It kicks off with a mix of a Malcolm X speech laid over top of Stanley Clarke’s “Black On Black Crime” from the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack (I used this same blend on a high school Media/TV Tech video project about the Rodney King beating and ensuing riots). Appropriately, it then runs into Masta Ace’s “Jeep Ass Niguh.” Also representing 1993: Raw Breed, Art of Origin, Hiero (three times!), Original Flavor, PRT, and Jeru. I’d venture to say there’s not a single dud on this mix.

One track you probably haven’t heard but will want to check out is Martay and B-Right’s “Smokin’ Joints.” These two guys were part of the East Coast Tribe, a crew out of Atlanta’s underground. (Martay’s name may sound familiar from Upski’s Bomb the Suburbs (page 19).) Martay’s still kicking and every couple of years I get an e-mail from B-Right. Good people who made good music that wasn’t heard by nearly enough people.

The cover was designed by nerdcore star Devo Spice.

I should also note that the liner notes on this one are even more embarrassingly awful than 1992.

Dig in.

Download: Front cover / Liner notes

Back in 1992, I was 17-years-old, filled with love for hip-hop at a time that most of my peers were moving onto other genres. A friend and I were making (admittedly pretty awful) music and I was armed with a good quality dual-cassette deck. Beginning in 1992 and going through 1995 I compiled the best hip-hop singles and soundtrack appearances into a 90-minute collection and sold them to friends and online. It was a great time.

Here is the first of the four editions of The Year in Rap. This one isn’t mixed or blended, as I didn’t own a 4-track or mixer, so it’s a pretty straightforward compilation. Just using a tape deck didn’t stop me from trying to make it sound like I was using vinyl, though, even faking the sound of a record stopping and doing a “remix” of Tung Twista’s “Mr. Tung Twista” by using the pause-tape method of switching between the acapella and vocal versions of the track.

In this era where pretty much every great mixtape has found its way online, this one certainly isn’t one of the best or most sought-after, but it does hold some treats. For a few of the tracks, I opted to use versions I’d heard on the radio, so you’ll hear DJ Jay-Ski and DJ Kam unknowingly participating on my mixtape (the version of “Dwyck” is especially dope). And while there aren’t any seriously rare joints here, it probably is one of the few “year in review” mixes that includes Raheem and Insane Poetry alongside Naughty By Nature and Roxanne Shante. This is the least interesting (and least technically proficient) of the four tapes in the series, but after listening to it today for the first time in probably ten years, I can say it’s still a good listen.

The j-card (remember those?) is handmade, printed from my old Apple II compatible onto a dot-matrix printer. The shout-outs are embarrassing and the references to a SASE, Dolby B, and HX Pro are quaint.

Enjoy.

click through for the full j-card

I haven’t featured many of those demos on Normal Bias, so I thought I’d start sharing some.

The first is a set of songs by Honolulu, Hawaii-born B-Versatile.

I met B-Versatile in 1994, I think on the alt.rap Usenet newsgroup, where all the hip-hop nerds hung out back in the pre-web days. We decided to collaborate on a track. He was going to school at the University of Pennsylvania, so he took the bus across state lines and joined me and my DJ in New Jersey for a day of bedroom studio recording. The result was a track called “So Damn Tough” (featured below). B-Versatile’s smooth, bassy voice was a good compliment for my all-over-the-place flow. I’m still proud of this track 15 years later, even with all its imperfections.

Early the following year, he put out a three song demo featuring three tracks, “Do You Understand” and two versions of “Put It In Ya Ear.” Here’s a review I wrote for HardC.O.R.E. 3.03 (the first online hip-hop magazine started all the way back in 1993 by OHHLA’s Flash):

B-VERSATILE, “3 Song Demo”
(Demo Review)

I had the pleasure of working with B-Versatile, the MC out of Honolulu, on the last Lyrical Prophets album, DIG THIS on a track called “So Damn Tough.” He was surprised me with his nice lyrics, ease of delivery, and low tone. After a while, he’s finally completed a 3-song demo on which he handled production as well as lyrics.

The first cut is “Do Ya Understand,” an upbeat, horn and bass tinged track featuring his very laid back flow. The break makes good use of a Lord Finesse sample. As with the following two tracks, some of the lyrics are recognizable from “So Damn Tough.”

The other two cuts are different versions of “Put It In Ya Ear” (’94 and ‘95). The ‘95 version is far superior. The ‘94 version has an overused drum pattern, an overly plain piano loop, and though the break samples (from Wu-Tang and Audio Two) are appropriate, they slip off beat a couple of times. The horns are nice, though.

The ‘95 version makes several changes. My personal favorite is the change in the last line of the verse where he gives “Shouts to the Lazy”, but he also switched the samples up and added a beautiful bassline. This is the top track on the tape.

It’s hard to rank a short demo such as this one, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. B-Versatile has got talent and a great ear for music and just needs to work on a few small things here and there. I look forward to hearing more from him and perhaps collaborating with him again soon.

pH Level – 4/pHine [out of 6]

Later in the year, he sent along another demo with three more tracks: “Down to Earth,” “That’s Where My Heart’s At,” and “Freestyle at My House” (which he informs me didn’t actually have a title and made up one on the spot, in 2009).

B-Versatile and his friend Kenny did the productgion production and engineering on these tracks using an old Gemini sampler and a reel-to-reel 8-track. The beats are dope, if occasionally slipping off (such was the curse of cheap samplers back in the day) and there’s a lot of hiss in the recording, but hey — that’s part of the appeal of old demos like this, right?

These days, B-Versatile is working in the camera department on CSI:NY and still dabbles in hip-hop. I’m looking forward to hearing what he’s up to and who knows — perhaps we’ll collaborate a second time, a decade-and-a-half later.

Download all seven tracks in a zip file, or check them out individually:

Artists featured include the James Carter Quartet, Cecil Taylor, Cassandra Wilson, spoken word artist Daz (from the group Daz Tempo, Black Rock Coalition member, and co-owner of Green Skunk Records), Muhal Richard Abrams, and plenty more.

Enjoy.

I first heard Tone on WPRB back in 1989 when flipping through local radio stations, looking for something to listen to. I was 13 at the time and absolutely obsessed with hip-hop. Back then in the Philly area, there weren’t a whole lot of stations playing hip-hop, so when I stumbled on a college radio show that was not only playing dope music, but also laying into the commercial crap at the time like Young MC, I instantly fell in love. Over the next four years, I’d listen faithfully every week to Club Crush/Raw Deal, taping almost every episode.

Tone’s presence on the show was always very big. He would never step to the mic and sound tired or bored. He was always hyped up about pushing his latest production or promoting an upcoming PRT show. Any time there was a Thursday Night Live session, he was in the thick of it, freestyling or dropping verses that would later show up on his solo album or the Crusaders for Real Hip-Hop project. You could tell there were times where he had some disagreements with Easy M or G along the way (like when his name was mysteriously chopped out of drops for the show), but he would always find his way back on the air and make some noise.

Back in 1990 I sent Tone my first (very) crappy demo tape and then pestered him for several weeks to see if he had listened. He told me one week that he had received it, and a few weeks later he told me that he didn’t have it. “It was in my bag,” he told me, but either he had lost it or it had been stolen. Looking back now, I realize that he was just being polite to a 14-year-old kid who had sent him a seriously awful demo. Rather than telling me I sucked and crushing my dreams, he chose the higher road and didn’t say anything. I really appreciated that courtesy, once I realized what he did.

Post-PRB, I kept up with his music and periodically listened to my old PRB tapes for old times sake. Then, in 2003 or 2004, I dropped him a line and we started talking about music and the radio show. He joined up with Paul from WPRB and co-DJed the “Tenth Planet” show for a while in 2004. His involvement there was unfortunately cut short — I think he said it had something to do with management. I ended up a recording a bunch of those shows as well.

When I launched Normal Bias, Tone was absolutely psyched. Anytime I posted a new show, I’d let him know and he’d download it. We chatted about behind-the-scenes stuff with the show and he’d share new tracks he was working on. Word is that there was even a “Raw Deal” reunion in the works. How great would that have been? I’m going to miss those chats.

The audio included here kind of goes against format in that it was recorded off of a stream directly to an MP3 file rather than cassette, but it’s a great 3-hour set from the September 11, 2004 edition of “Tenth Planet.” Tone’s on the wheels the entire time. The playlist for the show is still online (and included in the comments ID3 tag on the MP3).

RIP, Tone and deepest condolences to your family.

(Also, a few things you may have missed: comments from Tony here on Normal Bias: 1 2, and memories of Tone from G: 1 2 and Pumis.)

However, I have what may be a better episode for this week of tributes to Tony D. This episode is from February 8, 1990. Easy M was off DJing a party somewhere in Jersey, so his partner from “Too Smooth” (later “Sounds from the Underground”) Fresh J filled in as a co-host. Easy’s absence meant that Tone was given a full two hours on the wheels. And, man, was Tone in full promotion mode. Tons of great Trenton acts, special announcements about groups that were to become legendary, and even some MC Serch references. This really is a classic episode.

So, side by side:

Side 1 (10:05-10:48pm)

The show kicks off with some technical difficulties, but Tone steps up to the wheels to kick off his two hours and displays some nice turntable work when he starts things off with Gang Starr’s “Words I Manifest.” From there, he moves into Marky Fresh’s underrated “Mack of Rap” and then hits a couple of Trenton cuts from Too Kool Posse (”Music Makes You Move”) and YZ.

During the first break, Tone pimps an upcoming show for the first of many times. The show sounds like a killer, put on by the Awesome Two in New York City at Quando’s (which was on 9 East 2nd Ave). It featured A Tribe Called Quest, LONS, Freshco and Miz, Robbie B and DJ Jazz, Poor Righteous Teachers in their first NY appearance, and Tony D. When Tone mentions Tribe, he asks G, “Have you heard of those guys?” and G replies that he has but has trouble remembering the name of their first single. Seems weird now, huh?

Among the tracks in the next set are “The Gas Face,” which surprised me not only because they didn’t cut out the repeated “Oh shit”s, but because that was the track that kicked off the Tony D-Serch feud (quick recap: Tone mistook Serch’s dis to “Tony Dick” as a shot at him and then fired back at Serch on vinyl). Debuted on the show is one of my favorite all-time cuts that’s nearly impossible to find, 360 Degrees’ (made up of Prophecy and Gusto) “The Harmony.” Back in December, Tone was selling the EP for $500 on eBay.

Side 2 (10:49-11:35pm)

Some great banter on this side (”Lance, Lance with the dookey stain pants”). Tone hints at a possible “Serch vs. Tony Part 2″ and the upcoming New York show (”If Serch comes…”).

Also on this side, a Tony D-voiced ad for the “Sound of Trenton” record store, an 8-minute anti-apartheid song with Black Rock and Ron, Brand Nubian, and many others (can’t find what this song might be — any help?), the premiere of “Listen to Me Brother,” and more Tony D, Blvd. Mosse, and PRT goodness.

Side 3 (11:35pm-12:15am)

At the end of the night, Tone debuts a new track with PRT that didn’t even have a name yet (it later became “Can I Start This?” and kicked off PRT’s Holy Intellect). They also play the top track in their new countdown and close out the show with some funny back and forth between Tone and Fresh J before it kicks into Fresh J’s “Too Smooth” underground house show.

Here’s a recent one of Tone talking about his production credits:

And if you haven’t seen it, his video from a year or two ago, “The Boss is the Boss”: