, and just amazing", deadlines and infighting prevented this track from being completed and included on the album. I asked Jay about it, but he didn't seem to remember it. Not all that surprising since it was recorded almost 20 years ago.

"I'm sure I heard it way back then...I'll ask Tre about it."

And there you have it. Wasn't able to turn up anything (yet) as far as demos are concerned, but the Otha Fish trivia was great as I'm very appreciative of any information concerning the recording of this album.

Shout out to L.A. Jay for responding to my tweets, and for producing some great tracks for The Pharcyde. Follow him on twitter @john_the_third

The Pharcyde - Pork


The Pharcyde - The Rubbers Song


The Pharcyde - Passing Me By (Fly As A Pie Remix)

Hieroglyphics - Menace II Society (update)

Original Post: Link

Had an opportunity to ask Domino about the track. Here's what he had to say.

...I do remember that track and believe I have a cassette copy somewhere. I will look around for it and if Cas is cool, I will post it at some point.

The story behind that track is, Jive was doing the soundtrack to Menace to Society and had Casual and Souls submit songs for it. The Souls submitted “Our Secret” a song we has left over from the 93 til sessions. Casual went in and did a new song on a beat by Extra Prolific. It was recorded in NY around the same time (late 92’) we were mixing Fear Itself and 93 Til.

The Main thing I remember is the chorus with Ex Pro saying ”I’m a menace and its like that.” and Casual following with “I’m Menace, and ain’t nobody gona strike back”. The beat was kinda dark and uptempo but thats about all I can recall…..and one Cas line “basically, the way I live is trifelin’.

We submitted them and The Hughes Brothers rejected them both saying they were not West Coast sounding enough. Based on what ended up on that soundtrack, it probably wasn’t a good fit anyways.

I will look for that tape and hopefully I can share it with everyone.

Dom

Shout out to Domino for always being cool with fans. The track may see the light of day.

Good call by The Hughes Brothers not accepting the track submitted by Souls of Mischief. Great track, but maybe not the right tone.



Doesn't really seem to fit in with tracks like this:

A (Very) Brief Conversation: Casual

Casual and Snupe: The Pimp Hieroglyphics

@Smashrockwell speaking of extra prolific, does a song titled "menace to society" (w/ Snupe) ring a bell? Saw the title in the BMI database

@wboothe you work for BMI? Was there an audio file? Thats was a song we recorded for the Movie Menace 2 Society.. Bellrung.

@Smashrockwell nope, just being a diehard hiero fan doing research. no audio file on the site. dont suppose you have a copy, do you?

@wboothe Domino does i'm sure.

@Smashrockwell you know that's some holy grail shit right there? hope it surfaces some day.




From a historical standpoint, this is a pretty significant track. The proposed title track to one of the seminal Hood Films of the 90s, I'm really surprised Jive didn't include this track when the album was released. Casual and Snupe - both perhaps a little more "G" than their peers - were signed to Jive and inclusion on this soundtrack may have increased their exposure, possibly growing their audience beyond those in New York and LA who have a high appreciation of freestyles, complex flows and lyrical stylings.

Cash Money (featuring Casual) - Extra Prolific

"even if our demo tapes add to the myth of Hiero's gifts..." - Del

The conversation brought me back to a time before swapping MP3's was the norm. When I first started finding music on the internet (97ish), we used to trade cassette tapes through the mail. Most of this was done on the Hoopla - the official message board of Hieroglyphics. All of these unreleased gems were gold to me. I tried sharing them with friends, but they couldn't get past the really shitty sound quality. Never bothered by these hiss filled recordings, I was instead highly appreciative of the fact that I had music that no one outside of the artist and their crew was supposed to hear. The demo experience has always been a mind blowing one for me.

As you can see, I didn't directly ask Cas to put the track out there, but if you have no compunction in doing so, add him to your twitter and ask him to do so on some "hey, i saw your tweet mentioning the menace to society track. could you please...".


Hieroglyphics - Bubble Up


Extra Prolific - Jheri Curl


Casual - Oakland Survival

Love Movement Intro - A Tribe Called Quest (featuring Mos Def)

Background Info (as told by Questlove):

yeah man.
friggin tip.
day of mastering he took it off.
i
was
mad
as
HELL!

matter of fact he made ALOT of last minute off the cuff mastering choices that day.

-begged him to use the louder horns on "let's start" cause the OG version he wanted you couldn't even hear them joints to know that was the rhythm pattern he was following. the 808 was killing all the music.

-told him to fix the timing on "find a way" coming in from let's start so it had a similar relationship to the ending of "steve biko" to "award tour"---never got the timing right.

-i love abstract crazy sounding dilla like the next man. but the OG version of "against the world" coulda borderline a single.

but this intro yo.


man i was MAD MAD MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!