Dan from Brooklyn Radio sent me this link. Busta was @ the Knitting Factory which is a great place to check out a show when in New York City. I’ve got some footage from the Knitting Factory on HipticsTV.
On the night of his baby’s birthday, Busta Rhymes took the stage at New York City’s Knitting Factory to throw some excitement into the frigid city air. Special Guests Pac Div opened the show with their honest raps and crowd-participation enticing stage antics. The West Coast trio, consisting of brothers Mibbs, Like, and Beyoung, may be hardest working group of young men to emerge from the Kill Cali in some time. Though it took a bit for the audience to warm up to the group’s women drama, fun loving, Cali spirited rhymes, by the end of their twenty-minute set, they had the a crew of fans onstage to rock their hit “Mayor”.
I think this is a pretty smart move. Better that fans remember Tribe’s past rather than a half-hearted comeback.
Rap group A Tribe Called Quest will never reunite to record another album, according to member Q-Tip.
The collective returned to the stage in New York on Sunday night – their third reunion in four years.
But Q-Tip warns fans not to expect any new material, now or in the future – because they will never improve on what they have already created.
He says, “It will never, ever happen.
“We don’t want to be one of those groups that comes back 15 years later and puts out an album that’s not that good. It’s why the Beatles never got back together.”
I’m all about reflecting on one of the greatest albums of all time. Check out this review by Jordan Richardson.
Released originally on April 19, 1994, the debut album from Nas stands up as one of the classic rap recordings of the 1990s and one of the greatest albums, rap or otherwise, of all time. Illmatic was produced by Large Professor of Main Source, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, and DJ Premier.
The most striking thing about Illmatic is its content. On track after beautiful track, Nas spits fire about poverty, culture, and the hopelessness found on the streets. Just 19-years-old when Illmatic dropped, Nas shows wisdom beyond his years with his first-person tackling of the inner city plot. A voice for the disenfranchised youth left for dead after Reaganomics brutalized the world he knew, Nas, this kid, took the torch and spoke for the people in ways that few had experienced before.
The World is Yours
Nas reports violence and the authenticity of the streets without glorifying it or stagnating in it. He is a voice of optimism, but also a voice of truth. He echoes the gunshots without lionizing them, stepping beyond the hallucination of cruel splendor and into the limelight of a master raconteur.
With Illmatic, Nas became known to the world not just as a great rapper but as a stern technician of prose. His mastery over wordplay, multifarious rhyme patterns, and language helped take the record to another level. His inability to compromise gave tracks like “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)” an innate flow almost unprecedented in hip-hop and his swift release brought things to another level.
Also noteworthy is the production of Illmatic. The record is simplistically produced, which gives Nas’ lyrics a hard place to fall. This is the sound of the streets, often quite plainly, and the production fits the bill on each track with resolute devotion. The beats are severe and the scratches are never invasive. Sampling is done in moderation.
It should also be noted that Illmatic was one of the first hip-hop albums to feature such an all-star cast of producers, representing a trend that is going strong to almost-excessive lengths today.
With on-point production and stellar lyricism, it’s hard to find a better album than Illmatic. Nas’ sturdy and careless delivery smoulders all over the record, taking over classic tracks like “N.Y. State of Mind” and “Halftime” with his persistent level-headedness and lethal attention to detail.
1994 was a big year for hip-hop on the East Coast. Biggie’s classic debut Ready to Die was also dropped and the East Coast sound started to challenge the G-funk on the West Coast. It was a compelling time, to say the least, but Illmatic still stands strong as one of the greatest of that era and as one of the greatest albums of all time.
My homie Clayton met Tommy Gardner of Cars.com at the Rock The Bells show in Chicago (wish I coulda been there!). Tommy was nice enough to send me some of his pictures. You can see the rest of them HERE at the Hiptics.com Facebook page. I’ll be uploading a lot of multimedia exclusively to the page in order to encourage some of y’all to become a fan. Just go to the LINK and click “become a fan”. It’s easy maaayne
Posted this earlier, but it was around the time HipTics was undergoing some changes and was at the old address, thus I’m posting it again here just in case you missed it and also cause it appears were getting more attention here as well.
Anyway, this is a classic album that no one has probably heard. When I first heard of Dred Scott I tried to get some info on him, but only the Dred Scott trials would appear. Haha….well a friend was able to give me a copy of this album and since then it has become one of my favorites.
The album was released in 1994, and the West Coast flavor is definitely there, but the sound is certainly different than the G-funk that was so popular on the west at the time. Jazzy vibes certainly influenced the production on this album and from what I have gathered he produced this album along with writing/performing the lyrics.
Because there is so little info on him (This is the best i could find) it is basically impossible to know what he is up to now. I haven’t found any other albums by him, which is a shame cause his lyrics and delivery are redmanesque and his production sound is similar to Q-Tip’s. The only other track I have found with him on it is the “wake up show anthem ‘94″. Further proving my point that he is unknown, the video puts a picture of Lauryn Hill on the screen when he spits cause whoever made the video didn’t know who he was. Also, when you try and get the lyrics it says he is Chino XL….damn it is a shame no one knows who he is.
Anyway, listen to the only videos of Dred Scott I could find on Youtube entitled “Back In The Day” and “Check The Vibe”…..not my favorites off the album, but they are great examples of what to expect from the album and I recommend you pick up the album anyway cause it is hard to find and it is a underground classic that defied the music released on the West Coast at the time.
If you own the copyright to any material posted on HipTics and would like it removed, please send a message to cjf@hiptics.com and I will take it off the blog immediately. -Chris Franco
