Common f/ Kanye West & Last Poets – “The Corners“
from BE LP (Interscope, 2005)

The long awaited BE has been touted as Com’s return to the playful lyricism that heads loved his masterpiece Ressurection, before Erykah Badu turned him into a male Macy Gray. And “The Corners” (i think) is set to be the first single.

As far as lyrics go, Com’s not exactly blowing any wigs back on this one, if this came out in ‘95 it’d be one of his least interesting joints. But let’s be honest, any hip hop head in his right mind would take this over 2003’s limp wrist avant garde opus Electric Circus. Anything that’ll get him to stop rocking stupid hats (see above).

And Kanye definitely stepped his game up on this one. Homie’s been on some lazy shit lately and I’m glad to see he’s saving the heat for Common and giving Brandy and Game the duds. Either that, or he finally got that drum cd from No ID.

Also, the Last Poets make a welcome appearance. While I don’t necessarily subscribe to the popular theory that they (or Gil Scott Heron or Watts Prophets or whoever) had any direct impact on the evolution of hip hop, they did make some very powerful records that are worth checking out

I think this quote I found on google really sums up Com’s approach to making music: “ Like Run-DMC, Common has made a career out of a fresh synthesis of hip-hop and rap.…. ??

UGK – “Pregnant Pussy“
from Banned EP (Bigtyme Records, 1992)

Recorded during the Too Hard To Swallow sessions, Banned consists of two (and a half cuts) that were scrapped (and probably rightfully so) by Jive at the time. “Pregnant Pussy” stands out as what I’d consider the most hilarious and beautifully vulgar rap songs ever recorded. And trust me, I’ve heard my fair share of very obscene hip hop. I don’t think anything I could say would adequately prepare you for what you’re about to hear.

The EP’s other full cut, “Mutha Ain’t Mine” is pretty tame in comparison- just your standard issue coat hanger abortion raps. Cop the CD from amazon.

FREE PIMP C!

…Cocaine Blunts & Hip Hop Tapes, the radio show returns tonight at 8 PM EST – listen live online at gwradio.com. Show will be preempted at 9ish for the ever so high priority GWU athlete date auction.

Too Short – “Paystyle (Boy Scout Remix)“
from Paystyle 12″ (Jive, 1996)

A very weird Cocktails era remix from Short Dog. “Paystyle” is one of those Short cuts where he forgoes rapping about bitches in favor of rapping about rapping about bitches. And since we all know rapping about rapping is so very east coast, what would complement that style more than a token east coast remix? (see also: the primo remix of “in the trunk”, as featured over at can i bring my gat?)

The title is a little deceiving – it’s not just any boy scout on the remix, but THE LAST boy scout of them all. That’s right, Flipmode Squad no-hit wonder Rampage The Last Boyscout was commissioned to put his touch on this bay area banger. Who knows what kind of marketing genius at Jive was like “yeah this song is tight, but I think it needs an east coast remix to push it over the top – let’s get that Rampage guy, I think he knows Busta Rhymes”. But Rampage (with the accompaniment of DJ Boy “no homo” Wonder) actually flips it nicely – bringing that echo-y horn style that the Bay hadn’t heard since Souls Of Mischief tried to make new york sounding records three years earlier.

MC Shy-D – “Yes Yes Y’All“
MC Shy-D – “Rapp Will Never Die“
from Got To Be Tough LP (Luke Skyywalker Records, 1987)

Here’s a request from a few days ago. Accompanied by DJ Man (who is one of the most overlooked turntable legends to be committed to wax), Shy (along with Raheem The Dream) was one of the first rappers to come out of the ATL. I don’t know what’s up with his damn gasoline signs though.

I know I’m going into dangerous booty bass territory (not that there’s anything wrong with a little BASS once in a while, but by no means am I an expert), but I’ve always seen Shy as being more along the lines of Mantronix-style 808 freaking rap than straight up bass shit. The difference being that Shy was a pretty lyrical cat compared to most of his would be Miami contemporaries. Sure, he signed with Luke, but I think that the alliance owed more to regional similarities than musical ones, and homie sounds way less comfortable on the LP’s dance cuts. At least he made a ton of cake off Luke in the long run.

Sound quality’s real grimey on these, not sure why, but deal with it. Buy his greatest hits if it’s not good enough for you.

Intelligent Hoodlum – “Arrest The President“
from Intelligent Hoodlum LP (A&M, 1990)

8 Ball & MJG – “Listen To The Lyrics”
8 Ball & MJG – “Got To Be Real”
from Listen To The Lyrics EP (On The Strength, 1992)

“And look, I was 17 – when I signed my first contract
And about 18 1/2 when I signed my worst contract, we hurt from that
And til this day, they still distributin – our first tape
before Comin Out Hard, now can you feel it?”

Ras Kass – “Core Audience“
Ras Kass – “Capital R-A-S“
Ras Kass – “Remain Anonymous“
from Soul On Ice Demo (1994ish)

So since Ras Kass has been free for a minute, I’m posting a few of his demo cuts out of support for him getting his shit together and releasing the classic material he’s capable of (first step – stop driving drunk, homie!)

Anyway, these cuts were from the demo tape that circulated off his initial wake up show buzz. His (or rather, producer Vooodou’s) obvious choice in samples is what resulted in a drastically different final version record (”Fuck Luther & Sade for keeping food out my babies mouth, denying sample clearance”)

I’ve always considered it to be a bit of an exaggeration that these demo tracks were far superior to what actually ended up on the retail Soul On Ice, but they are very dope, so, yeah check ‘em out.

Best of Cocaine Blunts, Round 1
E-40 f/ Big Boi & Big Gipp – “Ham Sammiches & Coup Devilles“
from Loyalty & Betrayal Promo CD (Jive, 2000)
Yeah I’m still on winter break and don’t have a ton of music with me, so I’m taking a quick break for today and digging into the cocaineblunts.com back catalog so you don’t get bored. This is probably the most requested song that I’ve posted, and rightfully so. So, here you go, for those that missed it the first time. When I initially posted it the all knowing jon caramanica went into more detail about the record than I ever could have, so I’m just gonna jack what he said:

Cocaine Blunts has the MP3 of the lost E-40/Outkast/Goodie collabo “Ham Samiches & Coup Devilles” (at least that’s how it reads on my old advance). On the subject of songs that vaporize into the ether, this, from an interview I did with 40 Water on June 1, 2002, best I can tell, so happy anniversary and shit: “That song right there was a winner. At the time Outkast was going through some type of merge [LaFace/Arista] the same time my album was coming out. Jive neded a response about the licensing, and all I remember was they were saying $50,000, no video, no packaging, no single rights. No disrespect to them, they might not have even known this…”.

Star Quality & Class – “Betcha Got A Dude On The Side“
from Betcha Got A Dude On The Side 12″ (R&R, 1982)
Latyrx – “Lady Don’t Tek No“
from Muzzappers Mixes EP (Solesides, 1999)

This is my first step to making a conscious effort to ocassionally post some legitimate old school hip hop on this shit. I always get frusturated when I see a link to this site on some hipster’s blog with a tagline like “taking it back to the old school”, when I very rarely post anything recorded before 1989. I mean, I guess a lot of what I post here is old, but that don’t make it old school, yaoming? Like how you gonna call Leaders of the New School old school? That just doesn’t work. Anyway, I can’t figure out if “Betcha Got A Dude On The Side” is a knock off of the Furious Five’s “Message” or if it just coincidentally replays the same/similar sample (and apparantly neither can scion hop* icon peanut butter wolf) Either way, it’s pretty hot and I’m sure I won’t ever be able to afford to buy the 12″ now that I’ve posted this. Not that I would have initially anyway.

17 years later DJ Shadow made gratuitious use of the Star Quality instrumental to create Lateef & Lyric Born’s “Lady Don’t Tek No”, a throwback ode to *that chick*, the one that likes Nikki Giovanni and Alice Walker.

Elsewhere:
I love this reasoning. “Not only am I not broke, I’m SOOO not broke that I’m spending $3 Million on my NEXT house”. Don’t worry baby, I’ll bump “B R Right” no matter how much money you have.

Houston So Real continues to be the most interesting blog I’ve ever read, adding an interview with original geto boys’ dj (and trenton transplant!) DJ Ready Red to the already impressive triumvirate of scarface/willie d/bushwick that matt’s posted.

* Before I have to field another string of “what the hell is scion hop?” questions, allow me to point you in the direction of the homie sergdun, who breaks it down quite nicely.

Pacewon – “I Declare War“
from Won (Ruffhouse, 2002)
Outsidaz – “Done In The Game“
from Da Bricks Promo LP (Rufflife, 2000)

Things were looking good for Pace – his lead single, “I Declare War” dropped on Ski’s (producer of Reasonable Doubt/Camp Lo/Bizzie Boyz fame) Roc-A-Blok label (through Ruffhouse/Columbia) and was getting a fair amount of shine in underground circles. It may have just been like 32 bars looped over the sloppy funk of the Lee Mason library cut, “Shady Blues”, but my god did that shit bang. They produced a video for it, featuring Pace storming the office of a mayor played by Eminem. I even saw it on BET… once.

Then Ruffhouse closed it’s doors and while the significant artists (read: fugees and cypress hill) were kept around by columbia, the rest of the roster was left homeless for a hot minute. Ruffhouse head honcho Chris Schwartz opened his new label Rufflife or Ruff Nation or sometimes both, I’m not sure what the differences were or which incarnation the outz were signed to, but whatever. Rufflife/Ruff Nation was distributed by Atomic Pop, which was some sort of weird internet friendly record label or something. Outsidaz as a whole were doing well for themselves -even though key members Rah Digga (who became a full time member of Busta’s Flipmode Squad) and Eminem (who’s rise to fame I’m sure I don’t need to recount here) were offically downgraded to “honorary member” status, the lead 12″ from their first Ruffhouse release, the Night Life ep came out. Both sides, “Don’t Look Now” and “The Rah Rah” were laced by Ski. The rest of the EP went with the in house production and suffered as such.

Then promos of the LPs – Outsidaz Da Bricks and Pace’s Pacewon Effect were leaked around early 2000-ish (could be wrong about the dates – I do know the Pace record was finished well before the crew joint) and both consisted of about half traditional Outz style underground cuts and half very obvious concessions to a commercial market. Each also featured an inferior take on an earlier demo classic – “Keep On” and “Nobody”, respectively, hella watered down and crapified. I don’t remember exactly when Da Bricks finally did come out, but I do know that it was dramatically different in retail form than promo. I posted the hottest of the lost cuts here, “Done In The Game” which has a serious beat (and zee gets points for name dropping cassanova rud).

Atomic Pop eventually failed miserably, fucking up distro and the release of Pace’s record. And by the time the Pacewon LP (barely, i think it’s out of print already) came out with a stripped down tracklisting and a new title (Won) in 2002, I don’t really think anybody was checking for him anymore. Any buzz he might have caught off “I Declare War” had surely worn off after three years, and a second single was never even released. Ruff Life was a far cry from the promotional machine that would’ve backed him at Columbia.

It should also be noted that Rah Digga was also sitting in label purgatory around this time. Her debut album Dirty Harriet got pushed back by Elektra for about a year and a half before being re-released with a heavily altered different tracklisting, and had the minor buzz of the very dope lead single, “Tight”. The album was actually pretty slept on, featuring production from Pete Rock & Primo, and the very tight Outsidaz posse cut “The Last Word”.

So where are they now? The Outsidaz as a collective no longer exist, apparantly everyone’s still on cordial terms, just not recording/speaking/whatever.

Zee is currently signed to Shady/Aftermath/Runyon Ave (which is Denun Porter’s vanity label) and will (hopefully) be releasing a proper debut in 2005. He pops up on both the 8 Mile sndtk. and on an interlude on the last D12 LP, and rips both of them. There are also a handful of recent cuts up at Zee’s Soundclick page. I’d really like to see him blow up, but who knows with his luck…

Pace dropped his sophmore LP, Telepathy earlier this year to little fanfare, despite a few hot cuts and an Eminem diss, which probably played a big part in the rift in the Outz, seeing as how Zee’s signed to Em’s label and all.

Since Busta’s been bouncing from label to label lately and taking Flipmode with him, Rah Digga’s completed sophmore LP is sitting on a shelf somewhere between the offices of Sylvia Rhone, Clive Davis and Jimmy Iovine. (Noticing a trend here?) She did release a few tight mix cds recently, which are worth giving your local bootlegger a shout about. I think she and Zee are still together, or at least still recording together.

Yah Yah is signed to Orlando based indie 5thlmnt

(I think) Az-Izz released a solo album in ‘03, but I can’t find any info on it. And if the singles leading up to it are any indication, it’s probably not worth the search.

Links:
The Outhouse – an informative, but outtdated fan site
YoungZee.net – Zee’s official site. It’s only a message board right now. My favorite post: “Where’d Zee Even Come From?” “I know the origins of almost every Shady-Aftermath artist cept Zee. How’d he get discovered by Em? “… riiiiight buddy.
Young Zee/No Brains Class @ Soundclick – nice selection of recent mixtape cuts and cameos from zee
Outsidaz @ Werner’ Humble Little Hip Hop Site – Super comprehensive Outsidaz discography.