VA - Revival Of The Underground - 1998

EP - 1998 - Smack Entertainment

Revival Of The Underground came out in 1998 on Smack Entertainment. It's been a long time I wanted to drop something about this EP... but honestly it wasn't really easy to find the artists.

Smack Entertainment was part of Smack (Smack Music, Smack Productions, Smack Music Productions...) which was a New Jersey-based music collective founded by Mike Cameron a.k.a Moneymike in the late 80s. 

The executive producers of the EP were Mike Cameron, Brandon Beezo Johnson and Jeffrey Collins better known for being the owner of the legendary Hip-Hop record label Echo International.

The EP consists of 5 tracks, "X-Marks The Spot" produced by Kaliq and performed by The Alamo, "If This World Was Mine" performed by Red Eye and "It's In Their Nature" performed by Ghetto Seals and both produced by David 'Redhead' Guppy a.k.a Redhead Kingpin, "Do What Ya Wanna Do" produced & performed by Rhemslepe, and "Stank Pussy" performed by Red Eye and produced by Mate Boogie from Paterson, NJ.

I wish I could have more info about The Alamo or Ghetto Seals but unfortunately the only infos I can provide are from the group Rhemslepe.

Rhemslepe - Promo sheet courtesy of Abdul Khaliq Muhammad

Rhemslepe consisted of Greg Lespes a.k.a DJ Buzzsaw Greg G and MCs Abdul Khaliq Muhammad a.k.a King D 12:21 & Michael Vega Allman a.k.a King Vega Roc who also produced their music as well. They are born and raised in East Orange, NJ.

According to a tchat I had a long time ago with King D 12:21, they've gone through a few iterations. King D 12:21 has known Vega since high school (1983-1987), so maybe around 1988/1989 Vega was in another group called "Triple Destiny" and they broke up and King D 12:21 got down with him around then and they kept the name Triple Destiny for a while.

Triple Destiny - Photo courtesy of Abdul Khaliq Muhammad

The first time we heard about the group Triple Destiny was in 1990 when they made their first appearance on the video of "Ndodemnyama" released by Hip-Hop Against Apartheid, featuring artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Arthur X, Brand Nubians, Busy Bee, Dot La-Rock, Don Baron, Dynamic Force, Grand Master Mele, Harmony, Joeski Love, Jungle Brothers, Kings Of Swing, Kool Rock Steady, Lakim Shabazz, X-Clan ... just to name a few . 

Maybe around 1994/1995, they changed their name and became Rhemslepe.

More info for your personal knowledge, King Vega Roc was also a member of the Raw Elements crew from New Jersey in 1996/1997... later joined up with a group called The Pact and became Blackwatuz Cipher. 

That's all I can say about the Rhemslepe's members...

But I'll try to bring you next time more info about the other artists and will talk about the second volume of Revival Of The Underground released in 1999... 

Mad Props to Abdul Khaliq Muhammad & Michael Vega Allman