ARTICLES BY FRITZ THE CAT
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
I think Dante Ross should get an award for being one of the best rap A&R guys of all time. In the early '90s, he was working at Elektra and had one of the best rosters in the history of rap. Del, Brand Nubian, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Leaders of the New School, and one of my favorite groups of all time, KMD. I'm not gonna front like I was down from the beginning, when they first came out with ...
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  BEATS AND RHYMES
Fritz le Chat's Sixth Annual Rap Awards
SHIT THAT RULED IN 2003
Paris came back to the game, dope 80s fashion, facial hair (men only), quitting your major-label A&R job to be a broke-ass writer/musician/actor/bartender, Ludacris, cocaine, the Southern invasion, Dirty out of jail, hot chicks ...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
Some believe the Universe began with a Sound and that since the dawn of humanity, people have been trying to re-create that sound in order to advance the planet beyond the shitty state it's in now....
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
A few years back an amazing record came out that not enough of you bought. It was an instrumental hip-hop record based on a water theme, and it was obviously created by someone who smokes a lot of weed. The dude's name is DJ Frane, and the record was Frane's Fantastic Boat Ride (or Beats to Blaze to...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
Ever since he started out with the BDP crew in the mid-80s, Cool G. Rap has been a legend in the streets. After dropping a few classics and chilling on the sidelines watching his children go pro, the man is back with reinforcements. Click of Respect (Igloo Ent.) consists of the Cool Genius himself, ...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
Too $hort has it made. The guy has like four hundred gold and platinum albums and is only 29 years old. He gets more bitches than your top five rappers combined, and probably has a house in every city in the US. Somebody just got the bright idea to make a documentary about his life, which I would to...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
So, you're throwing a little end-of-summer party and you want everything to be just right. You spent all day yesterday cleaning your shit (cot damn, you really should scrub the floor behind your toilet more often), stocked your fridge with nothing but green bottles (Heineken and Tanqueray), and pull...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
It ain't how much you say, it's what you say. I got no fuckin' time on the page to play. So yesterday I get an envelope at my door. Return address says "Spytech Records," and I'm happy as fuck. Why? Because about a week before, DJ Cheapshot told me he was mailing an advance copy of the new Styles of...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
The X-Ecutioners are one of the most important DJ collectives in rap history. They've got a new mix-CD out called Scratchology (Sequence), which is a wicked history lesson for anyone interested in the development of DJ/scratch music over the last couple decades. From pioneers like Flash and Theodore...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
I already told you about the D.O.C.'s new album, Deuce. But since you don't listen, I'm gonna let him tell you a bit about it himself. If you ain't knowing, this cat played a huge role in the rise of gangsta rap, rolling with and writing for N.W.A., Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and more. His 1989 Dr...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
I write reviews, and when suckers bite, I laugh, cuz their shit sounds better now.
One of the most prolific cats in the game, your man MF Doom, has a gang of new projects in the works. Check for a collection of doomstrumentals, Special Herbs Vol. I & II (hightimesrecords.net), and Doom's al...
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 BEATS + RHYMES
This is a rap column. I write about rap music. Been doing it for over five years now (time flies). Lately though, I haven't been in much of a rap mood. Not on some "rap sucks and I'm so bored with everything" kind of way. More like an, "I've been drinking Heineken for five years, and this month I'm ...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
If you still haven't picked up Devin The Dude's new album, Just Tryin' Ta Live (Rap-A-Lot), then I don't know how you can call yourself a fan of rap music. No excuses, this is must-have shit.
You will also need Clipse's Lord Willin' (Star Trak)....
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
In honor of Molly Ringwald, I hollered at my man DJ Z-Trip this month for a little conversation on Anthony Michael Hall's favorite decade...
VICE: What are your best 80s memories?
Z-TRIP: Twisted Sister, hearing KRS-One for the first time, Rubik's Cubes, John Hughes movies, gett...
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 BEATS AND RHYMES
Jazze Pha is the future. Peep game.
One of the most highly anticipated groups in recent memory, Slum Village have hit you off with not one, but two different projects to sink your teeth into. The Dirty District mix CD (Sequence) contains a few SV cuts, plus tracks from homies Que D., Phat Kat, ...
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 THE BLACK GUERRILLA
Paris Is Still Sicker Than AIDSWhile the whole of North America has wrapped itself in the stars and stripes over the last year in some fear-induced angry "U.S.A!" chanting haze, it seems even our once-critical-of-government hip hop nation has joined the (Republican) party. Even Ghostface, supposedly a Five Percenter, offered to g...
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