'95 Live

I picked up this Elektra/East West "iLLSTYLE LIVE" showcase record from a friend recently (S/O to DJ Eurok at Upset the Setup.)

My initial reaction upon playing it was "who A&R’ed at Elektra back in the day?" Seriously, what an amazing roster they had. It's crazy to think how many of these artists' (most?) albums went unreleased.

My reason for writing today is to introduce you to one of the artists featured on this 1995 Live album: Omniscence is his name (I'll take his word on the spelling.) He's from North Carolina, has/d a ridiculous punch-line battle rap-type flow, and just has some serious ENERGY on the mic. It’s possible this got some burn back then on college radio or mixtapes and the like, but this is the first I’ve heard it.

In terms of the audio below, here's what we've got:

Omniscence on the mic
+ Big Kap on hypeman duties
+ a bangin’ beat provided by DJ Rheji Burrell
+ a freestyle over a classic Biggie beat (to get you warmed up)
+ Pete Rock on the decks?
= some barely released classic mid-90’s unforgettable hip-hop shit.

Omniscence - Amazin (Live)

Shout out to Dante Ross, all the artists on this compilation, TROY blog and The Lost Tapes blog.

Joey knows beats

So I was driving the other night and popped in my CD copy of "Reverse Discourse" from my man Joe Beats...it had been a while. A long while in fact. But, without fail, as track 1 got underway, and seemlessly blended into track 2, I quickly recalled why I fell in love with these sounds in the first place.

I won't pontificate too too much here, but just believe me when I say it, that Joe is truly one of THE BEST true school hip-hop producers of our time. Further, he's got the mindset of a DJ and most of his solo albums play as a continuous mix...which makes sense since much of his work is of the instrumental variety.

I had the chance to catch up with Joe back in 2008 when he rolled through DC on tour, and we sat down for an interview that aired on my show "Pitch Control" on XM. We talked about a lot of things, but more than anything, just our mutual love of hip-hop, and DJs and stuff.

Below is a link to the interview as it aired. I will listen to this over & over again..it was one of those instances where meeting an artist in person re-affirmed what I thought I already knew about them: this cat lives hip-hop.

Joe Beats on Pitch Control (04-27-08)"I take it more as a positive bitterness, if that makes any sense..cuz this guy was such a pioneer on every level. Back in the day, people pretended not to hear the beat from Mecca & The Soul Brother, cuz it was too complicated, it was too deep, and they weren't ready for it. Mr. Long and Large Professor would go 3 or 4 loops deep, whereas Pete Rock was going 6, 7, 8 loops deep to make a beat...he was that ahead of the game." (Joe Beats, 2008)

Much to my delight, Joe's got a new album with MC, Blak Lungz. Check it out at http://www.joebeats.blogspot.com.

(P.S. they're the same cats who did this...)