Disqus - Latest Comments for deefresh

Re: The Top 50 NY Producers of all time, Ranked and Explained

fresh — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:13:06 -0000

Not sure why but the article keeps getting cut short and the comments keep disappearing. Remainder of the list:

47. Preservation — Brooklyn
Preservation grew up in Brooklyn and built a career in the underground working primarily with artists on the Backwoodz Studioz roster, billy woods, Elucid, Ka, developing a production style that uses jazz samples with an unusual degree of restraint and intentionality. His work represents the current state of the art in New York underground production: the beats are doing something, they're not just providing a surface for someone to rap over. "Quiet Dog Bite Hard" is on the playlist because it is Preservation producing Mos Def at a moment when both of them were operating outside the commercial spotlight, and the track demonstrates that a great beat and a great MC can do more with less than most of what the mainstream was offering at the time.

48. Conductor Williams — KC!
Conductor is the one I got the most heat on after I posted this. He's from KC, Missouri, and lived most of his life here. I would make the argument that he is essential to what the current NY sound is, that's why I originally put him on the list. But I do understand the arguments against, and if I'm opening it up to someone in KC why not Just Blaze, Ski Beats, etc? Good question, I think primarily I wanted to make sure the new era was represented.

49. J-Zone — Queens
J-Zone grew up in Queens and built a career almost entirely outside the mainstream, releasing albums on his own label Root Down Records with a production style that combined genuine crate-digging sophistication with a humor and self-awareness that most hip-hop production deliberately avoided. A Job Ain't Nuthin But Work and $ick of Bein' Rich are genuinely funny records that are also genuinely good records, which is harder to pull off than it sounds, and his drum programming sounds like nothing else. "Gimme Gimme Gimme" with Masta Ace is on the playlist because it is J-Zone's playfulness and Masta Ace's craft in the same room, and the result is a record that rewards repeated listening in the way that most novelty-adjacent hip-hop never does.

50. Necro — Canarsie, Brooklyn
Ron Raphael Braunstein grew up in Flatbush and Canarsie, Brooklyn, the son of Israeli immigrants, and built his entire career on independence and uncompromising darkness, founding his own label Psycho+Logical Records in 1999 and releasing a body of work that has maintained a devoted following precisely because it refuses to make any concessions. Building and sustaining an independent label for twenty-five years while maintaining creative control and a consistent aesthetic is a significant achievement regardless of the mainstream's indifference, and his production, dark, heavy, sample-driven, represents a specific strain of Brooklyn underground craft. "Agent Orange" is on the playlist because it is Necro as a producer at his most purely himself, the drums, the darkness, the complete absence of any interest in making you comfortable.

Re: Rob Base is more than just It Takes Two!

fresh — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:09:33 -0000

One thing writing this up caused me to do was revisit the production credits. I did not realize (or maybe I did and forgot over the years) that Teddy Riley had a hand in producing It Takes Two.

Re: The Top 50 NY Producers of all time, Ranked and Explained

fresh — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:07:22 -0000

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: The Top 50 NY Producers of all time, Ranked and Explained

fresh — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:06:12 -0000

In the meantime here's the remainder of the article, with one update on #48:

46. V Don — Queensbridge, Queens
V Don grew up in Queensbridge, the same housing project that produced Marley Marl, Nas, Mobb Deep, and Cormega, and developed a production style that is deeply rooted in that specific tradition, boom bap that takes the legacy seriously without being precious about it. His catalog of work with Queensbridge artists, particularly Cormega and the extended Queensbridge network, represents a continuity of craft that the borough has always valued above trend-chasing. "Long Live AAP"isontheplaylistbecauseitrepresentsVDonworkingoutsidetheQueensbridgecircleanddemonstratingthathisproductiontranslates,AAP" is on the playlist because it represents V Don working outside the Queensbridge circle and demonstrating that his production translates, A
AP"isontheplaylistbecauseitrepresentsVDonworkingoutsidetheQueensbridgecircleanddemonstratingthathisproductiontranslates,AAP Rocky over a V Don beat sounds like two different New Yorks having a conversation.

48. Conductor Williams — Brooklyn
This is the one entry I've had to re-visit since posting it. Conductor grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and is still based there. I leaned into the fact that his sound and style is very much "NY" and has helped shape the current sound of NY, so from that lens I still think he deserves to be on here. But he is the most geographically removed from any of the entries on this list, and adding him in here does open the door to including more folks like Ski Beatz. In hindsight I might have removed him and given the spot to Larry Smith or possibly someone more modern like Harry Fraud.

Re: The Ninja in the Room: One White Critic's Solution and Everyone Else's Problem

fresh — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:26:17 -0000

Some of his stuff was ragebait (intentional or not), he promoted the idea of lil wayne being the greatest rapper of all time against all arguments, but i thought he was a genuinely good writer. i have not kept up with a ton of his stuff at stereogum but i'd assume that's still more or less the case. i used to get heated about his articles, but in my old age i've come to see him as a fairly well meaning writer. i do think his use of ninja was legitimately an attempt to navigate through an area he had no personal experience/exposure to outside of his writing circles. I am confident many other people at the time, and probably even today, do use it for edginess i very much agree with you there. Though i see as we live in a consequence-free online world these days a lot of people don't even have the courtesy to use ninja and drop the euphemism entirely.

Re: The Top 50 NY Producers of all time, Ranked and Explained

fresh — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:09:28 -0000

Full article didn't fit in the db, apparently i never wrote anything this long before. Will fix it tomorrow to get the info on the remaining list posted

Re: Rob Base is more than just It Takes Two!

fresh — Sun, 31 May 2026 10:12:15 -0000

My bad, just seeing this now. I suppose this is a good argument for starting with Wikipedia rather than an ai- powered Google search these days. I'll get that updated this week so i don't add to the continuation of it

Re: Where Are They Now: The Hip-Hop Bloggers

fresh — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:35:50 -0000

Part 2 with more names over here: http://33jones.com/revamp/entry.asp/1509/where-are-they-now-the-hip-hop-bloggers-part-ii

Re: Where Are They Now: The Hip-Hop Bloggers, Part II

fresh — Fri, 29 May 2026 13:06:29 -0000

Still looking for info on scholar x from souledon, flood from floodwatch, and a few others. Probably have enough juice for one more post on this topic

Re: Where Are They Now: The Hip-Hop Bloggers

fresh — Fri, 29 May 2026 06:54:30 -0000

Add yourself to the list as well!

I've been pulling together a follow up on this, didn't expect it to get as many views at it did I'll add these to the list. Unkut feels like my biggest miss on the original pass through.

Re: Where Are They Now: The Hip-Hop Bloggers

fresh — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:12:02 -0000

other names that come to mind now after the fact: houstonsoreal (matt sonzala), somanyshrimp, beerandrap, clyde from prohiphop, sneakdiss, chauncey bloggups, dj mehdi...

Re: Where Are They Now: The Hip-Hop Bloggers

fresh — Wed, 20 May 2026 18:22:45 -0000

One of the bigger ommissions of the above list is Status Ain't Hood. That was intentional as I have a followup article on Tom Breihan and the invention of "ninja" as a rap lyric placeholder.

Re: Oi, new song from Limoblaze and DC3: "Cole Palmer"

fresh — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:22:58 -0000

I suppose I should also mention that "Cole Palmer" is a soccer/futbol player from Manchester, England.

Re: New 33jones Mix: He's Hers x Bless1 - Instrumentals for the Late Night Loop

fresh — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:54:27 -0000

Seems like a good time to mention i revamped the "Artists" page on this site so that it is fully searchable and contains a lot more entries than it did previously. So if you want to hear more from He's Hers or Bless1 (or anyone else we've featured in the past) go click on the Articles tab at the top of the main page.

Re: Is AI Video Generation Ready for Real Music Videos or Is It Still AI Slop?

fresh — Sun, 10 May 2026 18:10:41 -0000

Worth noting also that, while freebeat does give you some free tokens, if you are going to make a full music video you're likely going to have to pay. I spent about $20 on credits to make these 3 videos + a 4th video that kept erroring out on the final step and I never completed.

Where freebeat really does well is on making 10 second clips designed for tiktok. If you're looking to create some quick promo videos for an upcoming song/album, that is likely going to give you some good results right now.

Re: 33jones -- Gigantic: Small Professor remixes Elzhi, Zilla, Mally, Has-Lo

fresh — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:03:53 -0000

Yo Commish! Always good to see you come through. Great post on the best of 2011 btw, I picked up a couple of new cds as a result of that.

Re: 33jones -- The Cause & Knowledge Offer Up Some Truth (NJ Hip Hop)

fresh — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:49:59 -0000

I don't want to put your name on blast, but I know who you are. We actually know a lot of the same people from Madison, so it's good to see you come through.

I dig the song, not enough emcees repping Jersey like this any more. I would've said it would be a good look for you to collab with them at some point, but maybe not!

Re: 33jones -- She's From Rolling Stone: Rocky Rivera Raps Over J Dilla

fresh — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:36:02 -0000

Ha, yeah I think she gets that reaction a lot. When she linked to that Dilla verse on 2dopeboyz, she posted it along with a note saying, "If you like it, please leave a comment saying something other than 'I'd smash that'". She seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about it.

Re: 33jones -- Photo - Slug shows his support for Mally

fresh — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:33:32 -0000

I'm trying to think of what the equivalent of this would be for a blogger. I think my new mission in life is to get Oliver Wang to wear a 33jones t-shirt.

Re: 33jones -- Reexamining P.M. Dawn (Defending the Indefensible?)

fresh — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:23:38 -0000

Well on the one hand, what KRS did to Prince Be was exactly the thing that his whole Stop The Violence movement and Self Destruction was speaking out against. So not a good look for him in that regard.

On the other hand, KRS seems to honestly think of 'hip hop' as an actual living entity (I'll leave it up to you as to what that says about his state of mind, but nevertheless he seems to have fully anthropomorphized hip hop). So it isn't entirely surprising that he would act out against someone that, in his view, was offering up the ultimate disrespect to hip hop: crossing over. Though it is interesting that he chose to attack a crossover artist who happened to be a pacifist rather than any of the other many crossover artists who might have actually fought back, like Hammer, who had some legitimate street connections back in the day.

Re: 33jones -- Alex Ludovico - Heat. Prey. Love.

fresh — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:51:53 -0000

Fair point but in this case I was referring only to the gunit style of
nothing but jacked beats on a tape.

Re: 33jones -- New Music from Curly Castro, Chachi and j.Depina (MPfrees)

fresh — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:03:45 -0000

As I'm at work, I can't update the actual post itself right now but here's the link to Zilla and Castro's new Str8 Westcoastin' mix:

http://clapcowards.com/2010...

Here's the tracklisting:

1. Zilla Rocca’s Hellafied Intro
2. ”Mix Tapes” The Nonce
3. ”Exploits and Glitches” Noncando
4. ”Critical (Madlib Remix)” Zion I f/ Planet Asia
5. ”Killin’ It” Tha Alkaholiks f/ Xzibit
6. ”Made N*****” 2pac f/ Outlawz
7. ”Ditty” Paperboy
8. ”Doggy Dogg World” Snoop Doggy Dogg f/ The Dogg Pound
9. Curly Castro’s Brooklyn Dodger Lament
10. ”Still Cruisin’” Eazy E f/ The Game
11. ”Place of Birth” Planet Asia
12. ”Mr. Dobalina” Del Thee Funkee Homosapien
13. ”Tell Me When To Go” E-40 f/ Keak Da Sneak
14. ”She Swallowed It” N.W.A.
15. ”Soul On Ice (Diamond D Remix)” Ras Kass
16. ”Otha Fish” Pharcyde

Stream link: http://www.mixcloud.com/5pm...

D/L link: http://www.sendspace.com/fi...

Re: 33jones -- Unreleased Bless 1 songs featuring J Dilla, Madlib and Nas

fresh — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:42:27 -0000

I'll ask Bless and see if he remembers. I'll let you know as soon as I here back from him.

Re: 33jones -- Digging in the (Youtube) Crates - Yvonne Fair's Let Your Hair Down

fresh — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:55:00 -0000

I should've checked my links better. That myspace page for "DJ Spectacular" is not DJ Spictacular's.

Re: 33jones -- New Music from the Outsidaz!

fresh — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:31:40 -0000

Funny you mention that. I've been working on a post about the history of the Outsidaz, and I did a small interview with a guy who worked with D.U. (the founder of Outsidaz) and asked him about that. Big Pun heard Rain or Shine when the Outsidaz opened for him at one of his early shows. According to this guy, Pun not only jacked the sample he got the label to block the Outz from officially releasing Rain or Shine.

I don't really have any way to confirm that, but from a couple of other periphereal Outz members that I've talked to, they all got a little heated when the subject came up.