I’ve had an idea knocking around in my head for a little while - just a bit of silly fun we could have here. Kinda like hanging out for ten minutes or so. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not. Could be way too nerdy.

Discogs has a feature that isn’t particularly useful but it’s kinda fun. When you’re looking at your collection - right next to the ‘search collection’ window, it says ‘random item’. You click on that and it shows you a random record from your collection.

My dumb idea is for something we could call ‘Discogs Roulette’. I shoot a quick video where I click ‘random item’ ten times and say whatever comes to mind for that particular record. Could be a story about finding the record or how it influenced me or a memory that it sparks or whatever. I figure there’s a story behind pretty much every record in my collection. And it’s fun flipping though records, right? Maybe some insights could come out of it or maybe it’s a complete waste of everyone’s time.

Let me give you an example here and you can let me know if we should do it again. It would just be a once-in-a-blue-moon sort of thing.

What do you reckon? Wanna nerd out like this once in a while? Or am I the only one nerdy enough to think this could be entertaining? Re-watching the video now, I think I could let my mind wander more. I can already think of ways to make this more fun/compelling. This is just a test to give you the basic idea. Let’s take a stroll though my record collection!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On the topic of records, I’ll be selling some stuff from my collection at Cadence Weapon’s Forager Market thing at Standard Time in Toronto on Satuday (April 26). Swing by if you’re in the area.

And a quick reminder that the next Bandcamp Friday is coming up in a week (May 1) and I’ll have the Vertex instrumental and that lost Henry Krinkle stuff for you.

Comments on.

Until the next!

Yes, y’all.

Real quick - in case you missed it over the weekend, I published a post about the mystery of the recently unearthed Henry Krinkle tapes. Check it out here if you did miss it:

As a bonus, I thought I’d share one of these lost songs here with you now. Beware - it might be a bit loud. Bus dis:

As I say in the previous post, I suspect this comes from 1996 - right around the same time as the first Sebutones album, possibly a bit before. I have no clue what this song is about. I don’t know who Sarah is now and for some reason, I was confused about who she was when the song was recorded. It’s all very strange. I do still remember Georgie Conehead though.

This song is the closest thing to ‘upbeat’ in the collection of stuff I’ll be sharing with you soon. It’s 12 songs in all. Three of them are instrumental. Most of the stuff is dark as hell. I was in a dark place, I guess. I should also say that the stuff is quite Halifax-centric. Lots of references that only people who were in my home town back in the 90s will fully appreciate (ie Georgie Conehead). All y’all are certainly welcome though.

More to come soon.

Here’s what I remember. Scribble Jam 1998. I HAD to go but I was broke. The job I had back then didn’t pay enough to cover rent so I was always hustling and scheming make up the difference and to feed myself. In order to pay for gas for the 2500 km trip and for food, I made a bunch of tapes to sell. I remember that I had four or five different titles - a handful of copies of each. Can’t quite remember what they all were but I know for sure that there was the Achilles album that I posted on Bandcamp recently. I think I had copies of Vertex. And there was the Henry Krinkle thing. Lately, I have been on a mission to find the Henry Krinkle master tapes but so far, no luck.

A little background…

For a year - maybe two - I lived in a house in the north end of Halifax and my roommate was my friend Graeme. Graeme had some gear and from time to time, we would knock some ideas around. This was somewhere between ’96 and ’98, as I recall. Graeme had a sampler with considerably more sample time than my SP-1200 (I can picture his rig but I couldn’t tell you what it was). Graeme was also a pretty nice scratch DJ. We’d make beats to scratch to and once in a while, I’d lay down a verse or two. Voila: Henry Krinkle.

It’s weird how my memory is super-strong and clear for some things and fuzzy for others. Before a few weeks ago, I would have sworn that all the stuff Graeme and I recorded together as Henry Krinkle was on that tape that sold at Scribble Jam. So when I was digging through some boxes a few weeks ago and I came across two cassettes labelled ‘Henry Krinkle’, I figured it had to be the 4-track tapes for that album I sold at Scribble. When I popped them into my recently acquired 4-track machine, I was shocked to discover it was something else… mostly.

In all, the tapes contain a little over an hour’s worth of material. The bulk of it is virtually unlistenable. Punishing to the ear. Boring. But there’s some good stuff too.

What confuses me is that two or three parts on these tapes ARE actually on the Krinkle Scribble tape. Why did I not use this other material? The good parts, that is.

Over the last few weeks, piecing together the story of this material has been a bit of an obsession. I did some detective work and here’s what I pieced together…

Going through the contents of a box labelled ‘rhyme books’, I found the notebook containing the rhymes that I recorded for the Krinkle stuff. The same notebook had the rhymes for the first Sebutones album in it (so, pre-Language Arts). That made sense and helped bring the timeline into focus.

I’ve always had a policy to never use a sample twice. If I release a song that features a certain drum break, that break is now off the table, never to be used again. This recently unearthed Krinkle stuff features all kinds of samples that were subsequently used for other songs. There are drums that I used on Language Arts. A song/part I’m calling “Hit ‘Em Where They Ain’t” has the same drums I used for the waitress song on Vertex. Another beat has the same main sample that was used for the song “Ice” (the song about my mom) on Man Overboard. So I’m thinking that these cassettes are likely what I used to refer to as ‘ideas tapes’. I would document ideas on these tapes - quick and dirty - for future consideration. So maybe the answer to the question - ‘why wasn’t more of this stuff on the Henry Krinkle Scribble album?’ is that it was never intended to be shared with the public. I suppose it’s also possible that I later got excited about newer material and moved on past this older stuff.

It makes me feel a little weird or even guilty to go back on an old rule and share stuff that was never meant to see the light of day and that was later picked apart for future projects, but I also feel that the stuff is too interesting (if I may) not to share.

Now, I should temper that last notion a little. There’s not much to this stuff. In many cases, it’s a drum loop (sometimes chopped in interesting ways) with a drone-y experimental record being transform-cut over it. In other cases, it might be a couple of samples put together and looping for two or three minutes with no structure. A couple things are slightly more fleshed out. It’s far from a masterpiece but interesting (at least to me) for the reasons I already mentioned and because it’s further documentation of an important part of my timeline. This is what led up to what I’ve called the ‘Language Arts trilogy’: Language Arts, Vertex and Man Overboard (sometimes I think of Square as part of the series too, but I digress).

Another reason why I want to share this stuff now is because I think it marks a very clear turning point in my evolution as an “artist” (barf). The stuff that came before this is embarrassingly bad (with maybe the odd bright spot). The stuff that comes after is where I found my voice, I guess you could say. This Krinkle stuff straddles the line. Some of it makes me cringe. Some of it sounds like me.

I should also mention that the sound quality is quite bad. I did my best to clean it up. I’ve tried to understand why the Krinkle Scribble tape sounds so horrendous. The beats sound half-ways decent. But the vocals are a muddy mess. I have surmised that this stuff was recorded before I owned a proper microphone and I was using headphones, à la KRS One on the cover of the Return Of The Boom Bap album. I also remember that when I finally did get my first mic, I would often wrap a t-shirt around the crown when I was recording. I was more concerned with popping my Ps than I was with muffling my voice, I guess. Idiot.

So that’s what I know. The plan is still to post this stuff (the best bits) and the Vertex instrumental on Bandcamp for the next Bandcamp Friday, which is May 1st. I may not be able to hold off that long because my bills are starting to pile up but I’m going to try. You’ll hear it soon. Hope you enjoy. Like the Achilles thing, it may be strictly for the die-hards.

In the meantime, the search for those ‘official’ Henry Krinkle 4-track tapes continues.

The 1969 Armenian film The Colour of Pomegranates is perhaps the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen. Is it my favorite movie of all time? No. It would definitely be on my top 100 list though. Thing is, I’ve only ever watched it once or twice. I hope to watch it again some day but there’s a chance I won’t.

Have you seen it? Playing the odds, I’m guessing you haven’t. Check out the trailer:

Beautiful, right? Did you watch the whole thing? Again, I’m going to guess you didn’t. If you did, do you think you will now seek out the movie and watch it? Even if you agree that it looks beautiful, you probably won’t. That’s my guess. I hope you do though.

Based on what you just saw in the trailer, it may not surprise you to learn that the movie is based on the works of a poet. Sayat-Nova was his name. He died in 1795. I like poetry. I have a bunch of favorite poets. But I don’t sit down to read their works every day. I have to be in the right mood, I suppose, so it’s a once-in-a-while sort of thing.

I think the thing I’m describing is (at best) kinda how people might view the Bike For Three! album So Much Forever (not to compare it to work of art as great as The Colour of Pomegranates). If you’re aware of the album at all, you probably feel like you have to be in a particular mood for it. Maybe it’s something you only need to listen to once. Maybe spending time with it feels a bit like work.

Here’s what I can tell you from my end (and having just listened to the album before writing this): I think it’s easily the most beautiful work I’ve ever been associated with. I can’t take much of the credit. All the music was made by my Bike For Three! partner Joëlle (Joëlle Phuong Minh Lê). It’s masterful work. It’s some of the most sophisticated electronic music I’ve ever heard. It always put me in the mind of a Blade Runner movie that never was. I always felt quite unworthy to accept such generous gifts from Joëlle and in my writing, I just did my best to stay out of the way of her incredible production.

So Much Forever is also - easily - the best sounding album in my catalog. Most of my stuff is lo-fi as hell. SMF is ultra-high fidelity. There should be an audiophile vinyl pressing. Quadraphonic, or whatever.

I’m pretty sure the songs on the album were the last I wrote before going on my hiatus that started in 2014, not long after the album’s release. I spent a little over ten years (between 2002 and 2014) trying to write pOeTrY. I aspired to make a contribution to the hip hop art form by bringing fine poetry to the table (I think I just threw up in my own mouth a little). It’s an embarrassing thing to admit but I can tell you now that that’s a big part of where my head was at. I wanted to make fine art (sigh!). I was probably corrupted by the time I spent living in Paris. And I got just enough encouragement from people to keep writing all this flowery shit. So, for whatever that pursuit was worth, So Much Forever is the peak of those efforts. Looking back now, I don’t think I was much of a poet. But I sure-as-shit was trying.

It can’t be easy listening for anyone. It’s a bunch of love letters. I don’t know about you, but I feel awkward or uncomfortable when I find myself privy to the intimacy of others. I fast forward through the hanky-panky scenes in movies. No thanks. That said, as I was listening to SMF today, I heard a few lines where I thought to myself, ‘not bad’. But what surprised me was that - looking past the “pretty” business - the rapping is pretty good from a technical standpoint. I can tell I worked really hard at crafting those verses. The rhymes are dense and pretty complex and fall in some surprising spots at times. That made listening to my insanity almost tolerable.

It’s a hard sell: listen to this crazy man rap his ass off about love and lightning storms and shit like that. In the year 3000.

When I was living in Paris and going to museums all the time, I just wanted to see some art that made me feel something. It didn’t matter if the feeling it gave me was gross or uncomfortable. If I felt something, then it did its job. That was my take. With the distance of 12 years, SMF makes me feel something. It’s pretty immersive. It’s the sort of feeling that kinda derails the day a little bit. It takes some time to shake it off. So I can understand anyone feeling like they can’t commit to it when they have to put in eight hours at the job and there’s groceries to buy and bills to pay and when House Hunters International is on TV and rockets are being launched in the Middle East. But if you ever do wake up one morning with a craving for pomegranates (if you know what I’m saying), you can find the album on Bandcamp.

So I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Vertex album lately (the namesake of this blog-thing, or whatever we call it). I finally got around to the long-overdue process of digitizing the original/master 4-track tapes and then started cleaning things up and preparing an instrumental mix, which I will be sharing with you soon.

The work has been like performing an autopsy. I’ve had to pull the whole thing apart and dig down to where the disease is. It’s been weird. No. Weird isn’t the word. It’s been an emotional journey, to borrow a phrase. I’ve told the story a few times before: I was broke and living in a squalid apartment and making do with very little. I woke up feeling inspired one morning and worked for two days straight with no sleep or food. I wasn’t just focused. I went into a flow state or some kind of trance. And I didn’t have any disks for the sampler to save any of my beats. After I laid each one down, I cleared the memory and started again.

Anyway, listening to the album in such an intimate way has transported me back to that time - to that apartment. Who was that guy living there? In that moment, I thought it was the worst and lowest point of my life. Little did I know how much worse it could get - even as my dreams came true. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to see that it was actually the best time of my life. As I’ve been making music in a frenzy over the last four years or so, I’ve been trying to find a way back to that apartment - to feel its cold drafts and to smell the cat piss again.

In those days, I lived on a “recipe” I learned from my first girlfriend Francine’s grandmother. I would buy a bag of the cheapest macaroni I could find and a can or two of vegetable soup. The works cost a few bucks. I’d boil the whole bag of macaroni, toss in the soup, stir and voila! A batch would keep me going for three days.

One thing that really bugs me out about Vertex is the beats. Listening to them closely and stripped of vocals and turntables, I realize that I don’t know where almost any of the samples come from. How can I not know? I’ve been so devoted to building my knowledge of records and breaks in the years since then and I’m left feeling like I knew more 30 years ago than I do now.

God almighty, 30 years…

I remember making the conscious choice to mostly sample Canadian records - just as challenge, I guess. It wasn’t a pride thing. And I know that they were almost all el cheapo, dollar-bin records. I probably still have all of the raw material somewhere but I don’t know if I have the hours left in my life to listen through all that chud to re-locate the gold.

Crazy thing is, I wanted better records. My main spot for digging had the good stuff but I couldn’t afford it. And for as much as I love/d the SP-1200, I moaned over having only 8 seconds of sample time. If I had my way back then, I would have made a very different record. What a shame that would have been! I marvel now over the clever ways I made the most of my eight seconds. And my ability to find a dope loop hidden within the grooves of some of the worst records ever made was monk-like. Those beats are nice!

Having all the guts of Vertex laid out on a nice grid in Ableton, it feels very tempting to pull out the chainsaw. But I won’t let myself do it. I still have an old notebook with the mixing notes for the album. I’m letting that be my only guide. I’m honoring the guy in the apartment eating his vegetable soup macaroni.

It’s a good thing I digitized the tapes when I did. They show signs of age. There’s some degradation (I guess that happens over the course of 30 years). So I had to do some clever fixes so you don’t hear the parts that corroded. You won’t even notice. It was scary to hear those garbled parts though. Sad to think that in another few decades, those tapes will probably turn to dust.

Vertex has followed me around my whole life. I was confused by the fuss at times. But I think I get it now.

Effectively Wild

What a load of absolute horseshit!

I’m here to lay down the law and enforce it.

I’m here to rock boats. Shock and read stock quotes.

Sickening. So vile. Your whole style is cockroach.

Freestyle rehearsed lines and worse crimes. I like to watch

Videos of babies wearing glasses for the first time.

Street fight. Extreme left vs the extreme right.

I rock non-stop. This beat is T.I.T. tight.

Vast universe of hip hop, I’m a small dot.

Licensed. I’m Mike Tyson’s late 80s bald spot.

I listen to Phil Collins. Hob-nob with hell’s goblins.

I’m mud on the cuff of Kendrick Lamar’s bellbottoms.

Model clay. The modern-day Leisure Suit Larry.

I need an operation. The procedure’s too scary.

I like drum breaks and the stories that they tell.

I raised hell. Been through rough patches but aged well.

Now walk the dog…

I do this…

Are you a bad DJ? [Yes sir.]

And the king of drum breaks? [Yes sir.]

Are you ever gonna stop? [No! No! No!]

How come you so dope? [’cuz I’m down by law’]

I Was Right All Along

Nonsense under pressure. Old days, none were fresher.

Checking the mic with a stethoscope and tongue depressor.

Def and dope. Yellow black - I’m back to wreck shop.

Your idea of diggin’ is a folder on your desktop.

I’m getting off at the next stop. Check ya later.

I collect the paper. These rappers should connect with nature.

Quack a duck. Take a flying leap off the aqueduct.

I’m POed. The T.O. rap scene wack as [bleep].

Please cousin. We wasn’t messin’ with the bees buzzin’

How many Shaolin chambers? Three dozen.

Hardcore. Make sure the car door locks, yo,

When I break it down like a cardboard box.

Kristie Yamaguchi, it’s about that time.

Older than dirt and just reaching my prime

Since the Square album it’s been 26 years.

[Word?] I’m rocking breaks like hipsters on fixed gears.

Some rappers have hits but no power like

Joe Mauer. Control tower. Don’t sleep. Rap game Noel Coward.

So sour. Lemon fresh. Sticking with the theme.

This part of the song came to me in a dream…

Don’t Forget The Chaos

Who makes a loud noise, formerly [REDACTED]?

Who swarms and violates norms?

Who’s abhorrent and doesn’t need a warrant?

Wears a mask so they can cover their ass?

The distinct role of keeping your drink cold.

Praying nervous. Hockey playing surface.

Information: reduces inflammation.

In nature, takes the form of a glacier.

Usain Bolt running on a treadmill.

Heads will roll. Swallow pride like a red pill.

Burn down the book bank. Blue eyes that look blank.

Minimum effort made. Giving them the crook shank

Dig a deep well. We smell sausage.

McBeth in real life. Hold your breath hostage.

It’s a comedy of terrors and scorched earth.

Bombay to Fort Worth. Fate sealed before birth.

Octagonal. Fights for the prize.

Between the lines you can see the whites of their lies.

Quite the surprise, says a certified weirdo.

Crooked and crowned. Looking around like DeNiro.

Be modest. Praise the Greek goddess named Nemesis.

Marched from the premises. Dismissed with prejudice.

Get the cheat code. Shoot and reload.

The torpedos. Skin and teeth showed.

Super heroes get the heave ho.

Bitter-sweet home. Hands and feet cold.

As the beat goes, murder he wrote.

Through the amplifier, coming at ‘em rapid-fire.

Wearing black attire. This is just an appetizer.

Just a pacifier. Wrap it up in rabbit wire.

Yabba-dabba-doo!

The Wooga

Deadliest dose of neanderthal funk.

Burning the oil at midnight, I toil till morning. A warning - I’m Adderall drunk.

I fire a cannonball… Pulling the rope with the force of a horse.

Seeking the drums. Speaking in tongues. I am the source of the source of the source.

Driving a stake in the heart.

Die for the sake of the art. I put it together, you take it apart.

Fire and steel, it’s a primitive sport. I speak to a dog, it gives a report.

Styles upon styles and my dialog is a myth. Making you smile like Elizabeth Short

Burning the art that the philistines made.

Thunder and lighting for seven days straight. I’m under the weight of the guillotine blade.

Addressing the room with delirious speech.

Doing the damage with myriad beats - the old way. This is a period piece.

Bending the rules as the pendulum swings. Abusing the rush the adrenaline brings.

Radical showman repairing an engine. Magical moments, I’m Benjamin King.

Performing the dates. Too many punishers swarming the crates.

Hands in the fire. Warming the plates. I ride a rhinoceros. Storming the gates.

Dope is delivered through needles n arms.

Reciting a litany of evils and charms. Performing my chores in cathedrals and barns.

Wiring flawed. The diligence of an aspiring god.

I started with drums and then added the sludge. I am the judge and firing squad.

Say you got skill but no evidence though.

Better to study a veteran pro. Oil of snake, it’s a medicine show.

Menacing music. I levy a tariff - the badge of the sheriff who jails and forbids.

Prefer not to mention the failing you did. I’ll hammer a couple more nails in the lid.

Days at a time, we piss in the wind.

Botton was pressed. I listened and grinned. There’s no escape. Your position is pinned.

A scandalous ploy. A collection of songs that you’re damned to enjoy.

Bombers and bullies and bandits deployed. A demonic machine programmed to destroy.

Benedictus Satanas

I am the omen. Bestowed. Goin berserk. Predominant.

Ready to explode. I’m doing the yeoman’s work.

I hide behind a broken smirk. Reciting a poem. Scared to laugh.

Prepare the draft then tear in half. Thinking in paragraphs.

Piloting aircraft. Rioting. Climbing walls.

I’m Santa Claus waiting for kids at a dying mall.

I slant across. First down. The body electric boogaloo.

I wear suits. Bear fruit. I am the square root of two.

Not rational. No emotion. Slow motion.

Denial is a river. Acceptance is the ocean.

Let’s pick weapons. See what happens. Teach em a quick lesson

354-8567

Siphon the gasoline, cash machines and water towers.

Make decisions plus take positions with broader powers.

Powder noses, party goers. Death threats and fan letters.

Command centers. Epithets. Questions and ancestors.

Near dark. Ears marked and lungs full of

Mud, black smoke and blood of a young wolf.

Today we parade and display flags and pipers.

Dragons sleep and we open a bag of vipers.

New plan. Crude music. Bongo and soup can.

Burkina Faso. Congo and Sudan.

Oblique maneuvers. Running right through sewers.

The Guilt Of Gold Teeth and Light Blue Movers.

Cold war on our lips. God willing, no flood.

Cast blame. Rosebud. Last name: Snow Blood.

Fast lane. Wide apart. White bread provides the starch.

The vibes are harsh. Clean air. Beware the ides of March.

I’m irascible.

The Buggedest

It’s the curmudgeon coming straight out the dungeon.

I’m kicking up a stink with an odor that’s pungent.

I bludgeon a beat and put the funk in the function.

Raise a hullabaloo and take the W like tungsten.

It’s elemental, Watson. I’m coming to cook.

Like Guy Fieri but I’m not as dumb as I look.

Dietary fiber and proprietary drum breaks.

Coming from nothing, I make my share of dumb mistakes.

Given the choice, I usually take the bold option.

With a lion’s pride, I abide by old doctrine.

Guns trained. My untamed sense of control talking.

I’m out diggin, you’re watching a Carolina Soul Auction.

No time for wicky-wax. I’m known to write tricky raps.

I don’t like those Japanese sleeves with the sticky flaps.

Come and say hello when I’m in town for visit.

Now hold tight as we break it down for a minute

Did you ever lick a 9-volt battery?

Can’t see myself working in a blindfold factory.

I mine gold. Setting up shop with the portable and a

Big stack of vinyl that is not affordable.

They used to say, “his voice sounds like he ate a cactus”.

Mean dog. Gives no leeway to wackness.

He never stops. Blocks off the weekdays to practice.

And with the fashion sense of B.A. Baracus.

I write b-boy stanzas, armed with a sharp pencil.

It’s a 4-alarm special. We can battle or arm wrestle.

I’m acrobatic. Performing black magic for crack addicts.

Sweating while adjusting the settings on the Craftmatic.

I’m over your head with ideas and an ale bottle.

My style’s fat. I’m looking like a plus-size male model.

Take notes! Because there will be a quiz.

Heavenly shouts going out to the Biz.

Punk Gun

[To all you…] four-sided, short-sighted…

Members of the opposition popping better stop and listen.

Never had a pot to piss in. Now I’m in the top position.

Competition going helter-skelter when they felt the pressure.

From the friggin’ belt collector. Digging, going hell for leather

Everything just fell together. Never been combined before.

Gritty, I was saying, ‘ yo, [bleep] Diddy back in ’94.

Beholden to the golden rules and coming at it might fly.

Peace. Love. Have fun. U-N-I-T-Y!

There’s this thing I have a problem with.

Word to Mike Eagle, hip hop is not a monolith.

I operate anonymous. For some it’s so confusing.

Broken fuse and frozen foods. Your mother’s TV’s got the motion smoothing.

Ocean views, look out the window. It’s a-me! Tits McGee!

Sláinte mhath. Nonchalantly staunch. I tend to disagree.

Herbivore. Drums you never heard before. Wylin’ longer.

Laid awake. I think I found a way to make the island stronger.

Hard Danger

Riding on the train, I see the passing sights.

Stars and flashing lights, teeth that gnash and bite,

Gangs that clash and fight, laughter and the cries,

Disaster and demise. A master of disguise.

Bastards bastardize. Fed on grime and crust.

Killed by time and rust. Caked in diamond dust

Syllables in our mouths like minerals in the ground.

Originals spin around and criminals in the clouds.

Up From Nowhere Nice. Better know your rights.

Time to throw your dice. Life is overpriced.

Taking shots, playing crazy eights.

Listen as the voice of Satan radiates.

Lying openly. Deadly potency.

Easy when you have the right componentry.

Elephant Graveyard (this is the one I wrote unconsciously)

Assume the worst. The universe I occupy runs parallel.

Protected by a heavy metal shell and I wear it well.

The prophets wander with a walking stick and shoulder rocket launcher

Wicked liquid gives them visions, waking up the pocket monster.

Barracuda swim the seas polluted by computer junk.

The buddha monk devotes his waking hours to pursue the funk.

Who’da thunk? The ultimate objective is a hotter furnace.

All you hear is footsteps as I run across the water’s surface.

Stories that we’re living should be handed down in books and lore.

I’m leaving easter eggs that no one comes here looking for.

Breaking the glass, you bleed to death. I made the same mistake in the past.

Creep around. I keep the grounds. Decapitate a snake in the grass.

Ear bleeder. Wish I didn’t have to do it, dear reader.

Unfair expectations that are put on the career leader.

Psychedelic nightmare visions I may not recover from.

I don’t like this universe. Let’s move on to another one.

Embarking on another field trip. Darts I’m throwing now are steel-tip.

I am the bull. The switch varial heel flip.

The form buster. State of agitation. Born flustered.

Self-flagellation. The sheep killer. The storm duster.

Cards turned. I warm my hands as bridges are burned.

Staying hungry. Ricochet. I piss away my hard-earned.

I sit alone in parking lots in driver’s seat with music pumping.

Problem is that doing nothing’s preferable to doing something.

I used to live my life as if my name was Dr. Bricker.

The apocalypse is coming soon. You better stock your liquor.

Let me Adam. Air at 30,000 feet is quite brisk.

Judges and the neophytes consider me a flight risk.

Day for night. Squares and fractals. Pterodactyls take to flight.

Greater heights. Okay, alright. New information came to light.

Skin and bones, I squander meals. I know my way around the slums and

To this day I wander fields and listen for the sound of drums.

Screw it. New plan.

The new album is called Do Not Bend. It’s done. Ready to go. I’ve given it a few good listens in different environments. I wanted to be sure it didn’t need anything else. I have a few leftover ideas that I thought I might shoehorn in but there’s nowhere for them to go. It’s complete. The plan was to release it on March 6th, which is the next Bandcamp Friday but I don’t want to wait three weeks just so I can make a few extra bucks.

So here’s what I’m thinking: Monday is a holiday in North America, so I’ll post the album to Bandcamp on Tuesday (February 17). Between then and March 6th, maybe I can prepare a few other things like So Much Forever (the second Bike For Three! album) and an instrumental version of Vertex. On Tuesday, I’ll also post all the lyrics for Do Not Bend here on the ‘stack.

So what can I tell you about this thing? It’s pretty lean! It’s only about 30 minutes long. Packs a punch and then - poof! I wandered into some new territory for a few of the songs. I took an old school approach to putting it together and so out of necessity, I fell back on some of the tricks I used to use back in the 90s. You’ll know it when you hear it. I finally executed a few ideas I’ve had in the back of my mind for decades. I also finally finished off some beats that I had been tinkering with many years. I hope the amount of work that went into this comes through loud and clear.

I wanted to deliver a bunch of different styles with my rapping and so I deliberately set up some challenges for myself with the beats. The slowest song is 72 bpm. The fastest is 118. There’s also a song that I’m pretty excited about that is in 3/4 time. Hadn’t tried that since 2011 or so. I like making things difficult for myself because the results are always satisfying, even if it takes a lot longer to reach them.

Oh, and one last reminder that the plan is for this to be a Bandcamp-only release. I’m not going to put it up on any of the streaming platforms or press vinyl or anything. I just want to keep this as uncomplicated and un-stressful as possible.

As I’ve said a few times over the last few months, there are other projects in the pipeline. The juices are flowing pretty well right now, so I’m going to go directly to work on the next item on the list, which may or may not see the light in 2026.

I thank you in advance for any support you may give to Do Not Bend and I always appreciate feedback and whatnot.

Talk to you on Tuesday!

Yes, y’all.

Quick update…

Last night I looked up when the next Bandcamp Friday was going to be and I saw that it’s this week. I panicked for a sec and wondered, “Can I get this new album done by Friday?”

I want to. But here’s the thing:

Last Friday I posted on IG that I wrote my last verse for the new album and that I was ready to start recording. I also mentioned having a fever. Well that fever turned into a righteous ass-whooping of some sort of flu or other bug the next day. Holy shit, I was a mess. I felt better on Sunday but I have all this congestion in my lungs and I can hardly get a word out without going into a violent coughing fit. No way I can belt out these raps right now. I have a feeling it’s going to take a while to kick this cough.

It’s very frustrating but it’s giving me time to put in extra work on turntable stuff and other details. The next-next Bandcamp Friday is March 6 - a couple of days after my birthday. I’m thinking maybe this cough could be a blessing in disguise. Normally when I get to this point in the process, I get hyped up and tend to rush a bit. Whenever there are little things that bother me about past albums, it’s always things that would have been addressed if I had just given it two more days or whatever.

If I didn’t have this cough, I probably could finish the album by Friday. But it would be a bit of a rush job and I’d probably do (or not do) things I’d later regret. So now I can take my time, kill these vocals, hide a few more easter eggs and so forth. I also still need a bit of time to solve a few riddles with regards to recording this thing on the 4-track (by popular demand).

So let’s go ahead and call March 6th the official release date. Between now and then, maybe I’ll share a teaser and the album title or whatever.

And a reminder - this thing is going to be digital-only. I’ll put it up on Bandcamp and that’ll be it. It’s less headaches for all of us that way. Simple.

One more quick thing: I mentioned a while ago that the vinyl for the full original version of Man Overboard was seemingly lost. The boxes finally showed up. I got my box just today. The package looks amazing. So your copies of the special editions will be in the mail very soon. Thanks again to everyone who ordered and for your patience.

Til the next.

Yes, y’all.

It’s been a minute. I’ve been in deep work mode. The next album is quickly taking shape now. I may start recording vocals by the end of the coming week. Then I mix and it’s done. I wanted to jump in today to tell you about the weird thing that happened to me yesterday. I wrote a song and I don’t know where it came from. Let me break it down for you.

For me, the hardest part of making an album is writing lyrics. I don’t know why but there’s always this massive hump I need to get over. It feels a bit like standing at the edge of a cold swimming pool and trying to gather the courage to jump in. Sometimes it takes days. Sometimes it takes months. After standing at that edge for an unusually long time, I finally took the plunge earlier this week. Once in the water, things started flowing pretty quickly, which is usually the case.

There’s a process. I keep my radar on at low power all the time. Year round. Whenever an idea for a lyric or a beat or a scratch comes to me, I log it in a file in the Notes app on my laptop. When the time comes to write to a beat, I listen on repeat for a while until I become submerged in a vibe. Then I look over the stockpile of lyric-ideas I’ve saved and decide if any might work with the vibe I’m feeling. And then I go from there.

So yesterday, I’m listening to this one particular beat. It’s 82 BPM. For me, a tempo that slow is a bit harder to write to than one up around 110. Anything at - say - 75 bpm or slower is even harder. I digress. So I spend some time meditating at 82 BPM and lock in on a flow. I pick a handful of line ideas from the stockpile and then I tell myself, “channel Rakim”. I have a plan. I sit in silence for ten or fifteen minutes and then my hands move to the keyboard. What happened next was something that hasn’t happened to me in a very long time and has only happened a handful of times since I started making music. The plan I came up flew out the window as words started gushing out and I felt as though I had no control over what was happening. I read the words as they appeared on the screen with no clue as to their origin. It’s like my body was taken over by someone else’s spirit or something. The last time I remember something like that happening was when I wrote the Untitled song on the Man Overboard album: “I used to be the town cryer in a city of stone throwers…”

This thing I wrote - or that I was a conduit for - kinda freaks me out. It’s pretty dark. Pretty psychedelic. It seems to be about someone who has the ability to slip through the walls that separate parallel universes. It gives me the creeps to think about that too deeply. A lot of the architecture of the lines and rhyme schemes kinda looks like something I would build but there are certain lines that absolutely do not. I’m really quite excited about how tricky the rhymes are in one line in particular. It’s utterly unlike anything I’ve written before.

Although the lyrics are not what I was planning for the beat at all, I’m not going to mess with it. No editing. I’m going to leave it exactly as it is. You’ll probably know it when you hear it because it’s so strange but I’ll point it out when the album drops.

So that’s it. I just wanted to document this feeling while I’m still in it. The writing is coming fast and furious, so I figure I’ll be done writing for this project in the next couple of days. The plan is to keep the faucet running and move right into writing for the next project I have lined up.

One more thing I should mention, real quick. You may have seen the photo of the cover of the special edition of Man Overboard I posted on IG back on December 18th. And you may know that we took pre-orders for two different special editions at the same time. The other batch basically went missing and unaccounted for since then. Ian (from Obsolete) and I expected to get both batches at the same time. But one got lost. We were starting to shit bricks about it and then the lost boxes finally shook loose yesterday. Maybe they got stuck in a parallel universe. Anyway, we should have them in hand by next week (as long as the weather doesn’t get too crazy) and then your orders will be shipped out. They’re coming. Thanks for your patience.

Weird and spooky times we find ourselves living in.

Until the next.

Yes, y’all.

Had to jump on here to say thanks for your support on Bandcamp Friday. It was a more successful day than I was expecting. Extra-special shouts out to those of you who threw down for the whole dang catalog. Major help. I know money is tight for most of us so I really appreciate you digging in the couch cushions and whatnot.

As I mentioned in the last post, I marked the full catalog by a significant percentage (65%, yo) for BC Friday as a way to make it up to you for pulling my stuff off Spotify. As I’m writing this, the majority of my releases are now gone and expect the last few to be wiped in the coming days. The timing of this was kinda illmatic because the day after I made the decision to do it, I received my Spotify ‘Wrapped For Artists’ thing. It’s bonkers to see how much my music had been played on the platform over the last year…

1.8 million streams

256,000 listeners from 167 different countries, the top 5 being: USA, Canada, UK, Australia, France

5.6 million minutes of streaming time - that’s ten years!

3200 people’s top ten, #1 for 400

What really messes with my head is that all my most popular stuff is from the Warner years. All of my top 10 songs come from the albums I’ve been distanced myself from. 20 Odd Years got more streams than any other album. It’s just bananas to me. There are so many different ways for me to analyze that info. One thing I keep thinking about is that the vast majority of the people who have been listening to my music probably don’t know about the stuff I’ve been doing over the last five years or so and probably aren’t reading this post right now. From the numbers I see, there are about 3,000 people following what I’m up to these days (maybe less). But I have a quarter of a million listeners on Spotify. Or had, I guess. Anyway, nothing will change but it gives me a lot to think about. Frig, it sucks that Spotify is so wack.

Couple of other things I want to mention, real quick. First of all, the new album by Luke Sick (of Sacred Hoop fame) and Roughneck Jihad (of Third Sight fame) is out now. It’s called Miclotronic Commandos and it features some production from yours truly. Very dope record. I’m proud to be a part of it. Be on the lookout. The vinyl packaging is beautiful.

Secondly, a little bird tells me that the vinyl for the special editions of Man Overboard should be in hand soon. I won’t promise you’ll have your copies by Christmas but it’s not out of the question.

Oh, and for you turbo-nerds who enjoyed the Drum Study mixes, volume 4 is coming soon - probably January. Be on the lookout for that.

That’s all I got for now. I mostly just wanted to say thanks for the support. I can probably fix the hole in my roof now.

It’s like that, y’all.

Wanted to jump in, real quick with a couple of updates.

This coming Friday (December 5) is a Bandcamp Friday and I have some stuff for you.

For starters, I’ve been digging through some old hard drives and such and found all kinds of Bike For Three-related stuff - in particular for the first album, More Heart Than Brains. I found demos for most of the songs. I have instrumentals for most of the stuff too. There’s also a few previously unheard things. As I’ve been listening to the stuff this week, it has really hit me that Joëlle’s incredible production scratched the itch I’ve always had for Mantronix and mid-90s era Aphex Twin. Joëlle is legit incredible and I feel like her music should have made her world famous. Very powerful musical mind. So be on the lookout for a super-deluxe version of More Heart Than Brains. I’m gonna scramble and try to get stuff for the second album - So Much Forever - ready too. If I don’t manage to post it by Friday, it will be there soon.

As I was digging for Bike For Three! stuff, I came across something I didn’t know I had - a full instrumental version of Dirtbike 4. I have a vague memory of performing the album in full once, which is why I ripped the instrumental, I guess. Does anyone remember seeing such a show? Anyway, I know it’s a very niche thing and I don’t expect to sell a lot of copies but I’ll be making that available too. I listened last night and was reminded that I really love that album. The beats are quite dope. You’ll probably hear some little things you never heard before. Give it some consideration.

And I have seen that the process of having my music removed from Spotify has begun (check the last post, if you didn’t hear). A few albums are already gone and the rest should be gone by next week. Again, it was a tough decision to make. I know a lot of y’all go there for most of your listening. I’ve seen the numbers. But I had to do it. So to make it up to y’all as best I can, I’ll offer up a big discount on the full catalog on Bandcamp this Friday as well. If you can’t get the stuff on Spotify anymore, maybe this way you can get it on your phone or laptop or whatever for relatively cheap.

One more thing I wanted to mention... Last week, just as I was posting something on Instagram, I saw a post from DJ Moves saying that he was selling the 4-track that my album Language Arts was recorded on. I jumped immediately and said I’d buy it. It’s a little piece of my history and I’m happy to bring it home. I haven’t had a 4-track in my setup in many years now. But I still have all the old master tapes from the albums I recorded on one. So I have this idea in mind to maybe rip instrumental versions of Language Arts, Vertex and Man Overboard. Does that sound like something you might be interested in? When I get around to doing that, I’ll be sure to let you know. I’m thinking it might also be fun to record a new album on 4-track - get real dusty again, like the old days.

That’s it for now. Thanks in advance for any support you can offer on Bandcamp Friday.

Until the next.

I’m in the process of taking my music down from Spotify.

I’ve talked here before about my issues with Spotify but never took the step of removing my stuff because it felt like I’d be punishing you for something someone else did. Let’s be real - it makes no difference to Spotify if my music is removed. But then came the latest news, which I’m sure you heard - Spotify bought the WhoSampled website and plans to list all sample-related information in the credits of songs and albums. So now rappers are shitting their pants because they’re expecting a wave of lawsuits that could really mess their lives up. Most of my music is 100% sample-based and no samples were ever cleared outside of the stuff I released through Warner in the 2000s. I absolutely cannot risk getting sued and wiped out financially at this point in my life. No way, José.

My last four albums are in the process of being removed now. I’ve sent messages to Warner to remove everything else. I’m not sure what they’ll say. They added a bunch of my 90s stuff to Spotify because they distributed that stuff while I was signed with them. I’m hope at the very least they’ll get that stuff taken down.

I’ve learned over the last few days that removing music from Spotify is very difficult and that deleting an account is not possible. But adding music is shockingly easy (too easy for my liking, frankly). So if time passes and it looks like people aren’t getting sued, then maybe I’ll consider putting my stuff back up. We’ll see how it goes.

I hate to do this to y’all. I know Spotify is where most people go to listen to music. This whole situation stinks.

I should also say that this situation won’t scare me off making sample-based music. That will never change. As I’ve mentioned, I’m working on a bunch of projects now. Outlaw music forever!

That’s it for now.

Talk soon.

You ever see those videos on IG or whatever where actors are asked by someone from Letterboxd to name their four favorite movies? I challenged myself to come up with a list like that the other day. But I didn’t allow myself to think about it. I tried to imagine myself being ambushed and asked that question when I wasn’t expecting it and this is what I came up with:

Mirror

Persona

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc

The Godfather

Then I challenged myself to come up with a list that was a little more outside-the-box. I went to my own Letterboxd page and looked over my list of ‘liked’ movies. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t narrow it down. So just for the heck of it, I thought I’d share my full list of ‘liked’ movies on Letterboxd. Here it is…

The Big Lebowski

The Invincible Armour

Spider Baby

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent

Squirm

Friday Foster

Rolling Thunder

Godzilla vs. Hedorah

The Last Days Of Disco

Wanda

Ken Burns’ Baseball

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday

Napoleon Dynamite

What Is It?

The Match Factory Girl

Drugstore Cowboy

Hatari

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc

Mad Max 2

The Five Obstructions

Gummo

Mouchette

Very Nice, Very Nice

The Taste Of Tea

The Lost Empire

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

Camp De Thiaroye

The Holy Mountain

The Hitch-Hiker

I’ll Cry Tomorrow

The Apple

Mamma Roma

Baby Face

Pierrot Le Fou

Leave Her To Heaven

Laura

Pickup On South Street

Mondo Topless

Le Souffle

The Story Of Richard O.

Fat Girl

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Buffalo ’66

Tales From The Gimli Hospital

Wings Of Desire

Sherman’s March

Come And See

Days Of Heaven

Killer Of Sheep

Taxi Driver

The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie

Mirror

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Godfather

Badlands

Cockfighter

Two-Lane Blacktop

Wild Style

The Color Of Pomegranates

Bonnie And Clyde

Persona

Au Hazard Balthazar

Breathless

North By Northwest

A Man Escaped

Bicycle Thieves

Children Of Paradise

Sullivan’s Travels

The Thin Man

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang

L’Age D’Or

Un Chien Andalou

Pandora’s Box

Raising Arizona

There are probably movies that I didn’t click ‘like’ on but should have. But these are the ones that I enjoyed enough that I felt compelled to ‘like’. I don’t know what it says but it must say something. I guess these are my favorite movies. I like that it’s a wide mix of stuff. Plenty of lowbrow stuff to go with the highfalutin ones. The last movie I watched was One Battle After Another, which I quite liked but I suppose I need to sit with it for a while to decide if it gets a ‘like’. I don’t go clicking on that heart icon all willy-nilly. It’s a high bar.

That’s it. If you haven’t seen any of the movies on the list, you can consider them recommendations. I definitely really, really love all of these movies.

Until the next.

Figured I should jump in with a quick update on things even though there’s not a shit-load going on.

We got the Man Overboard re-issues out there doing their thing and the response has been great. Really appreciate that. Knocking around a few ideas for what I could press up next. Weirdo Magnet, in some form? The Double Nice album? Synesthesia? A comp of stray songs, many of which are on the Bandcamp page? I’m in no rush to settle on an answer there.

As far as new material goes, there are basically four projects in the pipeline. One of them is done. One of them is just a twinkle in the eye. The other two are somewhere in-between. My priority right now is finishing off the unused material from Keep Moving. Originally I hoped to get that out of the way by the end of the year but that’s looking unlikely. The wheels have been turning slowly and I have decided that that’s okay. I don’t want to put pressure on myself. But that’s what’s next.

Speaking of Keep Moving, there aren’t too many copies left out there. There’s approximately a dozen copies on vinyl and a dozen cassettes left. That’s it. Run over to the Handsmade website to nab one of the last few copies. Keep Moving is the ultimate stocking-stuffer.

I’m also thinking about making some archival business available for the next Bandcamp Friday, which is in the first week of December. It’s just a matter of whether or not I can get off my ass. Working on it.

In non-music-related news, I had a lot of people reach out to me during and after the World Series a few weeks ago. Friends know that I’m a Dodgers fan and I live in Toronto, so everyone was saying, “this must be a dream match-up for you!” And it was. My thinking going in was that I could just relax and enjoy it because I’ll be happy whoever wins. And to be honest, I didn’t think the Blue Jays (or anyone else) had a snowball’s chance against the mighty Dodgers. I was mostly just wanted to see some good/entertaining baseball and not total annihilation. A quick and easy 4-game sweep is not a lot of fun to watch, even if your team wins. But something crazy happened - the Blue Jays started winning. A few games into the series, it was starting to look like they might pull off a miracle. The running joke among the American broadcasters and commentators was that no-one knew who these guys were - just a rag-tag bunch of nobodies. Maybe I’ve watched too many movies or something but I could help but feel the Blue Jays were the team of destiny. If they won, it would have gone down as one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport. In the decisive game 7 of the series, it appeared at five or six different points that they were going to do it. But in the end, a dagger was plunged into the hearts of the team and their fans.

Earlier in the playoffs, the Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, made a joke about how the Dodgers were ‘ruining baseball’. Most baseball fans hate them because they’re the richest team and they can afford to buy all the top talent. And in the end, it kinda was the Dodgers’ wealth that made the difference. One of their big-ticket purchases last year was star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto who came over from Japan. The Dodgers almost certainly wouldn’t have won without the super-human effort he gave the team in the World Series. So the Dodgers did what they had to do to win and that’s cool and all. But somehow it feels wrong. The story would have been so much better if the Blue Jays won. And I say this as a Dodgers fan.

Before all of this, I would have said the 1986 World Series was the greatest. The entire post-season that year was totally wild and super-dramatic. It affected me emotionally in a pretty powerful way. In the end, the team I was rooting for (The Mets) won. This year, the drama effected me even more and the team that won me over ended up losing and I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.

I’m feeling crazy so - what the hell? - here’s a song you never heard before…

Until the next. 3

Did you catch Jel’s post on Instagram this morning/last night?

The post received a strong response. Lots of discussion in the comments. It really got me thinking…

What does it mean to be remembered? How is music from the past commemorated? Books, of course. And these days there are various podcasts and YouTube channels and whatnot. Funny enough, the earliest days of hip hop (what happened back in the 70s and the first few years of the 80s) are quite heavily documented. Are they documented well? That’s debatable but I’m grateful for the efforts, I suppose. And, of course, there’s always an exhausting amount of discussion about what’s happening in hip hop today - especially mainstream stuff. But the time between the old school era and what we might call the blog era or YouTube era is pretty much a giant black hole.

I can understand Jel feeling like Anticon has been forgotten. But I think the same could be said of other crews and indie labels of the era. When/where do you see any of these names being discussed or lauded:

The Visionaries

Oldominion

The Molemen

Rebel Alliance

Natural Elements

Living Legends

Dälek

Jedi Mind Tricks

Hobo Junction

100X

Remember Peanut Butter Wolf’s first release? The Step On Our Ego’s EP? Where are those artists now? Where are their flowers? And the above mentioned crews all came from large urban centers. Regional scenes further afield? Forget about it. Dust.

The problem doesn’t just affect underground hip hop. So many names from the 80s and 90s have been forgotten including some that were signed to big labels.

Funkytown Pros

Hard Knocks

Black, Rock & Ron

Divine Styler

Troubleneck Brothers

Double XX Posse

Son Of Bazerk

Hostyle

Lakim Shabazz

OG Style

Dred Scott

I could go on and on and on…

Meanwhile we now have a hip hop hall of fame that just indicated Sweet Tee. No shade but she released ONE album and had one memorable song (It’s My Beat, which is certainly dope). Aesop Rock has released 16 albums by my count and although I’d consider him a hall of famer, I’d be shocked if he were ever inducted. But I digress…

As Jel suggests in his post, Anticon was different. The artists on that label pushed the boundaries of hip hop far beyond anything that had been heard before. There was some true innovation happening. Shouldn’t that count for something? Several people who commented on Jel’s post suggested that the influence of Anticon can been seen and heard far and wide today and I agree with that. I hear it all the time. Maybe it’s indirect in some cases, but it’s there.

Take Jel himself, as a prime example. He was the first I ever saw to tap out beats live on a sampler - to truly use it as an instrument. I first saw him do it with the SP-1200, which is mind-blowing. And then, of course, he did it with the MPC. For a while there, he was the only one doing it as far as I could see. A few years later I saw AraabMuzik doing it and now it’s fairly common practice. Whether or not people realize it (and most don’t) it traces back to Jel.

I have a line in a song somewhere where I say “sign Kendrick Lamar to Anticon - it’s not weird”. I remember listening to one of his albums a few years ago (Mr. Morale, maybe?) and thinking, “this doesn’t sound too far off from what Anticon was doing 25 years ago.” That may sound crazy to you but there are experimental elements to some of his music that echo what the weird kids were doing a generation or two before. Was Anticon on Kendrick’s radar when he was a kid? I’d love to ask him that question. But even if it wasn’t, I would bet that it was on the radars of some of his influences.

I work as a media insider for my day job now. I’ve seen how it all works. It never ceases to amaze me how far one person’s idea or opinion can go. As I’m writing this, Jel’s post has 742 likes and 139 comments. All it takes is one person. If one person who clicked that heart icon or wrote a comment started a YouTube channel or a podcast or wrote a book dedicated to underground hip hop in the late 90s or whatever, the whole narrative could change. Sometimes I think about doing it myself.

Someone has to be the one to tell the stories, y’all. Otherwise, important art can and will die. Let’s not let that happen. Who’s with me?

PS - I should shout out Open Mike Eagle whose platform is growing more and more every day and he does give love to Anticon sometimes. His takes on all things hip hop tend to be very much on point. Much love to Open Mike Eagle.

Yes, y’all.

Received a nice response to the 100 albums post. Appreciate that. But it occurred to me that with the heavy emphasis on the 80s, it may seem like I’m a little out of touch. The truth is, I never stopped devouring hip hop music. As a matter of fact, many of my all-time favorite songs were recorded in the last 20 years. There are some real ones out there who took on the mantle of the pioneers and furthered the work using modern techniques and whatnot. So as a follow-up, I’ve put together a list of songs from the last 25 years. This is not a complete list. I’m not calling these songs the best or even my favorites. I didn’t put that much thought into it. It’s just a fairly random list of stuff that has scratched the itch for me over the last two and a half decades. Take a look…

Loyola Boyz - Got It Made

Open Mike Eagle - Qualifiers

J Scienide - When The Wind Blows

Opio - Let The Bass Go

The High & Mighty - PRISM

Thirstin Howl the 3rd - Ultra III Magnetic Street

Bruiser Wolf - Whip Test

Troy Ave - I Already Won

El Da Sensei - Everyday On The Street

Phill Most Chill/DJ Format - Diggin’ For A Livin’

Fabreeze Brothers - Golden Crown

Billy Woods - The Man Who Would Be King

Tank Gawd - Flavor Tooth Tiger

Your Old Droog - The Glitch

Lord Sko - Yellow Tape

Black Sheep - Just Cause

Sonnyjim - EuroMillions

Homeboy Sandman - Unwavering Mind

Tame One - Slick Talkin’

Oldboy Rhymes - Liftoff

Megabusive - Western Appliance

Kurious - Unknown Species

KA - Peace Akhi

LL Cool J - Murdergram Deux

Elzhi - Detroit State Of Mind

Arrested Development - Crowd Surf

Controller 7 - absent-minded

Hus Kingpin - Serotonin High

Lupe Fiasco - Mural

Underachievers - Cobra Clutch

Tuff Crew - Hell No

Mick Jenkins - 007

Fatboi Sharif - Arsenic

Aesop Rock - ZZZ Top + All City Nerve Map

Westside Gunn - Good Night + N***** in Puerto Rico

Myka 9 - Fair Weather Friend

Real Bad Man/Blu - All Praise Due

Paten Locke - Cracked Egg (probably should have included Americancer or Dance On My Grave on my albums list)

Nas - Nasty

Cormega - American Beauty

Erick The Architect - Skinny Ramen Freestyle

Nowaah The Flood - Creme De La Creme

Killah Priest - Bee Song

Freestyle Fellowship - It’s All About The Temple

L Roneous - From Under A Cloud

Mestizo - Go Head

Reason - 12AM in ATL

Substance810 - Hyper Realistic

Milo - Folk Metaphysics

People Under The Stairs - The Dig

Birdapres/McEnroe - Break Merchant

Quelle Chris - Feed The Heads

Sean Price - King Kong + Boom Bye Yeah

Alien Army - Destroy

Rome Streetz - 2 Left Feet

Cloaks - Cloaks IPA

Onry Ozzborn - The OO

Little Simz - Gorilla

Danny Brown - Grown Up

Griselda - DR BIRDS

Big Ghost Ltd - Red Beams

Cut Chemist - Mean Gene

Dooley-O - What You Know About Hip Hop

Chris Lowe - Funny Fake Snakes

Styles P - Bodies In The Basement

Motion Man - Clearing The Field

Mr. Lif - Heavy Artillery

Edan and Percee P - Torture Chamber

DJ Format - Spaceship Earth

Percee P - Legendary Lyricist

DJ Signify - Five Leaves Left

Sage Francis - Makeshift Patriot

The Roots - Get Busy

Sometimes I think about making mixes to share with y’all. I just gotta figure out the best place to share stuff like that. Mixcloud, maybe. I’ll let you know if I ever get something sorted out.

Enjoy the list. Some of the songs are a bit thuggish with the lyrics but you’ll understand why I dig them. Most of these songs have stuff in common. Not a too many wildcards. I hope there are a few discoveries and new favorites here for you.

So, I was watching Open Mike Eagle’s channel the other day and did a thing where he responded to Pitchfork’s list of the 100 Best Rap Albums Of All Time (not recommended) by putting together his own list. That inspired me to try to put together my list.

A few points:

1. For me, it’s much easier to make a list of 100 hip hop albums than songs because - quite frankly - there aren’t a lot of great ones. Lots of my favorite hip hop songs were only released as singles and SO MANY great songs appear on albums that are otherwise bad. Far too many “classic” hip hop albums are loaded with filler, in my opinion.

2. Sometimes when people make lists like this, they make it a rule that any given artist can only appear on the list once. I understand why they do that but I didn’t do that with my list. If it’s an all-timer in my mind, it’s on the list.

3. I knew before I started that my list would be heavy on the 80s and early 90s stuff. I really made an effort to consider recent stuff but if any album I considered wasn’t better than anything already on the list, I wasn’t going to force it.

4. To be clear, this list is my 100 favorites. I won’t be so bold as to call them ‘the 100 greatest’. This is just a reflection of my tastes (and age). Some of the picks may seem a bit odd to you but if it’s an album that I freaked out about and played to death back in the day, I honored that.

5. The list is not numbered and - like Mike’s list - it’s in no particular order.

6. I wanted to do this now because it leads into an idea I have for an upcoming series of posts. Stay tuned for that.

See more specific notes at the bottom of the list.

Here it is:

Main Source - Breaking Atoms (strong contender for my actual #1)

Cash Money & Marvelous - Where’s The Party At? (ditto)

M.C. Shan — Down By Law

M.C. Shan - Born To Be Wild

Ultramagnetic MCs - Critical Beatdown

Ultramagnetic MCs - Funk Your Head Up

Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet

Public Enemy - Apocalypse ‘91

Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique

Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill

Brand Nubian - One For All

Pete Rock And CL Smooth - Mecca And The Soul Brother

Pete Rock And CL Smooth - The Main Ingredient

Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew - World’s Greatest Entertainer

EPMD - Strictly Business

EPMD - Unfinished Business

Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full

Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader

Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em

Gang Starr - Step In The Arena

Gang Starr - Daily Operation

Gang Starr - Hard To Earn

Ice-T - Rhyme Pays

Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle

Jungle Brothers - Done By The Forces Of Nature

Dooley-O - Watch My Moves

L.L. Cool J - Radio

L.L. Cool J - Bigger And Deffer

Nas - Illmatic (I found a sealed OG on vinyl a few weeks ago!)

Nice & Smooth - Nice & Smooth

Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell

Stezo - Crazy Noise

A Tribe Called Quest - People’s Instinctive Travels…

A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst

Jorun-PMC - JORUNPMC

Funkytown Pros - Reachin’ A Level Of Assassination

Kool G. Rap & D.J. Polo - Road To The Riches

Kool G. Rap & D.J. Polo - Wanted: Dead Or Alive

Big Daddy Kane - Long Live The Kane

Skinny Boys - Skinny (They Can’t Get Enough)

Controller 7 - Right Handed Straw

Black Sheep - A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

Smif-N-Wessun - Dah Shinin’

Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus

Compton’s Most Wanted - Straight Checkn ‘Em

Cool C - I Gotta Habit

Steady B - What’s My Name

De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising

De La Soul - De La Is Dead

D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Rock The House

Edan - Primitive Plus

Edan - Beauty And The Beat

Lord Finesse And DJ Mike Smooth - Funky Technician

Lord Finesse - Return Of The Funky Man

Schoolly D. - Schoolly D.

Schoolly D. - Saturday Night

Tim Dog - Penicillin On Wax

X Clan - To The East, Backwards

The Beatnuts - The Beatnuts

Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded

Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary

Low Profile - We’re In This Together

KMD - Mr. Hood

Souls Of Mischief - ’93 Til Infinity

Chi Ali - The Fabulous Chi Ali

Chill Rob G. - Ride The Rhythm

Common Sense - Resurrection

D-Styles - Phantazmagorea

Diamond D. And The Psychotic Neurotics - Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop

Digable Planets - Blowout Comb

Freestyle Fellowship - To Whom It May Concern

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots

Aceyalone - A Book Of Human Language

Ghetto Boys - Grip It! On That Other Level

Group Home - Livin’ Proof

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Ice Cube - Amerikkka’s Most Wanted

Jeru The Damaja - The Sun Rises In The East

Just-Ice - Back To The Old School

King Tee - Act A Fool

Lakim Shabazz - Pure Righteousness

Redman - Whut? Thee Album

Showbiz & A.G. - Runaway Slave

Slick Rick - The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick

Steady B. - What’s My Name

Steady B. - Let The Hustlers Play

Stetsasonic - In Full Gear

T La Rock - Lyrical King (From The Boogie Down Bronx)

Tha Alkaholiks - 21 & Over

Third Sight - Symbionese Liberation Album

Tuff Crew - Danger Zone

Various - Return Of The DJ

Royal Flush - 976-DOPE

Godfather Don - Hazardous

N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton

Mantronix - The Album

It may strike you as odd that I include Smif-N-Wessun and not Black Moon’s album Enta Da Stage. I did listen to that album a lot when it came out but I don’t feel as though it has aged particularly well and for as dope as a lot of the beats are, I think Da Beatminerz brought it even harder on the Smif-N-Wessun album.

It was hard to pick between the Left Handed and Right Handed Straws by Controller 7. Both are so great.

I almost included a K-Tel compilation album called Fresh Rap. I played the hell out of that tape when I was a kid and it includes a lot of all-time favorite songs that were either only released as singles or that appear on otherwise shaky albums.

For the record, there are plenty of albums that feature better rapping than - say - Tim Dog’s on the Penicillin On Wax album. But the production doesn’t often match the skill of the rapping in many cases (in my opinion). I’m big on production. And the beats on that Tim Dog album are peak Ultra. Same goes for the Group Home album. Not the greatest rapping (although I don’t hate it as much as some people) but that might be Primo’s best beats right there.

It may seem bonkers to you that I have KMD on this list and not any Doom albums. Not an oversight. Doom is one of my favorite rappers ever but for me, there’s no single album that stands up as a whole for my liking. I don’t love his production as much as I love his rapping and I’m not a huge Madlib stan.

It was hard for me to not include Kool And Deadly by Just-Ice. When I first put the list together, it had about 130 records on it and that might have been the last one I cut.

Here are a few other albums that I wanted to include:

1200 Hobos - Tapes-Skills-Techniques

The Troubleneck Brothers - Fuck All Yall

Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo And Youth

Typical Cats - Typical Cats

Sage Francis - Personal Journals or A Healthy Distrust

Marley Marl - In Control

Organized Konfusion - Organized Konfusion

The truth is, I’ve listened to some of my own damn albums more than some albums on my list here but I didn’t want to be that guy.

Funny enough, it’s pretty easy for me to think of my top handful of hip hop songs but then after that, the list gets very long, very fast. Right off the top of my head, I think of:

Cash Money & Marvelous - “Ugly People Be Quiet”

Eric B. & Rakim - “My Melody”

Ultramagnetic MCs - “Bust The Facts”

Afrika Bambaataa - “Planet Rock”

Public Enemy - “Rebel Without A Pause”

M.C. Shan - “The Bridge”

I could say more but I’ll leave it there. If you’re not familiar with any of the albums on the list, I highly recommend you spend some time with them.

Until the next.

Quick item for you here…

If you’ve been reading this Substack-thing for a while now, you’ll recall me writing about an annual event in Toronto called Live Convention. It’s essentially a thing for record diggers with a hip hop bent to it. This year’s event (under a new name: CrateryCon) is coming up in a few weeks and I’m going to be involved in a couple of exciting capacities.

First of all - as usual - I will be selling records at the sale that happens on the last day - in this case, Sunday, September 28th. But perhaps even more exciting is the event that is happening the evening before. There’s going to be a live chat with hip hop legend Large Professor of Main Source fame. And then immediately afterwards, there’s going to be a head-to-head drum break battle between me and Seattle hip hop OG Supreme La Rock and it will be judged by Large Professor. Ten categories, ten records each, best breaks win. Should be really fun.

I’m quite amped to be a part of this because in my mind, Large Professor basically personifies hip hop. You know he’s one of the greatest beat-makers of all time. You know he’s a great MC (did you hear his verse on the High & Mighty album that came out a few months ago?). And if you follow him on Instagram, you know he’s an amazing DJ too. He does it all. And as far as I’m concerned, Breaking Atoms - the first Main Source album - is one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. I’ve been known to cite “Just Hangin’ Out” as my favorite hip hop song ever.

Oh, and just so there’s no confusion, I’m being billed for the event under an alias. But it’s me. I’m the mystery combatant.

If you think you can make it to Toronto for the 27th and 28th of September, it should be a memorable couple of days of heavyweight hip hop nerdery. Hope to see you there.

One other quick thing I’ll mention. I recently collaborated with Irish producer The Expert for his new album Vivid Visions, which is coming out on September 26th. The song we made is called “What It Look Like” and it’s out there and streamable now. Turned out pretty dope, if I may say so.

That’s it for now. Working on a ton of shit. Updates soon.

Be good.

First things first - I’m humbled by the response to the Man Overboard reissue and am happy to report that things are moving very fast. Test presses showed up last week! It’s looking like turnaround on this thing might be much faster than on any other of my releases in the last few years. Pumped about that.

Doing the reissue is something me and my friend Ian at Obsolete Records Records started talking about a long time ago. Early on in the process, Ian’s first question was, “which version should we do?” As you may be aware, there are many versions of the album. Another friend reached out recently and asked me why there are so many versions and the truth is, I can’t really remember! This all happened over 25 years ago now. There’s a demo version, the original cassette version and then the official version (for lack of a better term). The cassette version was very long and had to be cut down for time, I suppose. But I also re-wrote a bunch of the lyrics and re-made a bunch of the beats. Why? My friend asked if it had anything to do with the Boy-Girl Fight album leaking. I think it did. A bunch of material from Boy-Girl Fight ended up on the final version of Man Overboard. But there was more to it than that. And I can’t really remember. My mom passed away just before I recorded the first version of the album and that messed me up royally. I was screwed up for years. Maybe my fragile state had something to do with it. Maybe I was feeling destructive.

Anyway. In those early discussions with Ian about a Man Overboard reissue, he proposed something kinda outlandish: “why don’t we put them all out?!”

The fact is, all three versions are quite different from one another and they all have their own unique merits. Maybe it’s a bit of an indulgent thing to do but I stand by it. I’m happy to have a concrete document of a pretty important time in my career. So it’s happening! We’re going to start taking pre-orders on these other versions starting on Friday (here). Now here’s the thing though: I understand that this is a bit bonkers. It’s mostly for me so it’s going to a bit of a smaller run on each of these two versions: the live demo that I recorded at Sixtoo’s house with all the mistakes and ambient background noise and whatnot… and the original cassette version that was later chopped up and re-arranged for official release. If you’re confused, you can refer to my Bandcamp page. Both of these alternate versions can be found in digital form there.

Now here’s another important thing to note. You may have caught my IG post last week about the shitshow created by the new trade/tariff ‘agreement’ between Canada and the US. Dealing with the post office for shipments to the US has become all but impossible. You’ve probably seen and heard stories in the news and online of businesses and even whole-ass countries shutting down shipments to the US across the board. Ian at Obsolete doesn’t use the postal service for shipments. He assures me that although his method has been affected and it’s a bit more of a pain in the ass now, it still works. The main difference (and again - this only applies to my friends in the US) is that shipping is going to cost a bit more because of the tariffs. Ian says it works out to an extra ten bucks (per record or shipment, I forget which). So for y’all Americans, it’ll be a tick more expensive but nothing crazy, by the sounds of it. And you’re on the good end of the currency exchange, so…

On a personal note, I will add this… I have people reaching out to me all the time about records they’re looking for (I talked about this in my IG post last week). The day after the new tariffs went into effect, I went to the post office and tried to send three or four packages to the US. I ended up turning around and going back home with the packages still under my arm. I returned to the post office three more times that day, each time thinking I had it all sorted. It never worked. By the end of the ordeal, I had done everything right on my end but the friggin’ post office couldn’t figure it out. After holding up the line behind me for an embarrassing amount of time, they finally said, “sorry we can’t help you”. So. Until things change (which could be a very long time, I suppose), I won’t be able to help out anyone in the States looking for records or whatever.

One more thing. Before the fiasco at the post office, I spent some time going through the archives and was shocked to discover that copies are depleted on several titles. And bear in mind that several years ago, Warner did some house cleaning and sent me all the remaining product they had in their warehouse. There are virtually no vinyl copies left of Square, Talkin’ Honky Blues and 20 Odd Years and very few of Neverlove. There are also no copies of More Heart Than Brains, the first Bike For Three! album. All that’s left is what you might find on Discogs and eBay. Or maybe you get lucky in a record store that sells used stuff (I rarely see my own stuff though and I dig a lot). I hate to say it, but this might mean that prices start going up on this stuff. I saw the other day that prices on Talkin’ Honky are already shooting way up.

Oh, and finally - I’ve sent a box of Keep Moving vinyl to Ian at Obsolete in Halifax. We’ll get word out when they’re available to purchase. Shouldn’t be more than a few days. Keep an eye on Instagram, I guess. Anyone can buy a copy but I was mostly thinking about my Canadian friends who couldn’t afford it after factoring the currency exchange and shipping when pre-orders were taken by Handsmade back in April, know what I’m sayin’?

Anyway. That’s it for now.

TTFN

A TV show I remember watching with great interest and joy was The Amazing World Of Kreskin. I just looked it up - that show ran from 1972 to 1975. I was only born in 1972, so either my memory is really good or I was watching re-runs.

If you’re not familiar, Kreskin (who passed away a last December) was a mentalist. On his show, he would demonstrate his mentalist abilities by seemingly reading the minds of audience members and knowing the contents of sealed envelopes and stuff like that.

Before I go any further, I just want to say that I understand that perhaps his entire act can be explained and debunked but I don’t want to hear it. If it was all a trick, I’d prefer to stay blissfully ignorant.

For as amazed as I was by Kreskin’s skills, I was just as charmed by his personality. He was dorky and lovable. He had this big smile and frenetic handshake he’d give people. He had a bit of “aw shucks” to him.

I used to work at a newsstand in Halifax. Really fun job. One of my co-workers was Georgina. I loved working shifts with her because we laughed a lot. She had a sense of humor that I was powerless against. One day Kreskin came up in conversation and I learned that she was a Kreskin fan too.

I think it must have been in 1997 the day Georgina came running into the shop and - half out of breath - said, “Did you hear the news?! Kreskin is coming to Halifax!”

I couldn’t believe it. I never dreamt I’d get the chance to see Kreskin in person. After his TV show ended, he made regular appearances on late night television which kept the fire of my fandom burning.

As I invaded my couch cushions looking for money to buy a ticket, it occurred to me: I would be away when Kreskin came to town. Cruel fate. Airline tickets were already booked in my name for my first overseas trip to play some shows in Europe with my old friend, the legendary jazz drummer Jerry Granelli. I was psyched to be making the trip with Jerry but bummed I’d miss Kreskin. Making matters all the more cruel, I would miss Kreskin’s performance by a matter of hours. I returned home the morning after his show.

I had to work a shift at the newsstand the same day I got back home. At work that day, something incredible happened that I’ll never forget as long as I live. To explain, I have to give you a sense of the layout of the shop. I drew a picture…

Midway through a quiet afternoon, I looked toward the back of the shop from my perch behind the cash register. I was taken by surprise to see a person back there - leafing through a magazine - because I thought I was alone (‘K’ marks the spot on the diagram). It was weird because for a person to go back there, they would have to walk past the counter. How did I not see this person enter? Maybe I’d been deeply daydreaming.

The person at the back of the store had his back to me. But I could see just enough of the side of his face to recognize it. It was Kreskin! Upon the moment of recognition, I screamed his name but not out loud. It was in my head: “Holy shit, it’s Kreskin!”

[Is this story in my book? Apologies if you’ve read this before. I’ve mostly blocked the book out of my mind.]

I shit you not - stack of bibles: when I spoke Kreskin’s name IN MY MIND, he quickly turned around at looked right at me, as if startled. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. This man heard me think. Maybe my high level of excitement sent a shockwave of energy through the room and he was able to perceive it. I don’t know.

Our eyes were locked across the room and then he slowly began to walk toward me. When he stood right in front of me, I felt a bit overwhelmed by emotion. I started to speak but he shushed me and there was silence for a few seconds. Then he spoke.

Over time, the way I feel about this encounter with Kreskin has changed a bit. It was over 25 years ago now. Looking back, it feels so fantastical that it’s almost hard for me to believe it really happened. It feels like a dream I had. But it happened. Anyway. I’ve shared details of the conversation between Kreskin and I before. I don’t really want to repeat it now. It was very meaningful to me and that last thing I’d ever want is for someone to jump up and say, “Bullshit!”

I remember what it felt like to receive one of Kreskin’s famous handshakes. It was as wild as I’d hoped it would be but I was surprised by how soft and warm his hands were. He also gave me a very nice hug. When we parted ways, he said, “our paths will cross again”.

He was right. A handful of years later, I saw him perform in Toronto. It was great. The show ended the way all of his show did, apparently. Someone emerged on stage with his paycheck for the night. Kreskin handed it over to a random audience member and instructed them to hide it and explained that if he couldn’t find it, he wouldn’t get paid. I think he said there were four or five times in his career when he didn’t find the check. He then walked off stage, out of sight of the room. The guy with the check hid it inside the plaster cast of an audience member who had broken their arm. It took a while, but Kreskin found it.

Another few years later, I saw him again - in the building where I now work. I wanted to run over and say hello but I chickened out. I was afraid he wouldn’t remember me, I guess.

I think about my moment with Kreskin at the newsstand all the time. When I heard he died, I was a little sad but it brought back a very happy memory.