FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP - Forced Exposure

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FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP 6 Titles


Artist	Title	Format	Label	Catalog #

FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP	7th Seal/Physical Form	7"	KEY SYSTEM RECORDINGS	KEYSYS 004EP
$17.50 IN STOCK Two of the hardest cuts from Freestyle Fellowship's landmark debut album To Whom It May Concern..., never before released as singles in any form, on limited 7" single re-edited and mixed for DJ play by Cut Chemist.

Artist	Title	Format	Label	Catalog #
FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP	Sunshine Men/We Will Not Tolerate	7"	KEY SYSTEM RECORDINGS	KEYSYS 005EP
$17.50 IN STOCK The two most well-known and iconic tracks from Freestyle Fellowship's landmark debut album To Whom It May Concern..., never before released as singles in any form, on limited 7" single re-edited and mixed for DJ play by Cut Chemist.

Artist	Title	Format	Label	Catalog #
FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP	To Whom It May Concern...	2LP	KEY SYSTEM RECORDINGS	KEYSYS 003LP
$40.00 NOT IN STOCK [currently sold out, repress uncertain] Double LP version. 30th anniversary definitive issue of legendary hip-hop crew The Freestyle Fellowship's landmark 1991 debut, To Whom It May Concern..., mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist. Grammy Nominated for Best Historical Album 2022/23! Mastered for vinyl by Daddy Kev; includes an insert with full credits, rare photos from the archives of Brian "B+" Cross and producer J. Sumbi, as well as copious liner notes by David Ma and Nate LeBlanc of DadBodRapPod. Manufactured entirely in the USA. 30th anniversary definitive issue of legendary hip-hop crew The Freestyle Fellowship's landmark 1991 debut, To Whom It May Concern..., mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist. "Freestyle Fellowship -- the legendary rap crew from Los Angeles made up of Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter. The 'Best Historical Album' nomination is the first ever for any rap album in Grammy history, and comes a little over 30 years after the group released their solo project as a grassroots, independent effort. In a time and region underscored by gangsta rap, G-funk, and record sales, the Freestyle Fellowship was largely built on collaborative community, long term friendships, and artistic willpower. What most defined the group is not only their lyrical dexterity, but their commitment to an authentic, do-it-yourself spirit that can often elude the most commercially successful rappers. Highlighted by their free-flowing, jazz-inspired cadences and multi-rhythmic flows delivered in obtuse ways -- whether rapping slightly off beat, meandering in and out of alternating patterns, or coming in at rapid fire bursts -- the Freestyle Fellowship helped to build the West Coast's underground movement, drawing inspiration from East Coast boom bap, spoken word poetry, and the socially explosive world around them." --OkayPlayer

Artist	Title	Format	Label	Catalog #
FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP	To Whom It May Concern...	Cassette	KEY SYSTEM RECORDINGS	KEYSYS 003CS
$15.50 LOW STOCK LEVEL Cassette version. 30th anniversary definitive issue of legendary hip-hop crew The Freestyle Fellowship's landmark 1991 debut, To Whom It May Concern..., mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist. Grammy Nominated for Best Historical Album 2022/23! "Freestyle Fellowship -- the legendary rap crew from Los Angeles made up of Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter. The 'Best Historical Album' nomination is the first ever for any rap album in Grammy history, and comes a little over 30 years after the group released their solo project as a grassroots, independent effort. In a time and region underscored by gangsta rap, G-funk, and record sales, the Freestyle Fellowship was largely built on collaborative community, long term friendships, and artistic willpower. What most defined the group is not only their lyrical dexterity, but their commitment to an authentic, do-it-yourself spirit that can often elude the most commercially successful rappers. Highlighted by their free-flowing, jazz-inspired cadences and multi-rhythmic flows delivered in obtuse ways -- whether rapping slightly off beat, meandering in and out of alternating patterns, or coming in at rapid fire bursts -- the Freestyle Fellowship helped to build the West Coast's underground movement, drawing inspiration from East Coast boom bap, spoken word poetry, and the socially explosive world around them." --OkayPlayer

Artist	Title	Format	Label	Catalog #
FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP	To Whom It May Concern...	CD	KEY SYSTEM RECORDINGS	KEYSYS 003CD
$15.50 IN STOCK 30th anniversary definitive issue of legendary hip-hop crew The Freestyle Fellowship's landmark 1991 debut, To Whom It May Concern..., mixed from the original 4-track tapes by Cut Chemist. Grammy Nominated for Best Historical Album 2022/23! "Freestyle Fellowship -- the legendary rap crew from Los Angeles made up of Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter. The 'Best Historical Album' nomination is the first ever for any rap album in Grammy history, and comes a little over 30 years after the group released their solo project as a grassroots, independent effort. In a time and region underscored by gangsta rap, G-funk, and record sales, the Freestyle Fellowship was largely built on collaborative community, long term friendships, and artistic willpower. What most defined the group is not only their lyrical dexterity, but their commitment to an authentic, do-it-yourself spirit that can often elude the most commercially successful rappers. Highlighted by their free-flowing, jazz-inspired cadences and multi-rhythmic flows delivered in obtuse ways -- whether rapping slightly off beat, meandering in and out of alternating patterns, or coming in at rapid fire bursts -- the Freestyle Fellowship helped to build the West Coast's underground movement, drawing inspiration from East Coast boom bap, spoken word poetry, and the socially explosive world around them." --OkayPlayer

Artist	Title	Format	Label	Catalog #
FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP	Innercity Griots	2LP	BE WITH RECORDS	BEWITH 101LP
$42.00 IN STOCK Innercity Griots, the second album from Freestyle Fellowship, is perhaps the essential West Coast left-field rap album of the early '90s. Released in 1993 on 4th & Broadway, it's a towering, progressive hip-hop masterpiece that expanded rap's boundaries through lyrical elevation and production innovation. Their talent was ahead of everybody else by light years. This is pure b-boy jazz. Be With reissue includes "Pure Thought" from the CD version of the album. Freestyle Fellowship were some of the earliest technically dazzling rappers to come out of California. Mikah 9, P.E.A.C.E., Aceyalone and Self Jupiter -- along with DJ Kiilu -- forged their famed lyrical dexterity in the ultra-competitive crucible of the Good Life Cafe. Founded in Leimert Park, South Central LA in December 1989, this earthy health-food store and cafe was where the city's finest microphone fiends would gather to showcase their freestyle skills at the Thursday night open-mic. Innercity Griots has been described as the Rosetta Stone for rap styles. The group's dense, vibrant wordplay and enviable interplay quickly earned the attention and respect of the city's hip-hop underground. Frenetically trading acrobatic rhymes with agility and grace, the Fellowship used their voices as instruments like true virtuosos, spraying improvised raps like a Coltrane sax solo. With the bulk of the album's production handled by The Earthquake Brothers, and Bambawar, Daddy-O, and Edman taking over for some of the tracks, Innercity Griots dances between organic and programmed music, largely forgoing sampling and instead built around live jazz jams. The likes of Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay" and Miles Davis's "Black Comedy" were used more as templates for house band The Underground Railroad Band to spiral out from. As Pitchfork noted in their recent 9.0 review of this classic album, "Freestyle Fellowship embodied the style and spirit of jazz on a molecular level. They shared the effortless cool and tough countenance of the great bebop players from the '50s without verging into jazz-rap parody." The unusual approach to the music was matched by the Fellowship's lyrics. Eschewing the tired rap tropes of the time, this multifaceted album instead explores their ruminations on greed and homelessness, weed, sex, survival, insecurity and tribalism. Remastered by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman.