Showbiz and AG - Represent

I've been thinking lately about, let's call it, my socialization into "underground" Hiphop culture and give the much due credit to both Friday Night Flavas on Power and the Wake-Up Show on the Beat. Once I picked up Soundbombing 2 and right after that, Mos Def's Black on Both Sides shit was ovah. Bumping my headphones to Gangstarr, Mobb Deep, Black Sheep, Brand Nubian Tribe, Ultramagnetic, De La, and all that goodness from New York's so-called Golden Era. And the music worked because it still existed in the sound of L.A. backyard heavyweights like Jurassic 5, the Visionries, and even the more gritty grind of Dilated Peoples.

But digging in the crates for our generation doesn't really begin with James Brown era funk, you really got to start reaping the gold catching rust in the Hiphop category at Amoeba. And then I find shit that I've heard sampled in other tracks, phrases like "catchin' wreck" or something about pockets being "fat not flat", or even these little twists about diggin' in the crates, ya' know that ultimate "d - i - t - c" crew.

One way or another I stumbled upon Showbiz and A.G., a powerhouse rap duo produced by Diamond D that for one reason another I have never heard of up to this point. Maybe this is my own embarassing lack of knowledge, after all we're talking about the monstrous funk samples courtesy of Diamond D, the foundation of them funk riffs and soul clap bangers. But, I have a hunch that more than a few people of our generation and love for Hiphop are not in the know about these cats.

And these cats got everything with their flow, stamping the expanding the mental brand nubian cue while skittling down the grimey street spitting knowledge about hustling words. They got the party bass to some of early 90's heaviest funk samples really intertwined so seamlessly into the sound. Hailing from the Bronx, Showbiz and A.G. hold down some of the hardest sounds, still reverberating in the sonic and lyrical styles of the nicest MC's today. Definitely my favorite come up in awhile.

I'm hooking up their debut album "Runaway Slave," which came out in 92'. I still haven't even listened to any of their other productions, but considering Hiphop history, odds are they aren't any better than this.

My favorites joints are "Represent", cutting the same psych nastiness as Artifacts "Attack of New Jerusalem" and the the loudest bboy slam "Soul Clap." Shit is ill. I'm a giant, and I got lotsa' soul... Keeps me wondering what I'm missing from the just lightly dusted over crates. Keep em' coming.

By the way, to link something you highlight it and then click the little link thing that looks like a paper click.

Pharcyde- Testing the Waters

Initially I didnt really plan on posting anything for a minute because I've been bogged down with prolonged responsibilities, but this album came on play yesterday and took me back and I thought youd like it if you didnt already have it.

I cant really front on how much Pharcyde means to me. While other groups taught me more about life and how to live, Pharcyde made me feel better for being me. Ortega actually leant me Bizarre Ride in 9th grade, and while I dont remember anything he taught me, I do remember how that album grabbed me immediately and made me think that things might turn out alright with the girls I was crushin on (they didnt turn out all right).

I dont know if you remember this, but back in the day in that shopping center on Laurel and Ventura there was a WHEREHOUSE music store on the eastern front. This store is largely accredited with teaching me to steal, and in between iced coffee drinks and cigarettes I would take a deep breath, go in, and test the steadiness of me hand. This album is one of the first I got away with, and though it was released to lackluster reviews I thought it was dope and entered quickly into my rotation of 'music to listen to when stoned or depressed' which in high school, took up roughly 97% of the time.

It was released in 2000, and was a precursor to the equally flat effort Plain Rap (id like this to be blue with a link but dont know how). Its the first run of the group without its lifeforce, Fatlip, and to me at least, it sounds like theres a greater melancholy to Pharcyde, like a group of kids who have less of an idea of what theyre doing than before, but still trying really hard. Hella dope cut on the album: pain. That song was my joint!

link here for album: http://sharebee.com/2ce1d89b