The Soulman, Lost In Time

Let's talk about the one Phill Most Chill record that always gets overlooked... DWG's fantastic excursions into his vaults of course get a ton of props. And then people go back and hold up his early classics like "On Tempo Jack" and his Baritone Tiplove material, and are now sweating his new releases, "Power Man & Iron Fist" and The Fast Rap EP. But there's one release that floats awkwardly in the middle - long after his early bangers, but before he was rediscovered. He dropped it in 2005, under the name Phill Most the Soulman on Puma Strut Records. It's called The Lo-Fi Theory EP.

You've got four songs (one very short!), with all the instrumentals on the flip. The cover is cool; a homage to Phill's other artistic profession, drawing. And it's got a pretty simple but compelling concept: he's taking beats he made back in 1994 and rhyming over them with new (for the time of its release) 2004 lyrics. So you know, not to take anything away from Buckwild and Celph Titled, but Phill Most Chill beat them to the idea they got so much buzz over by about five years.

So, let's take them separately. The instrumentals feel a little less busy than a we're used to from PMC; things are a little more smoothed out. But in all other respects, they sound exactly like Phill Most Chill beats, and all the positive things that implies. Each little sound that goes into the track stands out on their own, yet they come together to form something strong and absolutely hip-hop.

And the vocals? Well, he seems a lot more punchline-oriented in 2004 ("your whole style is fake; you couldn't beat Em back in the days when he made the 'Black Girls' mixtape"), and his delivery seems designed to play up the cleverness of what he's saying. His rhyme pattern often stretches to twisty, labyrinthine lengths to accommodate jokey similes ("Soulman, I bring the heat 'till your hair is wiltin'. A lot of rappers are famous without talent like Paris Hilton"). It's not bad, he still comes off with a solid flow and dexterous wordplay; but I don't like it as much as his earlier material, where he put the flow first, instead of playing to the gallery with easy attention grabbing pop culture references. Ha. I still feel like I'm talking about Nineteen Ninety-Now.

Anyway, the two elements together? It's a good fuckin' fit! Phill sounds damn nice over his vintage tracks. It defintiely should've been regarded as one of the stand-out releases of its year, but unfortunately no one was paying attention to Phill then. But the up side of that is that these aren't rare at all, and you should easily be able to scoop this one up at a standard 12" price, rather than the frightening, inflated numbers his rare material goes for. Not his penultimate masterpiece, but definitely a good, entertaining release to add to your crates while times are tight.

The Most Phill

(Youtube version is finally here - 1080p files are no joke.)

Neva Stop Diggin' (Especially Not Today)!

Just in time for Record Store Day: a brand new vinyl release of an ode to digging by one of the realest hip-hoppers who ever did it! This here's a 7" single by Phill Most Chill on Diggers With Gratitude. What's interesting is that Phill is known at least as much - probably more - for being a killer producer, not just an MC; and he's always produced all his own stuff. But this 7" has Phill over beats by two other producers.

"Neva Stop Diggin'" first appeared online in 2006, when producer Paul Nice uploaded this track he'd just completed. The beat kicks in (after a funny Simpsons sample), and it's an instant bumper. It's got kind of modern soul production sound... where on the one hand it's got that sort of boop, boop, boop sound, but the sampled instruments have a richer, more organic vibe than your average contemporary hip-hop track that does the same kind of thing but lacks the soul. This being Paul Nice, there's also a bevy of fresh scratched-in vocal samples on the hook. And Phill rhymes what could be the definitive anthem for the current digging scene:

"You know I never stop diggin';
It's like my religion.
Ever since the days of Wild Style,
Flash in the kitchen
Cuttin' Bob James.
Biz says he got a version with no bells;
But I ain't never seen that for sale,
Definition of a Holy Grail!"

People were amped for this to come out. It was set to be on Paul Nice's album, but that project wound up getting derailed. So for years later, people kept asking, "what about that 'Neva Stop Diggin' track - is it ever gonna come out on vinyl?" ((crickets))

But that's not even the whole story. While all that was going on, there was a similar situation where Phill Most threw an obscure song up on his blog in a post about another hot producer. This time it's "Smash!" with producer Jorun Bombay. Yes, that Jorun, who did all those sought after Haltown tapes in the 90's and worked with Buck 65 before anybody knew who the heck he was. It turns out they originally recorded "Smash" with Jorun's crew First Words (though only Phill raps on this) as a bonus cut on their 2008 Deadbeats album, Cheaters. I believe that was CD only, if not mp3-only, and definitely not about to see a vinyl pressing.

So, bam! DWG stepped in and made them both happen. A hot 7" single with "Neva Stop Diggin'" on the A-side, and "Smash!" on the flip. This is barely limited - 1000 copies, which is essentially a full run, these days. The first 75 people to order copies, however, were treated to a version pressed on bright yellow wax. Either way, it's a top quality release as always. It's also not priced like a limited... roughly $10, depending where you get it from, and almost everyplace has got it available. So there's something for you to keep an eye out for when you go out digging this Record Store Day.


P.s. - Jorun has said to me that he's up for repressing the old Haltown tapes if there's demand for it. So everybody get up him about it!