"THEY SAY I DON'T CHANGE WITH THE TIMES, WELL I DON'T CHANGE WITH THE WEATHER, EITHER"
PHILL MOST THE SOULMAN (aka Phill Stroman aka Soulman aka Phill Most Chill) has been involved in hip hop as a fan, emcee, producer, journalist, artist, deejay and historian since 1977. As a youngster growing up in Connecticut about 30 minutes away from the Bronx NY Phill saw many of the great pioneers of hip hop performing live at neighborhood parties (Cold Crush Brothers, Funky Four, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, etc.). After years of listening to many classic old school live tapes, Phill moved from being a fan to being a rapper and producer in his own right, securing a record deal in 1985 with Cutting Records (at that time one of the top labels in the rap industry) with his group The Devastating Two. Problems with the label resulted in their record "Runnin' Things" never being released. Phill later in the 80's recorded a solo record on In Effect Records as Phill Most Chill entitled "On Tempo Jack" (b/w "That Girl" and "Out To Kill"), which in recent years has gone on to be one of the rarest and most valuable rap records in history, selling for between $500 and $650. In the early 90's came Phill's "novelty" rap project Baritone Tiplove, which yielded the single "Young Ladees Drive Me Crazee" / "All Hell Iz Breakin' Loose" and the cassette-only lp "Livin' Foul". The original comic strips that Phill drew for the one-sheets promoting this record led to a job as cartoonist with Rap Sheet, the first hip hop newspaper. Once at Rap Sheet, Phill went from drawing his "True Urban Funnies" series to interviewing rap acts such as The Treacherous Three, De La Soul, The Roots, Pete Rock and others. The Pete Rock interview featured a sidebar that focused on the records that Pete sampled, and this gave birth to Phill's infamous SOULMAN'S WORLD OF BEATS column, where Phill talked with many of the top producers, beat diggers, deejays and record dealers of the mid 90's(Diamond D, Showbiz, Buckwild, Beni B of ABB Records, Mr. Supreme, DJ Cash Money, etc.). Around this time Phill began to amass a huge amount of records (breaks and beats, soul, jazz, rock, hip hop, etc.), increasing his collection from barely 5,000 up to around 20,000 and garnering the reputation as one of the top break collectors in the world. During the 90's Phill also released a number of indy records and around 1995-96 began setting up shop at the notorious Roosevelt Hotel Soul Record Show in NYC, selling beats to most of the east coast's best hip hop producers (DITC, Beatminerz, Beatnuts, The Hitmen, Q-Tip, Salaam Remi, DJ Spinna, Alchemist, Mighty Mi, J-Zone and countless others). The next phase in Phill's evolution came with his many break mixtapes and CDs, with an astounding 100 volumes of the Archaeologists Classics series, the Soulman World Of Beats breakmix CDs and the Best Of Archaeologists compilation CDs. The new millenium and the internet brought The Soulman back into view with his website www.worldofbeats.com, a return to writing for magazines with stints at Big Daddy, Grandslam and Wax Poetics, a reissue of his 1988 PHILL MOST CHILL "On Tempo Jack" 12" single, and now his own WORLD OF BEATS RECORDINGS label. More is yet to come, so check back here regularly and also at http://www.myspace.com/phillmost and http://www.myspace.com/soulmanmusic for all updated info on what's new in the World Of Beats.
