The 45 King Presents The Flavor Unit - 1990

EP - 1990 - Tuff City Records 

Here is the debut EP released in 1990 by the Flavor Unit on the NY-based label Tuff City Records. It includes tracks from the original team which was consisted of Apache (RIP), Double J, Lakim Shabazz, Lord Alibaski, Queen Latifah, and the legendary New Jersey-based DJ/Producer Mark The 45 King who did the productions with Lakim Shabazz and The Mighty Maestro. The legendary emcee Latee was also an original member in the early 90s but he doesn't feature on the EP unfortunately, maybe due to the fact that he was already signed with Wild Pitch. 

An interesting interview of many of the crew's original members was done by Robbie Ettelson in 2015. Check "The Original Flavor Unit: An Oral History", it's definitely a good way to get more info about the story of this group... If you like those tracks and don't have this record in your collection yet, I'm sure you 'll find easily a copy for sale online. 

Dynasty

I didn't like what hip-hop in general became in the late 90s/early 2000s, and it is mainly the reason why I stopped buying records at that time. Fortunately, there were a few groups from NYC who were there to raise the level like the duo named Dynasty.

If you don't know this group , you need to know that it consisted of 2 dope emcees named Ness a.k.a Finesse (a.k.a Rapper Ness, a.k.a Classy Freddie Blassie, a.k.a Ness Boogie, a.k.a Dj Freddy Blassie...) and Sun Magnetic a.k.a Sun Magnetic Allah who was also known under the name of Zigg Zagg in the early 90s (yes...the same Zigg Zagg who released his material on Chopped Herring Records in 2013).

To clearly understand how this duo started you need to read this interesting write-up written by Dj Eclipse a long time ago :

Courtesy of Eric Eclipse Winn 

I don't own Dynasty's full discography but the two 12-inches, "Wildcat / Poisonous Youth" released in 1998 and "Bonafide / Lovely Day" released in 2001, which are in my collection are their best releases to me. Both 12" were produced by DJ Armstead and were released on Dj Eclipse's  Record label (Eclipse Records).

12" - 1998 - Eclipse Records  

12" - 2001 - Eclipse Records