May 17, 2008...12:05 am
I Used to Rock Dem Tapes Vol. 1
Here’s another segment I’m throwing at ya, captain: I Used to Rock Dem Tapes.
Before MP3s and blogs and iPods, there was cassettes. Cassettes were my friends. They were small. They had a finite shelf life. They were cheaper than CDs. They provided the chance to make an actual “mixtape” since they were, you know, tapes. Essentially they were the beeper of music consumption–compact, handy and definitely limited.
But the limited capabilities made them great. You couldn’t just upload, drag, download or burn a mix in 6 minutes. If you were going to make a 60 minute mixtape, you HAD to sit there for 60 minutes and sequence song after song from whatever source the songs came from: vinyl, CD, radio, etc. More time had to be spend making a bangin’ mixtape so you had to be on your game. As you’ll see in the pics, I spent just as much time sequencing the material as I did putting together some cover art *NERD ALERT*:
The first mix I’m throwing at you is my best of the Okayplayer/Rawkus era circa ‘99. It’s called “Native Tonuges 2000″ and it features the best music from The Roots, Black Star, and Common before they started getting shit on by critics who value cocaine and hand claps over great rap. But enough of all that…
Here’s the full tracklisting and some links to download a few choice MP3s from the mix.
“Native Tongues 2000: The Roots, Black Star, Common”
Maxell UD II CD High Bias
110 Mins
SIDE A
1. Definition-Black Star
2. RE:DEFinition-Black Star
3. The Lession Pt. 1-The Roots f/ Dice Raw
4. 100% Dundee-The Roots
5. Push Up Ya Lighter-The Roots f/ Bahamadia
6. Freestyle-Funkmaster Flex f/ Common
7. Freestyle-Tony Touch f/ Common
8. Body Rock-Mos Def f/ Q-Tip, Tash
9. Fortified Live-Reflection Eternal f/ Mos Def, Mr. Man
10. Twice Inna Lifetime-Black Star f/ Jane Doe, Punch & Words
11. Maybe One Day-Brand Nubian f/ Common
12. Travelin Man-DJ Honda f/ Mos Def
13. Ain’t Sayin Nothin New-The Roots f/ Dice Raw
14. Check the Method-Common f/ No I.D.
15. Proceed-The Roots
SIDE B
1. 1-9-9-9-Common f/ Sadat X
2. Freestyle-Funkmaster Flex f/ Mos Def
3. Like They Used to Say-Common
4. Stretch & Bobbito Freestyle-Black Thought, Common, Pharoahe Monch, Absolute
5. Talkin to You-Black Star, Pharoahe Monch, Rah Digga, A-Butta
6. Chaos-Reflection Eternal f/ Bahamadia
7. Universal Magnetic-Mos Def
8. Next Universe-Mos Def
9. Respirtation-Black Star f/ Common
10. Respiration (Pete Rock Remix)-Black Star f/ Black Thought
11. I Used to Love H.E.R.-Common
12. Love of my Life-The Roots f/ Common
13. Double Trouble-The Roots f/ Mos Def
7 Comments
May 17, 2008 at 11:57 am
no i.d. = the most overrated producer of ALL TIME?
my vote is yes. discuss.
May 17, 2008 at 6:53 pm
No ID Overrated? Really?
“Hungy” by Common. “Metal Lungies” by Ghostface. “Success” by Jay-Z f/ Nas. His hard to find “Black Album” with Dug Infinite.
Dude is a threat.
May 17, 2008 at 7:00 pm
SHIT SHIT SHIT. i totally meant “underrated.” SHIT.
May 17, 2008 at 7:06 pm
“success” was a total banger. his work with common? even better. he even had a couple joints on beanie sigel and state property records that were ridiculous. in fact, one of those beats were so ill, that 50 jacked it for his very first mixtape (you know, before he squandered all that potential).
but no i.d. is a total beast, which is what i meant to say. dude’s gotta be the most underrated producer ever.
May 18, 2008 at 1:09 am
I had tapes from my college radio station in Baltimore (88.9 FM) and I had a version of “The Notic” by The Roots that featured another dude other than D’Angelo singing and it started out with a solo that went for about 1:30 before Black Thought even started rhyming. This was WAY before “The Notic” ever even showed up.
I had tapes with old Pete Rock & Mekolitious joints like the original “Verbal Murder” and “I Hope The World Don’t Stop”along with mad old InI tracks. Mad Skillz even battled a couple of students live on the radio!
I taped MAD songs off the radio. In 1996 I went to record release parties for Young Zee’s “Musical Meltdown”, Large Professor’s “The LP” and InI’s “Center Of Attention” LP’s…none of them were ever officially released.
All of those tapes disappeared from my job one day back in 2004 and it’s suspected they were thrown out in a cleaning effort because corporate was visiting my store. One of the saddest days in my life.
One.
May 18, 2008 at 10:49 am
dart, i feel you. i taped a “best of biggie” mixtape off the radio, which played all of his singles and features on other people’s singles on the day he died. the “dolly my baby” remix with supercat has got to be one of the illest remixes of the 1990’s.
May 19, 2008 at 3:34 pm
You really took me back with this one. I have tons of old tapes at home that I’ve been trying to get burned to mp3’s before they disintegrate. Just yesterday, I was listening to an old tape from a Power 99 show with DJ Cash Money mixing LL Cool J’s ‘I’m Bad’ and ‘Get Down’ in the studio after he won the World Supremacy back in ‘87. It also had the original Three Times Dope ‘Crushin N Bussin’ and some other joints you never hear anymore. And you’re rigth about having to actually sit there to put the tape together for 60 minutes (in my case, 90 minutes). It really took me 2 to 3 hours because I had to get the songs I wanted on the tape written down first. The youngsters have it so easy these days with computers.
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