D-Law & The Bountyhunters are from Hartford, CT and first burst on the scene with their "The Gutta" 12" back in 1993. They followed that up by dropping their "Touch Bottom" EP on Mad Man Recordings in 1994 that featured A.K Serious. All tracks were produced by Boileroom Productions composed of Marcus "Direct" Mickens & Arun "AJ" Ranganathan, both from Middletown Connecticut.
"AAAAHHH SHITTTT! HHE is back with and it's a sick one!! We hooked up with DJ Stress from Connecticut, a man who has been paying his dues in hip-hop for over 35 years now! He first started out as a DJ back in 1985 and around 1992 he started getting into production as well.
In 1996 he recorded a 16 track deep album with local Hartford, CT emcee Tone Benjaminz. An album that remained shelved until now, 25 years later! Tone Benjaminz is a multi-talented emcee, producer, songwriter, and voice actor who goes all out with gritty, multi-syllabic, aggressive lyrics over DJ Stress' hard hitting and grimey beats. All tracks were remastered from the OG DATS" - Courtesy of Hip-Hop Enterprise
1. Intro / The Illside
2. Ill Forever
3. The Illest Intro
4. The Illest
5. I Got It Locked
6. Sumthin Ill
7. Back To The Streets
8. Method Of Madness
9. Interlude
10. Return of Shakeem
11. Im All In
12. For My Peoples
13. Real Emcee
14. Trip To Hell
15. Talk To Myself
16. Land Of The Lost
Order :
Vinyl(100 copies on Blood Red Vinyl W/ Black Splatters, 100 copies on White/Black Split Color Vinyl, 100 copies on Black Vinyl) /CD(300 copies)
Here is a single which came out on TRP Recordings in 1996, on tape only. It was released by a Hartford-based emcee named Bradford Williams aka SHS which stands for Second Hand Smoke.
Mikele "Bulletprf" Macon, who was the co-founder and manager of TRP Recordings gave me some time to talk about the story of this tape and his record label.
Mikele Macon : "SHS was a solo artist. His DJ was Reebok. They were mentioned in a Source article. He changed his name to Varsity and focused on production and we formed a label called Trunk Rattlin Productions (TRP Recordings) that is where 'Smoked Out' was released. I was the Manager, co label owner and executive producer. I was also co founder and co owner of Trunk Rattlin Productions. I came up with the name of the label by mistake.
We got into production and producing artist after 'Smoked Out' ran it's course. We produced a group from Connecticut called YNR and they broke up then we produced an other artist who did not show up to a NYC showcase that I signed him up for.We focused on J-NYCE who I got nominated for an Undergound Music Award.
We shopped all projects but never got a deal...We had inquiries but each time something happened the label went down or the person got fired or the project just stalled... 20 years of trying to brake in until we just got tired...
How did the connection happen with SHS ? ... well I was managing some artist in Hartford. A collective called Palm Expedition. They were all nominated for the Hartford Advocates Best Hip Hop artist award. Anyway the producer Paris introduced me to Brad. Brad had some music and I was going to NYC to Epic records for a meeting. I liked his music so I took it with me for the meeting. I also had a stop at the Source Magazine this was 1991... before the Source got big they were not national yet.
Anyway the guy at Epic shitted on the tape and the only tracks he liked were Brads. The Source told me to focus on Brads production.
So when I came back to Hartford after the trip and told Paris we need to use Brads production for their sound he was not happy but relented to me.We had a practice session at Paris fathers business.It was a dry cleaners business in Hartford.Brad left his keyboard there.When we went to practice Paris told us that there was a brake in of the business and the only thing taken was Brads Keyboard...
I was so pissed off and I apologized to Brad. He knew Paris before me they were all childhood friends. I could not condone the theft so I stopped managing Palm Expedition right then. Anyway a meeting later happened between me and Brads cousin P, who told me that I was a good manager and I was not appreciated by Palm. Anyway I was 21 or 22 at the time. I wanted to stay in Music and I moved to Hartford. So without friends and in a new city, Me and Brad and his family bonded. We became friends and they decided to let me manage them.We put our own sound and label together then... That is the short long story of how we came together !
I pressed 2000 copies of the cassette... It was all I could afford at the time. I think that was the minimum... it was all underground, just to release something and get our name out there. I got tired of trying to get a deal so I released the single on my own and did distribution myself with a retail outlet Record Express... I knew the manager. The Chain took our single and I sold it for 99 cents, just to get it to fly off the selves. We sold 1000 copies actually and others I gave for promotion. We had like an underground hit, then we never came back and money got tight, so we focused on producing other artist."
Da Champ dropped a good EP called 'Treasure Hunt' in 1998. It was composed of 6 tracks produced by Mellow. If you've never heard of Da Champ, here is an extract from the original press kit which will give you more info about him :
"Sean DA CHAMP Champion is a rapper from Hartford, CT. DA Champ has been on the forefront of the local hip-hop community since 1983. His signature which is a hard core style, conveys an attitude of street knowledge and realism (conscious-awareness) while never loosing sight of the music.
The 28 year old rapper began his career as a break dancer then beatboxing and rapping. As years went on DA CHAMP, who is the author of the anti drug song, released his first single So-Good. His ability to produce stylized lyrics along with his stage show is guaranteed to make the rap population stand and take notice. Now, Top of DA Line Records presents: DA CHAMP with its national debut EP, 'Treasure Hunt', 'I Need Money', 'Moke-On'. For more flava check out the rapper/entertainer DA CHAMP For contact information and bookings - 1-800/542-3294 Pin#92292./860-650-0400"
It seems that the 'Treasure Hunt' EP wasn't his first release because according to an article from the Hartford Courant written by Andrea Comer in November 1996, there was an other single released on Tryangle Records in 1996, a record label managed by Garfield S Virgo, but no trace of this vinyl, CD or Tape anywhere... Please let me know if you've got more info about it ! Peace
