DR DRE DEL - "Mic Of Defiance" - Tape - 1999

   In 1999, I was visiting friends in San Francisco and Ivy took me to the Hickey Hotel on 24th Street. It was a bustling den full of lovable freaks, assholes, musicians, artists, photographers and more. Like most of the inspiring and free-thinking enclaves of 90's-era SF, it was later evicted, whitewashed and stripped of any remnant of its former glory and it now sits anonymous and culturally barren atop a coffee shop that no one in their right mind would enter unless they long to sip lattes inside of a GQ magazine. But, I digress...While visiting the denizens of this particular abode, one resident named Aesop handed me this tape and said "You should check this out. It's a local Jewish rapper." My exterior self calmly took the tape and nonchalantly threw it in my bag while thanking him. Meanwhile, my interior self was running circles in my brain, exclaiming "Hey, your favorite drummer from your favorite punk band just gave you a fucking tape. Don't throw it around!" Aesop also showed me an 8x10 glossy picture of DR DRE DEL that made me think that this rapper could be his cleaner, smoother brother. Seconds after leaving the house, Ivy told me that DR DRE DEL was Aesop and that the DJ featured on the tape, DJ QUEENIE, was none other than Matty Luv. Both guys had formerly been 2/3's of the runaway train known as HICKEY, who had broken up the previous year. I don't know what was going through their heads at that point in their lives (literally, theoretically or pharmaceutically), but one can surmise that after years upon years of being in a band-turned-cult that took up mostly every second of their lives, these guys might want to take a break and churn out something ridiculous.

   If you are familiar with the output of the aforementioned gentlemen, you'll know that even the seemingly lighthearted, ridiculous, jokey shit has a lot of thought and effort behind it. If memory serves me correctly, Matty spent hours teaching himself how to sample beats and songs just for this project. No matter how scatalogical or sexual the lyrics got, Aesop made most of the songs on here insanely memorable by having an ear for a good hook. Starting off with the unforgettable "Dr Dre Del Is The Master", the duo sets the bar rather high in 56 short seconds with an unmistakable metal riff and flawless MC skills. From there on out, the tape is filled (i mean filled...48 songs) with fantastical imagery ("Fuck ALF"), still-relevant social commentary ("Make Room For Whitey"), typical shit-talking ("Fuck You Cecil" trilogy), a fucking RUDIMENTARY PENI sample ("Weird Ass Sisters"), fairly legit hip-hop ("Mic Of Defiance"), straight up awesome weirdness ("Smokin' Crack and Killin' Pigs") and so much more. If that doesn't work for you, DR DRE DEL also raps about his dick...a lot.

Picture of an ultra rare live performance.

Download DR DRE DEL

48 songs. None are over 2 minutes.
Matty Luv passed away in 2002 and his musical accomplishments are too numerous to name. You can find more info about him here. Aesop is still killing it on the drums in the bands AGALLOCH, WORM OUROBOROS and VHOL.