Artifacts :: Between a Rock and a Hard Place :: Big Beat Records
** RapReviews "Back to the Lab" series **
as reviewed by Jason De Zilva
By 1994, several Hip Hop duos had already established a high-quality standard in back-and-forth rhyming amidst unbridled chemistry and fluent exchanges that impressed upon the listener a friendship that emanated further back than simply rhyming on the block. Groups such as Run-DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, EPMD, and Outkast entrenched themselves in Hip Hop as rhyming couplets wherein the sum was greater than its parts, even if the parts were still exceptional independently. At each of the aforementioned groups' peaks, classic albums resulted less so from the individual performance than the amazing fluidity sparked by complimentary flows and a vision truly shared by both members. In late 1994, the Artifacts came to embody such a description with their album "Between a Rock and a Hard Place."
Similar to De La Soul and Outkast, the Artifacts were emboldened by a sense of trying to be different (or, excuse the pun, blazing a new path). Although group members Tame One (aka the Notty Headed Terror) and El The Sensai did not envision an even newer "DAISY Age" or "Dirty South," their Hip Hop utopia consisted of endless graffiti walls, raw MCing and Phillie blunts atop the dreary landscape that is New Jeruzalem (New Jersey). In essence, Artifacts had brought backpack rap to the fore with their odes to graffiti, representing a sharp shift from the gangsta rap genre and offering an infectious alternative to heads who were simply looking for great beats, rhymes and spray-painted life.
Read more here:  https://www.rapreviews.com/archive/BTTL_betweenarock.html
Other reviews: https://timeisillmatic.me/2019/09/10/artifacts-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place-october-11-1994/
 http://hiphop-thegoldenera.blogspot.com/2017/05/album-review-artifacts-between-rock-and.html
Tags
Artifacts Big Beat/AtlanticRecords RedefinitionRecords NuJeruz NewarkNJ RealHip-Hop EastCoast BetweenARockAndAHardPlace 1994 GoldenAgeHip-Hop TameOne akatheNottyHeadedTerror ElTheSensai 


Artifacts - Between A Rock And A Hard Place (1994)
01. Drama (Mortal Kombat Fatality)
02. C'Mon wit da Git Down
03. Wrong Side of da Tracks
04. Heavy Amnuition
05. Attack of New Jeruzalem
06. Notty Headed Nigguhz
07. Whayback
08. Flexi wit da Tech(nique)
09. Cummin' Thru Ya F-kin Block
10. Lower da Boom
11. What Goes On
12. Dynamite Soul
13. Whassup Now Muthafucka
14. C'Mon wit da Git Down rmx ft Busta Rhymes

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Artifacts - Between A Rock And A Hard Place (1994)

produced by @f_a_t_e & Moises Kings

At nine tracks, Blu, Chester Watson, Real J Wallace, ScienZe, JohnNY U., Fa†e and so much more talent lace the first of many projects we will be releasing here at everydejavu. On top of just music, we had some graphic artists (Fred Lozano, Chester Watson, J'Von, Zuke Saga, Mike Hinson, King Wavve) create a mini booklet of art pieces (and a poem by Chester) to go side-by-side the listen. 

Download it for free over at our Bandcamp by clicking the "download" button on the player.

everydejavu.com // everyday soundtrack
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Blu - 3 Feet Higher [prod. By Fate & MoisesxKings]

Remix sound of my older brother making a sound an old Halloween decoration we had made

Halloween Decorations

Munchies

BOOM B4P

BOOM B4P (LOOP)

Brand New

These are bunch of freestyles from the lyrical rapper Canibus.  Some of these are pretty rare.  Also includes the original verse that he recorded for LL Cool J's " 4, 3, 2, 1" which started their beef in 1997 which they squashed in 2014 when LL Cool J brought Canibus on stage during one of his concerts in NYC.

Canibus  Mr. Cheeks Freestyles (Tony Touch)

[fever]

The Notorious B.I.G. - Everyday Struggle (Loop Skywalker Remix 2010)

Rolling Stone (Produced by !llmind, Co-Prod By Symbolyc One, Additional Instruments By Kailin Yong, Vocals By The Frontrunnerz)