On The Go

Here's some scans from On The Go magazine # 17, which was their best issue as its auteur Espo AKA Steve Powers finally allowed the music coverage to exceed the boring pictures of Cope 2's graffiti with interviews with such rap luminaries as Flavor Flav, CNN, Camp Lo, Godfather Don, Krs One, The Artifacts, DJ Riz and Dr Butcher, as well as rap album and 12" reviews, reggae 7" reviews, a Diggin' In The Crates section including Harlem River Drive by Eddie Palmieri, a Biggie tribute, and amusing cartoons about scumbag record sellers by Julian Bevan. Click on the pix to read 'em in full size :





They'd even diversified their music policy to include adverts for releases by non-east coast gangsta rappers like Big Mike, Master P, and 3X Krazy by this point, but, alas, it proved to be their last issue and ascended to rap mag heaven shortly thereafter. Here's the Fresh Cuts 12" review pages where the pre-Biggie & Kim version of It's All About The Benjamins, Fondle 'Em releases by Cage and Lord Sear, promos by Mobb Deep, ODB, The Alkoholiks and The Fugees, and cuts by indie-rap-in-'97-staples such as Mike Zoot and Mr Complex all hang-ten comfortably together; describing an Arsonists song as being "ill Chewbacca sounding new wave hip hop type shit" is precisely a billion times more entertaining than any of the music a group as workmanlike as the Arsonists made, so, for better or worse, think of the entire section as an impeccable snapshot of what you'd have found in the racks at Fat Beats N.Y or heard on the Stretch & Bobbito show that year :







BONUS BEATS :

Top 3 songs from the Fresh Cuts reviews which aren't It's All About The Benjamins. Refer to the reviews themselves for all relevant information and analysis of them :

Godfather Don - Seeds Of Hate (1997)



Black Attack ft. Problemz & Al Tariq - Verbal Attack (1997)



Mobb Deep - After Hours G.O.D Part III (1997)