I just saw the other day that one of my favorite rap albums from the 90’s just turned 24. Hard to believe but yes, the numbers add up. Camp Lo dropped their Uptown Saturday Night album on January 28, 1997. I was a Junior in high school with a lot of time on my hands back then and my favorite thing to do was go right home after school, heat up some nachos and throw on BET’s Rap City. If you’ve read any of my past blogs here, you already know my love for Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City. These were the shows that introduced me to new rap singles and showed me more about the hip hop genre that I loved so much. I would straight geek out at times when I’d see a debut for a new track that I was really feeling. And when I first saw Camp Lo’s “Luchini AKA This Is It” I was glued to that small TV in our living room.
Everything about “Luchini AKA This Is It” was fresh to me. It all started with the beat which remains one of my favorite samples and beats of all time. Ski Beatz, who went by Ski at the time, produced the beat and gave rappers Sonny Cheeba and Geechi Suede the perfect soundscape for their rhymes. Their cadence and flow over Ski’s beat was perfect and the video had a Snoop “Doggy Dogg World” 70’s vibe which was right up my lane! Once I saw the video, I scrounged up enough money to hit the record store and buy the Camp Lo album, Uptown Saturday Night. When I grabbed the CD and saw the artwork I already knew I held something special in my hands. The album cover was inspired by Marvin Gaye’s classic album, I Want You so the bar was set pretty high here.
Camp Lo - Uptown Saturday Night
That CD stayed in my Discman for a long time back in 1997. It’s one of my favorite 90’s hip hop albums as Ski’s production with Camp Lo’s rhymes meshed so well together. And Ski’s production? Damn…. When was the last time you listened to “Sparkle” or “Black Connection?” AMAZING beats right there. I’ve been meaning to write an article on my favorite producers of all-time and when I get to it, Ski Beatz will be right there with DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, J Dilla, and Q-Tip.
Before the Camp Lo days, Ski was a part of the group Original Flavor who was managed by Damon “Dame” Dash and his cousin Darien Dash. You might know of Original Flavor from their song “Can I Get Open” which dropped in 1993 and featured a young double time rhyming emcee by the name of Jay-Z.
Believe this is from the late 80’s? Big L, Dame, Jigga, and Ski Beatz
Ski and Dame Dash had a close relationship so when Dame, Kareem “Biggs” Burke, and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter formed Roc-A-Fella Records, Ski slid in perfectly to work on some beats for Jay’s debut album Reasonable Doubt. Ski was working on Camp Lo’s debut album at the same time as Reasonable Doubt. Ski was active and knocking out some of the dopest beats the hip hop game has ever heard in the mid90s. He ended up producing four songs on Jigga’s debut and while all four were nice, if I had to choose my top track I’m going with “Politics As Usual.”
Ski stayed close with the Roc-A-Fella crew and laced Jay with “Streets is Watching” on his follow up album, In My Lifetime, Volume 1. At this point you just knew that when you saw the name Ski tied to production on a song it was going to be worth the listen.
Now this is the part where I fast forward through a bunch of years and get you to why I wanted to write this blog in the first place. While Ski Beatz was in my opinion, one of the best beatmakers of the 90’s, it was his work in the 10’s that I actually hold higher. Around 2009, his old pal Dame Dash popped up on the scene again with a 4-story warehouse in Tribeca and called the compound, DD172. DD172 was an incubator of sorts to bring creative people together whether they be artists, musicians, videographers, writers, and more. Dame was tired of the politics of the industry and wanted something new. DD172 was the umbrella for a record label (DD172/BluRoc), an art gallery (Dash Gallery), a web design firm (VNGRD79), a magazine (America Nu), and an online network (Creative Control) all in one “hippie art collective.”
DD172
My biggest interest in DD172 were the rappers and producers who were in and out of the studio along with the music that was created both in and out of that 4-story warehouse. Let me just list some of those that were around during these DD172/BluRoc years. Mos Def, The Black Keys, DJ Premier, RZA, Pete Rock, Bun B, Curren$y, Jay Electronica, Ski Beatz, A$AP Rocky, Smoke DZA, Erykah Badu, Big K.R.I.T, The Cool Kids, Stalley, Swizz Beats and a ton more that I'm probably missing.
Amanda Diva, Dame Dash, Curren$y & Jay Electronica
Did you know that The Black Keys made an album with a bunch of rappers under the name Blakroc while affiliated with DD172? I feel that album is pretty slept on! And then you had the reemergence of Ski Beatz with his production on CurrenSy’s Pilot Talk 1 and Pilot Talk 2. Curren$y has always hustled at his craft but to me it was his work with Ski Beatz that really put him on the map. I know he had his Cash Money and Young Money affiliations early on which helped get his name out there but his stoney laid back lyrics found a home with Ski Beatz production on Pilot Talk 1 and Pilot Talk 2. This was around the same time that rap blogs were really popping so you couldn’t miss Curren$y and the moves he was making. Here’s “Address” from Pilot Talk 1 with Ski Beatz on the boards and Stalley on the guest verse.
Curren$y was one of the mainstays at DD172 and while there’s more of a background between him and Dame, I’m going to focus on the positive here, the music. It wasn’t just Curren$y that was working with Ski Beatz either. Ski dropped a couple of 24 Hour Karate School albums which featured many of the artists that were around in the DD172 era. There were also the unreleased Ski Beatz tracks with Mos Def which were floating around at this time. I have no idea why these didn’t make 24 Hour Karate School albums but I’m just glad they made it out into the universe for the diehard heads to bump. Could you imagine a full album with these two???!!!
I obviously never made it to the DD172 warehouse but can imagine what the vibes were like based on some of this music released. Ski Beatz doing what he does best and lacing dope emcees with magic. And then there was the news that Mos Def, Curren$y, and Jay Electronica formed a supergroup called Central Edge Territory? I read somewhere that they had recorded 6 songs together so ummm…. can we get those songs??? Let’s go back to 2009 when this was announced. Mos Def dropped The Ecstatic which is such a good album and kind of under the radar. By the way, when did this get pulled from the DSP’s?! Curren$y was already on his Pilot Talk vibes so no need to go in further there. And Mr. Jay Elec? In 2009 he dropped “Exhibit A” and “Exhibit C” so he was at the top of his game with Just Blaze giving him fire beats.
Such an interesting grouping of emcees and I have to imagine that Ski Beatz and Just Blaze would have at least been on some of the production? Maybe even a little Madlib since he was involved with The Ecstatic? I believe that the only track they released together was “The Day” on Pilot Talk 1 but I remain hopeful we will receive more tracks at some point. At least we got “Just Begun” from 2 out of the 3 members….
Central Edge Territory - Mos Def + Curren$y + Jay Electronica
Another album I really liked that dropped from the DD172 / BluRoc era was the Murs album Love & Rockets - Volume 1: The Transformation. I never knew how the west coast emcee Murs linked up with Dame and Ski Beatz but I’ll get that story someday. I believe this album was recorded when Dame had already left the DD172 building but regardless, it was a good album from an unexpected pairing with Ski and Murs. They have some good behind the scenes footage of the making of the album which I’ve included part 1 of here. There are 5 parts so check them all out if you like what you see. I’ve included the video for “Remember 2 Forget” here which was my favorite cut off of the album. (Murs just dropped the sequel to this album called Love & Rockets Vol. 2 - The Declaration with beats by DJ.Fresh. Give it a peep!)
Looking back, DD172 just seemed to be like everything I want in my creative future. The idea of being around likeminded individuals trying new things without boundaries has always been music to my ears. Damon “Dame” Dash will always be known for the Roc-A-Fella years but it’s the DD172 era that resonates most with me. Ski Beatz definitely has a lot to do with that as well but regardless, I have some timeless classics to go back to because of what DD172 offered to this hip hop fan all the way out in San Diego….
And to come full circle, my homie Scott who runs an incubator type of cowork spot called Hardihood recently hit me up with an interesting text. He told me about these two guys who had recently started working out of the Hardihood cowork space who have a podcast. They were going to start to record their Off the Record podcast at Hardihood and when Scott mentioned some of their past guests I was blown away. Big names like Tony Robbins, Karen Civil, and Karl Kani to mention a few. Then Scott told me about their next guest…. The one and only Dame Dash! I sent Scott a text to see if they could send them a question to ask Dame and the rest is history…. I needed to know just a little bit more about DD172 and Dame elaborated on it a bit in the full podcast below! Check out the Off the Record podcast and give Tim and MB your ear sometime!