Fashion - "New York Talk"

Not to be confused with the Beatnut aka Al' Tariq, Freeport's Fashion struts onto the scene accompanied by Westworld drone hosts in Yankees fitted caps. A hip-house thumper produced by none other than Studdah Man, also of Port Knox, rumbles the catwalk. Yes, that's the Studdah Man, the Bomb Squad–adjacent jack of all trades whose past credits include turntables on Gary G-Wiz's remix to Rakim's "Heat It Up" as well as co-production across Public Enemy's Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age and on Hyenas of the Desert's "Other Side of Midnight" (most recently featured on LIRR Halloween mix, The Shit Mobile). So, what's the science behind the pairing? "I selected the song 'New York Talk' [produced by Studdah Man] because we live in a chaotic time, and people need a daily escape from their mundane lives," Fashion says. "His sound resonated with my personality—fun, vibrant, with a touch of grungy New York. That’s what my sound aims to bring—colour to the function with a sense of style." 

Clarity X Benway - Behind Every Squirming Thing

He said, "She said, 'This love taught you how to feel and now you're prepared for something greater. The capacity for love one possesses for the self is directly proportionate to the capacity to carry that love outward toward all else, and seeing as your being is one single thread woven in the infinite intergalactic tapestry of the miraculous and intimate, it was imperative for the stimulus of our love to wake your quiescent essence of the omniscient eternal source, Shiva, Elohim. Whatever loss you experience from this brokenhearted consequence is a blessing from that very source, the voice of mysterious, so you may charge ahead and pass along to other men and women and whatever identity or amenity that they're living in the law that you now comprehend, which is nothing here is separate or different or disconnects from the aforementioned tapestry with no beginning and no end, and how you treat the self is relative to how we treat that very tapestry. Set fire to your own face, and a burn emerges in the patterning. Be gentle with your body and with your mind and all that opulence, and you won't need some outward alien when the savior is endogenous, and if you ever need a reminder or some way to travel back, remember, Mushrooms. Hip-Hop. Must love cats.'" 

Jewish women can be mad loquacious.

Muddy - girl Problemz

It was one thing when GZA was using his albums to introduce the world to Killah Priest or Ka, but ever since that one biggest rapper/producer of the century started throwing existing pop songs into the mix, I've had no idea what's happening. For several years, I edited a monthly mixtapes column that was mostly albums. Today, the waters are even muddier. 

Case in point: I don't how many of these songs are Muddy's and Muddy's alone and how many, if any, are remixes. What's a rap remix anyway, a fucking cloak? For that matter, in today's Soundcloud rap terms, what the fuck is a playlist? A mixtape by any other word would sound as compiled. 

It's not that I'm altogether washed—see what I did there—but I do acknowledge there's a whole ecosystem of new rap about which I know next to nothing. Maybe Muddy combs the biome? 

"Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe go fuck yourself."

De La Soul - "Bigger" ft. Choklate

To say De La Soul means a lot to Long Island hip-hop, this site, and me would be a tragic understatement. If there is such a thing as a Long Island sound, it's to be found in the margins between the group's dynamics. And in case you've never noticed, all the sections of this site's home page are named after De La Soul song titles. As for me, Stakes Is High got me through my final semester at college, and the best concert story I have centers around seeing De La share the Central Park Summer Stage with DOOM and Rakim—a tale for another day. My point is, whatever you and I think De La Soul means, it's bigger.

Since the first time I heard it, I've held the opinion that "Trying People" is one of the best rap songs ever made. "Bigger" shares so much emotional weight with that song that it could've been titled "Still Trying People" and nobody would've raised an eyebrow. That said, one thing "Bigger" has that "Trying People" definitely doesn't is the phenomenal vocals of neo-soul singer Choklate. Though some might be hearing her for the first time now, the Seattle-based songstress has been releasing music since the 2000s and actually featured on a Moby single last year. In fact, calling "Bigger" a previously unreleased song is only half true. A De La Soul-less version of the Vitamin D-produced track appeared under the longer title, "Bigger Than You," on Choklate's self-titled debut album in 2006. For posterity and further contemplation, stream both versions below.

Urbvn Architects NYC - "Scars" ft. Chloe Catara

Is there a Long Island sound? There's most definitely a Long Island Sound. And if you live in a desert—say Reno, Nevada—you consider the Long Island Sound the Atlantic Ocean. And you're half right, but it's a shame if you never take the 25-minute drive south to feel and hear the Atlantic Ocean how I have for most of my life. But does an island this long make a specific sound?  Well, does this site? Yesterday, G said something to that effect, though his exact words might have been "such a specific lane" or "...view" or "...niche." I can't remember exactly what, but I heard that. And if it's more than just me and what I like, maybe you'll feel this, too. 

DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles - StOoDiOtYmE

In 2014, I was all like, hey, I have a Long Island hip-hop website, and hey look, here's a Bumpy Knuckles album Premo produced in 2012 hey, you know what I should do, I should post this Premo-produced Bumpy Knuckles album to my Long Island hip-hop website. I fucked up, like a sucker, like a sucker who's also a butt licker to hear Freddie Foxxx tell it. That's because Kolexxxion was but one of two projects Bumpy and Premo did in 2012. They also did an EP called StOoDiOtYmE with six songs, none of which appear on their full-length album from that year. But I didn't know that. I certainly didn't know the last of those songs, "Inspired By Fire," was for the children. Now I do.

 

Folk & Stress - The Box

Folk & Stress are two brothers from Long Island who were set to release a box-packaged album called The Box on Think Differently in 2010 in conjunction with NYC clothing store Alife. There was a single with GZA and a tracklist with additional features from Aesop Rock, Vast Aire, Blue, and Bronze Nazareth. The album never dropped. All this was very strange to me as I'd rapped with Stress at a random block party in Wantagh years earlier. Folk wasn't there. As it happens, years later, Folk would resurface as one half of the Fool's Gold electro-pop duo Party Supplies and produce Action Bronson's Blue Chips albums. Anyway, as of 2021, vinyls and CDs are out via Black Stone of Mecca.

Anamorphic - I Should Be Dead

What happens to collaborations deferred? Do ideas have ghosts and if so, can one summon them or do they simply occur? What if the idea's a ghost story to begin? If haunts are homes away from home, whose haunt/house is a haunted house? Do recurring nightmares recapture magic? See jas0n, like Friday the 13th on USA. Remember, the person who said, "Bad luck isn't brought by broken mirrors, but by broken minds," was a figment of someone's imagination. Regret and resolve both speak in a still small voice.

Lenzmen - Bend and Blur Your Optics

What of science-fiction when both science and fiction fall victim to tyrannical repression? Some may see in fascism's rise a boon for dystopian writings. For that, a friendly reminder and fair warning: tech bros who once read seminal cyberpunk as prescriptive look at Afrofuturism with the same lens and see in it horror stories. So, Bend and Blur Your Optics. The Lenzmen are an Atoms Family adjacent rap group borne from the same radio station that gave the world Public Enemy. The individual and collective output of their members Dynamics Plus, Dokta Strange, Centri, and Earthadox is a universe that exists both unto itself and intertwined with the last 30-odd years of underground rap and digital comics. 

On the occasion of this ground zero album work's 2010 reissue, Dynamics Plus wrote, "There’s a constant switch between cringing and being awed to the point of feeling intimidated." Of their individual lenses he recalled, "The sights came from my tendency to always dream about the future (foresight), Doc Strange was concerned with today and right now (insight) and Earthadox was always saying remember when (hindsight). Centri was always coming with some off-the-wall observation so we called him Outer-Sight and it stuck."

More missives to follow as time's destruction permits.

Nekomimi + Fony Wallace - PR0JECT NEK0

I still listen to the radio. One thing that's always troubled me, yet seemed appropriate given my overall impression of eastern Long Island, is that the farther you go, the less rap music you hear over the airwaves. (Peace to WUSB; this one isn't for you.) Head east enough and the closest you get to regular rap rotation is 106.1 WBLI. For those who've never been, that's a pop music radio station through and through. And by "pop music," I mean the most viral video-ready, Ariana Grande adjacent glossy bubblegum teen club bangers you've ever heard in your life. PR0JECT NEK0 is to WBLI as all the music on this website is to Hot 97, WBLS, and the rest. That's no shade. 

OK, it's some shade, but it's also saying it's only a matter of time before Fony Wallace is one of those millionaire producer bros accepting delivery of Diamond plaques at Miami mansions, anime inspo flashing neon daydreams in the background. The perfect soundtrack for dumpster diving outlet stores: