Weekend At Diggedy's - Volume 8

This is how it should be done.....

Grav featuring Dave Wreck, Rashan, Kanye West, Seldom Seen, and Sweat - "Line For Line"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/6q517a

Is there a bigger magnet for love/hate than Kanye West? I can't begin to number the amount of conversations I've had with people about this dude. It's mostly his own doing, but people just can't stand him. F*ck it. I don't give a sh*t what he does outside of the studio. He can run down Broadway decked out in a "Yankees Suck" Louis Vitton jumpsuit, punching puppies in the face, shouting "I had a foursome with Alba, Milano, and Dushku." Don't care. And I'll tell you something. Most Kanye lovers will say the obvious : "his beats are crazy." You might want to sit down for this one : I respect Kanye the emcee as well. Not everyone has to be this wordsmith on the mic for me. I think he says witty shit, and more importantly, knows how to write a song. The fact that his beats are 9 times out of 10 butter banging makes Kanye one of the only cats I really check for at this point. Anyway, "Line For Line" is a posse cut he produced for underground cat Grav back in '96. Kanye's got the 2nd verse on the track. He's got a little more grit and gravel in his voice than we've grown accustomed to (not to mention it sounds like he recorded it after Homeroom and before his Biology regents). By the way, f*ck anyone who never had to take regents. I can't believe I found a way to get that in the blog. YES! What? DOWNLOAD IT!!!

Show & AG feat Diamond - "You Want It"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/20nxbc

There was a time in the mid 90's when I felt like Diamond had a guest verse on like 50 songs that I had memorized. There was "Word Is Bond" with House Of Pain, "The Next Level" with The Alkaholiks - by the way, I still don't know which I like better for those two songs, the original or remix, both are BANANAS - to name a couple of my favorites. "You Want It" is a classic (to me anyway) off of Show & AG's Goodfellas. Diamond's Stunts, Blunts, and Hip-Hop is one of my favorite albums in any genre, and when the HHK crew went to rock Amsterdam, we were performing at the Paradiso (the same venue Diamond and Sadat X would be holding the fort down at, on the same night). We sat in on Diamond's soundcheck, and I spent the entire time being "that guy" reciting every single lyric Diamond flipped. After security removed me, I wrote in my journal : "Dear Diary, OMG. Best day ever." If you don't like good old fashioned DITC, GET OFF MY BLOG. Now that they're gone, you know the drill. DOWNLOAD IT!

The Alkaholks - "Damn" (Buckwild remix)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/waei4z

Gotta show the west coast some love. Writing about The Liks in the Diamond post got me in an alcoholic state of mind. One of my favorite Lik memories was at the Rock Steady Anniversary in Gaelic Park in, hmmmmm, I'm going to say 98, but I could be a year off. The Alkaholiks were one of the performers, and it was a hot, HOT, last Saturday in July. The type of hot summer day where you might see Diggedy in one of his custom made hanes sleeveless white-t's that make the ladies run for the exits. I was at the show with Jay trying to brave the heat with thousands of others. The Liks, which I guess is their custom, began showering the crowd with.... cans of Budweiser. But not cracking the can, shaking it, and spraying it. No, they were tossing the cans out for refreshment use. That's all fine and good. Until the guy standing next to us cracks the can open, and proceeds to pour it over his head, as if it were a bottle of ice water. The capper, was that he was wearing a Kangol at the time. Most of you know me by now. You can only imagine my face at witnessing this. I can never think about Tash, J Ro, or E-Swift without thinking about that fateful afternoon. Daaaaaam. This song is smoother than CL and Bee combined people. DOWNLOAD IT!

You better recognize adjust your bi-focals!

belated.

a big belated happy b-day shout out to our man axiom...

hope it was a good one!

weekend at diggedy's coming up shortly...

-wex.

25 Worst Rapper Names of All Time

Friend of the family Dustin Glick, the artist extraordinaire responsible for the drawing you see to the right, penned this hysterical look at the 25 Worst Rapper Names of All Time for Cracked Magazine. While I agree with his #1 pick, there's a red dot between the eyes for putting Devin the Dude on there and leaving out Edgar Allen Floe. Did he forget anyone obvious? Holla.

25 Worst Rapper Names of All Time

- J. New

rap is like wrestling.

in lots of ways really. just a few include the feuds & the crews (ha). and the trophy girls, the over-the-top displays of masculinity, the sidekicks (uh oh), the rumors, & the displays of violence. i could go on for days. but i won't.

instead... wex wednesday's is going to tackle the favorite wrestlers of yours truly:

1. The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase. no question, the GOAT. the diamond belt ya'll. he's now a Christian minister. hmmm.
2. Jake "The Snake" Roberts. a close runner up to GOAT status. the everyday man. if the everyday man had a mullet and a boa constrictor.
3. Randy "Macho Man" Savage. anybody have a mp3 of his rap song? miss elizabeth was the shit.
4. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka. the top rope GOD.
5. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. hoooooooooooo!
6. Hulk Hogan. i just saw on VH1 that he had no idea what "kosher" meant. who knew?
7. The Ultimate Warrior. fun fact: these days, he's a right-wing raging maniac on the college lecture circuit. check youtube for some of that madness.
8. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. was he related to the Hulkster? did BDK have aids? gotta love the rumors.
9. Bret "The Hitman" Hart. if you get a chance, check out the documentary about him.
10. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.
11. George "The Animal" Steele. he had a masters degree.
12. The Junkyard Dog.

- wex "the microwave" ford.

icons.

chuck d delivers a LONG & very insightful interview:

http://halftimeonline.com/hip-hop-icon-series/chuck-d-public-enemy/

redman puts out a new video:

http://videos.onsmash.com/v/cqnBjiAYk2Glbk2d

and rock the bells is coming to NYC:

http://www.rockthebells.net

enjoy,

wex.

peyton is for the children.

if you didn't see it on Saturday night, here is the absolutely hilarious SNL short featuring Peyton Manning (that everyone is talking about today):



me and diggedy think it's on some manuel shit.

- wex.

bob barker.

i went out with diggedy and his girl nicki tonight. 3rd wheel style. but not really, because it never feels that way... more like 3 friends just hanging out (bum bum, bum bum bitta buuuum bum).

anyway, first we out to pizzeria uno in forest hills. that's right. pizzeria uno.... in forest hills.

you over that yet?

we each ordered an alcoholic beverage (how could you not?). it's now up to you to decide which beverage belonged to which person.


here's what you're looking at: on the left, a 20 oz Stella draft beer. in the middle, a glass of Sangria. on the right, a Kahlua Mudslide.

winner gets a free drink on april 6th. (digs, take care of that, would ya?)

after dinner we went and checked out adam sandler doing his best rainman. it was a 5/10.

peaces.

wex.

Weekend At Diggedy's - Volume 7

That's why I give you mooooore of the raaaaaaaaaaw....

I'm in a funky mood this evening. I've got that cold, where it doesn't want to be a cold, but it doesn't want to be completely healthy. It's basically cold purgatory. Plus, I just saw that Quizno's prime rib commercial where the Asian chick at the end lets loose the most ear piercing laugh in the history of humanity. It sounds like a Jackal getting his tail caught in a paper shredder. You know what commercial I'm talking about. If you don't, you watch entirely too little television.

Now, on to the somewhat abstract choice cuts for Friday, March 23rd...


Jemini The Gifted One - "Funk Soul Sensation"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ixqhrd


Let's work backwards, shall we? You know who Danger Mouse is. You love him in Gnarls Barkley. You applaud his work with Gorillaz. You were that guy/girl saying over drinks "OMG did you hear the Grey Album?? It's ingenious. This Danger guy mashed up Jay Z's Black Album with the Beatles white album. F*cking brilliant." Now, what you may or may not know, is that Danger Mouse had an album drop a few years ago called Ghetto Pop Life. It's one of my favorite records since the turn of the century. DM handled the production, and the master of ceremonies holding the album down was 1990's underground stalwart Jemini The Gifted One. My thoughts prior to hearing GPL were "Who is Danger Mouse? And is this the same "Brooklyn Kids" Jemini??" After one listen, I confirmed the latter, proclaimed Danger Mouse the next great maestro, and played the cd 'til my boom box begged me to give it a breather. If you haven't heard the album, buy it. "Funk Soul Sensation" is from Jemini's mid 90's EP Scars and Pain. Jemini flips his voice like flapjacks throughout the 4 minute track. This is headphone music. Download it!

Saukrates featuring Masta Ace & OC - "Rollin"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bnduno

This one is dedicated to all the Canadians checking out the board. So basically Robert Downey Jr. Just kidding Avril! I see you!

Back in the mid 90's, there was a little wave of Canadian artists like Choclair, Rascals, Kardinal Offishal, etc making some noise on the NY underground scene. I remember the first time I heard of Choclair was at Bobbito's monthly Words event at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
***** TIME FOR A COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY DIGGEDY STORY *****
I have a lot of amazing memories at the Nuyorican. One in particular was when this fairly new artist Mos Def performed a little set where he did his new single "Universal Magnetic", and then dropped his "Children's Story" and a couple of other tracks. After the show, I'm talking with friends outside when Mos comes into our circle, and asks if he can smoke his cigarette there so that his folks wouldn't see. Now he's making movies with Marky Mark and Kevin Bacon. Geeeeez.
***** BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED WEEKEND AT DIGGEDY'S ****
After Choclair's set, him and his crew starting throwing candy bars at the crowd. Catching chocolate was a lot better than the time I caught a CD off the forehead. Good times. Anyway, Canada's finest had quite a few joints that made it's way into my heavy rotation. Saukrates was part of that scene, and I always love this butter soft track. Plus it's got Ace & OC killing it. You can't go wrong. Download it!

Dysfunkional Familee - "Feeling Da Highs"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/92w1wi


This is the 7th edition of Weekend At Diggedy's, and I'm pretty sure that if you go back and check the previous 6, that I name drop Bobbito at least 100% of the time. That show was church to me. Since I was the only knucklehead staying up that late on a weeknight, I earned a reputation as the pause tape king in my circle of friends in high school. Kids would come to school with 90 minute TDK's, and I'd come back with 90 minutes of pure gold. They were epics. I did it for free, and I loved it. For the most part, it was exclusive sh*t from artists we all knew. Every now and then, though, there was some new artist, or just a simple demo that would be played once. Didn't matter to me. If I dug it, it made my tape which is still on a shelf in my room. "Feeling Da Highs" was a song that made quite a few of my tapes. Thanks to the wonderful world of blogs I eventually found some more songs from the Dyfunkional Familee crew, but this has always been my favorite. Fuck all the ice, open up a jewelry store / you play rich, we play poor / NEED I SAY MORE? Download it!

Come into my world people!

no rules.

there's no rules to this shit... i wrote me a manuel...

who says wex wednesday's has to be about hip hop? what, just because it's a blog on "hip hop" karaoke.com? whateva man.

today, we're going to discuss the top 5 annoying things about walking around New York City. and don't get it twisted, i LOVE this city. i wouldn't want to live anywhere else. but that doesn't mean it can't get under my skin every now & then.

1) the noise. my feelings on this were best summed up by that line in the Astoria, Queens based movie "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints". but luckily, i just got these new headphones that help block out all of it, while also sounding fucking amazing.
2) sidewalk drifters/doorway blockers/stop shorters/large group taking up the whole sidewalk horizontally'ers. need i say more? don't be one of these people. pay attention when you're walking around the city. walk straight, know what's going on around you, be considerate of the others that have to share the same dog shit pile-lined sidewalk that you do.
3) the (summertime) smell. i used to live on avenue B. and the walk during the summer from 8th street up to 14th street on avenue B was enough to make a grown man shed a tear. a smell that mixed dead rats with urine with rotting trash. the shit should be bottled up and used for for riot control.
4) traffic/waiting on trains/buses. there's really no way to avoid it. thanks to Robert Moses, traffic plagues us everywhere we go. whether you're in your car (or your girlfriends car, in my case), or standing on the platform... it's traffic that is keeping you from reaching your destination in the amount of time you want to. the bottomline is, there's like a gabillion people (an official statistic) living on a small piece of land - and because of that, we all gotta wait. so wait.
5) cell phones. this sort of files under #1, but yea. cell phones. cell phone etiquette, or lack thereof, is a big problem for me. look, i know that you CAN talk on your phone right now because the N train is above ground... but you have to understand, we're all stuck in this sardine can right now, and maybe all of us don't want to hear about your night out at the club. oh, and the fucking nextel walking talky shit?! are you kidding me?! now not only do i have to hear your end of the conversation, but i gotta hear what your man is saying too?! just be considerate people, it'll make the world a better place.

*disclaimer, i'm sure i've been guilty of contributing to all of the above at some point or another. but the difference is, i'm aware of that.
*another disclaimer, i'm fully aware that some of the above is part of what makes NYC, NYC. what would this city be without that rat garbage piss smell?? it might be Boston. and who the fuck wants that??

haha... all in good fun ya'll. maybe next time i'll do the 5 best things about walking around the city. they're definitely there.

peace -

dj "highest horse" wex.

**ADDENDUM to my post. this morning, above ground on the N train... this man proceeded to really "take it there" with the loudest cell phone conversation in subway history. his name was Manuel... coincidence? i think not. ok, that's bullshit, but it would have been awesome, no?

march 9th photos are up.

check 'em out in the photos section.

one of my fav's:



Thanks to Jonathan Maier for steppin in for Rick and snappin these shots...

- wex.

Weekend At Diggedy's - Volume 6

Here we go again with the funky intro...................

Ed OG - "Love Comes And Goes"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/pt5gj9

Tell me you don't like this song. I'll tell you that you have no heart. Whether solo or with the Bulldogs, Ed has always held a special place in my musical heart. He's never been complex on the mic. There's nothing fancy or over the top about it. You'll never hear him mentioned Top 10, yet I can't picture my music collection without him. This is your everyday man with a mic. I saw Ed live with DJ Wex a couple of years ago, and when his set was about to wrap up without playing this song, well, I turned into "that guy". I started screaming from the back of SOB's "LOVE COMES AND GOES!". Having not received a response, I again shouted "LOVE COMES AND GOES!!". At this point, the crowd thought I was some psychotic soothsayer, but Ed heard me, and with the same disappointment as me explained "Man, I WISH I could do that song. Label never gave us the instrumentals". Then, out of anger, I punched Wex in the face. Again, I'm sorry. Great. I just realized I'm f*cking concluding this with an unhappy ending. I bet everyone was waiting for me to say "that's when me and Wex got on stage, started beatboxing, Ed started kicking his verse, and Jesus came down to play guitar. DEAL WITH IT! Oh yeah, it's also produced by Diamond, one of the GOAT's. DOWNLOAD IT !

Fatal Hussein feat Tame One - "Getto Star"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/avq6vi

Do you like The Artifacts? If your answer is "yes", high five! If it's "no", that's cool, but we can never be friends. Let it be known! I was an Artifacts fiend back in the day. Between A Rock & A Hard Place was my ambassador of kwan (I swear to God TBS needs to stop playing Jerry Maguire all day). One of my very first rap concert experiences was seeing The Beatnuts, Common Sense, Organized Konfusion, and the Artifacts over 10 years ago at The Limelight in NYC for $12. I lied to my parents and told them an adult was taking us to the show. It was winter. I'm bundled up in 9 fleeces, and we get inside and it's a f*cking sauna. Suffice it to say, during the middle of Common's set, I get a little weak in the knees like SWV and next thing I know, I'm on the ground down for the count. I'm brought into another room, where the security guards are asking "what is he on?". My friends, as if they were pausing for a station identification, start laughing, knowing that I don't pop Flintstone vitamins let alone acid. Anyway, this is Diggedy we're talking about. I eat, sleep, and drink hip hop. They splashed some water on me, and I was back 2 songs later. I was 15, whaddya want from me. So, I go on that diatribe about The Artifacts, and the song I'm posting isn't even the whole group. It's just half of them (Tame One). It's a somewhat surprising pairing, as Fatal Hussein is a member of Tupac's crew, The Outlawz. The song is fire, though. Beat. Rhymes. You know the deal. Download it!

Lauryn Hill, Nas, Organized Konfusion, Ras Kass, Dread Scott, Shyheim, and Saafir - "The Wake Up Show Anthem"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/eqmiid

Before his transition to the glammer and glitz of MTV, Sway was best known for his west coast radio institution "The Wake Up Show with Sway and Tech". Back in the mid 90's they put together quite possibly the greatest radio promo ever. Being that it didn't air in NY, I really wasn't privy to much info on this show growing up. The first time it registered on my radar was when Bobbito played the now legendary battle of my beloved Hiero crew battling Saafir on the show. I was always on the outside looking in back then. The battle was primarily between Casual and Saafir, which confused the fuck out of me as a kid because Saafir had a tremendous guest appearance on Casual's debut album. The battle always sparked debate as to who won, because Casual came off the top, and Saafir spit tailored writtens. Anyway, this promo for the show is sick like the flu. Boy! I shake em DOWNLOAD IT ALL THE TIME!

The pics are done and will be on the site shortly. The next HHK is April 6th.

Peace!

where are they now??

standing behind the turntables over the last couple years, i've seen TONS of faces come up on our stage (it's like that Def Leppard song). well, actually, i've seen mostly backs, asses, etc, but you know what i mean.

many of them, i just see that one time. others i may see a couple of times. and SOME take on the "regular" status, even if it's for just for a few months or so, and i'm seeing them quite a bit. it's a handful of these people that we're going to take a special look at today.

in honor of these fallen soldiers (most of which used to rock with us at Rothko) who are now nowhere to be seen... today... wex wednesday's is going to ask the question, "where are they now?"

in no particular order:

1. Where are you Frank & Jamal? We need you guys. Our bar tally especially needs you, Frank. Seriously, your absence is costing us money. Come back and rock 'Brooklyn's Finest'.... we'll reserve it for you.
2. Where are you Goodwin? Remember the days when you used to come out to Long Island to see our show at "the Downtown" and nobody showed up but you still treated it like you were playing the Garden? Yea, we do too.
3. Jon & Tanya, where are you two? We could always count on you guys to be there early & set the show off right. Tanya, our "I Got A Man" performance has yet to be topped. It's still talked about. Well, I still talk about it, anyway. Jon, you missed the Biggie tribute night... how... could... you?
4. Hey Von Pea, I know you're out there somewhere... but... where? You used to come, rep for the OKP's... always killed it. Helped establish the current trend of "no paper, playa". Come back, we'll add a new Kweli song... whatever you want.
5. Last, but not least, Gerber, you're in a dark office somewhere, pounding the desk, making lots of money, i'm sure of it. but where?? Gerber, you're a legend to us. Your picture made the New York Post, man!! Granted, you might not have wanted that... but i assure you, we didn't have a say in that!! Come back, you can do 'Big Pimpin' over and over and over. Shit, I'll talk Diggedy into letting you host the show for a few songs. We'll hire some backup booty girls to ASSist... whatever you need.

love, dj wex.

contest!

we must be still buzzing from our Biggie contest...

but here comes another one...

in-line with what Diggedy said below in the comments, we want to see who can come up with the best CAPTION to THIS moment:


post your answer in the comment section for this post - winner gets a cd pack from dj wex, including ghost's "more fish", js-1's "best of common" mix, and method man's new album "4:21". i'll probably throw in some other ish too, we'll see.

deeejay wex.

Unbelievable.

D.I.T.C legend O.C. graces Hip Hop Karaoke NYC to perform Biggie's "Unbelievable":



sorry about the sound quality - we did our best, yo. props to edgar for coming and taking the video for us, we appreciate that!

wex.

can you rock?

the homey dashaun took this vid at the feb hhk... it's k-dot shredding some fu-schnick feat shaq d... sup doc?

what what.

enjoy... wex.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Thank You!

a B.I.G. thank you to everyone who came out last night to HHK!!

we had a packed house full of people who were there to have a good time, pay respect to Biggie Smalls, and turn the party out.

also, a giant thank you to the man, the legend, one of my favorite emcee's of all time: O.C., who came out and rocked with us. and thank you to Elizabeth, who helped introduce O.C... word... life.

we hope to have the photos up on the site this week - so definitely check back for those.

we'll also have some video clips to share - so check for those too.

as for the next edition of HHK - we should have an April date locked down shortly (i'm hoping by Monday), so yes, check back for that too.

thanks to all of you. we wouldn't still be doing this if it weren't for you.

sorry, that sounded like a weird HHK acceptance speech.

dj wex.

Weekend At Diggedy's - Volume 5

Damn.. These Friday's creep up pretty quickly..

Choice jams for this Friday, March 9th.

Tha Alkaholiks - "Mary Jane" (Madlib remix)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qricmq

This song is so fucking smooth. Like many songs, the first time I heard this was on a pause tape from Stretch & Bobbito. God bless that show. When I went off to college, my poor 15 year old brother - a sophomore in high school - would set the alarm every 45 minutes from 1-5am on Thursday nights to flip the tapes and mail 'em off to me. His grades suffered, but he did it for Hip-Hop. Once my folks wised up to the plan, Papa Diggedy got involved and fixed the situation by hooking up a VCR to the radio and just dubbing it on VHS tapes. What does any of this have to do with the Liks song? Nothing really. I just don't have much more to say on it. You know who the Liks are. You know who Madlib is. It's fucking smooth. Download it!

Lord Finesse featuring Big L - "Yes You May" (remix)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/j7z7my

This song, which came out in '92, should be required listening. Seriously. This is what emceeing is all about. No one should ever be allowed to rock a mic without having this embedded in their head. I'm a huge Finesse fan, and this song is like swimming in the ball pit at Chuck E Cheese. Only they aren't balls. They are punchlines. It's almost 2am. What the f*ck do you want from me? Download it!

Biggie Smalls, Snagglepuss, Pudgee The Phat Bastard, Mackwild, Positive K, Red Bandit, Grand Daddy IU, Raggedy Man, & Grand Puba - "9 Dogs"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ltt976

Come on. You know I'm not going to have a March 9 edition of Weekend At Diggedy's and not have any B.I.G. File this under Wex's dope Biggie cameos. Like all songs I post, I listen to them again, shut the lights off in my room, and sobb uncontrollably. I swear to God, I had no idea rap would transition the way it did, as quickly as it did. I wasn't prepared. It's like your best friend in high school coming back home from college and he's a scientologist. All you want to talk about is baseball and albums and he's talking about aliens and Tom Cruise steps and shit. The quality of this song is dirty, and stinking. Just the way I like it. Download it!

That's all folks.. I hope to see you all in 20 hours for what will prove to be a very, very enjoyable evening.

Word Life.

check the technique.

from allhiphop.com:

Hip-Hop journalist Brian Coleman is set to release his second book, Check The Technique: Liner Notes For Hip-Hop Junkies, this summer under Random House/Villard Publishing.

Check The Technique is the follow-up to Coleman’s first book, the widely acclaimed “Rakim Told Me: Hip-Hop Wax Facts, Straight From the Original Artists.”

Written for Hip-Hop artists, industry professionals and fans alike, Check The Technique is a 36 chapter account of never-before-told stories of Hip-Hop experiences by the artists themselves.

Over 75 DJs, producers, industry insiders and artists, like De La Soul, Public Enemy, The Fugees, Beastie Boys and more gave their input on for Check The Technique.

“My goal with Check the Technique is to let people eavesdrop on some amazing conversations I’ve had with Hip-Hop legends over the years,” Coleman said. “To me, the most important thing about the book is that the facts, stories and opinions come from the artists themselves. Hip-Hop artists have a certain image on video screens and in press-junket interviews, but Check the Technique does its best to strip all of that away and talk to these innovators as people, with respect and fan-fueled curiosity.”

The book, scheduled to appear in bookstores June 12, will feature over 500 pages of exclusive interviews, photos taken by B+, and an introduction by The Roots drummer, ?uestlove.

Coleman is currently planning book release events in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco for the summer of 2007.

- - -

This is great news for a nerd like myself. I loved Rakim Told Me (buy it at Turntable Lab, ya'll) and am really looking forward to this one too.

check it out.

dj wex.

keep your hands high.

normally on weds, i post some sort of egotrip influenced list of something to be discussed.

but today, i'm going to rip a page off of 'weekend at diggedy's' and just hope to expose somebody/anybody to a sleeper.

if you've been to HHK and been mingling around during the sign-up period, you've probably heard me play this song once or twice. it's track number 15 on a mostly forgotten album by a mister Tracey Lee (not that it should be forgotten, as there's some real dope shit on there - including the title track "many facez" that finds Tray Lee doing like 5 or 6 voices/personalities/characters better than anyone i've ever heard).

side note: the album, if you know it, starts off with an intro that has one of those robot type-what-you-want-it-to-say voices spelling out Tray's name, which i always thought sounded really ill. so one morning in high school, i snuck into the room where they do the morning announcements over the intercom (my boy was one of the kids that read the announcements) and played that intro to close out that mornings announcements. what what. if that's not hip hop, i don't know what is. :)

anyway, here is one of those "forgotten" Biggie appearances from the mid-nineties:

Tracey Lee feat. The Notorious B.I.G. - Keep Your Hands High (mp3)

aka - another Big verse that Jay paid "homage" to quite famously.

and if you want to keep the tradition of the lists going - let's hear your favorite "forgotten" Biggie appearances on other people's tracks. hint hint - one that pops into my mind is his nasty verse on an album by the king of nasty.

deejay wex.

first thing's first...

HHK was built for people who wanted to celebrate hip hop. everyone knows that.

and as everybody also knows, this Friday is a very historic date in hip hop - in music - and in the lives of many of us who couldn't get enough of the late great frank white.

so with that said, with your help, we're going to celebrate the life of Mr. Wallace with a special top-of-the-show contest/tribute.

the FIRST FIVE people who sign-up (10pm) for a BIGGIE song on friday night will perform in slots #1 thru #5 to start the show. *we're talking Biggie SOLO joints ONLY.

ALL FIVE will get something from cool from HHK (i.e. "a prize") but the best overall performance of the five will get the uber-secret surprise grand prize. the grand prize winner will be chosen by the accounting team of New New, Diggin' Diggs, & Sir Wexington III - and announced shortly after the last of the five biggie performance's.

all good?

so if you're interested in taking part, memorize your fav biggie song (or two, or three - backup's ya'll) and get to the knitt EARLY to lock in your place.

if you have any questions - hit up the comments. no sidekick jokes!! :)

-wex

PS - the FEB photos are up on the site.

check yo'self.

"though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year"

more discussion on the current state of hip hop:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17386527/

wex

Weekend At Diggedy's - Volume 4

If you guys want to continue with your sidekick debate, feel free to scroll below.

It's giving me a headache.

Welcome back to weekend at Diggedy's! Do you need anything? Cola? Pillow? Cable modem?

Sit back, relax, throw your headphones on, and listen to the choice cuts for March 2nd.

Kurious - "Jorge Of The Projects"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yhjeh8

"Jorge Of The Projects" is a gem off of 1994's A Constipated Monkey. The single "Walk Like A Duck" got a lot of burn in NYC (as did "Uptown Shit"). If you can locate the album, I definitely recommend picking it up. I always loved this track. Chill beat, and personality galore on the mic.

Big Daddy Kane - "The Man, The Icon"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/voy125

If you're a Kane fan, and you haven't heard this song, stop what you are doing and download. This song - which hasn't appeared on a proper album to my knowledge - is proof positive that King Asiatic is still nobody's equal on the mic. It's produced by the Alchemist, and dropped about 3-4 years ago. "The fast shooter with the attitude of a Zab Judah / now you wanna pass through the / Livest, somebody please call 911 but it won't be for Wyclef." LONG LIVE THE KANE!!!!!!

Capital D - "1984"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ifjina

I have to give propers to Wex on this one. He put me on to Capital D & The Molemen's first album, Writers Block : The Movie. Capital D is part of Chicago's All Natural crew. "1984" is off of Capital D's solo album Insomia. The beats are crazy, as are the lyrics. Definitely recommend picking up both.

And I'm out like a trout.
(Free drink ticket next Friday to whomever identifies the song and artist that line is from. If you need to google it to come up with the answer, sure you'll get the drink ticket, but God knows the truth).