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”

Did I ever tell you about Jay-Ski?

He was the first hip-hop DJ I ever knew (somewhat) personally. Way back in the late 1980s, I was in 7th grade and would call around to Bulletin Board Systems (don’t know what I’m talking about? You better ask somebody!) from my middle school’s computer lab. There was one I called into that was run by a metalhead, but I bumped into one other user on there named Gemini that was into hip-hop. That was Jay-Ski. We talked once about trying to work together (this was back when I was just starting to write lyrics), but that never came to be. Probably for the best since I was completely wack at the time.

I only met Jay in person once, when he was working at Sound Express (Jersey’s answer to Funk-O-Mart/Sounds of Market) in Willingboro. Then Jay got famous showing up all over Philly radio. We’ve caught up online a few times in recent years. He’s good dude. And crazy talented. Check Jay out these days over at PureElementz.net.

Anyway.

On this episode, they do a giveaway for an Erick Sermon/Def Jam show in New York. The winner gets to ride in a “a phat stretch limo with a television, VCR, and all that” and hang with Mike Elliott and Shelly Shel. This results in a pretty hilarious call-in section where people call in telling why they should be the ones to win the tickets.

There’s some outstanding music here, especially for fans of that 93 sound. Lords of the Underground, The Mexakinz, Original Flavor, PRT, post-Large Pro Main Source… it goes on and on. Some tasty remixes and lots of heavy signature Jay-Ski cuts. There’s one track called “That’s Life” from a Philadelphia group that seems to like to reference Sweden (I couldn’t make out their name when Mike Elliott said it… something Soul).

Fat Joe shows up in studio, but for some reason, I cut that part out. The real treat comes on side B when Souls of Mischief roll through to hype their upcoming ’93 Til Infinity.

Definitely worth checking out. Total runtime is a little over an hour.

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)

It kicks off with a mix of a Malcolm X speech laid over top of Stanley Clarke’s “Black On Black Crime” from the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack (I used this same blend on a high school Media/TV Tech video project about the Rodney King beating and ensuing riots). Appropriately, it then runs into Masta Ace’s “Jeep Ass Niguh.” Also representing 1993: Raw Breed, Art of Origin, Hiero (three times!), Original Flavor, PRT, and Jeru. I’d venture to say there’s not a single dud on this mix.

One track you probably haven’t heard but will want to check out is Martay and B-Right’s “Smokin’ Joints.” These two guys were part of the East Coast Tribe, a crew out of Atlanta’s underground. (Martay’s name may sound familiar from Upski’s Bomb the Suburbs (page 19).) Martay’s still kicking and every couple of years I get an e-mail from B-Right. Good people who made good music that wasn’t heard by nearly enough people.

The cover was designed by nerdcore star Devo Spice.

I should also note that the liner notes on this one are even more embarrassingly awful than 1992.

Dig in.

Download: Front cover / Liner notes

After Jay’s set, for some reason there are a couple of Arrested Development tracks and then a brief set from Colby Colb‘s “Radioactive” show on Power 99 (there are a few of cool drops by LL, Tupac, and Run-DMC worth checking). Colby Colb’s set features a random kiddie group (a la Kriss Kross and Da Youngsta’s) named The Chronic (sp?) with a really mediocre track called “Sometimes It Be’s Like That.”

This is side B of the DJ Ran mix that I posted yesterday.

This mix is from the July 1, 1993 show Ran did with Don “Mystic” Mack on Power 99. It kicks off with “Don’t Ride Me Now” by Aisha (I think), which is a surprisingly driving track that I don’t remember anything about and is followed by a Pharcyde remix instrumental track with DJ Ran cutting Jerky Boys calls on top. The rest of the set is pretty solid, with a few surprises (like another track by Aisha about having her picture on a million dollar bill and some ragga courtesy of Tiger and Burro Banton).

This is side A of a tape that also features a DJ Jay-Ski mix (coming tomorrow).