Uptown Assassins - On The Rise - 1995

12" - 1995 - Fort Knox Records  

 

Here is the first and only 12" released in 1995 by the group Uptown Assassins (U.A.) from NYC. The crew was formed around 1992-1993, and the original members were BRK, Poe a.k.a Bo Gamble, L a.k.a LCE and the DJ/Producer Face a.k.a 2Feezy.

Their 12" came out on Fort Knox Records and consists of 2 tracks entitled "On The Rise" on the A-side which is the lead single, and "Live From Da Swamps" on the B-side. Nothing written about the productions on the labels but it seems that both tracks produced by Face were recorded at D&D Studios and engineered by Joe Quinde. Around 12-15 tracks produced by Face were recorded there at that time. 

Neither Gimmicks nor metaphors here... BRK declared in a video that they rhymed for people in the streets about regular life shit...Streets, Money and Blocks... all the hood elements. 

Uptown Assassins manager was the hip-hop producer Christopher "Cat" Tucker a.k.a Cat Lion. An Uptown Assassins promo tape came out before the official release of the wax, that's how Cat based in Virginia discovered the group. Cat was originally from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, then moved to Lynchburg,VA in the early 90s. He became the executive producer for groups or artists from Virginia like Profits Of Rage or Starr Nyce, whose the album "Forever" was dropped on Hip-Hop Enterprise in 2021. 

I don't know exactly the story of Uptown Assassins after this 12", but years later some group members formed NMOB (Notorious Mobsterz) with other cats from NYC. 

Dead Poetz Society - Klockuz / Lick a Shot - 1996

In 1996, a dope 12" was released by a NYC group called the Dead Poetz Society. This group started in the mid 90s and was originally composed of 7Storm8 a.k.a Storm, Grymm, Tahborn Ba-Mik, Beef Mizer and Las Revinu (universal spelt backwards). They were all from Crown Heights except Las revinu who was from Sunset Park. 7Storm8 the founder member of the group was born in Barbados and raised in Bedstuy but moved to Crown Heights where he met the rest of the group. In the late 1995 two other members were introduced to the group. Drama Lord from Harlem and Red Devil from East New York were the last two pieces of the puzzle. 

12" - 1996 - Dreamstate Entertainment / Challys Records

The 12" came out on Dreamstate Entertainment / Challys Records, both labels managed by Storm, Suave and Face.  

On the first side of the wax, you can listen to the tracks "Klockuz" featuring 7storm8, Grymm, Tahborn Ba-Mik and "Lick a Shot" featuring Beef Mizer, Drama Lord, Las Revinu and Red Devil,  both tracks produced by 7Storm8. 

"Lick a shot" was well received by the indie hip-hop scene when it came out and the single ended up on many mixtapes like the Crooklyn Cuts Volume III mixed by the legendary Dj Premier. 

For your personal knowledge, "Lick a Shot" contains a sample of "Sensuality (Part 1 & 2)" from the Isley Brothers's album "The Heat Is On" released in 1975.

On the flip side "Lick a Shot" is available in its remix version, a version produced by Slomo the Ghetto Jedi for Demo Ya Dome Productions.

Mad Props to  Joel M Jones Sr. and Kevin Starks