2FACE (L-SWIFT & A-BUTTA) of NATURAL ELEMENTS @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

2Face (L-Swift and A-Butta) of NATURAL ELEMENTS @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

I'm back after another hiatus.  I am going to try to be a bit more consistent going forward....This tape was from an interesting broadcast in January of 1996.  We had just got our new shift on Sunday nights after spending most of 1995 doing a 3:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. slot on Friday mornings.  That was the epitome of a graveyard shift!  Moving up to midnight on Sunday night / Monday morning meant we could finally start getting more guests, because the old slot made it almost impossible to book acts from NYC....It also meant we could try to get another deejay because our first one, Rick Smooth had to leave the show because of the awful overnight hours.  My friend Maurice had been telling me about DJ Cross Phada, who he had went to high school with, and it finally worked out that we were on the air early enough for him to finally come through...That being said, on this particular night, we tried the epic task of trying out everything for the first time. First we invited Cross Phada. Second, we scheduled 2Face from Natural Elements, Shadowz In The Dark and Crimedanch Cartel to all come through.  What happened next was utter mayhem with ridiculous technical problems trying to set to the turntables, mic up the back room and deal with all of the guests (who all showed up at the same time)!  This was an old station (at that time) and really wasn't set up for the type of show we were trying to do. Still, with the help of Charlemagne and Rick Smooth (who dropped by to hang out) we managed to hook up and patch in the turntables; getting the groups on the air starting around 1:30 a.m. Anyway, everything that can go wrong with a broadcast happened that night, including the show not being able to be recorded in the studio.  The tape I have of this freestyle I actually got from a listener, who I met after the show at a 7 Eleven, lol....Pardon the quality, but this was actually a good set, all things considered. This was the first night we met Cross Phada too....Time flies!

DRAMA KLUB @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

DRAMA KLUB @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

The is the second update for the day.  This one was an appearance from our extended family; The Drama Klub, who our deejay, Cross Phada was also the producer for.  The Drama Klub released the now-highly collectible 12" "Goin' Down" back in 1996 and I doubt any station played that record more then us!  Promoting that record was the introduction of my co-host HB and myself to the other side of the music industry.  It was a reason to meet and network with a lot of new people, even though this was just an indie release. Fast forwarding back up to 1998, Poppa Shot (the lead emcee in the group) had been on the show several times previously, but this might have been his final appearance before The Drama Klub disbanded..It was always live when these guys showed up because they were far from strangers!

- James "DL"

ADAGIO! @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

ADAGIO @ THE BASEMENT on WUSB

I have slacked off with the updates the last couple of days, but I'm back.  In order to catch up a little bit, I am posting two new ones today.  Both are from around 1998....The first one is the second appearance on the show by Adagio!  Adagio! comprised of two members; Big Cousin from Mt. Vernon (who produced all the beats) and Rayme Supreme, who was from Philly.  These two put out several dope EPs and 12"s throughout the mid-to-late 90s and were two of the most humble and chill dudes in the scene as well.  Big Cousin always used to lace us with the early tracks and test presses, which was ALWAYS a good look!  The first time they came up (sometime in 1996) they brought up their artist Wisdom and also Breezly Bruin from the Juggaknotz. I need to find that tape too!  This particular show, Big Cousin rolled all the way out to Long Island for dolo, which said a lot about how driven he was about his craft. It was always great to know artists who worked as hard to support us as we did to support them!

- James "DL"

MAESTRO FRESH WES and S.L.D. (SICK LYRICAL DAMAGER) @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

http://soundcloud.com/dustycassettes/maestro-fresh-wes-sld

This is another older one from "The Basement".  I think I got in touch with Maestro because he was promoting his new release "Death Ministry" and put his contact number in the CMJ Magazine.  This was pre-internet social media, so if we didn't meet an artist in person at a show or at a record label, we would have to be creative. Sometimes we would get management or label phone numbers off of the 12"s and also industry magazines like CMJ, Gavin or Urban Network.  I met a lot of cool people in this fashion....Maestro Fresh Wes, of course was the first rapper to really achieve larger fame in Canada in the late 80s, but he had since moved to Brooklyn and was taking the indie route...Wes really is one of the most humble dudes I have ever met and he actually later on introduced me and my radio/business partner HB, to Gauge (who became our first artist on Phono Synthetic Records). We set up this interview and Maestro took the Long Island Railroad all the way out to Stony Brook to appear on our show. He also brought up my man S.L.D., who was promoting his upcoming 12" on V-Max Records at the time. S.L.D. was an artist from the Bronx, who was also mad cool and he came up to the show several times after this. This was a great show with two artists who became instant fam to all of us at the station.....

- James "DL"

L-FUDGE, SHABAAM SAHDEEQ, SKAM2? and I.G. OFF @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

L-FUDGE, SHABAAM SAHDEEQ, SKAM2? and I.G. OFF @ "THE BASEMENT"

This is another freestyle marathon that we had up at "The Basement".  This was around the time that I.G. Off and Hazadus were promoting a live show that they were putting together at the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe in Manhattan with Mister Live, Tony Bones, A.L. Skills, Kwest, and a bunch of others...A group of these emcees previously went up to the "Underground Railroad" radio show on WBAI to promote the event, so I.G. Off and myself tried to put together a similarly epic freestyle-themed radio show out in Long Island. Except for these four emcees, nobody else made it out but we still had about an hour straight session, over multiple instrumentals....This is only two parts of it and I will put up another part when I find the other tape of this show.  Again, I am currently going through HUNDREDS of tapes from the 8 year run of the show and I am trying to find a lot of the different guest appearances that I remember. Finding these special appearances from the late and great I.G. Off, make this archeological mission worth it alone...

- James "DL"

WRITER'S GUILD (LOER VELOCITY & L.I.F.E.LONG) UNRELEASED FREESTYLE

WRITER'S GUILD UNRELEASED FREESTYLE

This was another freestyle done for the same unreleased project, that the Rok-One freestyle I posted earlier was for....Loer Velocity and L.I.F.E. were our dudes and I regularly had them appear on my mix-tapes because they always ripped...They picked O.C.'s classic "Time's Up" instrumental for their track and it came out real nice...

- James "DL"

MONEY BOSS PLAYERS & PETER GUNZ @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

MONEY BOSS PLAYERS & PETER GUNZ @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

Whether each show had guests or not, every week I scheduled multiple acts to come out to Long Island.  Usually, out of the three we booked, one or two would no-show and we would then try to reschedule them for another week. This was one of those nights where EVERYBODY showed up, so it was kind of mad house because they all came crew deep.  Hi-Tech and the Mass Vinyl crew came up, P-Dap and Sha Self (who later changed his name to Sha Money XL when he co-founded G-Unit) and of course, the Money Boss Players, Peter Gunz and super producer Minnesota.  Peter Gunz was already our dude because he was one of our first guests ever; back in the day when he came through with The Gunrunnerz.  Being that he was affiliated with Money Boss, he rolled with them when they stopped by to promote their "Walk With A Limp" 12". Money Boss came with about twenty dudes! But they were all real cool and Lord Tariq, Eddie Cheeba, and Trey Bag laced this freestyle. Unfortunately, the tape that was rolling cut out and I lost about 3-5 minutes of the session...After Money Boss finished up, Peter Gunz gave us another cameo as well. Will post some of the other parts of this show when I locate the tapes....

- James "DL"

I.G. OFF AND HAZADUS @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

I.G. OFF and HAZADUS @ "THE BASEMENT" on WUSB

This was one from Summer 1997 at the Long Island show.  DJ Spinna brought the Beyond Real crew up to the radio show. Himself, Kriminul, Skam, and their newest artists: I.G. Off and Hazadus.  I had never met I.G. and Haz before this night, but I had heard them on Stretch & Bobbito a few years before and knew they were nice.  This turned into a great freestyle session, with DJ Spinna cutting up for them while they were rhyming.  After this night we all became family; recorded some songs together, and Cross Phada and myself even went overseas with I.G. Off in 2000. Unfortunately my friend and underground legend, I.G. Off, passed away last year, but his legacy lives on whenever you hear his rhymes in these types of settings.  This dude lived for the microphone and you can really hear how much he truly enjoyed his craft when he spit....R.I.P. I.G. Off; one of the true kings of off the head flow....

- James "DL"

PUNCHLINE AND WORDSWORTH @ "THE REMEDY"

Punchline and Wordsworth at The Remedy

Another great freestyle up at the "Remedy" show.  These two had just finished up a Lyricist Lounge U.S. tour and had been part of the cast of the Lyricist Lounge series on MTV that year. At this time they were also doing some promo for their debut EP (which came out that Fall), so it was convenient timing to finally get them through. 

- James "DL"

KWEST THA MADD LAD, KAHIEM, and MANY STYLES @ "THE REMEDY"

https://soundcloud.com/dustycassettes/kwest-tha-madd-lad-kahiem-many

This is another cypher from the "Remedy" show we were doing on Audiotunnel.com.  This one featured Kwest (formerly Kwest Tha Madd Lad), Kahiem, and Many Styles.  Kwest was  a good friend of ours and we were working on music with him at the time, but this was actually the first time I had heard Kahiem and Many Styles.  Emmo, who was one of the co-hosts on the show, had previously met them and invited them up to the show.  This worked out nice, because both of these guys could really spit.  Combined with Kwest, this was an interesting and dope cypher of emcees with different styles.

- James "DL"

FUC THAT (STREETSMARTZ) and RAFEESE @ "THE REMEDY"

FUC THAT (STREETSMARTZ) and RAFEESE @ "THE REMEDY"

This is another freestyle from the online show that we were doing for Audiotunnel.com.  This time we had F.T. (Fuc That) from the group Streetsmartz come through.  F.T. was a rapper that we were real tight with. He released several dope 12"s throughout the mid to late 90s and had come up to the Stony Brook show a couple times in the past...This time he brought another emcee named RaFeese (or Hafeese at times), who I had never met before that day, but ripped it as well. This was always one of the best parts of underground radio to me; putting on deserving artists who had real skills.

- James "DL"

L-FUDGE, J-LIVE, PUMPKINHEAD, OCEAN (NATURAL RESOURCE) on WUSB in 1996

L-Fudge, J-Live, Pumpkinhead & Ocean (Natural Resource) @ WUSB 

This is another WUSB "Basement" freestyle.  This was an excerpt of a larger cipher that included Natural Resource, Pumpkinhead, Meat Pie, J-Live, Mr. Complex, Parle, and L-Fudge. This was before L-Fudge was signed to Rawkus, and before my co-host HB and myself were managing him.  He was relatively unknown at this time compared to most of the other participants, who were big names in the underground.  It was fun to get everyone to come out to Long Island for this; as this show was pretty much the entire roster of Makin' Records and Raw Shack Records spitting together.  Hip-Hop giant, DJ Spinna was up there too, and he deejayed part of this, alongside J-Live.  One of those crazy impromptu episodes that came out kind of memorable...


- James "DL"

SUPERNATURAL AND SKAM2? @ "THE BASEMENT" 1997

SUPERNATURAL AND SKAM2? @ "THE BASEMENT" in 1997

Another freestyle from the Long Island show.  This time we had MC Supernatural, who is one of the best freestyle rappers ever to do it.  I had connected with Supernat earlier in the summer and we worked hard to finally get him out to L.I. He indeed came through, and was joined by our good friend Skam (from Old World Disorder).  Skam probably guest appeared on our radio shows more then any other rapper, and always did his thing on the mic.  This session is only about half of what was an hour of off the head rhymes!  I will post part 2 when I find it....

- James "DL"

88 WHATSANAMES (MR. LIVE AND TONY BONES) at WUSB

88 Whatsanames @ "The Basement" on WUSB


This is another dope one from our radio show at WUSB in Long Island.  88 Whatsanames comprised of Mr. Live and Tony Bones, who were both well known and respected emcees in the NYC area.  If I remember correctly, I met them at the Rocksteady Anniversary and I finally got them up to the radio show for this freestyle.  Mr. Live released several 12" EPs as well, which featured Tony Bones on a few tracks. 

- James "DL"

The Plague (Pack FM, Tonedeff, Hydra) @ The "Remedy" radio show

The Plague @ "The Remedy"

This one is from around 2001.  We were pre-recording episodes for an online show (The Remedy) on a site called Audiotunnel.com.  The site never launched, as the company that was hosting it, Urban Box Office, lost their investors and went out of business...But, it was fun while it lasted!  We recorded all these shows in a fly studio in Manhattan and since we were getting compensated, it was the closest to commercial radio we ever got!  It's funny because this was in the EARLY days of internet radio and Sirius, XM and others like them were in their infancy.  It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if everything worked out...Well, we recorded about 15 shows and had a lot of guest emcees on there.  This was a particularly good cipher with the homies Pack FM and Tonedeff and their crew Hydra; who we met the first time the night of this recording.  These emcees were part of a bigger crew called The Plague, which did a lot of shows in NYC. 

- James "DL"

ROK-ONE FREESTYLE FOR UNRELEASED MIX-TAPE

This one is from a mix-tape of all freestyles from various NYC area underground emcees, that I started but never actually finished.....Rok-One is a talented emcee, graphic artist, deejay and cool dude who has put in mad work over the years. Most heads probably remember him from the dope "Certified Superior" 12" he released on Bobbito's "Fondle 'Em" label, but he released several other records after and was a mainstay in the local underground scene for years.....I remember when I approached him with the concept of this project, he immediately asked to do a "fast rap" type freestyle over Ultramagnetic MC's "Poppa Large" instrumental.  Anyway, it came out dope and I wish I finished this project....

- James "DL"

Rok-One Freestyle

Natural Elements @ WUSB (Summer 1997)

Natural Elements "The Basement" WUSB Freestyle

This is another tape rip from "The Basement" radio show....This was the second time NE came through, but the first time Mr. Voodoo came up to the show. The Natural Elements crew was legendary for their radio appearances throughout that era; they destroyed freestyles....

- James "DL"

"Equinox" Era Freestyle from Prince Poetry of Organized Konfusion

Prince Poetry (Organized Konfusion) "The Basement" WUSB Freestyle

This first post is a tape transfer from our show "The Basement", which ran from the mid-90s to the early 2000s.  It was broadcasted from the campus of SUNY Stony Brook in Long Island, NY, but our frequency actually covered most of Strong Island and part of southern Connecticut....Around the time of this interview, I was doing the show with Cross Phada, Emmo, P-Love, Super DJ Jaydee, and HB (who created the show with me).  Unfortunately, Pharoahe Monch had the flu and was unable to make it, but Prince Po definitely did his thing for solo and he stayed and hung out after for awhile, which was cool because we were huge Organized Konfusion supporters. 

- James "DL"