Big Rob / Lil Sprout ‎- Treason - 1996.

12" - 1996 - Uprising Records  

In 1996 came out this wax released by the duo composed of Big Rob and Lil Sprout. If you don't know them, you need to know that Big Rob was the producer and Lil Sprout was the Emcee. This is their second 12" and it was released on Uprising Records. It was composed of 4 tracks, "Treason" in its original and remix version, "Mental Stress" and "Hard Core". Another good indie 12" which should be part of your record collection !











Recently I was lucky to talk with Lil Sprout and he gave me more info about their duo : 

Lil Sprout : « I was doing open mics in Baltimore at these freestyle events. And being from NY my flow was winning all these events... I went to Morgan State, but, just started selling mad weed and dropped out of school. A mutual friend introduced me to Big Rob, he had mad beats and a studio, and he was the financial backing behind that project. He was from Baltimore and we hit the studio and started doing songs. We went down to Jack the Rapper in Atlanta one year. Trying to get recognized I was all freestyle back then... not much written rhymes. I was a comedian more than a rapper. But Rob was on top of me to master my craft and focus on songs. 
Big Rob and his father managed Uprising Records, they financed and created this record label. They took me in and robs family really looked out for me. His dad was a reggae artist from the Bob Marley era, and he really had a good Jamaican singing group that was pretty good. »

Unfortunately this wax was their last release and the duo stopped after that...But unreleased materials exist and it seems Big Rob has got all this stuff in his stash...

Lil Sprout : « Life kept getting in the way...  I got arrested and ended up going back to New York and the focus changed. The buzz and the marketing wasent going well. We didn’t have the right marketing plan. Unreleased tracks were fire man... I wish we had a better platform cause our stuff was better than lots of shit that was out then. »

 Mad Props to Lil Sprout. 

Vinyl rip courtesy of 90's Hip-Hop Blog