Pilot Rase writing rhymes in the motorhome studio circa 1997.
Here's four of the better tracks off it. Peace to Ajent Orange, Pokerface, Messy Flesh, Kiilani, Jazz-E, Mr. Ooh, and Angela Bautista. The heavy "Remain Anonymous" era Ras Kass influence here makes this pretty backpacker, but what do you expect from the Bay in '97. And is more of that nasty style necessarily a bad thing? No, it is not. Further proof that even Bay-bred backpackers were generally up on some classic breakbeat NY-centric shit, the first track, "Paydert," incorporates Bob James' banger "Nautilus" to stony success. The third track, "Triple Orgasm" is the one that Jayswift's engineer/producer Mark Jarvis helped co-produce. 
Once again our man in the field, Hardcore Jerry a.k.a. Heathkilla, breaks you off something proper, and Eons and I put in our two cents. This post is true to the lifestyle. In this junkin' life we must cherish the adventures as well as the treasures they bring, because a digger spends 99% of his time looking and about 1% finding, and how depressed would we be if we viewed that 99% as wasted, unnecessary-to-mention, time. Sometimes the true treasure is found in simply looking; seckle, it's just fuckin' junk. And sorry about the formatting issues here; it was a lot of cut and paste from emails & message boards as well as that fucked up Mac-to-PC cross-mojo shit. Take it away, Jerry:also i picked up this promising looking tape which didn't end up doing much for me.
smooth triumph's two cents: 
Copped this demo same time I got Charizma and PB Wolf's black and yellow demo with "Red light, Green Light" and all that shit on it (the one with the now famous black-n-white photo on the inside with Charizma holding up a picture of PB Wolf from grade school, they put actual developed copies of the photgraph in every tape case they distributed, I lost mine, I'm pissed that I just remembered that). Charizma was a regular guest on KSCU's Thursday Night Hype Show back then. Charizma was a cool dude. I remember them ripping a dope set at Longshoremen's Hall in SF for a Gavin Showcase that the Hype and the rest of the Bay Area College Radio Hip Hop Coalition had put together. He was hella mad after he got off stage, because someone had stolen the folding lawn chairs that him and the crew had brought on stage during their famous "Apple Juice Break" skit. He was like, "Damn, those are my dad's, he's gonna be mad as hell." I thought that was funny. I was really bummed when I found out he died. I always thought he was like the Bay's Lord Finesse. And we desperately needed one. I often ponder how different the Bay underground would sound if he was still around. I bet a lot more people than just me would still be Tim-booted up.
Welcome back to the obscurity, where shit's the best! This time we time travel forward to the mid-90s: 1996.
The confessional style of this post was inspired by the writing of TJ Smith of "Sea of Seed" whose handcrafted ‘zines about the rural midwest I’ve been revisiting as of late. I stole this tape from my old radio cohort on KSCU Rob “Rock B” Jackson’s crib back in like ’93-’95 (???). It was after a show he had set up for the Sole Sides Crew, when “Melodica” was still a test-press, at like Evergreen Community College or some other classroom-style live spot. I got drunk as shit and when we got back to Rob’s lab to post-party, in an attempt to join a conversation I had no business taking part in and to play the part of asshole in general, I told either DJ Zen or Asia Born, I forget which, that I had “two sealed copies of Expansions” (a direct quote from that Beasties song). Needless to say, they weren’t too amused, and I think someone tried to son me with, “Wow, are they really sealed.” Rob shot me a look like: “I’m trying to impress these dudes [he wanted to be their road manager or something], why are you fucking me up?” But, Gab seemed oblivious to any mega-digger-posturing and more than willing to share his bammer joints with me, and thus I couldn’ta given two squirts of monkey piss about anything.
I have no idea where The Incline is from nor what year they recorded these three songs nor what their names are (Kohari the Insomniac??? Damien??). But if you will allow me to apply the science of conjecture and bullshitting, the dank fog in my brain is slowly forming letters and... I think they were either from The Town or Sac. I’d love to find out the truth. Did they ever morph into another project? Do they still rap and/or make beats? Who are they?
The tape is laid out as such:
Side I
Frozen Cocaine
Side II
Just Listen
Sideways Poetics
The first song, "Frozen Cocaine," is regularly considered the "banger" by folks I've showed this to, because of it's furious dichotomy of drug messaging and perfectly placed EPMD sample. The other two are more your typical early-90's backpacker fair and not as dark as the jump off, but definitely worth posting, so I did.
Later that night, Rob’s hotheaded roommate Jermaine came home wasted and complaining of being shot in the thigh with a "BB gun" after tussling with some “Mexicans” outside of San Jose Live. After Rob saw the wound he urged Jermaine to allow a sober person to take him to the ER. Jermaine turned out to have a .22 slug embedded in his leg. Some BB gun. Jermaine was a division 1 defensive back and very patriotic about being from Merced. Ever since this incident I've considered people from Merced tough as nails. To commerate the evening, while everybody was taking Jermaine to the hospital, I snatched a handful of tapes off the floor of their living room in front of the stereo (remember those?) and one of them was The Incline. Rob was always a good friend to me, and I feel I’m finally doing penance to our friendship by airing this all out. Rob, if you read this and you want your tapes back, they’re yours, mane. But all you Bay Area demo fiends are lucky, ‘cause you get to listen to these old ass unreleased jams without the tinge of guilt and regret I feel from being a drunken shit-talking loser who steals from his friends the same night their roommate gets shot. Rob’s dad was a preacher on TV in Richmond to boot!
The first time I saw Troop 187 perform was at San Mateo City College at a rap contest that I had gone to because my Paly Alto rap mentor Def Emcee X (aka MD) had entered with the group he had at the time with his brother Style called Mad Africans. I forget who won that contest, but I vividly remember Troop 187. It was two dudes: one heavyset cat wearing a t-shirt and sweats that it looked like he’d slept in with a non-chalant style and a “could give a fuck” expression on his face, and another real serious, authoritative cat in a three-piece suit like an FOI calling himself the “The Bishop of Hip Hop.” They opened their set rocking a hard beat and ripping an American flag to shreds and lighting the pieces of it on fire. Being the young forty drainin’ anarchist I was, I loved that shit. I think the song was called “Torn on the 4th of July.” Later, I met the Bishop (then known as Jason Parker) through a mutual friend of ours, music producer Jason Slater. Parker was always a real straight forward cat, extremely disciplined in his efforts with massive amounts of science to drop, but on the one-to-one he never seemed too heavy-handed about his devotions, he was just a regular cat doin’ his thing, always down to offer the knowledge he’d acquired from his firsthand experiences in the music industry and hip hop world with a delusional up-and-comer like myself. Jason Parker eventually changed his name to Adisa Banjoko ( I hope I’m spelling that right) when he was enlightened by Islam and went on to write for The Source, The Bomb, 4080, Rappages and many other well known hip-hop publications of the day under that name and also as the Bishop. I think he’s also written a few books of his own since then.
Sometime even later (this all occurred between like ’91-‘95ish ??? but I can’t remember exactly because I, like I said earlier, was a forty drainin’ anarchist): The t-shirt and sweats cat (sorry I don’t know his name, no disrespect, kid was nice with his) dropped out of the frame and Troop 187 was reborn as Cult of Isis (even thou they shout out “Troop 1-8-6 plus one” more than once on this tape) with my homie Jason Slater at the production helm. DJ Robski, a world reknowned forty drainer himself, joined the fold, and the Cult was known for performing with a militant mob of capuetta fighters in ninja-black going off around them. Back when shit was sick.
This Cult of Isis demo was recorded at Slater’s home studio in Cupertino down the block from Bateh Bros. liquor store at the intersection of Foothill and Stevens Creek, also the birthplace of pop pan-flashers Third Eye Blind who Slater was playing bass and writing songs for at the time as well (him getting screwed out of the publishing credit and money when that project went major label is a whole ‘notha story, but fuck it). The Bishop called in his underground hip hop favors and got Del and Boots from the Coup to guest star on a track each. Del actually came thru with shrooms and his own Sega Genesis and crashed at the crib for like two days while he tripped, wrote and recorded his verse. Slater said he never saw him write anything though or do any “rap work” over the entire 48 hour period. “He just ate shrooms and played Sega non-stop, and sometime on like the third day of him being there I finally said, ‘so you got something we can record?’” Del apparently said yeah walked into the bathroom/vocal booth and ripped his verses and then asked for a ride back to the East Bay. I think DJ Robski gave him that ride and did a little hip hop hustling of his own, because after that meeting, Robski became Del’s go-to live DJ and recording DJ for the Future Development album. I don't know why they stopped performing and recording together. Maybe 'cause Rob moved away. Who knows???
These Del and Boots verses are totally unknown to anybody who wasn’t directly handed one of these one-sided Cult of Isis tapes by Adisa himself, so consider this a first-time unearthed ROBME exclusive. Two overlooked gems by two great underground MCs in their primes, both subversive in their own ways, both totally B-A-Y—do or die.
But it’s not like the Bishop’s solo tracks are something to scoff at. They actually deserve repeated listens. Locked in the dopest time period, they come off like a veteran with skills honed in the original fire. Example: the final song of the four, actually the only track seemingly produced by Robski and not Slater (thou Slater may refute this; but Rob definitely did all the nice ass cuts&scratches on the tape), is called “64 Squares,” and in it Adisa Banjoko blends metaphors concerning his two loves besides almighty Allah: chess and old school hip hop, which happens to tie into the ‘where are they now?’ portion of this post. Because, currently Adisa is the founder and organizer of the Hip Hop Chess Federation (HHCF), which boasts a star-studded host of members and financial contributers including RZA from Wu-Tang Clan. From what I understand, HHCF puts on chess tournaments and like-events in the Bay and all over the country where famous and not so famous hiphoppers get their Bobby Fisher on to the beat. Martial Arts is included in there somewhere as well.
I wish the Bishop all the best; he was always cool as all hell to me.
But, does anybody know what happened to DJ Robski or the t-shirt and sweats cat?
Wait I just used Google and answered half that question myself.
Also, dude who does the intro at the top of the first track, is none other than underground Bay Area legend Bazooka Joe; that fool could rhyme his ass off. Where he at?
Sorry I can’t remember all the exact dates and particulars, but as usual the tape speaks for itself. Enjoy the demo.
Tracklisting:
Praying to the East
What You Know (Featuring Del)
Right Turn, Wrong Street (Featuring Boots)
64 Squares
I found this old Cage demo track on a tape a Queens homie made for me in 97. Not sure of the proper title, when it was recorded or who the producer was (Necro probably? Or maybe Godfather Don?). Although I'm sure it's floating around on some Stretch & Bobitto tapes. If you have any info, drop a comment.
