215 Asasinz - Guaranteed Hot Sh** / Illadel Threat - 1995

12" - 1995 - No Cross Records 

This indie 12" was released in 1995 on No Cross Records by the Philly-based group 215 Asasinz, consisting of Spontaneous, Suspens, Jim Blast, Crooked Az, Xsederaw and Kenny Lee (RIP) who produced both tracks of the record "Guaranteed Hot Sh**" and "Illadel Threat".

The 6 emcees spit their rhymes on "Guaranteed Hot Sh**", in order of appearance Spontaneous, Jim Blast, Crooked Az, Suspens, Xsederaw and Kenny Lee, that's why the song is very long...more than 6 minutes... The sample used for the bassline of the instrumental is a sample of "Icy Water" released in 1971 and performed by the Rascalz, and the sample used for the drums comes from a song called "Keep On Doin' It" performed by the New Birth and released in 1973. On the other side "Illadel Threat" features Kenny Lee, Jim Blast and Xsederaw. The Instrumental contains a sample of "I (who have nothing)" performed by Ben E King.

Not a lot of reviews or promos of this 12" in Hip-Hop magazines when it came out... the only review I know was in the Rap Pages magazine issued in October 1996.

Top from left to right : Suspens, Spontaneous, Crooked Az, Jim Blast, Vandal (unofficial member) - Bottom left to right: Xsederaw, Kenny Lee.

I asked a few questions about the group to Suspens who is one of the co-founder of it with Kenny Lee. Here is a slice of Philly indie Hip-Hop history...

Suspens : "I was the 4th MC on 'Guaranteed Hot Shit'. "the best thing out of Philly since Cheesesteaks"... I was so glad I didn't go last because every time they played it on the radio they cut it off after my part because the song was so damn long.

The group started in 1993 when I graduated from high school. I was a very popular kid in uptown Philly because I promoted high school parties so I knew Kenny Lee's older brother Cosmic Kev first since he was one of the big name DJs in Philly. I wanted Cosmic Kev to help me do a mixtape. He refused but instead introduced me to his little brother Kenny Lee. Kenny Lee was a rapper/producer and was actually trying to put together a rap group. Kenny was about six years older than me so he immediately adopted me as his little brother. All of my close friends rapped but we didn't know how to make beats. Kenny Lee was great at that so he basically picked the friends of mine that he was feeling and forced one of his friends that was in a whole other group (xcederaw) rap with us too. Me and Spontaneous had an ASR10 and Kenny Lee had an SP 1200. Kenny would program the drums on the SP and arrange the baselines and samples on the ASR10. We felt like we could murder any MC rapping on Kenny Lee beats and since we are Philly I came up with the name 215 Asasinz and Bullet Logo. We were all from the Uptown section of Philly. Me, Spontaneous and Kenny Lee are from West Oak Lane. Jim Blast, Xsederaw & Crooked Az are from Mt. Airy. 

As far as No Cross Records go somehow Kenny Lee meant this Rich Japanese kid name Tats in New York who was hella fascinated with Hip Hop and wanted to meet Cosmic Kev. So they became good friends and Tats winded up paying for our studio time and for our samples to be cleared. So Kenny and Tats started No Cross Records to but the music out on. Tats's parents sent him to New York to go to Med school so when they found out what he was really doing they cut his funds. I'm like yo it's six of us so I made everybody put money in the pot to press up the vinyl & cassettes. Both songs were pumping on the radio so we did good on sales and shows for a whole year. It was Kenny & Tats company but I definitely helped manage everything about it.

There was only one single because the group broke up in 1996. Kenny Lee was a heavy cocaine user which gave him mood swings and made it hard for members of the group to get along with him. Me and Kenny Lee had a great relationship. He was the closest thing to a big brother I every had. Whenever there was a big blow up I was always they one to calm things down. I would have to explain to the other members we had a good thing going. Most musical geniuses gone have some shit with them, Kenny's was cocaine and mood swings. The last show we did together was opening for Nas at the Greek Picnic in Philly in 1996. After the show I became very ill with a rare case of TB. I fought for my life in the hospital for a year. Meanwhile the group broke up and Kenny Lee quit and move to Florida. 

I eventually got well and Kenny came home. I had build a studio in my grandmas basement and was ready help Kenny Lee put the group back together so we could drop a long anticipated album. He started trying to get back into the groove of making beats again but about 2 weeks later he died... I was just glad I smoked a blunt with him earlier the same day so last time I kicked it with him it was good vibes. There were no other songs professionally recorded with us as a group..."

215 Asasinz - 20 year reunion show in 2015 - Photo courtesy of Patrice L. Taylor

It will be hard for you to catch the 12" but you can still get a 215 Asasinz t-shirt or hoodie Here... Massive Props to Suspens