EVS - Shades Of Grey

Released in 1999, Shades Of Grey was the first solo release from EVS. EVS is an MC from San Diego, California and is/was a member of the Commonwealth, Subdivision, Convenience Store, and la2thebay crews. When I picked this tape up I had never heard any of EVS's music. I bought this on the strength of a recommendation from Optimus Rhymes, back when he was working at Below The Surface. Since hearing this album I have done my best to follow EVS's music. I haven't heard anything new from EVS lately, I hope he's still making music and if/when something new comes out I will be sure to cop it.

I don't have any music from EVS's old crews, except the Subdivision - Appetizer Ep. If anyone has anything I would love to get a copy and post it on the site. Thanks

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3 Shades Of Rhythm

3 Shades Of Rhythm is P.Waley, Equipto and T.D Camp. The tracks on this album were recorded between 1990 - 1992 at the Jam studio and studio 280. This is some classic bay area underground, an absolute must have for any collection.

Growing up the homie Quinn had a 100th generation dub of a 5 song tape labeled "Hiero Demo". The quality of this tape was so bad that you could barely make out any of the lyrics and the beats sounded really muffled. The sound quality was enough to keep me from dubbing it for myself, but not enough to stop us from listening to it. We listened to this tape almost as much as our Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray Cassingle, while we mobbed around town in a 1990 Ford Escort. Because of the bad sound quality you could barely make out any of the lyrics, however there were always two lines that were completely audible and stood out to me, "I only dub these for my buddies" and "What's up my *** long time no see yo, what's that you're playing? oh shit that's me." In 2004, sometime around my birthday I received a package in the mail from Hamilton's finest Fatmike, inside was a tape labeled "3 Shades Of Rhythm" and a note telling me not to listen to it too loud because there was some loud screeching noises on the tape at random spots. I listened to the tape and the screeching was pretty bad at times, but the music more than made up for having my ear drums blasted with high pitched squeals. While listening to the tape I realized that one of the songs sounded familiar but I couldn't figure out why, then I heard the chorus "I only dub these for my buddies" and I was floored. The 5 song Hiero Demo tape we thought we had was actually 5 tracks from 3 Shades Of Rhythm. I asked a few people about the crew and Kegs One told me that T.D Camp was getting ready to release the album on CD along with the T-Mor & Schwinn album.

Shouts out to Jack Devo for pointing out that the last link wasn't working properly. Here is a link to download the entire album.

 

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T-Mor & Schwinn - Elements Of Change

Growing up I learned about new artists from liner notes and shout outs on albums...also from my homie Quinn who always came through with the heaters and helped get me started in the rap game. One shout out that always stuck with me was: "T-Mor said 'Casual's a monster'" - Casual from That's how we rip shit. After hearing this, I asked everyone I knew who T-Mor was and if they had any of his music. At the time no one had any info about him and they were as curious as I was. Fast forward a few years, I find out who T-mor is and that he used to rap with someone named Schwinn, but their music is impossible to come by...dead end.

Fast forward a few more years and I'm in the bay area visiting some friends. Kegs One and I are driving to Amoeba Music in San Francisco and the album we are listening too (Otherwize - C.U.N Traffic) ends. I grab a stack of CD's from the back seat and pick the disc with no writing on it. When the beat hit on the first track I had no idea what I was listening too, I asked Kegs who this was and when he said "T-Mor & Schwinn unreleased album that TD Camp was getting ready to release on Hella Records." I think I screamed like a sucka would. I just accidentally found an album I had been searching for for almost 15 years. TD released the album a few weeks later and I made sure I copped it right away. This album will always be a favorite of mine, partially because it's really good, but also because I will always remember how long I looked for it and how I ended up finding it.

Peep game on Jonny Paycheck's and Domino's sites for some pictures and info about T-Mor and Schwinn.

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Spex - Spex 101

 

Spex 101 brings 25 tracks of heat, featuring guest raps from Rundown, Brewmasta, Art Kanobe and guest production from Bucc Rogerz, Cosiner, Dj Nacho, Dj Process, Jster, Kegs One, The Moth, Odnet, and Dj Rundown. 

Speaking of Jster, he's recently launched a site called .25NoteDope where you can cop some old music, some new music and some nice t-shirts, peep game.

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Top R - Donut Huslaz EP

This was EP was my introduction to Top R aka Top Ramen. Released in 1999, Donut Huslaz has remained some of my favorite Top R work to date. All the raps are handled by Top R and the production by NonPhenom. Speaking of NonPhenom, has he done anything else besides this? His discogs page has no other info but I would love to hear some of his other work.

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Rymo - Cummulous Confusion

I don't know anything about Rymo, other than that he is in a group called Broken Dialek with Da Golden Ray. Up until Kaliyuga Pro made this post over at Ghetto Tyylit I completely forgot I had this CD. If anyone has any further info about Rymo and any of his other music please drop knowledge on me.

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The Earthlings - Dues Paid

 

Dues Paid, the live album released by The Earthlings in 2001 on 2B1 Records. This is a collection of live tracks recorded at various location between 1995 and 2001. I don't have a lot of time to write much about this album, just know that its dope.....otherwise I wouldn't have posted it.

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Mystik Journeymen - Unsigned And Hella Broke Vol. 1

UHB 1, one of the earliest Mystik Journeymen tapes. To this day this tape still gets regular play in my tape deck. Like most people, this tape eluded me for year, I had to put up with crunchy 3rd and 4th generation dubs. Then one day I got an email from one of raps mail order super thugs, Mr. P-Minus, letting me know that he found a few copies and he wanted to know if I would like one. When my copy arrived, I made room for it in the tape racks, but still held on to my dubbed copy. After listening to the original, I realized the quality wasn't that much better then my dubbed version. I hope you enjoy this album as much as I do.

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Boac - Modern Originalus

Modern Originalus, the debut album from Boac released in 1998. I remember the first time I heard Boac, it was from the 19 Ninety Now Theme Transmission 12" a friend owned. Neither of us knew anything about Boac or any of his other music, or if he even had any. One day, probably in early 2000, a family member gave me a gift certificate for a local music store. Now living in a medium sized city in Canada, the local music stores selection was/is pretty terrible. The store had this frustrating computer in the back that would allow you to search all the albums the store could order. My friends and I had spent hours sifting through that system looking for things to order, the only 2 albums we ever found were Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots and Hieroglyphics - Third Eye Vision. One day I went down to the store and started the gruelling process of finding something to spend this gift certificate on. After a while I was starting to get tired of the searching process and I was prepared to sell the gift certificate for whatever I could get for it. I decided to start searching for some more obscure artists, hoping for a miracle. I was shocked when I searched for Boac and the system said there was an album available from him. I had the store order the album and 3 weeks later I picked it up. Since that day I've followed his music closely and picked up as much of it as I could.

Enough of that rambling, all you need to know is that this album is good, it has guest spots from Odis, Mystic Moe & Will Power (Midnight Voices), Safari, Iwa, Mr. Pibb, Top Ramen and production from Boac and Bootleg.

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