Ghostface - Forest

October 8th, 2012 | By

It’s been a while since an “official” update. Sorry for the delays… been working hard promoting “Trapped in the 90′s“. Anyways, this latest break comes to you courtesy of The Imaginations. Unfortunately, there isn’t much info out there about the group. They released 2 albums on 20th Century records and were produced by Tom Tom 74, better known as Tom Tom 84 or Tom Washington. For those that don’t know, he’s arranged for numerous soul acts, such as Chi-Lites, The Independents, and Earth, Wind & Fire.

The Alchemist used The Imaginations cut “Ballad of Matheia” for Ghostface’s classic tale of cartoons, “The Forest” featuring Raekwon. While he oftens gets credited for the first hip-hop song about cartoons, those old enough to remember know that Ice Cube, Coolio(?!), and Funkdoobiest had touched on the subject before. For the bonus trivia fact, there is actually an alternate version of “The Forest” that was released on the promo version of Bulletproof Wallets (the same one with “The Sun”). The alternate version contains a “hook” in the middle of the song, where Ghostface sings “my wallos” (wallabees) to the same tune of “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow“. I’m pretty sure it was omitted from the final version of the album since it was terrible.

Regardless, check out the dope, soulful cut by The Imaginations.

Gangbusters

July 22nd, 2012 | By

The first Hip-Hop movie “Wildstyle” doesn’t need an introduction. Most of you on this site know about the classic video from the early 80′s featuring early examples of MC’ing, DJ’ing, breaking, and graffiti. The soundtrack has been sampled many a time, which features live performances and scratching. However, the instrumentals used in the movie are much harder to come by.

Digging legend has it, that a few copies of the break beats used during the live performances and DJ sets were limited to those involved in the film. They were thought to be “unreleased”. The LP pictured above was released in 1998 from the UK. The LP claimed to be the “first” official release of the instrumentals from the film. However, some of the breaks (not from the soundtrack) were sampled before 1998. This includes the “Aight Chill” interlude on GangStarr’s Hard to Earn and frequent freestyles over “Down By Law“. My guess is, either a bootleg of the instrumentals existed or someone is a digging legend and actually tracked down one of the copies from the film.

The man behind the instrumentals is Chris Stein. Stein was co-founder and guitarist of the famous punk/new wave band Blondie who was cool with Fab 5 Freddy, also involved in the film. I’m assuming they all met while recording “The Rapture“. His track “Gangbusters” has been sampled by both Common (featuring De La Soul) and AZ featuring Ghostface and Raekwon. Check it out.

Before the Purple Tape…

December 27th, 2011 | By

Before Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx dropped, there was Latest & Greatest Hits. Latest & Greatest was a cassette only promo from Loud Records that dropped in June of 1995 to promote Raekwon’s upcoming album.

I stumbled upon the promo looking for import CD’s at some Heavy Metal/HeadBanger vinyl shop in Jersey. There was only 1 copy and luckily the clientele of the store left it untouched. I paid $3.00 for what would become a small part of history around one of the greatest Hip-Hop albums of all time.

All of the songs on the promo would eventually be released, with the exception of a freestyle over Channel Live’s “Mad Izm” instrumental. Below is the track list.

Side 1
1. Freestyle
2. Criminology
3. Glaciers of Ice


Side 2
1. Can it Be All So Simple (Remix)
2. Eye for an Eye (Rae’s verse from the Mobb Deep track)
3. C.R.E.A.M.
4. Heaven & Hell


The original text from the back of the promo: The next chapter from the “Platinum” Wu-Tang camp… once again serving up that hot sh*t! The one featured on the hit singles- “C.R.E.A.M.” & “Can it Be All So Simple”… Lyrist, producer & director… Member of Staten Island’s most infamous rhyme family… the debut single from Raekwon – the Chef!