That's Major!

This might be my favorite track from Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth next to T.R.O.Y. …. had to post it because of the lack of solid hip-hop lately… and fuck it, it’s my blog, I can do what I want to do…

One thing you can say about Boston is that we take care of our own around here. Heavy Hitter DJ Chubby Chub and JAMN 94.5 Music Director DJ Pup Dawg took to the airwaves today to show love to the Gangstarr founder. Two different mixes of powerful music from our native son. Download them and turn them up!!

I tossed in DJ Mr. Cee’s mix from Hot 97 New York. You have to hear it to believe it. His passion as he talks about losing his friend just makes it that much deeper and real.

DJ Chubby Chub – Street Fix (GURU RIP TRIBUTE)
DJ CHUBBY CHUB – Street Fix (GURU RIP Tribute Mix)

DJ Pup Dawg – Back In The Day Buffet (GURU TRIBUTE)
DJ PUP DAWG – BACK IN THE DAY BUFFET (GURU Tribute Mix)

DJ Mr. Cee – Throwback at Noon (GURU TRIBUTE) Courtesy of FWMJ

Download HERE

Hip Hop has lost another great voice. Boston native and Hip Hop pioneer GURU aka Keith Elam passed on Monday April 19 at 43 years old. The following is a letter that was released and is purported to be written by Guru during his last days. We will be posting an editorial on the controversy around his death later.
We at Thats Major send our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Guru.

I, Guru, am writing this letter to my fans, friends and loved ones around the world. I have had a long battle with cancer and have succumbed to the disease. I have suffered with this illness for over a year. I have exhausted all medical options.

I have a non-profit organization called Each One Counts dedicated to carrying on my charitable work on behalf of abused and disadvantaged children from around the world and also to educate and research a cure for this terrible disease that took my life. I write this with tears in my eyes, not of sorrow but of joy for what a wonderful life I have enjoyed and how many great people I have had the pleasure of meeting.

My loyal best friend, partner and brother, Solar, has been at my side through it all and has been made my health proxy by myself on all matters relating to myself. He has been with me by my side on my many hospital stays, operations, doctors visits and stayed with me at my home and cared for me when I could not care for myself. Solar and his family is my family and I love them dearly and I expect my family, friends, and fans to respect that, regardless to anybody’s feelings on the matter. It is my wish that counts. This being said I am survived by the love of my life, my sun KC, who I trust will be looked after by Solar and his family as their own. Any awards or tributes should be accepted, organized approved by Solar on behalf myself and my son until he is of age to except on his own.

I do not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name likeness, events tributes etc. connected in anyway to my situation including any use of my name or circumstance for any reason and I have instructed my lawyers to enforce this. I had nothing to do with him in life for over 7 years and want nothing to do with him in death. Solar has my life story and is well informed on my family situation, as well as the real reason for separating from my ex-DJ. As the sole founder of GangStarr, I am very proud of what GangStarr has meant to the music world and fans. I equally am proud of my Jazzmatazz series and as the father of Hip-Hop/Jazz. I am most proud of my leadership and pioneering efforts on Jazzmatazz 4 for reinvigorating the Hip-Hop/Jazz genre in a time when music quality has reached an all time low. Solar and I have toured in places that I have never been before with GangStarr or Jazzmatatazz and we gained a reputation for being the best on the planet at Hip-Hop/Jazz, as well as the biggest and most influential Hip-Hop/Jazz record with Jazzmatazz 4 of the decade to now. The work I have done with Solar represents a legacy far beyond its time. And we as a team were not afraid to push the envelope. To me this is what true artists do! As men of honor we stood tall in the face of small mindedness, greed, and ignorance. As we fought for music and integrity at the cost of not earning millions and for this I will always be happy and proud, and would like to thank the million fans who have seen us perform over the years from all over the world. The work I have done with Solar represents a legacy far beyond its time and is my most creative and experimental to date. I hope that our music will receive the attention it deserves as it is some of the best work I have done and represents some of the best years of my life.

Boston Beats & Rhymes is a documentary from 2004 by Film Maker Scott Limanek that I remember hearing a lot about and seeing a few clips from, and I thought the movie never saw the light of day and was (like a lot of other great documentary’s) left only with a rough cut or two floating around in the producers inner circle; luckily, I was wrong. I stumbled onto this clip while I was doing some research for another piece and realized that the producer had uploaded the entire documentary on YouTube.

While there will always be issues with historical texts, historical texts regarding the arts is especially hard given the formation of art and the subjective views regarding what contributions to what art scene where more relevent than others, and which microcosm of the specific scene would be covered. This represents itself more often than not within the realm of music and hip-hop in particular as historical texts being usually biased towards one subset of a scene over another; within the context of this movie and the coverage of Boston hip-hop my initial curiousty with the film was to see how well it juggled what is dubbed in large part as the white, college, “back-packer” scene of Boston Hip-Hop that formed largely within the College and more relatively suburban areas of the Boston area, and that of the “street” scene which is code for nearly anything produced out of Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaca Plain, Hyde Park, Roxbury, etc…  and I must give the producer a lot of credit for balancing these two scenes that are very often insulated from each other; especially when paying tribute to what was really the foundation of the hip-hop scene in Boston sans college transplants…

I got a chance to sit with one of the G.O.A.T.’s of Hip Hop, Rakim during his latest tour stop in the Bean. Great convo and concert footage. The God drops jewels as always on everything from who he thinks is hot to why he still wants to drop albums in a stanky leg loving world. Shout out to Hek and the good people at 617Live TV. Good work my friend.

In case you didn’t know, United presses the majority of vinyl you see in stores and they have been doing so since the late 40’s. This place is, definitely, a hidden gem in Nashville. If you are in to vinyl and in Nashville, pay them a visit. It’s completely worth it! Thanks again to Adam for giving us a great tour!
Be sure to check out urpressing.com

Shouts to DiggersUnion via CrateKings

FROM DJ PREMIER:

I WANT TO SEND OUT THE UTMOST RESPECT AND CONDOLENCES TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN RIVAS—-aka MR. MAGIC

HE PASSED AWAY THIS MORNING OF A HEART ATTACK…..

TRUE HIP HOP HEADS KNOW THAT HIS HISTORY IS SO LONG DUE TO HIM BEING THE FIRST RAP MIXSHOW TO EVER BE ON COMMERCIAL RADIO ON NEW YORK’S WBLS–(107.5) WITH MARLEY MARL AND FLY TY IN 1982-1984…….THEN WENT ON TO WHBI IN OCTOBER OF 1984 AND THEN BACK TO WBLS in 1985 and WDAS in Philly SIMULTANEOUSLY

HE PAVED THE WAY FOR ALL RADIO STATIONS THAT EVER DID MIXSHOWS AND ALSO SPARKED THE CAREER OF BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS DUE TO THE DISS HE SHOWED WHEN THEY CAME TO SHOP THEIR DEMO TO HIM AND WAS TURNED AWAY WHICH THEN SPARKED “SOUTH BRONX” AND “THE BRIDGE IS OVER”…….

HE WAS KNOWN FOR HIS DIRECT AND SARCASTIC ATTITUDE ON THE AIR AND EVERY ARTIST WANTED HIS APPROVAL WHEN IT CAME TO BREAKING NEW RECORDS……..HE EVEN HAD SONGS DEDICATED TO HIM BY THE LEGENDARY WHODINI–(“MR. MAGIC’S WAND”) WHICH WAS SURPRISINGLY PRODUCED BY ONE OF MY FAVORITE ARTISTS THOMAS DOLBY…….

SHOUTS OUT TO MARLEY MARL AND FLY TY FOR THE CORRECT INFORMATION ON THIS……

REST IN PEACE MR. MAGIC………….DJ PREMIER

Mr.Cee just did a great job of honoring Mr. Magic on Hot 97.  For those that missed it Download HERE
(Shout To Dj Eclipse)

This is beautiful, the art of making the records is surreal and a hugely underrepresented work of artistic expression today in the world of digital.

I really appreciate CrateKings headsup

Got this mixtape from my dude DJ Modesty from France.  All 90′s R&B, all mixed using VINYL!  I grew up on the New Jack Swing era so this has been in my cd player for a bit now.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1HKSE8FX

Classic Kay Slay right here… OSR has an unbelievable stash of tapes… For the tracklisting just look at the damn picture…

Download HERE