King Tee – Tha Triflin' Album LP - Orange Vinyl

Taha / JTLM (2020, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Although this record came out in 1993, which was probably the year I was most focused on hip hop and buying the most records during that ear, I literally never heard of King Tee or was aware of this album.  Despite the fact that it had guest appearances from Ice Cube and Tha Alkaholiks, it was not on my radar at all.  It wasn't until much later that I gave a few King Tee albums a chance.  Though the others never really grabbed me the same way that Tha Trflin' Album does.

The production is outstanding. It has a bass heavy feel that's smooth like West Coast style of the time, but still has enough hard hitting East Coast boom bap that it doesn't turn into the g-funk nonsense that bored me silly back then.  There's some real heavy hitters on the production side of this album,  The aforementioned Alkaholiks, Marly Marl, DJ Pooh, Bobcat and King Tee himself take turns mapping out the feel of Tha Triflin' Album.

Lyrically, King Tee does feel like a West Coast rapper.  It's no surprise that he was friendly with Cube Dr. Dre and folks like that.  He can tell stories just as well as he can battle and it's his voice that is the glue of the album able to take the work of so many different producers and have it still feel like a cohesive, and wonderfully diverse album.

King Tee – Tha Triflin' Album:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTC4PyWZep2TIS0TS7X1G6Uen5AiP9PeU

Mysterme & DJ 20/20 – Let Me Explain LP

Taha / JTLM (2020, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I have spent a lot of time the last couple of years really trying to dig back into golden era hip hop from the late 80s and early 90s.  In addition to rediscovering records that I hadn't heard in quite some time, I've also unearthed a bunch or really great records that I hadn't heard before.  Among those new discoveries, I don't think any have been quite as great as Mysterme & DJ 20/20.

I literally have never even heard of these guys prior to seeing their name on a list of 'overlooked hip hop records of 1993' or some article with a title similar to that.  I did some digging, listened to a few of the songs and immediately went looking for a copy on vinyl.  Luckily, some people way smarter than me were ahead of the curve and had rereleased this album in 2020.  While I did have to pay for it to be imported from Europe, at least I didn't have to pay collector prices for it.

That brings me to finally say something about the actual record.  The beats on this thing are unbelievably great.  This is 90s East coast boom bap, but with the sort of rumbling bass and upbeat samples that I'm more accustomed to hearing on Hieroglyphics records from this era.  You aren't going to find beats much better than this.  Lyrically, while I couldn't put Mysteryme in the upper echelon of MCs from the era, he absolutely holds his own and handles the beats well.  He has a pretty straightforward flow, but that is in no way a criticism as he weaves well crafted stories through the excellent production.  Did I mention how great the beats are on this thing?  Anyway, this is absolutely something worth digging into if you're looking for top tier golden era hip hop.

Mysterme & DJ 20/20 – Let Me Explain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vEenEPTht0&ab_