Here's a couple of blends I cooked up using 2 ATCQ joints, the first one is the 1nce Again acapella over the Crooklyn instrumental (which is produced by Q Tip and Ali). I was never a massive fan of the original 1nce Again beat and remember being quite underwhelmed when it appeared as the lead single for Beats Rhymes & Life. The Crooklyn beat gives it a bit more bounce imo.
The second one is Stressed Out over the Dead Presidents instrumental...
These were originally intended to be part of a 'mid 90s blends' mix I was putting together that never got finished, so I might post what I've got so far up as individual tracks over the next few weeks and months.
1) If in 1993 you'd asked 1000 people to pick a new rapper that would still be making reasonably successful music on a major label 20 years later, I'm pretty sure no one would've chosen Fat Joe. Mr Crack (as his fellow PTA members call him) has endured a decent career without ever being particularly outstanding. He's also managed a decent amount of commercially successful singles which is pretty bizarre for someone who made their name off Diamond D beats and Kool G Rap collabos. He's no one's favourite rapper yet he's outlasted most of his peers. Other '93 alumni like Jeru, Buckshot and Inspectah Deck are probably wondering where the fuck they went wrong when they're backstage waiting to perform to 150 people in a basement in Budapest and Joseph Cartagena is kicking back with a low fat smoothie watching the outakes from his videos with J Lo and R Kelly on his HD plasma. Salute.
2) People really need to chill with the J Dilla anniversaries, tributes and reissues. And what the fuck his mum has do to with anything is beyond me. I imagine if he could see what's happened since he died he'd find the whole thing hugely embarrassing. I get that he's very innovative and creative with his sampling and drums and blah blah but where's his 'TROY', his 'World Is Yours' or his 'Come Clean'? Fuck, where's his 'Grindin', 'Protect Ya Neck' or 'Get Low' for that matter. It kind of makes me scared of what will happen when we lose Primo, Dre, Marley and the 10-20 other producers that rank above him.
3) Kendrick Lamar. Just...no. I get that if you aren't into Drake/Young Thug/Molly & Weed rap or whatever then you might consider him a "refreshing alternative" but his voice is fucking terrible. Trying to sound like Canibus when you want to, like, really seriously get your point across because you have Something To Say is not the one. I get the feeling he wants to be Nas x Kanye but he's basically the US version of Rizzle Kicks.
4) How have we found ourselves in a world where Kanye, Paul McCartney and fucking Rihanna can make a song together without any fear of violent reprisals. It's becoming increasingly hard to believe Kanye was behind so much good rap music 10-12 years ago. The least he could do is throw us a 'Power' or 'Cant Tell Me Nothing' every now and again.
5) If someone thinks 'Illmatic' is the best rap album ever I just assume they're too young to have heard 'Nation Of Millions...'. One is a great rap album. The other is just a great album. One took early 90s Hip Hop to its logical conclusion and one just changed the whole fucking game. Pretty much all rap sounds weak if you play it after classic PE/Bomb Squad music. Check this great BBC4 documentary on the group here and an unintentionally hilarious look at what Professor Griff is up to these days here (spoiler: 2Pac was killed because he wouldn't let Quincy Jones take him up the wrong 'un)
6) There really should've been a third Crooklyn Dodgers record (I assume we've all agreed to pretend this didn't happen). 1998 would've been a good time for it. I think a line up of Big Daddy Kane, Sauce Money and Jay Z with Primo on the boards would've done the business. They could have tied it in with being a Biggie tribute seeing as all the other ones at the time were terrible.
On a related note, this is a really good article about the making of the first Crooklyn Dodgers record. A whole album could've been amazing. Shame Buckshot opted to do that second Black Moon album instead but then that's why he's in Budapest and not lounging with video hoes like ya boy Joey Crack.
Side note: This is probably the worst photo to ever grace the cover of a rap album
7) How the fuck did we get into a position where people are talking about this and using the phrases 'classic', 'fire' and 'blackout' ? At best its mildly amusing but for the most part its pretty shit. I mean, I know the people championing it on twitter were probably the same ones losing their mind over Kendrick's 'Control' verse (yawn) but still.
This post was bought to you by a long week, a scroll back through old twitter posts and this morning's playlist being set to 'random'.
I've known about Cookin Soul for a while but only just discovered that they're Spanish and that a bunch of their remixes are available on their Soundcloud page...
If you've got time to kill go through the whole page. There's also their own original productions for the likes of Freddie Gibbs, YG, Currensy, Yukmouth and more. Good stuff.
Last year I posted a few blends I'd made on a couple of forums and this was one of the most popular. The acapella from QB’s Finest ‘Da Bridge 2001’ gets laid over ‘The Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers’ instrumental. This basically means you have Nas, Mobb Deep, Capone, Nature, Cormega, Millenium Thug (yeah, I know) and MC Shan over one of DJ Premier’s best beats. Can't fail really!
