Juno Recommends Hip Hop / R&B: April 2022

Review: You might well have caught wind of Kenny Dope's exhaustive Wild Style Breakbeats box set which came out in 2014. It found the New York legend offering up six 7"s carrying iconic breaks used in seminal hip hop movie Wild Style. Well now you can cop something from that highly sought after box and enjoy it for yourself as the first disc gets its own individual release. On the A side we've got the low slung bass and dusty groove of 'Down By Law', and on the flip it's 'Subway Beat' with a sweet low funk groove. Both should evoke strong memories for anyone versed in the roots of hip hop culture, but regardless they're just kick ass beats you could have a lot fun juggling and blending into other people's music.

Review: Dilla Time features 18 unreleased J Dilla tracks (21 tracks total).

Review: It is said that obscurity gives things an extra air of reverence amongst record collectors and that is probably true of this one. 'Sunshine Men' by Freestyle Fellowship is a long lost rap classic that has here been edited by the one and only Cut Chemist. He flips it into a vital beat that will warm through any floor with its well swung drums and smooth flows. On the flip, he takes his trusty sonic scalpel to another great join in the form of 'We Will Not Tolerate.' Drop this and watch them go wild.

Review: Andy Cooper is best known for being a part of the Californian hip hop group Ugly Duckling. But he recently stepped out on his own to put out his Hot Off The Chopping Block album. Now, his Oonops label picks out their favourite joints from it for this tasty little 7" pressed on recycled black wax. Out kicks off with the old school breaks and freewheeling Rhodes chords of 'Goin All Out' complete with retro verses. 'Blood, Sweat and Soul' is another classically inclined beat with snippets of James Brown's wordless noises and warm organs. 'Hot Pursuit' goes big on the basslines and 'Jerry's Goove' closes with some, well, country influences.

Review: Boston MC Ed O.G. his Da Bulldogs crew laid down their 1991 hip hop classic 'I Got To Have It' and now, decades late, producer Nike Bike reworks it into something utterly new and fresh for the Canadian label Buffalo. He does it with some big old boom bap drums and some busy and funky horn stabs, while the original vocals from Ed OG bring that old school flavour over the new school sound with plenty of added scratching for extra flex. On the flip is another great joint in the harder edged 'Put A Vowel On It.'

Review: Phat Kev might well be best known for his breakthrough mix album Brazilianbeats 'n Pieces, which dropped on Mr Bongo in 2007. He's a true-skool hip hop lifer, and he's been tasked with working on the Mr Bongo reissue of the Wild Style soundtrack. If you need schooling on Wild Style, one of the most significant markers of hip hop culture, then we suggest you do some urgent research right now. Meanwhile, Kev is in the mix, sampling the film and its soundtrack and creating a Lesson-style mix which rolls impossibly smooth from start to finish. Get the best from that mix on this sure shot 7", which has all the disco rap magic you might need to get a party loosened up.

Review: Fresh from making his first appearance on the party-starting Resense series, Shin-Ski (real name Shinsuke Taoka) delivers a rare, four-track "45" featuring a bunch of previously unheard productions from his jam-packed hard drive. He starts as he means to go on with 'On & On', a head-nodding hip-hop club cut crafted from bits of an old soul floor-filler, before smothering another toe-tapping beat with mazy electric piano solos on 'Classic'. Over on the flip, 'Beach' sees the Japanese veteran wrap a boom-bap beat and funky bassline in flanged guitar licks, while closing cut 'That Jazz' more than lives up to its descriptive title. Loose, groovy and musically rich, it should please anyone who loved Guru's classic Jazzamatazz productions.

Review: Although it received a lukewarm reception on its initial 2003 release, Erykah Badu's third studio album, Worldwide Underground, has subsequently become something of a fan favourite - in part thanks to its' partially improvised nature and undeniably impressive fusion of classic hip-hop and soul elements. As this reissue on striking purple vinyl, the album has lost none of its sparkle in the 19 years that have passed since its' release. The multiple highlights include sweet, retro-futurist head-nodder 'Bump It (Part 1 & 2)', the nostalgia-seeped 'Back in the Day', Dead Prez hook-up 'The Grind' and the block party-rocking hook-up with Queen Latifah, Bahamedia and Angie Stone, 'Love of My Life Worldwide', a club-ready update of the Sequence's early rap classic 'Funk You Up' (which, of course, Stone featured on and co-wrote).

Review: The Street Knowledge "45 series" appears to have been set up to educate heads on original 1990s hip-hop jams, or at the very least deliver fresh pressings of some seriously classic cuts. This inaugural release begins with Warren G and Nate Dogg's 1994 heater "Regulate", a deep and seductive number that makes great use of samples from Michael McDonald's teary blue-eyed soul classic "I Keep Forgetting". Flip to the B-side and you'll find Luniz 1995 hit "I Got 5 On It", a cut that's been bitten, reworked and re-made umpteen times in the 24 years that have passed since it was first released. As this reissue proves, the Oakland duo's original version is still streets ahead of the rest.

Review: Wild Style may well be the most iconic hip-hop movie of all time, while its soundtrack - created by Blondie's Chris Stein with the assistance of Fab 5 Freddy and turntablist Charlie Chase - remains a touchstone in the development of the style. That soundtrack's focal point was 'Wild Style Theme', a full vocal excursion featuring on-point raps from Grabndmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers. This seven-inch presents both vocal versions of the track: an A-side mix full of cuts, 8-bit videogame bleeps, Blondie style drums, gnarled guitar riffs and weighty bass, and a flipside rework that sits somewhere between early drum machine hip-hop and the more organic end of the style, with a few nods towards the kind of organ-sporting funk and rock classics that partly inspired the sound's creation.

Review: Anyone who likes hip-hop but doesn't already own the bulk of these should be questioned to be honest but in case you want them all together on one hand double album then look no further. This nice heavyweight (both psychically, as they're pressed to 180g vinyl, and musically) collection takes in all of the greatest hits from across the years with classic early rap, golden era boom bap and sounds from both the sunny, low slung west coast and more hard edged and streetwise east coast. A Tribe Called Quest, Warren G & Nate Dogg, Was, Moby Deep, Beastie Boys... they are all here and all sounding as good as ever.

Review: While it's a bit of a surprise to see Be With Records, a dusty-fingered imprint better known for soul, disco and Balearic beats, reissuing DJ Quik's fourth album, Rhythm-Al-Ism, in some ways it makes a lot of sense. For starters, the double LP, which first hit stores in 1998, is a masterpiece: a gloriously kaleidoscopic fusion of golden era hip-hop, boom-bap, R&B, swing, jazz and G-funk stacked to the rafters with killer samples and on-point flows from the now veteran DJ/producer. The album was not quite the commercial success first time round that it should have been, but it deserves to be as lauded as earlier albums from the likes of De La Soul, EPMD and a Tribe Called Quest. In a word: essential!

Review: The masterful Light in The Attic have been deep int he archives again and this time serve up a remastered version of rap dons Freestyle Fellowship's To Whom It May Concern album. This one has been mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist and is a first ever double vinyl pressing. What's more, it has the full cover art for the first time with some fine liner notes to add context while you listen. This record is said to have set off the indie hip hop movement and remains way ahead of its time with made mic creativity next to killer beats.

Review: Blackmarket Seminar was entirely produced by the American beat making master Madlib with guests features from the man himself as well as MED, Wildchild, Declaime (Dudley Perkins) and Oh No. It first came in 1996, but was digitally remastered in 2016 which is the version that is now pressed to wax. It is a dark and raw record that took hip hop into new territory back in the mid-nineties and features a number of skits detailing a mysterious character's search for a black market. What is also for sure, is that the beats hit hard here and cast a looming but alluring shadow.

Review: Hip-hop groups don't come much more revered than Slum Village, the American collective which was comprised of rappers Baatin and T3 and rapper and legendary Detroit beatmaker J Dilla. This second album was made by that original line up and released in 2000 on GoodVibe having originally been scheduled for A&M Record only for it to become obsolete before the album was launched. It is one of the many high-water marks for J Dallas production with subtle grooves and soulful claps forming a blueprint for the neo-soul sound that would follow. To this day it remains a gold standard album for hip hop of the time.

Review: Powerhouse US hip hop label Cold Busted has been serving up the beats to keep us on our feet for what seems like ever. Taking the reins here is MTBRD who hails from the UK and is a prolific studio hand. His take on the high-flying Jet Set series from Cold Busted is a glorious one with four soulful and well-constructed tunes that will appeal to his ever goring fan base. This one comes on the heels of his well-received Damn Fine LP last year and offers heavy boom-bap on the opener, shimmering electric piano on 'So Long' and cinematic design on 'Ti Amo' before infectious vocals define closer 'Lost In Translation.'

Review: DJ Krush's strange brand of abstracted, industrial hip hop reached a peak in 2020, on the release of his most recent album 'Trickster', which sees a repress by popular demand only two years after release. Production-wise, it's leagues beyond his 90s work, owing just as much to the neurological sound design of Noisia than it does to his early contemporaries like DJ Spooky. Listen out to the wigglingly frantic cut 'Incarnation', or the Burialized wonker 'Hidden Shadow', both of which epitmose Krust's well-honed taste for atmosphere, mood and fuzz.

Review: Cold Busted has long been setting the standard for hip hop and instrumental goodness. As well as serving up the latest in their Jet Set series this month, they also invite Belgian beatmaker and fine sonic journeyman Sim Nagai to make an entry into the same much-loved series. 'In Rotation' opens with funky drumming and pitch-shifted guitar licks before Latin flavours wash over 'Cuban Delirium,' a deeper beat with reverential pianos. There is a pure beachside bliss to 'Palm Dreams' with its tumbling drums and hits and languid vocal samples and 'Copacabana Sand' completes the trip with a nice shuffling beat and some gorgeous acoustic string work.

Review: The DJ Spinna 1998 Beat Tape vinyl finally arrives having previously only been available on digital after initial release in 2000. It is the this in a series after the 1997 and 1996 beat tapes he dropped back in 2019 and 2017 and again finds Vincent Williams serving essential hip hop beats. They are often depend packed with soul, with jostling kick and raw his interlaced with well chosen samples, curious vocals and cute melodies. It is a perfect soundtrack to a lazy afternoon, or great source material for DJs looking to bring a cinematic sound.

Review: The fourth V/A compilation from Mello Music Group, the sprawling US hip-hop collective that, while remaining true to the underground, towers above the rest with its dedication to DIY quality mixed with spirituality. Apollo Brown, Oddisee and Quelle Chris feature, bringing deft lyrical and production chops to an established conscious style, proving that realer versions of hip-hop are alive and kicking. And, as if we hadn't talked up its majesty enough, this modern V/A gem comes as a regal gilded vinyl version, rivalling Wu-Tang in their rappers' extravagance.