Sun Risers - Real Off The Block - 1995

EP - 1995 - Sound Records Inc. 

In the mid 90's, the indie Hip-Hop scene from the East coast was very prolific and was overflowed by many groups who came out from nowhere and released their 12" (their only one for most of them) on small indie labels. It was hard to compete with NYC but Philly had one of the best indie hip-hop scene at that time as well as Boston, Chicago or Baltimore. 

In 1995, a Philly based group called Sun Risers was formed, comprised of Tha Maker OBV, Lord Raashid and Grand Slicer Kool Tee. Lord Raa and Grand were from Southwest Philly, OBV was from South Philly.

OBV : "Grand and I were former DJs then started making beats together and Raa started writing rhymes. I dabbled lyrically a little when one day Raa and I came up with the name Sun Risers and that's how the group came together." 

The three members were totally unknown and dropped an excellent EP made of pure underground ingredients, which became a real classic nowadays. The Wax is composed of 6 tracks produced by Rick Young, Sulaiman (who also worked on Digable Planets 2nd album "Blowout Comb") and Vincent Moore :

A1 - Real Off The Block (Remix)

A2 - Real Off The Block (Full Mix)

A3 - Street Song

B1 - Life In The City (Remix)

B2 - Life In The City (Full Mix)

B3 - Represent

A Tape release also exists and both were dropped on Rick Young's label named Sound Records Inc.

OBV : "Rick Young was an outstanding producer who helped us to book shows, radio appearances and gave us studio time."

After "Real Off The Block", no more news from them...

OBV : "Well we were all together for a while when we added 2 more emcees to the group. After that it became degrees of separation... money conflicts, no rehearsals, times just got bad so after the second release that was it.... "  

Yes you read it correctly !!!!  He's talking about a second release for sure. With the 2 new members, Roc DaMonsta and DJ E DoDat, they released an underground EP called "Up against the U.S" around 1997-1998 ... but I've never seen it anywhere and good luck to find it ! 

Mad Props to OBV a.k.a Unklecuzin'