Here’s a little information, provided by Martay himself:

The East Coast Tribe was formed like most other collectives… pure happenstance.

Here’s a chronology…1st there was Reign of Terror: Legendary, Rhythmlord and Martay who were doing shows with the likes of MC Hammer and Rob Base just out of high-school.

Martay went on to ATL to college at Georgia Tech. He did solo shows with Success-N-Effect and other local groups in the area. One Tech Student, Transcribe (Clock Master K at that time) came to the show with his P.E. button and t-shirt on (for the record, Mike Luttrell predicted that Martay would end up hanging out with that guy when he saw him come to the show clearly different than the crowd that came to see “Roll it Up”). Transcribe had an emcee buddy named Dave a.k.a. MC Prophet (together White Noise) who had a buddy from Texas named Barry Winkler. Well, Martay did begin hanging out with Transcribe and the guys in ATL.

Meanwhile Rhythmlord met B-Right through a friend name DA… B-Right was looking to “get on” with some cats that did music. Well, Rhythmlord did music and Martay happened to come out one day to meet B-Right too.

Things kept brewing and soon after DJ K-ski fresh from service in the 1st Iraq conflict joined B-Right and it was on. Transcribe did music for Martay and B-Right who along with K-Ski formed a group called Tribal Science.

They decided to form a collective that included Martay, The Hip-Hop Wiz, Reign of Terror, B-Right, Transcribe and DJ K-Ski. The collective would be dubbed the East Coast Tribe and they’d later grow into a management company representing nine talented artists, all told.

To officially christen the East Coast Tribe, Barry Winkler, ever the entrepreneur started Bahari Records and their first release was an EP that included songs from Tribal Science and Martay…knowing they had a lot to learn about the biz (what an understatement) they dubbed the EP 33 1/3: First Day of School… it was released on Vinyl and cassette in 1993.

After the release of First Day of School, Martay and B-Right formally joined forces with Barry Winkler on both Bahari Records (later the home to J. Bond & DJ Goldfinger and The Wamdue Project among others) as well as ECT, Inc. (the aforementioned management company).

I asked Martay about the photo on the cover. He told me, “It’s Barry Winkler, the original founder of Bahari Records. We thought it appropriate as the 1st release… the 1st day of our school in the industry… to pay homage to the man who had the guts to finance a record company.” Good stuff.

After listening to this tape for the first time in many years, I was reminded how good it is. While it’s indicative of the time it was made, it’s not really like anything else of the era. There are influences, but it’s very much original. I think fans of early 90s hip-hop will dig it.

Here’s a rip of the cassette release of 33 1/3: First Day of School, an album I enjoy to this day. There are no mentions of it anywhere else on the web aside from two links from my site and a mention by Flash from an old issue of HardC.O.R.E.. Enjoy… I’ve got some more Bahari goodness coming your way.

East Coast Tribe: 33 1/3: First Day of School (.zip, 320k, 74 megs)

1. Scientific Swiftness… Tribal Science
2. Smokin Joints… Tribal Science
3. What You Wanna Do… Martay, the Hip-Hop Wiz
4. Soul and Self… Tribal Science
5. Playin Emcees… Martay, the Hip-Hop Wiz
6. Come to Work

… and, just for a fun, a bonus track that I produced for Martay for a compilation I released back in 1995 titled The People Under the Stairs. It was my first long-distance collaboration and involved sending my 4-track cassette to Martay through the US mail, waiting for him to record his verse and then send it back. You kids these days have it so easy with your crazy Internet bandwidth. (This track is also in the zip file.)

Martay, the Hip-Hop Wiz (prod. Laze): “Strictly for the Love”

Among the random stuff I got to review when I was in high school was a cassette single by a crew named Forbidden Fruit. They were on the no-name “Big Boss Records” (located at 202 St. Nicholas Ave in New York, now the home of 21st Century Urology, which is probably not a hip-hop label) and the cassette single was so cheap that the O-card was literally scotch-taped together. Forbidden Fruit was a two-man crew that bore a striking resemblance, in terms of sound, to Naughty By Nature. It was 1993, so it’s got the piano-heavy production and Treach Lite-like flows. Obvious NBN derivation aside, I really like these tracks. The horns that drop in on “Keep It In Mind” sound awkward and out of place, but how can you not love that Tony D-style piano loop. Production is credited to Vada Nobles (who co-produced Lauryn Hill’s solo album) and Forbidden Fruit.

I haven’t seen this one floating around anywhere else, so I’m guessing this particular single is pretty rare. Both vocals and instrumentals are included from the original cassette single.

Enjoy.

“Keep It In Mind”:

Download full single (.zip, 26 megs)

While this record is more interesting from a historical perspective than anything else, there are still some standout tracks worth checking. And there’s something about the dark, low-budget nature of this tape that gives it a feeling of gritty realness that you’re not going to find in any so-called gangster rap of today.

A few tracks worth mentioning:

• “What’s Going On Black?” has vocal samples from Chuck D and… is that Phil Collins?
• “Last Days” is a bizarre, yet engrossing, 7-minute posse-cut epic about the coming apocalypse with one emcee that sounds a lot like Ced-Gee. This track has perhaps the most confusing anti-gay message ever recorded:
  

  Man on top of man, I can’t understand,
  Me, myself, I’m not a fan.
  Throw ‘em all in the garbage can, ’cause they trash,
  Who like it in the ass.
  To each his own, you choose who you wanna bone,
  God bless the child that have his own.

• “Gangster Shit” was a minor hit, and with good reason. Featuring a guest shot by Pretty Tone Capone rhyming over the same loop that the Kings of Swing used on “Nod Ya Head To This.”

“Street Wise” was released on Espionage Records, which was located at 470 Lenox Ave, now home to the Lenox Terrace Podiatry Group.

AZ: “Street Wise”
Espionage Records, 1991 (est.)

Track listing:

1. Street Wise
2. What’s Going On Black?
3. Last Days
4. I Rock
5. What Does It All Mean
6. Another Contract
7. Gangster Shit (Re-Mix)
8. Don’t Dis Nobody
9. (The D.L.)
10. To Be Continued…
11. I Rock Again

Download (92 meg)