Something You Got

I have a small collection of cassette tapes that I've held onto over the years...mostly stuff that I've never come across on record, or mixtapes and the like which were never released in any other format. I appreciate tapes, not just because they are a cheap way to experience music I don't otherwise have, but because there's no easy way to skip over the music and move on to the next track. You actually had to listen to the music on a tape...the limitations of the medium acted as a sort of quality control measure, or at least that's my theory.

I remember getting my hands on a couple of these tapes, "The Staple Sessions," back around 2001 when I worked with the FADER magazine/Cornerstone Promotion. Jeff Staple and Staple Design did a bunch of work for the magazine then, and so I landed these tapes from hanging around the offices.

Anyway, I was recently listening back to DJ Chillout (aka Harry Chronic) "The Sessions: Volume One" and heard a number of songs that I want to track down. And in most cases, I've been able to figure out the Artist/Title of these songs, but there's one tune in particular that I can't pinpoint who it is...

If you have any thoughts on who the artist might be, please throw some ideas up in the Comments section. I can't seem to get this out of my head...

Something You Got (reggae version)

(and for those interested, here is Side one of the tape in its entirety)
DJ Chillout (aka Harry Chronic) "The Sessions: Volume One" side one

Original mix

I bought a bunch of tunes from Beatport the other week. If you have not already experienced Beatport's online record store, I definitely recommend you check them out. Not only do they have ~2-minute audio samples of the songs for sale, but you can also store tracks in your "Hold Bin" for further review or to purchase at a later time. (hint: check out their 'DJ Charts' too.)

Anyways, I found some real dope records on this recent Beatport visit and wanted to share a few of them with you...

Waifs & Strays - "Yeah Yeah (Original mix)"

Finnebassen - "Touching Me (Original mix)"

Jacques Greene - "Dakou" (digital exclusive)

S/O to Beatport, Eats Everything, my dude Nacey, Machinedrum, Om Unit and everyone else whose put me on to some of these sounds. Appreciate it..

Count All the Votes: greatest Benzino song of all time?

I'm sure many of you recall the over-abundance of Made Men advertisements in The Source back when, or are perhaps otherwise familiar with Ray Benzino through his involvement with 80s/90s Boston hip-hop group The Almighty RSO??….or maybe through that whole stabbing situation with Paul Pierce back in 2000???

Ok, well, if you are familiar, you probably have some preconceived notion of his music… and if you're not already familiar…shoot, honestly, I don't know what to tell you if you are not at least somewhat aware of this dude…

In my experience, from the stuff I've listened to, Benzino never really made too m(any) records worth remembering…and so, in a possibly regrettable assertion, I'm crowning this song his GOAT (with much thanks to the canvas provided by Ray's production crew, Hangmen 3.)

Benzino - Bang Ta Dis

S/O to Motown for putting this out back in 2001...