dedication....

robert you're nuts. this ones for you.

"off the back of the neck" returns with another dose of reality. This past Monday marked the two year anniversary of my vesectomy (shout out to all my peeps with no bullets in the gun). As a father of two beautiful children ages 8 and 2, I now know that if you are truly bout it, bout it when it comes to being a parent it is no doubt the hardest job in the world. I like some folks out there got an early jump on being a parent with the birth of a healthy baby girl at the tender age of 19 with the latest edition coming two yrs ago. I knew months before my wife gave birth to our second child that I was getting clipped no doubt. In this day in age it's hard enough to get by when all you need to worry about is yourself, now throw some kreets up in there (situations), real talk. Getting neutered was the best decision i've ever made, I dig telling my story and watching older folks reaction, that alone was worth the $10 co-pay. Well folks the "off the back of the neck" bus stops here, thanks for joining us on this weeks ride and remember if you can't feed em, you don't need em and oh yeah if you want to shut down the factory i'll hook you up with dr craven. He sliced mine so clean I still can't find the incision. Peace, elrob.

BEATDOWN WINNER IS...

final score 12-11 edot c

Well it looks like yours truly took week 2. It was close though. Mons almost made the comeback! Now guess who's car is getting washed? This guys! For those who aint up on this Beatdown thing, let me educate. First, either Mons or I pick a song to sample. Then we do what we do and present it to ya'll every Friday. Saturday (or sometime after) we'll post the next album that we'll be sampling. Get it? If not- then leave this blog. Sike.


Now! On to the submissions for week 3.

Artist (who we sampled from): Tavares
The Song: Check It Out

E.C

Monsrock

90’s Hip-Hop on your iPhone?

Producer, MC, and software developer Insight (Y Society) treats us to BeatSequencer BoomBap for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Designed for speed and simplicity, the drum sequencer features auto-quantizing, simple pattern creation, and kits modeled after 90’s styled Hip-Hop.

Features:
* A total of 85 super punchy kick drums
* Crunchy snares, crispy hats & percussion sounds
* 16 step switches for editing sounds on a sequence
* Auto-quantizing so recorded hits always fall on time
* Save and load your sequences
* Record button to add sounds to a drum loop
* Eight drum kits, and ten pads
* Close the app and start where you left off
* Creating a pattern only takes a few seconds

Head over to BeatSequencer Boombap for complete info

better yet, do yourself a favor. get a job. save some money. start collecting records. keep your job. keep digging. drop the best $900 you will ever spend in your life on an MPC and make beats the way its supposed to be done not by a 1.99 application on your phone that has sounds layed out for you already. find you own sound.

BEATDOWN SAMPLE

Here I give to you, the sample for this weeks beatdown. If you dont know the deal yet- me and my mans Mons Burgundy attempt to sample the same record/song each and post the results every Friday. So with 3 days to go here it be. Oh yeah... Better late than never.

Artist: Tavares
Song: Check It Out

SUITE FOR MA DUKES

it is lovely.

im gonna make sure i miss this one.

you got to stop frontin

"off the back of the neck" otraves with the latest installment. Check it out. Being the king, creator, founder, CEO and el presidente of DBG I take the rules and laws of DBG very seriously. the first and probably most important of all rules is your word. Frontin ain't cool on any level, it's unethical and just wrong in every way. With that being said I had a 48 min phone convo lassa night with one of my close DB associates and I was given him some pre-paid guff for a meeting we're having this weekend ( I'am already counting him out) and while choppin up some serious game on some oldies records it reminded me how I (yours truly) broke the cardinal rule this past weekend. I weathered this weekends massive storm at the crib and cupcaked it. In doing so I flaked on my Sunday ritual (sippin boo lytes and bumpin the rarest oldies) with my tag team partner cmack. In doing so not only did I miss out on some of the rarest oldie gems and sports beverages, i recieved a vicous and well deserved text message later on that afternoon. I have kept the message stored in my cell to serve as a constant reminder that frontin isn't and won't be tolerated no matter who you are. I've learned and grown from this incident, I hope you all have as well. This concludes this weeks issue, see u suckas around the bend. Peace, elrob.

THE BEATDOWN ROUND 2

final score 9-6 monsrock
Back for your weekly beatdown! Aight Mons, it looks like you got week one under your belt so I gotta swing back! These ones were sampled from The Love I Found in You by The Brothers of Soul. Classic tunes so I recommend you download the O.G!

MONSROCK


EDOT C

BEATDOWN WINNER IS......

TBA...12 hours left... somebody vote for E please.
Tomorrow we"ll announce the winner of the BEATDOWN wk 1 and will post our submissions for week 2. stay tuned party people.

THE WATERPROOF M.C...

One of the dopest on the mic- RAS KASS. I was (still am) a big fan of Ras Kass ever since I first heard his Soul On Ice album. Was that an ep? Then he dropped Rasassination which had a few gems as well. On and on I can go but I won't. His latest album Institutionalized dropped back in August. Its aight. I've been waiting for The Four Horsemen album though! In the meantime peep this classic. This one here is the Diamond D Remix of Soul on Ice which dropped way back in '96.

BEST BEAT EVER? REALLY?

Apparently Kanye is yellin his head off again. Ye' was on Sway and Tech last weekend and made the statement "I just did one beat the other day —probably one of the best hip-hop beats of all time, if I do say so myself." Really? I'm sorry but i doubt it. I kinda liked kanye when he came out you know he had a couple joints, nothing really mindblowing and definitely nothing new. he applied the same formula mufukas have been using for years and took credit for it. so really to make such a dope beat, you must be really good at your craft... and i cant really think of any Ye' beats that make me want to go back to the drawing board and step it up. beats that made me think whhhoooaaa brrrrro....
can you?

Read the rest of his nonsense here

BEATDOWN UPDATE

well people only 4 days left to vote for the champ of Week 1 of the BEATDOWN. so while we wait and see who prevails, let me bless you with the source of week 2...Its called The Love I Found in You by The Brothers of Soul.. vibe out on this and look for traces of it in this friday's BEATDOWN wk 2.
By the way, ed im winning.

THE WACKNESS

Joaquin Phoenix is now a rapper? WTF is going on? I couldn't believe it either but here it is. Turns out he calling it quits on acting and becoming a MC- I mean rapper. He even grew a thick ass beard as his new image! Oh and wait til you see him fall off stage at the end! This is classic! As Rick James once said, "Cocaine is a hell of a drug."

BOOTSY COLLINS

Along with Hip Hop, Soul, Blues, etc., etc- I'm also big fan of the Funk. Especially Bootsy Collins. When Bootsy did it you knew it was gonna be funky.Hella flavor on this one from Blues, to the wah wah, to Hendrix. He does it dope. And of course your gonna recognize the vocals. Eazy E sampled this song for his track "I'd Rather Fuck You". And if you ever see Superbad on dvd, peep the dvd extras. They got some behind the scenes shit where they show the music behind the film. And guess who did it? Yep, Bootsy.
Peace, beer and beats.

2003 flashback

HA! so i found some OLD files from like 2002-2004 of various pix, tracks, flyers of stuff INE was doing and though why not pass some on... the pic above was my second trip up north, but el robs first. all that booze on the porch we borrowed from some gas station we were regretfully invited to the cooler for a shopping spree and it was on all weekend. shee-yit we even got some jerky. thats how the Icrew gets down.

peep the track below. some lost and found shit fa ya. 2003 INEshit. i was still making beats on the yamaha keyboard then and didnt know much about mixing down or what not. we were always in a hurry to get shit on tape. so check it out holla back. i got some more dusties for you later.

BEANS AND RICE

ok, so this is me pluggin my own shh here.. but no apologies.

If youve been sleeping on the Cap City hiphop scene, heres your wake up call. Check out the new project by Pete B- Beans and Rice, produced by yours truly. Big ups to my man Fritz for making this happen. One night i was out at cap garage and saw dude so we bullshitted for awhile and i mentioned i wanted to do a beat for the CUF like they really need it, cause N8 got some slappers. but i gave him my number and Pete called me the next day. didnt take long to link up and i shot him something like 60 beats to vibe out with. we only ended up using like 10 everything else was on the fly. but more on that story later....
But hey, We trying to go ghetto gold on this one people. Check it on iTunes and eMusic in a couple weeks. In the meantime visit one of these stores to cop your copy of the Pre-release. Also peep the write up in the Sac News and Review.

Giant Peach Store

Access Hiphop Store

"Beand Rice and Guts" the SNR Review

funkywine

If there's one thing that's remained constant in our camp is our passion for sippin the sports beverages. we have beers for certain times of the day, seasons and occasions so I feel it only right to start my "off the back of neck" weekly blog on drinking ettiquite. today I'll be breaking down wine ettiquite. DBG wine ettiquite, look i'm down with a nice glass of merlot, maybe over dinner with a nice slab of bloody steak or with the mrs. to get the night started properly, but never is it ok to bust out a bottle of smokin loon if your chillin with your boys especially if they are DBG affiliates. The only wine that is acceptable with your boys is barley wine because that is some strong next level shit, or carlo rossi (rhine only)over ice. so if you hit me with "oh thats all i got", prepare to be insulted and prepare to be reminded of it everytime we link in the future. this concludes my first installment stay tuned next week and remember when the DBGorillas come through keep that shit in the cupboards. elrob.

elrob here broadcasting live from the detoxx boxx, Ive been catchin some serious guff for not contributing to the coldtwelvers blog so I figured I'd start with an intro. While mons and e will b breaking u guys off with whatever it is they write about, I'll be Hitten y'all with the latest news on the Oakland raidas and a weekly joint tiltled "off the back of the neck". Stay tuned and oh yeah "see you round the bend número two".

LIKWIT CREW 1999

A classic Likwit Crew video. Off one of my all time fav albums FOCUSED DAILY, this track features Tha Liks (back then it was Tha Alkaholiks) and Phil The Agony. If you ain't got this one then you just don't know. These days you can't find an album that knocks all the way through. As Rob C would say- this be da bump.
"Don't mistake this for no pop rap, pop / But that raw deal fell, that real hip-hop."
-Herut

YOUR WEEKLY BEATDOWN

THE BEATDOWN IS HERE MONSROCK VS EDOT C

After a week of jabs and choke holds the day has finally arrived. If you checked in a few days back then you know whats up. On a weekly basis, Mons and I will be freaking the same song and showing ya'll the results. Some might say its a battle. Whatever ya'll wanna brand it- peep skills.

and make a comment to this post, let us know whos washing who's car or bike...

Artist: Chuito and The Latin Uniques
Song: I Wish I Could, 1968

Behind a Classic..

Heres a little insight for the Wu fans...



"It was clear. It was fresh," replied GZA, when asked how his head was while making Liquid Swords. "We were on a roll, and it was the perfect time to get in the studio and just do it."
The year was '95 and the first generation of Wu-Tang solo projects was gripping fans globally. And for his part, GZA never did waste ink and has shown a penchant for writing since Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and his debut, Words From The Genius. Even in a year of memorable releases, Liquid Swords' rhymes coupled with RZA's cinematic beats stood tall, furthering Wu-Tang's dominance to this day.
Thirteen years later, Liquid Swords continues to age well and is a stellar case of quality '90s hip-hop. Here for the first time ever, GZA talks about the making of the heralded classic, breaking down the album track-by-track and allowing insight into vital era in which it was made.

Read Full Article Here

ALC

alchemist looks like bad santa here....

SNL feat T-Pain

NEVER THOUGHT ID BE ON A BOAT.....


too bad it sounds like all that other nonsense polluting the airwaves

Black Milk Video

peep.

SOUNDclash

speaking of beat battles...Check out this video from MOCHILLA- The Rootdown Soundclash featuring beat battles between some of the most well known beatsmiths DAMN I WISH I WAS THERE!
Cut Chemist vs Madlib
Will I Am vs Thes One of People Under the Stairs
Oh No vs Exile



Read the full article here.

THAT HOTNESS

PEEP

INEcrew

To all the oldschool ine roadies, the site is back in effect! just a couple more tweaks and we're all good. damn hackers.

INEcrew.com

BEATDOWN TOMORROW

tomorrow will be the first installment of the BEATDOWN series between MONSROCK and EDOT C. make sure you check in. your comments will determine the winner!

if i win, ed has to wash my car.

SOMEWHERE IN BROOKLYN?

A DAILY VISUAL FOR YA'LL THAT BE DIGGIN.

J DILLA TRIBUTE

to all dilla fans..do yourself a favor, log into itunes asap and check out this album. SUITE FOR MA DUKES-EP. its a 36piece orchestra paying homage to one of the best that ever touched the box. REST IN POWER
heres a lil taste....
listen here: FIND A WAY

BEATDOWN coming soon!

Be sure to check in this friday, every friday its on. Im ready. I hope E is.
to be continued.......

KING OF ROCK

Various sites are reporting Run DMC is the next in line to get a major motion picture biopic. the movie will be based off the book “Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC — The Authorized Biography.” its the rags to riches story of Joseph “Run” Simmons, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizel REST IN POWER and how they ushered hip-hop into mainstream popular culture.
i wonder who will be cast? check back for updates.

i feel anyone who calls themself an mc, or dj needs to pay some respect and check this out (if it ever makes it out) cause if it wasnt for these dudes, 99% of you/ US wouldnt be doin this shit. but wtf do i know.

E.C V.S MON$ROCK?

One thing my couzo Williecrackanother and I have always talked about doing was sampling the same record (song) to see what difference in creativity we can come up with. So from this point on you can go ahead and start spreading the word that these two are battling- even thought we're not. Or are we? Anyhow, check in this Friday PM to peep what we came up with.
I guess I'll start it off with the first pick.........Chuito and the Latin Uniques. The song is called I Wish I Could.

VINYL OF THE WEEK

Just stepped back in from diggin when I thought, "I'm laggin on my Vinyl Of The Week." So I reached in and pulled out one of my favs from Bloodstone. Get used to this, cause between mine's and Mons' stash- your in for some treats. This one here is called WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? PART TWO. Fact: Bloodstone took a trip out to England to record this album back in 73'. They even mix in some electric/psychedelic guitar in on the track KEEP YOUR OWN THING TOGETHER.


http://www.divshare.com/download/6508375-d38

RASHID HADEE

If ya haven't heard of Rashid Hadee... WTFiswrongwithyou?! This dude has been making noise for a minute now- and is still underated! Not only does he kill on the beats but also has dope lyrics. You might have heard him from Chapter 13. Look him up, you'll find plenty (i.e Dedication). Peep this old/dope video from GrafficAudio.com.

DO-OVER

ok so like most of my squad, im a beatnut fan. get used to it cause you might see a few posts on the nuts pretty often. they've always been banging out some grimy ass records. the production always on point. always got some crazy ass drum loops noone else fucks with. and once again i refer back to the B-Bass convo we had last weekend at gramma glo's and B mentioned how Junkyard Ju never really got his props on the mic. i concur...but whenever i hear stonecrazy,... shee-yit. im zoned out. simple enough. and man, one of the best shows ive ever been to was the beatnuts, greg nice, the arsonists at maritime hall in the sco'. this was back in the day when INE was making TAPES not cd's!! el rob, doon and me went out there. got our sips on in the parking lot..(menu) thats when hiphop shows were fun. when corny acts werent allowed on stage. damn that was only like 2001 wtf happened???
so check it out. everyone does remixes all the time right? ( you say right) cool, so i got one too but this remix i put to the gat-damn video. i think it just completes the package.

hollaback if you want the mp3 download link.


bangitinyajeep.peace.

OB4CL2

some new meth vs chef vs pretty tone

Heres an untitled track off the upcoming OnlyBuilt4CubanLinx2
keep ya eyes and ears open

YO GHOST fix ya shirt son!

LISTEN HERE

PR

heres some fairly new Pete Rock Producto's. Dont really care too much for the song as a whole but the beats cool, its a ray of hope after last years project... im a big PR fan but man it was hard for me to really dig on NY's Finest. whenever i speak with my man Drasar we always have a discussion on the new beats weve been vibing off and when NY Finest came out i wasnt too impressed and when i told my man that he's like "aaawwwwwwwww dudes out!" but somehow drasar convinced me to listen to it again. its ok G. i guess i was just expecting some classic PR. i guess when youre a pioneer and got so much dope shit, its hard to top yourself sometimes. cant win em all.
in the meantime....

EARATIK STATIK - TEARZ! (PROD PETE ROCK)

bangitinyajeep.peace.

F*@K this rap shit i listen to classical

It's Dilla month as stones throw records and as much as his music is celebrated worldwide, his family struggles to keep their head above water...

THREE YEARS AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH, J DILLA'S BEATS AND REPUTATION LOOM EVER LARGER OVER HIP HOP. BUT FOR HIS MOTHER - WHO NURSED THE VISIONARY PRODUCER THROUGH A CHRONIC ILLNESS AND HAS WATCHED HIS ESTATE LANGUISH IN LIMBO - THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Throwback

classic.

History Lesson

Here chingo gives us the rundown.

the Party Starta

boo lite killed it with this years superbowl highlight

note: this will most likely be my only sports related post.

Speaking on Styles...

wtf is this??

Termanology - Tight Pants Are For Girls

bron one bombs on all

BRON4000

some serious shit here. i mustve been sleeping or something. accidentally came across a link to this event back in 06' but doesnt matter. this is just a sample of some of this dudes creativity. next time i'll be prepared to inform my people before the next event. this is one of the most genuine naturally talented dudes ive ever known. Big Bron-Rock put me up on some game..ef that some truth. even blessed me with the name Mon$rock. thanks brutha! its been a while but i remember when i got my name. i think i called in sick to work and went over to madplanets house to build and bron-oners was like on a lil vacation of sorts. we went striking down broadway for a cup of coffee puffin some ill japanese smokes that are probably illegal in the states due to the nicotine content and dude put it on heavy about graffitti, mc'in, beats and style, style, style. anyhoo, thanks for everything and keep on big brutha.
Check out BRON4000 here

MEGA montana

one of my favorites speaks the truth on the HIP-POP bullshit flooding the airwaves.

One of Queensbridge’s most respected alums, Cormega, spoke yesterday with HipHopDX to provide some early details regarding his forthcoming third official solo album, Born & Raised.
‘Mega promises that he’ll be bucking the trend that has swept into even his beloved NYC of late by not featuring any Auto-Tune assisted singing or rapping anywhere on his new effort.
“That’s the dumbest shit I ever heard in my life,” he said of the ‘Tune phenomenon. “I’m not gonna put that shit stain on my album. ‘Cause that shit, that’s not gonna be here forever. That’s one thing that’s hurting a lot of [artists], ‘cause as soon as something’s hot muthafuckas say fuck what I been doing that made me who I am, I’m gonna try something new because this nigga just did it and he’s poppin’ off… So now you got respectable artists doing something that Roger Troutman made dope, but these people are fuckin’ it up. So I don’t want nothing to do with that.”

Read the full article here.

Cormega Talks New Album, Label Situation And DJ Premier

RIP Punisher

This week on february 7th marks the nine year passing of BIG PUN, one of the greatest mc's to ever do it. this last weekend i was posted up with el rob and B-bass sippn boo-lites in my gramma glo's garage and talking about how this dudes music is still relevant and still on another level. he wasnt around long, but in that short time span he was here he quickly achieved legendary status. but i dont need to narrate anymore, peep the video above.

and also got a lil remix fa ya. my manz over at hiphopbattlefield posted this a while back but i think its relevant.

The Beatnuts feat Big Pun- Off the Books (Monsrock Do-Over)

Cap City Feature

Heres a lil quick flick of one of the illest to do it in the Cap City. The Legendary DJ EPIK. On top of being a swell guy, this dude's production is just fkin recockulous. yes recockulous. Once i saw this dude on the Mpc 2000xl, i knew it was time for me to retire that yamaha keyboard. INE was lucky enough a few years back to be blessed with one of Ep's gems.

INE- Magnum Force prod by DJ Epik
this ones for the rollers that were always in attendance whererever and whenever we got down. Cuzn Rob, Momma Soul, Motha Bee, Tiff, Rachie Baby, Big Tay and many others. I crew still here