So Em and 50 Cent met each at the Lyricist Lounge in 1997 but they dont remember....

[Tommy Gibbs]

I still have one of the Footworks plastic shopping bags as a little collectors item. Rich Medina was the DJ/owner/caretaker of the Philly spot. He's another name that ended up becoming a prominent international name in the culture and music scene back then.

Between Footworks, Cue Records, Funk-O-Mart (old school Philly headz know about Funk-O-Mart, lol), The Beat Society beat battles, and a bunch of other hole in the wall spots around that time, I came across so many mix tapes, small time magazines, VHS videos and documentaries, etc that I'm still trying to find to this day. Glad I was blessed to experience those times. I was too young to really know and appreciate '88, but this was my equivalent to that.

I remember beat society with Stef Tataz. I viewed a beat battle the other day on youtube and those shyts were terrible. In my opinion, beat battles today should go back to what they used to be. Producers bringing their equipment to the show and eventually having to do one beat at the school from a sample provided. For some reason, I also remember Slopfunkdust too. I was a part of some shows at the Fire in philly many years ago.

 

[NormanConnors]

That was my problem with this Eminem shyt. Had nothing to do with Eminem because as I've always told these fake ass hip hop fans, "I have bought more albums of white rappers and did shows with more white rappers than you know exist". It's not Eminem's fault, it's the media. They claimed that lyricism shyt didn't sell and when Eminem came out (basically sounding like Chino Xl with his subject matter of dissing celebs), everyone lost their mind when just 1 year prior, they were dissing lyricists. shyt was crazy. How do you think I felt 25 years ago reading mainstream rap magazines shyt on lyricist for being "too lyrical", but giving Eminem praise for lyrics?

MAJOR difference between Em and Chino XL. Yall are trippin today.

 

[NormanConnors]

Words is my guy, but he wasn't on Em's level.

Our girlfriends were best friends back then, before he went off to school upstate. So I was with dude all the time. Heard damn near every rap. He was definitely one of the best underground MC's during a nice stretch in the mid-90's, and we thought he would make it later. But Em's level of lyricism was something else. The sh*t he was doing was not just clever and funny, but structurally, very few dudes in that circuit could do what that dude was doing with rhymes.

I still have some of Words demoes from back then, and he was nasty on the mic. But not a match for Em. The closest to that level back then, out of the underground dudes people slept-on, was Last Emperor. He was leagues better than damn near everyone on that tour, and fell short because of label issues.

Facts, props for mentioning Last Emp too

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

MAJOR difference between Em and Chino XL. Yall are trippin today.

so you're saying Chino Xl isn't a lyricist and eminem didn't steal his flow and style? Everyone knows this. Even Evidence pointed it out in his battle with Eminem, but we already knew for years. Listen to Eminem on Infinite sounding like AZ, then listen to him AFTER Chino's debut dropped. Chino Xl is the Roy Hamilton of hip hop

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

I remember beat society with Stef Tataz. I viewed a beat battle the other day on youtube and those shyts were terrible. In my opinion, beat battles today should go back to what they used to be. Producers bringing their equipment to the show and eventually having to do one beat at the school from a sample provided. For some reason, I also remember Slopfunkdust too. I was a part of some shows at the Fire in philly many years ago.

Haha, yeah Stef Tataz. She'd be at all them joints. Haven't seen her in YEARS.

The Beat Society were the first ones I remember doing those type of battles. I saw 88 Keys, Illmind, Kanye, Alchemist, P.Original (RIP), Supastition,....I remember being at the show where DJ Mr. Len first met his wife. Him and my DJ used to spin together as a crew along with DJ Muhammad from Tha Outsidaz and DJ Kaos (RIP) from The Artifacts when they were all in college together in the early 90s. I remember the Fire and The Five Spot in Philly too. Can't forget The Mountain Brothers too. I recorded in Chops crib in his basement a few years before he blew up too and started producing for Paul Wall, Ludacris, Chamillionaire, and a bunch of other Southern mainstream acts. Another name I couldn't have called becoming a well known name in the industry at the time I knew him.

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

Facts, props for mentioning Last Emp too

Last Emp used to call my dad and build with him for hours about different books they had read or were reading. And my dad was in his late 60s at the time.

He's a solid dude, even aside from being one of the best Mcs to come out of that era. Bro was always humble and likeable.

 

[NormanConnors]

so you're saying Chino Xl isn't a lyricist and eminem didn't steal his flow and style? Everyone knows this. Even Evidence pointed it out in his battle with Eminem, but we already knew for years. Listen to Eminem on Infinite sounding like AZ, then listen to him AFTER Chino's debut dropped. Chino Xl is the Roy Hamilton of hip hop

Chino would def fit the bill as a lyricist,


but absolutely not to the bold print breh

 

[NormanConnors]

Last Emp used to call my dad and build with him for hours about different books they had read or were reading. And my dad was in his late 60s at the time.

He's a solid dude, even aside from being one of the best Mcs to come out of that era. Bro was always humble and likeable.

I've always rocked with Emp, breh can rap about anything and make it sound dope/keep it lyrical at the same time. Still nice too.

 

[tuckgod]

He is one of the goats. And Zoloft is bad for you

He is.

I was a fan when he came out and I don’t think he ever wanted to be placed in that position he just wanted to be accepted and he was.

I just know the system was rigged for him.

I’ll never forget these days though.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

Chino would def fit the bill as a lyricist,


but absolutely not to the bold print breh

Eminem in 96


Chino in 96


Eminem in 1999


Are you insinuating Eminem in 99 had the same AZ flow as he did in 96?

 

[Awesome Wells]

Facts, props for mentioning Last Emp too

Last Emp was my dude!!

When he first came to NYC to work on his demo, he came up to work with my people on "Keep On" and "Meditation". So as a kid, I got to see those records get made and shopped back in '96. He's another one that we thought was gonna take off crazy! I always joked and said I was dude's unofficial street team back then because I was going around playing everyone those demo cuts! LOL!! Trying to put people on to his music.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I still have one of the Footworks plastic shopping bags as a little collectors item. Rich Medina was the DJ/owner/caretaker of the Philly spot. He's another name that ended up becoming a prominent international name in the culture and music scene back then.

Between Footworks, Cue Records, Funk-O-Mart (old school Philly headz know about Funk-O-Mart, lol), The Beat Society beat battles, and a bunch of other hole in the wall spots around that time, I came across so many mix tapes, small time magazines, VHS videos and documentaries, etc that I'm still trying to find to this day. Glad I was blessed to experience those times. I was too young to really know and appreciate '88, but this was my equivalent to that.

Truth. And Rich is still crazy active too!

I always try to catch his gigs when he's in NYC.

 

[maxamusa]

Dope flick


Not for nothing thats how that club shyt be tho....you get introduced and dap up so many people....plus you faded......

I've ended up in people's sections and couldn't tell you one persons name

 

[Greenhornet]

you can tell who did drugs in here

eminem got on a different level when he was on LSD and pills during his late run
cant even compare those other dudes to him at his peak... its all documented, you cant pull a punch and/or words song that can mess with his mid level shyt at that time

eminem took a tiny bit from chino, not enough to brag about... his rhyme pattern and delivery mimicked the outsidaz the most at that same time period

if you are jumping all the way to SSLP each song had different influence and style the majority of his songs from Infinite-SSLP-MMLP dont have a chinoXL stamp on them... and the radio shyt and underground label works is mostly Outsidaz

 

[dook]