TONY D Presents Black Prince & Aziatic - The Roger Gardens EP 1993

 

Trenton, New Jersey delivered a batch of good hip-hop artists during the 90s... Poor Righteous Teachers, YZ, Blvd Mosse, Blaque Spurm, Dungeon Lordz or the late Tony D (RIP) who has established himself as one of the most creative and successful producers in rap coming from this area.

In 1993, Tony D recorded a few tracks with a duo called Black Prince & Aziatic from Roger Gardens housing projects, Trenton, NJ.

About Black Prince & Aziatic, they met in Kindergarten and have been best friends/brothers since. Black Prince was always a rapper growing up and Aziatic's mother bought him some turntables for six grade graduation, from there they studied the art of hip-hop everyday. They did graffiti, they jumped on trains and snucked to NY, 12-13 years old they submerged themselves in culture.

The connection with Tony D came from Black Prince being around at a young age... he was about 12-13 first time he recorded with Tony D,  but unfortunately he was too young to drop a first official release. That's the main reason why all those unreleased tracks never came out at the time. 

In 2016, their unreleased tracks fully produced by Tony D were dropped on vinyl on Cha-Ching Records with the help of Calvin "Trouble" Jones and his Redline Music Distribution, Inc. The EP contains 6 tracks and features the group S.B.T. on the last one. This group was comprised of Freedom, D Sabree & Ciph, who were friends from school. This EP is really good, so I invite you to grab one asap if you had missed it when it came out !

EP - 2016 - Cha-Ching Records 

Unfound & Jagged Edge - The Unfound Files - 2024

LP - 2024 - PQuest Records 

My man PQuest is back with some unreleased material recorded between 1994 & 1995, and coming straight from Trenton, NJ.

Unfound a.k.a Unfound Flava was founded by Drazmatik and was like a big crew with a bunch of members. The Unfound recordings are with Drazmatik, Drunk and Scott Lark Da Sensei. Later Scott Lark went solo and Drunk & Draz formed Jagged Edge.

UF-Side :

A1. REPRESENTIN
A2. 3 DIFFERENT FLAVAS
A3. CAMOFLAUGE feat. Gee Cope
A4. WE CAN RIDE

JE-Side :

B1. WHO ROCK'S EM HARDER
B2. IT AIN'T GOING DOWN feat. Scott Lark Da Sensei
B3. A THIEF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
B4. NO TURNING BACK feat. Screw Face

Pre-Order : Black Vinyl (100 copies) / Limited Special Edition (10 copies)

BLVD. Mosse - All Praises Due To Outstanding - 1990

12" - 1990 - Scorpio  

If you want to grab a slice of Trenton Hip-Hop history... here is the debut 12" released by Blvd. Mosse on the New York-based label Scorpio in 1990. The wax is really cheap and really easy to find. The group was comprised of Outstanding a.k.a Out, DJ Plexx and D.J.L. hailing from the North section of Trenton, New Jersey. Out and Plexx were the core members of the group. After meeting in High School in '88, they musically bonded to become Blvd. Mosse because the Boulevard was their lounge !

Both tracks of the wax "All Praises Due To Outstanding" (LP Version / Dub Version & Acappella) and "Move To Something Funky" (LP Version / Instrumental & Acappella) were produced by the legendary Tony D (RIP). The best track of the 12" is "Move To Something Funky" which uses a sample of the song "Moment of Truth" released in 1971 by Earth Wind & Fire.

Truth or Square - Strain My Brain / The Dirty Floor / Cognac Freestyle Jersey Dirt - 1999

12" - 1999 - Root Of Civilization Productions 

Back in 1999 with this 12" released by this group from Trenton, NJ called Truth Or Square. The crew was comprised of Scatta Rpee, Uncle Eye, Divine Drummah who was first known under the name of DJ Mone, and a fourth member named 10th Degree who was in the state of Virginia at the time and who didn't make the record. 

All the tracks of the wax "Exceptional", "Strain My Brain", "The Dirty Floor Remix" and "Bonus Taste (Cognac Freestyle Jersey Dirt)" were produced by DJ Mone a.k.a Divine Drummah who also managed Root Of Civilization Productions.

If you're looking for more info about everything first start for the group, you need to know the group was founded around 1990. Divine Drummah went to school with Scatta Rpee and Uncle Eye, but not at the same time because he transfered from one school to another. Funny thing is that Divine Drummah discovered that Scatta Rpee and Uncle Eye also knew each other when he hook up with Uncle Eye to make a demo...Scatta Rpee was also there !

Interesting thing also for the collectors is that the group dropped an album entitled "On Top Of The World" on cassette tape in 1996. It was followed by an EP entitled "Release This" which came out around 1997-1998 on CD format. But honestly I've never seen copies of both for sale and nothing about them on discogs. The hunt is open fellas !!! 

Photos courtesy of Divine Drummah

IKEE - Sky's Da Limit - 1995

12" - 1995 - Upshot Records 

K. Moreland a.k.a IKEE was an emcee from Trenton New Jersey. This 12" was his first and only official release which came out in 1995 on Upshot Records. All the tracks of the wax "Sky's Da Limit", "Rock On" and the excellent bonus track "Life & Love" are produced by Kerry Williams a.k.a the legendary Culture Freedom of Poor Righteous Teachers. If you find a copy of this rare 12", you should grab it immediately !

It comes to my mind that Mark Moreland a.k.a DJ Divine who was the first DJ of Poor Righteous Teachers before Father Shaheed RIP, could be from the same family as IKEE... 

Video : Big Bad - Sideways - 2022

Visuals for "Sideways" dropped by Big Bad from Trenton, New Jersey. Track & Video produced by Myster DL for ILL Mannered Records.