ROB ONE TAPS THE FADER ON THE DRUM

Sometimes scrounging up tapes to record radio shows would lead to desperate measures. Spending too long searching for a C-90 could mean the difference between catching a white label pressed in the hundreds or a dope freestyle by some MC you'd never even heard of. So it goes with this tape of Rob One on The Drum. I don't recall the specific night, but I'm sure I heard Kevvy Kev say Rob One just walked into the basement and I frantically grabbed whatever tape was in front of me, stuck it in the deck and hit record. Unfortunately it ended up being some promo tape of some shitty metal band some crap label had sent me. For those not in the loop of the classic "I do a music zine, send me free shit" scam of the 90's, this meant I was dealing with a cassette giving me a meager 30 minutes (if you're lucky) a side. Typing this up is stirring up regret for too many lost tapes with songs I still haven't recovered in years of digging. Who knows where the tape(s) of the rest of this show ended up. But you don't throw away the fossil just because you broke the rock, right? With this view, we present to you a brief excerpt of Rob One's 1997 visit to Kevvy Kev's legendary show. Rob drops then unheard Rakim and Ghostface tracks plus a nice Sunz of Man drop. EB the Lyrical Storm stops by and a then unknown Chali2na starts to bust right when the tape cuts out. Yep, that's just how it goes sometimes. Rob was one of the illest ever to put records to cassette and the flawless mixing on this short bit just hammers it home. Check the fossil.

Rob One on The Drum