Black Sheep Meets Tha Alkaholiks ...and Some Other Guys

Since long-lost, unreleased tracks are finally being released on vinyl by both Black Sheep and Tha Alkaholiks, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at this fun but mostly forgotten 90's record where they collaborated. This is "Dirty Money," by J-Ro and Dres, on PAC Records. Oh, and some guys known as The Flowmastaz Click.

Yeah, this is actually The Flowmastaz' single, and J-Ro and Dres are their special guests on this one song, though I've often seen it listed on line as if the Flowmastaz was a mini "super group" consisting of J-Ro and Dres. But, no, there's actually a whole Flowmastaz Click album, appropriately entitled Flowmastaz Click, and J-Ro and Dres are only on this one song. It's just that the star power of their guests outshone them.

In fact, The Flowmastaz have a bit of a history, albeit an obscure one. They're a Californian Latino trio consisting of Echo 1 aka Bout It, T-Swoop and Nome. They released their album and an earlier single, "Who's To Blame," the year before in 1998. They owned their own label, PAC Records, which also put out releases by a couple other groups. That album didn't feature "Dirty Money," though. That was only released on this one 12".

But the Flowmastaz story didn't end there. A few years later (2002), The Outsidaz' label RuffLife signed them under a slightly different name, Flow Click. And they didn't just drop 1/3 of their name but 1/3 of their roster, as Nome was out, and it was just Bout It and T-Swoop left; and their album was titled, appropriately, Flow Click. I wonder if Rufflife even realized they were releasing the Click's second self-titled "debut" album? Anyway, they dropped one single ("Pretty Lady") and of course we all know what happened to Rufflife, so that was pretty much it for them.

I can't say The Flowmastaz deserved any better than they achieved... Their first album was one of those sort of G-funky west coast albums where the MCs were kind of more on an east coast lyrical tip, but not very much. You know: all very soupy and a middle-of-the-road mash of the popular styles at the time, kinda like DPG-lite. Then their second album catered more to the niche Spanglish audience. But, given that, they pull their own weight on "Dirty Money" surprisingly well.

It's a funky but tough little beat, produced by some guys named Lamark and J. Crumb, with some nicely rubbed in percussion by an uncredited DJ. There's a little bit of a hook, but mostly it's just a lyrical free for all with the MCs trading the mic back and forth.So it's not like a single verse from each guest and then they're done. They keep getting back on the mic for more. J-Ro - dubbing himself "J-Ro J. Simpson" here - mostly steals the show, but Dres has an impressively tight little rhyme scheme - though his voice is probably the most exciting aspect of his bars. And like I said, the Flowmastaz really hold up their end of the bargain as well (T-Swoop really sounds good on his last verse). If they'd recorded an album like this single, I probably would've checked for these guys' material even without J-Ro and Dres on it. But as it is, this is the only Flowmastaz record you really need in your crates.

But you really should have this one, because it's surprisingly fresh. It's just got the one song but complete in Dirty, Radio, Instrumental and even Accapella versions. And again, this is a vinyl exclusive (though I'm sure this found it's way onto more than a couple mixtapes in its day). It's just one of those awesome little 12" singles that could've only appeared in second half of the 90s.

C'mon, Get In the Car, Guys. We're Moving To Japan

Look what just came out in Japan only! A full album of lost, never before released tracks from a ton of the best rappers recorded in 1988. What's the deal with this? I'll just let the album's notes speak for themselves:

"Introduction: 17 years ago a small recording studio, TOP SHELF, located in the basement of a brownstone in the East Village section of New York, was looted during the Thompkins Square riots of 1988, displacing the recordings of many soon-to-be Hip Hop stars. The studio had been the meeting place for many rappers, neighborhood kids, and producers that would later be responsible for the greatest period of the Hip Hop age, "The Golden Era." A search commenced soon after the recordings were lost, but nothing was ever found. So sought after were the tapes, they soon acheived Holy Grail status amongst Hip Hop circles. Despite years of searching, and dozens of hopeless crusades, the tapes remained lost. No one was quite sure who took them or where they were... until now.
After an extensive investigation and search that lasted two years, the recordings have finally been recovered by Fab 5 Freddy and myself (Benjy Grinberg). They were found dozenss of miles from the site of TOP SHELF in an abandoned strage faciilty in North Jersey [woot! Jersey represent!]. ...We sought after the lost recordings of TOP SHELF because they were rumored to be among the hottest songs from that era, and we thought it was a tragedy that the world never got to hear them. It turns out that these two-inch tapes are truly a treasure chest--a time capsule of the energy and excitement of 1988 Hip Hop."

And this really is the wet dream it sounds like - everybody comes tight on this. It starts off (well, after a brief mic check intro by Fab Five Freddy) with Black Sheep kicking a short, fast rap track, which is tight... and believe me, I've never been a huge Black Sheep fan. Special Ed's song is just the perfect raps over the perfect beat... it could easily have appeared on his first or second album. Big Daddy Kane kills it, Biz Markie's song is just great fun, and Melle Mel and Grandmaster Caz duet showing impressive skills considering even '88 would generally be considered well past their prime. MC Lyte rocks the same loop her rhyming partner Positive K did on his classic "The Nightshift," only with faster drums for more of a freestyle/battle rhyme-type flow. There's no production credits on this album besides the phrase "Anonymous Top Shelf producers,", which is a shame, because I'd love to know who did what on this. There's a crapload of nice scratching on Chubb Rock's song. The Jungle Brothers' is nice, though their rhyme style gets a little redundant. The only kinda disappointing song is Smooth B's solo venture, "I Want My Money Back" (he needs to give that hook back to Mixmaster Spade, who knew how to use it), and even this number's not bad. But Craig G (here spelt Graig G... heh) Doug E Fresh (using the same "Go Stetsa" vocal sample Groove B. Chill would go on to make a hit out of a couple years later), Grand Puba and Just-Ice all come with dope songs. It all ends with a serious track from Master Ace, "Revolution's 'Bout To Start," which is a great narrative and uses the type of scratched up speeches on the hook like I haven't heard since "Black Is Back" or "Dirty Cop Named Harry."

100% must-have. Manhattan Records, the Japanese label that put this album out, has a site at: store.mmagg.com, and yes, they have a myspace page, too. Go get it.

Update 09/15/07: So, any of you who've joined me in any of the many message board or blog discussions of the legitimacy of this album will have already determined that it is quite definitely a hoax. But, surprisingly, The New York Times has actually picked up the story and gotten some real answers - read the whole thing here (brought to my attention by Jaz, who runs the Cold Rock da Spot blog, on the DWG forums). Still, it does leave a few questions unanswered... like who actually produced each track, and when can we get a volume two?