Demo : Special Ed - We Rule (Unreleased Demo Version)

 

This kind of demo, recently posted on YouTube, proves that Special Ed recorded some really interesting demo versions in the early '90s that still remain unreleased. I don't know if it was produced by Akshun, but to be honest, I prefer this version to the one that was released on the album in 1995. Big thanks to K. for the upload. Peace

Saukrates - Father Time LP - 1995

In 1995, the Canadian magazine Elements published an interview with legendary Toronto-based rapper Saukrates. Joined by his manager Chase Lover, he discussed the upcoming release of his debut album "Father Time", produced by Clark Kent, Buckwild and No I.D.

For reasons that remain unclear... though most likely related to label issues... the album was never released, a significant loss given the expectations surrounding it. Saukrates released his first single "Still Caught Up", in 1994 at the age of 17, followed a year later by "Hate Runs Deep", featuring his friend Marvel. Father Time LP was originally scheduled for release that same year. It's definitely something that I'd like to see coming out on vinyl nowadays. Here are a few tracks from the original Father Time demo tape... Enjoy!

Unknown Demos - 1996

 

Here are two demos coming straight from Toronto, Canada, recorded in 1996. Unfortunately, I don't have any information about the MCs or the track titles. If you do, feel free to get in touch ! Peace

ST8OFMIND Demos - 1994

 

ST8OFMIND was a Flemingdon Park-based group out of Toronto, Canada. The crew consisted of three members: U.N.I the "Drunken Profit", Red Eye, and Jel "The Bad Guy" a.k.a. JL The Overseer who was an original member of the Get Loose Crew, known for being the first Canadian rap group to be signed to a record label in the 80s. 

In 1997, ST8OFMIND dropped an outstanding debut single titled "Moodswings", which appeared on the highly regarded compilation Beat Factory Rap Essentials Volume Two. The track earned them a nomination for "Single of the Year" at the 1998 Canadian Urban Music Awards.

After "Moodswings", the group teamed up with a group called The Unit (Bunks & Jawz), who released the "Play Your Position" EP in 1998 on Easpark Records, a record label owned by JL the Overseer. It was their last official appearance, but I can tell you that some ST8OFMIND unreleased demos exist !! Here are 2 exclusive Demos recorded in 1994 and titled "Under The Madness" and "Play Some Music". Sorry for the poor sound quality, but it's better than nothing... Peace

20 SIDES Demos

Here are some demos from a group called 20 Sides, from the Toronto,Ontario, Canada indie hip-hop scene. I don't know much about them, except that they were part of the Sassafras Click and another crew called Countless Endeavors. Stretch & Bobbito were the first to play one of their demos titled "20 Questions" in December 1995. The other demos, "Let Me Go" and "Assorted Nuts", were played in June and July 1996 on the Mastermind Street Jam radio show on Energy 108 (107.9FM), which served the Hamilton, Burlington and Toronto areas in the mid to late 90s.

Ugly Duckling - Down The Road "1995 : 30 Year Anniversary" - 2025

 

2xLP - 2025 - Back2DaSource Records 

 " For the 30 year anniversary of the Ugly Duckling debut album called "Down The Road", and for the first time ever on vinyl and CD format, here is the full version of the Yudee 1995 demo/promo tape. This 20 tracks album contains all the songs that made them famous but — and it's an important point — with their original versions of beats, recordings and lyrics. This album also contains two mid 90's bonus tracks that were only available on the Down The Road alternative demo tape. Needless to say that both versions of the Down The Road Demo Tape are simply impossible to find and are HIGHLY sought! " - courtesy of Back2DaSource Records

Available on Vinyl (500 copies), CD (500 copies) & Cassette (100 copies)

Pre-Order  

Da Rymskeme / Eyedl Mode

Let's get back in the early/mid 90s with some Bay Area indy hip-hop, which I think would deserve a vinyl treatment.

Everything began with the demo tape dropped by San Francisco-based emcee Da Rymskeme in 1992. This is a 4-track cassette tape produced by Da Rymskeme and J Def the Monk of Funk, and it marks the debut of the duo called Eyedl Mode who will be formed a few years later.

Here is the review from Bomb Hip-Hop magazine written in 1992 :

Artist : Da Rymskeme

Title : Self-titled Demo

« With a name like Da Rymskeme, You already get a clue of how dope this brother might be, and dope he is. On the first song « Mista Guitar Man », Rymskeme kicks a tribute to all the brothers out there who have that magic touch to strum a guitar. Speaking of guitars, check out the guitar riff on this track because it is straight-up-n-funky! On « Instincts » Rymskeme has a more laid back rhyme delivery which makes me feel like kickin’ back on a rockin’ chair, just chillin’ and groovin’. He starts to pick up the pace once again on the third song « Da Word » which contains some great samples looped on from A Tribe Called Quest. Another song for y’all who are curious to pay close attention to is « Pavement Trials of a Jester » , where he rhymes to the same beat De La Soul sampled and looped for their song « A RollerSkating Jam Named Saturday ». Rymskeme has a very unique and complex rhyme delivery that you have to listen to very closely, yet he is definitely on the bean-eating-fart-smelling funky tip! To find out more about Da Rymskeme you can contact David Paul Management at (415) 826-9479. »

From Left to Right : Da Rymskeme - J Def the Monk of Funk - Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf - Photo courtesy of David Paul

Da Rymskeme and J Def the Monk of Funk appeared for the first time under the name Eyedl Mode in 1994 on the various compilation of unsigned Bay Area rap acts named Bomb Hip Hop Compilation .

 The duo released their first demo tape in 1995. It's entitled "Fogville" and it contains 22 tracks fully produced by the duo for Sleepwalking Music. This tape will be followed the same year by "Eyedlmode", which is a 5-track EP featuring G-Boogie of the group KNT (Kali Noize Terrorist / Knuckle Neck Tribe). Listen to those tracks and tell me what you think !

Photos courtesy of 12ManRambo 

ReUp : Legion Of Doom - Demo Tape - 1992

Back to 1992 with the demo tape of the Philly-based group Legion Of Doom which was originally comprised of Live, Charlie Bass & DJ Ban.

The tape consists of 6 tracks. 2 of them titled "Puttin' My Thing Down" and "No More Music" were released on 12" on Distinctive Records in 1993. The same year, the excellent and very rare album  "2 Hard 4 The Radio" came out on the same record label, but on tape only.

Demo : Nefarius Ft. Juggernaut - Coalition - 1995

Photo courtesy of Tough Dumplin

Here is a track from the demo tape recorded in 1995 by the T.O-based group Nefarius, which was originally comprised of Tough Dumplin a.k.a MC Collizhun, Rohan Whittingham a.k.a Kwesro and Don D. This track was first uploaded on youtube by my man Chris Complex of Dust & Dope Recordings and it features another emcee named Jugganot a.k.a Frank Payne.

 Unfortunately Kwesro passed away on April 23, 1999 which will lead to the end of the group without an official album release. Rest In Peace 

 

Big Chase - The End of the Line - 1991

Let's talk about this unreleased demo originally uploaded on youtube a long time ago by Calvin Trublife Jones (a.k.a DJ Trouble, p.k.a DJ Trouble Lee) and performed by an emcee named Big Chase. I really like this demo and I think it could be interesting to see Big Chase's unreleased material dropped on physical format. The only track released officially by Big Chase is the song "Y'All Ready For It" (The track uses the same instrumental) on The Rhythm Shack All-Stars EP, dropped by 16FMusic in 2014.

 If you don't know Big Chase, you need to know that this MC, a native of Brooklyn, grew up in the Marcy Projects and was originally a dancer for Jaz and Jay-Z during the early part of Jaz's career from the late 80's to the early 90's. Even though he had quality music, Big Chase never received a major recording deal and his material was never released until now. Labels would not sign him because they were interested in Jay-Z  and didn’t take Big Chase seriously. At the time he was known as "Little Chase"... the one Nas called out "hangin' with Little Chase" in his track "Ether" which was a response to Jay-Z's "Takeover". 

The demo entitled "The End of the Line" was produced by DJ Trouble Lee and was recorded at The Rhythm Shack a.k.a The Shack Studios. The Rhythm Shack was founded by producer /engineer Tkae of the Mental Castawayz back in the late 80's. Originally it was a converted bedroom in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It would later be relocated to 129th Street in Harlem as a full-fledged commercial studio.

DJ Trouble & Carlos Bess @ RHYTHM SHACK STUDIO - 1992 - Photo courtesy of DJ Trouble

DJ Trouble Lee met Big Chase at the studio, they had a production crew called the Groove Stalkers comprised of Tkae, Trouble Lee, Carlos "C12" Bess and DJ Choco. For the story, Tkae was doing some amazing Demos with Chase and then one day he decided to stop producing and destroyed everything... floppy disks, DAT tapes and the 1 inch tapes... They came into the studio and everything was all over the floor destroyed...

DJ Trouble : "It was heartbreaking and Chase couldn’t believe it... all of them couldn’t believe it... so that's why Chase and I started working one on one for years. There's a much deeper story behind all of us who was at the Rhythm Shack. You will not believe the things that happen there...you can write a movie about the whole beginning to the end..."

The good news behind this story, is that some Big Chase's unreleased material exist ! DJ Trouble has been remastering them over the last few years when he moved to Iron Bound Sound in Newark, NJ. Chase was with him and he started another group with some guys from his new block when he moved from Marcy Projects. The group was called "Darker Image", it was 3 of them but no info about the 2 other kats unfortunately... but it seems they recorded some dope demos.

The Demo "The End of the Line" is now available on Spotify, and I think Calvin "Trouble" Jones is cooking something... so stay tuned fellas, more material coming soon !! 

MC Craz & DJ K-Wiz - Ready To Attack: The 1992 Demos EP

EP - 2023 - Chopped Herring Records 

Chopped Herring Records are back with a 6-Track demo tape originally recorded in 1992 by MC Craz & DJ K-Wiz from the BX : 

"1992 demos from MC Craz [pronounced Craze] and DJ K-Wiz pka Grand Creator K-Wiz. Heads will know K-Wiz from his 1988 album on B-Boy Records with Sparky D. Here we have 6 joints from their demo tape which they were pushing at labels back in 1992. The stuff has the feel of material from like 89-90 with nuff 808 bass sounds and familiar UBB samples. Everything is uptempo and bangs hard. Old school heads will no doubt approve!!! " - courtesy of Chopped Herring Records 

Pre-Orders : Black Wax (300 copies with regular Herring sticker cover) /  White label (50 copies with the Season Only Jackets).

Noggin Nodders - Demo Tape 1993​-​94

 

LP - 2022 - Threshold Recordings  

KutMasta Kurt presents the Noggin Nodders Demo Tape recorded between 1993 and 1994. Noggin Nodders was a duo comprised of KutMasta Kurt and Motion Man a.k.a Patternologyst. Their 8 demos were first released on tape in 2019, 40 copies only. Here is now the official release on Vinyl, limited edition of 200 Hand Numbered Blue & Orange "Smash" Vinyl.

Tape (40 copies), Vinyl (200 copies) and Vinyl Test Pressing (10 copies) are available... 

U.S : Threshold Recordings / Fatbeats 

E.U/ U.K : HHV  

Japan :  Jet Set Records 

S&B Show : Demos Session + Rampage - Interview & Freestyle - 1994 WKCR

 

Here is some stuff aired in the Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Show on March 17, 1994 : An Interview and a freestyle session from Rampage The Last Boy Scout who was there that night for the promo of his debut single "Beware Of The Rampsack", and a demo tapes session played by Bobbito including 3 demos from groups named Funky Righteous, Freestyle Fanatics and Jo-Sue featuring Lord Sear. 

Circle Of Native Vibes - Yellow Tape (95 Demo Tape) - 2022

EP - 2022 - B2DS  

"Sup y'all ? We back at it with this DOPE project from the CNV called Yellow Tape. Crazy demo tape from 94-95, all unheard tracks, pure demo tape sound style, you know the ones with those incredible Gems on it. 9 tracks project. The task of tape restoration was no joke tho. We spent mad hours on it in order to clean it and bring back those mad conscious lyrics and ill melodies. Incredible Vibes and prophetical verbatim, CNV at its best, Peace to the Gods they know what time it is. Indeed the lyrical mathematik is on point (as always) and the Sonic Math of the beats is crazy too, Planet KI / Planet X / Nibiru is coming my Brothers & Sisters." - courtesy of Back 2 Da Source Records

Available on Vinyl (300 copies) & CD (300 copies).

Pre-Order : Bundle / Vinyl / CD 

Demo Tape : FEAR - 1994

Let's talk about that demo tape recorded by the MC named FEAR in 1994. No info about him available online unfortunately after all these years and that's a shame because his three demos were really dope at that time and deserve some more shine. 

After a short interview I did with Fear recently, I'm glad to give you some info about this MC... Big surprise first, even if his demos sound like some East Coast material, Fear was a West Coast emcee from Los Angeles,Ca. 

Fear : " Fear is short for Fearless a name I got from being unafraid to do anything on a dare when I was a kid. I grew up in Los Angeles, Ca. From 6 to 12 years old I lived in Birmingham, Alabama and before that I was born in San Diego, Ca. The tracks sound like east coast hip-hop because thats all I grew up listening to when I was younger. I loved east coast hip-hop, that was my main influence...Krs One, Nas, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap and Lord Finesse... I fall into hip-hop when I first heard Rappers Delight. I memorized it and was rapping ever since then, writing raps for my brother and friends so we could battle other little kids...lol.. "

All the tracks of the demo tape "The Evil That Pens Do", "Hate" and "Freakee Flow" were produced by Kevin Sakoda a.k.a K-Von a.k.a DJ Kev. 

Fear : "K-Von was a college DJ in Claremont, Ca. He hosted The Downlow Radio Show on KSPC, 88.7FM at Pomona College. He lived in NYC for a while. He helped me with my demo and helped me to get a lot of opportunities. I first met him at the station, he invited me to come on air and rhyme and we hit it off from there ! "

Fear : "After that I had a few options but nothing panned out, I signed with a few indies and did an album but it wasn't pushed. My album was called "The Moment You Fear". I was in the Unsigned Hype section of the Source magazine (July 2005). I still record now with a group called the Punishers and Con-Verse Allstars."

Mad Props to FEAR, thanks for your time fam. 

K-Supreme - Demo Tape - 1993

Let's talk about K-Supreme and his demo tape uploaded on youtube by Sneak Tipp a long time ago... K-Supreme was an MC from New Jersey and he recorded these demos around 1993. All the tracks are produced by Soo and everything is good from the beginning to the end...This is the kind of demos we'd like to see coming out on vinyl nowadays !

K-Supreme, could you tell me where you lived in the mid 90s ?

K-Supreme : "I lived in Newark, NJ and in Irvington, NJ. Back then it was very competitive, as a rapper you had to battle to be considered a true MC."

How and when did you fall into hip-hop ?

K-Supreme : "I was living in Jersey City and I use to beat box for the rappers battling... after a while I wanted to rap, so I started writing and one day in school (Snyder High in Jersey city) 1985,  I had my first battle and I won... so I started writing more... then in 1986 we moved back to Newark, NJ.  When I came back to Newark, I'm walking up the block and somebody called my name and I turned around it was my dude I knew (DJ Greg G) and he asked me if I was back in Newark to stay and he said he had a rap group he wanted to put me in....so I went to his house and we formed a group but it didn't last long, but the other 2 members left...so now it was just me and Greg G the DJ... from their we started doing shows at our high school (Shabazz) then we also did shows in New York, and all over New Jersey. In 1988 we ran into Lakim Shabazz (from the Flavor unit), I gave him one of my tapes and asked him if he could give it to the 45King... that next day the 45King called me and wanted to meet me... so he starts giving me his address, at this time I'm thinking he lives in New York...as he gives me his address he says "Stuyvesant Avenue"... I knew some streets in New York have the same name as some Jersey streets. So I asked him "Stuyvesant in Jersey ?" He said "yea" and I said "I'm right around the corner", he immediately said "come over", so I went around the corner and we chopped it up for a few minutes and at that time I met Apache (rip), he was my dude and was like a mentor to me, him and his brother Latee, they would tell me what to look out for in the business etc... some time went by and 45king did an album and put me on it...we shot a video for it... and once it got played on video music box... people showed love when I went to clubs in N.Y. "

What was the name of this track with 45King ?

K-Supreme : "I have no clue...because he would call me and ask me to come over (at this time he lived in N.Y ) and he would play a track and ask me to put a verse on it...I did about 10 tracks like that...the one day out of the blue he calls me and says come to my house tomorrow early in the morning, now at this time I knew they filmed videos early in the morning... so I'm thinking I'll just be in the video but when I got their I found out on the spot I'm on the record... I never new the name of the song because again he would call me to come over and just ask me to lay a verse on this, not knowing what it's going to be used for. When he called me later to come to his house I didn't even know he was doing a video for one of the songs...it might have been called "The New Batch" because it was a group of MCs and we were supposed to be a group like the Flavor Unit. I know Warner Brothers scraped the album ...but before that happened video music box played the video a few times…"

Could you tell me how the connection happened with the producer Soo ?

K-Supreme : "I met Soo through a mutual friend, my dude B.Down and soon as I met Soo we clicked, and started recording songs...we even started a super group in 1990 the group was called Brick City. But I didn't stay long, I was out the 1st night after the meeting....to many people was focusing on the wrong things....we tried a second time that failed also...the 3rd time was the one...and this is before Wu Tang came out...we called the super group the Organization...The Org  (for short) incredible group of MCs (Soo, S.Coop, B.Down, Doc C   KDub (K-Supreme), Nauseous, Flam, Barry, Burn, Roc, Baseem Sadot, Code Red, Butch Cass). We just couldn't focus on the mission...then one day before leaving my house to get to Soo's studio I saw the Wu-Tang Clan on video music box...and it blew my mine...I was like "that's what we're trying to do", when I get to Soo's house everybody talking about the Wu....I salute them cause it's not easy to have that many MCs in a group....it's hard to just have 2 MCs in a group.  But Wu Tang story reminds me of ours...they had the focus we didn't....but Soo just like RZA was the glue."

K-Supreme (Right) & Soo (Left)

K-Supreme : "Also when our super group went their own way...me and Soo continued recording with each other. We worked on a few projects and did shows opening up for A.Z, KRS1, doing shows all over from Jersey to Phoenix, Az... N.Y etc..."

2 MCs features on the track "Show-N-Prove", Poetic & Slimmy, could you give me more info about them ?

K-Supreme : "My Dude Slimmy he also was apart of our group the Org... Poetic my dude he was doing his thing in N.J and we finally got together to do a track. It was so many dope MCs at that time and on my solo project I wanted to highlight not just MCs from our group...but also MCs who I felt were dope and should have light shine on 'em."

In 1994 you released the EP "Doe Or Die" on R.B.I. Records Inc. How did the connection happen with them ?

K-Supreme : "My manager at the time had the connect with them... It really wasn't a label, he just had the records pressed up with R.B.I Records." 

Why didn't you release the demos at that time ?

K-Supreme : "In those days the thinking was different...you start thinking the track is old and it ran its course....but if I had all of my recordings today I would definitely put them out... "

Mad Props to K-Supreme, thanks for your time !