"Straight from the brick city of New Jerusalem (Newark, NJ) is a young duo named Artifacts that is more than ready to drop bombs. MCs Tame and El Da Sensei are already well connected in the rap game. Does the Pack Pistol Posse ring a bell? Yeah, that's right; they "rock ruff rhymes" around the way with Tame's cousin Redman. You might even catch a similarity in their rhymes ... Tame and El started staking their claim in the underground last year when they first called up the Stretch Armstrong college radio show in New York and won an over-the-phone rap contest. Since then Stretch, Daddy Reef and Bobbito have had them up a few times to wreck shop on the airwaves. Artifacts incorporates classic B-Boy flavor into their lyrics. Train yards, third rails, mad color tips, black books, and backspins are common topics." Cont'd below + an added 8-minute freestyle...
A couple other heads looking out for the Artifacts are Sadat X and Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian. Jamar produced a song called "Wrong Side of the Tracks," featuring Lord J vocals on the chorus, and both Brand Nubian brothers collaborated with the Artifacts on "Check The Fine Print," a bangin' upbeat track with a lyrical buckshot to so-called righteous MCs with "white hoes in their videos" and a verbal assault on the ex-Brand Nubian member. T-Ray (who produced "Not Gonna Be Able To Do It" by the Double XX Posse) did a track called "Wicked Lyrics" where Tame and El kick just that. Although they had some serious help on the production side, they show and prove skills of their own with some pre-production material. Overall, Artifacts represents real hip-hop on its way up from the underground." - Unsigned Hype, The Source (April, 1993). (Updated, freestyle audio added).
