Soul Condor's Tape Hoard
^I'm guessing we'll never be as hardcore as a collector as that, but, personally I love rap tapes too and they definitely have their place here. Just like CDs and records, certain albums and mixtapes were dropped ONLY on cassette. In that case, if you don't have that cassette, well then you don't have whatever 'it' is.
Well it's about time to show a little love for the rap tapes in here so I'll start it off with a few dope ones I got recently... If you are still rocking the tapes, please add on!
Omniscence – The Raw Factor Cassette (GRR) 2014
^Good ol GRR! That Aussie label run by Debonair_P dropped this limited to 100 cassette and 100 on CD. Omniscence is one of those great rappers I am guilty of sleeping on for far too long. The beats on this are really dope and this is just an all around solid Hip Hop album. And I'm telling you, the bass and beats on this sounds great on cassette!
Black Spade & Nato Caliph - Force Majeure Cassette (F5 Records) 2012
^DJ Crucial's F5 label out of Chicago has been making serious moves the past few years. Here they unearthed an old Chitown underground joint. Really cool throw back indie beats on this short and sweet tape.
Wermonster - Katalyst Sessions Vol. 1 Cassette (Uncomfortable Beats) 2014
^Only available on tape, and super dope, so I
had to jump on this. It comes with an mp3 download as well, but seriously I don't give 2 shits about DL cards. I got my Sony dual cassette deck plugged right into the line 2 input RCAs of my mixer and I record it directly to my PC upon first listen and that wav file is good enough for me. If I don't like the minimal hiss that comes with brand new tapes I'll remove it with the noise reduction plugin on Sony Sound Forge, but it doesn't bother me in the least so I'll just listen as is. I'll DL the mp3 of this when I need it on my phone, which is never.
Oh yeah the music, what about the damn music?? The beats are so damn dope. Apparently this dude is a German beatsmith and his beats are unlike anyone else's so I can't compare him to anyone else. I'd say he's a little bit like Damu the Fudgemonk only even better. Traditional sounding boom bap beats with a touch of left field sample selections.
Honestly, I can't review this and do it justice, it's much better than what I can give it credit for here so I'll just shut up.
Young Zee - Musical Meltdown Cassette (GRR) 2015 RE of 1996 Promo
^Back in 1996 dude dropped a very plain looking
tape. Well the guys at GRR and Dope Folks Records worked to get this released on a proper full length. It's available on LE to 100 CD, 100 Cassettes and some of the tracks made it to an unknown limited edition of 2 records labeled Musical Meltdown part 1 and part 2 on Dope Folks.
Ok, enough of the introduction formalities, wrap it up and tell us about the music...
Musical Meltdown is UBER-DOPE. BY JESUS, I AM TELLING YOU... SHIT IS DOPE! That is all.
Starvin B - Starvicide Cassette (Goblin Music) 2014
^Don't know much about this Starvin B dude, but I am really loving this mixtape. All the old mixtapes I got on tape are so worn down, it's truly refreshing to get a brand new mixtape on mixed tape! I highly recommend this for the mixtape diggers.
DJ A-Trak & D-Styles Stylus Wars Tape - Invisbl Skratch Piklz Cassette (No Label) Unknown Year
^Won this on Ebay for 18 bones, not a bad deal for an original tape that's basically super hard to find. I'll tell you honestly, you gotta be in the
getting my scratch on mood to listen to this whole thing. It fills up a 120 minute long tape and the whole thing is just these dudes scratching over staple neverending beats.
It's dope and everything, and in my wildest dreams I cannot touch the skillies these vets have on the ones and twos, but like I said you really gotta be in that kinda mood to listen to 120 minutes of nothing but wicki wicki wicki AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Various - Talent Fest Cassette (Beathole Records) 1995
^As a huge Rubberoom fan this was my last missing piece of the puzzle. This is basically an oddball compilation of straight up underground Chi Town Hip Hop. I broke the seal on this tape and dropped it in my old Sony deck and hit record on my PC. It's not horrible but It isn't the best sounding tape in terms of volume. Some songs are a little too quiet, some a little to hot, probably a product of age, but all of this is really cool laid back Hip Hop that is unavailable anywhere else but on this compilation.
“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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