“Yeah, I’m handsome, but the money made me gorgeous…”

Early ’90s windbreaker music and one of the soundtracks to my high school years. Read the rest of this entry »

You can check the link for the full story behind this one, but essentially it’s the masters, unreleased vocals & instrumentals that lead to a sometimes forgotten Hip-Hop opus. Unreleased beats Read the rest of this entry »

Words By Jason Hortillas

Purple Karl Kani denim. Snap back Miami Hurricane caps. Bugs Bunny bootleg tees. In ’92 that was my attire which complimented my crush for T-Boz from TLC – and no, not the post-divorce, Mack 10 version to follow.

Around that time is when I first heard of “Soul Clap” on Red Alert’s show on 98.7FM in New York. Riding in mom dukes Plymouth Voyager, we got gassed on Friday nights because Red would always play fresh off the presses exclusives. Long before Flex dropped the bombs, the Red Alert siren blasted throughout the Tri-state. The siren was louder, abrasive, a little annoying and was more sinister – it really was an “alert” to take listen. My eardrums seem to be delighted by horn loops which seems to simplify the definition of early of the Golden Era sound (Can you say T.R.O.Y.?)

“Soul Clap,” was full of catch phrases from the initial Chuck D “Hit the drum and get wicked,” vocal sample and the infamous, “Clap you hands to the beat box.” Even today you drop the needle on this and b-boys know this shit word by word as they hit the dance floor. The video is also representative of a time when the “cameo” was more love of the fam, rather than a co-sign. Read the rest of this entry »