Looking Back: Soulman World of Beats

[Guzzo]

http://www.samplehead.com/worldofbeats/

I remember looking at these articles when I was just beginning to look for records and just being in awe, trying to remember names mentioned of artists, totally identifying with hating newfangled rap music in the "jiggy" era. I did a google search for something or other this weekend and came across vol. 10 of the series (hi Big Chan).

Had a total backpack and cargo pants flashback and wanted to see what the strut thinks about these 13 years after the fact. Have these aged well, anybody else remember filing the term "library records" in the back of their mind?

 

[BeatChemist]

I wasn't up on these bitd... Thanks for posting Guzzo! Gonna dive into them this afternoon

 

[stratasphere]

I have WOB and thatrealschitt.com bookmarked on my computer and my phone. I never get tired of visting them.

 

[tripledouble]

these were the best!!!

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

Break Genesis

 

[Possum Slim]

Remember these getting mentioned a lot in Big Daddy at the time. Good to see them again.

 

[SIRUS]

Jonny_Paycheck said:Break Genesis




yeah, big time for me. a lot of knowledge. kinda wish soulmane would show up again and start war vs madrill pt. 2

 

[Okem]

Is Soulman still about or in contact with people?? Last time he was on the strut he was talking about selling off his 'beats' collection and putting out folk inspired mixtapes.

 

[DJSORCE1]

He did an essential Xmas mix a few years ago.





Has anyone here every checked out his Bariton Tiplove project? J-Zone put me on to it. Haven't heard the entire thing, but what I've listened to is wild. J-Zone said that to him, the production was as good as early PE/Bomb Squad stuff.





Sorce-1

 

[kala]

og internet beat digging 2.0 foundation essential isms

 

[The-gaffler]

That dude's cassettes definitely motivated my ass as a young high schooler to get out there and look for more.





He hasn't been on here in a while..





:hayek:

 

[Controller_7]

I miss Phill on here.

 

[james]

Soulman's shit was hugely influential on my writing and my outlook, and I don't think he's ever gotten the credit he deserves as a writer and as an idea man.





He was once of the first guys--if not thee first--that I ever saw writing about the multi-dimensional role of records in the life of a digger/sample nerd. Like, "Top Ten Rock Breaks To Catch" was cool and all, but shit like "Top Ten Records To Clean The House To," or talking about his wife and kids and their impact on his records, was really eye-opening. Framing these records in that way, contextualizing beat-head shit within real life, was something that you never saw getting articulated at that time.





I mean, maybe a lot of people had those kinds of thoughts individually and internally, but to see them 1) on paper (RAPSHEET, motherfuckers--I'm old), 2) available for purchase in places where "the culture" was all but non-existent (shout out to Reid-A-Book tobacco shop/newsstand in fucking red-clay half-horse Anderson, South Carolina), and--most importantly--3) conveyed with clarity and juke and good humor, all of that was galvanizing in a way that is tough to make folks these days understand.





Soulman forever. Whatever he's up to these days, I hope he's doing all right.

 

[DJ_Enki]

james said:


Soulman forever. Whatever he's up to these days, I hope he's doing all right.




He and Paul Nice are making records--Paul on the beats, Soulman on the rhymes. He sounds like he's having fun with it, which is dope.





And yes, WOB was the shit.

 

[tripledouble]

yeah what Enki said!


support Phills projects! hes been putting out a lot of records the last twelve months.


hes got a new one with Mr Fantastic

 

[youngEINSTEIN]

SOULMAN is the moses of beat digging as we know it.





peace, stein. . .

 

[DocMcCoy]

He needs to write a book about his experiences at the ground zero of rap. That shit is Library Of Congress-level important in cultural terms, and it ought to be put down in a more tangible form than just a few infrequent blog posts and a series of influential articles in an obsolete rap mag. Dammit, if I had the cash, I'd finance it. In fact, if every rap producer that ever owed a hit to a record they bought from Phill were to contribute, a Kickstarter page would be a shoo-in.

 

[Campag_Record]

tripledouble said:yeah what Enki said!


support Phills projects! hes been putting out a lot of records the last twelve months.


hes got a new one with Mr Fantastic




Yep, looking forward to receiving the new Mr Fantastic release...sounds great.





https://soundcloud.com/beats-by-mr-fantastic/phill-most-chill-mr-fantastic





https://soundcloud.com/beats-by-mr-fantastic/phill-most-chill-mr





WOB was one of the first things I checked when I got online....essential reading.

 

[El Prez]

Campag_Record said:tripledouble said:yeah what Enki said!


support Phills projects! hes been putting out a lot of records the last twelve months.


hes got a new one with Mr Fantastic




Yep, looking forward to receiving the new Mr Fantastic release...sounds great.





https://soundcloud.com/beats-by-mr-fantastic/phill-most-chill-mr-fantastic





https://soundcloud.com/beats-by-mr-fantastic/phill-most-chill-mr





WOB was one of the first things I checked when I got online....essential reading.




+1

 

[DJ_Enki]

DocMcCoy said:In fact, if every rap producer that ever owed a hit to a record they bought from Phill were to contribute, a Kickstarter page would be a shoo-in.




Hahaha, if he were a dick instead of, you know, a really cool dude, he could put pressure on them with some Mad Skillz "Ghostwriter" shit. "Y'all keep fronting, I'ma start naming names, you so-called diggers!"