BART
So I wrote this overlong email full of sappy memories and irrelevant details to my friend Andrew over at Cocaine Blunts & Hip-Hop Tapes, mostly concerning a group called Mixed Practice that I had a lot of love for back when I was coming up in the Bay Area Underground Hip-Hop Scene. Anyway, he liked it so much that he decided it to turn it into a blog entry and perhaps a running guest column called “Bay Area Rap Tapes” (aaahhh, we can haz acronym!). So if you’re into hip-hop obscurities, west coast underground tapes, microregional music scenes, slow blogging, homemade demos, or anything else along those lines head over there and check it out.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Wow! I’ve read this stuff before, but I’m glad it’s now able to be ready by others.!!!!
Good work…
Dad
May 28th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I have “Endlessly” on a mixtape/comp that my boy made for me BITD. It was titled The Underworld. This is the same tape that had “Sunsprayed” by Miscellaneous Minds (?! – it was mislabeled), which was my favorite song on this glorious, life-changing tape filled with favorite songs.
A few weeks afterwards – during which the tape stayed on auto-reverse – I met a young man named Murs for the very first time. I was wearing a homemade iron-on Jungle Book t-shirt. “Dope shirt!” he said. “My group sampled that movie on one of our songs!” (Of course, that was why it was my favorite.)
Trust in me…just in me…shut your eyes and you will see…
May 28th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I would love to hear that tape, if it’s still around. “The Underworld” was the original name of the big East Bay collective that eventually shrunk down to the Living Legends, and included a host of other crews in it… not sure if there’s any significance in that but it occurred to me anyway.
“Wearing visors, it was the style back then…”
May 28th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
It’s still around. I was listening to it the day before I went to NYC. It’s mostly Bay & LA underground, but there’s some East Coast gems thrown in randomly, namely a Kool Keith/Chino XL freestyle (most likely Wake Up Show so there’s that Bay connection) and Ak’s “Juan Valdez.”
I need a new soundcard so I can’t dub it to mp3 right away, but as soon as I can, I got you.
It’s also got my favorite Journeyman song:
Tameeeeeeka….I. Still. Love. You.
Dudes be playing the role.