Alison Fensterstock and Aubrey Edwards’ Where They At archive is now available online. It’s a pretty impressive archive of New Orleans bounce and rap music featuring photos, ephemera and excerpts of interviews with the likes of DJ Jimi, Mia X, Mannie Fresh and more (hopefully the full text will be available in some form in the future?) I haven’t gotten too too deep into the site yet, but I did notice this interesting point brought up by one time Young Money and Psychoward DJ Raj Smoov:

Even still now, I don’t think hip-hop and rap are too widely accepted as… I think it’s still looked down upon. Even within the city, jazz music and brass band music – and there is a lot of culture – New Orleans has its own hip-hop. It has its own history of it, but people don’t really look or pay too much attention to that because it’s not, I guess, traditional. Right now jazz is what everybody knows New Orleans for being for. But back in the day when jazz first started, it was looked down upon by its predecessors. We’re kind of going through that same cycle now. I think there eventually will be a point where all the people that grew up on hip-hop that are my age, once they start getting in positions of power – they are handing out the grants and they are doing the stories and memorials and they have the power to do different things – you’ll see a lot more happening with hip hop because that is our music. That will be the traditional music at some point.

Raj’s comments immediately brought to mind the most visible representation of New Orleans music today – David Simon’s HBO series Treme. Though not entirely unexpected, it’s been disappointing to see how New Orleans bounce and hip hop has been almost entirely unacknowledged on the show so far. Apart from a brief placement of two post-No Limit Mystikal cuts and a few verses of screen time by an (as far as a I can tell) unknown female rapper named Baby J the characters and song selections have been more Eddie Bo than “Eddie Bow.” With Simon & co. having so thoroughly addressed the marginalized communities in Baltimore with The Wire I had hoped that they’d do the same for less publicized/canonized New Orleans musicians (especially on a show that’s ostensibly about under-publicized New Orleans music). But it doesn’t seem like they intend to, or at least not this season.

Yes, the Jazz legacy of New Orleans is awe inspiring, but the city’s largest recent footprint on popular music has come directly from its hip hop corners. Still so much of this sprawling and influential scene remains undocumented, and certainly underrepresented in the national image of the city’s musical legacy. (Perhaps somewhat strategically? I can’t imagine a bunch of suck a n***a dick for a pork chop chants and uncouth transvestites would do much to draw in the tourist dollars.) Sure the Sissy side of the fence has gotten a little bit of a buzz in the media as of late, partially because of the novelty factor and partially because it plays into the hack gender studies theories of many reporters,* but we are talking about almost twenty five years of recorded music here, with or without cross dressing. Fortunately projects like Where They At and the excellent Ya Heard Me documentary exist to pick up that slack, but it seems like it’s about time those stories are weaved into the larger narrative of New Orleans music. It seems like an all too obvious extension to the story, given the obvious rhythmic, thematic and instrumental ties Bounce shares with the city’s more revered strains of music as well as its direct lineage to long standing NO musical icons like Bobby Marchan.**

I’m well aware that even bringing all this up makes me sound more than a little bit like Steve Zahn’s elitist music nerd protagonist from Treme.*** But whatever, if they had written that character right he’d be the one ranting about the underrepresentation of bounce and, I dunno, hanging out with Jubilee at a block party or something instead of playing really obvious mainstream Mystikal records to prove how down he is. ****

Related: Bounce For Relief Vols. 1 & 2

_{* AT LAST TEH GHEYS HAV TEH RAPPS! THIS IS SUCH AN UNEXPECTED CONTRAST! A REALLY STRIKING COMMENT ON SOCIETY!
** Take note, my Sissy chasers in the media: Marchan was also into drag and I ain’t talking Triggerman.
*** Except I’ve never even been to New Orleans.
**** A real obsessive would have at least reached back for “Neva Gonna Bounce,” no? I demand nothing less than authenticity in the representation of authenticity obsessed music nerds. And while I’m making that list, I also demand a reprint of TT Tucker’s “Wha Dey At?” T-Shirt.}

Very quickly, here are some loose joints that have been collecting dust on the hard drive.

A Tribe Called Quest – “Georgie Porgie“

from Low End Theory Sessions (Jive Unreleased, 1991)

By much delayed request. “Show Buisness” seems like one of the more “conscious” moments of Tribe’s career, educating misled youth on how to not get took by shiesty record execs. In reality they were just hurt because some TI wouldn’t let them “holler down faggots,” as a K-Mart intern once so artfully put it. Industry rule #4081: ignorance fuels everything. I’ve often theorized that part of the reason Brand Nubian isn’t as revered as the Natives because they were so explicitly anti-gay at points. It’s fun to imagine how Tribe’s legacy might have been rewritten had this track ended up on LET. Would much of their headwrap fanbase, proudly comfortable kicking it with ADAM AND STEVE types, have accepted such hatred? Maybe they should be thanking their label for scrapping this. (via Vincent, I thimk)

Ju’C – “Eat The Cat“

from Eat The Cat 12″ (Ready Or Not, 1992)

News of another unfortunate death this week: T&G’s Jib Kidder informed me that New Orleans Bounce emcee Cicely “Ju’C” Crawford McCallon was shot and killed last month at the age of just 37. Ju’C was one of the earliest females recording bounce music and was married to short-term No Limit Signee Tre-8. “Eat The Cat” is her awesome response to Lil Elt’s “Get The Gat.” I’ve been meaning to post this track forever, it’s a shame that I ended up doing so on such a sad note.

Almighty Arrogant – “Red Rain“

from Demos (Unreleased, 199?)

Almighty Arrogant is a truly great rap name. It says so much about both the rapper and the art of rapping itself. Otherwise I don’t know too much about the dude, was from LA (?), used to run with the Wake Up Show crowd for a while, raps about goat’s blood and was signed to Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis’ Perspective records for a short while (what a bizarre and great rap roster they had before they folded – Arrogant, Young Zee, Tech N9ne/NnuttHowze, Pudgee).

Shelby Forest Click – “Ten Toez Tall“

from Bump Down 1963 (No Label, 2001)

Here’s a slumper from the old crew of current day 3-6 affiliate Lil Wyte [as fuck and does not play] before he got all strung out on oxys. It’s hard to believe this song is from this decade it is so hard.

Wu-Tang Clan – “Method Man (Crazy C’s Swisher Mix)“

from Method Man CD Single (Loud, 1993)

Even though it sounds more West than South (when the South was West), this is one of the earliest token Southern rap remixes that I can think of. Produce by Crazy of Rap-A-Lot pedigree, it was pretty forward of Loud to recognize that as a unique market so early down the line. At the same time I’m sort of bothered by the existence of this remix, because Crazy C isn’t RZA. But it feels notable and I thought you might like to hear it.

…cause it ain’t your face.

Late night youtube stumbling onto NO classics.

Alright grown ups, in betweens, children and babies, I’m back with part two of the Mannie interview. Here Elvis Freshly talks about a record that he himself sampled dozens of times, New Orleans Bounce archetype (by way of Queens) The Showboys’ “Drag Rap (Triggerman)”. Click here if you missed part one of the interview.

When did “Triggerman” first catch on in New Orleans?
I guess from the release date of that song. It always was a hot song in New Orleans. I want to say Memphis, as well. Memphis and New Orleans. It was just one of those songs that was embraced. And I guess what made it so hot around New Orleans was just the 808, you know it’s two different drum sets in it. You got one with a hard kick, a hard snare and then it just breaks down into this 808 beat. And you know, down south that’s been the favorite drum machine for forever, the 808. And they’re some New York cats, but nobody ever knew they was from New York. And the whole way the song was formatted – it’s story rap and it’s got that southern feel to it.

What do you think it is about that record that makes it so frequently sampled?
I mean, really it’s just the history of it. I ain’t gonna say it was the first bounce beat or whatever, the first bounce beats was really drum machines. Before bounce came along, DJs used to do… (and this is kinda how I became a producer just to give you some history on it) we used to do like a one hour set with just an 808 and some Moog keyboards or whatever. That was at the time when anything that came out with an 808 that was close to that sound, everybody loved it. And that sound right there was close to what we were doing at parties. A dj would breakout with an 808 and play some basslines over an old analog keyboard, that was just some hot shit down south. I ain’t gonna say everywhere, but in New Orleans, that was the highlight of a house party. Just like “oh the drum machine and the keyboards… dude!” And when that song came along and it had that exact same sound, it had the 808 sound to it. That’s why I think it’s so loved. And generations grew up on that song. Just to give you a history of what are the hot, hot songs in New Orleans – “Peter Piper” Run DMC is still a hot song. Because it’s an 808 song. “I’ll Take Your Man” Salt N Peppa is still a hot song, it’s an 808 song. Anything that’s got an 808 b beat to it – LL Cool J “Rock The Bells”, songs like that. That’s just our feel. They’re still hanging around. It’s not just “Triggerman”, “Triggerman” is just one of them songs that stands the time. It was always a saying that if you wanted to get a party started get two “Triggermans”. If you could a DJ that could backspin them… It’s just been heard so much that it’s just programmed in you. A party ain’t a party without “Triggerman”, not in New Orleans.

What kind of response would you get, even today, if you were to throw that record on?
Right now, lets just say you a hot emcee and you open up in New Orleans and you just hear that first little crash on “Triggerman” where the DJ would catch it from, the crowd would go crazy, dude. Like “that’s my favorite emcee, rocking ‘Triggerman’”. The repsonse is just straight crazy. It’s like me going home, haven’t been to New Orleans in a long time and I start my show out with “Triggerman”. Really bounce music is just get the party started music, it’s chant music, it’s the basic element of hip hop, kind of like how hip hop got started. I think that’s why people love “Triggerman” and an emcee that can rock it like that.

So you guys were up on that back in ‘86 or whatever?
Oh yeah. Dude, I was DJing.

Because when I talked to the Showboys they had no idea that it was a hit down there until much later, they were up in New York.
I’m probably sure they told you I was the first dude to tell ‘em that. When you talk to them, when I met dude. I was like “homie, they love this song in New Orleans” and that was after the song was dead and buried. And they were like man, come on, you gotta be lying. I’m like, for real, this shit is a hit in New Orleans.

When did you meet up with them?
I think dude [Orville "Bugs Can Can" Hall] was working for Adidas. I think he still works for Adidas and I met him doing some promotional stuff and then he told me “I had a record out, I was in the Showboys” and i was like “The Showboys?!” I was like “dude that shit is phenomenal in New Orleans. They had to reprint that song and rename it.” And dude was like “What you mean?” “They don’t even call it ‘Drag Rap’, they call it ‘Triggerman’ in New Orleans.” Somebody booked them in Memphis first, they did it in Memphis and the crowd went crazy. And they eventually worked their way to New Orleans and did that show and was like “oh my goodness”. And keep in mind that by then this song was probably six or seven years old. Think of the release date. That song was released in the 80s. It’s 2007 and that shit is still a big impact right now.

Did you catch any of those performances when they came through?
No I never seen them perform. I mean shit, in all honesty me and dude and them cool. I used the song so frequently that they sued my ass.

Ha. They didn’t tell me about that.
We settled out of court, we still cool, we remain friends. I wouldn’t blame ‘em. At the time I was a young producer, I didn’t know no better. What happened was, all the songs that I used it in, really none of them amounted up to nothing. It was pre-Cash Money. Really all them songs was local and somebody told them that dude had used your songs and there’s probably millions of dollars out there. And I’m like “nah homie, it ain’t really that”. They just some local songs.

Yeah they seemed a little frustrated when I talked to them. I guess they don’t even see money from it when it’s sampled today.
For real, for real, I can understand that, but I mean dude I have songs like that. That’s a part of hip hop. You gotta think back to around the 80s, it wasn’t none of that. It was the creativity. Nobody wasn’t saying “you know what when you scratch a song you gotta clear it.” We turned this into a business. I wish it wasn’t that. I’m not gonna say it’s alright to steal my songs, but some elements still should be cool to use in hip hop. Sometimes you gotta take the bitter with the sweet. They gotta honestly think about what they got away with in they songs. There’s elements of that song that don’t belong to them – the little Old Spice whistle, the Dragnet song. In [that] era hip hop was free, dude.

It’d probably be a lot more interesting today if it could still be that way, huh?
Yeah, dude, it would be some hot shit. That’s why I say, certain elements, even in my songs, certain elements of the songs should be… Dude, it’s hip hop culture. If you didn’t outright just take my song and just did some shit with it, if you took parts of my song and you turned it into your own creation, then I can’t get mad about it if you rocked it better than me. That’s all in hip hop.

There has been some debate as to which was the first bounce record to take that Showboys beat – T Tucker or Jimi?
T Tucker was probably the first one to record a bounce record. Bounce was going on before that happened, but they was the first ones to say “okay, we can sell this shit”. This was going on in the 80s, dude. DJs was doing 808 beats. If you ask anybody in the history of New Orleans who grew up in the 80s, they would be like “yeah Mannie Fresh would put on the 808 drum machine, put the keyboard on it and rock the party for about an hour.” We would play Fred Sanford [theme], anything that was a hot bassline at that time. “Axel F” or whatever against an 808 beat and rock the party. At hot emcee, somebody that got the party started would just rock it [with] crowd participation and just go on. The cats who didn’t know how to program drum machines or didn’t know how to play keyboards, that DJ had “Triggerman” to back him up. He had the 808 beat that came from that.

What’s your most successful record that sampled “Triggerman”?
My biggest song, I guess the elements of it, I didn’t actually sample the song, I just copied the format of it is “Back That Ass Up”. It’s got that “Triggerman” feel, the same tempo. If you listen to the breaks and everything in “Triggerman” that’s been a break in the south forever. Whoever programmed that song, I was like “he got to be some dude from down south.” Because the song sounds exactly like what we was doing at house parties. And when it came out everybody took it as [if] these dudes gotta be from Florida or somewhere. Nobody could’ve thought that they would’ve been from New York.

Gregory D & DJ Mannie Fresh – “Buck Jump Time“

from Buck Jump Time 12″ (Yo?, 1989)

Waaah. AIN’T MY VAULT is a new poorly titled and hopefully semi regular series of from-the-archives interviews that I never took the time to transcribe or publish. First up is a conversation with the great man Mannie Fresh about everything from his days with New York Incorporated and Gregory D to the personal and musical impact of Hurricane Katrina. What follows the second half of an hour long conversation that amounted to one quote in “The Big Bang”, a piece I wrote about The Showboy’s proto-bounce classic “Drag Rap (Triggerman)” for Scratch. (Originally conducted 6/1/07)

Noz: So tell me a little about New York Incorporated.
Mannie Fresh: That was my homeboy, Denny D. He came down from New York and they had a mobile DJ thing that was going on. I was doing my own thing, I was doing local things before I got turned on to them. Denny D is my homie DJ Wop’s cousin and Wop was like my cousin got all the schools on lock and they want to check you out. So I came to the dudes crib, did a little audition, showed him what I was made of, what I could do. And they was like “holy shit, you the youngest dude right now and the table’s are on fire” so they put me down with their crew. So all love to New York Incorporated, that was my first family, my first DJ group and we pretty much ran the city from the 80s to the 90s. Ain’t a house we ain’t been to, ain’t a school dance we didn’t do.

How old were you when you joined them?
Probably like 15, 16. And I was DJing before that, dude. My dad was a DJ. I was doing little house parties around my neighborhood in the 7th Ward. When I got down with New York Incorporated it just went to a whole ‘nother level. My dad had drum machines so I had already knew how to program drum machines and all that. I brought that element to it, I changed the game. The DJ ain’t always got to [just] play records, he had to have his own unique shit. My unique thing was, I would stop the party and put my 808 on and break out with one of my analog keyboards, a Moog, a Juno or something and play other peoples songs, funk it how I wanted to funk it. And then it became a big thing. Niggas would be like “Oh shit! Dude what’s up with the beatbox?!”

What type of music did your dad play out when he was DJing?
His era. My dad went from the Motown era to the streets, to hip hop. Man I got two sisters and me, my mom, a few step brothers or whatever and my dad provided for us as a street DJ. So you know, this is genuine love. I’m second generation. And if you asked anybody in my dad’s era in New Orleans [about his] history… shit, he was a bad man.

How’d you eventually link up with Gregory D?
Greg was probably the hottest upcoming emcee in New Orleans as far as getting the party started and getting it rocking or whatever. And dude knew I had contacts from labels around that time. I wasn’t signed but I was the dude you’d come get if you wanted some scratching on a song. The labels would always ask me “do you have an artist? do you know anybody?” so I brung Greg in the studio one night and he busted raps. Next thing you know me and dude was doing songs.

You guys were together for a while after that?
Yeah for some years. I mean, we still cool. Me and dude is still good. We was focusing on southern music. Our first song was a song called “Freddie’s Revenge”, we did a Freddie Kruger song, we kinda freaked that. It was an 808 song, it was a southern song. It was a hit from there. Then we did the song called “Buck Jump Time” which was kind of like an 808, second line type song. It was like the hottest song in New Orleans for fuckin five six years and running. Me and dude always did have hot local songs. But then we tried the major thing. When we got to the majors, the majors started telling us what we should be doing. You can’t fault nobody because [we were] young at the time but Greg went with that. “They saying we need to change our sound.” And I’m like “dude I’d rather keep it the way I wanna keep it.” And the more we got to listening to what somebody else was saying… I’m like “homie, this is not genuinely you, this is not me and it just don’t even feel right.” So our differences was creative differences. I can’t let nobody tell me that this is how I should do and this is how it should be played. I don’t even feel that shit. Allow me at to be me.

What was the next move after you and Greg split?
I got back to DJing. Got down and by me DJing I met Cash Money. They was just a struggling label, they had one artist, a dude Kilo G. And I’m like “homie if y’all ready for this, I’m passionate about it, I”m serious.” So at the time, when I got with Cash Money, Cash Money became the hottest bounce label in New Orleans. Instantly, from the first song I did with them. It became the hottest bounce label and at one time everybody on Cash Money was a bounce artist. Ms. Tee, UNLV, Lil Slim, Pimp Daddy, Magnolia Shorty, Magnolia Slim was signed to them. All this is bounce, dude. BG and Lil Wayne started out as bounce artists. And what happened was BG was more gutta, he was pretty street and I was like man let me try some different type beats. Because you know, at one time New Orleans was just flooded with bounce music, it was a hundred bounce songs out there. I was like “homie let’s just try something else.” So we tried a different thing on BG, really putting some different music behind him and when it came out, the rest is history. It put Cash Money on the map, this is not just all bounce, this is really a rap label.

Now how did the bounce heads respond to you making more traditional rap music?
A lot of people was ready for change anyway. And I always kept it real, I tried to give you everything that you want, it’s like [on] Juvenile’s 400 Degreez “Back That Ass Up” is a bounce song. It was just my way of giving you everything that you want. Okay, we got some real music on here, we got some shit with musicianship and we got that bounce song for everybody that’s a Cash Money fan that loves bounce and all that. As long as that happened, everybody was always cool.

I was always impressed by the sheer amount of beats you were making in those days. Were you just constantly in the studio?
Dude I’m like that right now. That’s where you doing this interview from. I’m in the studio everyday, homie. That’s what I’m programmed for. I came up in it.

That’s dedication.
I look at it like this is about hip hop. Some people feel that the whole era is gone, that it’s dead. Nah dude, not really. It’s just that somebody gotta come along and do some bold things. My thing right now is, I’m trying to get a record company that believes in me and lets me do me and then watch the change happen. It’s gonna come. You gotta know the history of it anyway, most cats don’t know the history of it. I don’t know how most cats feel and I kind of hate to use the term hip hop because in this era they don’t feel like they are hip hop. But I’m like I am hip hop. I went from cassettes to CDs to fuckin downloading.

It must be offensive to hear so called true school types say what you do isn’t hip hop.
You can call it whatever you want to call it. But if you love this and you really passionate about it you gonna see. This is hip hop. A lot of cats is just getting money. Like “this some shit I do to get money.” Get money, there ain’t nothing wrong with that. If you did something and the numbers came in right then by all means [get paid]. But if you looking at this like “this is just something I do to get money” then you don’t really love this shit. You don’t breathe it, you don’t believe it. So you can make the statement that there’s some bullshit. But if you really love this… It’s a sad state when, say, your favorite motherfucker, the record company is not behind him. They don’t see what you see, they don’t hear what you hear. You feel that shit just as much as that artist feel that. Now a record label, if it ain’t what they want they ain’t gonna put a lot into it. It’s like how you gonna change when you really ain’t gonna get behind it? It’s like Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Goin’ On. It was a whole big struggle to put that out and somebody had to believe in it. Somebody had to believe in that even though ten people fought it, somebody had to believe in it and say “okay, this is the album that’s gon’ bring forth change.” We can’t keep it one way. And I’m not mad at none of the young artists, I’m more so mad at the record companies because they got this safety net thing where they’re like “nah, don’t push the envelope. keep it right there.” And I think there’s more artists that want to do different shit but they know their label ain’t gonna get behind them if they come in there with some different shit.

Are you going to be able to bring some different shit in the future?
Man, it’s a struggle for me every day. I’m trying to convince my label to let me do me.

You’d think with all your success they’d have more faith in your work.
But see what it is, when you do songs for somebody else you kinda know what they want. But when you doing your own shit or doing some project with somebody you get to be creative. And me personally, I’m used to doing albums, so when I turn in some songs and I get that look like “what the fuck? dude this ain’t what we was expecting. we was expecting you to do some shit like what’s going on right now, the last [hit].” Nah, I can’t do that.

Do you get that from artists also?
Oh yeah, I get that all the time. It ain’t nothing that’s gonna kill me. My biggest thing is to keep pushing. To record companies time don’t change. I’m not the Mannie Fresh that was in the 90s. I’m grown, I’m more mature. You’re not gonna get me to get out there and fuckin show my watch and dazzle my ring. Don’t get me wrong, I can still do a song or two like that, but I’m not that dude. I’m not the dude that’s just gonna make songs constantly about white tees and watches and shit like that. I’ve been there, done that. Now allow me to grow. I want to say to the world “what does life mean to you?” Is life just getting paid and having cars? Or is life more [about] family? And if I pick the family road then that’s not really what a label wants from me. “Well we was expecting you to be like ‘money, cars and bitches.’” Homie, I don’t feel that way 24-7.

And when you go through something like the hurricane, that’s my city. To watch shit like that happen the way it went down. It was very hurtful. It was a lesson for me, it put shit in perspective like “dude, you not indestructible. you can’t just run around and think that you can turn your feelings off.” To see people that you know and people that you love just struggle and it ain’t shit that you can do about it, but just sit there and take that, that’s a hurtful feeling. And that just made me feel that, for real, for real, your family is more important than any other possession that you have. We take shit for granted. Me, you, everybody in the world. Just [say] a simple ass “I love you, mama” because you might not be here tomorrow.

What effect did the storm have on New Orleans music? Can it rebuild?
It’s gonna take some time because New Orleans is a culture, bro. It’s a movement, it’s its own little world and what’s missing right now is all those elements. Everything that I pulled my music from. It’s like going home and you don’t have none of them elements around. You in a foreign place. New Orleans is young kids, dudes that’s jazz musicians and none of them read music but all of them picked up something and they perfected it. You could go see that 24-7 and now that is not there no more. If I needed somebody to do horns on a track I could go right to the neighborhood, get me like three kids and be like “come on, I need you to do these horns.” You don’t have none of that no more. You get inspiration from going to see somebody else do something. Like if I want to go see a jazz band or whatever, that’s inspiration for me, that makes me want to go home and do some jamming shit. And that’s what I drew off of, that was everything that I loved about the city and now we don’t have that. It’s gonna take time for that to come back. It’s some real shit that I miss about New Orleans that touched my soul that is not there [anymore]. And you want it so bad but it’s like “damn”.

When something is your city, it’s your city. Right now I’m in Houston and I forget. I’m so used to going to New Orleans and people know you, they treat you like they know you. “Oh, that’s just Mannie.” So in New Orleans I could go to the House of Blues, chill out, watch the DJ get off and do his thing. But here it’s some foreign shit and somebody want an autograph and they want to stop you every second. For real, for real, dude I’m really a hip hop head. I go out and I’m checking out music. And when [I'm] there that’s where my mind at. I’m not really used to the whole “you got fans, you got people who want to take pictures.” Because in my city everybody knows me, or rather knew me. So if I went out it was just “What’s up Fresh?” and that would be it. But now there’s so many distractions because I guess I never was on that whole little fame shit. It’s distracting to me because I really love music. I go out to the club just to hear music. Sometimes you forget that people do look at you as “that Mannie Fresh thing”.

Come back tomorrow for some discussion of The Showboys and “Drag Rap (Triggerman)”, the origins of bounce and the makings of an old school New Orleans house party. You know, the stuff I was actually getting paid to research.

More youtube excavations today with some vintage footage of New Orleans Bounce princesses Da Sha Ra on public access. It’s hard to understand how these soft spoken teenagers would create something as high energy as “Bootin’ Up“. “East Bank Boy With A West Bank Booty” performance after the jump. (Via T&G.)

20 years later, King talks Power with cover girl Darlene.

Egon brings fast rap to NPR.

TSS interviews Raekwon.

10th Ward Buck’s about to drop a book on bounce?

Twankle & Glisten unleashes MC J’Ro’J’s proto-bounce brass rap masterpiece “Let’s Jump” on the world. This is pretty much my favorite record purchase of the past few years and I’m admittedly a little jealous that I didn’t post it earlier. Blogger envy for real for real. (Was saving it for the Bounce For Relief Vol. 2… shhh…)

I generally don’t do local event updates here, but I wanted to inform my SoCal heads about the festival premiers of two hip hop documentaries I’ve been excited about for a long time:

First up, on Feb 2nd the San Diego Black Film Festival presents the long awaited premier of “Ya Heard Me,” the worlds first New Orleans Bounce documentary. I had the pleasure of checking an advance, and it’s a impressive look at the scenes origins and current state. Here’s the review I wrote for Scratch. Features appearances Big Freedia, Cheeky Blakk, DJ Jubilee, DJ Jimi, Katey Red, Kilo, Mia X, The Showboys, TTucker and more.

Then, one week later “This Is The Life”, Ava DuVernay’s new film about the legendary Good Life Cafe open mic, premiers at LA’s Pan African Film & Arts Festival. Includes new interviews with: Myka Nyne and PEACE of Freestyle Fellowship, Chali2na and Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, NgaFsh, Riddlore, Tray-Loc & Wreckless of CVE, Abstract Rude, etc.

These are two of the more eclectic local scenes that hip hop has produced, and both have been relatively overlooked by most “historians,” so it’s exciting to see them get some shine in the form of full length films. I’ve covered both extensively in the archives, if you need to know more. Or just take my word and check them out on the strength.

1. DJ Jimi – Where They At? (Soulin, 1990)
2. Lil’ Elt & DJ Tee – Get The Gat Gemix (Parkway Pumpin’, 1993)
3. UNLV – Another Bitch (Cash Money, 1993)
4. Silky Slim – Sister Sister (Profile, 1992)
5. Juvenile – Powder Bag (Warlock, 1994)
6. Cool D – Bitch Watcha Gonna Do? (Mr. Tee, 1994)
7. Lil Goldie – Act A Donkey On A… (Mobo, 1997)
8. DJ Jimi f/ Juvenile – Bounce (For The Juvenile) (Soulin’, 1992)
9. Cheeky Blakk – Lemme Get That Outcha (Tombstone, 1995)
10. Everlasting Hitman – Bounce Baby Bounce (Mr. Tee, 1992)
11. Sporty T – Sporty Talkin’ Sporty (Big Boy, 1993)
12. 2 Blakk – Second Line Jump
13. Magnolia Shorty – Monkey On The Dick (Cash Money, 1995)
14. Partners N Crime – We Don’t Love Them Hoes(Big Boy, 1994)
15. MC TT Tucker & DJ Irv – Where Dey At? (Sioul, 1990)
16. Bust Down – Nasty Bitch (Effect, 1991)

Get It, Girl. Don’t stop.

Bonus Reups: “Drag Rap” / “Gimme Watcha Got” / “Goin’ Off Pt. 2″

Maybe a Vol. 2 is in order?

Not sure why I didn’t think to post this earlier, but the new issue of Scratch has been on newsstands for a minute. In it you will find my feature about how, straight outta Hollis Queens, “Drag Rap (Triggerman)” became one of the biggest down south party starters of all time. Article features cameos from Mannie Fresh, Memphis OG DJ Spanish Fly, Profile Records founder Cory Robbins and, of course, Bugs Can Can & Phil D. Triggerman of the Show Boys.

Some other interesting shit in this issue too (as always, you know how we do) – Toomp, ATL production legend Carl Mo, A Bay Bay producer Phunk Dog, Saigon’s new record, etc. etc. I know you interneters take issue with rappers on the cover or whatever but you really should support this shit. Not just because they write my checks but because it’s the nerdiest rap coverage you are ever going to read in CVS.