And You Don't Stop (Random Heat)

Key Kool & Rhettmatic: E=Mc5 (Bust Da Scientifical) ft. Vooodu!, LMNO, Meen Green & Ras Kass
from Kozmonautz (Up Above 1995)

Voodu: Pay The Price
from The Next Chapter: Strictly Underground (Immortal/Epic 1995)

LPSD: Real Raps
from Armory Massive Mix CD (Armory 2005)


It's been a while since I last posted and even longer since I last posted some Hip-Hop so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I first started this post with the intention of making it about the west coast underground super group Western Hemisfear, but then I dusted off the first albums of Voodu, Mykill Myers, and Ras Kass (the three members who along with Meen Green and Bird made up the group) and couldn't find a song that really stood out, though there were some cuts on Ras' album. Most of their hot stuff was either consigned to mix tapes, demo tapes or radio appearances. So I just uploaded some random ish that had me open back in the days and one recent track from San Diego's own Hip-Hop Methuselah.

Japanese-American MC Key Kool and Filipino-American DJ Rhettmatic put out the album Kozmonauts in the mid 90's and while the production was on point, the whole experience felt a little "meh" if you know what I mean. One of the reasons I picked it up, aside from supporting Asian-American Hip-Hop was the guest spot by Western Hemisfear alum's and the song itself is probably worth the weight of the album. With the boom bap production provided by Rhettmatic and the lyrical onslaught provided by the MC's and Visonaries member LMNO the song seems to run a lot quicker than the four plus minutes its provided. This song came out at the apex of the buzz about Western Hemisfear so it's indicative of some of their better tracks.

Besides Ras Kass, the MC making the most noise of the crew was definitely Voodu. His production for Ras Kass' album, which never made it to the album due to reasons that I won't touch, definitely helped create the buzz of anticipation that preceded the albums release. Dark and foreboding with an unhealthy dose of melancholia, Voodu's beats were matched by his lyrical content. Unfortunately his album seemed bogged down by this aesthetic, his best tracks were usually the more up-tempo ones. Pay The Price from '95 was surprisingly enough put out on a major label compilation. Produced by Voodu, the slow, lolling track seems to offset the lyrics but the magic of his talent still comes through.

Every city has one. Maybe you know them personally or maybe it's through a friend of a friend, the MC or group that has been holding it down for years and still continues to put out hot stuff despite not being pushed by a major label and San Diego has more than a handful, with LPSD (Lyrical Prophets Strictly Dope) being the most impressive. At the risk of dating myself I first heard about them while still in high school in 1991 and have kept my ear to the ground for any noise about them ever since (shout out to my man Engle for letting me know about this cut). They're probably best known for their track Back At Ya that was featured prominently on The Beat Junkies first commercial mixtape (which goes for an inordinate amount of money on auction sites) and Real Raps continues with the hotness. Fronted by three MC's (Black Ran, Ice Lee, and King D) and one DJ (Steven Flex) I felt the need to post up their new track, taken from a mixtape so don't mind the editing, because of the fact that I'm constantly bumping it and wanted to expose their work to others, and no I'm not a promotional tool for them. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.