Underground Memphis Tapes question?

[Nuttkase]

I'm looking to sell some tapes I got from T3/Street Smart records back in the day. Does anyone know what these go for? I tried Ebay didn't seem to be any on there to get a base price for. Thanks in advance.

Ten Wanted Men - Dead or Alive
Manson Family - Gram Afta Gram
Lo Key feat M.D.B. - Test My Nutz
Tommy Wright III - Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust
Lil KuKu - KuKu For Them Dollars
N.O.D. - Niggaz of Destruction
Tommy Wright - Greatest Hits

All have the original inserts (the ones which haves ones) and are in great condition.

I also have

Snubnoze - Off Safety

Any info would be great and thanks once again to anyone who can give me an idea of what to ask for them.

 

[mistamanne]

Tommy still sells these tapes on ebay and has been selling second and third repressings by bulk since the late 90s from Stuarts Shop. They dont really go for much and are very common and folks have been reselling them on ebay from time to time as well. You probably have old second pressings and maybe a few original presses from TWIII if you got them all from him at the same time back in the late 90s. Original presses will go for much more. Holler if you need any more info

 

[swheat]

I think there is one version of the N.O.D. tape and it has the tracks printed on the cassette and comes with a cover. All TWIII's other tapes usually have info printed on a sticker and come without a cover.

The last time the N.O.D. tape was on eBay it went for wallet.

If you got the shiny transparent green greatest hits TWIII tape then that should fetch some decent fetti too.

 

[mistamanne]

Most Collectors today dont know the originals from the many repressings TWIII has done over the years, so thats why they can overpay for these tapes. For example, the OG Wanted Dead or Alive labeling was imprinted directly onto the shell, not a sticker. The OG Lo Key tape should not say Street Smart Records anywhere on it, TWIII repressed and relabeled the tape from MDB. The OG Greatest Hits was on an opaque green shell cassette with on shell imprinting. The shiny green tapes are all represses and don't sound anywhere near as good as the original presses. The OG Ashes to Ashes should have Ashes To Ashes Dust To Dust on the front cover artwork along with an additional third panel ad for Memphis Masssacre. For the represses TWIII scanned the OG artwork for reprinting, but the Ashes to Ashes Dust To Dust front label fell off (it was glued on) along with the extra Memphis Massacre third panel. So the represses don't have a title on the front artwork, just TWIII diggin a grave and the third panel fold out is not included. The OG N.O.D. tape should have a properly sized cover, not a small cover that was obviously rescanned and reprinted on the represses. Should be on a clear shell with imprinting. All in all the represses are much lower quality than the original presses however, most buyers wont know to tell the difference, so you can expect all sorts of prices from overseas or across the country

 

[westbanklover]

finally somebody with serious infos on 90's memphis tape....i think ogs are really hard 2 find so i'm happy with those tommy wright sold on ebay

 

[Nuttkase]

From the sounds of it L @Lowellawamp these are all probably second pressing then. I bought them all in I want to say 97/98 from T3 when he had the mail order hustle for his tapes.

Going that they are second pressings, could you give me any guess on what to ask for them? I'm selling them to a friend so I'm going to give him the homie hookup but around how much would you say each would go for on Ebay?

Thanks a lot for the info you have given so far.

 

[Nuttkase]

I think there is one version of the N.O.D. tape and it has the tracks printed on the cassette and comes with a cover. All TWIII's other tapes usually have info printed on a sticker and come without a cover.

The last time the N.O.D. tape was on eBay it went for wallet.

If you got the shiny transparent green greatest hits TWIII tape then that should fetch some decent fetti too.

The N.O.D. is the one with the paper cover and the tracklisting printed on the tape. Do you remember around how much it went for? Same with the Greatest Hits. It's the green kind of foilish looking tape, do you remember the price on that one too?

Thanks man.

 

[swheat]

I can't remember the exact price for N.O.D.. It went for more then $50. Mr Sippy sold it he will know.

I dunno the best price for the green tape. I think I paid about $20 or $30 for mine.

Heres the tapes I got on your list -

I paid about $10 or $20 for Lo Key and Lil KuKu.

I got about another 12 different titles all the same style like Lo Key and Lil KuKu.

The OG Greatest Hits was on an opaque green shell cassette with on shell imprinting. The shiny green tapes are all represses and don't sound anywhere near as good as the original presses.

Would be good to see the other version you talk about. Nuttkase is yours the same in the pic I took?

 

[Nuttkase]

^ Yup mine look the same. Thanks for the info man.

 

[mistamanne]

K @killa Of all the underground Memphis tapes, TWIII's by far have always been the most widely available. That's due to Tommy making tons of copies, bulk sales to shops out of state, mail orders, etc. Depending on the tape conditions, the white sticker represses should go for $10-15 as a fair number, you can still hit up TWIII today and get "brand new" copies of many titles, he bulk presses the shit out these and audio quality will vary all over the place. The old imprinted N.O.D. and GH tapes you can get more for from a collector being they were not repeatedly bulk pressed like all the sticker tapes. But again the original first pressings are the only real payout. @the m.o.b.b. Here's the original Greatest Hits tape and a scan of the original Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust View attachment 109323 View attachment 109324 Yall can check out my youtube account I go though some of my old tapes http://www.youtube.com/djvjdamusicmanne

 

[swheat]

Thats sick mistamanne thanks for the info. I seen some of your youtube vids in the past n one of them at the end you pan the camera out and it reveals a big ass room wid tapes all over the floor. Nice collection!

 

[mistamanne]

Thanks, I still have hundreds and hundreds of old underground tapes and a lot of old shop stock still sealed. Currently working to build up our website project that will have everything archived and browseable, much like rapmusicguide but more indepth and strictly for memphis and tennessee rap. http://www.thamemphisrewind.com

 

[G-Eyez]

say u wouldnt be able to get ahold of lil e - playa for life solo tape from 96?..he was from the bbb

 

[swoop187]

Problem is, with those tapes most of the OG's didn't even come with covers, They were basically just tapes with paper labels - Then they were locally released w/covers. Of course all those Memphis tapes were released on CD a few years back.. Some dude was selling them in bulk on ebay for 5 bucks a pop a few years ago. Dude had almost every underground Memphis cd..

They're not worth much anymore..

Anyone can dub a tape and make a label (not saying you did)... Just sayn'

5-6 years ago they would have gone for 30-75 a tape tho to the right collector.

 

[mistamanne]

J @jdm602 most original tapes came with covers sold at the stereo shops and record shops etc. represses sometimes did if they were duplicated properly, but the bootlegs usually didnt. Theres no "underground" memphis cds, theres just badly ripped cd-r's made of MP3s from bootlegged tapes & packaged up nicely with something saying "remastered" slapped on. Most of them sound like shit. There so much bootleggin been going on for years folks literally are bootlegging the old bootlegs. Its ridiculous, why im working to bring the originals back out.

 

[swheat]

I got this in my collection -

is it one of yours?

lol @ bootlegging bootlegs.

 

[mistamanne]

Yea that's where all the cd-rs are coming from. A while back a guy called Medicine Man in GA transferred a lot of bootlegged tapes of classic early 90s tapes and some original copies to digital. He then cleaned them up as best he could and would sell them as mp3s. They weren't great quality but he did a good job on some of the originals. He used to network and would also ask people to send him tapes to clean up. That's where most of the rips and all the red carpet pictures on the internet come from. Along the line a guy called Pistol Creep in FL bought all of the "remastered" rips from him and began making CDs under that "Memphiz Undaground Inc." He pressed up all those mp3s good and bad and sold them out. My opinion on all that ain't very positive. Almost all of those remasters are from booted tapes from the late 90s not the original cassettes. A lot of rappers/producers came out including TWIII showing much hate on the booted reissues and a lot of them aren't even the same as the cassettes missing tracks etc. So it basically became a new age era of booting.

 

[swheat]

I spoke to medicine man a few times but that was years ago. Didn't he play a part in helping DJ Sound remaster his tapes and put them onto CD? He was promoting stuff for lite green records at one point like that female rapper peaches.

I got that CDR a couple years ago for bout $10 on ebay from some random seller but I remember seeing Memphiz Undaground Inc selling shit. I knew what I was getting was 90% bootleg but there was some hope it was an og gem lol. If the Memphiz Undaground Inc is bootleggin without artists permission then surely all these gangsta rappers hes ripping off should of shot him up by now? Looks like hes inactive so maybe he has been killed? hehe http://www.myspace.com/memphizundagroundinc

mistamanne check your pm

 

[mistamanne]

Yea he did all the Frayserclick reissues for Player One. DJ Sound himself really had no part in any of it all. The audio came from old tapes, Player One's tapes, and actually a few of my tapes I sent out to Med after he got in contact with me. He did all the artwork, editing, etc and also put together that Straight Outta Frayer dvd. They split stopped working somewhere along the line over some issues. I havent talked with either in a long time. I know Player One still sells regularly represses tapes and cds etc on ebay under the storename frayserclick. I dont know what 'Med' is doing now, Ive never actually talked with him. But yeah none of those CD-Rs at Memphiz Undaground Inc were official reissues or pressed with permission, they was just a quick way for that guy in FL to cash up on folks on other folks work. He had a soundclick too i remember but it got shutdown.