UGGH…NICE WATCH

To this day, The Backpack Rap Collection is the second most popular compilation ever released on Uggh…Nice Watch. It’s an era that inspires a lot of nostalgia amongst those who came of age in the period between 1995 and 1999. Producer and songwriter Shawn J. Period’s jazzy, futuristic beats were a central part of the burgeoning backpack rap movement, until he disappeared from the game at the peak of his prominence.

Shawn, whose real last name is Jones (hence the J. Period), was a native of Richmond, Virginia who started a rap trio called Down South after moving to NYC in the early ’90s. The group signed to Big Beat/Atlantic in 1993 under the tutelage of A&Rs Rob “Reef” Tewlow and Stretch Armstrong. Their debut, Lost in Brooklyn, was a flop, but Shawn’s talents as a producer did not go unnoticed. Between 1995 and 1997, he was recruited to contribute music to high profile releases by Da Bush Babees, Artifacts, DJ Krush, Mad Skillz, Heltah Skeltah, and his most famous collaborator, Mos Def. Shawn produced both sides of Mos’s debut single, and the two teamed up on Black Star’s album the following year.

At some point in the late ’90s, it seems as if Shawn accepted God into his life, and things started to change. Soon he was feeling conflicted about working with artists who used profanity, and started to rethink the his reliance on using samples in his music. “Even before I accepted [God], I was conflicted,” Shawn told Practice Video Magazine in 2004. “I’d go and sample a loop—it’d be a one bar loop, and I’d put some stuff on top of it. Then it’s like, ‘Ahh, you don’t need to clear that, it’s too obscure.’ But always, my morality came in.”

Around 1998 he stopped using samples altogether, and leaned on two tools that he was less experienced with: synthesizers and live instrumentation. The results were mixed, as he tried to develop a stripped-down MIDI jazz groove, a bit like an underground answer to Swizz Beatz’s Casio loops. He produced a few memorable records during this period, like Mos Def’s “Body Rock,” but his sample-free sound lacked the richness of his pre-1998 work. By 2000, Shawn had effectively dropped out of the industry to focus on family.

He started periodically popping up again around 2005, working on the occasional jazz fusion instrumental or Christian rap album, but Shawn has yet to stage his big comeback in the secular rap game. Regardless, his catalog is an impressive and interesting listen. Revisit 30 of Shawn J. Period’s best compositions by downloading or streaming the Uggh…Nice Watch compilation…

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRACKLIST + LINKS…

For the last decade, hip-hop has been dominated by a sinister 808 sound that’s weaved its way through crunk, trap rap, and everything within their orbits. Sadly, Memphis duo DJ Paul & Juicy J don’t get enough credit for helping to develop and popularize this aesthetic in the early-to-mid ’90s, despite all their fame and noteriety as the core members of Three 6 Mafia.

As producers, they took Southern club music from the celebratory spasms of Miami and New Orleans to a dark place, both thematically and sonically. Starting in 1991, their underground mixtapes, both solo and together as Triple Six Mafia, expanded on the ominous promise of “Triggerman,” creating a local sound that M-Town could call its own. By throwing gangster rap and horrorcore influences into the mix, they were instrumental in creating the first hardcore Southern rap sound east of the Mississippi.

They rose to national prominence in the wake of No Limit’s success, signing a distribution deal with Relativity Records for their label Hypnotize Minds. I’ll never forget listening to 1997’s Chapter 2: World Domination for the first time in the dorm room of a high school friend from Memphis, and being blown away by how weird it sounded to my East Coast ears.

In the 2000s, their music got bigger, goofier. They won an Oscar by producing a bad song for a good movie about a pimp. They had a pretty entertaining reality show on MTV. But through it all, they deserve credit for staying true to their core sound in a way that few successful hip-hop producers have. They’ve rarely produced for artists outside their circle, they’ve never signed an R&B artist, and they’ve never really strayed from the gritty gangster rap that they came up on.

Simply put, DJ Paul & Juicy J planted an important sonic seed that spread out everywhere across the South. Without them, there would be no Drumma Boy, there would be no Shawty Redd, there would be no Lex Luger. DJ Toomp and Lil Jon might still be making Miami-style bass records if the Triple Six had never come along. I combed through the archives to assemble this compilation of my favorite works by Paul and the Juice Man. Enjoy…

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRACKLIST + DOWNLOAD LINK…

Korean pop music is everywhere these days, but my own introduction to the genre came in 2000 when various college friends exposed me to the era’s K-Pop hitmakers, who are now considered “old school.” Amongst all the sappy ballads and cheesy boy bands, the music of YG Entertainment always stuck out to me, particularly the group Jinusean, who completely floored me with their 2001 album The Reign. I didn’t need to speak Korean to appreciate the big, neck-snapping beats that gave the duo’s hip-hop drenched LP its distinctive sound. I soon discovered that an artist named Perry, who rapped on several of the LP’s tracks, was also the producer responsible for creating its music.

Although he’s one of the most influential figures in modern Korean music, Perry Borja is not Korean. A native of Modesto, California who was raised by Chammorro immigrants, Perry was exposed to the burgeoning West Coast hip-hop scene in the ’80s before relocating to his family’s native country Guam as a teenager. It was there that he began making music with high school friend Noh Seung-hwan (a.k.a. Sean), who would serve as Perry’s introduction to the Korean music scene after his group Jinusean became the marquee act for veteran Yang Hyun Suk’s new label YG Entertainment.

In the early ’90s, the notoriously traditional Korean music scene started opening up to modern Western music, thanks to pop groups like Seo Taji & Boys (of which Yang Hyun Suk was a member) incorporating elements of hip-hop, alternative rock, R&B, and house into their songs. When Yang started his new label YG, hip-hop became the focus, and Perry became his go-to hitmaker, cranking out 12 stellar albums in 5 years for a variety of artists (including his own solo album). It’s remarkable to hear how effectively he injected the aesthetic of hardcore American hip-hop into YG’s early music, which quickly established the label as one of the “big three” Korean record companies.

Over the last decade, Perry’s output has gradually decreased, as he has evolved into more of a mentor to the new generation of YG hitmakers. But he should be honored by all for pushing the boundaries of Asian pop and helping hip-hop find a home in modern Korean music. Enjoy my compilation of Perry’s best…

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRACKLIST + DOWNLOAD LINK…