PICKS POSSE - Week #30

The IP’S PICKS community shares what they’re listening to.

It’s Sunday night, which means it’s time for this week’s selections from the PICKS POSSE. Week #30 huh?! Wow. I like it.

Okay, let’s go in.

Max Makes Music: Samara Cyn ft. Sherwyn “Pop N Olive”

Samara Cyn and her friend Sherwyn wrote the song that I look forward to listening to as spring slips into summer, before it’s too hot in Baltimore, while there are still cool mornings and it’s fun to take a walk with someone special just to feel the blooming all around.

I had the opportunity to meet Samara recently and she is the real deal. She’s about her art and engaged in building a world around her music that “others want to live in too.” Samara is a legit triple threat with poetic lyrics, catchy singing and fire raps. Check out her other tracks and you will discover an artist with a diverse skill set and many styles.

Hello I’m Bobby: Boldy James & Rome Streetz “Only One”

When Rome Streetz drops a project, it’s a must listen. I try to do the same with Boldy James, but it’s tough to keep up with that prolific output. While I rarely get tired of the repetitive subject matter and appreciate his work ethic, sometimes it’d be great to let a project breathe a little before you put out the next one.

Anyway, Rome and Boldy are two of the best emcees out and they combined forces for a new-ish (it leaked online a few months ago) project. Manhunt is a dope six song EP, the perfect duration for a quick Costco trip or after-dinner dish duty.

From the moment the sample hits on “Only One,” you can tell it’s a Nicholas Craven production. They got me hooked, and no one has even started rapping yet. If only the lyrics could be about drug dealing, this could find its way into the rotation.

Boldy does not disappoint, sticking to what he knows best. Side note: Boldy might be at his best over Craven beats, and that’s high praise because his ALC and Real Bad Man-produced albums are also very high quality. Rome picks up where Boldy left off and spits his own drug-related lyrics to close out the barely 2 minute song—“Was pumping D, M and X, get at me dog if you spending a check.” Now I need more from Rome Streetz and Craven.

Robbie Ettelson: Megalon and Trife “It’s About Time”

Trife from Long Island was down with The U.N. and Monsta Island Czars. He only recorded a handful of tracks, and even fewer were officially released, including Pete Rock’s “Give It To Y’all” with Roc Marciano, but stories of his legendary exploits would often trickle into blog and YouTube comment sections.

This song was originally posted back in 2004 by grandgood, who knew Trife personally and mentioned that it was a freestyle session from around 1999, noting that “Trife has been tearing up mcs in Queens, Long Island and beyond since the early ‘90s battling or sharing stages, mics, and cipher-time with the best of them.”

Then in 2014, the recording appeared on a Monsta Island Czars EP titled The Come Up, courtesy of Dope Folks. Sadly, both of these guys are now dead, with Trife leaving us in April of 2011, and Megalon aka Tommy Gunn passing away this past December, so pour a little stout out while they kick science over some Bob James.

Scro: Juicy J “Slob On My Knob (Original Version)”

“Slob on my knob like corn on the cob/Check in with me and do your job…” You might be familiar with these lyrics from A$AP Ferg’s hit “Plain Jane,” but the Juiceman actually penned this track back in 1993 and recorded it on a 4-track at his mother’s house when he was in just 11th grade! It slowly gained underground popularity and was re-recorded in 1999 on his group Tear Da Club Up Thugs Album. This is the OG version.

Krisch: Lord Tariq “Rell Love Freestyle” and “Smooth Dominent Freestyle”

I can’t tell you how much I love the Bounce Squad intro freestyles on the Doo Wop mixtapes in 1993 and 1994. While the core of the crew was made up of Doo Wop, Snagglepuss, Rev. Gotti, Aulthat, and Uneek, Lord Tariq was kind of like an unofficial member, appearing on Spring ’93, Spring ’94, and Fall Flava ’94.

Around the same time, he showed up on mixtapes by two lesser-known Bronx DJs. The first is a freestyle from a DJ Rell Love mixtape from 1993 and features Tariq rapping over two beats: Dr. Dre’s “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang (Remix)” and Lords of the Underground’s “Funky Child.” The second freestyle is over Gang Starr’s “Mass Appeal” beat and is taken from Smooth Dominent’s Body Count tape.

At the time of these freestyles, Lord Tariq released two rare 12”s with the Gunrunnerz, as well as the hard-to-find Ghetto Chronicle Daily EP with his group, the Money Boss Players, which was reissued last year. In 1997, he and Peter Gunz had one of the biggest songs of the year with “Deja Vu (Uptown Baby),” but the album they released the following year was disappointing for the most part.

Unfortunately, the Money Boss Players’ Cop N Go album, scheduled for release in 1998, never came out. However, a couple of singles were released, among them the great Lord Tariq solo record “Walk With a Limp,” which I first heard on Doo Wop’s The New Testament mixtape in 1996.

Just imagine how a Lord Tariq solo album in the mid-’90s could have sounded.

Shout out to Step One, who shared the Rell Love freestyle on his blog a couple of years ago, and to the Grime & Lime blog, where I got the Smooth Dominent mixtape from.

Lord Tariq “Rell Love Freestyle”

Lord Tariq “Smooth Dominent Freestyle”

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Good shit, PICKS POSSE! And thanks to everyone else for rolling through, hope you enjoyed this.

I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow.

Peace!