AUDIO: LL Cool J – “Year of the Hip-Hop” (previously unreleased, 1994).

With the likes of DWG, Vinyl Addicts, One Leg Up, and other specialty labels raiding every available resource for the best vintage unreleased hip-hop recordings you’ve never heard, you’d think the supply would eventually dry up. Yet the treats just keep on coming. Slice of Spice Records kicked off the summer with a batch of goodies from the vaults of Poughkeepsie-based boardsman Paul Nice variously featuring Masta Ace, Guru and Biz. Now SSR returns with an intriguing lost track from the cache of former Marley Marl protégé K-Def – a previously unreleased collab with LL Cool J spitting over ESG’s “UFO” borne from an impromptu session at Marley’s House of Hits. Call us old fashioned, but we still enjoy hearing the greats rhyme over classic breaks. K-Def pretty much murders the track (the Sugar Hill Gang flip on the chorus being an especially nice touch). L sounds suitably rejuvenated, post-14 Shots To the Dome. Even the unmistakably 90s rah-rah back-up vocals have a dated charm. Incredibly the DAT to this was thought to have been lost for years, but eventually turned up behind a radiator. It’s still hot. Listen to it below. Pre-order it on limited edition (500 copies), premium priced vinyl (sorry, cheapskates), here.

SSR-005: Year Of The Hip Hop (Vocal) – K-Def ft. LL Cool J by Slice-of-Spice

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