Day 5 of HHC appreciation week. Here’s a really in depth interview with the first hip-hop band (click each image to enlarge), let’s hope they get asked to stand in on Jimmy Fallon when The Roots go on tour. Stetsa don’t often get the praise they deserve, we’ve certainly not given them enough shine over the years. The original members of Stetsa probably went onto achieve more with their various side projects like Gravediggaz and Prince Paul with De La Soul than they did as a group but we hold a special place in our hearts for classics like ‘Sally’ and ‘Go Stetsa’ and for those who watched Westwood’s N Sign radio will remember, the ‘Talkin All That Jazz’ video was a staple.

Sally:

[See post to listen to audio]

Original Stetsasonic Demo Tape:

[See post to listen to audio]

HHC appreciation week, day 4. Today we find the Demon Boyz in interview with Simon Dine. We know you’re busy but this a great piece so try and read it rather than just look at the picture and listen to the audio. They’re brilliant snapshhots of hip-hop history. The Boyz opine about oddly shaped eyebrows, how they were discovered by Dave Pearce, Thatcherism and come up with one of the best euphemism’s for police brutality we’ve heard.

Begs the question, what were your favourite Music Of Life highlights?

An early Demon Boyz Radio Session:

[See post to listen to audio]

This is the session which took place right after the HHC Interview…

As promised it’s day 2 of our HHC appreciation week and more material from it’s first ever issue. If you didn’t know, a new digital version of the magazine is  available on virtual news stands everywhere right now. First up, to view the images up above  click on them and they will magically grow. We personally love Simon Trask’s opening gambit “Milk, Gizmo and Lyte aren’t a firm of solicitors”. Saying that, we can laugh at Simon’s introduction now but back then we weren’t to know, Audio Two were brand new on the block, they could have been practicing lawyers for all we knew. Two years ago if we had introduced you to Wale you’d have thought somone had discovered a rapping whale and we had simply made a typo. Of course now we know he’s a rapper nobody really gives a shit for and if you’d have thought about it you would have realised huge mammals such as whale’s can’t rap, well in the conventional sense of the word. Anyhoo, read on and more classic HHC tomorow.

Way back in 1988 Hip-Hop Connection’s very first issue hit the shelves in the UK. What you see here is an authentic dog-eared Fat Lace office copy of that very issue. Note the small arrow pointing at DJ Spinderella’s head. Before we were old enough to buy pornography, this was as good as it got.

Edited by Chris Hunt with contributions from esteemed journalists such as the Media Assassin, Simon Trask and Malu Halasa, not forgetting photography by the one and only Normski, this issue marked the beginning of a 21 year stint as a world leading printed publication. During it’s reign other magazines came and went but HHC was the original rap monthly. So to celebrate the launch of HHC Digital (AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE), each day this week we’ll bring you an original article from the first couple of issues of HHC to cherish forever.

Having both contributed and been personally associated with HHC for almost 15 years , the Fat Lace crew take their hats off to Hip Hop Connection and it’s long serving editor Andy Cowan. Sadly, you’re looking at the last ever issue of HHC.

Biggie died yesterday, not literally silly, 12 years ago yesterday. We’re quite glad because it means we have a reason to post classic print articles like these. What else would we do otherwise? So here’s a classic Source cover from ‘95. A couple of interesting points. First up he’s bigger than the twin towers which is impossible, that would make him the biggest man in the world, secondly he shares the cover with Show & A.G. and that would never happen now.

So click below for enlarged images from a ‘day in the life of The Notorious B.I.G. Makes for fascinating reading and we would personally kill for some footage of Biggie on The Jon Stewart Show……and as if by magic, here it is (thanks BB for alerting us to this courtesy of Meaning Of Dope)

Biggie Bonus 1: Back in ‘97 shortly before Biggie passed, our then Drama Editor, Mike Hard, predicted the death of B.I.G. and performed a spoof autopsy. Here’s a snapshot of teary eyed Fat Lace nostalgia for you.

Biggie Bonus 2: CLICK HERE for more dead rappers.

New HHC is all set to drop, with the inclusion of The Game on the cover set to upset idiots who feel someone like Million Dan should be on there instead. Yes, and the mag would then sell 6 copies. As much as The Game annoys – petty beefs, stupid tattoos, the worthless Black Wall Street mixtapes that prove he’s the only guy in his clique with talent, relentless name dropping (We need to do a count – did he mention Dre less or more on his second album which wasn’t actually produced by Dre?) that makes his cover quote here scarcely credible – he’s still got that indefinable something. And while ‘Doctor’s Advocate’ was all over the place in terms of quality, there was still some A-list material on there: ‘Wouldn’t Get Far’, ‘Compton, ‘One Blood’. Our personal favourite, however, is ‘Ol’ English’. Perfect material for a Sunday afternoon in the hooptie…

The Game – Ol’ English
[See post to listen to audio]

Back in the day, the late nineties to be exact, the independent magazine world was riddled with beef. We’ll give you one guess as to who was always at the centre of it. Yep, yours truly had beef with Ego Trip, we still don’t think they’re talking to us. There was the infamous set-to backstage at the first Big L tribute concert where the Fat Lace Crew were thugged out by the Ego Trip massive, they were literally massive. We’ll leave names out as we’re all respected journalists in our own right and old enough to know better. It was pretty funny in hindsight. Then there was our domestic beef with Fatboss Magazine. Again, the founder is now an established DJ / producer and all praises due to the next man’s hustle but back then it was a war kid. For the record, Fat Lace Magazine launched before Fatboss, we dropped Feb 1997, Fatboss came late ‘97 but over our dead bodies was there going to be another ‘Fat’ magazine in London. Verbal insults ensued, various figureheads in the local hip-hop scene pledged their allegiances and even a scuffle broke out on once occasion. It was all a bit gay to say the least. Water under the bridge might we add.

So with all this beef you may ask why we constantly sing the praises of our then sworn enemies, ‘Boss and ‘Trip alike? Well let’s face it, before blogging was invented there was a massive void left unfilled after the key independent hip-hop press at that time shut up shop. Damn, we used to read Ego Trip in awe that such printed perfection was even conceivable. Of course we came along and did it better. They wrote a book. We wrote a book. They did a T.V. series. We bowed out graciously. They ran for president. OK, we gave up at the T.V. bit. And Fatboss, well credit where credit is due, they took a classic cover and flipped it into a magazine. We did it later with Ice T’s ‘Power’ album but they did it first, so props. Touching on A.T.C.Q.’s album for a minute. Who the hell would put another rapper or non-affiliated DJ on their cover these days? Rappers were so secure back then. Damn, we can’t even see Kanye putting Common on his album sleeve. It’s everyone for themselves. So back to Fatboss. Even your Fat Lace editors made it onto their magazine cover. Those in the know will spot us. We’ve enlarged them here and here for you to examine. It was beef back then, make no mistake but everybody was so gentlemanly about it.

Remember when Dre really mattered and hip-hop moved units? Earlier in the month we said we wouldn’t speculate as to whether the ‘Detox’ album may or may not materialise this year. We’ll stand by that, but even if it did you could predict each step of the flimsy promotional campaign. First up, every blog would leak the cover. Then we’d be leaked numerous tracks featuring Z list G Unit rappers. Then the track listing would leak. There would be a 30 second leak of an Eminem track. The first single would be officially leaked by a Universal Music grunt and no doubt we’d all be very disappointed by a sub-par Game verse. The official mixtape would leak. We’re losing interest. Finally the official album would leak and we’re already over it. Any genuine anticipation has waned. So once again we dig back in history to get our thrills. Buying 12 inches and magazines seems like such a distant memory but it was so much more exciting.

Dr Dre – Deep Cover (Introducing Snoop Doggy Dog) – The original 12″

“Deep Cover on the incognito tip…”

This takes us back to the days when you could convince a now global megastar to do a cover shot for a tiny underground Rap title. Stress was a classic publication edited by Jessica Green. They gave a credible nod to the graffiti scene, repped New York to fullest and their contributing writers were largely unknown journalists, which guaranteed impartiality. It was honest and unaffected by industry pressures to place Ja Rule on the cover at the time. This particular cover story was a real coup, penned by Dee Tee, Eminem’s then Road Manager. Flipping Stanley Kubrick to great effect, they were spot on when they dubbed him the ‘great white hope’, whitey’s everywhere finally got their rap pass. Although this was probably one of the greatest rap magazine cover shots and certainly the best Eminem cover shot, yours truly, Fat Lace were actually the first to feature Em on a cover. We’re not detracting from Stress though, they take the crown for this one.

Eminem – Just The Two Of Us (Original EP Mix)
[See post to listen to audio]