Down N' Dirty Tribe - Inn´A Cipher / Mindtrix - 1995

12" - 1995 - Jungle Sounds Records  

This wax was the debut 12" released by the New Jersey-based group called Down N' Dirty Tribe. It came out in 1995 on Jungle Sounds Records, a small indie record label based in Manhattan and managed by a hippie white man named Paul from what I know. 

The A-side (Brickside) contains the lead single "Inn'A Cipher" which is available in its Clean Mix, Brickville Mix and Dirty Landcruiser Mix versions. The B-side (Villeside) contains the track "Mindtrix" which is available in its Clean Mix & Original Mix versions, and the instrumental version of "Inn'A Cipher" (not the Mindtrix Cipher Mental Mix version as written). All the productions are handled by Dontay for Diggin 4 Daze Inc.

 

Down N' Dirty Tribe was consisted of 5 members and was made up of 2 duos and a solo artist. First duo called The Elementz, was comprised of Eddie Dos & Big Chief. The second duo was consisted of Meny Myndz & B Wyze, and the solo artist was the young Puerto Rican emcee Tito Grahmz a.k.a Tito Sunshine. They were all from Hoboken, New Jersey except Tito Sunshine who was born in Hoboken, NJ and raised in Brooklyn (Park Slope).

For the story, the crew was originally a 4 man group. The group was already formed when Tito Sunshine was added around 1994. At 12 years old (around 1991-1992), Tito Sunshine met the Beatnuts (Juju & Psycho Les) in front of a club called the Roxy in NYC. The Beatnuts found him outside of the club rapping with a bunch of real street guys all older than him. They would take him to clubs or block parties to battle after that. They also invited him to a studio session where he recorded a verse on the song "Sandwiches" which was released in 1993 on the "Street Level" album, but they didn't keep the verse from the original version. It was actually erased along with Kurious George's verse and they just kept Psycho on it and Tito's intro. 

Down N' Dirty Tribe was founded by Dontay in the back of a record store he worked at. The members of the group used to go there and spin records til one day Dontay said they can be a group and he can get them a record deal, so they went for it. That's how everything started for Down N' Dirty Tribe !  After the release of a second 12" (Trail Of Tears / Atrocities Of A T.H.U.G) on Get Bucks Entertainment in 1997, they changed the name of the group and went by Dirt Mob.