I Can't Believe How Dope I Am!

                       

12:48am Feb 15th...My man Tony Rotton aka Blak Twang hit me with the message "Tim Dog dead for real??!!"
A minute on Google confirmed it all. It's sad. Rest In Peace Tim Dog.
While I'm up I feel like I should write a little something about my memories of the man that had the killer verse on the Ultramagnetic MC's classic 'Chourus Line'. It's a record I remember well. I'm pretty sure I first heard it on Westwood's Capital Rap Show and I'm also pretty sure that I bought my copy from Reds Records in Brixton.
Tim came in HARD on that song...."AHHH ISSSHT!!!!" I can remember dissecting the whole tune virtually line by line with my boy Taiweed. Back then we'd talk about every dope hip hop release and give them all our own critical beatdown. I can remember dj Pogo cuttin' the hell out of 2 copies almost every time he was on turntables, radio or club. He'd do double-ups of the James Brown grunt on there and totally destroy that shit! I remember lending my copy to my boy T Hakeem and him giving it back months later with food filled  fingerprints on it!!! I can remember Max and Dave releasing the 'Dope Jams' compilation album and featuring it on the line up of dope jams! I can even remember rhyming at Notting Hill carnival and spitting some combustible flow pattern, and having DJ Jay (Trouble Rap) come up to me after to tell me how dope I was and that I sounded like Tim Dog on Chorus Line! Those were great days I tell you. Great.
A few years later I was settled into my gig co-hosting Choice FM's flagship hip hop show 'Friday Night Flava' with dj 279. One of his scheduled guests that particular Friday night was none other than Tim Dog himself. This was probably around 94/95 because 'I Get Wrecked' with KRS1 had finished doing the rounds. He came into the studio and was surprisingly cool and humble for a man that almost singlehandedly started the East Coast/West Coast beef!
He was pretty funny too and to be honest seemed a million miles away from the Bronx N***a he was on those classic tracks even though he was promoting the Snoop Dogg diss 'B***h Wid A Perm'. I guess a few days after that meeting I found out that he was due to do a few shows too while he was out in Europe and UK dj legend Cutmaster Swift was lined up to spin for him. The crazy part was that Tim Dog had no copies of his own records to perform with so I was asked to loan my personal copies of Tim Dog's records to Tim Dog for his tour! How dope is that! 

"Whoooo, hot damn I'm great. I'm on the Chorus Line...."

Representing Is Illmatic...(Part 1)

Let me take you back to 1994. The year that one of hip hop's most celebrated albums dropped like a bomb on all of us who love this shit! Illmatic by Nas is one of those albums that is just damn near perfect in every sense. Lyrics & beats matched together so effortlessly it's ridiculous. At the time when this momentous piece of work was nearing release, I was co hosting the Friday Nite Flava with dj 279 on Choice FM. I remember that we had a sampler cd from Columbia records that Big L's "No Ends, No Skins" & "The World Is Yours" amongst some other joints. We played that track week after week ahead of the album coming out. I remember one week in particular 279 asked me to dial a number and ask for Nas himself and prep him for a phone interview. I was nervous as hell, but I called the number and spoke to this dude that kept saying "word, word" in his now legendary QB whisper! Man, I was talking to Nas - WOW!!!!
Well, that was amazing enough for me at the time, until a few weeks later 279 tells me we have the man himself coming to the show. WHAT? Nas? Here? Yep! He asked me to speak to a couple of my rhyming friends and invite them to the show for a freestyle session with Mr Nasir Olu Bin Dara Jones! Oh shit...It's on!

All I can say is click the link and listen to what went down during that freestyle session nearly 17 years ago!
I was rhyming with Nas! Yeah, I still get excited when I think about it!
Extra Super Dope props to Stickz, Sniper G - The Assassin, and of course dj 279.

1994 Friday Nite Flava Freestyle Ft Nas, Stickz, Sniper & Big Ted