Has-Lo - You Can Live Thru Anything If Magic Made It

The place is here, the time is now. After dropping numerous teasers, we are finally dropping Has-Lo's remix project You Can Live Thru Anything If Magic Made It. I know for a fact that Has put a lot of work into this project. I was lucky enough to hear several tracks before he shipped me the complete project a week or so ago, and take it from an "unbiased" source, everything is hot. Those of you who follow WYDU, know I've been pretty high on Has since he hit me up with his Fuck Has Day EP back in December of 07. Since then, I've witnessed Has grow as an artist, and even though I've been his "ears" for numerous songs, beats, and projects over the past year, he still is able to surprise me.

I'll be the first to admit, I take Has' production skills for granted. He's such a dope MC as we've all witnessed on tracks like "Unsigned MCs", "Small Metal Objects", and "The Quiet Things", that you forget that he produced all those tracks on both of his EPs, except for one track off of Small Metal Objects. Has wanted to showcase his skills on the MPC, and I think he has done that quiet adequately on this release. His version of "Leather Face" by Big Pun is as good, if not better than the original. He laces up "Best To Do It" by Royce, Elzhi and Supastition the way it should have been in the first place and he makes Ghostface's "Love Session" all his own.

So if you are a fan of dusty, boom bap beats, remix projects, or just magic in general, do yourself a favor and check it out. Leave a comment for my man, I'm sure he'd love to hear what you think of it, good, bad or indifferent.

Has-Lo - You Can Live Thru Anything If Magic Made It

http://sharebee.com/ad4bc117

01 Intro
02 Big Pun - Leather Face (has-lo remix)
03 O.C. - Time's Up (has-lo remix)
04 Royce Da 5' 9, Elzhi & Supastition - Best To Do It (has-lo remix)
05 Cormega - Montana Diaries (has-lo remix)
06 Interlude #1
07 Ghostface Killah - Love Session (has-lo remix)
08 Sean Price - Onion Head (has-lo remix)
09 Common - Chi City (has-lo remix)
10 Nas - Shootouts (has-lo remix)
11 Outro
12 (Bonus Track) Tree Woodz - Move the Crowd (has-lo remix)

It's Here.................



-wydu

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Philaflava's 100 Greatest Obscure Tracks :The Bonus Tracks aka Trav's Picks Part III

It's time for more "hard-to-find" goodies from my arsenal of tracks that I've managed to find in my visits to records stores, back of magazines, and of course the world wide internet. I honestly didn't intend to do more than 10-20 tracks for the "Bonus" tracks of my "Obscure" Philaflava post, but people seem to dig it plus I haven't had the time to move onto the next project I have in mind, at least not yet. So if you don't like them, tell everyone else to shut up, or if you do like them, keep the comments coming. Easy enough.

LINKS FOR ALL

Beastie Boys - Scenario (Grand Royal, on the "Drum Machine", "Scenario", "I'm Down" 12 inch, 2002)

At first you might see the Beastie Boys listed and think "Is anything the Beasties done actually "hard to find"? And my answer to that would be, actually, yeah....The Beasties have lots of b-sides, unreleased and remix joints out there. "Scenario" happens to be one such track. I don't know much about the origins of the cut. I'm sure some Beastie aficionados can probably fill in the history better than I can, but I'm venturing out on a limb here and will say it was probably done before "Licensed To Ill", so don't let the year fool you, that would be when it was released to wax by the Beasties. Movie buffs might remember it being in the Christian Slater movie "Pump Up The Volume" about a pirate radio DJ and this would be a track he would play. It was also that movie that sent me on a 15-year search for "Scenario", finally finding it when my man Tommy B from Miscreant Productions hooked it up. Needless to say, it was a great day. Song wise, it's pretty much a rip off of another personal favorite artist in Schoolly D and his classic "PSK". The drum effects are there along with the other sounds present on "PSK", but what the hell, I can look past that in this day in age. If you are fan of the Beasties such as I am, especially their earlier work, then you have to check this track out.

Da Bush Babees - Love Song Remix feat De La Soul & Mos Def (Warner Bros. from the "Love Song Remix" 12 inch, 1996)

Another example of a song that isn't horribly "obscure", but one that is need of mention just in case some kids are sleeping on it. The remix for the Bush Babee's "Love Song" track has long been one of my favorites, mainly because it contains De La Soul and Mos Def when he was still focused on making music. The remix is actually done by Da Bush Babee's Mr. Man, which is a nice twist on the original beatwise. Mos really does his thing on the hook, reminding us older heads why we thought he would be the next Chuck D or the first Kanye West. Of course since I would probably consider De La Soul my favorite hip hop group of all-time, I'm on this tracks proverbial jock because of their shining appearance that almost makes this song sound like a De La song. In fact when I first heard it, I thought it was a De La track (I didn't fuck with the Bush Babee's back in the day), it's got that De La flavor to it. Nothing wrong with that!

Constant Deviants - Can't Stop (Brooklyn Pipeline, from the "Can't Stop" b/w "Fed Up" 12 inch, 1998)

A couple of weeks ago I kind of clowned the whole Indie boom that happened toward the end of the 90's decade. It made many kid go out and buy a Jansport back pack, some big ass Kross headphones and bitch about the mainstream. While they had a point about the mainstream around that time (shiny suits anyone?), the whole genre would soon grind down to boring, monotonous, and straight up garbage type of hip hop and these little hipster nerds would become just as condescending as their mainstream thug counterparts. BUT, some of the early Indie stuff was pretty tight. This is one such little gem that I know next to nothing about, but I LOVE this track. I can't even remember what caused me to download this track from the almighty Audiogalaxy (anyone remember that shit?) back in the day. I'm glad I did, but I've never been able to find much out about them. This track was released in '98 on some small label. The beat is some fly jazz shit with dope piano keys and a nice string rift, horns, shit it's got everything. I couldn't even tell you the name of the MC, but he does a nice job talking about the old days. The hook is nice as well, it's basic but sticks in your mind and it actually has one of those DJ fellas and he is making squiggy squiggy sounds....weird...don't hear those anymore. Anyone have any material by these cats, hit me up.

Alright, so I'm cheating a bit here, this was something I posted up a year ago when I first posted this track. Since then, I've managed to track down all their 12 inch singles and there was also someone close to M.I.C. and DJ Cutt (who produced this track) educated us as well:

"lead rapper M.I.C is now solo and DJ CUTT does remixes and produced
a gang of stuff for NORE (In House Production Team for Thugged Out Militainment), RICK ROSS, and he was a former producer for Crazy Cat Catalogue(Derik"D.Dot" Angelettie) - Notorious B.I.G, Black Rob, 50 Cent, Lil Kim..etc,
They still grind together with Impact Music Group a multimedia entertainment Co"

Eminem & Royce Da 5'9 - Renagades (Original Version) (Never officially released?)
As far as I'm concerned, this version shits all over the one with Jay that appeared on "The Blueprint", and I actually liked that version. Royce and Em share great chemistry on everything I've ever heard them on, so it's only natural that they killed this. Their work as "Bad Meets Evil" and the 12" they dropped made me hope they would release something back when they were both hungry.

I've heard multiple reasons for Jay ending up on the final version, all from Royce's label wouldn't allow it, to Jay paying more money for the beat, to it was part of the fall out with Dre and Royce. I'm not going to venture which one is true, although I would go with the label issues. I hope they can work together again in the future, maybe working with Royce will make Em hungry again. Excuse fuckin' Kay Slay screaming all over the damn track.

Ghostface feat Raekwon & Slick Rick - The Sun (Never officially released)

This is my favorite Ghostface track. I've seen this on some of those "unofficial" Ghostface releases, but I think it was left off of "Bulletproof Wallets" due to sample clearances. I looked up to see where he got the sample from, but no dice. Ghost is typical Ghost, while Rae comes off and adds to their obvious chemistry. Slick Rick bats cleanup and this sounds like this was made for him, even the chorus sounds like something rick would come up with. This is a great song to wake up to on an early spring morning...who said we didn't have feelings??

Kid Sensation - Ride The Rhythm Cruise Control Mix (Nastymix, from the "Ride The Rhythm" 12 inch, 1992)

I've always liked the remix for Kid Sensation's lead off single, "Ride The Rhythm", so much that I had to include in my "bonus" picks. I can remember picking up this bad boy on the cassette single back in the day. I was shocked that the remix was just as good as the original version. To this day, I'm still not sure which I prefer more, although I think this remix might have a slight edge over the original. I remember this track having a killer bassline in a decent car studio, with it's stuttering drum break laying underneath it, it was something for the trunk 'o funk for sure.

Lord Digga - My Flow Is Tight (Game Recordings, from the "My Flow Is Tight" b/w "Sacks 5th Ave" 12 inch, 1998)

As big of a Masta Ace fan as I am, I was surprisingly never that big of a Digga fan. I thought he made for a decent hype man, but I always kind of cringed when he did full verses on the Inc albums. Yeah, I know, some of you will call me crazy, I just thought he was never that good of a lyricists. I still don't, but this solo single he dropped in '98 did prove to me he could at least carry a song on his own. Even if the track is almost a novelty in its approach. If you haven't heard this track before, Digga flips the "Price Is Right" theme from the legendary game show and makes it his own. I can never argue against the fact that Digga was a extremely talented producer and he does his thing with this track and keeps it from just being a corny disaster, which could have happened rather easily. On the mic, Digga is still Digga, but he is easier to handle in the smaller dose of one track. Also include the fact he is a little more mellow on the track, which also helps me enjoy the track more as well.

Erick Sermon - Rock Da House (Rush Associated Labels, from the "Stay Real" 12 inch as a b-side, 1993)

Being a big fan of Erick Sermon during those early 90's days, with both his production on the first two Redman albums along with Keith Murray's debut and then combine both his production and mic duties on "No Pressure", I thought E Double could do no wrong. This track came from the "Stay Real" 12 inch which I once again bought as a cassingle back in the day. For some reason, I lost it fairly quick, so I wasn't able to enjoy "Rock Da House" as much as I would have liked back in the day. My man Jaz over at Cold Rock Da Spot went on a hunt to find this, which I think finally popped up at Dr. OK's blog about a year ago. The track is full of the funk, something that I love to this day. It's all about the dirty bottom and only E Double, Redman or Keith can do a track this sloppy justice. Great stuff.

Nice & Smooth - No Bones In Ice Cream Original Version (Fresh Records, on the "Funky For You" b/w "No Bones In Ice Cream" 12 inch, 1990)

This original version of "No Bones In Ice Cream" took awhile to track down. I've always thought the original version was head and shoulders above the "No Bones" (Remix) that is found on the Jewel of the Nile LP. Nice & Smooth excelled in making non sense rhymes, concepts and ideas sound dope as fuck, probably more so than anyone else. The beat takes a familiar piano loop and lays it over another familiar sample (I'm horrible with naming samples) all over a simple drum break, but in true Nice & Smooth fashion, the shit is nice. It's nothing new from the duo, but true fans of their work should appreciate hearing when they were on top of their game and a track that could have easily been on any of their albums and still been one of the better tracks.

Zhigge - Rakin' In The Dough Uptown Bounce Mix (PolyGram, from the "Rakin' In The Dough" 12 inch single, 1992)

There are always tracks that hold some special memory and this happens to be one of them for me. I bought a DJ Red Alert tape out of the back of the Source magazine back in the day. The Uptown Bounce Mix for Rakin' In The Dough happened to be one that Red played on that show. I never heard the version before and spent the next 15 plus years (yes, again) trying to track down the version. Thankfully for the internet, I once again have it in my collection. I wasn't big on Zhigge back in those days, but I've learned to like them since then. The beat and the bangin' drums, both supplied by Salaam Remi, or the true treat found on this album.

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Grab Bag

What's good party people? Hope all is well out there in blog land. I forgot what working a full 40 hours was like. Shit is draining, then I have almost an hour commute each way, so needless to say, time has been hard to come by. I have a lot of things on the burner, but don't always have the energy or desire to finish them all up when I come home at night. I'm expecting to be used to this and be fine in a week or two, but until then....

Anyway, got some emails for most re-ups, and since it's kind of an easy thing to do at the current time, I'm more than happy to oblige.

Original Concept - Straight From (Def Jam, 1988)

1		Legend (3:27)
2		Charlie Sez (4:23)
3		Running Yo' Mouth (3:48)
4		Knowledge (0:16)
5		Pump That Bass/Live (3:07)
6		Jonnie Wuza Gangsta (4:01)
7		Here Comes The 5-OH! (3:14)
8		Prejudice (3:31)
9		Gottanotha Funky Break 4-U Hit It! (3:56)
10		Psychodustrip (0:35)
11		Can U Feel It? 88! (3:33)
12		Get Stupid... Again (3:00)
13		(Cause) We're Original (4:04)
14		Fatlady (3:10)
15		To The Beat Y'all (3:32)
16		She's Gotta Moustache (3:53)
17		Stranded (2:04)
18		Total Confusion (4:24)

A long lost Def Jam album. If you are an old school head or just like the obscure shit, this shouldn't be too new to you, but if you are still learning, this joint was fairly instrumental in the 808 sound, which can be traced back to the early Miami Bass days. Spearheaded by Dr. Dre and T-Money of Yo! MTV Raps fame (before the show), this album also possessed the humor those two exhibited on the show as well. Nothing ground breaking on this in any means, but if you were down with that early Beastie Boy's production, (although not as good) with the 808 kick drums, then you might want to grab this.


Ghostface Killah - Pretty Toney: The Lost Tracks

1. Guerilla Hood
2. The After Party feat Method Man
3. Pretty Toney
4. Pay Checks ft Trife
5. Smith Brothers
6. The Drummer ft Street Life
7. Burnin'
8. My Guitar
9. Run (Showoff Remix) ft Jadakiss
10. The Odd Couple ft Cappadonna
11. Got Gats ft Solomon Childs
12. Box In Hand (The Lost Remix) ft Method Man
13. New Splash (No No No)
14. GFK Elephant ft Elephant Man
15. The Sun ft Slick Rick, RZA & Raekwon
16. Flowers (Original Mix)
17. The Watch (Original Mix)
18. Good Times
19. Hot & Wet (Remix) ft 112 & Ludacris
20. Summertime (remix) ft Beyonce

Why is that some of the best songs are usually of the unreleased kind? Think about, Jay-Z, Nas, Mobb Deep, and Ghost all have some classic joints that are of the unreleased variety. Luckily enough for us in the age of the internet, this stuff still comes to the light in form of "Unreleased Rarities" and the such. All of the tracks that couldn't be cleared for sample reasons rears their melodic voices on this collection of songs that were made right around the "Pretty Toney" era. Tracks like "The Sun", "My Guitar", "Flowers" and "Good Times" are arguably stronger tracks than the majority of the tracks that made it to the retail version. Hopefully you have most of these, but if you don't, best be picking this one up.

Big Daddy Kane - Collabs and Rarities (1998-2005)

1. Big Daddy Kane - Any Type Of Way (Produced by DJ Premier)
2. Marley Marl Feat Big Daddy Kane - Three's Company
3. Spectac feat. Big Daddy Kane - One Day
4. Big Daddy Kane - Shame
5. Sway & King Tech feat Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap & Chino XL - 3 To The Dome
6. Just Ice feat Big Daddy Kane - Just Rhymin' With Kane (Produced by DJ Premier)
7. Soul Supreme feat Big Daddy Kane, Checkmark & DJ Revolution - Come Get It
8. Big Daddy Kane - Terra In Ya Era
9. Jurassic 5 feat Big Daddy Kane & Percee P - A Day At The Races
10. Aphorodite feat Big Daddy Kane - Off Limits
11. Little Brother feat Big Daddy Kane - Welcome To Durham
12. Big L feat Big Daddy Kane - Platnium Plus (produced by DJ Premier)
13. Big Daddy Kane - Entaprizin
14. Big Daddy Kane - The Man The Icon
15. Afu Ra feat Big Daddy Kane - Stick Up
16. Prince Paul feat Big Daddy Kane - Macula's Theory
17. Tony Touch feat Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap & KRS One - Class Of '87
18. Big Daddy Kane - Hold It Down
19. Big Daddy Kane - Any Type Of Way (Cookin' Soul Remix)

had to come correct after posting up that Aesop, so we'll bring some collabs and rarities from one of the top 5 M.C.'s of all-time with some Big Daddy Kane. This little nuggest of pure hip hop bliss has been on albumbase for awhile now, but it's still alive. There is some pretty good material on this comp, worth checking out if you are a BDK fan.

Stetsasonic - In Full Gear (Tommy Boy, 1988)

01		In Full Gear
02		DBC Let The Music Play
03		Freedom Or Death (1)
04		Float On
05		Stet Troop '88!
06		Pen And Paper
07		Music For The Stetfully Insane
08		We're The Band
09		Rollin' With Rush
10		This Is It, Y'all (Go Stetsa II)
11		Extensions
12		Sally
13		Talkin' All That Jazz
14		It's In My Song
15		The Odad
16		Miami Bass
17		Showtime
18		Talkin' All That Jazz (Dominoes Vocal Remix By Daddy-O)
		Remix - Daddy-O
19		Talkin' All That Jazz (Dominoes Instrumental Remix By Daddy-O)
		Remix - Daddy-O
20		Talkin' All That Jazz (Dim's Radio Edit.)

Before the Roots, there was Stetsasonic, the hip hop band. This group deserves more props than it gets. Daddy O, DBC, Fruitkwan and a young Prince Paul were all very talented artists and you mix a beat box artists and the instruments, this group was ahead of it's time for sure.


Tony D - Pound For Pound (Grand Central Records, 1997)

1 Flavour (2:23) Featuring - Funky Fresh Few , Mark Rae , Mark 1* , Mr. Scruff

2 Back To The Basics (4:01) Featuring - Low Key (4)

3 Crystal Maze (0:30)

4 Come Round Here (4:19)

5 Don't Want To Lose You (5:02) Featuring - Veba

6 All I Have (4:55) Featuring - Buffy Brox Trumpet - Josef*

7 Phonebeat (4:39)

8 Erase The Pain (4:51) Featuring - Spikey T

9 Walk Like A Man (4:31) Featuring - Lorna Harris

10 Queen Of My Dreams (4:02) Featuring - Low Key (4)

11 Crystal Meth (0:37)

12 Piano Grand (4:49)

Yes, THAT Tony D aka Harvey Wallbanger. I didn't even know this album existed until last year. It's aight, give it a listen. The files say it's from 2000, but discogs says 1997. Maybe it was rereleased in 2000, I'm not sure.

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Weekend Lite

Well by now, we've all seen the new layout and design. I realize everyone has their own preferences, but honestly I was growing bored with the old design and it wasn't the easiest on the eyes by any means. This one was in the making for over two months, with Chris probably getting sick of me saying "add this, take away that, darken this, lighten that", and probably not completely done doing that either. Either way, feel free to voice your opinion. Can't promise I'll take what you have to say in consideration, but at least you'll get your voice heard.

Seems like the big news in the world of music itself is the judgment handed down on a woman for file sharing (peer to peer). She has been ordered to pay $222,000 for sharing music online. Looks like the RIAA is at it again. I mean, really? Really? The judgment came down at about Nine Grrr per song, for basically 24 songs. To me, this seems kind of excessive, although she was the first person to take the RIAA to court. I understand the whole copyright infringement thing.....I guess. But it seems to me there is a lot questions to be answered here. Did anyone actually use her music for "illegal purposes?", thats something to be asked. And how the hell do you come up with $9,000 per song?

In all honesty, I'm surprised they haven't gone after the bloggers. It seems like an easy target, but I like to think they are seeing the free promotions they are getting from sites like this. I know I've had a lot of labels (mostly independent with the exception of Atlantic) contact me about certain things. It is something to keep an eye on though. I think things are going to get worse before they get better.

RZA discusses "The Heart Gently Weeps"




RZA talks about how the song came about and the history. Good talk for all the Wu-Tang fans. I'm not sure what I think of the song yet, but I'm sure it'll probably grow on me. The anticipation mounts. If you have been sleeping, the track can be found at Oh Word.


From The Inbox

The inbox was a little skimpy last week with my usual "connections" not sending much my way and what was sent weren't exactly my type of thing, but regardless....

Nas - Surving The Times
New song from Nas' upcoming "Greatest Hits" project dropping next month. I'm actually feeling this track quite a bit. Nice mellow beat and Nas does what he does best. For me Nas is usually hit or miss and this is a hit.

Ghostface - My Guitar

With all the hype surrounding the new Wu track, most of the blog nerds and internet heads will undoubtedly point out that they already used the sample for a Ghost track in '04. Of course it never came out because of the sample issues, but its a great track that a lot of heads were trying to track down when it was rumored to be out there.

Phonte & DJ Spinna - One 4 Jay

Spinna re did a Dilla beat and Phonte of Little Brother is singing over it, yes, singing. I'm not sure what to think of this. I like when Phonte doesn't take the singing part serious, but on this track he seems pretty serious. The beat is Dilla influenced for sure, but I'm still willing to say that not everything Dilla touched was gold.


Oldies but goodies....

Paula Perry - Extra Extra (produced by Primo)

The female member of Masta Ace Incorporated, Paul Perry was probably one of my favorite female MC's at one time. She completed an album, but to my knowledge, it was never properly released, although I've heard from people that I would trust that have said there are promo versions of the album floating around. That means you would think this would pop up on the scene sooner or later. This track was produced by DJ Premier in the late 90's so you know he was on top of his game.

Doswell - Watch Yourself (produced by Primo)
Not all that old (2003) but those was a dope track that not many people mention. Primo switches it up enough that you can't say "That's a DJ Premier track". I know next to nothing about Doswell. The track though is a good example why New York hip hop is slipping so damn much, because this track was different enough, but still encompassed that traditional boom-bap New York flavor.

Trav's Spins For The Week.

1. Archetype - Bleed For Them
I know Eric gets gung ho about certain artists and I've never really gotten overly crazy about anyone in particular myself, with maybe the exception of Storm Davis, but I must say, this group could turn into my "Ill Poetic" of the year. I'm just loving this album. The review is coming this week in which I'll drop a little more knowledge on them and hopefully get the okay to post a couple tracks. For the time being, visit their myspace page.

2. Cunninlynguists - Dirty Acres
Just to show you how much of an effect that Archtype album is having on me, its even stealing some spins from the new Cunnin' LP. Don't get me wrong, I still played it an awful lot and its still growing more and more on me. It'll be up there in the end for sure.

3. The "K Collection"
Assorted of music that is kind of like the soundtrack to some personal stuff I have going on. Nice nice old soul tracks and the such. Music has always been important in my everyday life and has always been a back drop to what may be going on in my personal life.

4. Edgar Allen Floe - Floe Almighty
I played this quite often when it came out and it has a hand full of songs that I really like. I think there were two or three tracks that made my top 100 last year. I have a little something coming up concerning Floe, so I revisited the album. As good as I remembered.

5. J-Ro - Rare Earth B-Boy Funk Vol 2
I've been a big Alkaholiks fan since first hearing them on King Tee's "Tha Trifflin' Album". J-Ro has been my favorite member of the crew although I'll agree that Tash is a much better MC. There has been talk of a J-Ro solo album ever since 98 or so when I picked up a J-Ro and the Wolfpack mixtape at a Liks show I attended. This album is different than your typical Liks album, which isn't much of a surprise, but there is some fun party stuff that will sure to help you pound some 40's.

Why

Why is all of sudden cool to proclaim "the number one ringtone" on a song now a days? Has hip-hop really slipped this far?

Why do I find it kind of funny that Lil Wayne got arrested in my birth place?

Why is Lupe acting like its not that big of a deal when it came to him fucking up the words to a A Tribe Called Quest song on a ATCQ tribute at the VH1 award. By him bringing it up and starting threads at Okayplayer he is making it a big deal.

Why do I kind of agree with Tay on the whole thing?

Why is Papoose doing a song using internet slang? Ehhhh....never mind, I'm not going to say anything else.

Why are albums like that Bee Why popping up more and more and how sad they didn't come out when they should. There is some good music that didn't drop when it should have....nature of the game I guess.

Why does that "American Gangster" flick look pretty damn cool. Its been awhile since I saw a good gang/mafia flick.

Why was I not aware of Phife's battle with diabetes until now? Then again, there was that line "The Funky Diabetic". I've lost too many brain cells. Get better Phife.

Why did I figure it was bound to happen, the two biggest egos in hip hop were bound to collide. KRS said that Kanye is NOT hip-hop. Hmmmmm......As much as I love KRS, why do I think this is an attempt to be relevant again.

Why, or better yet how, does Jermiane Dupri have the material to release a greatest hits package?

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The Best Of Albumbase....

I just couldn't do it, I couldn't stay away from this damn thing for more than two days. Things have been busy, some fun some not, but I hate going more than two days without doing some sort of a post. I really don't even have any music with me and I'm sure you don't want just a post of me spouting off about the various things in my life and those around me that piss me off or any other non music releated type thing, so what you'll get is something half-assed, which I tend to do from time to time when I don't have the time to do a proper post or have the mental capacity to think of something witty.

Albumbase is a blessing and a curse for us bloggers. I'll admit, I've used it for close to a year now and you can find lots of material on there. You might have to wade through a lot of crap, but if you know what you are looking for, you can do alright messing with it. The bad side is, I think it's mainly just a big sesspool of all the blogs materials. I know I've seen many of my links and other blogs links on it. I'm sure probably just about every album I've uploaded has made it on there in one form or another. Now, I'm not one of those bloggers who gets overly upset about my links being used in other capacities. If another blog uses them, I expect at least some sort of recognition for my efforts. As far as albumbase goes, there is no way thats going to happen and honestly, I don't really care if they do get put up there or not. I've never personally submitted a link there, but someone else might as well do it, plus it keeps links alive longer. I've been amazed at some of the links still alive on this site and sure I can thank albumbase for that.

The bad thing really though is that with new blogs popping up every day and originality already at a premium, it gets tough trying to post anything that hasn't been seen before and albumbase makes that even more difficult. When I first originally started posting full albums last spring/summer, I vowed not to post anything that could be found on another blog or on albumbase. I've since changed that policy, although if it's been on another blog, I try to hold off on it for a few months.

As you can probably tell, I'm just winging this post, so it's probably coming off as rambling, for that reason, we'll cut it short for now. Here's a few joints I found on albumbase that I thought I'd share for those of you that don't have a membership or just can't find the shit.

Aesop Rock - B-Sides & Rarities (1999-2003)

1. Water
2. Wise Up
3. The Active Element
4. The Tugboat Complex
5. Bad Karma
6. Take Me To The Basement
7. Blacklist (feat MF Doom)
8. Sinister (feat Vast Aire & Yesh)
9. Helium (Vordul)
10. Dragon Coaster (feat Mojo)
11. Inner City Hustle (Wakin') (feat L.I.F.E. Long)
12. Tap Dancin' for Scratch (feat Vast Aire)
13. Put Your Quarters Up (feat Slug)
14. Home Again (feat The Controls)
15. Coma (remix)
16. Atlantis (feat Mojo)
17. Bad Summeritan
18. Commencemnt At The Obedience Academy
19. Accapella (Live at the El-Ray)

I'm NOT a fan of Aesops music. I do realize though that there are people who do like his music, to each their own. I really don't know much about Aesop Rock. I think the only album I've sat down and listened to was "Bazooka Tooth", which was.......different I guess is the politest word I can use for it. There have been a couple apperances he has made on other albums that wasn't all that bad, so maybe he is okay is small doses.

Since I don't know much about Aesop's career, it's safe to say I don't know much about these tracks. I have no idea if they are rare or just some crap someone threw together, but I figured there might be a couple people out there that would be interested in this.

Big Daddy Kane - Collabs and Rarities (1998-2005)

1. Big Daddy Kane - Any Type Of Way (Produced by DJ Premier)
2. Marley Marl Feat Big Daddy Kane - Three's Company
3. Spectac feat. Big Daddy Kane - One Day
4. Big Daddy Kane - Shame
5. Sway & King Tech feat Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap & Chino XL - 3 To The Dome
6. Just Ice feat Big Daddy Kane - Just Rhymin' With Kane (Produced by DJ Premier)
7. Soul Supreme feat Big Daddy Kane, Checkmark & DJ Revolution - Come Get It
8. Big Daddy Kane - Terra In Ya Era
9. Jurassic 5 feat Big Daddy Kane & Percee P - A Day At The Races
10. Aphorodite feat Big Daddy Kane - Off Limits
11. Little Brother feat Big Daddy Kane - Welcome To Durham
12. Big L feat Big Daddy Kane - Platnium Plus (produced by DJ Premier)
13. Big Daddy Kane - Entaprizin
14. Big Daddy Kane - The Man The Icon
15. Afu Ra feat Big Daddy Kane - Stick Up
16. Prince Paul feat Big Daddy Kane - Macula's Theory
17. Tony Touch feat Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap & KRS One - Class Of '87
18. Big Daddy Kane - Hold It Down
19. Big Daddy Kane - Any Type Of Way (Cookin' Soul Remix)

had to come correct after posting up that Aesop, so we'll bring some collabs and rarities from one of the top 5 M.C.'s of all-time with some Big Daddy Kane. This little nuggest of pure hip hop bliss has been on albumbase for awhile now, but it's still alive. There is some pretty good material on this comp, worth checking out if you are a BDK fan.

Ghostface Killah - Pretty Toney: The Lost Tracks

1. Guerilla Hood
2. The After Party feat Method Man
3. Pretty Toney
4. Pay Checks ft Trife
5. Smith Brothers
6. The Drummer ft Street Life
7. Burnin'
8. My Guitar
9. Run (Showoff Remix) ft Jadakiss
10. The Odd Couple ft Cappadonna
11. Got Gats ft Solomon Childs
12. Box In Hand (The Lost Remix) ft Method Man
13. New Splash (No No No)
14. GFK Elephant ft Elephant Man
15. The Sun ft Slick Rick, RZA & Raekwon
16. Flowers (Original Mix)
17. The Watch (Original Mix)
18. Good Times
19. Hot & Wet (Remix) ft 112 & Ludacris
20. Summertime (remix) ft Beyonce

Why is that some of the best songs are usually of the unreleased kind? Think about, Jay-Z, Nas, Mobb Deep, and Ghost all have some classic joints that are of the unreleased variety. Luckily enough for us in the age of the internet, this stuff still comes to the light in form of "Unreleased Rarities" and the such. All of the tracks that couldn't be cleared for sample reasons rears their melodic voices on this collection of songs that were made right around the "Pretty Toney" era. Tracks like "The Sun", "My Guitar", "Flowers" and "Good Times" are arguably stronger tracks than the majority of the tracks that made it to the retail version. Hopefully you have most of these, but if you don't, best be picking this one up.

Link Love

I haven't done this in awhile because, honestly, with all the new blogs that we are bombarded with, it makes it kind of over whelming to check stuff and if I don't automatically link up a new site right off the bat, I tend to forget about new sites for awhile. It already takes close an hour every day going through my links, so some sites get missed and over looked, more so than what they used to. There are some quality blogs out there and some not so quality. I'm not going to dis anyones effort, that's just not me, but all in all I've been kind of disappointed in the quanity over quality approach that seems to be more rampent in the blogosphere these days. As I said though, I'm not going to knock anyones hustle, it is what it is....but here a few new blogs I've enjoyed lately.

When They Reminisce.....
I'll admit I was kind of weary when I first saw the pink background, but once again, a prime example of "Don't judge a book by it's cover". After reading a few of Eric's posts, it's quite apparent he is doing this strictly for his love of the music and not the internet "props" that go with it. He examplifies a witty demenour and intellegence in his posts which remind me of, well me actually.

The site offers a nice selection of classics and a few rare jewels sprinked about the site as well. Combine that with wit and interesting text, you have yourself a fun site to boomark. Thirty somethings unite!

Brazilian Faith Healer

Knowing Ryan Somers, I'm sure there is some hidden meaning within the blog name or maybe something totally logical. Ryan is another former Cocaine Blunts Forum alum and quite the interesting cat to say the least. He's published a book, "In Search of Divine Styler", has a group that will be touring Europe this summer and even does painting. I guess you can say he is a modern day Troubadour and Jack of All Trades. It would be unnatural if he didn't have a blog in the game as well.

Staying true to his original sense of style and life, his blog doesn't resemble anything else, which is important in my book. You might get links to other stuff, you might get a Basehead album, you might get a couple 7A3 singles from back in the day , or you might just get some pictures. That's the beauty of the whole thing, you never know what you will get and to me, that's more important than picking up the new Papoose mixtape. The blog is definately for the eccentric in mind and people who crave originality.

Know Good Music
I shouldn't mention this blog since A-One kicked my ass this year in NCAA brackets, but I'll let that slide. As we all know by now, I like sites that tend to say something, to share an opinion, that give me more than just the newest album and that's what A-One's blog does. Sure there might be bigger sites out there, but quality over quanity always ruels in my book. You have news, opinions and good music all wrapped into one blog...works for me.

Dumpin.Net
Another site that is more quality over quanity. Mike Dikk and Raven are doing what Polarity and I originally inteded to do when we started this blog, a tag team of sorts on the posts and offering humorous and sometimes biting commentary in our views of the music itself, that is until Polarity became a big Hip Hop star and started shacking up with 5 groupies a night, so all you get is my stank ass writing for you guys most of the time. Regardless, Mike and Raven pull it off well enough that while I might not download much from there, I do make it a point to check it out everyday to read their "expert white boy analysis". Besides, Rickey Henderson endorses the site, why shouldn't you check it out?

>Bounce/Oz
Just by the quirkiness of the title alone (if I have to spell it out for you, well, you shouldn't be reading this), you know there's got to be some originality to be found on the site (yeah, I'm big on the originality thing today). The site has been around for awhile, which is kind of shocking that I've missed it for so long since I like to think I'm a self-proffessed Blog Geek, but everything from Soul to Hip Hop to even a "Happy Birthday Hammer" posts. And while it shouldn't matter, I think it's great that it's all done by a woman, which is something of a rarity in the male dominated blogging game. Besides GForce, there are only two other females I know about, KNun on Exploration of Music, which unfortunately has slowed down in the past months and another which I'm not at liberty to say but also has an excellent blog that should be well known to most of my readers (don't try to guess because I won't comment on it). But don't check it out for any other reason that it's a quality blog that I've enjoyed a lot in the past few weeks and because I said so, dammit!

There's other ones I'm feeling out there as well, so don't take it personally if I didn't mention yours. If I have you linked, that means I like what you are doing or you bugged me enough to put it up there, but I try to check everything in my links at least a couple times a week. I realize the link section is a complete freaking mess right now. I hope to change that when Chris and I sit down and try to come up with a new design for the site in a couple months. Until then, may all your dreams be about hot beats and all your nightmares contain giant pink bunnies.....

Travis

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