This DJ Supa Dave beat is fire. Plus UG & Rockness together…dope.

This one comes from Coalmine Records’ Unearthed compilation. Produced by Beanone (of Dyme Def).

The Rockness Monster spits over N.O.R.E.’s classic “Banned From T.V.” instrumental.
]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/10/26/rock-of-heltah-skeltah-banned-video/feed/ 0 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/02/07/rock-of-heltah-skeltah-chill/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/02/07/rock-of-heltah-skeltah-chill/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:10:03 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=30163

Rock pays homage to EPMD (in some fashion) on his latest entry in the Rockness Monster Mondays series.

LISTEN: Rock (of Heltah Skeltah) – “Chill”

Rock (of Heltah Skeltah) – “Chill”

Rock Monster Mondays continue….

LISTEN: Rock of Heltah Skeltah – “Seriously!?” (MP3)

Rock of Heltah Skeltah – “Seriously!?” (MP3)

Rock delivers new material since his recent acquittal. Not guilty, ya’ll got to feel he.

LISTEN: Rock (Heltah Skeltah) – “Birds” (MP3)

Rock (Heltah Skeltah) – “Birds” (MP3)

Duck Down released the following statement today, in regards to Rock’s recent attempted murder rap:

Rock from the acclaimed group Heltah Skeltah has been found not guilty in an attempted murder case stemming from a shooting incident that left a pimp paralyzed.

“Exhale for Rock & congratulations to his attorney Kenneth Montgomery (ken@kjmontgomerylaw.com) for the NOT GUILTY VERDICT! Incredible job,” Dru Ha said via Twitter.

Rock was accused of being a moonlighting as a pimp at night and shooting a rival in January of 2008. He was eventually released on $125,000 bail and proclaimed his innocent in the alleged shooting, assault and the assertion that he is a pimp.

Despite the legal matters, Rock refused to sensationalize the case and released D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team) with Heltah Skeltah rap partner Sean “Ruck” Price later in 2008.

Rock was party to a recent celebration of Duck Down’s 15th Anniversary on Tuesday at BB King’s Club in New York.

We had to dig this one up. This disastrous freestyle session isn’t quite a battle, but goes crazily awry when an over-excited Freaky Tah “goes in” live on Tim Westwood’s show. It begins with Spigg Nice doing his thing, only to be over powered by his pal Tah (R.I.P.). Heltah Skeltah try to salvage the thing, but then Tah comes in again spitting on the mic over Ruck and Rock’s rhymes. The thing becomes such a mess, you can envision the program director losing his mind. Suddenly, mics are faded out before the station begins “experiencing technical difficulties”. Check out a bonus Evil Dee freestyle from Buckshot and Rock of Heltah Skeltah as well.

- Lost Boyz vs. Heltah Skeltah On Tim Westwood (1996) + Buckshot and Rock of H.S. with Evil Dee (1996) (.zip)

Here goes the second leak from Rock off the Suge White Corner Muzik mixtape. Look for more music to come from Rock of Heltah Skeltah soon.

Rock of Heltah Skeltah – “Over Freestyle’” (MP3)

Here is a new freestyle that came out left field, kind of.  With recent features on the Marco Polo and Ruste Juxx album and others Rock has been putting his name back out there lately.  This time he jumps on the T.I. track “I’m back” for a quick freestyle.

Rock (of Heltah Skeltah) – “Im Back Too Freestyle’” (MP3)

A couple new Marco Polo and Ruste Juxx tracks from their upcoming album The eXXecution. The eXXecution is set for release March 23rd on Duck Down.

LISTEN: Marco Polo + Ruste Juxx + Rock of Heltah Skeltah + Freddie Foxxx – “Take Money”
LISTEN: Marco Polo + Ruste Juxx + Sean Price – “Fuckin Wit A Gangster

The Duck Down duo did not have a successful follow-up with 1998′s Magnum Force, an album that tried to establish it’s namesake as a mini-crew within the Boot Camp Clik, overrun with numerous guest artists from the crew, but instead led to a break-up of Heltah Skeltah. While many of the other BCC albums released under the Priority banner at the time also received negative responses, the Duck Down posse found reinvention during the early millennial indie hip-hop movement. Ruck and Rock traveled in opposite directions, as Ruck stayed releasing 12inch singles on the indie scene, while Rock signed with DJ Lethal’s Lethal Records banner under Interscope, only to see his solo debut Planet Rock shelved as the label folded. Ruck reinvented himself as Sean Price, releasing a string of successful solo albums to a new generation of fans that weren’t even aware of the history of Heltah Skeltah.

With Sean Price being so successful in the underground, it was only a matter of time before things came full circle, leading to a Heltah Skeltah reunion LP. From the album’s title, D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team), you can see things are back to the group’s trademark sense of humor, as the album poses them as Pen & Pixel styled superheroes. The album opens with “Everything Is Heltah Skeltah”, which borrows it’s melody from a classical music selection, as Ruck and Rock tag team with a barrage of humorous battle raps, the likes of which we haven’t heard in hip-hop in a long time. The lyrical onslaught continues on “The Art of Disrespekinazation” as the duo trade verses over a looming beat by Khrysis, then on the apocalyptic “Da Beginning Of Da End”, with plenty of laugh-out-loud, rewind moments. This formula of rap song is what propelled the group’s debut, Nocturnal, into an underground classic (save “Therapy”), and it continues throughout the duration of the record.

This works for and against the group, however. HS aren’t trying to make conceptual songs about anything in particular; instead they are like two boxers constantly hitting you with left-jabs and right-hooks. That being said, what separates each track from one another isn’t subject matter, but instead selection of beats, as you can count on strong lyrics in just about every song. Both “D.I.R.T.” (produced by Khrysis) and “So Damn Tuff” (prod. Ill Mind) incorporate classic hip-hop vocal samples with newer styles of production, keeping the spirit of Brooklyn alive in these more modern styles of beats. Marco Polo lends perhaps the album’s best track with “Insane”, with dark pianos and a creepy female vocal sample that haunts the track.

However, with this new team of producers, it is hard to compete with the classic style of The Beatminerz that helped make Nocturnal a classic. It evident that in this market, underground rappers like Heltah Skeltah are not going to spend any money on expensive production, and during the album’s latter half, it shows. The last few tracks produced by up-&-comers like M-Phazes, Stu Bangas, and Sic Beats, really lowers the bar set by the first half of the album’s production, which even that is not up to par with beats from the BCC’s catalog.

With an oddball sense of humor, mixed with bullet ridden gun-talk, these two are an 80′s action film come to life on the mic. The album is a return to form for the crew after the disappointment that was Magnum Force, as the two are back to doing what they do best, trading hilarious rhymes. Despite sometimes weak production on D.I.R.T., Heltah Skeltah live up to the album’s name, and are two incredible emcees whom are wildly entertaining to listen to. – D.T. Swinga