A [SAMPLED] History Of...

I remember when my brother first turned me on to hip hop...he used to play Paris, N.W.A., Ghetto Boys, and Public Enemy and would bob my head because my brother liked it.  It wasn't until we picked up our first copy of South Central L.A.'s  Freestyle Fellowship's Innercity Griots in 1993 when I truly fell in love with the music - I was 12.  This easily became my favorite album of all-time (and probably still is).  From then on, I was getting into more of the East Coast Rap with B.D.P., Eric B. & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Tribe, De La, Special ED, Gang Starr, Jeru, etc.  Then, just before 1994 hit, I remember getting 'inside information' from my brother about this 'god on the mic' and he was only 17/18 from Queens Bridge.  When NAS' Illmatic dropped, I thought I was the first one in Colorado to 'dig' it out from underneath the John Denvers, The Eagles, and Garth Brooks' records at my notorious spot at the Flea Market.  I think I listened to this BIBLE 30 times straight...fell asleep to it on repeat, and listened to it the following day until I went back to bed again.  When my brother left me in Colorado to pursue NYC, I was both crushed that my best friend left me, but it also gave me hope that I would one day join him in this hip hop Mecca.  It was brilliant!  He sent me mixes from Hot 97 that he recorded in his Queens and then Brooklyn apartments before he went to bed.  I thought I was the only kid in Colorado with this stuff, and nobody could touch my style!  I visited him when I was 14/15, and I remember walking over the Brooklyn Bridge passed Brooklyn Heights into Fulton Street Mall.  I bought a Brooklyn U.S.A. t-shirt, and then headed right to a hole in the wall where they sold 'underground hip hop.'  When I walked in there, I asked them if they had any Freestyle Fellowship or Project Blowed stuff, and they looked at me like I was an alien.  Picture this:  a 14 year old white kid from Colorado walks into the middle of Fulton Street Mall asking for underground hip hop...the cashier says, "Hell yeah!  I got this new Ron G mix that strictly underground."  The kid takes a look at the track listing and says, "This ain't underground!"  The cashier then yells to his passerby friend to the side, "Damn.  Hey B, this kid wants the 'real' underground shit."   He grabs this tape from a brand new sealed box and hands it to him.  "I know all these rappers, and none of them are 'underground.'  This is like mainstream New York hip hop, where's the underground?"  the kid continues, "I'll get 2 of these Ron G mixes, but only because Nas and Mobb Deep have some nice freestyles and new releases on it, but this ain't underground."  The cashier was f-ing shocked!  Later that week, my brother pointed out that Aceyalone's debut solo record just came out on Capital Records and we should pick it up (A TRUE UNDERGROUND STAR ABOUT TO KNOCK MAINSTREAM ON THEIR HEADS!!!).  We went to the Warehouse and bought 2 tapes of All Balls Don't Bounce...again, an instant classic...but it never got it's spotlight.  I always thought that "this is the one.  The one that will turn mainstream right-side-up."  But no, it pretty much stayed underground, even though it surfaced, similar to Innercity Griots.  

Anyway, I played the hell out of those Ron G tapes, and of course Acey's new album, and just thought of them as unreleased mainstream material when I got back to Colorado.  After my experience in the beautiful city of New York, I knew that's where I wanted to be at 14/15 years old as soon as I graduated.  My senior year, got another ticket to NYC, visited Queens College, Hunter, and City College...applied to all 3 with first choice Hunter, and got accepted!   Mostly because of my brother and change, but the underlying reason for wanting to be in the Holy Land of hip hop...

So I present to you, my first SAMPLED hip hop mix...believe me, there will have to be another one, because I have left out some obvious key elements to this mix...if you are a hip hop head, you will quickly figure that out, because there are just way too many players to try to mix into one MegaMix!  Hope you enjoy, anyway...

A [SAMPLED] History Of...  Track Listing:

    1.    Boogie Down Productions: "The Bridge Is Over (1987)"
    2.    Slick Rick: "Children's Story"
    3.    EPMD: "Let The Funk Flow"
    4.    Poor Righteous Teachers: "Rock Dis Funky Joint"
    5.    Ultramagnetic MC's: "Funk Radio"
    6.    A Tribe Called Quest: "Check The Rhime"
    7.    Gang Starr feat. Jeru: "I'm The Man"
    8.    MC Lyte: "Cha, Cha, Cha"
    9.    Eric B. & Rakim: "Don't Sweat The Technique"
    10.    Ice-T: "O.G. Original Gangster"
    11.    Public Enemy: "Can't Truss It"
    12.    Yall So Stupid: "Van Full Of Pakistans"
    13.    N.W.A.: "Automobile"
    14.    Digable Planets: "Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)"
    15.    Main Source feat. NAS: "Live At The Barbeque"
    16.    Crooklyn Dodgers (Special ED, Masta Ace, Buckshot): "Crooklyn"
    17.    Black Moon: "Shit Iz Real"
    18.    Aceyalone feat. Abstract Rude: "Deep & Wide"
    19.    The Notorious B.I.G.: "Machine Gun Funk"
    20.    2Pac: "Heartz Of Men"
    21.    Wu-Tang: "Older Gods"
    22.    Mobb Deep: "Shook Ones Pt.II
    23.    Jay-Z: "Dead Presidents II"
    24.    Common: "I Used To Love H.E.R."
    25.    Ice Cube: "Ghetto Bird"
    26.    Freestyle Fellowship: "Pure Thought"
    27.    The Roots: "Distortion To Static"
    28.    Hieroglyphics: "Off The Record"
    29.    De La Soul: "Stakes Is High"
    30.    Camp Lo: "Luchini (This Is It)"
    31.    DJ Zeph feat. Azeem: "Frogs"
    32.    J Dilla: "People"
    33.    Lauryn Hill: "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
    34.    Beans: "Down By Law"
    35.    Consequence feat. Kanye West: "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"
    36.    Rhymefest feat. Kanye West: "Brand New"
    37.    Lupe Fiasco: "The Instrumental"
    38.    Aesop Rock: "Coffee"
    39.    Mikah 9, Busdriver, XholoLanxinxo, Toca: "Jazzy Girl"
    40.    DJ Shadow: "Six Days"
    41.    Sage Francis: "Civil Obedience"
    42.    Outkast feat. Big Rube, Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo: "Liberation"