TheMeaningOfDope

First off, big up to our left coast peoples at ittakesanationofmillionstoholdthissac.  If you guys can weigh in on the comments section about what the vibe was out west when Rascalz first started getting national exposure, I would really appreciate it.

Now, let’s get down to the matter at hand.  When ‘Really Livin’ dropped, it was the video that put me on to it.  There was a distinctly different production value and colour treatment and creative editing that I wasn’t seeing from any Toronto or other Canadian acts at the time.  Mind you, I don’t think many copies of the OG ‘Really Livin’ single made it out east, so the first Rascalz release I picked up was the ‘Really Livin Remix’, I think it had ‘Funky Migraine’ and something else on it too.  I loved the minor switchups in the verses, and the remix beat was a total departure from the OG.  In fact, Kaeweezy and I both agree that this is one of our favourite remixes of all time since it made our remix post V1.1 not too long ago.

Luckily, they scrap the almost-confusing long ass intro and get straight to the verses on this live performance in the Muchmusic environment.  Red 1’s Canucks shirt is so classic, I don’t even know what to say about it but I had to give it props.  Major bonus point for having our man, Prince Orange aka Zebroc aka Zeb Munir of Nomad Toronto all up in the video acting a fool on the sidelines on some goofy b-boy shit.  Loving it!

Jamie Foxx’s intro makes up for the fact that this gets cut off very early and we miss about half of the performance.  Either way, you have here a very energetic, exuberant Pharcyde performing ‘Passing Me By’ on In Living Color.  Fatlip’s singing is classic, I remember when I saw them perform at The Opera House shortly after this album came out, and Fatlip was singing almost exactly like this.  That show was amazing, and watching this makes me realize that their live performance is definitely one of the most hype shows I have ever been to.  I think at one point, they had the entire crowd jumping in unison to one of their more upbeat joints, maybe ‘N&%%a In Charge’ or ‘Officer’.

Dee Barnes almost learns the hard way that messing with Tracy’s fridge is not the move.  I love how much of a joker Ice T is in all these early videos that we’ve posted up so far. He really showed a different side when he wasn’t “in-character”.

Ooooooh snap!  Some crazy camera tricks on this video on some early 90’s shit.  A rare appearance of Shock G and Humpty Hump in the same location.  Shock’s adlibs are totally off time on several occasions and the ruse isn’t exactly fooling anyone.  Maybe at that time when we all wanted to believe they were actually 2 different people, but not nowadays bro.

This verse seems like an alternate from ‘Nuttin Nis Funky’ or maybe it was his early version, who knows I honestly haven’t heard that song in a long time.  This footage is from a Pump It Up VHS that we have already featured a couple times, more clips to come.

Another rare hip-hop performance from the Conan O’Brien show, this time it’s Das Efx on the comeback tip performing “Freak It’.  I always liked this album, in fact I was a big Das supporter before they dropped the Iggedy, after they dropped the Iggedy, and when they adopted it all over again.  Gimmick, no gimmick, whatever, these dudes had rhymes and some of the most random pop culture references ever in their lyrics.

Thats what I have been up to. I haven’t posted in a LOOOONNG time.

Here another rarity I dug out of my old tapes. It is Big Mike & Scarface talkin about the “new” Geto Boys when Big Mike joined up. Absent though, is Bushwick who always adds flavor to any piece of video he is in. The 2 guys goof around and give the low down on the what the low down is on why Mike was takin Willie D’s spot in the group. I also dropped in a picture of some swag I have, a funeral program promoting the “Til Death Do Us Part”.

Illegal don’t really make that much sense to me.  It seemed like they were a totally put-together group, and outside of Head Or Gut they don’t really have a lot of songs that made a big splash.  However, their image was definitely on point and right in line with what was working in hip-hop at the time.  Carhartt, bomber jackets, guns, underage drinking and smoking, fighting, posturing, etc.

Watching this EPK though, it definitely seems like that’s just who these 2 shorties were and whoever decided they should give them a record deal was putting their chips down on them coming across as being real.  I never lumped these guys in with the rest of the teenager rap groups that were present at the time, so perhaps they earned that place as legit artists even without me fully understanding how the heck these 2 kids ended up in a video with Erick Sermon, Redman and many more.  Did it all come from Malik being related to Snoop Dogg?  Either way, the production value on this EPK is sick and it’s a very good piece on a lesser known rap group.

Remember this?

Here is the Interview portion of the same segment. Prince Po and Pharoahe speak on what Organized is all about. Pharoahe basically breaks down exactly how I feel about Organized Konfusion, “give people somethin to listen to for more than a week”, their shit is timeless. I cant even count the amount of times I have had to rewind an OK track, just on some “what the f*ck!!???”

For real, will we ever hear anything like this again…?

This is pretty good stuff right here. Check out the Smooth Operator hold down what seems to be an impromptu interview with photographer Ernie Paniccioli.

Here are two very different performances of House Of Pains classic “Jump Around”.

The first video is a performance from some MTV special. The crowd is mad live. This is the type of response you would expect from this track.

The second video is quite the opposite. From the “Who’s The Man” premiere party. I don’t know who they invited to this jam, but the crowd is pathetic