12" - 1995 - Phat Wax Records
I think I bought this 12" randomly in 1995 at Street Sound record store in Paris when it came out... and to be honest I knew nothing about Roughneck Soldiers at that time.
R.N.S a.k.a Roughneck Soldiers (a.k.a Reality Negativity & Stress) was a crew from Sunset Park, Brooklyn or Gunset Park like they used to say. The crew was consisted of Destruction a.k.a Destruct (Charles Hernandez, better known under the name of Charlie Hustle nowadays), Disaster (Tony Lopez) and Big Dee (Diego Santiago). Rapping together since High School, the group began rhyming on New York's underground circuit in the early 90s.
Roughneck Soldiers - 1995 - Photo courtesy of Disaster
Their debut 12-Inch "Kill Or Be Killed / Freestyle Thing" was realeased on Phat Wax Records, with both tracks fully produced by Kenny Gonzales a.k.a Kenny Dope. "Kill Or Be Killed" available in its Main, Instrumental and Radio versions on the A-side, and "Freestyle Thing" available in its Dirty, Instrumental and Radio versions on the B-Side. Nothing is mentioned about it online, but the single also came out on cassette tape.
In terms of productions, Kenny Dope used for "Kill Or Be Killed" a sample of "Light My Fire" released in 1970 and performed by Shirley Bassey. For "Freestyle Thing" he used a sample of "I Am a Walrus" released in 1968 and performed by Freddie McCoy.
In November 1995, the group was invited by Stretch & Bobbito on WKCR for the release of their single. Here is the short interview and Freestyle dropped that night by the trio, it was a few years before Destruct got locked...
Roughneck Soldiers - 1993 - Photo courtesy of Disaster
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