I have so much going on right now that I can’t get into a full in-depth thing about this next record. All I know is that it’s a MONSTER, and that I played it somewhere and sometime in my set on Sunday to thunderous effect. I first heard this in the form of Kool G Rap’s “Untouchable Remix” of “On The Run.” Someone told me it was a Ray Bryant record so I spent the next 6 months buying every record by dude I could find, until I copped “Up Above The Rock.” Like so many soul jazz records of the late 60s it was chock-filled with tepid standards of the time like “Little Green Apples” and Burt Barcharach jawns. But the title cut? Damn… So ill, and it’s been a favorite ever since in my sets. The production is very unique in it’s sound, as it’s on Cadet and they had a very distinctive sound and feel to their records at the time, courtesy of producer Richard Evans. The composition of the song is very cinematic and matched perfectly for the storytelling prowess of G. Rap’s mafia fairytales. And to me this was one of the first productions that made me think the Trackmasters had taken their shit to the next level. Anyway, a Philly DJ living in Brooklyn plays a jazz song by a Philly pianist sampled by a Queens MC at a party in Los Angeles, and all because of that, it being give to you.
Last night I went to check my homie Rich Medina at Le Poisson Rouge which is the brand new home of his long-running night with DJ Akalepse. Anyone who goes out in NY knows that Wednesday’s at APT was always the jumpoff, and now that APT is closed it’s a good thing that Rich and the crew have a new home. Lil Ricky’s is an all-time classic party and a New York institution, so long live Wednesday nights. Which brings me to the next point – me and Rich are spinning this Friday at Deity in Brooklyn. For those that don’t know, Deity is one of the best spots in Brooklyn and it’s also my local watering hole so I’m fully down with it.
The fact of the matter is I’m pretty hyped about this. You see me and Rich go back a long time, probably going on 15 years at this point easy. I remember the first time I met the dude, back when he was still working “on the plantation” as he would call it, he used to come into Armand’s Records where I worked and cop vinyl from me. Here’s this tall lanky motherfucker with a high-top fade coming in buying indie hip-hop. A couple snaps back and forth and we were friends instantly.
In 1997 I started a new party with my dude Jack Boogie and my best friend Rahnon and it was an immediate success. I used to bring in my friends and local DJs as well as some bigger named DJs to do guest spots on Monday nights. Rich was one of the first and most frequent. By this time he already kind of started to develop a distinctive sound as a DJ. About a year into doing the party, I was in a car accident that almost ended my life. While many of my so-called friends took this time to either distance themselves from me or to find an opportunity to use my misfortune to their benefit, Rich stepped up to bat. While I was hospitalized Rich took over The Remedy’s operations and DJing and kept it afloat. All without paying himself a dime. Him and Rahnon held it down and so later on that year, when I was able to return to work, I was returning to a lively scene that was better than ever. But the story doesn’t end there…
After I returned and for the next several years with me and Rich as partners in this music thing, we really changed the game. I can say that right now and with all humility that I can muster say that we were doing things and had a scene that was unlike anything that had come before. Our roots planted firmly in hip-hop and funk but we were really all over the map. Anything was game and our people were extremely loyal. Before we knew it we had a monster on our hands, basically the illest party that I could have imagined.
Rich cutting up doubles of D.I.T.C. while Kurupt freestyled on the mic. Me playing Gary Numan “Cars” while Andre 3000 and Big Boi danced alongside some of Philly’s finest dancers. Rich DJing for Slum Village while they performed right on the dancefloor for my birthday party, me and Baatin (RIP) sharing wine from a jug that he brought for the occasion. Me beatboxing on the mic while Goldie played dubplates in a surprise set, later on watching a pre-solo career Justin Timberlake dance to doubles of James Brown “Mind Power.” Rich being the very first person up in the clubs that I saw that would have the whole room of hip-hop heads rocking to a 12 minute Fela Kuti jam – yeah, it all went down there in Philadelphia, at Fluid “University,” at The Remedy, with me a Rich. And ask anyone who knows about that last hour of the night – that pretty much made people want to switch careers straight up.
So yeah, out of the 90s and into the 00s we went and eventually Rich and I broke off into our own directions and the party ended around the time I moved to New York (and ended up helping start yet another legendary party, The Rub.) But although we both have garnered our own levels of success there’s so much that is lent to that extremely pivotal era of my career, those several years where we went all out every Monday night in Philly. And remaining friends for so long we’ve always talked about making another run at this grand old RX215 thing. So this Friday at Deity in Brooklyn, it’s going down. Hope you can make it – we fin to get it cracking up in there.
A few years ago me and Rich did a one-off at Fluid and it proved to be an amazing time. My homies over at The Fader magazine decided to ask me a few questions about the night, it’s history and whatnot, the music, and they still have that interview up on their site. That’s where I got all these photos from. Anyway, check the article out here: Doing It Well.
Also, I found this article that the homie Bobbito wrote about The Remedy back in 2001. Granted he’s the homie and he spun at the spot a few times so it might be a little biased, but nah man fisk that this is the real haha. But for real though it’s kind of a glowing and apt description of the energy. It’s from his “Foglights in the Front” column, originally published on 360hiphop.com on March 16th, 2001.
“Sick of the bullshit? Your favorite hip-hop purist provides the Remedy while waxing poetic about the charms of Illadelph.
By Bobbito
Let me say that Illadelph has it going on, to the pumpkin-pie-delicious-smell level. I’ve been one of the rotating guest DJs along with Cash Money (the hip-hop relevant one) at Club Fluid on 4th Street off of South Street. The jam is called the Remedy with resident DJs Cosmo and Big Rich Medina, and has been going down funk-hard on Monday nights for the last three years. It is, without question, a hip-hop paradise, the dopest continuous weekly hip-hop (the cultural reference, not the abused meaning) jam in the United States that I’ve been to since Payday’s in New York back in 1988-9. It took them a second, early on, to clear out the radio-programmed club clientele but since then the place is chock full of HEADS, female and male, who shit, wipe, and dental floss hip-hop.
The crowd wants to hear album cuts, early releases, indies, old school, and originals; Anything that remotely fits into the realm of what hip-hop should be, they slurp up like spaghetti pasta. What separates it from everything else is that people don’t just stand and bop their heads like all the younger “I’m-down-with-the-underground-so-I-don’t-dance” kids of the home hip-hop development generation. People move to rhythm in Philly, with their mind, neck, heart, knee joints, and toes. I can spin in Europe a thousand times and get the same amount of people to get on the dancefloor and move to unfamiliar music (in fact, the more obscure you go, the more the crowd responds). For that, Europe’s hip-hop community gets mad love. They revere a DJ’s ability to select. Stateside, most club-goers think you’re a jukebox in the DJ booth, only playing mundane requests from radio and video playlists they’re familiar with.
New York is no longer the home of hip-hop. It’s home now is much more personalized, residing only in the hearts that know. Philly, or more specifically the constituents of Remedy, are all as open-minded as Europeans crowds. But I’m more satisfied, more rewarded when I spin there as opposed to Europe. People in Philly not only dance, they dance really well. And respectfully. And together. Normally, if I start spinning breaks at a spot, the b-boys in the room take over the dancefloor, demanding so much room for their circle that it kills the vibe for the other dancers who just simply enjoy dancing to breaks. At Remedy, the breakers share floor space with everyone. And in the circle, everyone else joins in: Capeira dancers, ex-house music dancers and just straight up nasty hip-hop dancers (yes, people forget, but you don’t have to be a b-boy/b-girl to dance to hip hop and be nice with yours. It’s supposed to be interpretative). I also like that the nicest breaker I’ve seen out of Philly is a women named Jewel. It’s by no means a male dominated community as it is in most locales.
The other thing that separates Remedy from so many spots, at least here in New York, is the sound system. New York clubs have horrible sound in general. Club Fluid’s has clarity, depth and power. You will feel the funk down to your marrow. If you live in New York, Jerusalem, Delaware or Southeastern Pennsylvania, make the trip Monday nights. If you are visiting Illadelph from out of town, make sure your travel itinerary includes a Monday night stay. Big Rich Medina and DJ Cosmo will make it worth your while, I promise. I’ve spun there almost 10 times now in the past three years and there has never been an off night. It’s on like that (Ha-hot music, the hot music). To my DJ brethren, just imagine spinning at a club and playing JVC Force “Strong Island” and the crowd not only stays on the dance floor but knows the words. Or as KRS-One said, ” I know a few understand what I’m talking about.
Peace and Blessings,
Bobbito aka Cucumber Slice”
I’ll leave it with some music – I posted this up back in February but I figured that it’s probably a good time to repost it. It took place at The Remedy some time back in 1998 or maybe 1999. This snippet is recorded live from the club with DJ Jazzy Jeff on the wheels with Black Thought, Common, Rehani and more spitting freestyles over “Love Rap” and “Mardi Gras. This is the way that it used to go down, son.
It was a great weekend – one which I had vowed to take off, but I heard that my homies DJ Supreme La Rock and DJ Skeme Richards were going to be in town doing the Hot Peas And Butta party so I decided to swing through and check it out. Also, I just happened to bring a few 45s with me just in case I got the feeling. So when i showed up, Supreme was KILLING It on the 45s so I had to jump on to throw some joints. Then Skeme got on and closed the night out. It was really a fun time, and not something that I get the chance to do too often. Inspiring, actually. So thanks to them dudes and if you have the chance to see either one of them do their thing in a city near you, definitely go – you won’t be disappointed. And check back here for more flicks, and video, soon.
So I said that I was going to talk about some rap music this week and you damn straight I’m going to make that happen. So now that America has joined the rest of the civilized world and gotten universal health care, I got to thinking of my man DJ Too Tuff who’s been battling with thyroid cancer since last year, with no health insurance. But instead of getting into that story, I want to speak on the music. Let me tell the story about a bunch of brothers from where I come from, what they had to go through, and how they changed the world (or at least, my world.) I’m fin to talk about the Tuff Crew…
Tuff Crew came about in the late 80s and consisted of (pictured above from left) DJ Too Tuff, Ice Dog, Tone Luv, LA Kidd and “The Mountain” Monty G. These five dudes, representing a slew of different neighborhoods around Philly, released their first record the Phanjam LP at the height of Philly rap’s global power. At the time you had huge acts like Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (representing Overbrook, a section West Philly,) Schoolly D (representing Parkside, a section of West Philly,) Cool C and Steady B (both representing Hilltop, another section of West Philly) to name a few groups that were already established as the voices of Philly rap. But along came Tuff Crew, a multiracial group from West, North and South Philly, with a completely unique sound to them. In a Wax Poetics article I wrote a few years ago, I penned them “Philly’s First Rap Supergroup.” The breakout single from their second album, 1988s “Danger Zone” was a high powered uptempo bass-heavy rap assault that sent shock waves across the city. I’m talking about one of the all-time great Philly anthems, “My Part Of Town.” From the opening guitar licks (taken from The Blackbyrd’s “Street Games”) to the almighty Kurtis Blow saying “So damn tough,” to those booming 808s, this song is ingrained in the psyche of any Philly rap fan from my era. That song was inescapable that summer, as you heard it blasting from pretty much every car driving down the street, in any given neighborhood. . And as a DJ, it was elementary that one of the first things that you learned was cutting up doubles of that vocal intro.
These dudes were Philly heroes. I remember when it was announced on the radio that they were holding the photo shoot on the art museum steps for the back of their second album on the radio. I begged my mom to let me go but she didn’t. But still, they never stopped being my favorite group, my heroes. In fact, there was an abandoned warehouse that all us kids used to hang out in (“The Factory”) at 22nd and JFK and me and my homies deemed our floor “The Danger Zone.” But all in all they were a masters at what they did. Tone Love, LA Kidd and Ice Dog had lyrics that struck the perfect balance of content, swagger and awe-inspiring dexterity. And to this day I still maintain that Ice Dog has one of the best voices in rap of all time. The beats themselves, done mostly by LA Kidd with apparently so back-up from Ultramagnetic MC’s Ced Gee, were so ahead of their time, striking a unique balance of super-rare funk breaks with a barrage of TR-808 drum machine beats. And the cuts, the DJing, provided by Too Tuff “The Deuce Ace Detonator” were so inspiring to me, that I studied those records back and forth, only to say to myself after many listens “I want to do that.”
I eventually got to know DJ Too Tuffseveral years into me first starting coming onto the party scene in the early 90s and dude was a tremendous support to me in my career even back then. In 1993 or 1994 I remember doing a huge party at Pedro Gunn’s, a reggae spot off of 4th street where I was opening up for Too Tuff. I don’t remember what it was that I did exactly, but I remember doing a certain mix involving Super Cat. He came up to me afterwards just to tell me “Man that was super dope. I wanna be like you” or something to that effect. That was one of those moments of personal validity that I’ll always remember, one of those moments where I knew that I must be doing something right. I was glad to be able to have him (along with another Philly DJ legend and friend of mine, DJ Tat Money) join me and The Rub on stage at The TLA last year. It felt as though things had kind of come full circle.
Now I love new rap music, and I’m not one of these dudes that will go around and say that everything past 1996 is terrible. But understand how hard it is for me when the stuff that I came up on back when I was a kid was so good, or in other words, so damn tough. The Tuff Crew catalog is truly remarkable, especially the second and third albums. But what is amazing to me is why, when there are so many “golden era” rap groups that are consistently given their due and their props for their contribution to the music and art form, Tuff Crew are consistently overlooked. I know that, outside of the Philly impact, they made noise in Miami for a bit. I always considered that their bass sound was a contributing factor to that, as well as them touring with The 2 Live Crew. However, aside from most music nerds (like myself, admittedly) they’re largely unknown. But regional bias aside, I hold Danger Zone and Back To Wreck Shop up there as being just as good as many of the “golden era” touchstone albums. You should check them out if you get a chance. And for the record, trials and tribulations aside, the Crew are still around doing their thing every so often. If you get a chance to check them out, make that happen. As for me, well I have nothing but love and respect for the 5 Philly brothers who, in doing what they did, made me able to do what I do.
Now, here’s some rap music to listen to: First up is “She Rides The Pony” from the “Back To Wreck Shop” album, an uptempo B-Side single that was recently appropriated brilliantly by The Roots for 2004’s “Boom” where Riq-Geez does an incredible imitation of Kane and G. Rap.
Next is “Detonator” from the “Danger Zone” album which is the ode to their DJ. All albums around this time had the obligatory “DJ cut” and this one has Too Tuff cut the track to shreds towards the end of the 3+ high powered minutes.
Here’s a remix of “My Part Of Town” done courtesy of Rutger “Rutti” Kroese from The Netherlands. It’s not dramatically different from the original, but it extends the intro some and also adds a very tasteful bridge from Lyn Collins in the mix. Thanks to my man Matthew Africa for putting me down with this a few years ago.
Last but not least comes from the first Tuff Crew album “Phanjam” from 1987, but it is not Tuff Crew. On that album they gave 2 songs to a crew that they were friends with, Camden’s Krown Rulers. Camden, NJ is kind of like to Philly what Brooklyn is to Manhattan. But without all the charm and history. Well, Camden is kind of a classic picture of urban blight. Consistently judged one of the most dangerous cities in America, Camden is one of those cities that you just drive through on you way to Philly, but never stop in. However, MC Grand Poobah (not that one) and DJ Royal Rocker came out with a monster record that still moves crowds in Philly to this day. 3-2 cross the bridge, boy! A crucial Philly rap record here, even if it’s technically from New Jersey.
So that’s it for today. Considering I’m going to Miami this week for WMC I wanted to get that Tuff Crew schitt up. But I’m going in heavy for Miami for tomorrow’s Breakbeat Tuesday so watch out.
BONUS BEAT UPDATE – I just found this vinyl rip of a song called “2-1-5″ from a group Plague Regime. I can’t find the 12” as it’s probably in my mom’s basement, but I’m pretty sure it was released on Echo International in 1998. The song is a remake of Tuff Crew’s “Open Field Attack” and the guy calls himself “Daish-Raw” which leads me to believe that it’s actually Philly rapper from the 90s Sha’Dasious. It’s not as good as the OG but still a cool record to have, especially for those folks that are into 90s regional stuff. And if that’s your thing, you should also look for the other big Sha’Dasious record that was big (at least big in Philly when it came out) “I’ma Put My Thing Down.”
Thursday November 21 – MF DOOM Book Release – Philly, PA 
In 1997 I started a new party with my dude Jack Boogie and my best friend Rahnon and it was an immediate success. I used to bring in my friends and local DJs as well as some bigger named DJs to do guest spots on Monday nights. Rich was one of the first and most frequent. By this time he already kind of started to develop a distinctive sound as a DJ. About a year into doing the party, I was in a car accident that almost ended my life. While many of my so-called friends took this time to either distance themselves from me or to find an opportunity to use my misfortune to their benefit, Rich stepped up to bat. While I was hospitalized Rich took over The Remedy’s operations and DJing and kept it afloat. All without paying himself a dime. Him and Rahnon held it down and so later on that year, when I was able to return to work, I was returning to a lively scene that was better than ever. But the story doesn’t end there…
After I returned and for the next several years with me and Rich as partners in this music thing, we really changed the game. I can say that right now and with all humility that I can muster say that we were doing things and had a scene that was unlike anything that had come before. Our roots planted firmly in hip-hop and funk but we were really all over the map. Anything was game and our people were extremely loyal. Before we knew it we had a monster on our hands, basically the illest party that I could have imagined.
So yeah, out of the 90s and into the 00s we went and eventually Rich and I broke off into our own directions and the party ended around the time I moved to New York (and ended up helping start yet another legendary party, The Rub.) But although we both have garnered our own levels of success there’s so much that is lent to that extremely pivotal era of my career, those several years where we went all out every Monday night in Philly. And remaining friends for so long we’ve always talked about making another run at this grand old RX215 thing. So this Friday at Deity in Brooklyn, it’s going down. Hope you can make it – we fin to get it cracking up in there.
A few years ago me and Rich did a one-off at Fluid and it proved to be an amazing time. My homies over at The Fader magazine decided to ask me a few questions about the night, it’s history and whatnot, the music, and they still have that interview up on their site. That’s where I got all these photos from. Anyway, check the article out here: 
These dudes were Philly heroes. I remember when it was announced on the radio that they were holding the photo shoot on the art museum steps for the back of their second album on the radio. I begged my mom to let me go but she didn’t. But still, they never stopped being my favorite group, my heroes. In fact, there was an abandoned warehouse that all us kids used to hang out in (“The Factory”) at 22nd and JFK and me and my homies deemed our floor “The Danger Zone.” But all in all they were a masters at what they did. Tone Love, LA Kidd and Ice Dog had lyrics that struck the perfect balance of content, swagger and awe-inspiring dexterity. And to this day I still maintain that Ice Dog has one of the best voices in rap of all time. The beats themselves, done mostly by LA Kidd with apparently so back-up from Ultramagnetic MC’s Ced Gee, were so ahead of their time, striking a unique balance of super-rare funk breaks with a barrage of TR-808 drum machine beats. And the cuts, the DJing, provided by Too Tuff “The Deuce Ace Detonator” were so inspiring to me, that I studied those records back and forth, only to say to myself after many listens “I want to do that.”
I eventually got to know 
Now I love new rap music, and I’m not one of these dudes that will go around and say that everything past 1996 is terrible. But understand how hard it is for me when the stuff that I came up on back when I was a kid was so good, or in other words, so damn tough. The Tuff Crew catalog is truly remarkable, especially the second and third albums. But what is amazing to me is why, when there are so many “golden era” rap groups that are consistently given their due and their props for their contribution to the music and art form, Tuff Crew are consistently overlooked. I know that, outside of the Philly impact, they made noise in Miami for a bit. I always considered that their bass sound was a contributing factor to that, as well as them touring with The 2 Live Crew. However, aside from most music nerds (like myself, admittedly) they’re largely unknown. But regional bias aside, I hold