The Key Chain

A small cog in the music factory. Active since 95. Quality archival products. Musicologist for labels. Grammy Nominated. Bay Arean New Yorker stuck in Portland.

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

Eyedlmode - Fogville.
1995 cassette-only underground hip-hop release, lost to time until now.
Remastered for vinyl, cassette and CD, with never before seen photography and liner notes by @humthrush.

“kinda like if De La grew up in the Haight-Ashbury”

shipping this fall.

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@rwxoxo when we get the Hebrew Israelites <<<<>>>>>

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@big_business_ … is in Cancun

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

not facts. Wu Tang always cleared

[Pablo Torre 👀 @PabloTorre]

Shaolin monks cannot prepare you for Fat Joe

[NYC DOT @NYC_DOT]

don’t make us take this down, bro

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@Slangdini could even count Lil B/Clams sampling Imogen Heap

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@Slangdini @DragonflyJonez it’s funny bc that album is salty as hell at everyone (sometimes to its detriment imho) I think the only person that stepped was Treach!

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@prophecypro @DragonflyJonez right, even life’s a bitch was kinda calculated to fill that void with the gap band sample - trying to remember the history of that song, maybe there was an diff beat? or some attempt at it before the final version

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@DragonflyJonez @Slangdini Boot Camp was on their neck too in the videos

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@prophecypro @DragonflyJonez to be fair at the time “hard to tell” *was* the smoothed out radio single, rap was still very much in its fuck r&b era, Ready To Die hadn’t dropped yet, let alone the One More Chance remix. Puff set off that arms race

[Brandon Ousley @brandonousley]

They just don't make full-service polymaths like Dexter Wansel anymore. Philly soul architect, keyboard master, electronic music pioneer, studio rat, Afrofuturist, prolific songwriter, arranger, and producer. We just lost an undeniable giant.

[Jeff Weiss @Passionweiss]

Never a bad time to watch Pharoah Sanders performing "Kazuko" in an abandoned tunnel in the Marin Headlands circa 1982.

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@Slangdini people haven’t clocked the Nuwabian bars on the og Originators

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@HPbasketball to explain further since it's apparently not clear they repeated in 17/18, then won again in 22. idk if you're only like 20 years old but that isn't a long time ago.

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@HPbasketball less than ten years ago is really not a long time. I'm not suggesting they will win again, just noting that their dynasty was long. next

[Jermaine Watkins @JermaineWatkins]

Foster Sylvers. 🕊️

(02-25-1962 - 05-30-2026)

Misdemeanor

[WHIZ WARD @yopotnawhiz]

Mabuhay!

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@CarmichaelDave @Slangdini he played amazingly tonight. can’t take a thing away from him

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@thobbsjourno also recasts the same jazz critic arguments against fusion (and free jazz) where they just totally misunderstand what the listening public enjoys and finds connection with about the music, valuing instead a heady technical prowess that allows them to feel smarter and more right

[The Key Chain @KeySystemRecrds]

@thobbsjourno the argument was always that he was good at creating a persona, that he connected with people, he had soul, etc rather than he had bars or flow, bc he wasn’t a lyrical miracle spherical rapper