Last Saturday marked the second annual Cassette Store Day, and much like Record Store Day, the event generates a ton of nostalgia for the halcyon days of analog recordings and brings attention and business towards small, independent business – all of which are great things.  

Coincidentally, I had ran into my friend and colleague Ross Bernhardt of Charged.fm while covering a show at Rock Shop and at one point during our conversation we had talked about contemporary emcees we admired and are fans of, and were in agreement on the greatness of Freddie Gibbs and of Guilty Simpson.  

So as you can imagine, I was thrilled to learn that Guilty Simpson collaborated with producer Oh No for five tracks on a specially released Cassette Store Day tape, The Simpson Tape that Stone’s Throw Records released for the day – and it’s now available everywhere. 

The first single from that tape “Rap Stampede” has Simpson spitting fire over an angular and percussive sample that evokes a sense of fury and menace. If this doesn’t convince you that Guilty Simpson is not only sadly unheralded but also one of the best emcees out there, nothing will – and you probably have poor taste as the man can rhyme over just about anything.