Monday, August 13, 2018

Demo Tape : One a.k.a B-1 - 1994




I've got the different 12" singles released during the 90s by this emcee hailing from Farmers Blvd, Queens named One a.k.a B-1, but I've never seen or listened to his mysterious Demo tape which was reviewed by Dr Bombay a.k.a Ganjah K in Rap Pages Magazine of September 1994.


From Rap Pages - September 1994


The review mentioned a demo called "Takin’ Niggas" featuring Lord Finesse, Grimm and Freddie Foxxx. In 2013, B-1 was interviewed by Rob Unkut and talked about that track : 

From B-1 – The Unkut Interview - June 05th 2013


 I tried to find Ganjah K online to know if he still had the tape and if there was a way to listen to it but the b-girl T-Love told me that unfortunately he passed away on Christmas 2017... may he Rest In Peace. 
I can't give you any snippets of the demos, all of them are still unknown until today but here is a B-1 freestyle from a Stretch & Bobbito Show aired on October 12th 1995.. it's better than nothing !







5 comments:

  1. My palms got sweaty when I saw the title here, then as I read further my heart sunk into my kneecaps. I've been wanting to hear that since the day I bought that issue of Rap Pages (it was September 1994 though, not '95). There's a high probability that all the verses kicked that day ended up on other projects, but that was about as high octane a cipher as you're ever going to come across. This has long been one of my hip-hop holy grails and it's disappointing (and also surprising in a way) that this demo has never popped up anywhere considering the profiles of the artists involved. Thanks for drawing it back into the limelight a bit, maybe somebody who reads this can help it rise to the surface.

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  2. Let's hope this will surface one day. The Hands of Time joint that was unearthed a few years ago was dope too...

    Bombay and Ganjah K are two different persons. They worked together very closely and were both members of First Brigade. Bombay already passed away in the nineties.

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  3. Sorry for the mistake Digital Simulation , i'll update the article with the good date asap ! I've contacted B-1 to know if he still has got the tape ... who knows ... we need to find this hip-hop grail ;)
    Krisch , T-Love who worked for Rap Pages in the 90s told me he was Dr Bombay that's why I wrote it , but obviously maybe there is a mistake , I'll ask her again ;)

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  4. Hey unikone, did B1 ever get back to you about his tape? Sound like an amazing collab, crazy it never came out

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  5. well … he was supposed to hit me back but he never did unfortunately…

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