Video: Blame One – Glass House

July 20, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments

Blame One drops a video for “Glass House,” which you’ll remember from Blame’s Leaks & Gemz mixtape released earlier this year. This song is also slated to appear on his forthcoming album, Endurance, which is due in October. I would’ve liked to have seen “Dream Sequence Revenge” get more shine–actually, I’d really love to see a Dream Sequence Crew album–but “Glass House” sums up what Blame’s all about a little better: humility, spirituality, reflection, introspection. More spirituality. Keep it posted for more on the album.

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Interview: ICB of Vicious Beat Posse talks SD Rap History, pt. 4

July 19, 2010 by Quan Vu 5 Comments

We conclude our chat with ICB, former member of DBX and Vicious Beat Posse. He tells us about what he’s been doing since leaving the rap game and how he never really left the rap game anyway. ICB also reveals a bit more on the high school battle rap scene in the 1980s.

If you missed it, check out the rest of the interview: part 1 | part 2 | part 3

SDRaps.com: After you decided to get out of the rap game, what did you end up doing?
ICB: Well, you know, the rap game is a hard thing to leave behind because it had become kind of a safehaven from some of the things that we had gotten ourselve into on the streets. Going to the studio was like a peaceful place. You weren’t going to run into no conflict at the studio. You’re gonna sit back, drink, smoke, and try to come up with a heater. That was a hard thing to divorce from. It had even gotten to the point where I had tried to make a clean separation. I went back to school, got my associate’s degree, I had enrolled to get my undergrad work done.

And one of my patnas from the street, he was like, “What’s it gonna take to get you in the studio?” I was like, “I guess if I had my own studio.” And this dude, he didn’t know that I don’t know how to hook the wires and shit up. He didn’t know that I don’t know how to run no computer with all this shit. He goes out and buys all this shit. And fixes this garage up, did all this shit to this garage. And it’s just like a vortex. It just sucked me back in. So here it is. This is probably like 2000. I’m sucked right back into this shit. I’m in there all day. That’s when Lil Daddy Rich started, he started ramping his game up. B Stone. These dudes were showing up at that studio. Couldn’t put ‘em out. 24 and some mo’. That place was jumping right in the set. Read more of this post

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Throwback Raps: Video: DBX – Only The Strong

July 17, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments

After Vicious Beat Posse disintegrated, ICB and Dizon from DBX still put in some work on various projects, including this cut from the movie soundtrack to Only The Strong, starring Mark Dacascos. Not the greatest of songs–even ICB says he couldn’t really get with the idea of putting rap and kung-fu together at the time–but hey, it gets play amongst your kung-fu flick afficionado friends. If this song is somewhere in the actual movie, then those friends are somewhat familiar with DBX already.

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Throwback Raps: Video: Vicious Beat Posse – Legalized Dope x Give The People What They Want

July 17, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments

To give you an idea of what Vicious Beat Posse actually sounded like, here are the two videos that they cut for their album, Legalized Dope. As ICB told us, the title track (above) was the only song on the Vicious Beat Posse album that featured all four of the acts together: Superslim & DJ Candyman, Marvee V, MC Deb B, and DBX. These were four acts that really had very little reason being together in the first place. Even ICB admits that they were a “cookie-cutter group.” Superslim and Deb B may have been on the same light-hearted, party-rocking page. But DBX was distinctly more politically-inclined and Marvee V definitely had more of that street flavor. Hearing all four acts on the same track, struggling to stick to the same concept, is not a great look.

Of the four acts, Superslim & DJ Candyman got the first shot to break out on their own, hence the video for “Give The People What They Want.” Check it out after the jump. Read more of this post

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Interview: ICB of Vicious Beat Posse talks SD Rap History, pt. 3

July 17, 2010 by Quan Vu 4 Comments


In part 3 of our talk with ICB, member of old school San Diego rap groups DBX and Vicious Beat Posse, ICB speaks on his work in the local San Diego scene in the 1990s, working with the likes of Gangsta Ern, Orko Eloheim, Damu and Black Mikey. If you missed either of them, check out part 1 and part 2 of this interview. After you’re done, move onto part 4 to find out what ICB has been up to since.

SDRaps.com: You were doing work behind the scenes. How long did that go on? Are you still doing work now?
ICB: The last work I’d say took place in 1994. And that was pretty much it. I had gotten behind in the scene after the Vicious Beat Posse thing. Local people know this but I was extremely instrumental–one of the key players–in Gangsta Ern’s project. I remember: Ern and them, they were never into the hip-hop. Ern and them was pop-locking, but that was in the early ’80s, ’83, ’82. Because Ern was like 6 years older than myself. So they were pop-locking and whatnot. But when ’88 came or ’89 when we was doing our thing, they saw us and was like, “Check out these little young niggas. Check ‘em out, they trying to be rap stars … ” You know, kinda poking fun at us in a little way. But they were full-fledged out there in the streets. And they came to me asking, “Wassup with the studio?” Because at the time in the late ’80s, we were the only cats in real studios working at the studio. It wasn’t one of those “somebody got an SP-1200 and an 808 and a cassette player with the Record button with the microphone tilted toward the speaker.” None of that stuff, we were in the full-fledged, animated boards, we’re mastering our drums. I mean, we’re doing it big. And they wanted us to bring them to the studio.

And see in my mind, I was like, “Man, it’ll be good to bring the homies to the studio.” But I’m thinking if we bring the homies to the studio, they finna rob the joint. It ain’t gonna be no more studio after that. Read more of this post

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Interview: ICB of Vicious Beat Posse talks SD Rap History, pt. 2

July 15, 2010 by Quan Vu 7 Comments


We continue our chat with ICB, member of San Diego rap groups DBX and Vicious Beat Posse from the ’80s. He speaks on the short-lived careers of those groups and how they got bit by Industry Rule #4080. If you missed part 1, check it out here. After you’re done, continue on to part 3, where ICB delves into his work with Gangsta Ern, Orko Eloheim, Damu, and Black Mikey, and part 4, where he talks about what he’s been up to since.

SDRaps.com: So Vicious Beat Posse was four separate acts thrown together, right? Were you guys all from San Diego?
ICB: Marv [Marvee V aka Marvee Vicious] was from New Jersey originally. But he was here. He was also the elder statesman of the group, he was the oldest cat. We were all from there though. Just individual acts that had never ran across each other prior to Darryl Sutton and Delton Dormer bringing us together. So like I said, they had this vision–and really all they did, I’ve come to learn, was a production label deal. And they cut a production label deal. They was gonna get the label to put them up, kinda produce the records. And they was gonna kinda put them out there. I guess the easiest way to segue into that–you know how a record deal goes, they got the option. So if they start out with a compilation, that was the one way to get us an opportunity first. As opposed to saying, “Ok, DBX goes first. Superslim goes second.” What we had was we did the first single ["Legalized Dope"] which was the collabo. Which was everybody.

SDRaps.com: Was that the only song on the album that featured all four acts?
ICB: Yup, the only one to have everybody on it. And the second single was Slim’s “Give The People What They Want.” And then after that, we didn’t push no units. So we were out the door, haha. But like I said, the experiences, the tour. Man, we made some hella connections in that time in the business.

SDRaps.com: You were around the San Diego scene before. Had you heard of any of those acts–Superslim & DJ Candyman, Marvee V, MC Deb B–before you got together?
ICB: I’d never heard of any of them. I knew about the Dam Lab because they had some cats that was into the battle thing. My boy, Icylee. Of LPSD. We used to go at it, we used to battle. I had heard some of the demos that they was doing at the Dam Lab. They had some real nasty sound like some of that Boogie Down Productions’ real hard-hitting drum sounds. And we was kinda on the light, poppy side. I was envious of that sound that they had. Once I found out who that was–I had some run-ins and some work with Frank Z, who was apart of the [Vicious Beat] project as well. But Frank Z was a DJ/producer. He wasn’t a rap act. He was the only person I had any acquaintance with prior to the project. Read more of this post

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Interview: ICB of Vicious Beat Posse talks SD Rap History, pt. 1

July 12, 2010 by Quan Vu 4 Comments

For the record, Vicious Beat Posse was the first rap/hip-hop act out of San Diego to ever sign to a major label, MCA Records. Vicious Beat Posse was actually a collective of four smaller SD acts, including Superslim & DJ Candyman, MC Deb B, Marvee V and the duo of DBX. Marcel Branch, aka ICB, of DBX recently came back to San Diego to visit family. He was gracious enough to take some time out on his trip to sit down with SDRaps.com and school us on San Diego rap history. In this first part, ICB speaks on DBX and the formation of Vicious Beat Posse.

When you’re done, continue onto part 2, in which ICB speaks on the short career spans of both DBX and Vicious Beat Posse, part 3, where ICB goes into his work with San Diego legends such as Gangsta Ern, Orko Eloheim, Damu, and Black Mikey, and part 4, where he speaks on his life since leaving the game.

SDRaps.com: Can you tell us how DBX first started?
ICB: The original group was a dude named Bobby Graham. Bobby Graham did the first “Money” song with me and DJ Gill and DJ Desi. And that was in ’88 when we got together and made that. Now, I had kinda made a name for myself locally at the high school rap scene, San Diego City College Boys Club, functions and stuff like that, little park and recreational functions. I made a name for myself. So this DJ Gill and DJ Desi Rae, they was already club DJs and they was military implants so they was here from the military. They’re not originally from here. And one of those guys was dating a girl that went to the high school that I was attending. She kinda put me on.

And she didn’t even really like me. So for her to drop my name … Because he was trying to get into production and move away from DJing. So they dropped my name and we got together. And they asked me to do some freestyle. Back in the days it was one of those talk about the color shirt you got on, the hat to let them know that it was really off the head. There was nothing pre-fabbed or stuff like that. So we hit it. And then they brought this other guy–I didn’t even know this guy from nothing. They were just like “Okay, we’ll put you two together.” It was like a cookie-cutter group, for lack of better descriptions. They already had it in place. They knew what they wanted to do, they just needed bodies to do the songs.

So we got in there and did the songs–we wrote our own parts, of course. And that’s how it happened. And my boy, Bobby, he was already–this is hindsight–he already had musical visions. He was already thinking about the next thing. So he was bigger than DBX at the time, his thinking was bigger. So he’s already progressing in his career in his mind and he’s trying to make moves outside of the group. That made a division. So he went about his own way.

There was a buddy of mine who used to always do the beatbox with me in high school. Back then it was the beatbox, your traveling beatbox, the partner that rolled with you to supply the beats. That was my boy, Dizon. Dizon, I told him what’s going on. He jumped in. Then me and him went along with the DBX from there on in. So it was like the New Edition thing: Bobby Brown left but it was still New Edition even though Johnny Gill came in. So it was DBX irregardless of the pieces. I was the one piece that was the constant with Bobby and then Dizon. Read more of this post

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Sha Dula and Asia – Gun In Ya Mouth Talk x Phenomenal

July 1, 2010 by Quan Vu 4 Comments

Asia “Gun In Ya Mouth Talk” [prod. Sun Akbar]
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Sha Dula & Asia “Phenomenal” [prod. DJ Wool]
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You might remember Sha Dula and Asia as the highlights of Mr. Brady’s Leftovers vol. 2. Well now they’re supposedly dropping an album together, Black Sun. They might be official Killa Beez or Wu affiliates or maybe they’re just big Wu fans. One way or the other, they definitely come from the Wu-Tang school of hip-hop, mixing hard-ass street talk with mathematics and esoteric spirituality. The beats also hit hard and use minor keys, which was basically the RZA’s whole thing. Obviously, “Gun In Ya Mouth Talk” samples Raekwon. And hell, even DJ Wool’s name sounded like “Wu” on record, hah.

Black Sun boasts production from DJ Wool and Mr. Brady. I’m looking forward to getting to hear it. Sorry for not including Sha Dula in the pic. I’m not sure if he’s from SD and he’s almost non-existent online. Help?

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