Here's a little midnight snack for all the insomniacs out there, some west coast fare. Haven't given it a listen yet, but just throw ya "dubs" up and let it play....
Colors http://www.zshare.net/download/1889836430bcf371/
Tracklisting
1. Bishop Lamont ft. Black Milk & Stat Quo- On top Now
2. Strong Arm Steady- Gold Chain Music
3. Cali Iz Active
4. Sir Mix A Lot- Posse On Broadway
5. Defari- Make My Own
6. Lil' Eazy E ft. Timbaland- I Got That
7. Murs- It's For Real
8. Kurupt ft. Lil HD- On, Onsite
9. Sky Balla ft. Young Jeezy- I'm So Gangsta
10. E40 ft. Fabolous- Automatic
11. Pacific Divison ft. Tiron- Paper
12. Above The Law- Ballin'
13. Custom Made- Gangstas Theme
14. Damizza ft. Butch Cassidy- Cruizin'
15. Problem ft. Snoop Dogg- Dogg House Movie Intro
16. Kurupt- I'm A Gee
17. Evidence ft. Chace Infinite and Sick Jacken- Born in L.A.
18. Tiron- Throwing My Money
19. Blu ft. Myth & Definite- It's Okay Pt. 1
20. Afroman- Palmdale
21. Snoop Dogg ft. Bad Azz, Kokane, & Lil HD- Wrong Idea
22. Glasses Malone ft. Lil Wayne & Cam'Ron- Where It At
23. Sene ft. Blu- Stoopid
24. Three 1 Zero ft. El Prez- Chick Hearn
25. Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell- Sets Up
26. Planet Asia- Jewlery Box Session
27. Da Eastsidaz ft. Snoop Dogg- G'd Up
28. Crooked I ft. Saigon & Nino Bless- 3rd Degree (Beast Muzik)
29. E40 ft. Clipse- D Boy
30. Ace Jones Outro
9/17/2008
Colors...A West Coast Mixtape (An Ace Jones Arrangement)
8/08/2008
West Coast Goodness Day Four: The Death Row Vaults
I've been on a Death Row kick the past few months. I bought and read "Have Gun, Will Travel" and I'm currently on "Rollin' With Dre", written by his former personal assistant. Neither are what I'd call eloquently written by any means, but lots of insider stories and the such. Both books mentions a lot of the same events, so there must be some truth to them. I'm not sure what has attracted me to the history of the fallen label. I guess it's the fact that it once was the most powerful hip hop label the business has ever seen, and it fell faster than Roman Empire. All the gangtaism that went down, the dirty deals, the beatdowns, everything that sounds like it could have been in a movie of sorts (so when is the Death Row: The Movie dropping?). Regardless, you can't deny the impact the label had on the industry, good and bad. I won't lie, I enjoy The Choronic, Doggystyle, Dogg Food as much as the next person. I paid attention to what they were doing for sure.
With Dre and Daz handling a lot of the production for the label, you have to epitome of west coast ridin' music. Let's face it, The Chronic is one of the best convertible LP's of all-time. As is Doggystyle for that matter. Deep, rolling bass and crisp synths dominate the tracks as you can lean back in that Leopard interior and just let the music drown out the hustle and bustle of cars around you. It's a great thing.
Death Row was known to record a shit load of music, but unfortunately, a lot of that never saw the light of day. There is the rumored Sam Sneed album (I'd LOVE to hear it), a Boss Hogg (formerly Lil' Nation of CPO) album, K-Solo album, and even a MC Hammer album, plus a lot more. Today, we have some "lost" Death Row tracks, courtesy of Jsta and his Back 2 Da OG blog. Actually, I haven't dug deep enough in his archives to know if he has posted these on his blog or not, but he did post them originally in the forum that I found them in. The batch of stuff is titled From The Vaults of Death Row, and has some stuff I have heard before and stuff I hadn't. I'm sure it's nothing "official", but still a great history lesson for those might not have known.
From The Vaults of Death Row (Courtesy of Jsta)
01 Radio Intro
02 Dr. Dre -- Kickin' It (Interlude)
03 Dr. Dre Feat. Dat Nigga Daz; George Clinton; Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Let Me Ride (Extended Promo Version)
04 Snoop Doggy Dogg Feat. Dat Nigga Daz -- Gin and Juice (Laid Back Mix)
05 Dr. Dre Feat. Big Tittie Nickie; D.O.C.; Samara; Snoop Doggy Dogg -- The $20 Sack Pyramid (Interlude)
06 Kurupt -- 40'z and Bud (UNRELEASED)
07 Dr. Dre Feat. Rage and Tha Dogg Pound -- Puffin' On Blunts and Drankin' Tanqueray
08 Tha Dogg Pound -- 5 Mic's In The Source (UNRELEASED)
09 Tha Dogg Pound and Warren G -- Power 106 Freestyle
10 Dr. Dre -- Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat (OG) (UNRELEASED)
11 Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Head Doctor (Interlude)
12 Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Head Doctor (OG) (UNRELEASED)
13 Snoop Doggy Dogg Feat. E-White -- Girls, Girls, Girls (UNRELEASED)
14 Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound -- Big Pimpin' (OG) (UNRELEASED)
15 Kurupt -- What Would U Do (Power 106 Freestyle)
16 Tha Dogg Pound -- Who Ride Wit Us (OG) (UNRELEASED)
17 Tupac Feat. Jewell; Prince Ital Joe; Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Street Life (UNRELEASED)
18 J-Flexx Feat. Dr. Dre -- Street Scholars
19 Tupac Feat. SKG -- Rock Ya Body (DJ Total Blend)
20 Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Power 106 Freestyle
21 Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Who Am I (What's My Name) (Power 106 Freestyle)
22 The LBC Crew Feat. Dat Nigga Daz; Snoop Doggy Dogg; Soopafly -- My Heat Goes Boom (OG) (UNRELEASED)
23 Dat Nigga Daz and Snoop Doggy Dogg -- Gangsta Ride (UNRELEASED)
24 Marion 'Suge' Knight and Tupac -- East-West (Interlude)
25 Tupac Feat. The Outlawz -- Fuck 'Em All (OG) (UNRELEASED)
26 Tupac Feat. Left Eye -- Untouchable (OG) (UNRELEASED)
27 The Notorious B.I.G. -- Real Niggaz Do Real Thingz (UNRELEASED Alternate Version)
28 Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. -- Guaranteed Raw 2006 (DJ Total Blend)
29 Cheri Lee; Heather Hunter; Janet Jacme -- Porn Star Outro (A Message To Suge)
DJ Quik was never officially signed to the label,
but he did a lot of work for the Death Row over the years, most notably the Tupac album "All Eyez On Me". Quik also brought his homies 2ndII None to the label, who had an unreleased album, which I posted up earlier in the year and has been making it's way around the internet this year. Once again, there is numerous stuff. Quik's music has also been very complex in the grand scheme of things and is probably a little underrated if anything.
This is titled "Death Row Sessions 1994-1996". There are CD inserts included, so I'm guessing it got released on some kind of level, but there is a track with a radio dub over it, so take it for what it's worth. Still a worth a listen. Originally, I figured this would include some tracks from teh Rare & Unreleased bootleg floating around and I posted up a couple years ago, but from what I can tell, none of the songs are the same.
The Death Row Sessions 1994-1996(Courtesy of Jsta)
01 DJ Quik - Intro
02 DJ Quik - Boom
03 Baby Eagle Feat. DJ Quik - What That Is
04 Str8-Go - Bringing The Funk (Remix Instrumental)
05 Tupac Feat. Nutzo - Words To My First Born
06 DJ Quik - Loc'ed Out Hood (Live G Funk Remix)
07 Tony! Toni! Tone! Feat. DJ Quik - Let's Get Down (Death Row Remix)
08 DJ Quik - Dollaz-N-Sence (Instrumental)
09 Tupac Feat. AMG and DJ Quik -- Late Night
10 Danny Boy and Marion 'Suge' Knight -- 4 Or 5 For Danny Boy (Suge Knight Interview)
11 DJ Roger Feat. DJ Quik -- Doggystyle (Live Version)
12 DJ Quik Feat. 2nd II None -- Dollaz-N-Sence (Demo)
13 DJ Quik -- Something For The Mood (Instrumental)
14 Tupac -- Heartz Of Men (Retail Demo)
8/06/2008
West Coast Goodness Day 2: LBC Crew - Our City (Unreleased)
I'm not the greatest person to share the knowledge on the west coast scene. I mean I got into it a bit from the late 80's until the mid 90's, but never got super deep into it and I bailed by '95 when every other album from the west started sounding like a G Funk rip off. Therefore I probably don't know all the details that others out there do, but I'll supply what I can.
Yesterday, I posted up the long, lost Mista Grimm album, one which I had been looking for since....well since it did or didn't come out. My man Fritz sent it to me and said he found it on a forum and he also shared a link for the forum. Well, most of the stuff was posted up by the same cat. After doing some more exploring, come to find out, this dude also has his own blog. Back 2 Da OG/Don't Bite The Funk/ One Eight Seven is the name of the blog, which has a lot of good stuff, all west coast of course. So props go out to that blog and Jsta who runs it, because I'll probably end up recycling some of the stuff found there this week. The unreleased stuff needs to be kept alive, it's part of hip hop history.
Today, another great group to put in your ride and rollin' down the boulevard. The LBC Crew was, well, obviously from the LBC. Made up of several fairly well known MC's (especially if you were into the west coast sound) Tray Dee, Bad Azz, Lil C-Style and a couple other cats that I know I'm forgetting. They would sign with Snoop's Doggystyle Records. The appeared on numerous movie soundtracks, most notably "A Thin Line Between Love & Hate" along with "The Show". Probably their biggest hit was "Beware of my Crew" that made some noise. Personally, I was into the Dove Shack more, but LBC had some great tracks that would filter out to the masses as well.
They finished an album that reportedly was never released. Today, we have what claims to be that album. I'm not totally sold on the fact that this was the way the album was intended to be released. It's only ten tracks long, and lots and lots of guest appearances. There is also rumors that the original was destroyed by Lil C-Style when he got in a dispute with Snoop over royalties. None the less, it's still some great laid back summer vibes to bump in the trunk.....
LBC Crew - Our City (Doggystyle Records, 1996)
01 Beware Of My Crew (Remix)
02 Dippin' In My Lo-Lo (with Snoop Doggy Dogg)
03 Get Fucked Up
04 I Will Smoke 2 Dat (with Snoop Doggy Dogg)
05 My Heat Goes Boom (Remix) (with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound)
06 Party People (with Mack 10)
07 LBC Crew (with Warren G)
08 Floss'n (19th Street Compilation Version) (with Baby Girl)
09 Usual Suspects (with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Threat)
10 Lil' Crip-A-Lot (with Snoop Doggy Dogg)
And for good measure, some more unreleased tracks from LBC. Once again, props goes out to Jsta and his West Coast Blog
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KRJ7IQAQ
The LBC Crew - Baby Come Home (UNRELEASED) (with Mz. So' Sentrelle)
The LBC Crew - Beware Of My Crew (OG) (UNRELEASED) (with Roger Troutman)
The LBC Crew - Doggystyle 96' (UNRELEASED) (with Snoop Doggy Dogg)
The LBC Crew - Get Up 2 Get Down (UNRELEASED)
The LBC Crew - Hit Rocks (UNRELEASED) (with DJ Pooh and Snoop Doggy Dogg)
The LBC Crew - Indo Blueberry (UNRELEASED) (with Snoop Doggy Dogg)
The LBC Crew - Intro 2 The Indo (Haven't You Heard) (UNRELEASED) (with Snoop Doggy Dogg)
The LBC Crew -- Wanna Be From DPG
8/05/2008
West Coast Goodness Day 1: Mista Grimm - Things Are Looking Grimm
We all have to admit that the Wesyde is a summer time music while the east coast is more for the winter. In the west, namely in sunny southern Cali, it's always sunny and warm. Perfect weather for the drop tops. And if the roof is blowin', then you need cruisin' tunes in your ride. That's the basis for the rolling bass and the tight synths that accompanies a majority of the west coast music. It's the basis for G-Funk and it's part of the lifestyle and the culture. Things are more chilled out west, things move at a slower pace.
It's summer time, so y'all need some jams to pump in the rides. That's what we are about to do, drop some west coast ridin' music. Something to drop the top and let the jams play.
warren g and mr grimm
Mista Grimm - Things Are Looking Grimm 1995
Track Listing
01. What The Hell Is A Incrow? - (interlude)
02. I've Had Enough - (interlude)
03. Mighty Brimm - (interlude)
04. Cold Day In Hell
05. Super Bones - (interlude)
06. Steady Dippen
07. Poetry In Motion
08. Hostyle
09. The Danger Of Pork - (interlude)
10. Da Whole 9
11. Nuttins Changed
12. Pon De Riddum
13. A.S.A.P. (A Smooth-Ass Poet)
14. Jesse Jackum - (interlude)
15. Indo Smoke - (party mix)
16. Can I Phuck On Your Blanket? - (interlude)
-----------------------------------------------
Details:
Contributing artists: Bobcat, D.J. Pooh, Nate Dogg, Threat
I've always heard about this album's exsistence, but I have never seen it. That was, until this week when someone flipped it my way in an email. So many thanks goes out to Fritz. For those of you not familiar with Mista Grimm, he dropped a GREAT single on the Poetic Justice soundtrack entitled "Indo Smoke", which was produced by none other than Dr. Dre's younger brother, Warren G and included the hook meister himself, Nate Dogg. It looked as if Grimm and Warren were set to take the world by storm. The track generated a buzz ala "Deep Cover" did for Dre and a young Snoop a few years earlier and the duo were poised to make a move. Then all of a sudden, they got into a rumored squabble and that was it. No more Warren. The rumor was that Mista Grimm got a little to big for his own good. I can't recall for sure if this album actually saw the light of day, but finding info on the net is nearly impossible, so I'm guessing it never got released. Check that, after some snooping around some more and actually spelling his name right, it was up on Amazon, but none for sale and no listing in Discogs. I want to say it did drop, but did horribly. We shall see.....
1/31/2007
West Coast Unappreciated Six
Gangsta rap rules MY first 10 years of listening pleasure. I really didn't listen to much else if it wasn't hardcore. Just over the past few years, with the boom in classic hip-hop blogs, have I had the chance to go back and catch up on all the albums I turned my nose up to, back in the day.
MC Eiht, Ice Cube, N.W.A, Spice 1 were some of my favorites. While a lot of people look at this genre as ignorant or boring, I always found their tales exciting. Stories of cooking up some crack, cappin fools and smackin up that dirty ho, are some far out shit that was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from white suburbia where i grew up as I could get. It fascinated me, sucked me in, making me want more. The lyrics were the fairy tales that i wanted to hear about.
I have to admit that I thought South Central Cartel were just trying to cash in on the fame of N.W.A, CMW and DJ Quik coming out of the LA gangsta boom. But by the time the crew got to 'In Gatz We Trust' and when Havoc & Prod did a few solo albums, I was really feelin it. They honed their skills weren't just some scrub gangster-wannabe-rappers.
Murder Squad meshed together a ton of South Central cats. Ice-T, MC Eiht, Spice 1 and even Treach from the east side, make guest appearances here. I know, I know a lot of you crack on the sing song hooks these guys lay out, but I like L.V.'s voice, who you should know from Coolio's "Gangtas Paraise" mega-hit.
P.S. - dont forget that Coolio was a half-legit gangsta rapper from the Maad Circle crew of W.C.'s, also from Compton.
Here is S.C.C. presents Murder Squad Nationwide:
SH'KILLA
1996 - Priority Records
1. Got 'Em Twisted
2. 1-800 Got Yo M'n
3. East Bay Gangstrez
4. Female Rydaz
5. My Name Is Nine (Yeh, Da Gun)
6. Now U Wanna Come Back (Reunited We're Not)
7. Whatever It Takes
8. She's Bad
9. All Aboard
10. Ghetto Tears
11. Go Down On It
12. Murder Squad 4 Hire
13. Creep Wit My Chrome - (CD only)
-Brian
