Ok first and foremost, big up to the big brother, John Bronski. Secondly, big up to Adrian of TBG. 2 of the founding fathers of the scene and culture in our city and inspirations to me as community leaders.
Here we have an interview and some concert footage with Brand Nubian after the Grand Puba split when they came up to Toronto for a show. There must have been an instore at the OG Too Black Guys location off Bathurst St, since the interview is filmed in the store’s stockroom and the first part appears to be almost a public discussion on Brand Nubian’s ideals and beliefs. They get indepth on the science and math and elaborate in the interview.
This post started by accident. I was over at Kaewonder’s crib prepping for our debut this weekend under our new moniker, the Air Max Thuns and wanted to get a couple vinyl rips going for him to throw up on the site. After we listened to a couple joints, Kae had the brilliant idea that we go in on some remix shit. What started as 2-3 records suddenly became 8-9 and we just decided to go all the way with this and pop this remix thing off correctly. This is Volume 1, and trust that there will be more to come.
This is our version of what a dope remix is about. Obviously, we left off your favourite, it’s impossible to please everyone with 1 post of 13 songs. Tell us in the comments what those missing joints are for you. This was us going through a few crates and picking the first things that really jumped out at us, so the selection criteria was really only “is this dope?” and then it made the cut. I wrote/picked the odd numbers, and Kaewonder has the even joints.
If you’re in Toronto, catch the 2 of us getting our fingers dusty on some serious vinyl-only dj shit at 751 as the pre-party for the annual Manifesto Festival.
Once again, my homie Craig from Rap Lies and Videotape has blessed us with some classic material. Ima let C take it from here…
Kid N’ Play, along with the almost-forgotten Wiz maul the soul classic Float On,” while hosting the BET music video show “Video Vibrations.” Their vamped version of this song is credible proof that the duo had undeniable chemistry and that rappers should only sing when they’re joking. Christopher “Kid” Reid seems like a natural comedian in this clip, which funnier than his entire stand-up career. His former partner, Christopher “Play” Martin also hits the right comedic notes here, but it wasn’t always that way. In her new book, Pepa of Salt N’ Pepa claims she “grabbed him by his collar and dragged him down the whole length of the table, knocking everybody’s food and drink onto the floor,” after he made some jokes at her expense. Some people, you just don’t play with.
Another video from the classic Arsenio episode featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg. This time, he performs Tha Shiznit with the help of The Dogg Pound. Dre has an ill mix going on in the beginning. I can’t call what he is mixing with the beat but it sounds proper. This song has way better energy here in this live performance than on the LP version. He just has so much swagger in this whole period. Also, doing a track with a huge diss to Uncle Luke in it is on national TV is a strong move. Finally, whoever came with the idea of the black and white effect on the video? Good job.
When this clip entered our office we were all blown away by the rarity of this brand that no one east of Portland, Oregon had really heard about. Mix in the fact that Craig G drops some science as the sponsored rapper in the clip and it started to take on legendary status.
We had only scratched the surface on what, in a hot hip hop minute has restructured our entire thought process behind Michael Jordan, Rob Strasser (Nike VP) and your new favourite vintage sneaker brand, Van Grack. The sneaker conspiracy so juicy we traded both of our unopened copies of Sir Ibu’s, The Piece Maker to bring it to you first.
First off, press the play button and let this amazing commercial, shot during the golden age of rap endorsements play. Craig G, 1989’s version of a Jadakiss or Nature was cold ripping the game. A mean freestyle rapper who parlayed just that into two legendary singles both produced by Marley Marl, Droppin Science and The Symphony. Interestingly enough Craig signed a deal with Van Grack a from the West even though most of his fan support was in the tri state area.
Now to the nitty gritty. Van Grack had been building an empire for years prior to the below seedy series of event in 1988. A huge women’s collection and contemporary shoes program for the ‘yuppy’ had pushed Van Grack to huge selling years. Think Ewing brand from 90-93. Van Grack had one problem – the athletic shoe market. They had not found a way to break Nike’s stronghold on what had become the most lucrative slice of the footwear market, basketball sneakers.
From a far Nike looked like a well oiled machine, with record sales numbers in both there apparel and footwear divisions. Design, Marketing and Athletic scouting were all making the right moves at the right time, but trouble was a brewing in the highest ranks. Rob Strasser – former VP for Nike had become disgruntled with the way Phil Knight was running the show. Behind Knight’s back, Rob struck a deal with Peter Moore – owner of Van Grack to form a new hip hop/basketball division under the Van Grack banner. The two had courted Mike’s agent David Falk for month’s on a possible contract, and as a last bid invited MJ and Falk for a game of 9 hole and number crunching on the day that Mike was to unveil the Jordan III to the world.
What makes this so amazing is the fact that not only was an upstart company trying to steal Mike away from Nike, but during the release of if not the most, one of the most sought after and legendary shoes ever created.
Obviously Mike didn’t take the bait, he walked out on the proposed deal to make him a Van Grack endorsed athlete. Arriving 3 hours late for his press conference in LA for the Jordan III. The video above is probably the clothing and hip hop composite that would have gone along with MJ’s own Van Grack gear. Could there possibly be prototype Jordan Van Grack samples in the back of Rob Strasser or Peter Moore’s garage?
This is one of my favorite HipHop/R&B collabos. Mary always had that HipHop swagger, but to hear her kick a verse on this one was dope. Not too many singers can hold it down on the rap tip the way she can.
I definitely lost my mind when I first saw this on Arsenio and caught it just in time to press record. This is at the height of Snoop’s promo for the Doggystyle album and he was on top of the world. Look at the swagger. Gone is the nervous, skinny dude from the Deep Cover and Nuthin’ But a G Thing videos, and in his place is the slow-flowing dude known as Snoop Doggy Dogg.
The first thing that absolutely blew my wig back was that he is rocking a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. This is of course during the period when hockey jerseys were standard rap apparel, but no one fucked with the leafs. Not even me! I could give a shit about hockey, but the fact that Snoop was rocking our home team was some ill shit. I guess the Crip connection might have had something to do with it in retrospect.
Peep your boy Dr. Dre on the cuts, sick shit. I had to include this link to bring additional light to Dre’s skills on the ones and twos ever since I dl’d it from our boys at ittakesanationofmillionstoholdthissac. It’s an old ass Dre mixtape called U Got Ganked and it is straight fire.
I have more to come from this Arsenio episode with Snoop, so stay tuned. Big up House since he’ll be into this more than anyone else.
The whole theme of this segment of our website is to showcase guys who probably only ever had a couple interviews in their life and then continued living in randomness and obscurity. If anyone knows what “Jam” is up to these days, holler at the kid. What I gather in this clip is that he was an accomplished airbrush artist, which was obviously quite popular at the time this was shot. Given that this art has had somewhat of a resurgence in popularity, perhaps our boy Jam is back in the game on some..”I knew this would pay off one day” shit.
My homie Andy hit me off with this gem a couple weeks ago. Main Source performing “Looking At The Front Door” live on Electric Circus.
Extra P decides to cut the set short which leads to an uncomfortable impromptu interview. TO is definitely in the house with the homie Farley Flex and Kish up on stage.
