Weird Moments in Hip-Hop History: The 1st Annual Rappers Boxing Championship

Remember when Willie D knocked out Melle Mel? No?

Well it happened!

The year was 1992. Bill Clinton was to become the 42^nd President of the United States, Mike Tyson would be found guilty of rape charges and antique seller/boxing promoter Gary Braverman would help put together the 1^st (and only) Annual Rappers Boxing Championship.

What was the 1^st Annual Rappers Boxing Championship I hear you ask?

Well the 1^st Annual Rappers Boxing Championship was a charity boxing event held at the 369^th Regiment Armory in Harlem.

It was put together by Step To Productions as part of the ‘A Healing in Harlem” memorial movement. Which was set up in honour of the 9 people who were trampled to death during the stampede at CCNY in 1991. (which was at a rapper’s charity basketball event set up by Heavy D and Puff Daddy)

All proceeds of the fight would go to ‘Give a Kid a Dream’ which is an organisation that provides kids from disadvantaged backgrounds a place to learn and train boxing. Rappers would be trained by professional boxers Iran Barkley, Buddy McGirt and Kevin Kelley.
Hip-Hop greats like Chuck D, Jam Master Jay and Afrikaa Bambaataa turned out to watch the event and give their support to the charity.

Skip to 6 minutes to see coverage of the event

So who fought in the event?

The matches included Prince Ikey C fighting Spanish Fly, Kurtis Blow taking on Awesome D The Wall Street Rapper, Freddie Foxxx (AKA Bumpy Knuckles) beating down Spook Blunt of True Culture and Big B fighting Poet of PHD (better known as Blaq Poet of Screwball).

There was supposed to be a match between Dres (of Black Sheep) and Scoob Lover (One of Big Daddy Kane’s dancers). however, neither one showed up! but it can be safely assumed Dres fled the scene after encountering a Strobelite Honey.

Finally (and most importantly) there were the two headlining matches known as the of the East Meets West bouts.

The first match as you would have guessed by now was between Grandmaster Melle Mel and Willie D of The Geto Boys, for the East Meets West Hardcore Heavyweight Championship Belt. Although the event itself may sound great it actually turned out quite embarrassing and this was due to three reasons. The first is that the bout lasted a little bit more than a minute, second is that neither was able to land a clean punch, and third is that the TKO occurred when they accidently banged heads! Unequivocally confirming, Willie D as the most hard-headed MC on planet Earth.

While the idea of Willie D knocking down Melle Mel sounds like an amazing moment, it was not the greatest thing to happen that night. That would go to the final match.
After a full year of shit talking and berating the West Coast, Tim Dog would finally put his money where his mouth is and take on Dope-E of The Terrorists to prove once and for all which coast is the best coast in a fight for the East Meets West Hardcore Super Heavyweight Championship Belt.
Well, that is if he had actually turned up! Yes, in true Tim Dog fashion he bailed on a charity to avoid bruising his body and ego. (he would then go on to give himself the title of Hardcore on his 1993 Sophomore effort Do or Die)

With Tim Dog backing out from the fight, Dope-E would win by default. However Freddie Foxxx was having none of that. Even though he had just finished a fight and was suffering from a sprained right shoulder Freddie Foxxx volunteered to take Tim Dog’s place and represent the East Coast. Even with a busted right shoulder Freddie Foxxx would end up humiliating Dope-E and win by unanimous decision. To top it all off he would then call out Tim Dog for writing a song called ‘Step to Me’ and not show up to a fight.

Truly, Freddie Foxxx is a man you should never want to fuck with.

Just as a side note it’s extremely bizarre that neither West Coast representative in the East Meets West fights is actually from the West Coast. They both are from the South, with Willie D being from Houston, Texas and Dope-E from South Park, Texas.

5 of the Biggest Dick Moves Pulled By Tommy Boy Records

It’s not surprising when records labels pull some shit, but it sucks when it happens and it always hurts their artists and their audience as a result.

It’s a fact Tommy Boy Records put out some of the best Hip-Hop artists during their bid in the 80’s and 90’s. Naughty by Nature, Digital Underground and De La Soul, just to name a few. However this doesn't exempt them from shit they pulled back in the day (and even more recently), shit that would piss you off, shit that would make you say "Fuck you Tommy Boy Records". Shit Like…

                                                                                                                                              

5: Kicking Paris from their label

Paris didnt like George H. W. Bush or cops and it would be this dislike that would ultimately end up getting him kicked from Tommy Boy.
When Bush started the Gulf War, Paris got pissed off. Taking pen to pad he wanted to persuade american voters in the up coming election not to vote for Bush and he did this by writing the extremely controversial “Bush Killa” in which he vividly describes how he would kill George H. W. Bush, citing his racist policies, potential reptilian background and bullshit war as his reasoning. Seriously he was pissed, check out the inside sleeve of the album.

He would eventually re-realease Sleeping with the Enemy with THIS as the album cover

Along with this there was also “Coffee, Donuts & Death” another vivid tale of Paris’s outing to kill corrupt cops. These tracks were extremely violent & confrontational to the point which they withheld the release indefinitely. Then along comes the Ice-T “Cop killer” controversy, scaring the shit out of Tommy Boy Records and causing them to drop Paris, so rather than stick to their guns and support freedom of speech they decided to drop him.
However Paris would end up getting the last laugh as the free publicity surrounding the controversy of his album led him to sell close to half a million copies!

                                                                                                                                              

4. Kicking Live Squad from their label

Another victim of the “Cop Killer” controversy was unfortunately Live Squad.

Live Squad were a rowdy group from Queens, New York, it composed of Stretch (whom you may remember for his production on Tupac’s first three albums), Majesty and DJ K-Low. This group was hard; too hard in fact that Tommy Boy dropped them as a result in 1993. They would only ever release one single through Tommy Boy called “Murderahh/Heartless"

Yes that's a bullet

Along with a music video for "Murderahh" which literally opens with one of the guys randomly deciding to shoot a teenager who was walking on the footpath.

The thing that sucks the most about this is that the group was fucking talented; their production was intense, their lyrics were extremely dark and gritty, and their delivery was straight up menacing!
Once again this is another situation where Tommy Boy Records was too scared to support their roster and dropped them instead.

You know what the biggest kick in teeth is? On Their single “Murderahh/Heartless” they give a shout out to Tommy Boy for the support.

They would eventually release Game of Survival in 2001 on Grand Imperial Records; however it is more a collection of demo’s and incomplete tracks recorded while they were signed to Tommy Boy but it’s definitely worth a listen if you can find it.

                                                                                                                                              

3. Offering no support for Biz Markie

Biz Markie AKA the Clown Prince of Hip – Hop is a legend, his simple yet infectious lyrics, fantastic beat boxing and overall light hearted personality made him a house hold favourite. So it was exciting to here that after 10 years of one off singles and guest appearances, The Diabolical Biz Markie would be coming back with Weekend Warrior; however it was going to be done through Tommy Boy Records. This was in 2003 when Tommy Boy Records was bleeding whatever they could from their roster, with an endless onslaught of CD re-releases and greatest hits, so it wasn't surprising when Tommy Boy Records did nothing to back or promote the album. For Tommy Boy it was them milking whatever they could from a washed up has been by spending as little as possible, which is a shame because it’s a good album, it won’t outshine his catalogue on Cold Chillin’ but it deserved much more support than it got.

The saddest part about this whole thing is that this would be Tommy Boy Records last proper Hip-Hop album before fully transitioning into a much more pop and House oriented label. So rather than a swan song to those who supported Tommy Boy Records back in the day it was a big middle finger.

                                                                                                                                              

2. Fucking Over Freshco and DJ Miz

Freshco and DJ Miz had so much hype behind them, Freshco and Miz were World Champion MC and DJ respectively back in 1989 (this was also the same event where Miz and DJ Aladdin would pioneer the art of beat juggling) they received a lot of love from so many hip hop artists like, Guru, MC Lyte, Notorious BIG and MC Serch. They had built up a reputation as the most vicious MC/DJ combination. Seriously listen to this!



So what did Tommy Boy do that was bullshit?

They didn't market them, and part of it came from the fact they didn't know how to!

Most other artists on Tommy Boy had their gimmicks, Digital Underground had their west coast party vibe, Naughty by Nature was the hardcore group with the mainstream appeal, Stetsasonic was the first ever Hip Hop Band and Freshco & Miz were Freshco & Miz.

Freshco was 100% MC and Miz was 100% DJ. So rather than helping them build publicity or release an album or even another single to build hype and help nurture and build their fan base, Tommy Boy Records decided to drop them from the label.

There is a documentary you can check out on the rise and fall of Freshco & Miz made by Freshco himself here.

                                                                                                                                              

1. Shamelessly milk their audience

Throughout Tommy Boy Records career they shamelessly sucked dry whatever they could from their artists and milk their audience for all their worth. They did this by issuing absolute garbage compilation albums, like MTV Party To Go (releasing 15 volumes), Freestyle Greatest Beats (releasing 7 volumes) and ESPN Presents Jock Jam (releasing 4 volumes), and this is only the compilations with numerous volumes, they have released compilation albums from WCW to fucking Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

However the most offensive bullshit they ever pulled was between 2005 and 2006 when they released Tommy Boy Presents: Hip Hop Essentials 1979-1991. 

Don't Buy This!

This was a 12 volume mess designed to exploit those nostalgic for old school hip hop. The track selection is not bad, however they re-used several artists throughout the compilation in order to pad out the volumes as much as possible and reduce effort on who to put on the album. As a result they completely neglected classic artists like Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Tuff Crew, Above the Law and the Geto Boys or even the aforementioned Paris or Freshco & Miz.

It’s also not possible to say they wouldn’t put artists like Geto Boys on the compilation because they are too violent, due to the fact arists like N.W.A, DJ Quik and 2 Live Crew appear on the compilation.Which leads to the biggest problem about this whole fucking mess of a compilation album. All the fucking songs are CENSORED. This is a compilations that contains tracks like Sweet Black Pussy, Fuck Compton, Fuck The Police and numerous others.

There could not have been a clerical error where the censored version was released by accident and that’s because a lot of the censored tracks don’t have a censored version, so this means Tommy Boy Records actively butchered the songs so they can avoid a parental discretion sticker, which is bizarre as they never censored the word “Bitch”. It was shameless, petty and absolute dick move to those who bought it unaware that the tracks were censored.

Fuck you Tommy Boy Records.