It Was All Good Just 7/8 Years Ago
Jay-Z & Roc-A-Fella – Funk Flex Freestyles (Hot 97, 2001)
State Property – Funk Flex Freestyles (Hot 97, 2002)
Jay-Z & Roc-A-Fella – Angie Martinez Freestyles (Hot 97, 2002) *LINK FIXED*
“Average Cat” is just sad. Beans should have either gone for Jigga’s jugular or just left this dispute between him and the Roc-A-Lawyers. The Game opened the door for these scorned lover rants disguised as diss records and that ain’t cool to be.
But the problem is bigger than just the public airing of family drama, it’s that Beans mistook the Roc for family at all. (Jay predictably responded by talking business.) But can you blame him. Listening to all these old freestyles it certainly sounds like a familial bond Maybe Jay changed his pitch up when he became a business icon a few years later. Or maybe he was just a great actor. Whatever the case these tapes remain some of the better radio ciphers of the decade.
Shouts to whoever ripped these back then, in all their 128 kbps glory. Hit the jump for more commentary and the rest of the video clips of the first session, courtesy of Cipha Sounds.
First up is the legendary Funk Flex session where Jay brought all of State Prop, Bleek and someone named H Moneybags through the studio. The highlight is probably the 17 minute endless “Quiet Storm” freestyle, which is preceded by one of the greatest Beans moments of all time, and maybe the best embodiment of his persona, when he scolds Flex for playing “happy beats” like “Nas Is Like,” which has “too many flutes.” I believe this was recorded the summer before Blueprint? I distinctly remember being at a Taco Bell drive through when it aired and freaking out.
Next State Prop, sans Jay, is back on Flex and throwing shots not only at Nas on behalf of Mr. Carter, but also at The Lox/D-Block. If you’ll recall Jada had called out the entire city of Philadelphia as style biters in an issue of XXL, which sparked that whole thing. Amends have since been made, resulting in the ironic turn of Beans first spitting “Average Cat” during a Jada set in Philly.
Lastly are some less often heard verses from the click up on Angie’s show (unyoutubable), taped after Nas went and threw his hissy fit on Power 105 after Hot banned his planned mock lynching of Jay from Summer Jam. It might be the least inspiring of the batch, but it still has its moments. Jay kicks a few verses that would end up on BP2.
Tumblin' Erb
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 am
1) I remember hearing about the Hot 97 freestyles when I was in Atlanta for college. We were trying our damndest to find and download the songs on Kaaza, Bearshare, and Morpheus until one day, a guy (who we never saw again) came down to the AUC strip with a box full of the cds…He sold them for 25 a piece and be damned if he didn’t sell them all in about 20 minutes. I remember scrambling up the cash from my boys, taking it back to my dorm (Hubert Hall/Morehouse) and proceeding to spark up and listen to that CD until it literally wore off the bottom… Easily one of the best freestyle sessions at Hot 97 (the G-Unit sessions with 50/Banks/Yayo and 50/Banks/Buck are close second and third).
2) Beans Special Delivery Freestyle=one of the best diss records ever…
Side Note: I wish you would post more… these other blogs and their silly commenters bending over backwards to congratulate themselves on how “hip-hop” they are tire me…
JihaD
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:46 am
There was a “Rocafella Freestyles” CD floating around on Rapidshare for a minute, I downloaded it off smokingsection.net years ago, but it was one of the more comprehensive Roc freestyle comps I’ve seen. Dunno if its still around.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 am
““Average Cat” is just sad.”
That pretty much sums it up for me.
I can’t help but catch feelings over this whole situation. I don’t know whether it’s because beans and Jay are (easily) in my top 10 of all time, or whether the fact that these two seemingly stuck together despite all the dame dash/rocafella break-ups, but beans was the one bit of proof that Jay could hold down some sort of relationship with peers that were worth a shit.
I would like to see a real impassioned response from Jay, where he tells his side of this story, rather than just ignoring the whole situation/laughing it off & talking “business” in interviews, I’ve always felt Beans was worth more than the rest who have fallen to the wayside, e.g. Jaz. But that’s just me being a stan.
Thanks for the freestyles, much appreciated.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 am
I don’t know, I must be in the minority here, but ‘Average Cat’ doesn’t make me sad. As much as I appreciate all Hov’s contributions to hip hop, I really feel like he should’ve retired with the Black Album like he said he was gonna do. Dude has a lot of nerve putting out DOA commanding everyone to stop doing what they’re doing, and then making showtune / dentist’s office ass records like ‘Empire’ and ‘Forever Young’.
Meanwhile Beans hasn’t been on top of his business necessarily, but he’s been putting out some excellent street shit. I wanna see him go at Hov cause Beans makes good diss records and Beans is one of the few positioned to serve Jay. Jay needs a good whooping. Beans can do it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:56 am
That 3rd link isn’t working btw, is it just me?
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:09 am
I dunno about The Game inventing the scorned lover diss track. Dr. Dre’s verse on “Bitches Aint Shit,” lyrically, definitely is on some scorned lover shit. Obviously worlds apart from the delivery side of “Average Cat,” though.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
Treasure trove of collected stuff here. Was thinking (briefly) of proposing freestyles/radio sessions-themed post series when you were thinking (briefly) of supplemental posts.
The link to http://rapidshare.com/files/301682526/Rocstyles3.zip is a little screwed up btw.
“Average Cat” makes me uncomfortable much in the way Combat Jack describes in his really well-written take on this. It’s not the kind of emotion mined by, say, “Love In, Love Out” or “Ether”, in order to hit harder; “you left me high & dry in prison and humiliated me before my peers” is very personal business without the anger or control to make it some kind of self-assertive affirmation. It’s a very sad track, well-rapped though it is before the talking blues coda, in that it’s come to this. Those lines from BP3 (which no one seems to be focussed on) seem to have been the last straw.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 am
You’re doing God’s work.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
YAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNN
next????
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Is this the other david?
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
seem so
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
the song isnt that bad, in terms of how he dissed he wasnt great, but the fact that this situation is actually happening is sad
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
ps that would be the greatest moment in hip hop history if nas did that mock lynching haha
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
i always liked H Moneybags on that shit.
November 4th, 2009 at 1:36 am
the third link is down could you please reup it.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:53 am
The State Prop Funk Flex one is probably my fav’ radio freestyle session alongside the LL one over It’s Yours.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:54 am
Could you please refresh the download link for the Angie Martinez sessions? Rapidshare says its only downloadable for 10x because its not a collectors account. Thanks, would be nice!
November 4th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Jay is like that mini series V: he says he comes in peace with good intentions but in the end only causes destruction and mayhem in order to exploit one’s resources.
It’s a shame that our generation’s best rapper has to have the stigma of being a snake. But as they say, you don’t get ahead by being Mr. Nice Guy…
November 4th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I kind of love ‘Average Cat.’ Is it a great diss record, no, but it is a fantastic hurt feelings record, and it somehow manages to be pretty hard in spite of the whole hurt feelings aspect.