Royce da 5th Wheel

In 2004, Royce da 5'9" released a 12" - on Koch no less - produced by DJ Premier. It was the lead single off his Death Is Certain album, released that same year. The 12" was pretty loaded - it had the instrumental, tv mix, clean and dirty versions, and even clean and dirty versions of the acapella. But it was just that one track, no b-sides or remixes.

But in 2005, another 12" appeared... on a label called Major Threats with an exclusive remix. It was one a posse cut remix, a la "Flava In Ya Ear" or "I Got Five On It," with some high profile guests. I mean, really high profile guests. Would you believe Big Pun, Notorious B.I.G., Big L and 2Pac? And of course, if you're any kind of hip-hop fan, you've probably already noticed one other thing all those artists have in common.

You might think it's awfully presumptuous for Royce to retroactively put himself alongside hip-hop's most revered and honored legends, and I wouldn't disagree. But mostly I just find the endeavor kind of morbid. Of course, none of the guests' contributions are anything new to their fans... Even by 2005, pretty much everything they'd recorded while they were alive had already been released and sold to the public. So we get a bunch of recycled acapellas kind of sloppily slapped onto a new piano-heavy beat, this time produced by Statik Selektah (though Premier's scratching is still used at the finale).

Pun's verse comes from "Leather Face," L's verse comes from "Flamboyant," Biggie's verse comes from "Party & Bullshit" and 2Pac's verse comes from "Homeboyz." Royce's verses (one opening verse, and a mini-one in the middle) are at least all-new (which shows, by the way, he was 100% involved with this conceptual remix); and to be fair, Selektah's beat is pretty nice... But honestly, this song just makes me think how I'd rather be listening to "Leather Face," "Flamboyant" or "Party & Bullshit." There, the verses fit in better with the music, and having Royce on the record to introduce MCs like Biggie really isn't an improvement for me.

Now, I think Major Threats may've been Statik Selektah's label, because in addition to producing this and the B-side (we'll come back to that in a minute), the only other release I know of from this label was another 12" with more of his exclusive remixes. But what's interesting is it also featured another contemporary (for its time) song remixed to include recycled verses from Biggie and 'Pac. This was apparently Major Threats' "thing."

But anyway, getting back to this release, we flip it over to find another Statik Selektah remix, this time of Method Man's "What's Happening" featuring Busta Rhymes. It basically just lays that acapella down over the instrumental for "Know the Ledge." It feels a bit like a cheap mash-up, but I have to admit the combination of Meth's flow over that epic running bassline is pretty hot. The original version of "What's Happenin'" (as it was spelled there) was on Tical 0: The Prequel; and yes, Busta was on that version as well.

This record features Clean, Dirty and Instrumental versions for both tracks. This Royce remix was also featured on one of his mixCDs, The King Is Back, mixed by Statik Selektah. Now that CD just barely features any mixing really (yeah, it was another one of those), so you're not actually getting much extra with the complete version on this 12". But, still, if you think "Hip Hop (Inspiration Remix)" is worth owning on vinyl, this 12" is the ideal presentation. But, now that time's passed and we evaluate what does and doesn't warrant a place in our collections, I think whatever merit this record has basically just rests in its value as a curiosity piece.

Puff Daddy & the Tuff Crew

You probably weren't expecting a Puff Daddy record to pop up on this blog, were you? But hey, two verses by Biggie and Busta Rhymes on a hook over a track lifted from the Tuff Crew? Even I would have to call you a "hater" if you couldn't appreciate that.

This is "Victory," more specifically credited to Puff Daddy & the Family, dropped on Bad Boy Entertainment in 1998 (from the '97 album, No Way Out). It's produced by one of Bad Boy's regular "Hit Men," Stevie J. But like I said, it's a big shameless lift from the Tuff Crew. The Tuff Crew started out their second (or third, if you wanna count Phanjam) album with an epic sounding instrumental to signal their triumphant return. They called it "Going the Distance," because the bulk of the instrumentation is taken from the soundtrack to Rocky, specifically a track called "Going the Distance."

Now, you might say, okay Werner, granted the Tuff Crew sampled it first, but lots of great rap songs have sampled the same records over the years. Or, to quote GURU, "rap is an art, you can't own no loops." But these guys didn't just coincidentally use the same song as a sample source, they both used it the same way, rather boldly playing the whole first minute of it through rather than a standard short loop, but still chop it at the same point. But even more importantly, Stevie J paired it up with essentially the same drums that the Tuff Crew did. He removed the handclaps (after all, this wasn't 1989 anymore), but otherwise he completely just lifted Tuff Crew's track and played it whole for Puff.

But I'm not mad at that. First of all, because the hypothetical naysayer above would be right in pointing out that lots of great songs got to samples second (or third or twenty-eighth), and that doesn't make them any less dope. And secondly because Tuff Crew underutilized it, making it an introductory instrumental, whereas Bad Boy turned it onto a proper song with vocals. And finally, because on some mixes (more on that in a sec) Stevie J does add a few extra elements, most notably some operatic female vocal sounds, that enhance the experience even more.

By the way, a quick aside while I'm on the subject... this record credits the wrong sample in the liner notes [see the label scan above]! It says it uses Bill Conti (he's the guy who did the Rocky music)'s "Alone In the Ring." But that's wrong,they're using "Going the Distance!" "Alone In the Ring" is a very subdued piano solo that sounds nothing like "Going the Distance" and doesn't appear even momentarily in the background of "Victory." It's all "Going the Distance."

Now, there's a couple mixes here, but they're essentially minor variations than whole-hog remixes. There is no version that doesn't feature the same "Going the Distance" music or the same verses by Puff and Biggie. The mixes only vary by about 20 seconds in length. And the radio edits also remove Puff shouting ad-libs through a loud-speaker-like distorted mic effect ("it's all fucked up now!"), which was pretty annoying anyway, so that's no great loss. The most distinguishing characteristic is that only the Drama mixes feature the opera chick.

An interesting aspect to the censored versions, by the way... while they just silence every curse word from the raps, rendering them pretty unlistenable, it's worth noting that the chorus has been completely redone. Busta energetically curses up a storm on the original, and I guess that was just too much to cut out for the clean versions, so he re-does it, saying things like "we've got a real live hit" and "where my soldiers at?" instead of "we've got the real live shit" and "where my niggas at? where the funk my bitches is at?"

There are actually multiple US 12" singles for "Victory" (four, by discogs' count), but if you ask me, this is the ideal one. The only thing it's missing is Nine Inch Nails' remix that's featured on a couple versions. But that remix is just a noisy, unappealing sonic mess, so you're not missing anything there. As far as I'm concerned, the non-Radio versiono of the Drama Mix is the definitive version, as it features all the elements, and that's on here. Plus, this 12" also includes the Instrumental, which is absent from most of the others.

One more thing, and then I'm out. All of the mixes - even the non-Radio mixes full of cursing - censor Biggie's line where he refers to himself as "the Son of Satan." Unfortunately, however, I believe this stupid edit persists on every 12" version of this single. And it's that way on No Way Out, too, so don't blame the singles. You know the one place where it's left intact? The Nine Inch Nails Remix. Fucking Hell, there's just no winning with "Victory."

Come On, Motherfucker!

After The Notorious B.I.G.'s shocking death, a lot of projects were released, including everything from incomplete songs, shelved material, hordes of remixes and rejiggings of his old acapellas and even freestyles. One of the biggest of those releases was the Born Again album, released by Bad Boy Records in 1999. That it's a sub-par album goes without saying, but considering we were never going to get any new Biggie material, fans were happy to get what they could. It was consisted of scraps and bits of Biggie material mixed with new producers and guest MCs, meant to give us the sense that Biggie was... wait for it... born again.

One of the songs on that album was "Come On," featuring Sadat X. The rhymes were tight and not material we'd heard before. In fact, the boldly delivered line, "release the brainstorm to make your motherfuckin' brain warm," has even managed to enter the lexicon of unforgettable Biggie quotes, It's just too bad the production, by the certainly not untalented DJ Clark Kent, kinda sucked. I mean... it's okay; but it's definitely a case of the beat not living up to the MCs rhyming over it.

Now flash forward years later. In interviews like this one with UrbanSmarts, Lord Finesse lets the world know, "I did another joint for him that never came out, with him and Sadat X. It's called 'Come On Motherfuckers.' That was dope too, that was real dope."When asked if that would ever come out he simply replied, "I don't know. I got a copy."

Well, come to find out, "Come On Motherfuckers" was the same song as "Come On" off Born Again, but (like everything else on that album), remixed. In an article for The Fader, Sadat X tells us all about it: "Clark Kent did the remix to [the Notorious BIG collaboration] “Come On”, but the original was done by Lord Finesse. I had met Biggie prior to that. One day Bad Boy called me to come on in. Puff was there and it was me and Big—we had a box of Phillies, we just brainstormed and we did it. I found out it wasn’t going to be on the album when [Ready To Die] came out. It was probably out of Biggie’s control, so I wasn’t mad. It did make it to a couple mixtapes, it did get around the underground. They called and told me they were going to put it out [Clark Kent’s version] on [the posthumous] Born Again. I like the original beat, but I was in no position to contest. That was the one song on the album that was actually done with Biggie, most of them were recorded by other people later." So "Come On" was always intended for Ready To Die, and featured a beat that everybody seemed to prefer way more than the subsequent remix? This needed to drop!

Well, a Japanese label called Soundtable, named after the record store it was born out of, came to the rescue in 2008. They actually released it twice: they included it on the first volume of their limited (300 copies) Lord Finesse's Rare Selections series of vinyl EPs [update: according to DJ Mike Nice in the comments, this version is actually different; a first take]; and even better, they released it as its own 12" single, which included the instrumental and acapella! That's the release with the sticker cover shown above, and if it wasn't already obvious, that's the ideal way to have this track.

And the best news is that Finesse and Sadat were right: this track is better. Way better. Like, blow-the-Born-Again-version-completely-out-of-the-water, and-some-of-the-best-work-all-parties-have-ever-done better! This is classic DITC production at its finest; on the one hand jazzy and vintage-sounding, and on the other, ominous and hardcore. The bulk of the instrumental was recycled for Big L's "Da Graveyard," but I daresay it sounds even better here. The fact that this version was shelved is indicative of everything that was wack about Bad Boy. This easily would've been one of the best tracks even on Ready To Die.

Like the Finesse EP, this was also limited to 300 copies. So, expect to pay a bit for this one... There is also a European bootleg of this, which is super easy to tell apart from the legit 12" - it's just printed on a generic white label, in a plain sleeve, and the A-side apparently plays at 45rpm. I haven't heard it, so I can't vouch for the sound quality being the same; and, nowadays, the bootleg is rare enough that you'd probably wouldn't save any money getting that version anyway. So I'd hold out for the OG unless I found a really good deal on the boot. In either case, though, it's definitely worth the trouble of finding for your crates.

Juicy '89

(Youtube version is here.)

Dead Wrong Dubplate

Remember dubplates? They were all over the place in the 90's. Cheap, vinyl compilation EPs that were definitely bootlegs, but instead of duplicating an actual, rare release or putting out some unreleased music like most bootlegs, they were just compilations of previously available stuff. They would include rare, indie 12" tracks, harder to find old school tracks, or just whatever was big at the time. They were often just really random, putting The Fugees, Biz Markie and The B-Boys all on one EP or something. They were cheap, full of typos, had goofy titles and all the underground vinyl spots had a bunch of 'em.

So this is one of those.

There's no date (it's not like they could print a copyright... though they did have the nerve to write "all rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved" on the label's small print), but this would've come out in about 1999, the same time as the music they're jacking. It's called The Killah Kuts, and I kinda like this one, because it's more like a proper 12" than a random EP assortment of songs.

The A-side is a complete rip of Biggie Smalls' "Dead Wrong" 12" A-side. Club Mix (which they call the Main Mix), Radio Mix and even the Instrumental. The label's slightly incorrect, in that they switch the order of the Main and Radio Mixes around; but, hey, it's a dubplate. But the B-side ditches the original B-side (Club, Radio and Instrumentals of "Real Niggas") in favor of compiling the two, rare "Dead Wrong" remixes. Remix #1 is the one with Busta Rhymes and Eminem from the Unreleased Joints EP, and Remix #2 is the one with just Eminem from the Unreleased and Unleashed double LP, both of which were promo-only releases that are typically pretty hard to come by (Remix #2 later found its way onto the Born Again album, making it considerably less rare).

So if you've somehow forgotten, "Dead Wrong" is Biggie's where he raps about hitting underage girls, beating women, robbing them, stabbing a gay guy with an ice pick, etc. Essentially it's him kicking raps that are "dead wrong:"

"Biggie Smalls for mayor, the rap slayer,
The hooker layer. Motherfucker, say your prayers:
'Hail Mary, full of grace.' Smack the bitch in the face,
Take her Gucci bag and her North Face
Off her back, jab her if she act
Funny with the money. Oh you got me mistaken, honey.
I don't wanna rape ya, I just want the paper,
The Visa, capiche-a? I'm out like 'The Vapors.'
Who's the one you call Mr. Macho, the head honcho?
Swift fist like Camacho. I got so
Much style I should be down with the Stylistics.
'Make up to break up,' niggas need to wake up,
Smell the Indonesia. Beat you to a seizure
Then fuck your moms, hit the skins 'till amnesia.
She don't remember shit; Just the two hits:
Her hittin' the floor and me hittin' the clit."

...and it's the ideal track to bring Slim Shady in for an extra verse:

"There's several different levels to devil worshippin'.
Horse's heads, human sacrifices, cannibalism, candles and exorcism,
Animals: havin' sex with 'em: camels, mammals and rabbits;
But I don't get into that; I kicked the habit. I just
Beat you to death with weapons and eat through the flesh;
And I never eat you unless the fuckin' meat looks fresh.
I got a line in my pocket. I'm lyin'. I got a nine in my pocket,
And, baby, I'm just dyin' to cock 'im.
He's ready for war, I'm ready for war;
I got machetes and swords for any faggot that said he was raw.
My uzi's heavy as yours. Yeah, you met me before;
I just didn't have this large an arsenal of weapons before.
Marshall'll step in the door, I'll lay your head on the floor,
With your body spread on the bedspread: red on the wall,
Red on the ceiling, red on the floor. Get a new whore;
Met on the second, wed on the third,
Then she's dead on the fourth. I'm dead wrong."

And while Busta Rhymes does come with lyrics on par with the first two, he proves surprisingly willing to play along for his guest verse:

"Watch him die slow and his skin start to change color.
My goons made a flood, leavin' you layin', droppin' blood,
Then ended up finger-fuckin' your mother at a strip club!
We dead wrong for how we gutter like Howard and Stutterin'
Fascinatin' how all of this street shit be straight butter.
Fuck it. We thug rugged to the tenth power,
Like we was listenin' to 'Gimme the Loot' for the past ten hours!"

Now to make room for both Emzy's and Busta's verses on Remix 1, they removed Biggie's second verse from that version. And since Biggie > Busta, that's a real step down. Remix 2 with just Eminem & B.I.G. keeps both of Biggie's verses and just adds the third. So to me, that's the ideal/definitive version. But it's fun to spin Remix 1 once in a while, just as an alternative.

Anyway, the beat's essentially the classic Al Green drum break that's been used a bajillion times in hip-hop ("Lyte As a Rock," etc) paired with a slow, thumping horn/bass loop dominating the whole track. Because it was Bad Boy, though, three producers wound up sharing credit (Chucky Thompson, Mario Winans and, of course, Sean "Diddy" Combs). And the instrumental is the same for all of the remixes.

So the sound quality's pretty good, and it makes for a handy little, completist "Dead Wrong" 12". Too bad it's a bootleg, 'cause otherwise it's a better release than the official 12".