I had no idea this existed until today when I caught it on this Stretch Armstrong show from 1998.
I wouldn't say it's better than the original but it's not bad, and I'm surprised it hasn't crossed my path at some point in the last 20 years. Anyone know if this made it onto any kind of vinyl or CD, official or otherwise?
I put The Chronic on for the first time in a while recently. The first thing I thought off during the intro was that I had about the half the tracks off the album recorded off Westwood before buying the tape and eventually playing it so often that the print wore off on both sides.The second thing was how great the videos for the singles were. Dre Day tends to get the plaudits for lampooning it's targets, but I think Nuthin But A G Thang could well be the greatest synergy between rap audio and video ever. It captures the vibe of the track perfectly. The simplicity of 2 rappers going back and forth over a smooth-ass loop accompanied by what's presented to us as a typical day in their life: driving about, getting high and partying. No limo to a strobe filled nightclub VIP section, no fish eye lenses, celebrity cameos, speedboats or Scorsese rip offs going on here. Strictly car share, barbecue and beers.
For those of us outside of California (specifically 14 year old white kids in the UK), the visuals helped us make sense of the music we were obessesed by, and gave the music added authenticity which back then could be the difference between sink or swim for a rapper's career. Boyz N The Hood had come out the year before, and there'd been videos like Ice Cube's Steady Mobbin but somehow the G Thang video took all the key ingredients, squeezed them into just under 5 minutes, and had the song of the year as the soundtrack.
I think it was Stetsasonic's Daddy O who observed that G Thang was a really brave lead single, given how against the grain it was when it came out, by taking it back to the old school (It's like this and like that and like this...' is about as late-70s-park-jam a hook as you'll find)
Pretty ironic given that the parties involved came to represent everything the Real Hip Hop brigade would come to hate, but that's rap music for you.
With all that in mind, I thought I'd break down my favourite rap video of all time. DJ Charmaine Champagne: your time...
Westwood dropped this in the middle of a Radio Rap 1 Show I was ripping and it was more enjoyable than I expected. Em and Dre at the Brixton Academy 3 weeks before the Marshall Mathers LP came out. I found the set list here, and it's about a 50/50 split of Em songs and stuff off 2001, plus G Thang with Em doing Snoop's parts.
Good to see that they stayed true to the tradition of US artists coming to the UK and performing ridiculously short shows (30 minutes!) while probably charging £20-£30 a ticket too. Thankfully that seemed to die out over the last 15 years as touring became a bigger earner than sales, although someone should tell Redman and Method Man, who really should be doing more than 45-50 minutes given the size of their combined catalogues.
UPDATED 26/12 - full Radio 1 Rap Show this was taken from now available here
Whilst discussing the merits of going Osborne & Cameron on certain rap songs and implementing some necessary cuts, The Martorialist suggested that Snoop's freestyle verse on the extended remix of 'Afro Puffs' could do with being liberated and made into a song in it's own right...
While we're on a Death Row tip, I'm tempted to have a crack at creating a shorter version of the Let Me Ride remix. I'm using some basic software for this though and its very much a learning curve. Any other suggestions for Austerity Rap re-works are welcome!
As its now 15 years - not 13 - since '2001' dropped, I thought I'd share this Mick Boogie mix of Dre collabos, productions, b-sides, remixes and unreleased joints. It covers everything from The Chronic era, The Firm, the ill fated inception of (pre-Eminem) Aftermath up to about 2004/05 with stuff like Rakim's 'After You Die'...
So it turns out I fucked up a bit on the post below. I thought I'd uploaded the tape rip of this track, recorded from an old Westwood show, but in fact I'd posted a considerably better quality version. Its doesnt seem to be quite CDQ, but its full length and considerably better than whats come before it. I can't remember exactly how I got this but I have a feeling it was on a compilation of Death Row rarieties I downloaded from somewhere.
I'm off to see D'Angelo perform in Brixton tonight (which will possibly the be the most grown-up and civilised show I've ever been to!) so thought I'd post this blend of 'Brown Sugar' over Dre's 'Xxplosive'. Works quite nicely I think...
I dont know much about Brooklyn Untouched other than that they dropped a few AV8 style remixes and party breaks some years ago. On this 12" they take the 'simple but effective' approach and drop the 'Twinz' acapella over Dre's 'The Next Episode' beat.
All together now: "Dead in the middle of Little Italy..." etc
Back in the day Westwood played a blend someone (I forget who) had done using the 'Method Man' acapella over Snoop's 'Tha Shiznit' instrumental, which sounded great. Recently - after a long search - I finally got myself a copy of that acapella (cheers Howard!) and have been playing around with it. I'm hoping to do something 'proper' with it soon but in the meantime it seems to fit nicely over another classic Dre beat...
Another bit of previously unreleased material from the Death Row archives. This was the b-side to 'Dre Day' and was all over the mixtapes back in 1993. Kurupt absoloutely murders it.
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