Mitchy Slick – Gangland Didn’t Work

June 10, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments

Mitchy Slick “Gangland Didn’t Work“
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As someone who writes about hip-hop music, I find myself having to defend hip-hop and rap from outsiders pretty frequently. And I gotta say: sometimes it’s really easy and tempting to slip into the argument that it’s all entertainment, that everyone’s in on the joke, no one takes it seriously, no one really believes in the rampant violence or misogyny or immorality that rappers spout. It’s just fun, harmless entertainment, free from responsibility.

But of course that’s a pretty BS way of going about it. Because then when a rapper drops something like “Gangland Didn’t Work,” I flip and talk about what a positive message the music promotes. The song finds Mitchy Slick lamenting on gang life, listing tragedy upon tragedy like he’s trying to find out the exact point when everything turned sour, when the gangs lost sight of their original purpose and it all turned to crap.

“Gangland Didn’t Work” comes off the soundtrack to a documentary about gangs in San Diego that apparently sucked ass. Unfortunately, I didn’t watch it myself, not having cable and slacking on my Asian bootlegging duties. Since it sucked, I figured Mitchy wouldn’t mind me offering this track for download but if I’m wrong, I’ll take it down.

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Black Mikey – Fuck You, Pay Me x Guns, Drugs, Bitches & Music

June 3, 2010 by Quan Vu 5 Comments

Black Mikey “Fuck You, Pay Me”
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Black Mikey ft. Damu “Guns, Drugs, Bitches & Music”
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Alright, we’ve soaked in a lot of history in the past week or so. Let’s transition back into 2010 for now. As you read before, Black Mikey and Mr. Ridley are working on a full-length album together called Killafornia Infection with Mikey on the mic and Ridley manning the boards. Here are two tracks from that project for us to preview.

“Guns, Drugs, Bitches & Music” is this sort of Premo-esque, no nonsense, boom-bap shit that just hits the spot right, with hard rhymes from both Mikey and long-time rhyming partner, Damu (aka Rude Ron D). Mikey’s second verse is interesting because he seems to take a step back and admit that he needs to rap about topics like guns, drugs, and bitches in order for us to listen to him. Which is a little cynical but, y’know, he happens to be right. Also worth noting is Mikey’s sporadic forays into a reggae-tinged sing-song flow that really suits him well.

“Fuck You, Pay Me” is a face-melting slumper with a hint of that horror style prevalent on “Exorcism.” Quotables include: 1. “It all started with a fart. That’s when I first blew the whole world apart/ and realized that shitting on y’all was an art;” and 2. “And it’s fucking funny to me when you try to emcee/ with that bullshit and blasphemy./ You’s a Communist and the bullshit y’all do/ keep the money of the masses in the hands of a few.” Seriously, when’s the last time you heard a rap metaphor about Communism (like an actual metaphor; Common’s joint doesn’t count)?

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Throwback Raps: The Mighty Key Gang – Crisis

June 3, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments

Another name that Black Mikey dropped in part 2 of his interview was The Mighty Key Gang. Here’s the one song posted on Youtube from The Mighty Key Gang, clearly their take on Melle Mel’s “The Message.” The sleeve pictured in the video dates this in 1984. I doubt that “The Finest City Band” has anything at all to do with Finest City Broadcasting that used to own Z90.3 radio but who knows?

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Throwback Raps: Soulful Ernie – Party Rock x Street Talking

June 2, 2010 by Quan Vu 9 Comments

Black Mikey mentioned Soulful Ernie real casually along with a bunch of other pioneers of rap who Mikey admired as a kid. Here are a couple joints posted by a vinyl junkie on Youtube. There isn’t really any info besides what you can make out from the picture of the record sleeves in the video but one Youtuber takes a stab that it’s from the early ’80s and I wouldn’t doubt it. This isn’t hip-hop or rap, it’s disco with rapping on it, which was the thing to do on the West Coast from the ’70s all the way into the late ’80s. If anyone has any more information, sharing is caring.

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Throwback Raps: Black Mikey – Exorcism b/w Somthin 2 Bump 2

June 2, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments


Black Mikey “Exorcism”
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Black Mikey “Somthin 2 Bump 2″
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Alright, I’m back from a short break. Time to do some homework.

Black Mikey mentioned this in both part 1 and part 2 of our interview with him. It’s the first piece of music he ever put out, back in 1996, which is crazy when you think (1) about the fact that he’d been rapping on at least a semi-professional level since he hooked up with Gangsta Ern in the earlier part of that decade and took years to release a song; and (2) about how it hard it seems to have been to actually release music back then, in comparison to today when any kid with Fruity Loops, a Macbook, and a mic can “release” his/her music to any and everyone in the world in a matter of minutes. Ayo technology!

But back to the point. “Exorcism” was Black Mikey’s first single, courtesy of A.F.T.E.R. LIPHE Entertainment. The single and its B-side, “Somthin 2 Bump 2,” both come in three different versions, and no, I’m not talking about the instrumental track and the vocal track to each. “Exorcism” comes with the original and also two different remixes. Read more of this post

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