25 years ago this week, The Coup dropped Party Music. Boots Riley produced 11 of 12 tracks around a live band, not samples ✊🏾

🎹 Mike Tiger on clavinet and Rhodes, recorded in Oakland. That`s why "Wear Clean Draws" feels like a living-room party.

📜 The jewel: the liners credit funk historian Rickey Vincent as "Consultant for the Funk." He later wrote his own book called Party Music, on the Panthers` soul band The Lumpen.

🔥 The pulled cover buried the music. Time to fix that.

Full story: link in bio.
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#TheCoup #BootsRiley #PamTheFunkstress #PartyMusic #BayAreaHipHop #OaklandHipHop #ConsciousRap #PoliticalHipHop #HipHopHistory #HipHopHeads #FunkMusic #UndergroundHipHop #HipHopCulture #CustomCreative ...

Pac told a Compton airbrush artist: paint me on a cross. He never saw it finished. 30 years later, it`s still rap`s most argued-over cover 🌕

The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory landed in November 1996, under two months after Tupac died. Debuted at No. 1 with about 664,000 first-week copies.

🎨 Ronald "Riskie" Brent got his start at a mall airbrush booth. Look closer: a road map of cities on the cross, lit by nothing but the moon and light through the cracks.

🎛️ Pac skipped the usual hitmakers. Hurt-M-Badd built "Hail Mary," "Hold Ya Head" and "Against All Odds." QDIII, Quincy Jones`s son, did "To Live & Die in L.A."

Full story at the link in bio 🔗

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#Tupac #2Pac #Makaveli #DonKilluminati #7DayTheory #DeathRowRecords #HipHopHistory #90sHipHop #WestCoastHipHop #GoldenEraHipHop #HipHopHeads #AlbumArt #AirbrushArt #Compton #HailMary #RealHipHop #CustomCreative #HipHopCulture ...

Ten years ago this week, Common gave the hook to Ol` Dirty Bastard, gone 12 years by then. That track is "Pyramids." 🔺

Black America Again dropped November 4, 2016, four days before the country voted. That timing was on purpose.

🥁 Karriem Riggins, the Detroit jazz drummer who sold his first beat to Dilla, co-executive produced it with No I.D.
🎹 Robert Glasper co-produced the title track, with Stevie Wonder on it.
🏆 "Letter to the Free" was written for Ava DuVernay`s 13th. It won an Emmy and put a Grammy, an Oscar and an Emmy on one rapper`s shelf.

Full story at the link in bio.
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#hiphop #hiphopculture #hiphophistory #rap #common #blackamericaagain #karriemriggins #robertglasper #consciousrap #chicagohiphop #odb #wutang #jazzrap #realhiphop #hiphopheads #customcreative ...

Rap`s first-ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group went to a 57-year-old jazz arranger. Quincy Jones. 🎺

Back on the Block (1989) put three generations on one record. Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis on the same album as Big Daddy Kane, Ice-T, Kool Moe Dee and Melle Mel.

He kept proving it 👇
🎬 Exec-produced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)
📰 Co-founded Vibe magazine (1993)
💿 His "Summer in the City" is the bones of The Pharcyde`s "Passin` Me By"

Two years since we lost Q on November 3, 2024. Full story: link in bio.

Rest easy, Q. 🕊️
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#QuincyJones #HipHopHistory #HipHopHeads #RealHipHop #GoldenEraHipHop #BoomBap #BigDaddyKane #KoolMoeDee #MelleMel #IceT #ThePharcyde #JazzRap #HipHopCulture #CustomCreative #StayCreative ...

The coldest voice Queensbridge ever produced started out on an R&B record. Prodigy`s real origin story runs through bebop 🎷

Born November 2, 1974, Albert Johnson first hit wax at 15 as Lord-T on Hi-Five`s "Too Young," later on the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack.

His grandfather Budd Johnson played tenor sax with Dizzy Gillespie. Hear it on The Infamous: never in a hurry, leaving space, landing late 🧊

Then "Keep It Thoro," a lead single with no hook. One long solo over an Alchemist beat.

Rest easy, P. Full story + the "Break Bread" tee: link in bio 🔗
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#prodigy #mobbdeep #queensbridge #hiphophistory #theinfamous #hnic #keepitthoro #boombap #90shiphop #goldenagehiphop #newyorkrap #thealchemist #hiphopheads #realhiphop #customcreative #hiphopculture ...

Willie D just turned 60. He wrote verse two on "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" and didn`t think it was anything special 🥊🎤

Before the bars, he had hands. The Houston amateur boxer signed to Rap-A-Lot solo in 1988, then got pulled into the Geto Boys as a favor.

🧠 Scarface wrote the song for himself, over an uncredited flip of Isaac Hayes` "Hung Up on My Baby." J. Prince said it had to be a Geto Boys record.

📈 #23 on the Hot 100. #1 on the rap chart. Kid Cudi says "Day `n` Nite" exists because of it.

Happy 60th, Willie D. Full story at the link in bio 🔗

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#WillieD #GetoBoys #Scarface #BushwickBill #RapALot #HoustonRap #HoustonHipHop #SouthernRap #SouthernHipHop #MindPlayingTricksOnMe #90sHipHop #HipHopHistory #HipHopHeads #TodayInHipHop #CustomCreative ...