Lil Wayne "Where You At" (Red Hot Lover Tone Mix

Mobb Deep Feat. Nas "Thug Life" (Diamond's Smooth As Suede Mix)

Ghostface Feat. Raekwon "Apollo Kids" (Enigma Remix)

Peace Peace....This week I decided to give you a taste of my latest remix project called "Progressive Retro".  It took me over a year to make this joint, it is my 10th Anniversary CD and I was trying to figure out what I could do to top the Silver Album.  I decided to dig deep in the crates, pull out some a cappellas and instrumentals and mix & match.  I play these out live and just mess with people sometimes, they think most of them are actual remixes that existed at some point in time because they don't know some of the records I'm using, and they all sound official....peep the way the vocals break at just the right spots along with the instrumentals.  This mix is currently available for sale at Sandbox (www.sandbox.pair.com) and has been getting an incredible response from fans and pioneers all over the world.  MC Serch recently told me he has it in heavy rotation at the house and in the car.  Here are some samples, Lil Wayne over a Red Hot Lover Tone beat sounding like a true 90's rapper....i really messed with folks on this one..left dudes mad confused.  Mobb Deep and Nas over an Ultimate Force instrumental...crazy, and Ghost & Rae "Apollo Kids" over the classic "Sadness" joint by Enigma..just sounds like something Ghost will probably do eventually anyway...worked like a charm.  I also wanted to combine methods from the og DJ era and the digital DJ era to show how to make the 2 work to your advantage.

 

Waddup y'all, fresh off a dope trip to Chicago for a Black Sheep show we rocked with Rhymefest and Brand Nubian, closing out the African Arts Festival this past Monday in the Windy City.  Shouts to all the cats that were there for the weekend, other acts included Special Ed, Lady Of Rage, Nice and Smooth and even an appearance from the godfather himself Afrika Bambaataa.  They love real Hip-Hop in the Chi. 

So based on some of the feedback I got from last week's post, I think I will up some rare joints that were featured on some of my older mixtapes.  These are direct rips from the cassette, not the original 12", to showcase some of the crazy gems people are always hitting me up about.  This week I have 2 joints from one of my very first mixtapes in 98:  Ras Kass "Music Of Business" which features Xzibit on the hook, never surfaced on anything that I know about, and it's a dope record, eerie piano sample beat and he speaks on the state of the record industry (before it got trendy to rhyme about those issues).  The other joint is the Naturel record, "Big Daddy Anthem" which was supposed to launch the label of the same name.  This is a rare 12" that you can probably find on a blog somewhere, but check it out, ridiculous posse cut featuring Shabazz The Disciple, Wicked Will, Mr. Eon and L-Fudge...with a dope BDK sample for the hook (Produced Vinyl Reanimators).  For a full download of the mixtape this was originally on,"Autobots", check out my blog www.truckjewls.blogspot.com.

Naturel, Shabazz the Disciple, Wicked Will, Mr. Eon & L-Fudge "Big Daddy Anthem"

Ras Kass "Music Business"

Greetings to the Amalgam Fam.  I am a new blogger here, and just to give a little background on who I am, I have been DJing for over 20 years, started the Truck Jewls mixtape series in 1998, and am currently the tour DJ for Dres of Black Sheep.

I have been collecting Hip-Hop records since the mid-80's starting with UTFO's Roxanne Roxanne, Just-Ice "Latoya" and Fearless Four "Rockin It" to name a few.
I grew up in the Bronx and really witnessed the birth of Hip-Hop in the early 80's and it is great to still be heavily involved in this culture that has been such a big part of my life.  I am not sure if I will have a set concept for the blog yet or just freestyle it for a little while, I have tons of rare music I could upload, but that's too predictable, maybe I could blog about my episodes on the road with Dres and give people some insight what it's like to back an MC of his stature, or  I could review Amalgam Digital releases like the new Tame One, which is in heavy ipod rotation right now.  I'm not sure, we'll see what happens between now and my next post, in the meantime you can catch my online radio show @ www.hiphopphilosophy.com every Thursday Night starting @ 9PM (EST).  I also blessed the good people at Amalgam with the Jay-Z/RJD2 remix album I did a few years back to post in the Free Download Section...enjoy.  You can also download my old Truck Jewls mixtapes and CD's directly from www.truckjewls.blogspot.com.

One last thing...for anyone in the Chicago area, I will be out there on Monday (Labor Day) for a Black Sheep show @ the African Arts Festival.  Brand Nubian and Rhymefest will also be performing, showtime is 5PM...come through!