J Dilla
Ruff Draft

Elephant in the Room by Korea Town AcidJessica Cho energetically reaches toward the numerous drum machines and synthesizers that not only make her Toronto apartment's living room table look like an android's innards, but also help her create the futuristic and frenzied music under her alias Korea Town Acid. Among the multitudes of buttons and wires, she points to one of the smaller consoles, a pale white Elektron Model Cycle that she has been particularly fond of as of late. She turns its dials, making it give off a deep-water warble and a soft glow that contrasts sharply with her neon orange painted fingernails and equally bright dyed red hair. "You can make kick drums, a hi-hat, synths with this. It has such a pure design. Its manipulation is so easy!" she enthuses while tapping the groove box's buttons and turning more of its dials as its percussion begins to pop and thud.

DJ Quik is a giant of West Coast hip-hop. With 1995’s Safe + Sound, he scaled new levels of musical magnificence with his signature new age P-Funk/laconic G-Funk. A quintessential, sun-scorched LA album, this is pretty much essential. Typical for mid-90s albums the original vinyl copies are now rare so here’s the Be With re-issue, complete with “Tanqueray”, the hidden track from the original CD release. A preternaturally gifted producer/rapper, DJ Quik has produced scores of LA gangsta rap classics. He’s released platinum and gold records of his own, as well as helped craft them for the likes of Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr Dre. Quik has always been quirkier and more interesting than his gangsta rap peers, both musically and lyrically. An old-school funk producer at heart, he’s also incredibly nice on the mic. His raps often deal in boasts, jokes and good times but also cover his beefs, his trials and his trauma. Partying and pain, all mixed up. DJing and producing hype beat tapes from age 14, Quik’s tracks blended the languid funk and rubbery synths of Zapp and George Clinton with a gangsta aesthetic, creating a more danceable foil to Compton’s more typical nihilistic hedonism.

Some old gems of Bens have resurfaced from the archives thanks to Danny digging through his crates.Ben grew out of the 1989 UK rave scene to dj, remix, produce and write for all sorts of artists from Prince to U2, djing around the world from Berlin to Buenos Aires.These are his own tunes made in the Matrix studio in London in 1990, a hive of activity and talent, Massive Attack in the next room making Blue Lines, Mark E Smith in another with The Fall, and Adrian Sherwood dubbing Tackhead in another!

For the the third release on NBN Archives, we stay on the left coast but we head to the North West - Seattle to be exact, home of Major Weight Media.Considered an obscure classic amongst G-Funk specialists, Major Weight Media was a Hip-Hop project from Seattle started by Lil Kriz, a Detroit-born composer and MC who moved to Seattle in 1988, graduated from Garfield High School then enrolled in the Art Institute of Seattle and got his degree in audio engineering.Lil' Kriz had been playing piano since he was a kid and displays his incredible composition talents all over this debut 6-track EP. The whole project is laced with nothing but funky beats and smooth verses from Kriz himself and Big D.Originally produced in 1996, but self-released in 1997 on CD only, "Music Speaks Louder" is available for the first time on record. A worthy addition to the NBN Archives catalogue and one for the 90's Hip-Hop heads.