Tribal Music Compilations (Seattle)

This may seem like some random shit I'm posting, but let me explain. When I was in college, and I was in my all-underground-Hip Hop-and-nothing-else-matters stage, a friend of mine gave me this tape, and all he said was, "here's some Hip Hop from Seattle...it's cool. it's from the mid-90's" (the compilation was called Untranslated Prescriptions, but I did not know that at that time. I thought it was called "Do The Math"). The only thing I knew about the compilation was that the crew was called 'Tribal Music' and I didn't have liner notes, but I knew that Vitamin D produced some or all of the tracks. I absorbed that tape like nothing else, and it was my soundtrack for my early college experience. A couple years down the line, I realized they're was another compilation. One was called '14 Fathoms Deep' which I actually found on wax. I also found a 12" from the 'Do the Math' compilation. The songs on the 12" had songs that were on the tape that I had, that's why I thought it was the 'Do The Math' compilation. I later realized that the tape that I had contained songs from 'Do the Math' AND 'Untranslated Prescriptions'. Get It?

Like most of my frequently used tapes, That compilation couldn't withstand the wear n tear...it probably got eaten, broken, lost, melted, whatever, so then the tape became nothing but folklore. I would tell people "Man, I had this one compilation from Seattle, with Vitamin D production on it, it was some of the dopest shit I've ever heard", but...no proof. When I interviewed Jake One, I told him about it. I hit up Vitamin D on myspace and told him about it. It had such an impact on me, and I thought I'd never hear it again.

Earlier this year, as my obsession for blogs grew, I began to be able to find some pretty obscure shit that I never thought other people knew about. So it dawned on me. Maybe someone, somewhere has those compilations posted. After a whole lot of cyber diggin, I found em! I wanna give a shout out to Talksick for the posts on his blog, www.thewarofthewords.blogspot.com. I download em, and my feelings are still true. Some of the production on these compilations are incomparable, ESPECIALLY on the 'Do the Math' and the 'Untranslated Prescriptions' compilations (the quality on Untranslated Prescriptions isn't the greatest, but you'll hear what I'm talkin about). Some of the tightest beats that you may have never heard, and it's my pleasure to let you hear what I thought NO one else was listenin to, and what I thought I'd never hear again.

Sorry for the long-winded story, but I couldn't just post these and say "Download this!" because these comps had such an impact on me musically. So here they are...the 3 Tribal Music compilations for your listening and file sharing pleasure. Thank you, bloggers!

Note: I'm not sure on the release dates on these comps, but I'm pretty sure they were all released between 1993-1996. I have also posted the links in order from oldest to most recent.

Get UNTRANSLATED PRESCRIPTIONS

Get DO THE MATH

Get 14 FATHOMS DEEP

If ANYONE has more information on these Comps that I left out, or that I got wrong, please let me know.


Check out an Interview with Vitamin D Here: http://www.builtfromskratch.com/features/vitamin-d/