Rare Buck 65 From Edgefest

Here's a little Buck 65 rarity that had been eluding me for some time: the Edgefest Murder EP from 1995. Murder Records was the label he was signed to as Stinkin' Rich, where he put out the "Stolen Bass" 7" and his Game Tight album. SixToo's crew, Hip Club Groove was also signed to them; and he appeared on their album. And that's pretty much it with them... except for this exotic little 7".

This is sort of a sampler EP from Murder Records, given away at Edgefest 3, an annual outdoor concert celebration of Canadian rock music. There's four songs on here by Murder acts; Stinkin' Rich being the only hip-hop artist among them. If you're interested, here are the other tracks on the EP:

1. The Super Friendz' (not to be confused with The Supafriendz) "One Day the Warner," produced by Al Tuck,
2. Jale's "Frightened Of," produced by Andy McDaniel,
3. and Thrush Hermit's "West Island Rockers," produced by Local Rabbits.

I've worked it out, and from left to right on the picture cover, that's The Super Friendz, Stinkin' Rich, Thrush Hermit and Jale. Now that's all I'm going to say about the other bands because they're not hip-hop and I have zero interest. You'll have to find another blog to learn more about their contributions.

Stinkin' Rich's song is called "By Design," and it's exclusive to this EP (actually, all the groups' songs here seem to be exclusive). It's self produced, of course, and kinda short (just over ninety seconds). But that doesn't keep him from letting his creative beat build, kicking a dope verse, or getting busy on the turntables before the music fades. Actually, apart from the unusual and compelling vocal sample that's looped through much of the song, this instrumental has a real 90's (well... appropriately), grimy NY sound. This is the kind of track I could imagine groups like Godfather Don or The Freestyle Professors dropping in those days and getting mad underground love for it. But then he goes the extra mile by unleashing some show-off scratches at the end. And, of course, his verse is... just a little different. It's your typical, braggadocio freestyle, but with his own distinct emphasis on unexpected wordplay, kicking bars like, "I write dope rhymes in copious amounts, and get out when the winner when the trophy is announced," and asking, "so whatcha think, swinger? Can you make the ink linger, or ya fuck around and risk gettin' the stink finger?"

For some reason, the volume's decidedly lower on side B (the side Rich is on), but the sound quality is fine once you crank it up. As you can see, this comes in a picture cover and also includes a small insert promoting the Murder Records albums of all the artists on this EP, plus a couple other 7"s. According to the back cover, 1000 copies were pressed, so I'm surprised this seems to be as rare as it is. Possibly a lot of copies were treated casually and lost by recipients at Edgefest. Their loss.