STORE
"LYRICAL" ITEMS FOR SALE:
Butta Messenga (X-Caliber) 1997 -Fat Sam 12 in. vinyl b/w Le Miserables -$30
Brand Name Women (X-Caliber) 1998 -Fat Sam 12 in. vinyl b/w Don’t Make it Hard (Le Miz II), Butta Messenga Remix -$10
Why (Invasion) 2002 -Invasion Ent. 12 in. vinyl/CD b/w My World -VINYL VERSION SOLD OUT
Salt (Invasion) 2003 -Invasion Ent. 12 in. vinyl/CD b/w Don’t Hurt Em, SickillTypeIsh Ft Illin’ P. -VINYL-$10 CD VERSION SOLD OUT
iNFiNiTi 2005 -D.i.M.E./Blaze Full length album/CD -$12
The Focuz Is Back 2006 -D.i.M.E. 12 in. vinyl b/w Rags Ta Riches, Lyrically Rippin’ Ft Ripshop, Come With Me Ft eNVy -$7
The College Project 2009 -D.i.M.E. Full Length Album/CD -$10
Put Em All To Shame - Forthcoming 2012 album -NOT YET AVAILABLE
THE COLLEGE PROJECT (THROUGH THE EYES OF PUPILS) by "Professor" Lyrical - $10 US Dollars
BUTTA MESSENGA - by X-CALIBER -Classic 12 inch
Feat. Lyrical Lord Plourde & Fee, Ruby, Syntax, DJ Def Rock
$30 US Dollars
X-Caliber Bio:
X-Caliber is a Hip Hop group that recorded two groundbreaking 12 inch singles which helped to reestablish the Boston area as relevant in East Coast Hip Hop. In 1997 "Lyrical" Lord Plourde and Fee would record the classic instrumental to Butta Messenga in their Mass Mills Penthouse apartment overlooking Jack Kerouac Park and the rest of the city of Lowell. X-Caliber talked up and comming producer "Syntax" into using part of his UMass Lowell dorm allowance on an apartment (helping contribute to the high rent while working on tracks) which would enable the three young men to be able to afford what they felt would be the perfect inspirational spot to record classic tracks with the vibe and feel they were trying to express at the time.Lyrical and Fee were inspired by a rapper/producer SKI of Original Flavor. They would often play his music during their college radio show. One night after their show finished Fee convinced Lyrical to drive to WMBR 88.1 FM in Cambridge since Ski was going to be there with DJ Chubby Chub of Original Flavor and fellow band mate T-strong. Lyrical rapped for Ski and got his contact numbers. Ski, after some prodding, promised to record X-Caliber if they were in New York in the future. This paved the way for Lyrical and Fee to devise a cost effective way to travel every week to have Ski produce X-Caliber tracks via a job renting cars at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Many nights of waiting for up-and-coming artists like Jay-Z and Camp Lo to finish recording at Ski's studio apartment enabled Lyrical and Fee to watch future Hip Hop legends at work. X-Caliber would return to Lowell inspired to record songs of their own, such as Butta Messenga and Brand Name Women, that had the unmistakable influence of Ski, Camp Lo, and Jay-Z sewn throughout them. This was all before much of Massachusetts got a chance to hear what would also be the new sound emerging out of New York City shortly after.
Butta Messenga went on to be one of the first records receiving enormous college support locally and nationally at that time. It was also one of the first successful underground records played heavily on commercial radio (thanks to T-Clark on WILD, who played these records nearly everyday of the summer of 1998 during the evening drive show, THE THUNDERSTORM). Butta Messenga was also played by Roy Barboza of JAM'N 94.5 at a time where he literally had to sneak local Hip Hop on the airwaves and weave songs into remixes of others- such as he did with this single and Teddy Riley's classic No Diggidy. Butta Messenga is one of the all-time, if not the heaviest all-time, spun songs in WERS (Boston, MA 88.9FM) history. DJ Jimizz from WMBR 88.1FM (The Choice is Yours -Saturday nights) would also heavily support the group and continues to regularly play Lyrical's tracks to this day.
Two unreleased X-Caliber tracks appear on Lyrical's solo album debut iNFiNiTi, titled "One Life" (along with other tracks with Fee) and "The Renaissance" that also capture the mood and vibe of X-Caliber perfectly. All X-Caliber releases on vinyl were recorded at Wonka Sound. Before this time X-Caliber had previous members Joey B, The Heat and two DJ's (Zulu, and Styles) as well as several other high school friends such as Go GO G, who would play keyboards and rock out at Jam sessions. In X-Caliber's formative years the group had a chance to share the stage and meet many of the industry's elite stars of the time including: KRS-1, PUBLIC ENEMY, RUN-DMC, SALT & PEPA, COVER GIRLS, NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, and many many more!