STAND UP
Charli Baltimore f/ Ghostface Killah – “Stand Up“
from Cold As Ice Unreleased LP (Untertainment, 1999)
Unlike many of the “lost classics” I cover on this site, I don’t really think Charli Baltimore ever deserved to release an album. Yeah, she fucked Biggie. So did a lot of people. I guess she was a fairly competent femcee when backed with the right ghostwriter, but really, anybody could do that job. It’s a case of a hanger on who was almost in the right place at the right time, but then wasn’t. She don’t even look all that good (imho).
But even hangers on can make great records on occasion. If the BIG affiliation didn’t make this apparent, Charli had sense enough to surround herself with the right people, and “Stand Up” is the perfect example of this. One of the last great Wu Tang records, it’s sort of a “Bitties In The BK Lounge” meets “Wildflower”, bringing in Tony Starks for a violent, yet playful male/female cat and mouse tag team collabo. She offers sexual favors in exchange for publishing while Supreme Clientle era Ghost demands she put her money on his “priceless, stainless dick” while spitting the bizzaro imagery you’d expect from him (“short range salt water taf’ / iron man bubble bath / nuclear split the atom in half”). All this over a post digital RZA beat that still sounds all too analog with his trademark 36 chamber piano loop slop steez. (edit – and how could i fail to mention the very soulful call for all proud brothers and sisters to stand up and blow their whistles? anybody know what record that’s from? it’s on the tip of my tongue.)
But yeah, Cold As Ice got shelved permanently. I guess the little she was getting a little buzz from that Cam’ron cut with the night court beat and that “Money” cut just wasn’t enough for the suits (I also remember the appropriately grimey video for this track getting much burn on the box (r.i.p) , but I don’t know if that ever counted for anything). Plus her man Lance “Un” Rivera was having his own issues what with the Jay-Z stabbing incident. It’s probably a shame, too. I never heard the whole thing, but by all accounts Charli actually wanted to make a street record. The promos were boasting not only this joint but also a (few?) DJ Premier cuts. Plus it supposedly had Lady of Rage & Gangsta Boo ON THE SAME TRACK! And like I said, backed with the right production and ghostwriting, she’s tolerable. But it was not to be. Untertainment went Un-der and the she put the nail in her own coffin by linking up with those (Murder) Inc. clowns. There she was shelved once again. And with Gotti’s current legal troubles, that’s probably where she’ll stay.
But yeah Ghost still makes great records. And RZA wrote a pretty interesting book.
Tumblin' Erb
March 18th, 2005 at 5:31 am
She could most def get the cookieface.
March 18th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
on the femcee tip, I still cant understand why Jigga dropped foxy brown and put that horrendous Amil chick on later albums – Can I Get A **** is one of the dopest beats I’ve heard in years but I cant listen to the song because of her horrible presence on top of it…
March 18th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
^Lol, true that, and Amil was a whole hell of a lot uglier than even Charli B’more with that cat face thing… Fox can rip it if she’s got someone writing dope rhymes for her though, e.g. her verse on “Affirmative Action” is still one of my favorite Nas verses ever
March 18th, 2005 at 5:38 pm
Soul rap! Gotta love this..
March 18th, 2005 at 5:42 pm
I saw the video for this on MTV Jams the other day and have been wanting to cop the track. Thanks.
March 18th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Sample comes from: 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle) by Gary Toms Empire
Used in tons of early-mid 90s breakbeat tracks
Considering some of the female (and male) MCs who have managed to put out albums, I don’t think Chuck is any less “deserving.” How many albums has Kim put out?
And seriously, if fucking Biggie doesn’t earn you an album, what does?
March 18th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
The other sample in this song is Frederic Chopin’s “Revolutionary” Etude in C Minor. I have no idea who’s performing. As a classical head with a hip-hop jones, I’ve kept my single of this track around solely to hear Chopin in a gender-wars smack-talking context.
March 18th, 2005 at 11:30 pm
Thanks Noz, that song is very enjoyable.
March 18th, 2005 at 11:50 pm
unrelated- but the friday evening DJ Red Alert old school show on Sirius Radio’s Wax station is the FUCKING business.
March 19th, 2005 at 2:37 am
try and find the charli baltimore track “where it’s at” ft mobb deep…the beat is real nice. i’m not sure where it’s from.
March 19th, 2005 at 4:54 am
i don’t follow cam’ron at all. but i loved night court. what is the track? i don’t think i’ve ever heard a cam’ron track in my life.
March 19th, 2005 at 5:24 am
‘horse & carriage’ remix
March 19th, 2005 at 6:27 am
cheers boss. love the site.
March 20th, 2005 at 7:24 am
all things told, this album wasn’t nearly as bad as it should have been. un rivera – step up your ingenue game.
March 20th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
not a bad track, but one of the last great wu records? that title belongs to uzi(piny ring)! more like dat pleeze.
March 20th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
“one of”. i’d also put “the watch” in that catagory.
“pinky ring” is pretty tight i guess, i don’t think it’s a classic or anything. in fact i think it kinda signifies the way i feel about a lot of later wu-tang releases. it’s not that they’re terrible, they just don’t grab me the way the old joints do.
March 21st, 2005 at 8:20 am
for this track and mad other Ghosty unreleased/rare/remix/etc.
get the J-Love Ghostface mix CD. try FatBeats.
the cd is excellent, and includes this. so blow ya whistle and do the do.
peace
March 21st, 2005 at 7:43 pm
i second that jlove mix cd. very good ish
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:07 am
charli did do at least one song with primo, i have the white label at home but i cant remember the name of track. it was a heater tho.
March 22nd, 2005 at 3:25 am
There was a 12″ for that album called Thorough Bitches featuring Da Brat, Queen Pen, Rage, Gangsta Boo and Scarlet. The B-side is an uninspired Primo track called Everybody Wanna Know. I might-could hook up an MP3 if y’all are interested.
March 22nd, 2005 at 3:29 am
great site, you got a lot of jewels on here
this song was hot as hell, i totally forgot about this
great rza production, ghost was on point as usual..dont know what the big deal was about charli bmore though
this song also had a video
February 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Thank you very much for writing all of the great info! I am looking forward to reading more blogs!