Project Blowed

Being originally released on tape in 1994, I think, there is also a vinyl and a CD version. It sets the land mark between the shutdown of the Good Life sessions and the introduction to the upcoming open-mic sessions at the Project Blowed.
The album contains the second Heavyweights track out of four and a lot more to explore. On Philaflava you can find some tracks flying around which were on the original release and left out on this release for whatever reason. There is also a difference between the vinyl and the CD version because the vinyl version also contains the monumental "Mix Tapes" song from the Nonce.

The tracks are all very dope starting with the track "Jurassick" having a word play by the track name which implies the sick styles of the featured rappers which have lots of experience by being long in the game(jurassic). Followed by a "knock, knock, who's there?" from Self Jupiter introducing the "Strength Of ATU" with a dope-ass beat and having the CVE said "What a pity, I'm living in New York City" and am not able to watch these cats. Figures Of Speech speak out a warning that you better "Don't get it twisted" because it's "Hot", maybe too hot! Tray Loc is followed by Dolla Holla who really sounds like he is Snupe who raps about a "Beautiful day in the neighborhood" and who is followed by "Solo is so low" from DK Toon and B/Cartoon and you know the track, I do it and I think everybody does who is old enough! "This evening" introduces the "Heavyweights Round 2" featuring PEACE, Aceyalone, Nefertiti, Self Jupiter, BJ, Ganjah K, Medusa, Ko Ko, Mikah 9 and Volume 10 interrupted by a "Funky Commercial Break" and followed by some more dope tracks featuring Aceyalone, Ab Rude, CVE and Ellay Khule. Pure Hip-Hop history that's all I can say!

Project Blowed Compilation

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots

The Fellowships second installment featuring a bunch of interesting people dropped in '93 one year before the Good Life Café closed the doors and a new era began with the Project Blowed. Like Volume 10's "HipHopera", "Innercity Griots" was released on a major label which was a good thing for the popularity but probably it also was a reason for the end of the Good Life. The movie "This Is The Life" dealt with the growing popularity and the impact on the Good Life sessions. If you haven't seen it for now, I can recommend you to watch this movie because it presents a part of HipHop history.
This album contains the first Heavyweights track featuring high level MCs Ganjah K, Big Arch, Spoon,  Volume 10 and Cockney'O'Dire besides the Fellowship. BTW, Mikah 9 has a really crazy appearance on this one! Most of the production is handled by the Earthquake Brothers, a crew of producers, which consists of Jamm Messenger Devine aka JMD, Mathmattics, DJ Kiilu and Mighty O-Roc. They also join creative forces on the Project Blowed compilation!

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots

Polo & Zoundwavez - Hot Time

I'm sorry for the bad rip but my records condition is very bad. Something like this can happen, when you buy an used record. What I'm very curious about is the version called "Hot Time(Crab Niggaz Freestyle)" on this record because there is a Widow Prizum/B.O.D. Click record that contains the track "Crab Niggaz" and "Crab Niggaz Freestyle". I know that the track "Crab Niggaz" is different from the track on the Hot Time record but I'm curious about the other track!

But this record was recorded in France and it is also a french release and on the back side cover are the following record labels stated: Hostile Records, Funk La Planet, Psycho V, Delabels, Virgin France.
The producer is DJ Wick who also produced some tracks for Widow Prizum and there appear Polo and Legacy from France, Zoundwavez aka Phoenix Orion, Cosmic Ray, Margie and Natalie Wallace from Alien Nation and Clutch and Money Bazz from the B.O.D. Click.
What I forgot to say is, that the beat of "Hot Time" reminds me of a track from Fat Jacks "Cater To The DJ" compilation.

Hot Time

Alien Nation - Earth Defenders

It is Alien Nations second album but it is the Aliens first officially released album. The Millenium album was meant to be released on Pallas Records in 1994 but wasn't. "Earth Defenders" in contrary was released on Celestial Recordings around 1999 on CD and I have heard there exist multiple versions with different colored covers. A 12inch record also exists with the track "Return To Cybertron" and a vinyl only track called "Unicron" which is only performed by Phoenix Orion.

On the Earth Defenders album appear Cosmic Ray, Phoenix Orion, Supernatural, Naptron, Orion South, Darkzeid, P.E.A.C.E. and also DK Toon on "Infinite Cypher" at 1:35. Infinite Cypher btw is a really dope track. The appearance of P.E.A.C.E. and DK Toon could lead to the theory that Infinite Cypher and the track "Secret Wars" from Phoenix Orions Secret Wars album were recorded in the same studio session.

Alien Nation - Earth Defenders

Amón Tóbin

As far as Discogs says is this the first solo album of the brazilian born electro producer Amón Tóbin.
My opinion on this record is, that it is by far his best for now.
On Discogs it is catogorized as Drum n Bass, Breaks and Downtempo but I think that it also contains more genres like Acid Jazz and Trip Hop.
One thing that I very like on this one, is the combination of Samba and Drum n Bass music, which is a very hard hitting combination.
But Amón Tóbin took good care of the listener by carefully compiling the tracklist.
As mentioned before, he has some hard Drum n Bass tracks on it but he didn't organize them one after another but put trippy Downtempo tracks in between to give the listener the chance to rest for a bit.
This is really necessary because some tracks have complex soundscapes which are worth listening to!

Amón Tóbin - Bricolage

The Persuasion Of Art

I can remember an old friend of mine who had the luck to stay in down-under for half a year. He had a good time over there and what I can also remember is that he bought this tape there. It is a collection of tracks from various artists. Some of these tracks taken from the artists albums, some aren't! Track I don't know exactly if they were released somewhere else are:

• Daysmen Empire - Recognize The Fact
• Global Phlowtations - Outlooks
• Da Golden Ray - 4-Sided Room
• The Earthlings - In A Minute
• Animal Pharm - Brand New Sound [Sonicosmonauts]
• Abstract Rude & Lil Aaron - Our Guide

Various - The Persuasion Of Art

Jizzm - Archives

This is Jizzm's only true solo album lasting at least 72 minutes and just featuring the Global Phlowtations, Of Mexican Descent and Nikko. All other albums by Jizzm were more like compilations featuring tons of other MCs. The EP of it contains a slightly different version of "Dreamscape" and its one of those ones where the track selection could have been better. The album for example contains very dope tracks like "Like it's 1999" with the GPAC, "Sky's The Limit", "Atlas" with OMD and Nikko, "Trials & Tribulations Pt II" which is also on the Bass'd On Priciples EP (I wonder where the first part is on!) and many more. Except "Atlas" there  are really hard-ass beats followed by high-level battle raps.

Jizzm - Archives

Blue Sky Black Death

Blue Sky Black Death is a producer Duo consisting of Kingston and Ian Tagger aka Young God. They had their debut in 2006 on MUSH records with the album "A Heap Of Broken Images" featuring various MCs. "Late Night Cinema" is one of their latests efforts consisting solely of instrumentals.
The title fits perfect to the music having moody beats that let your mind fade away and playing with your feelings by building up tension and releasing it, both in change. Most of the tracks have multiple parts making a unique short-movie of everyone. These two cats seem to complete each others by judging on the results of their creative works....

Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema

Handsome Boy Modeling School

Collecting instrumentals to make an instrumental mix album Dan The Automator came into my mind. As he belongs to my favorite producers, I checked his discography and found this one catching my ears. Some might know the Automator from the Dr. Octagon album or from Deltron 3030 both being very dope, too! If you check his other stuff you might come to the conclusion that there is very little that is not likeable and that's what makes the Automator so interesting!

White People is production-wise a kind of Borderline album. On some tracks they experimented a lot so that you won't say that it's obviously Hip-Hop but you can do your own opinion on that...

Handsome Boy Modeling School - White People Instrumentals

Equipto again...

One year before the Vintage Volume II, Equipto released the first record in this series. The album is more close to the typical Stiff sound in comparison to the Vintage Volume II. It is a rip of the original release, Discogs says that the re-release contains two additional tracks.
There is also a very nice EP out there which I can recommend you to grab if you have the chance to. This one contains the most interesting tracks off the CD plus some instrumentals.

Equipto - Vintage Volume Won

Albums, I better shouldn't have sold/lost Part VIII

This one got more rare than I thought. There is also an EP out but the CD contains more interesting tracks. I can't understand that! It's often this way, that an EP or 12" does not contain the most interesting tracks. On the EP you can't find the track "Baby Girl" for example which is very smooth and sounds like an old Bored Stiff production. "Clock On" is smooth too, but like a mixture of a RnB and a Pimp Style beat. Both tracks have female backing vocals from Reign...

Equipto - Vintage Volume II: Like There's No Tomorrow

Albums, I better shouldn't have sold/lost Part VII

Way back in the last millenium, Bicasso's former artist name was Bizarro and his label was called Dirtworks. I don't feel so good about having sold this one because it is very hard to find for now and it is some totally different stuff. For 1999 it was some type of ish that was way beyond its time.

Bizarro - Blacknewave

Secret Wars

Following the tradition of the Zimulated Experiences album this one is all spaced up except that it contains more features like Darkzeid with his dark and powerful voice, DK Toon, Neb Luv, Dandelion, Big Foot, the almighty P.E.A.C.E. and Quantum Gamma Zenith aka Orion South. For Orion South I was wondering for years if he really is a different person because it is difficult to distinguish him from Phoenix Orion's voice. I think they are cousins and I once heard that Phoenix Orion and Orion South didn't talked to each others for years but got reunited again. But as Phoenix seems to live in Vegas now it looks like that they currently don't do music together...
For this album there is also a very nice 2x12" with one record rotating at 331/3rpm containing Hip-Hop music and the other one rotating at 45rpm and containing Drum'n'Bass music.

Secret Wars

Omid - Monolith

This is Omid's third album which is half instrumental and the other half with features from Aceyalone, Slug, Murs, PSC, DJ Drez, Spoon of Iodine, Buck 65, Abstract Rude, 2Mex, Busdriver and Hymnal. I offer you the probably best rip on the net you can find of this one so don't miss the chance to check it out...

Omid - Monolith

Albums, I better shouldn't have sold/lost Part VI

Another compilation but this time its with a totally different cast! Celestial Recordings only label based compilation brings you the Alien Nation, P.E.A.C.E., Self Jupiter, DK Toon, Ellay Khule and others from Vortex Recordings a subsidiary of Celestial. One very interesting thing about it is the hint inside that they already had the Zimulated Experiences II in the works. The track "Close Encounters" appears here and there. You can also find tracks from the Beneath The Surface compilation, the Alien Nation album "Earth Defenders", Naptron's "Styles Of Madness", Hive's "Working With Sound", Phoenix Orion's "Zimulated Experiences", Supernatural's "Armageddon At Your Door 12" "  and from some Vortex releases I think which are Drum'n'Bass and not Hip-Hop.

Celestial Squadron

Maleko - Resume

This is the last one of Maleko which I can offer you! It is a collection of tracks previously released somewhere else and of unreleased ones. Be sure to peep it!

Maleko - Resume

Maleko - Omnidirectional

You probably wonder why I'm upping so much Maleko stuff today. Today I found some older links that are still working and I thought about sharing the music with you. As you can see on the picture of the cover there are a lot of artists on this album, so much that I am not able to tag them all! Here is a citation from P-Minus:
The mighty Maleko cranks out another winner with 18 lovely tracks featuring ALL of your favorite underground emcees and producers: Tommy V., Raj, Randy & Psuedo (Lip Service), Neila, Da Golden Ray, Jundax,  Ian, Space Ranger, Ceschi & David Ramos (Anonymous Inc.), Enzyme (Organics), Rage, Agile, Triangulum, Matre, Radioinactive, Autoflo, Optimus Rhymes, Deeskee, Nocturnal Ron, Mr. Slugsworth, Gunther B., Jericho J., Kiko, WD4D, Anti-MC and PBoFA.

That's almost 73 minutes of wonderful stuff that proves that the northern California underground hip hop scene is one of the most vibrant and collaborative around.

Maleko - Omnidirectional

Maleko - Nocturnal Journals

Look what I have left over. Although my CDr isn't readable anymore I still have an older rip of this album. It is completely produced by Joe Dub and recorded by Deeskee and Tommy V. It features WD4D and Dave Redeye on the decks and raps from Joe Dub, Da Golden Ray, Ian, Pilot Rase, Administer, Agile, Confucius and Space Ranger. One of my favorite tracks on this is "Concepts" featuring Da Golden Ray and Ian of Private School on a funky beat. It is obvious that Maleko and Da Golden Ray make a good duo if you also check the track "Second Wind" off the Strictly Indee compilation....

Maleko - Nocturnal Journals

Neila - Searching For Prajna

With this CD there is something wrong!
13 tracks are listed but the production credits state 16 tracks.
Eventhough the credits list only covers 8 tracks!
But production is handled by Joe Dub, Ruski (Deeskee?), Buk Naked and Jimi The Mantis Claw.
The feature list contains Drunken Immortals, Jimi The Mantis Claw, Rhettoric, Joe Dub, Tommy V, Type-O, Knows (of US Pros), Brad, Buk Naked, Jizzm, Brandon B, Fluid and Ruski.

Neila - Searching For Prajna

Albums, I better shouldn't have sold/lost Part III

Oh my god, How could I have sold this one! If I think about what they gave me for it and compare it with the value of today, I made the decision that I will never ever sell records again. Furthermore I totally underrated it...

DJ Drez - Say It Loud EP

Volume 10 - Pawn Shop

This is Volume 10's latest release from 2007, it has 2 features of P.E.A.C.E. and one of Black Silver. On the last track P.E.A.C.E. is also taking care of the hooks. I have no info on the production credits but it sounds like Bionik took care of it. Track 6, the title track, probably isn't because the elements used are more organic and airy in contrary to the progressive and more electronic sounding ones Bionik is using in general. This track is also the smoothest one on the album.

Volume 10 - Pawn Shop

Albums, I better shouldn't have sold/lost Part II

I don't really understand, why I have sold this one. It has so much interesting features especially on "Paint A Picture" with the Global Phlowtations and Slant or "Secrets" with Eclipse 427 and Kirby Dominant or "My Everyday" with Bored Stiff. You can also find the Living Legends members on all the other tracks.

UHB4: Stop & Retaliate

Albums, I better shouldn't have sold/lost Part I

I can't really remember, what happened to this one. I think it's lost and it is really a pity! The only thing I remember what could be the reason for the loss, is the fact that I took some CD's with me to work to rip them there. The fact that this one is encoded with Lame 3.98 leads to the conclusion that it must have been ripped last year, as I surely didn't recoded it!
To say something about the album itself, it was released in 1998 and completely produced by Elusive. As you can see on the picture, there are some nice features on it including a track with Mikah 9 and L'Roneous, one with ASOP, Grouch's second best track(my favorite is on Fat Jack's - Cater To The DJ 2) together with Bizarro and others...  The overall beats are very dark with deep basses, perfect for pumping them in a car with a big sub-woofer. I can remember when I was on a car convention for hobbyists and I went around playing this CD in other cars with custom build car stereos. Everyone who heard the music wondered where I got it from because it really pushed the car stereos to their limits :D

Deceiving The Right Eye Of Confusion

The Phoenix has risen

On Philaflava AlienNationRadio posted up a list of all the stuff that Phoenix Orion made. In this list is release that is called Funk La Planet and dated to 1993, can it be that this one was recorded in 1993 and not around 1997?

Having a chat with Al 'T' who produced this one together with Jay Rodriguez it can be possible but it's not sure! What he told me is that Benjamin Deffe who runs the label Funk La Planet didn't pay Al T for his work and studio time and he didn't credited Al T's & Jay Rodriguez work correctly, he didn't even mention their Publisher on the record!
To come back to the  recording, 1993 could be possible, in 1994 the Millenium album was recorded by Al T and there was also a release from Groove Collective with a feature of...Phoenix Orion! And guess who a member of the Groove Collective is? Yeah, Jay Rodriguez.

Le Jazz / Cybernetic Spy / Live Harder

Alien Nation - Millenium

I let myself some time to post up the Alien Nation stuff which I was maniacally collecting for some years now but herewith it starts! It is the Aliens first album which was meant to be released on Pallas Records, only a promo single was. The whole album was mastered in 2003 by Al T who also produced most of it. There are also 2 tracks by Fat Jack and one by Dee Jay and features come from Abstract Rude (dope track!) and Mikah 9 and I think KoKo.

I'll offer you two different versions, the mastered and an unmastered version which is very interesting too, because some tracks on it are way more longer!

Millenium unmastered

Millenium mastered

Widow Prizum - A Brooklyn Kind Of Life

Now it's getting more serious. A slept on album from Widow Prizum containing tracks from 6 ultra rare 12"es namely:

• Danger/A Brooklyn Kind Of Life.../Bedstuy Sound
• No Champagne, Just Blunts N' Heineken/ Pass It Around
• Alert The Masses / Crab Niggaz
• Back In The Days / New York - Paris Freestyle
• Jetlag
• New York New York / Danger

These records were all released around 1997 on Psycho V Records and I would consider them to be the Marcy Projects of what Phoenix Orion is often rapping. Probably they were recorded some years before, maybe! There is not much knowledge about everything because I think that the people from Widow Prizum/Alien Nation prefer to stay underground or maybe I should just ask :D
Ah and not to forget, Widow Prizum are Cosmic Ray from Alien Nation and Ikiea!

Brooklyn Kind Of Life

Shape Shifters - Adopted By Aliens

As Jack Devo has upped some of the older Shape Shifters stuff, I wanna show you the Shifters album that build a bridge between the stuff before and after the year 2000. This one was released on the holy record label Celestial Recordings which was run by Daddy Kev and DJ Hive. Since 2001 it is not existent anymore, I think it is because DJ Hive went his own path by focusing on Drum'n'Bass music. It is a pity, Celestial Recordings threw in really dope releases like this one.
I would definitely date this work after the Know Future album because of the track "Brainfish Reanimated" and "Beetleborg" which are like re-makes with a better mastering. By comparing the older versions with the new ones it looks like the ones from the Know Future album were demos. But there are also tracks from the Planet Of The Shapes album, the Triple Threat EP and the 2012 EP. This chaos continues with the weirdness of the music itself which isn't meant in a negative way. No, it will catch your attention because it goes very deep with its trippy beats.

Adopted By Aliens

Konceptual Dominance

Konceptual Dominance is a collaboration between King Koncepts and Kirby Dominant. As you can guess, King Koncepts again took care of the beats but he is also rapping on this one. Three tracks are also produced by the mighty Eclipse 427 and you can also find a feature of Ka Auditron Ba who are Hypnotic and Karma Chi on the track "Rock The Disco". The album itself is available as a 2xLP, CD and there is also a 12" off the album. In my opinion the track "Self Titled" was the only good choice for the 12". The album itself contains more interesting tracks which are more deep...

Konceptual Dominance

Hypnotic

I remember back in the day when my interest in Hip-Hop music grew and the Internet didn't offer as much as today. Together with a good friend of mine I weekly visited a record store and one day he told me to check out the Hypnotic CD and I bought it not knowing anything about it. Today, 12 years later I can say that it was one of my best investments in music. It's because it is one of the most organic Hip-Hop music I have ever heard with production from Eclipse 427, KiloJoule aka Karma Chi and King Koncepts. With 13 out of 17 tracks produced by King Koncepts, his beats define the overall character of the album, although they are really an ear catcher! One interesting thing is the usage of claves as snares as you can hear on the track "Quantum Mechanics". The elements being used even make sense when you consider the name of the album containing the words ORI INU which is an important part of the Yoruba religion. I didn't study it deeper but of what I've read the term Internal Symmetry seems to be a good translation for ORI-INU. The Yoruba religion has a model and the ORI represents the head meaning the mind while the ORI-INU is the "seat of the unconscious mind".
Another citation:
It is believed that, just before birth, every ori (i.e. consciousness or head) negotiates an agreement with Olorun (i.e. God—literal translation is owner of the sky), outlining their goals for that lifetime. At birth the details of this agreement are removed from the realm of conscious thought and hidden in the unconscious domain, within the inner head (ori-inu) and ipori in heaven. One's destiny, therefore, is to remember the original agreement and work towards achieving those goals. Any deviation from these goals creates a misalignment between ipori and ori and results in disease.

Hypnotic

Yoruba concept of the mind - lae-lae, Awo, odu, ase, ori-inu, opon-ifa, ori, ipori, ara, emi