The Lyrical One

Papoose gets a lot of shit on the internet. Mostly because he tries to walk that fine line between backpacker and thugged out gangster, resulting in a lot of tough talk and attention-getting punchlines which are sometimes clever ("I serve my beef with shells like a fuckin' taco"), sometimes silly ("set fire to y'all ass like heated car seats") and sometimes.... just trying too hard ("If Kay give me the nine, then I'ma go squeeze off. That means I had K9 like a police dog").* ...Also because he gets in the news for doing stupid shit like this. Through it all, though, he maintains a consistent fanbase. After all, he has a mean flow if you don't scrutinize his lines too hard, and he can probably out rap most of his critics.

Plus, a lot of us heads still have this memory of the young, lyrical cat who made his debut on Kool G. Rap's underrated Roots of Evil album (to clear things up; there's no relation to the west coast Papoose who was down with Chunk years earlier). Unlike the 5 Family Click, who you knew G Rap put on only because he married into the family; Papoose and Jinx da Juvy were these two hardcore but lyrical younger cats who G Rap was bringing out like the next generation. Not that he was ever in any danger of them taking the crown, but they at least earned the right to sit by the throne. And it's that tiny place in history I go back to every time I revisit the only Papoose record I own, his debut.

"Thug Connection" dropped on Select Records in 1999 (this was right around the end of Select, when they signed one last small circle of underground MCs). At the time, he was going by the longer name, Papoose the Lyrical One, sort of like how AZ went by AZ the Visualiza on his first single. Maybe sharing that connection is what convinced AZ to appear on this track. Not really, I'm sure it was the fact that he and G Rap were working a lot together around that time, and he was appearing because he was also on this. So, you've got a hardcore, lyric flexing showcase track featuring Kool G Rap, AZ and produced by DR Period (for some reason, under the alias The Lab Kats)? Hell, even if Papoose was complete garbage, I'd own this record. But this is 90's Papoose; when he was a seriously respected MC, so this was a crate essential.

One gimmick came dangerously close to ruining the whole outing, though. And no, it's nothing corny Papoose says on the mic (in fact, he doesn't spit any bad punchlines and manages to show and prove here). The instrumental is a synth-heavy reworking of the theme song to that crazy 80's show, The A-Team. But you know what? It make be a little bit cheesy, but works. It's high energy, it hits pretty hard (despite being all synthy... a testament to whoever composed the original theme song), and it feels like an anthem - perfect for three MCs spitting with the specific intent to impress. And the cuts definitely help.

Considering Papoose's album never came out on Select (and, in fact, while he's still an active musician putting out music; he's yet to drop a debut album), it's great to these tracks on vinyl, and not just tucked away on a crappy mix-tape blended into other shit. You get Clean, TV Track (instrumental with ad-libs) and most importantly the untampered with Dirty Version.

Then, flip it over, and you've got Main and TV Tracks of "Alphabetical Slaughter," also produced by DR, er... The Lab Kats. This one doesn't hold up so well for me, but it seems to be generally considered his masterpiece amongst his fans. It's reasonably clever; he raps his way through the alphabet, using words that start with A for a few lines, then B, and so on... Naturally, he skimps on letters like Q, X, Y and Z. His flow is nice, but when you look past the gimmick, the lyrics are empty, plus we've all seen this alphabet schtick done several times before, and it's nowhere near as smart as "Vowel Movement," or even as catchy as KMC Kru's "Alphabet Rhyme." The beat just feels like a heavily watered down version of "Broken Language" ... those Nexx Level cats tried to recapture that lightning in a bottle a bunch of times, but they should have just let it go. Still, though, it's not bad - Papoose's flow saves it. But I'd rather just lift the needle up and restart the A-side again than flip this over to the B-side.

So, I don't know if I'd go so far as to fuck with his other records, or his seemingly never-ending saga of mixtapes; but I definitely recommend going back and giving this one a listen. It's a fun one.


*I just grabbed all those lines from his "Otis" remix.

Kool G Rap & Nas "Holla Back" - The Protoype?

I've done a pair of pretty thorough posts on the many, variant tracks left off the commercial release of Kool G Rap's Giancana Story on Koch Records, here and here. But, you know, there's always another little piece of the puzzle to be found. And today's bone fragment that I've linked to the giant, Tyrannosaurus skeleton (really, Giancana Story's a great album if you gather up all the pieces besides what you just get on the 2003 CD) is a neat white label 12" featuring an alternate version of "Holla Back" featuring Nas.

Now, before you cut me off and tell me you already know about the "Holla Back" version with Nas, allow me to point out that this is another version featuring just Nas. Now, I've already talked about the more well-known, unreleased version of "Holla Back" and how it differed from the one on the final Koch album. Here's the break-down of those two versions:

11) "Holla Back" with Nas, Nawz & AZ - Yeah, this was featured on the album. But the leaked version had Nas kicking the first verse instead of Tito of BGF. Nas seriously came off with one of his tightest, illest verses, too ("Throw niggas off yachts, hold niggas with shots, my bitches ran 'cause I'm stupid - I put the shit on digital cam. Light up an ounce, let my bitches watch it on television, hella relentless. Fifty a pop, sell it like Menace. When I sleep, all I see is a white skeleton image. It's telling me something... I opened up Shakespeare's tomb, stole his remains, grinded his bones and got in the game"); so it's a real loss. This version was only featured on the leak. The Koch version also remixed the beat adding a few extra samples and bits. None of it makes up for the loss of Nas.

But there's also this white label 12", which features its own, unique version of "Holla Back." The main difference? No AZ or Nawz, and no Tito either. This is strictly a duet, making it a more fitting follow-up to "Fast Life," going right from Nas's killer verse to G Rap's. Now I'm not mad at the other guest verses (especially AZ's) so it's not a "yay! they're gone" situation; but it does turn a sort of awkward posse cut that takes too long to get to G Rap's part into a concise heater with just the two greatest verses from any version of the song.

But that's not the only difference. Where the original version and the Koch version feature someone (I think Nawz?) doing a spoken intro starting out, "yo, it's 2G" etc, this one has its a different intro. This version starts with Nas explaining how Kool G Rap inspired him. Then G Rap gets on to tell us to check out these tracks, and then we're right into Nas's verse. I actually think maybe this intro was recorded specifically for the 12" (which also furthers my suspicion that this white label was a promo release from Rawkus and not a bootleg), but it is blended into the song.

And this 12" has some nice bonuses as well. It features three freestyles which decidedly don't sound like radio or mixtape rips. The sound is clean and professional and I'm guessing they were recorded for this 12". Two feature Ma Barker (natch) and one features him going over the "It's a Demo" instrumental. All three are pretty nice - G Rap kills it on all of them. My favorite is the one titled simply "Unreleased."

Then, the B-side features the Jagged Edge song "Ride On," which features Kool G Rap. Produced by The Trackmasterz, it features them singing over pretty much the same instrumental The Arsonists used for "Venom," so it's pretty hot. Like the more official 12" Rawkus put out of this song, it features Clean, Dirty and Instrumental versions. But only the other, separate "Ride On" 12" has the acapella.

All in all, this is a pretty sweet 12" with a lot of value, considering it has "Ride On" and the three exclusive freestyles. And for me, this is probably the ideal version of "Holla Back" with just the absolute tightest verses on it. But even if you decide you'd rather have the version with the extra AZ and Nawz verses on it (I can't imagine anyone deciding they'd rather have the Koch version which excises one of Nas's illest appearances), this is still an interesting historical artifact. If you see it, pick it up.

Competive Spirit - Kool G Rap Interview

I've got a great one for you guys this weekend. I just got to talk in depth with pretty much the greatest rapper of all time: Kool G. Rap. I got to ask him about all the obscure, finer points everybody else glosses over - yes, my first question for him was about "Movie Review." :-D

There was a track on promo copies of Live and Let Die that didn’t wind up on the final album. It was called "Movie Review." Can you tell us about that?

Right. My recollection is very vague, so I couldn’t really give you accurate information… it did kinda ring a little bell, but it’s very vague. I think it was a skit, if I remember correctly, but that’s about all I can give you on that, it was so long ago and I put so much stuff out there, you know?

Sometimes people post stuff out there that I haven‘t seen in years, I don’t know how they got their hands on it. I don’t have it. In my personal possession. I’ll hear something and be sort of shocked myself, like where the fuck they get that off?

But is there still anything that hasn’t come out yet that you’d like to see released? Was there any song you did that you thought was really hot that Cold Chillin’ or somebody sat on?

You mean like a Lost Tapes type of thing? I have thought about that before, but I think, better than that" I always wanted to put out a collection of all the features I ever did. From known artists to not-so known artists, because I think I did some extremely good work. I don’t just push the envelope when I’m in the studio for a Mobb Deep record, or a feature with Big Pun or MOP. I do that with regular Joe Schmoe Jackson from fuckin’ Minnesota, and spit a crazy verse for that person’s project.

Yeah, one that stands out to me is "Let 'Em Live" with Chino XL, you close out with an amazing verse.

Right, Right. I appreciate that. It could be a track that Dr. Dre wants me to do, or just the average person with no name or nothing, who’s trying to get up and running, and I’ma always put the same amount of effort into my craft. So, with some people that were just trying to get their machine up off the ground, I did some real good work, that people just never heard.

Definitely. That would have to be like a five-disc set to fit all that stuff!

(Laughs) Almost! Because I’ve done a lot of features out there.

Sometimes, though, it feels like it gets marketed like a co-sign, like by you featuring on their record, it’s like you’re validating them. And you’ve worked with such a variety… Is that something that bothers you, or would you say, yeah, if you did a song with them you consider them at a certain level?

I know that’s part of the game sometimes. But yeah, I’m cool with that. I worked hard to have people look at me in that light. So I definitely wouldn’t be offended or mad now that I’m finally there; this is what I wanted from the first time doing it, doing what I do. I wanted people looking at me with the admiration or honor or whatever other things people look at G Rap as. If people look at me in that light, I definitely wouldn’t want to turn away from that now.

You’ve bigged up Silver Fox as being someone in that position for you - inspiring you, an MC to look up to.

Right.

And now Silver Fox is back, he’s got a myspace, he’s doing new songs. Have you guys considered doing some songs together or anything?

There was talk of doing some things, but it’s sort of dissipated. It was probably more to do with that he was busy doing his thing and I was definitely busy doing my thing, wrapping my project up., and running around promoting, photo sessions, press dates. It became a problem: he happened to be working on his project the same time I was working on marketing this album as much as possible and the time wouldn’t allow it. But I wish Silver Fox the best with his project; he’s definitely one of the main inspirations on G Rap and had a profound effect on how G Rap present himself to the world.

It’s interesting, because if you go back and listen to the Fantasy Three records, Silver Fox doesn’t sound like a prototypical G Rap. You don’t hear that and think, "oh, here’s where his style came from," like some early version of you.

Well, I heard him off recordings as well; I heard him freestyle. I mean, the way he was flowing back then, it might not be noticeable now because the art of flowing has gotten so technical with the times, that you probably wouldn’t even notice what he was doing in comparison with to where we at now. You know what I mean?

True.

I mean, Fantasy Three was out around, what ‘84? And by the time G Rap, Rakim and Kane came out, things had innovated already back then. And we’re talking ‘86, ‘88, those years. And we’re all the way in 2011 now. So if you had any kind of futuristic flow in comparison to the times back then, it probably wouldn’t even be that noticeable now. You’d have to saturate yourself in the music that was going on then to hear the difference.

Speaking of your beginnings, when the Terminators started, you weren’t in it, right? I know you’re not on that record - it was Polo and Frost B?

MC Frost, yeah.

But by "It’s a Demo," you’re saying, "we’re The Terminators." So how did that transition come about?

What it was is that Polo and Frost started together first. They were the team first, before I even got in the picture with Polo. Once I got in the picture, to my understanding, Frost was having differences with Polo. Because Polo wanted to do promotional stuff that Frost didn’t necessarily want to do… things they weren’t getting paid for. So when me and Polo linked up, I was for anything to accomplish my dream. Whether it was something we gotta do for promotion, get ourselves out there or get paid, it didn’t matter to me. I was gonna do it because I was hungry and I wanted it that bad, because I knew what I was capable of doing poetically.

When I mention Terminators, it was out of respect for the name Polo had before I even got into the picture. If you notice, I didn’t really use that name anymore other than just using it as a punch line or a metaphor. But I did not affiliate myself and Polo as the Terminators after that. The first time I did it was just out of respect, like, this is your thing you got going before I even got into the picture, I’ma wave that flag.

Jumping ahead a little… on your second album, Wanted Dead or Alive in 1990, you had a song called "Riker’s Island" on the cassette version, which was an older song. That was unusual, especially back then, for an album to add on a song that would’ve been like three years old, before even the first album.

I’m not sure that the copy you see is an actual release of the times, or something that somebody went back and did later and put out.

No, it’s definitely on my original copy I got when it first came out.

Oh, ok. If that was the case, then it was a record company call. Because I had enough songs to make an album; I didn’t have to include something that was put out previously.

I always thought it had something to do with getting Marley Marl’s name on there, so he would be associated with the project? Because he wasn‘t on the album otherwise.

No, not at all. Because I was comfortable with Large Professor being the overall producer of the album.

So, was it pretty much all Large Professor, then? I mean, excluding like the Cool V tracks, there’s been some question of whether it being more Eric B or Large Pro responsible for the music on that album.

What it was… I guess, Large Professor and Eric B had worked out a situation where Large Professor was supposed to produce that album under Eric’s production company. But I wasn’t explained 100% how it was supposed to work out. I didn’t know that he did a situation with Paul, the Large Professor. So I didn’t want to just shit on Large Professor based on their inside, personal business. You know what I mean? I’m like, I gotta give Large Professor the credit; he’s the one that was in the studio every day. It kinda put me in the middle, because I’m close with Eric, and then I gained this relationship with Large Professor because we did the whole album together. So it put me in the middle, and I just gave the credits to where I thought they should’ve went, and I thought, that’s pretty much between y’all. I don’t wanna be responsible for shittin’ on nobody.

Speaking of behind the scenes business, you’ve also written for a lot of artists. How did you get started in that, especially the early stuff? Like Salt ‘N’ Pepa and their first album? That just seems so out of your camp, as opposed to just writing for others within The Juice Crew or whatever.

Well, I was messing with Hurby first. And I actually met Salt ‘N’ Pepa before they made any record.

Was Hurby going to put an album by you out at one point?

Well, I was rhyming for him and that was the intention for him to put me out. But it just didn’t work out that way. I also recorded with The Disco Twins, the guys who put out the NYC Fat Girls and all that back in the day. And then I recorded with Hurby. But then I got with Marley, that’s where it stuck right there. So I still had relationships with people I recorded with before Marley. Me and The Twins were still cool. Me and Hurby were still cool, you know what I’m saying? But I was just doing my own thing then.

Does that mean there’s like a lot of recordings of you with Hurby and all in a vault somewhere?

Nah, because this was before I got into song-writing mode and all that. So there’s not like a lot of material that Hurby would have… maybe like one or two songs with Hurby, tops; and one recording with Disco Twins I have.

Still, that would be great to hear!

(Laughs) You gotta track down Hurby.

Another interesting writing credit you have is that song for Whodini that Full Force produced.

Right, right. Yeah, absolutely right! Wow, I forgot about that.

That was interesting because it was different for Whodini, it was different for Full Force, and then it wound up just on the soundtrack for Nightmare On Elm Street 5 of all places. But it’s a really dope record.

Thanks a lot, man. I got cool with Jalil and Grandmaster Dee. I met ‘em all, but I kinda really bonded with Grandmaster Dee. Jalil was cool, too; and Ecstasy was more of a to-himself type of guy, he has that kind of persona. He acknowledged me and I acknowledged him, but he kept it right there.

You had them rapping faster and more technical than they usually do, but they did it well.

Well, they were definitely fans of G Rap, and appreciated what I do. I assume that’s why they would have me write something for them. Because that was a Whodini call. And they were able to deliver it the way I wrote it to be delivered, because they were familiar my style and they thought highly of it. Just like I respect what they do in the game, you know? But I’m just a different type of rapper. I’m more of a lyrical assassin type of rapper, and they’re more keep the party going type of rappers, and performance on stage type of rappers. They had more of that commercial appeal. G Rap has more of that gutter lyrical assault kind of vibe, but they liked my side of it, where I was at, too.

Right, no doubt. Well, now this you’ve probably been asked about a lot, but when you and Polo split… was that because he wanted you guys to steer in more commercial direction? Because you sort of went more in that one direction, and his solo album was totally someplace else.

Well, I think Polo had more of the commercial flavor to him. Polo had a great ear for what would work generally, like mass audiences. Whatever track he would track would be the track that was a little more mainstream, because you know G Rap is all gutter. I’ma attract the type that wants that hard shit, you know what I’m saying? But this was that time and era when the hard shit was getting accepted by the masses, like it is now. Fifty Cent could come out now and sell fucking nine million records because people embrace that hard shit now. Because you had people that kicked the doors off the hinges like Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Scarface, hardcore rap, hardcore street…

And you too, definitely!

And myself. But when I started doing it, there wasn’t a massive audience for it like that. And there wasn’t so many outlets for us to play like that. Radio wasn’t even trying to embrace a G Rap like that when I first started. But by the time I got to like the 4, 5, 6 album, the doors were a lot more open. Because we had like Nas, Black Moon, Smooth and Trigga the Gambla, MOP, all these real hard streets started coming out and making the audiences bigger and bigger. NWA did phenomenal with that.

Yeah, there’s almost pre-NWA and post-NWA in hip-hop.

(Laughs) Right, exactly. And Geto Boys, all that. But I didn’t have so many vehicles available when I started doing it as kids would later, when the world would embrace it.

And going back to Polo… do you still keep up with him today?

I haven’t spoken to him in a while now, but I have spoken to him… it wasn’t years and years ago, it was more a matter of several months. But yeah, me and Polo are good. We never broke up on bad terms, there was never no conflict or friction. It’s just that, by the time I got to the 4,5,6 album, I had done seven years with him, three albums, and I felt like I’d paid him back enough. Because I’ma very loyal dude. I gave him seven years of my life. But Polo was a DJ; he wasn’t a producer. It wasn’t like he would always come in with all the tracks, so it was like the workload was really just G Rap’s workload. You understand what I’m saying? Like the songs would get done, all he’d have to do is add some cuts and scratches and bring ‘em to shows. And I really didn’t feel like two grown men could eat off the same plate forever under the same circumstances, So it was time for me to move on. But no animosity or nothing like that. Me and Polo still talk to this day.

Does he still DJ at all, or is he in the business still?

I’m not sure to be honest with you. I know he still Djs, but I’m not sure exactly how active he is in the music business. Because I know he was actually recording and actually being the vocalist. I’m sure he was rapping on that album you told me about, because he showed me a video with him and Greg Nice.

Yeah; that's right. It’s mostly guests on every song, though, like Ice-T, Melle Mel… Ron Jeremy of course was the single.

(Laughs) Right, right.

So let’s get into your new stuff. Obviously you’ve got your album coming out in just a couple weeks, and before that you dropped a free EP, Offer You Can‘t Refuse. Are those songs going to be on the album?

There’s one song off the EP that’s actually gonna be on the album, that’s the one with Havoc featuring on it and The Alchemist production. Everything else is all new material.

And that song "Sad" will be on it, with Supa Dave?

Right, exactly. That song is definitely on the album.

So who else is working on this album?

Well, I did a reunion song with Marley Marl, that’s on there. As far as other producers, I got my man DJ Pain-1, he did some stuff with Jeezy. The producer Infamous, who’s actually a Grammy award winner, who did stuff with Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Fifty Cent, LL Cool J. His discography is crazy. And the rest is underground, hungry producers like Leaf Dog. He did a track on the Offer You Can’t Refuse EP, "Baggin’ In the Spot." So if you heard the EP, you know he’s bringin’ it. Supa Dave did the majority of the tracks. He’s the only producer who did four tracks in total.

Supa Dave is really underrated. He’s someone I’m surprised didn’t get a bigger name in the late 90’s, early 2000’s.

Yeah, you know, I didn’t even know his track record like that. Somebody just told me he did tracks with De La Soul and all, I was like damn! No wonder his tracks was crazy.

Yeah, I kept expecting him to blow up more.

Right. Well, we’re gonna cure that little problem. (Laughs) If you can appreciate "Sad," then you know what the chemistry must be like between me and Supa Dave.

Now, I’ve read in an interview you said this was going to be a more personal album…?

Well, you know I touched on subjects I’ve never really touched on before with personal life experiences and things of that nature; but it‘s not like the whole album is a G Rap life story or something. I don’t wanna confuse people. I’m very well-rounded on this album, touching on a little bit of everything. "Sad" was very much me touching on real life stuff, all the people I lost down to my moms, my pops, one of my sisters, some of my friends. So I’m touching on real life situation in "Sad" and another track called "Pages In My Life." But then you’ve got the songs where I’m very metaphoric or I’m messing with the flow, or I’m doing this and doing that. I’m doing the things G Rap is known to do. Then I’ve got the story tracks, like "American Nightmare." I got concepts. The track that I did with the producer Infamous is called "Harmony Homicide." I don’t even want to give the whole idea of It away, but it’s a concept. I didn’t just do anything with this album. I really wanted to have something to say when I did this album, and it all happened to come out, and every way I wanted to display my art as a lyricist came out. This is a well-rounded album, I feel good about it, and I think the fan base is gonna love it.

Nice. And I assume Fat Beats wouldn’t be interfering like Warner Bros, so you’re pretty much free to do it all how you want?

Oh yeah, yeah. Fat Beats is like any other underground label. They accept the artist for who they are. They’re not trying to change you or polish you up. They’re gonna leave it as gritty as it comes. If they make the decision to work with you or do a joint venture with you, they already know what to expect.

So this is gonna be the album people have been looking for, without worrying that Rawkus is gonna swap tracks out or things like that.

Exactly.

It's also exciting to me because it's been a time where a lot of the greats would say they didn't have plans to do an album... like it was just put on hold indefinitely. It was actually getting a little depressing. With the labels closing I guess the greats weren't messing with the new scene, maybe? But now, not just you, but we're seeing Kane is doing a new album, there's talk of Slick Rick coming out on Ice Water Records. Is it shifting back somehow? Are we coming out of that period?

You know what I think it is? It’s been years. Big Daddy Kane’s done Big Daddy Kane for years. Slick Rick’s done Slick Rick for years now. But once you’ve been who you are for over two decades, you know, you go through changes in life. I mean, I had points where I was like, I don’t think I’ma do this no more. Or I’m ready to retire this thing, hang it up, move on. And it’s just my competitive spirit that brings me back all the time. And I’m sure all of them have that competitive spirit… Obviously, they wouldn’t have become what they did if they didn’t have that spirit. It’s just a matter of time before they dust off that old mic, plug it back in the old amp and start rappin’ again. Especially when there’s so many people out there that love them. Kane has so many fans. And Slick Rick has so many fans. And everybody’s sitting there waiting and rooting them on. And that makes you more confident to come out in a totally different era and time frame. It makes you just say, you know what, I’ma just do it for the people that love G Rap, or the people that love Kane, or the people that love Slick Rick. I’ma do it for them. But everybody has their own certain point where they’re ready to be persuaded to do that.

Well, I’m glad you’re doing it now. And on vinyl, by the way. Double LP in addition to the CDs and mp3s.

I’m glad of that, too. Because so many people are still holding it dear. I don’t think the mp3s’ll ever make it to the antique store! (Laughs) Or maybe, you never know, that’ll be an idea for someone to do in the future, an all-digital antique store. But I don’t think they got that yet.

(Laughs) Well, thanks for talking to me. Is there anything final you want to add?

Yeah, look out for the album, Riches, Royalty, Respect. And go out there and get that free mp3 download, Offer You Can’t Refuse. You can get it from koolgrapnow.com, still a free download. You won’t be disappointed.

The Other Giancana Story

Early last year, I made a post called The Lost Giancana Story, talking about all of the unreleased tracks that didn't find its way onto Kool G Rap's final, official retail release of his Rawkus/Koch album, The Giancana Story, in 2002. That album had fourteen songs on it, and I talked about another fifteen that were recorded for Rawkus and leaked or otherwise let out into the wild, but didn't make it onto the album. Some were b-sides that seemed like they were meant for the album, one or two were perhaps intended for other projects... but the bulk of them came from two album leaks that'd been floating around the internet since the late 90's.

Well, one of those leaked versions actually exists on vinyl. It's a UK pressing ...or so I assume, trusting the "made in England" sticker on the back is not a bold-faced lie. And it looks to essentially be what Rawkus intended to release back in the 90's before it got shelved and later rescued and retooled by Koch. And considering it's at best debatable whether Koch's retooling was for the better rather than the worse, this is a pretty neat set to have on vinyl. And even if you do prefer the Koch version, this is still ten G Rap songs you didn't have on any other album.

That's right: ten. It may look like even more, but remember in my last post how I explained some songs have simply been retitled: "She's Dressed To Kill" became "Black Widow," etc. So a couple songs are the same between the two... well, for shorthand's sake, let's call this the Rawkus version and the one that actually got commercially released the Koch version. I can't be certain if this is actually a semi-legit Rawkus promo (it does have Rawkus labels), a shady bootleg (though the sound quality's excellent) or what. But we've gotta call them something, 'ey?

It's just as surprising now as it was when I wrote my other post last January that Premier's version of "First Nigga" wasn't included on the Koch album (neither was the older one), but things start to feel like they're making sense when you see it on here. The Rawkus version also includes the superior version of "Holla Back" that features an amazing Nas verse instead of Tito's from BGF. It features the Scarface-inspired "This Is My Life" featuring CNN (not to be confused with "My Life," which also features CNN on the remix - this is a totally different song), "How It Feel" with Havoc and the west coast crossover track "Keep Goin'" with Snoop Dogg and Devin the Dude. It's hard to imagine why any label wouldn't keep these on the album, if only for the draw of all the big names.

It also includes other unique songs discussed in my last post like, "Rap Is a Villain," "This Means War," and "Why You Gotta Do That." And it has the original mix of "Spill Blood," here titled as "Thug Out." It's really a flat-out entirely different album. Plus, the back cover gives us some (albeit incomplete) production credits, so we know who did many of the unreleased songs. For example, "This Means War" is produced by The Beatnuts, "Why You Gotta Do That" is a Premier track, and "Rap Is a Villain" was written by Tupac! Word?

So, I don't know how rare this is. I got mine pretty cheap when I stumbled upon it randomly, and it's now listed on discogs ...though no copies are available as of this writing, and searching the 'Bay just brings up a bunch of the Koch CDs. I know it's hip to dismiss all of G Rap's post-Cold Chillin' material (Unkut, I'm lookin' at you), but he recorded a lot of great material for The Giancana Story. And it's worth noting that now - with this double LP, the Koch album and a deep collection of all the disparate 12"s and stuff - every song I mentioned in The Lost Giancana Story post is now genuinely accessible, save one ("Ordinary Love" featuring Ma Barker). And the Rawkus version also includes "Y'all Niggas," so you no longer have to track down that Japanese import CD to be a completist. ;)

Big L & G Rap Double Up

Q: How many records have Kool G Rap and Big L done together?

A: Not enough!

Okay, I guess I shouldn't put that question in your heads and leave it at that. lol The real answer, by my count, is two. One is "Fall Back," a song off Big L's The Big Picture, his posthumous album on Rawkus. And the other one is this nice, oft-overlooked track by Royal Flush on Offical Jointz. There's no year on this 12", and the catalog numbers are a little confusing, but thanks to the fact that I've been documenting Kool G Rap's discography for years now, I can confidently say that this dropped in late 2003/early 2004.

So yeah, it's just the one song, "Double Up," in Clean, Dirty and Instrumental versions (the B-side duplicates the same three mixes). The uncredited production is decent but unexceptional - it sounds like a billion other mixtape-type tracks these cats were rhyming over around that time. It's got one of those "epic" film soundtrack loops with a little pitched-up vocal sample that Canibus seems to be madly in love with. Really, you'll be expecting Whookid, J Love or some other asshole to start shouting their fool name over the song at any second. Fortunately, though, this is a proper 12" and there's none of that here.

But getting these two giants together makes this a must-have:

"How I'm livin': swell;
You can't scar L.
Head of the cartel,
Sellin' more cakes than Carvel.
Now I'm labeled a kind thug;
Police got my line bugged;
Hope I see the grave from old age,
And not a nine slug.
I'm quick to bust a mean nut
In some teen slut;
Big L is clean cut,
with more jewels than King Tut."

Kool G Rap's verse is even sicker. But disappointingly, it's another case of him recycling his bars from another guest verse: Canibus' "Allied Meta-Forces" from his Mic Club - The Curriculum album that had dropped earlier in the year. But I think for a lot of G rap fans, this 12" will be the preferable way to have those rhymes in their collection, anyway. So yeah, G Rap's verse is recycled... and if those Big L lines seemed a little too familiar... yup. They're from his guest verse on Gang Starr's "Work" off their Moment of Truth album. So this is one of those tracks that seems to've been stitched together from old acapellas. But in L's case, at lease, you had to expect that considering this came out well after his passing.

Anyway, Royal Flush's verse seems to be original (as far as I know... there's a lot of Royal Flush singles I haven't got), and he holds his own pretty nicely as well ("Feds wanna challenge us/ Off balance with silencers/ Locked up with calendars"). And of course you can't take G Rap anywhere without Ma Barker tagging along. But it could be worse - he could've married Charli Baltimore. Besides, the presence of Barker at least suggests that G Rap was actually knowingly involved with this recording, even if he was spitting old material.

I don't know how rare this is. Curiously, it isn't on discogs yet, and a quick google search doesn't return much... but I didn't think anything on Official Jointz was really that limited. Anyway, I wouldn't expect to have to pay a lot for it, but I recommend picking one up when you see it.

Murder Fam "Exclusive"

You know, I've given J-Love some (well deserved) shit on this blog for his mix-CDs, but I do have to give him his due. He's not a bad producer who's worked with some of the best MCs and facilitated a lot of music from them. He's got his fair share of criticisms coming to him, but the hip-hop scene would not have been better off without him.

Case in point: this little under-the-radar white label, titled "Murder Fam." It's one of a series of split 12"s he did with production partner Ric Nice. It's got no year on it, but other entries in the series came out in 2001, so it's safe to say this came then, give or take a year. It's just two mixes of one song (albeit with Dirty, Clean and Instrumental versions of each), one produced by J and one by Ric.

It's not "Greatest Hits" material or anything, but it's a a rugged little gem by Kool G. Rap, Jinx da Juvy (not Sir Jinx, as discogs would have us believe) and an underground MC by Ike Infa Diamond. Jinx had done a couple collaborations with G Rap around that time for his Giancana Stories album... in fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is another one of the many outtakes from that album.

It's a simple drum and bass line with a couple hot samples on it, a pure example of the New York crime rap genre. G Rap easily spits it sickest verse (and no, I'm pretty sure it hasn't been recycled anywhere), but the other two MCs try hard enough to copy his violent-mafioso-raps-twisted-into-mindbending-exercises-of-ill-wordplay style to hold up the rest of the record. The hook's just a simple vocal sample repeated a few times ("a man's gotta live up to his word") and a short, chanted refrain.

The Ric Nice mix is essentially the same but with a different sample or two. It's got a cool barrel drum sound, but otherwise the doesn't really hit as hard, especially the hook that just uses a high-pitched violin loop behind the chorus. It's good, though, and I'd be perfectly content with it if the A-side didn't exist.

Of course, J-Love recently threw this on one of his hacky mix-CDs, if you feel like hearing it in terrible sound quality with lazy radio blends at each end and J's "exclusive" name droppings all over it. Personally, I hope to never ever hear another song in that excruciating manner again in my life though; so I was happy to pick up this 12". I suggest you do the same. 8)

Kool G Rap In Space

Remember Unkle? It was the collaborative duo of James LaVelle, owner of Mo' Wax Records, and DJ Shadow. Their album, Psyche Fiction, was one of those post-Dr. Octagon spacey/ electronica/ college radio/ hip-hop/ trip-hop/ whatever albums that were really in vogue at the time (late 90's). It was originally touted as a one-off collaboration only, but later they wound up bringing in new members from all different countries, doing new albums and blah blah blah. I don't care either.

But that one-off album did have one compelling guest spot on it. And thank goodness, they released it as a separate 12". And so Kool G. Rap's 1998 "Guns Blazing" single was born.

At first G Rap seems to be phoning in a lackluster, half-hearted performance ("more reservoir dogs than Tarantino"), but by the time the second verse kicks in, he's cooking with gas, spitting his standard post-Cold Chillin' syllable-massacring freestyle mafioso raps:

"Your whole frame laid in the white chalk.
You got the smoking section
First-class ticket to resurrection,
Forever destined to a place where niggas never restin'.
Headed in Hell's direction,
Lost at the crossroads and intersection;
Should've wore a vest for chest protection."

Update 10/20/09: Krisch pointed out in the comments section, and I've just confirmed, that Kool G Rap used this same verse for his guest spot on B-1's Rawkus single "Cardinal Sins" that same year. And G does sound a little more natural over that beat. Still, though, the second verse is definitely original to this song... he even mentions Shadow ("G Rap and DJ Shadow leave your bones squashed") in it.

The music, which is apparently entirely handled by DJ Shadow on this one, is ok, and interesting in that it's a little different from your average Kool G record. But at the end of the day, it's (predictably) not really suited to him, and you'd be better off putting one of his Giancana Stories beats behind him ...which you can do, because this 12" conveniently comes equipped with an acapella. It's not bad, though. Once you get past a really tedious two minute introduction of random sound effects (pro-tip: skip past this bullshit and start the song at the 2 minute mark), it's got a grumbling bassline and hectic drum beat, which feels a little all-over-the-place, but it's pretty hard and generally appropriate. Of course, there's also a ton of spacey sound effects that come and go throughout the song, and vocal samples involving dog-fighting spaceships (hey, don't look at me) during the hook, which are a little less fitting.

Interestingly, the 12" credits mention additional vocals by Latryx. They must just be doing the back-ups where they double-up one or two keywords in Kool's verses, 'cause otherwise I don't hear them anywhere. It's just a G Rap solo record... which is preferable anyway. Also, am I crazy, or does he say you'll be "surrounded by pedoforks" in the second verse?

Well, anyway, yeah. You get the LP version, a shortened version called Vocal Street (which I prefer because it shaves off a lot of Shadow's doodling and cuts right to the G Rap action), the aforementioned acapella and an instrumental (dramatically titled "Drums of Death") of the shorter version. This is no "Road To the Riches" or even "It's a Shame," but as with basically every G Rap record, the lyrics and delivery are must-haves, and it's better than Click of Respect.

Understanding Break a Bitch Neck

Here it is, folks: Akinyele and Kool G Rap's infamous collaboration, "Break a Bitch Neck," with a mythic status equal only to the legendary "Hey Mr. Mr." Infamous because the beat's hot and Kool and Ak are a nice pairing of NY lyricists who kill it, yes; and because it's probably the most shamelessly sexist, foul rap song ever (which is a bold statement indeed!). It starts out with G Rap explaining, "I fuck 'em like I hate 'em" and "bitch, I wish you would die." and builds from there. G Rap lays it down, "So be a nigga' sex slave, bitch; don't try to be brave, bitch; you'll be a dead bitch in a grave, bitch," and Ak goes right along, "yo, beatin' bitches up ain't nuttin' new to me, whether you're down with social security or you're just hittin' puberty."

But don't get too excited. This is just a bootleg. For most of us, though, it will have to do.

Akinyele was all set to release a hot 4-tracker including this banger in 1995 on Stretch Armstrong's Liberty Grooves imprint (the other tracks were the instrumental version, "No Exit (Part II)" and a posse cut called "You Gotta Get Down"). That wound up never coming out, except for 10 test pressings that... well, good luck to ya. What's more, "Break a Bitch Neck" was featured on the 2004 compilation, busily titled Music Killz: Live At The Barbecue, The Lost Classics, which came out on Eastern Conference Records (which came out on LP as well as CD... but with a key distinction, which I'll come to later).

Excitement squashed yet? Ok, then, let's talk about this.

This is a recent Japanese bootleg, with a label designed to look like an old promo 7 , also titled Liberty Extracts No. 1. That 7" is cool, but just features snippets of "Break a Bitch" (as well as "No Exit 2"), no instrumental and a radio edit of the posse cut. So a nice little collector's item, but that's all really. This 12" on the other hand just as two tracks, "Break a Bitch Neck (Original)" and "Break a Bitch Neck (Remix)." ...With me so far?

The Original is the original jawn (duh... I know; but sometimes bootlegs mix these things up, so I'm just confirming), produced by Large Professor. And - both here on the 12" and the EC album - it's just a radio rip. The sound quality is... well, okay by radio rip standards I suppose; but it's no mastered version. You even hear a snippet of Stretch's voice talking over the first two or three seconds. I guess they couldn't lay their hands on a master - and they sure couldn't find one of those old test pressings! lol

Then on side B, we have the Remix. That's nothing new either. The Remix made its debut on the same Eastern Conference compilation. It's not the Large Professor mix that everybody's after, but it's a solid, upbeat remix with some thumping bass. I'm sure it'd be held in higher regard if it weren't in the Original's shadow. And the sound quality is better than the A-side - it doesn't sound like a radio rip, at least. Hell, both tracks on this 12" are probably ripped off the EC CD.

So, you might as well just go with the Music Killz album, right? Pick up these two tracks, plus all the other songs on there at the same time? And fuck this stupid bootleg? Well, almost. In fact, the answer is yes if you're happy with a CD. But if you need vinyl, then you just can't win. Because the Large Professor version of "Break a Bitch Neck" isn't on the LP; it's a "bonus track" only included on the CD version! Fuuuuuck! Can I live?

The answer is, apparently no. Unless you're one of the very lucky 10, this boot is your only option. So suck it up, bitch! :P