Revisiting The Tags Of The Times

Mike Ladd Feat Company Flow: Bladerunners (Company Flow Remix)
Mr No No (AKA Saafir): Scand'lous
From: Tags Of The Times Version 2.0 [Mary Joy Recordings, 1999]

Back at the end of the nineties when I had finished uni and failed to sort myself out with a job of any merit the only way to keep up with what was going on in the world of hip hop was to snap up compilations that appeared in the racks of my local record shop, Time.

Half the excitement was picking up a release that I knew nothing about, dropping it on the shop turntable and waiting to hear what came out. One of the most unlikely of these was the Tags Of The Times records. Put together by the Tokyo based Mary Joy Recordings, the compilations brought together underground rap of the time from America, Japan and, of course, Finland(?).

Revisiting these compilations now it quickly becomes clear how much of the underground rap at the time sounded the same, 80% of these songs jacking their style from man of the moment DJ Hi-Tek. However, as the dust cleared off my vinyl copy of Tags Of The Times Volume 2 I was surprised to rediscover non album tracks from both Company Flow and Saafir so thought I'd share the love with you.

Bladerunners is a remix of the Mike Ladd track that originally featured on his shamefully forgotten Welcome To The Afterfuture album and is even better than the original. While Mike Ladd's version kept the Vangelis track as an underlying source to the bass heavy melody the remix throws the synths up in front, breaking down the rhythm to give the track a more freeform nature, crashes and vocal snippets popping in and out of the mix. I'm a sucker for a bit of Vangelis at the best of times so this track truly does it for me.

I'm not the first to declare it but I truly love Boxcar Sessions so anything by Saafir is ok with me. This, from his Mr No No period, is a more party styled anthem than the heavier sound of Boxcar with a warped disco vibe. While nowhere near as powerful as his earlier work this track is a grower and Saafir's voice is so good it really doesn't matter what the dude is rhyming over. I can't top Noz's description of his vocal class so I'll just quote it instead, "homie sounds like he could swallow the fucking planet".

Also, on a sad note, check out the quality artwork on this album's front cover by Master Matthew AC Reid AKA Matt Doo who sadly took his own life and whose memory the album is dedicated to. Matt was also responsible for Organized Konfusion's Stress: The Extinction Agenda front cover and Prince Po later honoured the artist's life in the song Be Easy. RIP.