"Wit Da Skillz" is a dope 12-track instrumental project born from the association of the Beatmakers Phil Tyler from Germany and Stasevich from Ukraine. If you're looking for some dope Boom Bap instrumentals, this album is definitely for you and I think that it really deserves a vinyl release. Enjoy.
By the way, you also need to know that Phil Tyler and Stasevich have also done some productions for the forthcoming Onyx's album "1993", dropping March 04, 2022. Now available to Pre-Order (CD format).
The Canadian MC Thrust OG teams up with the German producer BoFaat to drop this 12-track album titled "Like It's 1994" featuring Chief Reckah, Taiyamo Denku, Kenneth Masters, Sha-Elemental, Juxx Diamondz, DIE-REK and more... Grab the CD Here.
The Bay Area MC Dregs One and the Japan producer Ill Sugi are back with a brand new track entitled "Streetlights". Here is the official video filmed in Tokyo and Yokohama.
"A renowned producer lauded for his innovative production and impeccable ear, Pete Rock is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most influential hip hop producers of all time. A pioneer of fusing jazz, funk and soul into hip-hop, many sight him as laying down the blueprint for soulful production in hip-hop. He revolutionized rap production through groundbreaking studio wizardry, made remixes matter more than the original songs, established ad-libs as a standard recording asset... the list goes on. Having worked with huge names including Run-D.M.C, Public Enemy, J Dilla and Busta Rhymes (just to name a few), Pete Rock’s work as a producer has translated into over 25 million albums sold worldwide.
With such huge influence as a producer, Pete’s solo material serves to only further enhance his reputation as an artist and a producer." - courtesy of Vinyl Digital / Tru soul
DaLowLivz was a group from Southwest and West Philly, PA consisting of Dirty Rat, Twizzler, Pure, Pervert and the duo Mersinareez. In 1996, they released their first and only EP titled "Da Fam And Squad Radio Bootleg" on Dialect Records, a small indie record label managed by Perv, Dirty Rat and Pure. 3000 copies were pressed at that time, but this record become very hard to find nowadays.
The wax is composed of the tracks "Fam & Squad" and "N@#*az Got Beef" featuring Munk Wit Da Funk (no need to introduce him) and Gotti N Corleone a.k.a G-N-C on the A-side (Dis Side), and the tracks "Per-Verse" Original Version & Perverted Headnodders Remix on the B-side (Dat Side), everything fully produced by Pervert.
Perv, how did the connection happen between all the members ?
Perv : " I used to own my own studio and used to have the guys around to do their own separate projects. We decided since we worked together and did appearances on those we should merge and do a side project with all of us. We worked together and went to school together so we were all cool... We used to sit around at work just rhyming and freestyling."
Who were the members of the duo Mersinareez ?
Perv : " M Dot and Shorty... They always did their own thing with our boy, Corey R.I.P.. Corey was the guy that kind of put us all together. He was the one that introduced me and Mersinareez. He was the hype guy, the PR guy.. the one that kept us focused and playing nice."
Could you give me more info about G-N-C who feature on "N@#*az Got Beef" ?
Perv : " Yeah, so I was working on another track for myself as I was waiting for the guys to finish up the EP. Things started getting weird with people wanting to use songs, not use songs, egos and whatever. A friend of mine from work, I was cool with her son and his boy, Munk's brother and they said they rapped. So I asked them and Munk to rap on the track. They were G-N-C and Munk with da Funk had his own thing.. which was great in itself.
It was the first time G-N-C did vinyl and Munk liked his lyrics so much he took and used them on one of his own tracks."
The EP is the only release dropped by the crew. Why is there no album released after that ?
Perv : " There was plans but the music business wasn't like it is now. You couldnt just stream it everywhere. You had to rely on DJs and though it's illegal most in Philly wanted us to pay to play. We did the underground thing and sent the records around, selling out of trunks, colleges. We got responses but were looking to get it really out there and the Philly DJs killed that...Bastards... So after that we just kind of drifted.
The only chance we got from a Dj was to put us on a verzuz type thing against a Def Jam artist. You know what the outcome of that was gonna be. Def Jam wasn't gonna lose. Philly radio was Def Jam central so if we got played it was late at night...
It wasn't til years later that I was getting responses from all around on how the EP caught on underground outside of Philly."
Does some unreleased material exist ?
Perv : "Funny thing is all the reels I had of unreleased material I gave to one of the members and he lost them. Someone asked us to do a 20 year release and that's when we found the person lost them... So that EP is all we got of us.. no pics, no extras... A Waste !! "
It's All Indie Rare drops the 4th volume of his 90s Hip Hop Vinyl Mix series. His selection includes tracks from Inf 7, Derelect Camp, Dolla Skillz, Lower Level, Kapone, Branded Black ... just to name a few.
Here is the debut 12" released by SP a.k.a Spank Pops a.k.a Spank Poppa, an Emcee hailing from the cultural heart of the Bay Area, San Francisco,Ca and affiliated with the Bored Stiff crew during the 90s.
Photo courtesy of Michael Adams
The wax came out in 1999 on Hot Box Records and contains the tracks "Paragraphs" and "Moon", both produced by Shawn Costello a.k.a Big Shawn (of Bored Stiff). If you like Bay Area material, this 12" is for you ! For the CD headz, the tracks are also available on the album "Thought I Wasn't..." released on CD in 2002.
