Man, so many memories with this one…I gotta say this is my favorite tape I ever made.

I managed to start developing a small following off of this one, as it was getting passed around Rhode Island like a chicken parm recipe. I was rooming with my boy Dave at the time, who was kind of a maniac, and so this tape ended up having more energy than my previous ones. Special shouts to my dude Manny (Dek-One) and his boy Ariel (A-Train!). Me and Manny DJed a party on a boat (yes, a moving boat), and upon special request from Ariel, I managed to do the Marvin Gaye remix live, while the boat was rocking everydamnwhere, and keep that sh*t on-beat. This was the last tape done on my Gemini Scratchmaster mixer, so I’m still killing the transformer switches, and also the last tape unveiled in my boy Mike’s white Jeep, which was all but ritual up to that point; a “country cruise” as my ex-girl would call it.

I think this tape is such a treat because ‘97-’98 saw so many of the artists i grew up on still going strong (GangStarr, Rakim, Nice & Smooth, EPMD, The Beatnuts, Mobb Deep…) and new favorites were emerging almost out of nowhere (Company Flow, Mos Def, Big Pun…). The best memory from this tape though is when i waited for 3 hours outside Tower Records in Boston to get Guru and Premier’s autograph the day after “Moment of Truth” dropped and i actually gave a copy of this tape to DJ Premier. I was so damn shook, but he was too cool. I always wonder if he listened to it…

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD VOLUME 9 – A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY