Sklutecase

might be an acquired taste for some. but the smokey part and the briney part can work wonders together for me

tried this on a work trip to LA a couple weeks ago. bomb.

flip side of a mezcal martini

that's one thing that came out of my first convo w J-Def, Skeme had such a cool ear for music and samples. He wasn't just digging in the jazz stacks (although he did that too.)

last thing I wanna say on this, if there was any will let alone resources in the greater music industry to do this kind of work, we would be getting cool projects like this all the time. but there isn't, so we don't, and we are poorer for it. yet one more way hip-hop gets done dirty in the biz.

YouTube video by MarvellKilla071 Model 101 Eyedlmode 95 - Smoke Filled

(this is the song I quoted)

it's a truly unique record. I've sometimes described it as "what if De La Soul grew up in the Haight Ashbury?"

but that doesn't truly capture it. you kinda had to be there, and with this record, you kinda can.

/scene

"Mechanized Catatonic Mind states reanimate Uncle Traveling Matt
Scientifical mazes to common ground
Eyedl-ize the mode-a, soul controller, fatback
Tainted pictures
Turpentine swine switching
Abstract hood, dwelling in the ruckus, splendid
Logical input suspended
You feel the vibe without a finger"

Suffice to say he was not in a good place, and incapable of taking part in this project. We attempted to leverage the potential of earnings and gainful work, but to no avail. We opted to move forward, and he remains in our thoughts. His beats and rhymes on this album are simply incredible. to wit:

We had never been able to locate his partner, Rymskeme - the founder of the group and a unique talent without which none of this music would exist. It took a while, and some help from high places, to figure out what was up with him. No effort was spared. We got our answer, but it wasn't a happy one.

Over the next year we got the deal done and got his DAT transferred. Then the pandemic happened. Then the Freestyle Fellowship reissue happened, and the Grammy nom. We had audio issues with the DAT. It took a LONG time to sort out. Finally, last year, we were ready to go. Then J-Def got cold feet.

Justin connected me with J-Def, one half of the group. I did a rambling interview with him as part of what I thought at the time was field work for a book on the scene. that never happened, but I kept badgering him about a reissue project. Another decade later, he agreed to it.

I first heard of Eyedlmode in the early-mid 90s, in the Unsigned & Hella Broke zine.

over a decade later, I got an mp3 rip of the tape from a fellow collector and fell in love with it. Turns out the group were homies and proteges of my good friend and Bay Area music historian Justin Torres.

I do a lot of things around the music biz but this archival work is what it's all about for me.

This has been an incredible labor of love for well over a decade at this point and I'm so honored to bring it to the world. It's a truly incredible hip-hop album that most heads have never heard of, let alone heard. And it deserves to be in any conversation about the Bay Area underground movement!

Steph is like 35 feet away.

absurdly cheap seats to see best player I’ve ever seen

now there's some good news! well deserved

reminding me we *almost* lost Face, too

Guru isn’t even on that list

Ka, Asop, Pumpkinhead, Sacha Jenkins… list goes on

yeah, Asop too.

and there are names he forgot! Ka was 52

this is just fucking terrible.

DEVlls PlE : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive documentary film about an rnb artist

y'all be cool about it, but there's a Devil's Pie documentary that got made about D'Angelo that never got released but mb it's here archive.org/details/blk-...

almost entirely lost art

a person pointing at a coffee machine with the words that 's over it 's cancelled ALT: a person pointing at a coffee machine with the words that 's over it 's cancelled

tried listening to Send It On. nope.

I specifically remember dude focusing on Me & Those Dreaming Eyes Of Mine. I knew some oldies, Heatwave, Intruders, Delfonics. But that was oldies music. Had never heard a contemporary artist pull that off. No R&B singer or group was doing that. Hip Hop touched on it w samples but… nah. Different.

I knew the single, and it was cool. But Dreaming Eyes? S/D/MF? His version of Cruising? It was on from there on out

first time I heard, like really heard him, I was in this random older cat’s apt. passing around some Seagrams. Pretty sure it was a school night. Should not have been there by any reasonable measure. But we were talking music. he put on Brown Sugar and was like nah man listen to this. really listen.

people deserve to grow old.