Suggestion Of The Week - Sublime Wizardry - Construct Or Destroy / Keep Livin'

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The Brotherhood - Dungeon Town EP

I must confess to discovering the Brotherhood fairly late on in their career, 1996 to be exact when I saw the video to 'One Shot' on an MTV show that I can't remember the name of but it only appeared to be screening UK hip hop videos. I was instantly impressed and went and bought the album within a few days and I still have the double LP today. From then on I did what I usually did and went on a mission to track down everything else they'd released previously and looked out for new stuff as well. I missed this one back then as they pretty much did or at last appeared to do nothing for a couple of years and I forgot about them. I bought this white label promo on ebay many years back whilst looking for other UK 12"s that I might have missed - and there were a heck of a lot let me tell you - for a couple of quid and it was 'Bare Destruction' that I was most impressed with. Heavy beats + rumbling bass = :-).
I would say that this is maybe the most difficult Brotherhood 12" to get a hold of but certainly one worth tracking down if you're a fan. A highly underrated crew methinks.

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Suggestion Of The Week - Neighbourhood Threat

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Hard II Kill - Massacre EP

I got this some years back now from an online retailer that was feeling the pinch and had to wind up his business so I was extremely lucky by only having to pay £6 plus p & p. Unsure of the year of this one but I would say it's maybe early nineties and it's a killer. I put this one up before on Bust The Facts so some of you may have it already but I did a fresh 320kbps rip that'll knock your socks off.

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S.W.S. - Overture

The crew's final and my personal favourite is an easy pick up these days, took me a while to find one some years back though. UK hip hop was on fire around this time and you could be forgiven today for letting some of the less known quality releases slipping your mind. Which is a cue to give thanks to Aroe for resurrecting some forgotten classics in compiling the 'Crown Jewels' series of mixtapes, 'Leaf In The Wind' which is on the flip side of this 12" being spun near the end of volume 2.  The title track will always remain a firm fave in my eyes though and if there's a chance that any unreleased stuff is knocking about maybe someone could do the right thing?

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Suggestion Of The Week - Dookie Squad - Take You On A Walk Through Hell

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Standing Ovation - Shadows Of Mayhem

The Kold Sweat label was possibly the biggest label for UK hip hop, period. I owned just about every release at one time and with that in mind I would single out this record to be my all time favourite.I did seek out the sample used on 'Shakaphobia' for some time but never managed to unearth it although I think it might come from the blaxploitaion flick, 'Blacula' but need confirmation. If anyone could assist I'd be most grateful.

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Suggestion Of The Week - Sir Beans O.B.E. & MC Kelz - True School Brother

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Blue Eyes - Soul Tip

It was about this time that the war against dance music was becoming more and more apparent as the hip hop racks were getting smaller and the house music racks getting bigger. In Warp records they were side by side and eventually it grew so much that it and more or less consumed the rap section and relegated it to below eye level as if to try and push it away completely. As if no-one liked it any more. This annoyed me greatly.
Anyway, local boy DJ Mink produced this record, 'The Law' on the flip being the stronger track for my money and I had to buy it online years later as I never saw any in my local store, probably because it didn't fit in any more and Sheffield was becoming 'Techno City' (I hate that record too. Surely it has no place on Electro 4 alongside Run-DMC, I mean come on!?). I tried to like house music but failed and I'm glad because who needs it when the UK was firing heavy artillery like this?

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Suggestion Of The Week - Stange U - EP#2040

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Hardnoise - Serve Tea, Then Murder / Mice In The Presence Of The Lion

Was saddened to hear of the death of Gemini recently as he was a unique talent and legendary amongst UK hip hop fans across the board. I bought Hardnoise's records because of their name on the record sleeve and probably how they presented themselves. None of their singles had b-boy style photographs of the group and in that they maintained a kind of identity without revealing their identities if you get me - the sleeve this 12" comes in has a reversed polarity shot and you can't make out their faces. I was blown away by 'Untitled' and when this one popped up in the rack it was and easy sell. Back when record shops were just about on every corner in the city I was kind of excited to get back home and play new stuff I hadn't already listened to, if only a snippet, in the shop and it's on this first track Gemini shines brightest. Dark, and at times apocalyptic rhymes - 'year 2000, people dying, people crying'...'thousands upon thousands will burn'.. are spat furiously alongside hardcore b-boy braggadocio - 'you'll never smoke hardnoise'...'eyes will open as we lay the foundations of true hip hop music' - which is my favourite line - project an image, for me, of invincibility, that they can't be touched, that they're on top of their game.
3 minutes and 44 seconds later the barrage continues with arguably the best rhyme of '91 as TLP1 destroys the mic in true UK style which was a whole lot different and maybe even some kind of rebellion to the running-on-the-spot dancy type stuff that was coming out of the US at the time. The title says it all. What I'd like to know is, where is part 2?

Gemini, Cold Imperial

EMF Rough Potential

More golden era UK pressure, not to be confused with the one hit wonder indie band sporting the same moniker that had some success in the UK charts in the early nineties. These two are MC Cardi and DJ 357 and that's all I know about this fairly obscure 12" from '89, purely because their names are on the label. Decent but for me not a keeper.

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S.W.S. - Boys From The Bec

The South West Syndicate, (I think that's what it stood for) made 3 records, this being my second fave, 'Overture' being the one I would go for if I had to make a choice. The so called 'Golden Era' wasn't my favourite time in hip hop history but it was a time when the UK got itself together and released some excellent stuff, this being a prime example of the kind of stuff that grabbed my attention back then. I'll dig out the 'Overture' 12" at some point and you can compare the sounds and see how the crew evolved over the 2 year gap between releases. In my own personal opinion 'Feel No Pain' was inferior to both of the aforementioned so I sold that one years ago.

p.s. The UK sound will be represented on this blog from today onwards. Please continue to visit TTBOD for all things electro.

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Suggestion Of The Week - Chrome & Illinspired - No Messin' (DJ Format Remix)

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Lethal - Portrait Of The Young Man As An Artist

Heavy UK pressure from MC Lethal with production credited to WBI Red Ninja. One of the few occasions when a 14 year old sounds like he's been rhyming since he popped out. Firin'.

You Can't Whistle It..

Suggestion Of The Week - MC Alikazam - You Bite, You Never Write

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Pimp Pretty, Royal Ron & DJ M.A.$. - Rock The B-Boy Stance

This is the kind of record I'd see in the rack and just buy because of the label it was on and how the title sounded in my head, sometimes even the recording artist themselves sounded fresh. I mean, Schoolly would never stand for any wackness on his own label surely? And 'Rock The B-Boy Stance'; say it over in your head, it's a no brainer, right? So back in '86, that's what I did. Result.

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