Stretch Armstrong (hosted by Bobbito)

Freestyle Frenzy, Liberty Grooves 12" vinyl promo's

quote from Rekordz On Wheelz:

"Freestyle Frenzy were a series of limited edition freestyle compilations highlighting some stellar live on air segments from my radio show on KCR. I believe it is the first of its kind, and predates a slew of future releases that captured unofficial recordings. To give you a little insight into how novel this record was, when Ghostface was in record store in Virginia, someone played for him a 12" that was a bootleg of the Meth/Ghost freestyle off of Freestyle Frenzy. When he got back to NYC, he went straight to Loud Records and was ready to flip. It was a little unpleasant because I was on Loud's payroll as a frelance A&R man. While I believe he was enjoying the drama, and making it seem worse than it was, Steve Rifkind was acting like the sky was about to fall, full of panic, certain that Saholin was about t wreck Loud's offices and cause me bodily harm. It turns out I saw Ghost later that month, and he really had very little idea what I was talking about when I tried to explain what the record was. To this day I don't know what really happened, but it was a bit controversial for a minute because no one could tell if it was a good thing for the artists or if it was a bootleg. Keep in mind this before the digital revolution." Stretch Armstrong



Vol.1 (1994)

Large Professor & O.C. - Freestyle (Nov 93)
Nas & Six Nine - Freestyle (Oct 93)
Das EFX - Freestyle (Nov 93)
Big L - Freestyle (Oct 93)
UMC'S - Freestyle (Oct 93)
Souls of Mischief & Kurious - Freestyle (Nov 92)
Q-Tip & Mad Skillz - Freestyle (Apr 94)
Method Man & Ghostface Killah - Freestyle (Apr 94)
Akinyele - Freestyle (Nov 93)
Black Moon & Smif-N-Wessun - Freestyle (Jun 93)
Prince Poetry - Freestyle (Jun 92)



Vol.2 (1995)

MC Serch & O.C. - Freestyle (Aug 94)
Mobb Deep - Freestyle (July 94)
Brand Nubian - Freestyle (Oct 94)
Organized Konfusion - Freestyle (May 93)
Lord Finesse - Freestyle (Sep 94)
Mad Skillz - Freestyle (Oct 94)
Scientifik - Freestyle (Sep 94)
Craig G - Freestyle (July 94)
Common Sense - Freestyle (Oct 94)

Around '93/'94 I used to buy my hip-hop vinyl from Trax Records (or was it Bass Generator?) back in Newcastle... hardcore/techno upstairs and hip-hop in the a cupboard sized basement. It was the only place for 100 miles to buy decent stuff, i'd call in everyday if possible, 2 days of the week at most i might have been armed with 10 quid (if i was lucky). It was on the ball for the time, they got stuff a week or two after vinyl was released in the States, along with alot of bootleg white labels too. Anyway that's where i bought Freestyle Frenzy Vol.1 on clear vinyl. I sold it a few years back for a meagre 10 pounds when i was broke... i think i only bought a meals worth of ready to cook food from Marks & Spencer and enough left to chip in for a bottle of stinkin' High Commissioner whiskey? Hope you still have it Jesse!

[I posted the version from Stretch's Konstant Kontact a while back but the link is dead. Lot's of tracks from Zoo York Mixtape, these vinyl versions have most of them too, although shame it doesn't feature the first appearance on the show from a young Busta Rhymes which i can't find anywhere.]