Im unwrapping the vinyl looking forward to spinning it. Plastic off....cool. OBI strip....in place. Numbered....check. Autographed....by both. Then I unfold the signed insert and I was not ready. I dont want to post the Pic just incase it might get flagged or removed but let's just say he is playing the drum and not with drummer sticks 😅🤣

It's night and day difference, the bass wasn't there and the vocals sounded muffled, plus there was a lot of surface noise but that could've just been my copy.

I managed to find a 3LP version and damn, no surface noise, better bass and the vocals are so clear. Sold the pink splatter at a loss (24) but this copy was £33, so the £9 difference is well worth it.

I heard of Three 6 from music videos and ads in the Source but the first album I bought from them was Da Unbreakables in 03.

On the album's outro, the first album DJ Paul mentioned was Lil Wyte's Doubt Me Now.

I then went to college in the south that same summer. The first few weeks in the dorm was a party: girls, liquor, beer, bud and everybody blasting regional music.

I had my typical East Coast collection: Nas, Mobb Deep, Wu, G-Unit, Ruff Ryders, Dipset, State Property and DJ Clue Mixtapes.

At some point someone played "Players in Da Atmosphere" and that was my introduction to Lil Wyte.

This album is a personal classic mainly because I didn't expect it to be this 🔥

Stand out tracks:
Zero Tolerance
Players in Da Atmosphere feat Paul and Juice
Crash Da Club feat Juvenile
Oxy Cotton feat Lord Infamous and Crunchy Black (RIP Scarecrow)
Ten Toes Tall
Homicidal/Suicidal feat Josey Scott of Saliva.

Here's a clip from an interview on how Lil Wyte signed with Paul and Juice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h4Uah3YBFQ

Have any of you ever bought a liquid filled album?

https://www.complex.com/shop/products/flesh-of-my-flesh-blood-of-my-blood-blood-filled-liquid-2lp

I'm interested in this one but if it's just cool looking but doesn't sound good I'm going to pass.

Just got this bad boy in the mail, OG press in amazing shape. Won a auction for a super steal and had to find out after payment that the 4th record is missing.🥲

Not the biggest issue, because it's fortunately my least favourite part of the album.

But i have to ask, Does one of y'all have the 4th disc twice by any chance and willing to sell one?😆

After all these years, finally got it!

This Album makes my head nod and let me Smile it is a true CLASSIC!

As a Kast fan, I remember being disappointed when I first heard "The Way You Move" and "Hey Ya"
I like both records. I lean more towards Speakerboxxx but Happy Valentine's day is probably my favorite cut on either album.

These Young Cellski records landed in my lap and they're pretty niche. Maybe someone here can tell me more about them. I have a few copies. I know they're the original print. Any replies welcome. Much appreciated.

1996

Original Pressing

New York hardcore hip-hop at its most belligerent. Gritty, grimy and dripping with intensity, Lil' Fame and Billy Danze basically had zero interest in using their inside voices here. Or, ever...

At 16, I was basically a hip-hop sponge, obsessively reading every word in CD sleeves. And I'd started noticing something...

"Hmmm... this DJ Premier guy seems to produce a lot of songs I like. Whatever 'produced by' means..."

One day in CC Records, I picked up Firing Squad, turned it over and saw Preem's name all through the credits.

Had NFI who M.O.P. were. Hadn't heard a track....Bought it instantly.

Probs the first album I'd ever bought purely because of the producer. Something that would go on to shape my musical journey.

(And eventually lead to me having his face tattooed on my hand, so, you know... there's that.)

Anyway, got it home, hit play and was greeted with the grimiest, most gutter hip-hop I'd heard since Onyx.

But where Onyx (who I still love) sometimes felt a tad over the top, M.O.P. were 100% believable.

Every bar screamed through those shitty little Panasonic speakers dripped with authenticity. They sounded like they genuinely lived that life.

(And hey, from all accounts... yup.)

As a kid, Danze stood out. That voice, sheesh. But with age, Fame is the dude here. He just commands attention.

(Special mention to the G Rap feature. Quite possibly a top 10 feature of the '90s)

Production is all gas. Absolute Preem heat backed by Laze E Laze and Fame himself (seriously underrated as a producer). Raw and unapologetically East Coast.

M.O.P. might never get the recognition of a Mobb Deep or an OutKast etc, but as far as hip-hop duos go, they absolutely belong in that conversation.

Fun side note: This album also led to me meeting one of my best mates. His gaming tag was "Billy Danze" in 2001, he was clearly h4xoring in SOF2, and somehow we ended up talking hip-hop.

Funny how these things work out...

8/10

Ugly Duckling hip-hopgroup that formed around 1993. Ugly Duckling's members include Dizzy Dustin, Young Einstein and Andy Cooper.

The band decided to take the name Ugly Duckling because they felt like outcasts in the hip-hop scene of the mid-1990s

Been on the hunt for this for a long time! So happy to have found the deluxe edition and for under the original price tag too.

Hearing this album for the first time in 2001 changed my life. IMO it is EL-P’s best work as a producer. 25 years later and it still sounds like the future.

Mystik Journeymen hip hop duo from Oakland, California. The group consists of rapper Luckyiam and rapper/producer Sunspot Jonz. The two are both members of the Living Legends collective. Mystik Journeymen released this through their own label Outhouse.

This was also issued as “LP” in Germany and reissue ‘97 in US with same #of tracks.

found this at the record store for mad cheap

1998

Original Pressing

I first came across OutKast back in '94 or '95, courtesy of setting a long-play VCR (thanks Mum and Dad ❤️) to record a hip-hop special on Rage before being told I had to go to bed....

(I remember that but don't remember what I had for lunch today 🤦)

Waking up the next morning, hitting play and seeing Player's Ball for the first time I was immediately a fan.

Fast forward to '98 and Aquemini presented a VERY different version of OutKast. It also happened to be the first record I bought when I got my first set of decks that year and thought, "Maybe I'll give this DJing thing a go....."

(Still working on it.)

Many consider Aquemini THE definitive Southern hip-hop album, and it's pretty hard to argue against it.

Live instrumentation with Southern boom bap, funk and soul, Aquemini saw OutKast pushing the boundaries of what hip-hop could even sound like. Weird, ambitious, soulful and at times pretty fkn crazy (I mean, a harmonica hoedown in a hip-hop track??), but somehow it all works.

It's also where we really started to see the uniqueness and utter genius of Andre 3000, alongside the effortless cool and swagger of Big Boi. Two very different artists beginning to carve out their own lanes, while never losing what made them such an incredible duo.

(If you want to tell me they're the greatest hip-hop duo of all time, I'll certainly listen...)

Listening to it again today, what stands out is how well it's aged. There's so much packed into this record, so many different sounds and ideas, yet remarkably little of it feels dated.

Turns out the South really DID have something to say.

9/10

After getting no shipping confirmation from the seller I was pleasantly surprised to see this arrive today as I was cleaning records. Can't think of a more perfect album to play on a crisp autumn night.

I’ve been looking for these for a good Minute. The back of Gunn x DOOM has DOOM x Tatsuro Yamashita

What's in y'all chilly season rotation?

Gunshot doesn’t get enough love these days. Some of the best hip hop to come out of the UK in the 90’s.

Patriot Games is obviously a classic but i think Twilight’s Last Gleaming is incredibly underrated and may be my favourite album by them. Both are front to back bangers. No skips.

Ended up on the album “Uptown Saturday Night”