HipHop-TheGoldenEra: Rome

Showing posts with label Rome. Show all posts

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Global Platoon ‎- Crew Family / Keep Your Day Job - 1997

12" - 1997 - Launchpad Records

Global Platoon was a hip-hop group from Baltimore (for most of the members) comprised of DJ Rockit, DJ Cutt, DJ Handz, One Speaker Supreme, Rome, Fla Fla, Steve Colossal, Bosch, Ill Logic, M1 and M.I.

Photo courtesy of DJ Rockit

This wax is their debut 12" released on Launchpad Records in 1997, a record label mainly managed by Rockit and Tacuma. The 12" is composed of 2 tracks titled "Crew Family" produced by Rockit and "Keep Your Day Job" produced by DJ Cutt.

M.I : "The concept of Global Platoon came because we wanted to give the crew a more definitive meaning. At the time we all read a lot and were big on government conspiracies and stuff like that so that is where the Global Platoon began.

Actually we are all from all over. Every member is not originally from Baltimore but as far as being in Bmore we all were from different sections of the city. We originally called ourselves COD (Circle Of Death) and that formed in 1995/96.

How did everything start ? ... I would say everyone has a different story of how we started this but basically we all had a common friend, Dj Rockit and we all basically met or reconnected through him. We all basically knew each other from the hip hop community but when Rock built his studio we started recording together. First session was when we recorded “Keep Your Day Job”. That was supposed to be the flip side of our Constant Deviants “Catch a Speed Knot” single. The label at the time didn’t do that and we all kept recording together and not long after that Rock released it on Launchpad Records."

Photo courtesy of DJ Rockit

Friday, February 23, 2018

Raw Soul - Raw Soul EP - 1996

from Left to Right : Rome, Dj Quest, Ed & Ink One (Seated) - Photo courtesy of DJ Quest

RAW SOUL was a Bay Area based Hip-Hop crew. The group started in the early 90's in San Francisco and consisted of Nel a.k.a Ink, Rome, Ed a.k.a Sho Nuff and Dj Quest.

The original members were Ink and Dj Ra Sol, the House DJ from the Bay. He was from Oakland. Ink and Dj Ra Sol go back to their Graffiti days. They made up the name sitting in the studio :

Ink : "One day he was to be Rasta Soul and I was to be Raw Soul along with Dj Quest of the Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters with Eddie Def and Dj Cue. I met Romell from friend in a group, I did some tracks for their group called Truly Funky Minds."

Truly Funky Minds & Raw Soul - Photo courtesy of Sifu Frankie Frank

Ink : "Next to enter the group was a cat named Ed aka Sho Nuff who brung the swag to the group"

Dj Quest : "MC ED ... we just called him Ed. Teddy Riley looking brother, he was the hype man !! I remember going to 3rd Floor Studios and doing cuts for various projects. Anyway, Nel used to work there and we started collaborating there but Nel and Rome linked up outside of through our hiphop community. Eventually, we got a manager and we practiced at 3rd floor studios. But way before anybody else was onboard, it was just Nel and I working on demos.. we almost got signed to Profile at one point"

Ink : "A lot of things started coming together for us when we met our manager, this lady named Tina who Romell met at one of our shows. Quest left cause he didn’t get along with Her. And it went from their, being the opening act to a lot well known names in the biz to headlining show’s in Canada, up and down the coast as well as our own back yard, all this was in the early nineties"

By the way, you can also check this video of Raw Soul live on New World Video TV Show hosted by G-Spot & Barry Dow and originally aired live on October 30th 1992.

In 1996 , Raw Soul dropped their first official EP on Soul Kids Productions, a record label directed by Ink and Romell. The EP was composed of 6 tracks produced by Ink and DJ Wonder Hands.

Ink : "The production was me with Dj Wonder Hands who I recruited for the group who was a friend of mine from where i lived"

12" - 1996 - Soul Kids Productions

Stunning project from the beginning to the end, the EP is made of the main hip-hop ingredients... mad flows, good lyrics and dope instrumentals using a bunch of samples.
Songs like "What's Going On" performed by Les McCann or "N.T" performed by Kool & The Gang on "Dialect", "Summer Madness" performed by Kool & The Gang on "Are U Wid Me"... the production is just as good as some East Coast projects from that era but unfortunately the EP is their only physical release, the album never came out...

Ink : "Well what happened life as use Ed wanted to make money for his family so he left. Rome got in to radio and was a new father so he took a couple of years off then we came back and did the EP and that next year I became father so music got put by the way side, I still have maybe two unreleased tracks for the album that I'm sitting on. I never stopped making music, last hip-hop album I did was for Zulu nation"

To be honest, I've never had the chance to find this nice indie record so I'm like people who would like to see a reissue ... so maybe one day who knows...fingers crossed !

Massive props to Nel, Rome and Dj Quest.

Monday, March 6, 2017

SIX2SIX Records : 7" Lathe Cut x Cassette Bundle Series

SIX2SIX Records presents 7" Lathe Cut x Cassette Bundle Series :

- Global Platoon - 'Streets Of Gold' (Picture Disc) 7" Lathe Cut
- Incredible Cutts x Aye Wun - 'Groceries' (cassette)
- Sparrow The Movement - 'The Jacob Theology' (cassette)
- 'Romes Cutts' (cassette)

Limited Edition , 20 Bundles only ...
Out April 17th 2017 ,
More Info and Pre-order link Here

Sunday, October 2, 2016

SW:SIX - Convergence EP - 2016

EP - 2016 - SW:Six Music

This is a selection of 8 exclusive tracks recorded between 2013 and 2014. Theses tracks combine most of MC's and beatmakers of Six2six Records & SWC Records : MI of Constant Deviants, FlaFla of Sparrow the Movement, Supreme, Rome, Steve Colossal, Dj Eagle, Starshit, Switchflow, Dj Impact, Dreem (EXP) , Mr Mat (EXP), Big C (EXP), Mono SickHop, L'Expert & Bab2 of L'Affaire.