Order Now: Random Rap Radio – Live On Air (Classic Rap Performances)

At Random Rap Radio we’ve been documenting rap radio relics and preserving those Hip-Hop musical momentos from the 80’s onward, with a long-term goal of creating a progressive on-line library alongside our partners @ the Hip-Hop Radio Archive. Live On Air is our first physical release in association with the good people at DIGmag. It features digitally enhanced radio transmissions of live performances, fundamentally it’s material recorded from FM during the 80s, onto decent systems via high quality cassettes and digitally remastered and rearranged to form two sides of sibilance free b-boy bliss. NONE of these recordings have been shared in their remastered form like this in the past, and 99% have never been heard outside of the archives of which they belong. I’ve relished in collating thousands of radio shows since I started pressing the pause button way back in the early 80s, it’s my preferred element of pure Hip-Hop. That compressed bass-heavy sound always made me think, why does my LP sound wack compared to how it did on the radio ?!! With Live On Air, I simply wanted to continue my fascination of pause tapes, recreating one with as much exclusive content as possible for the listeners who were tuned in way back, and for the generations that missed the hiss at the time. If you grew up listening to the Rap Attack, Mastermix Shows or anything outside of the UK, you were lucky. You had what you had. If you are old enough to recall the golden years of UK Rap radio, you’ll remember studio sessions, DJ sets, jingles and station id’s. If you remember hovering your finger over the pause button while listening to Dave Pearce [and Roger Johnson], Mike Allen, Richie Rich or Tim Westwood, Max & Dave or DJ 279 [and Big Ted], you’ll recall in-depth interviews, world famous freestyles, dubplates that had a shelf life of months, ads for the latest movie blockbusters, daft news reports, and all manner of incidental snapshots from the world of Hip-Hop. On this first chapter of RRR releases you’ll hear ads for under-18 jams and LL Cool J when he was still a teenager. There’s a turbo-charged performance of Chorus Line (with bonus freestyle) from one of the famous Dingwalls sets. Run DMC perform Runs’ House, a “New song off the album”, on stage at DisneyLand less than a week after Tougher Than Leather had been released. The NME review of Mantronix on stage at the Town & Country Club was blu-tacked to my bedroom wall in 1987, so being able to share remastered segments is a treat. Sections of the iconic Dave Pearce broadcast that didn’t make it to the finished production of It Takes a Nation of Millions can be heard here too, and Derek B has never sounded as good as he did hyping up the crowd in Streatham South London. MC Shan and Marley Marl are live from London on the Cold Chillin Tour of 1988, and they wanna tell you a little story about where they come from. Trouble Funk doing a brief cover of The Show at Glastonbury also features. All of these clips are from carefully restored transfers of cassettes that I have held on to all my life. They’re cassettes that I’ve swapped, bartered, traded and badgered people for. I’ve never stopped digging for radio shows, the mystery of what’s on a blank TDK is the motivation, the adventure, the uncut gems that I dig for. This compilation is a bunch of those crystals conscientiously compiled for your listening pleasure. The varying quality is a pain in the ass to listen to at times I know, but not if you are listening in the headphones, it might even add to the experience. And even with audio enhancement software iZotope, please remember, all the original source material was taped off the bloody radio…

Irish Craig – Random Rap Radio – 2020

Hit Read Whole Post to check the tracklist and order a copy of the tape here: https://digmag.bigcartel.com/product/liveanddirect

Side A
Ultra Magnetic MCs – Chorus Line / Freestyle
Tim Westwood, Capital Rap Show Dingwalls – 12 April 1990

Run DMC – Run’s House
Mike Smith, Stereo Sequence Grad Nite Disney World – 20 May 1988

Public Enemy – Miuzi Weighs a Ton / Terminator X to the Edge of Panic – Version
Dave Pearce, Fresh Start to the Week Hammersmith Odeon London – 1 November 1987

MC Shan & Marley Marl – The Bridge
Tim Westwood, Capital Rap Show Brixton Academy – 4 April 1988

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – Adventures on the Wheels of Steel / Freedom
Mike Allen, UK Fresh Wembley Arena London – 19 July 1986

Derek B – Good Groove
Capital Radio Streatham London – December 1987

Side B
LL Cool J – Freestyle
Lady B WUSL, After Midnight Club Philadelphia – 1985

Mantronix – Hard-Core Hip-Hop / Scream Version
Dave Pearce, Fresh Start to the Week Town & Country Club London – 1987

Trouble Funk – Drop the Bomb / The Show
Stereo Sequence Glastonbury – 21 June 1987 / Broadcast – 5 September 1987

Whodini – Friends
Dave Pearce, Fresh Start to the Week Hammersmith Odeon London – April 1990

Ice T – Freestyle
Greg Mack, KDAY Los Angeles – 1983

Run DMC – Walk This Way
Mike Smith Stereo Sequence Live from Grad Nite, Walt Disney World Florida – 21 May 1988