There are records that come out, and then there are records that remind you why Hip-Hop still matters. Sam Krats’ “Emcees Recognise,” featuring Artifacts — El Da Sensei and the late, great Tame One — is one of those records. It does not beg for attention. It does not chase what is trending. It does not try to dress itself up as something it is not. This is Hip-Hop made for people who understand that the microphone is still a responsibility.
Taken from Sam Krats’ double album Culture, “Emcees Recognise” brings that classic boom-bap feeling back to the front. The drums hit. The texture feels dusty in the right way. The energy is raw, but controlled. The production gives the emcees room to breathe, and that is important because when you have Artifacts on a track, you do not need gimmicks. You need space for the bars to work.
For New Jersey Hip-Hop, Artifacts is not just a name. Artifacts is part of the foundation.
El Da Sensei and Tame One gave the culture a sound that represented Newark, graffiti, underground Hip-Hop, and true emcee skill. They came from an era when style mattered. Delivery mattered. Breath control mattered. Having your own voice mattered. You could not just rap over a beat and call yourself great. You had to prove it.
That is what “Emcees Recognise” feels like. It feels like proof.
El Da Sensei comes through with the sharpness people expect from him. His voice carries experience, but it does not sound tired. It sounds seasoned. There is a difference. He knows how to ride the beat without wasting words, and that is something a lot of newer artists should study. He does not have to overperform because his presence is already felt. Then there is Tame One.
Rest in peace to one of Brick City’s true originals.
Hearing Tame One on a record like this hits different now. It is not just nostalgia. It is legacy. Tame had a voice and cadence that could not be copied. He had that street art energy in his rhymes, like every bar had paint on it. He was rugged, clever, unpredictable, and honest in a way that made him stand out. When his voice comes through the track, it reminds you that real artists do not disappear. Their work keeps speaking. That is why this song matters.
“Emcees Recognise” is not just a song title. It is a statement. Real emcees recognize other real emcees. Real producers recognize what voices belong on their beats. Real Hip-Hop listeners recognize when something is made with respect for the culture.
Sam Krats deserves credit here because he understands the assignment. He is not just borrowing a ’90s sound to make something feel old. He is building a bridge. His production connects the feeling of classic Hip-Hop with the present moment. It gives listeners who grew up on records like this something to appreciate, while also giving younger listeners a chance to hear what emceeing is supposed to sound like when the craft is respected.
That is what Culture seems to be about. Not just beats. Not just features. Not just names on a tracklist. Culture is connection. Culture is memory. Culture is the reason a producer from the UK can connect with New Jersey legends and the music still makes sense. Hip-Hop has always traveled. The sound started in the Bronx, but the spirit moved through Newark, Jersey City, Queens, Brooklyn, Philly, London, Bristol, Tokyo, Paris, Toronto, and everywhere else people picked up the mic and told the truth.
This is why Hip-Hop cannot be reduced to algorithms, playlists, and quick numbers. A record like “Emcees Recognise” is not disposable content. It is a reminder that the culture has roots. It has elders. It has students. It has builders. It has people who still care about the difference between rapping and emceeing.
There is a big difference.
Rapping can be entertainment. Emceeing is command. Emceeing is how you move a crowd, sharpen a thought, tell a story, defend your name, and leave something behind. Artifacts came from that school. That is why their music still carries weight.
For New Jersey, this song should be celebrated. We talk a lot about New York when we talk about Hip-Hop history, and rightfully so, but New Jersey has always carried its own flame. Newark especially has produced voices with grit, intelligence, humor, pain, and originality. Artifacts helped make sure Brick City had a place in the underground Hip-Hop conversation, and their influence still reaches artists today.
“Emcees Recognise” is another chapter in that story. The music video gives the record another life because visuals matter. They help people enter the song. They help people feel the moment. For a track like this, the video is not just promotion. It is documentation. It gives fans a reason to stop, listen, remember, and share. That is what Heritage Hip-Hop is built for.
We do not just cover music because it is new. We cover music because it has meaning. We cover artists because their work deserves to be found, heard, studied, and respected. “Emcees Recognise” is the kind of record that reminds us why independent Hip-Hop coverage is still needed. Mainstream platforms may miss moments like this, but the culture cannot afford to.
Sam Krats’ Culture is available now on Bandcamp in vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital formats. For collectors, that matters. For listeners, that matters. For people who still believe music should be owned, supported, and respected, that matters.
So the call is simple: watch the video, listen to the record, support the album, and say rest in peace to Tame One by keeping his name alive the right way.
Not with empty posts.
With listening.
With sharing.
With teaching the next generation who he was.
With making sure New Jersey Hip-Hop history stays in the conversation.
Because when the beat is right, the rhymes are sharp, and the names on the record carry real weight, one thing becomes clear: Emcees recognise emcees.
"Emcees Recognise" Official Music Video:
Taken off the Sam Krats 22-track "Culture" double album available as Vinyl, CD, Cassette and Digital on Bandcamp.
Album Link:
Instagram Links:
Sam Krats: @sam_krats
El Da Sensei: @el_da_sensei
RIP: Tame One & DJ Kaos
Thank you:
Goon Promotion: @aprock_bloglove
#SamKrats #EmceesRecognise #Artifacts #ElDaSensei #TameOne #RIPTameOne #CultureAlbum #NewJerseyHipHop #NewarkHipHop #BrickCityHipHop #BoomBap #UndergroundHipHop #RealHipHop #HipHopCulture #90sHipHop #BandcampHipHop #IndieHipHop #HipHopMusicVideo #HeritageHipHop #HipHopBlog #SupportIndependentHipHop #EmceesRecogniseEmcees #NJHipHop #GoonPromotion
DJ Kwan's Boom Bap Alumni Proves Real Hip-Hop Never Left
Hip-Hop is in a strange place. The culture that once celebrated originality, lyricism, DJing, storytelling, and community has become increasingly driven by algorithms, trends, and moments. Somewhere along the way, many people began repeating the same narrative:
"Boom Bap doesn't make money?" "Do people listen to music anymore?" "Boom Bap is old, and original rap is out dated."
Those statements have become damaging myths and opinions in modern Hip-Hop. The truth is Boom Bap isn't just a sound. Boom Bap is the foundation of Hip-Hop culture itself. Before the streaming era. Before playlists. Before viral dances and social media challenges. There was the beat, the rhyme, and the connection between people. Boom Bap became the language that introduced the world to Hip-Hop and helped establish the culture as a global movement. That foundation is exactly what DJ Kawon celebrates on his debut album, Boom Bap Alumni.
People know DJ Kawon as one-third of The Mic Council and as the creator of The Mixtape Show, a platform dedicated to preserving and celebrating Hip-Hop culture. For years, Kawon has helped amplify artists through interviews, conversations, and media coverage. Now he steps into a different role—not as a commentator on the culture, but as a contributor to it.
In 2025 DJ Kawon won an honor at the Heritage Hip-Hop Awards for his musical production. With Boom Bap Alumni, DJ Kawon transforms from platform builder to executive producer, curator, and cultural architect with his own project. What makes this project special is the way it connects artists across geographical borders while remaining rooted in Hip-Hop's core principles.
The album features emcees from Canada and the United States, bringing together voices from different regions, backgrounds, and experiences. Instead of chasing trends, Kawon focuses on creating chemistry. The result is an album that feels like a Hip-Hop summit meeting where every artist is invited because of skill, not popularity.
That philosophy is evident on the album's first single, Dirty Angels, (by Cold Camp) which introduces listeners to the collaborative spirit that fuels the entire project. Rather than creating records designed to fit neatly into a playlist category, DJ Kawon builds songs that feel like conversations between artists who share a respect for the craft.
Perhaps the most exciting example of this approach is the Boom Bap Alumni Posse Cut.
The posse cut is one of Hip-Hop's most important traditions, yet it has become increasingly rare in today's music landscape. Historically, posse cuts brought together multiple emcees with different styles, voices, and perspectives over a single instrumental. The goal wasn't simply to make a song—it was to create a competitive showcase where artists elevated one another.
For many Hip-Hop fans, posse cuts served as proving grounds where legends were born.
DJ Kawon revives that tradition on Boom Bap Alumni, creating a moment where lyricists stand shoulder-to-shoulder and remind listeners why the art of emceeing still matters.
Throughout the album, listeners will hear strategic pairings that make each record feel unique. Artists from different territories are matched together, creating marquee moments that celebrate diversity within Hip-Hop while maintaining a unified sound. Whether it's solo performances from artists like Notes 82, Acewonda, Tre-Dot, and Travisty The Lazy Emcee or collaborative records featuring multiple artists, Like Len Dor and The BadSeed, every song contributes to the larger vision. And that vision is clear.
Boom Bap Alumni is not trying to recreate the past. It is proving that the values that built Hip-Hop still have a place in its future. The drums knock. The music breathes. The rhymes matter. The listener is invited to pay attention to the words again. In an era where music is often consumed in fragments, DJ Kawon asks listeners to engage with complete songs, complete verses, and complete ideas. The jazzy textures, soulful undertones, and hard-hitting drums evoke the spirit of the early 1990s, but the voices are modern, current, and relevant. That balance is what makes Boom Bap Alumni important. This is not nostalgia. This is preservation. This is continuation. This is Hip-Hop remembering who it is.
As June approaches, Boom Bap Alumni stands as one of the most intriguing independent Hip-Hop releases on the calendar. More than an album, it is a reminder that culture survives when people choose to protect it. DJ Kawon has spent years giving artists a platform. Now he uses that same vision to create one. If Boom Bap Alumni accomplishes anything, it proves that Boom Bap was never dead. It shows us all that the people who love Hip-Hop simply never stopped listening to it. Awaiting memories of what was while celebrating the newness of times past building the culture one brick, one rhyme and one sound, at a time.
Have you heard "Dirty Angels" yet? Watch the official video and tell us if Boom Bap still represents the heart of Hip-Hop culture. Subscribe to Heritage Hip-Hop for more exclusive album reviews, artist interviews, and coverage of the independent artists keeping the culture alive.
Dirty Angels by DJ Kawon featuring Cold Camp:
Boom Bap Alumni will be released on Mad Good Records. 6/28/2026
Media Links:
Instagram:
DJ Kawon: https://www.instagram.com/kawonjmedia/
Madgood Records Bandcamp Page:
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Hip-Hop has always lived in the balance between memory and movement. The culture honors the past, but it can never survive by being trapped inside it. That is where The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain step in with Flip Wilson 2, a project that does not just borrow from Hip-Hop history — it challenges it, salutes it, bends it, and brings it back outside with new clothes on.
This is the second time The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain have taken known Hip-Hop beats, classic energy, and familiar moments from well-known entities and turned them into something fresh. But let’s be clear: this is not karaoke rap. This is not nostalgia farming. This is not “let me rap over your favorite beat and call it new.”
This is a flip.
And in Hip-Hop, a flip is different.
A remix usually takes an existing song and gives it a new version. Maybe a new beat. Maybe a new guest verse. Maybe a club version, radio version, or street version. The original song is still the foundation, and the remix lives in conversation with it.
An interpolation is when an artist replays or reworks a familiar melody, lyric, rhythm, or musical phrase without directly using the original recording. It gives you the memory of the song, but it is rebuilt in a new form.
But a flip is something more dangerous.
A flip is when you take the feeling, the memory, the attitude, or the DNA of something known and make it live again through your own voice. A flip is not just copying the past. A flip asks, “What would this sound like if it belonged to me?” It is Hip-Hop’s version of crate-digging with imagination. It is part tribute, part reinvention, part challenge.
That is what Flip Wilson 2 is built on.
On this project, The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain expand the palate. The first Flip Wilson proved the concept. Flip Wilson 2 sharpens it. This time, West Coast music gets pulled into the lab. The Chronic energy is present. Classic 90s memories are upgraded. Jay-Z’s street-cinema classic “Streets Is Watching” gets reimagined into “The Streets Is Toxic,” a title that already tells you the mission: take something familiar and make it speak to today’s climate.
That is the power of this project. It does not sound like artists trying to recreate 1993, 1996, or 1998. It sounds like artists who studied those eras, respected the architecture, and then built a new house on top of the foundation.
Shade Cobain’s vision is the engine here. He understands that Boom Bap is not supposed to be dusty museum music. Boom Bap is feeling. Boom Bap is drums. Boom Bap is voice. Boom Bap is attitude. Boom Bap is the moment when the beat makes the MC stand up straighter. On Flip Wilson 2, the sound is reimagined into current classic material — yesterday’s spirit with today’s seasoning.
That matters because Hip-Hop has been asking the wrong question for too long. Everybody asks, “Can you still rap?” But the better question is, “Can you make the listener feel something again?”
The Bad Seed can.
One question we ask on the Heritage Hip-Hop Podcast is: What is the perfect beat? Meaning, if the artist who originally released that beat never had it, and you had it first, would that be your single?
That question is bigger than a fun debate. It is really about ownership of energy. Every MC has heard a beat and thought, “I would have destroyed that.” Every rapper has a rhythm in their head connected to a record they wish came their way first. The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain took that conversation and created a market for it.
They give the MC the beats they wish they could have had.
But they do not just reuse the same beat and lean on the listener’s memory. They bring modern seasoning. They update the drums, the swing, the texture, the pressure, and the feel. The result is not a cover. It is not a lazy remake. It is an MC walking into Hip-Hop history, touching the wall, and saying, “Respect due — but I got something to add.”
That is why Flip Wilson 2 works.
The voices of Honey Dinero, Cuzz Cuzzo, and Mook Sinatra help expand the world of the album. They bring different textures, different tones, and different approaches, making the project feel less like a gimmick and more like a full cultural exercise. The Bad Seed is not standing alone inside nostalgia. He is building a space where different voices can speak through familiar energy and make it new again.
The first single makes that point loud.
Taking the energy of “It Takes Two” by the late Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock in the wake of Rob Base’s passing is not just a musical choice. It is a dedication. It is Hip-Hop giving flowers through movement. “It Takes Two” was never just a record. It was motion. It was party. It was call-and-response. It was the type of song that made people who did not even know all the words still feel like they belonged in the room.
That energy has been missing.
Too much of today’s music feels isolated, cold, and disposable. The Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock spirit was about connection. It was about the room moving together. It was about Hip-Hop as celebration, not just confession or competition. By flipping that energy, The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain breathe new life into a feeling the culture still needs.
That is what separates Flip Wilson 2 from simple nostalgia.
Nostalgia says, “Remember this?”
A flip says, “You remember this? Good. Now watch what we do with it.”
And that is the difference.
Flip Wilson 2 is not asking for permission to exist. It is not begging older heads to approve it or younger listeners to understand every reference. It stands in the middle and says Hip-Hop can be historic and current at the same time. It can be Boom Bap without being trapped in the past. It can respect the West Coast, New York, club classics, street classics, and golden era memories while still sounding alive right now.
The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain are proving something important: the past does not have to be repeated to be honored. Sometimes it has to be flipped.
And when the flip is done right, the listener does not just hear the old record. They hear why it mattered.
Flip Wilson 2 will be available on Bandcamp on June 6, 2026, and fans who pre-order the album receive an extra song with the project. For independent Hip-Hop supporters, Boom Bap believers, crate-diggers, lyric lovers, and people who still care about the craft, this is one to tap into.
Because Hip-Hop does not die when the memories get old.
Hip-Hop dies when nobody is brave enough to make those memories new again.
The Bad Seed and Shade Cobain are not letting that happen.
They flipped it.
And Flip Wilson 2 sounds like the culture remembering itself in real time.
The Pre Order Link:
Outta Site (Music Video):
#TheBadSeed #ShadeCobain #FlipWilson2 #FlipWilsonII #BoomBap #BoomBapHipHop #UndergroundHipHop #IndependentHipHop #BandcampHipHop #HipHopAlbumPreview #NewHipHopMusic #RealHipHop #LyricismMatters #HipHopCulture #HeritageHipHop #WestCoastHipHop #EastCoastHipHop #RobBase #DJEZRock #ItTakesTwo #TheChronic #StreetsIsWatching #StreetsIsToxic #HoneyDinero #CuzzCuzzo #MookSinatra #HipHopHeads #90sHipHop #ClassicHipHop #CurrentClassic