The NW2 crew v the E9 crew: no beefs over discarded tapes

Found! Yes, this afternoon I stumbled upon a box containing these tapes left on the pavement about 100 metres from my building in Hackney. 

C·30 C·60 C·90 Go: the Hackney grime tapes

What gives? Why do people throw stuff like this away? I'm pretty sure these weren't being freecycled. The box wasn't perched on a wall with a "free stuff" message scrawled on its lid. Instead, the box (itself pretty shabby) was in the middle of a pile of pretty unsavoury domestic detritus - greasy oven trays, broken kitchen implements, old odds and ends of plastic, other unidentifiable junk. And even the tapes, stuffed into the box, didn't look too atttractive - just a heap of broken and splintered cases, with peeling labels (or no labels), and a top layer of street dirt and car-emission filth. Nice. Scavenger that I am, I hauled the box home (all 100 metres), discarded the bashed-up cases into my own plastic recycling and now it's these 60-odd innards I'm left with. They're mostly TDK D90s - the very same type I tended to buy by the truckload back in the heyday of my own manic home-taping period. Hmm, welcome home TDK D90s ...

So what's on 'em? It's gonna take some time to find out. So far I've played ... one: 80 or 90 minutes of a few guys spitting bars with a heavy accent on sexual conquest. Gulp. Also some stuff about an "NW2 crew" (Dollis Hill) and beef with others. The quality sounds home-recorded - possibly bedroom stuff with a mic, a backing track and a basic mixer. Rough but kind of interesting. The label on this one is only semi-legible - it might say "GEEZBO & Rissky Rissbans"; equally, it might not. So there you have it. My surprise find of mystery cassettes. Dusty tapes with titles like Gimmy Beats, Mix 99, Reality Rap, Loon & G-Dep, Mixtape Madness and Rap Rep Mix 4. I've played one and I'm looking foward to the other 66 (by my count) of these twin towers of grime. Anyway, if these are your long-lost early practice tapes and you want them back - just get in touch. There's no need to beef about it! You can have 'em. The E9 Crew (me) aren't possessive and they will surrender these street treasures at the drop of a hat. No sweat, man. 

Tower of tapes: my fetish for cassettes finally revealed