Faked, New Bootlegged, & Old Bootlegged Memphis Tapes

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Apr 25, 2011
138
235
43
Memphis, TN Louisville, KY
#1
Real quick, I don't know how many interested buyers are on here that are interested in old Memphis tapes, but do NOT buy anything from anyone, do not put money out your pocket without hollering at me first. Doesn't matter if you are buying from some random guy in Norway, Germany, Finland, or directly from the actual artist themselves. There are tons of things you do NOT want to put your hands on... ranging from completely faked tapes that mimic original tapes... to old bootlegs being sold as originals... to new bootlegs being sold as originals.. to tapes that weren't even actual releases and are made up from mp3 rips being sold as originals....

Literally anyone selling anything on cassette is calling it original when it comes to Memphis... Do NOT go to Discogs to get any information about Memphis tapes... that site is loaded with completely wrong information and photos. Do not browse youtube looking for information either, you will most likely end up getting brain cancer in the process..

People are knowingly hustling on things because the majority of people who are interested in Memphis classics have no idea what they are looking at.. and at the same time people who have never even been within 500 miles of Memphis are talking out their ass about what they would never know. All that's being passed around is misinformation, and garbage product from people around the world that have no idea what they are talking about... there are people overseas that are making and selling tapes to look like originals... and at the same time there is people still in Memphis including artists themselves that are taking advantage of all of the above to make money off your ignorance and what you can't look up.

So bottom line, pass everything up and come thru me first with any questions before you do anything, I'm completely neutral and completely sharp, I will tell you exactly what you need to know before you fall into buying something worth absolutely nothing. Honestly, it's a mess and there's so much trash floating around that needs to be thrown away. If you have something and you're unsure about it, let me know as well. Nobody out there needs to toss hundreds of dollars down the drain for no reason.

You can reach me on email [email protected] if you ever have any reservations, I'm super cool
 
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May 12, 2002
5,473
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www.glmc.gemm.com
#2
I remember you sayin about this a long ass time ago it's important to be reminding folks.

I had a "proper" N.O.D. tape someone gave me about 6-7 years ago, tracks had the channels mixed up and i just assumed it was a re-run of the many reruns TWIII did We all came to learn TWIII did copies of his own shit and others without authority. What amazed me the most, is that he was out on road doin that long before the internet and the global demand for this shit. Do you know what the proper N.O.D. tape was like i.e. sound quality and tape build wise?

First look i took into the memphis paper label release scene i was like fuck this is gonna get exploited the shit out of! who knew it was being fucked with even before e-commerce damn.
 
Apr 25, 2011
138
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Memphis, TN Louisville, KY
#3
Yea I hear you, one big source of reran tapes was TWIII for almost 2 decades now.. since around 98 when he first started selling represses of his own titles to help fund his distribution with SOH. He was selling out of a catalog in bulk all his old titles and also anyone whom he felt was affiliated with him, he'd throw "Street Smart Records" on the sticker... on all of Maceo's tapes, MDB's tapes, Blackout's tapes.. etc. Then he just started repressing everyones tapes with no permission to the extent of what you see he's still doing on ebay in 2016 with any tape he can stick in the duplicator. That's his hustle, but folks still eat it up. Audio quality on those can range from okay to completely unlistenable, but nowhere near the original sound quality from the original pressings.

Anyways, the Niggaz of Destruction tape you're probably talking about is the one produced by TWIII from '96 on Street Smart. The original is a normal bias tape with very good audio quality, correct length tape, no duplicator tape-end 'pops' at the beginning or end of the tape audio. The original press has the cover in it's correct size, recopies were photocopied and a bit smaller, you'll see alot of those with a quick google search. Here's a scan of the original release:
 

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Apr 25, 2011
138
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Memphis, TN Louisville, KY
#6
I'm going to use this as a chance to clear up some things I've been wanting to for a while, long read but some of you should find this useful.

Original Pressings - these are the first authorized copies from a high bias master tape to duplication, usually with a j card cover, sometimes with special art & ink labeling directly on the cassette, high quality grade cassette, sometimes different color & style of cassette shell, very low noise, high quality audio, & correct length tapes. These cost the most to duplicate

Second Pressings - these are a second issuing of authorized copies usually from a high bias master tape to duplication, sometimes duplicated from a original pressing, sometimes not as great audio quality, may have cover, cover may be in black/white rather than color, may have sticker label instead of ink labeling, quality of cassette usually good, some noise but high quality audio, usually more units pressed than the original pressing issue due to cost being the same for more units

These authorized pressings are the only items produced with the intent to distribute the content in it's intended quality. The majority of music online is not taken from these tapes, instead from bootlegs & poor sources. The originals were sold straight from the artists, by consignment at authorized stereo shops, and at authorized retailers such as Musiquarium and Poptunes in Memphis and surrounding areas. These tapes were usually duplicated on machines that were in spec and serviced properly for small-run duplication for independent artist/producers.

Old Bootlegs - these are the first wave of duplicated copies of authorized pressings, done by a third party without permission, using low-end duplication equipment, low grade cassettes (usually speech grade), much worse sound quality, incorrect tape lengths, higher noise levels/balance issues/treble&bass issues. Simple labeling, no cover/artwork. These were duplicated close to the release of the originals by shops and are what many on the internet usually believe to be original pressings as the originals are not always seen and documented. Though these bootlegs do not, and should not represent the quality of the the original authorized issues. These are also what some of the "rips" are sourced from when the Memphis "remastered" MP3 scene first became a thing around 2005-2006. Local sellers of these bootlegs were many including Boss Ugly's, Mr Z's, and local stereo shops such as TNT Pro Audio.

Late 90's early 00's Bootlegs - these were bootlegs made many years after the original pressings were long gone and could not be sourced. Many of the original artists had moved on to CD's, national releases, and record deals, and were no longer producing cassette tapes. This was a time when old underground Memphis music was first making a local resurgence in the south and there was a collector market for physical copies of the older, now hard to find titles. These were usually duplicated from old bootlegs, occasionally from an authorized pressing. Audio quality now ranging from okay to not very good at all. Bootleggers were still using the same old duplicators from the early to mid 90's that were usually never serviced. These were being made in bulk on low-grade cassettes. Some artists were also even bootlegging and repressing their own old titles, an example would be Tommy Wright III bulk pressing large quantities are his affiliated Street Smart releases to sell in local markets to fund his new projects. These were sold to music shops in the region and directly to customers by catalog. These tapes were widely available. Many of these are what people also believe to be the original pressings, as they are coming directly from the artist. Audio quality usually was very noisy and faulty pressings were common. Other sources for late 90s boots were some of the local music shops such as Boss Ugly's, tape duplicators such as Stuart's, and as well as an old website "MTownBound" ran by B-Low that duplicated and sold tons of the tapes that you will see pictured on youtube. King JC's Basement Tape Distribution was also selling his own tape copies on the old Southwest-Connection website. These era of bootlegs make up the majority of the digital conversions and "remastered" mp3s

Late 00's to Present Day Bootlegs - In the late 00's, TWIII resurfaced on ebay selling all sorts of bootlegs of everyone's tapes. He was running duplicators still in operation from Stuart's to make copies of everyone's old tapes; all of which was without permission of the original artist/producers. First being his projects and affiliated producers MDB, Maceo, Blackout's tapes; then moving on to any and everything. These tapes were all over the place in sound quality as they were being copied from all sorts of sources. They were widely available and are now in the hands of people worldwide, TWIII would open many ebay accounts, it would get shut down, & he would open another. TWIII's newer bootlegs are for the most part now well documented as bootlegs. But his older bootlegs from the late 90's are in the same technical category.

Player One came into the internet market attempting to represent DJ Sound. He originally was releasing digital-only "reissues" of DJ Sounds's tapes beginning in 2006. Then once he realized the ignorance of the millennial and international market and how "lifetime fans" would buy anything, he started an ebay store doing just the same thing as TWIII, plus much worse. He was selling bootlegs of all of DJ Sounds tapes, followed by DJ Paul's, DJ Squeeky's, Skinny Pimp's, Lady B's and many others; they were all duplicated in bulk. He also decided to increase the hustle by then making homemade "master tapes" and selling those as well. People actually paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for these, when they were not even remotely masters. You can see these all over youtube. For example, some of these were handwritten on cassette tape models that weren't even manufactured during the time they would have been mixed down in the early 90's. Basically people were buying homemade mixtapes dubbed in his apartment. He would move on to sell Maniyak's titles the same way as well as "masters" and put random tracks together to keep selling digital albums thru CDBaby. He literally was throwing anything together for a DJ Sound vol 12, 13, 14, etc.. And also did a bunch of hilarious things like a "Nigga Creep" red tape that he sold on ebay that was recorded from an MP3 fan-made compilation. The tape was sold as a super rare OG from 1995 on a red shell cassette with a red sticker printed from a computer. The best part is the tape featured tracks from the 1998 Prophet Posse album and right on the sticker it says Hypnotized Minds, when none of those things even existed in 1995. Still the millennial international internet has this made-up album listed as something amazing, when it never even existed and was dubbed from random MP3s to cassette. There was never a Nigga Creep tape. After that tape sold, Player One then sold the rest out. He would routinely sell his "only copy" of an "original" tape, only to then sell bulk a few weeks later. He sold numerous cassettes dubbed from MP3 to cassette for titles that also never existed but were scrapped up and pieced together from whatever he could find. He's been releasing 'albums' with random tracks ever since.

Counterfeits - this is where it gets really bad, there are present-day tape counterfeiters overseas that create tapes to look like the original pressings (or what they believe to be original pressings). I have gone out of my way to track and confirm one of these people in Germany and what this guy does is try to mimic the cassette style, label, and text of any specific tape, and then sells it. If the original sticker label is yellow on youtube, he'll use a yellow label. He just types it up and prints it out. They aren't even bootlegs. They are complete counterfeits, and all that is recorded onto the cassette is an mp3 rip downloaded from the internet on both sides. It's not even a copy of a bootleg, as they have no access to any of the original tapes. This in my opinion is by far the worst kind of this whole game. These people are deliberately cashing in on the market by selling things that aren't remotely authentic. I've seen these items get sold and resold on ebay numerous times, and even when the buyer overseas relists it, they'll list it as an OG too, it sells for something more, and it ends up in hands of someone else and the misinformation continues. This is apparently the cycle where we're at now.

Bottom Line: Many millennials and tape collectors alike, for some reason believe these tapes are the actual underground tapes from back in the day and are worth something. They are 9 times out of 10 merely a copy of a copy, and in some cases even worse than that when it comes to the counterfeits. The market now is flooded with all sorts of completely incorrect information, all sorts of fans and original "collectors" worldwide that have no idea what they are talking about, and garbage product is what gets sold hand to hand, and for ridiculous prices. Even artists are scamming on the action and pushing it further. The true original pressings are in fact rare, and worth a very good amount of money. The sound quality alone is one of the main reasons. People assume that what is posted on youtube is what these tapes actually sound like, that Memphis underground rap is all about low quality, low budget, tape hiss etc. When in reality, that is all created by myth and the continuation of bootlegging and scamming the music to the point of what it is today, is the result. People literally pay hundreds of dollars for what is essentially a vhs copy of a copy of a bootleg vhs movie. That to me is crazy.
 
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Apr 25, 2011
138
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Memphis, TN Louisville, KY
#7
Continued...: The original issues were in many cases high quality independent releases, color artwork, & attention to uniqueness, because you had to stand out to sell. The myth has now become that every tape out of Memphis had a white sticker and sounded like a cheese grater. Simply put, that's incorrect. There was no real respect in Memphis for independent artists back then, and it was all about the hustle, whether on the artist side or the local retailer side. Whereas it was a small time hustle then, it has exponentially exploded to the region, and now on the worldwide stage to the point where it is now. It's gone from chump change to big money with these bootlegs. And over the course of all these years, it just gets worse. It's now people who have never even touched a cassette player or even been to Memphis speaking on behalf of the Memphis underground genre, and folks who want to show off their "super rare collection" of bootlegs, or folks obsessed with low quality MP3 collections, to the folks that just want to take advantage of all of the above to rake in some cash.. There's no real respect for any of the actual music anymore. And that's where I sit on it all.

Sorry for the article, but I had nowhere else better to put this, and better to put this somewhere I think people would actually give a care, take a care.
 
Apr 25, 2011
138
235
43
Memphis, TN Louisville, KY
#9
I got my tapes from either Cat's Records on Elvis Presley, Ike's Records in North Memphis that was next to the studio, or Boss Ugly Bob's. All 3 are out of business of course, but those were the 3 spots for local Memphis music.
Ike's was my spot wordemup. Bob's went downhill right before it burned up, was a proper place for the longest early on though. And Cat's was legit, one of the best locals
 
May 12, 2002
5,473
299
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www.glmc.gemm.com
#10
SO likely this one is a swizz - and the seller has no idea!?!?

[ame]http://www.ebay.com/itm/17-Vintage-Memphis-Underground-Rap-Tapes-Extremely-RARE-HTF-OOP-/131744508787?hash=item1eac95ab73%3Ag%3AJcUAAOSwr7ZW23zd&nma=true&si=ttbR3OVNGQ7vnSZj6G%252FLHVG2bJA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557[/ame]

either my browser has gotten too old or siccness has had to ban links can anyone see the link above?

ebay.com
/itm/17-Vintage-Memphis-Underground-Rap-Tapes-Extremely-RARE-HTF-OOP-/131744508787?hash=item1eac95ab73%3Ag%3AJcUAAOSwr7ZW23zd&nma=true&si=ttbR3OVNGQ7vnSZj6G%252FLHVG2bJA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
 

lifesourcerec

The 865 Archive
Oct 15, 2003
281
132
43
www.steelsolid.net
#11
Classic

Ike's was my spot wordemup. Bob's went downhill right before it burned up, was a proper place for the longest early on though. And Cat's was legit, one of the best locals
I miss those places. Use to hit them up every Tuesday. I met J Dawg from Select-O-Hits at Cats dropping off posters. We were going to distribute our music through them, then Black Market popped up.