Renowned bass player, producer, and member of DJ Premier’s Badder Band Brady Watt has been bringing his groove to video lately, linking up with MCs and singers for a series of videos he’s calling “Bass & Bars.” Each entry has Watt laying down a bassline for a guest to recite a beloved verse or two from their career. Previous entries in his series include Bun B, Pharoache Monch and MC Eiht. This week, Watt links up with Cypress Hill frontman B-Real as he delivers two classic Cypress Hill verses from 1993’s “Insane In the Brain” and 1991’s “How I Could Just Kill A Man” breakout. B-Real Details How He Developed 1 Of Hip-Hop’s Most Distinctive Voices (Video) As B-Real takes us through his memorable “Insane In the Brain,” Watt enthusiastically rocks alongside the MC, recreating the beat purely on bass. B-Real drops his classic bars on point: “To the one on the flamboyant tempa, / Just toss that ham in the frying pan / Like spam, get done when I come and slam, Damn, I feel like the Son of Sam / Don’t make me wreck sh*t, hectic / Next get the chair got me going like General Electric / ‘Aaaant,’ the lights are blinking, I’m thinking, It’s all over when I go out drinking.” As B-Real spits his last four bars, Watt slickly transitions into a cool rendition of Gang Starr’s “DWYCK,” produced by his band-mate, DJ Premier. As Watt fades out from “DWYCK,” he plays a bass rendition of the “How I Could Just Kill A Man” beat. B-Real dives into his first verse on Cypress Hill’s first ever single, and infamous track off the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreassoundtrack. Before B-Real finishes his verse, Watt slides right into a bass cover of Dr. Dre’s “Dre Day” beat, switching pace with absolute ease. MC Eiht & Brady Watt Make A Westside Connection On A New Version Of m.A.A.d. City Both B-Real and Brady Watt prove that they’re skilled in their lanes by never missing their cue, and delivering their respective crafts on-point. #BonusBeat: Watch Bun B spit vintage verses from “Get Throwed” and “Draped Up” alongside Watt on bass.
Nas typically keeps it strictly business when it comes to his social media usage so when he does take a moment to pause and get personal, it is notably with intention. On Thursday (March 21), the prolific MCtook to Instagram to wish Large Professor and DJ Premier a happy birthday, thanking both Illmaticproducers for playing integral mentorship roles early on in his career, respectively. The Queens, New York native then reflected on meeting Large Professor when he was only 17 years old, going on to big up the veteran producer for showing him how to “properly lay vocals” and help him structure songs, to name a few cherished lessons.
During a newly-released interview with VladTV, Large Professor returns the nostalgic sentiment, discussing how he first crossed paths with a then-aspiring MC through Joe Fatal. Their meeting was clearly destined, with all three collaborating on Main Source’s iconic track, “Live At The Barbeque.” The song, which also introduced Akinyele, appeared on the album Breaking Atoms, doubled as Nas’ first-ever appearance on wax.
“Joe Fatal was like the street, the connect, you know what I’m saying. He’s Uptown, Downtown, all around, you know kind of thing,” Large reflected at the 2:00 mark. “Me and Joe Fatal are like childhood friends, like five years old type-sh*t in Flushing, so he moved away and then when he came back, he was this Long Island City, Queensbridge dude now. Like yo, man, I be out in Queensbridge, I got [Tragedy Khadafi], I’ma bring Trag’ through. It was like ‘Word you make beats? Aight, aight.’ He click-clacked everything with me and Nas.”
After touching on how Joe Fatal (who also raps on “Live At The Barbeque”) initially introduced him to Nas, the conversation shifted to the nature of their early collaborations and the material they worked on at the beginning of their now-decades long friendship.
“Fatal was like, we’re going to record a demo, so we went to Coney Island and they came and picked me up from school,” he shared. “I was bringing the drum machine to school type-sh*t. So it was like we’re going to meet up after and go… We had tons of demos.”
Vlad asks what happened to these tapes. “They are somewhere out there,” Extra P says, revealing an exciting gem about their very existence. “That’s the crazy thing about it. I think Nas has the tapes. I think once the bread was good, he was like, ‘Yo, I secured them tapes.’ I remember him telling me that one time. They are somewhere out in the world.” However, P also suggests that some of those early ’90s rhymes were recycled other places. “The thing with good artists, you’ve probably heard some of them rhymes, ’cause dudes be doin’ the mix-or-clicks on rhymes.” On subsequent editions of Illmatic, Nas—who co-owns Mass Appeal Records—has released songs such as “I’m A Villain,” along with alternate mixes of his 1994 cuts.
Next, the veteran producer/MC/DJ waxes poetic on how he realized from the jump that Nas was fated to do some incredible things for the culture at large, even years prior to dropping his seminal classic, 1994’s Illmatic.
“I always knew. I went through so many stages of Hip-Hop and life to be confident enough to know what it was. This is it,” he explained. “Ain’t no question about that. You go through enough to know, that’s that sh*t. Whenever I heard Nas, I’d be like, nah he’s ill. He’s going to be big.”
From referring to Nas’ lyrical prowess as “the beginning of shock rap,” in how it made a person react strongly and revisit what he spit in order to process the meaning, to explaining how he connected with the MC due to his humble nature, Large Professor is among those from Queens who experienced firsthand how “the Borough was peaking with pride” when the legendary rapper began solidifying his path in Hip-Hop.
“Nas was humble. He’d always say some out of the ordinary sh*t, you know what I’m saying. I’ll always say that. He’d always say something out of the ordinary but then he’d say something cool and humble,” he noted. “‘I sip the Dom P, watchin’ Gandhi.’ There’s no knucklehead-ass kid out there in the street, you know, watching Gandhi. You know there’s a peaceful part of him; he’s got the patience to watch Gandhi but he’s getting twisted on some hood sh*t. It was things like that.”
Given their past work together, as well as their ability to still inspire one another all these years later, it goes without saying that these two are not only proud of what they’ve accomplished together, but extremely grateful for the opportunity to share such historic experiences together.
#BonusBeat: Part 1 of Vlad’s conversation with the Extra P:
Nas typically keeps it strictly business when it comes to his social media usage so when he does take a moment to pause and get personal, it is notably with intention. On Thursday (March 21), the prolific MCtook to Instagram to wish Large Professor and DJ Premier a happy birthday, thanking both Illmaticproducers for playing integral mentorship roles early on in his career, respectively. The Queens, New York native then reflected on meeting Large Professor when he was only 17 years old, going on to big up the veteran producer for showing him how to “properly lay vocals” and help him structure songs, to name a few cherished lessons.
During a newly-released interview with VladTV, Large Professor returns the nostalgic sentiment, discussing how he first crossed paths with a then-aspiring MC through Joe Fatal. Their meeting was clearly destined, with all three collaborating on Main Source’s iconic track, “Live At The Barbeque.” The song, which also introduced Akinyele, appeared on the album Breaking Atoms, doubled as Nas’ first-ever appearance on wax.
“Joe Fatal was like the street, the connect, you know what I’m saying. He’s Uptown, Downtown, all around, you know kind of thing,” Large reflected at the 2:00 mark. “Me and Joe Fatal are like childhood friends, like five years old type-sh*t in Flushing, so he moved away and then when he came back, he was this Long Island City, Queensbridge dude now. Like yo, man, I be out in Queensbridge, I got [Tragedy Khadafi], I’ma bring Trag’ through. It was like ‘Word you make beats? Aight, aight.’ He click-clacked everything with me and Nas.”
After touching on how Joe Fatal (who also raps on “Live At The Barbeque”) initially introduced him to Nas, the conversation shifted to the nature of their early collaborations and the material they worked on at the beginning of their now-decades long friendship.
“Fatal was like, we’re going to record a demo, so we went to Coney Island and they came and picked me up from school,” he shared. “I was bringing the drum machine to school type-sh*t. So it was like we’re going to meet up after and go… We had tons of demos.”
Vlad asks what happened to these tapes. “They are somewhere out there,” Extra P says, revealing an exciting gem about their very existence. “That’s the crazy thing about it. I think Nas has the tapes. I think once the bread was good, he was like, ‘Yo, I secured them tapes.’ I remember him telling me that one time. They are somewhere out in the world.” However, P also suggests that some of those early ’90s rhymes were recycled other places. “The thing with good artists, you’ve probably heard some of them rhymes, ’cause dudes be doin’ the mix-or-clicks on rhymes.” On subsequent editions of Illmatic, Nas—who co-owns Mass Appeal Records—has released songs such as “I’m A Villain,” along with alternate mixes of his 1994 cuts.
Next, the veteran producer/MC/DJ waxes poetic on how he realized from the jump that Nas was fated to do some incredible things for the culture at large, even years prior to dropping his seminal classic, 1994’s Illmatic.
“I always knew. I went through so many stages of Hip-Hop and life to be confident enough to know what it was. This is it,” he explained. “Ain’t no question about that. You go through enough to know, that’s that sh*t. Whenever I heard Nas, I’d be like, nah he’s ill. He’s going to be big.”
From referring to Nas’ lyrical prowess as “the beginning of shock rap,” in how it made a person react strongly and revisit what he spit in order to process the meaning, to explaining how he connected with the MC due to his humble nature, Large Professor is among those from Queens who experienced firsthand how “the Borough was peaking with pride” when the legendary rapper began solidifying his path in Hip-Hop.
“Nas was humble. He’d always say some out of the ordinary sh*t, you know what I’m saying. I’ll always say that. He’d always say something out of the ordinary but then he’d say something cool and humble,” he noted. “‘I sip the Dom P, watchin’ Gandhi.’ There’s no knucklehead-ass kid out there in the street, you know, watching Gandhi. You know there’s a peaceful part of him; he’s got the patience to watch Gandhi but he’s getting twisted on some hood sh*t. It was things like that.”
Given their past work together, as well as their ability to still inspire one another all these years later, it goes without saying that these two are not only proud of what they’ve accomplished together, but extremely grateful for the opportunity to share such historic experiences together.
At the top of the 1990s, many Hip-Hop artists were coming together in the name of peace, unity, love, understanding, and having fun. Collectives like the Native Tongues and Diggin’ In The Crates (which was not even minted yet) earned the respect of the pioneers by keeping alive the 1970s and early ’80s approach to party-rocking and music-making. These new figures acknowledged the O.G.’s and often worked with them on projects. Thus, on many stages, videos, and songs, there was generational harmony simply through collaboration. In the fall of 1991 Biz Markie, Smooth B, Nikki D, and the Leaders of the New School gathered at New York City’s Cooley High Academy for an epic on-stage freestyle session. Biz had more than five years of success under his built as a breakout star from the Juice Crew, with a gold album (The Biz Never Sleeps) and platinum crossover single (“Just A Friend”). Together with their DJ, Teddy Tedd, Nice & Smooth had been making moves Uptown for just as long, products of the scene around T. La Rock, Boogie Down Productions, and Kurtis Mantronik. B-I-Z and Smooth were on-hand to share the stage with some exciting new artists in Busta Rhymes, Charlie Brown, Dinco D, and Nikki D. Leaders Of The New School Are Recording New Music With Comeback Plans (Audio) In the opening part of the sequence from the “Video Music Box Library” video on AFH TV (available for a free 30-day trial), Charlie Brown kicked off the festivities, seemingly coming off the dome and utilizing the “riggity riggity” style of the time. In his rhyme, Brown gave props to Video Music Box‘s Ralph McDaniels as well as Funkmaster Flex, who was posted up behind the 1’s and 2’s. The would-be HOT 97 mainstay kept the crowd hype by cutting up the classic breakbeat by The Honeydrippers’ “Impeach the President.” The mic was then went to Brown’s Leaders band-mate with the visceral energy, Busta Rhymes. A superstar in the making, the bright red shirt-wearing Bussa Bus spit his verse from the L.O.N.S. joint “Shining Star” from the Strictly Business soundtrack. “Go and knock ‘em dead is my motto for the year / People step up, and then they try to plant fear / All in my heart, please, I beg you, don’t start / Dimming my light will make my world fall apart,” Busta rapped. His excitement can barely be contained as he moves about the stage. Large Professor Confirms That Main Source Is Making New Music The microphone was then passed to the third vocalist of Leaders, Dinco D, who spit a verse that was released years later by Q-Tip from the second demo take of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario.”Smooth B kept the cypher going with a brief chorus and verse from “Sex, Sex, Sex” off of Ain’t A Damn Thing Changed. This is before he passed the mic to then-Def Jam label-mate, Nikki D. “Put a ni**a in his place / Smack him in the face / Before I eat a meal, pick up my fork, I say my grace,” the grossly underrated Nikki spit. Bumpy Knuckles & Biz Markie Team Up For A Video With A Purpose. Check It Out, Y’all. Batting cleanup was the diabolical Biz Markie. In classic Biz Mark’ fashion, the “Just a Friend” rapper stole the show with enigmatic vocal stylings that mimicked turntable scratching, Dancehall chants, and drum machines, punctuated by an off-the-dome rhyme that sent the crowd into hysterics. The beat-box royalty knew just what the crowd needed. During this time Leaders Of The New School, Nikki D, Nice & Smooth, and Biz Markie were promoting their respective albums, A Future Without A Past,Daddy’s Little Girl, Ain’t A Damn Thing Changed, and I Need A Haircut. Nice & Smooth’s Smooth B Returns With A New Song That Shows He’s Still A Sure Shot (Audio) While everyone in the ’91 freestyle session did their thing, the charisma of Busta and Biz is evident in the video. They jump off of the screen with their mannerisms and into your ears with their vocal tones. Their ability to captivate audiences is a major part of what has made them successful artists, and what keeps them going strong today. This video and others from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s are available on AFH TV. We are currently offering free 30-day trials.
