Thursday, January 17, 2008

YOUR BEST BET IS TO INVEST IN TECS

In 1996 when BBO Enterprises advised us all to invest in heavy metals, I'm sure they had no idea that 10 years later the very piece of wax that contained this financial wisdom would end up becoming a nice investment IN itself. At least according to this guy.

See, ever since I first heard BBO's "Pose A Threat" on DJ S&S and Craig G's "Niggaz Don't Give A Fuck" mixtape it's become one of those records that consistently eludes me. I picked the tape up at a short lived record shop that used to be on Market St. near 6th in SF (anyone remember the name of that joint?). They had a small selection of wax but the main draw for me was the bulging binder on the counter crammed full of NY mixtape covers and tracklistings. It was the only place in the Bay I knew of at the time where you could find all the latest Tapekings related releases. Of course, they were all bootlegs and the cover of my copy of NDGAF looks like it was copied on a fax machine, but it was awesome to have all the tapes I read about classifieds in the Source right there at my fingertips for $10 a shot. It was through all the 5th generation tape hiss that I discovered BBO Niggaz' (as they are listed on the tape) "Pose A Threat" which was the only song on the tape I was unfamiliar with at the time. The beat was like the retarded son of a Rza and Havoc production complete with ear piercing strings, a random female voice sample and textbook Mobb drumms. Just the type of shit I've always been a sucker for. While I'm not sure who all the MC's are, the flows are decent and follow in the foot steps of that late 90's money, thugs agenda.

I'm sure very few copies made it out to the West Coast and most if not all of those came by way of record pools for college radio. In fact, I did find an old playlist for a 1996 Beni B show where he drops the cut in question. There's no listing for this record on discogs.com and the few times I've checked for it on the eBay machine the only copy I've seen is from that Dutch gou....uh, dealer. I haven't even heard any of the other tracks and I'm thinking since this track is tucked in at the end of the B-side it has to be the grimiest of the three.

I'm sure everyone has these ridiculous grails where even though your not putting a ton of effort into it, the chase has been too long and unfulfilled. Why do I want this record so bad? Because it's an obscure piece of late 90's grime that puts me one step closer to completing the puzzle or because it's just been so damn hard for me to find? Sometimes it's best that tracks like these remain stuck to magnetic tape, buried in hiss, surrounded by obnoxious DJ drops or college radio station ID's. It just feels better that way.

B.B.O. Enterprises "Pose A Threat" (excerpt from DJ S&S' "Niggaz Don't Give A Fuck" mixtape)

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