Westwood live from Notting Hill Carnival '96 with Heltah Skeltah, Lost Boyz, Blak Twang, Foxy Brown & Montell Jordan

Following on from the tape of Carnival '95 I posted a few weeks ago, here's the recording of the 1996 broadcast, which I think takes in Sunday and Monday's performances. If I recall correctly, it was broadcast on Monday evening, and the swears are edited so it's not live and direct from the Westway. Westwood and Goldfinger hold down the selection with live performances by Heltah Skeltah, Lost Boyz, Blak Twang, Foxy Brown (who had no solo records at this point but was killing every feature) and Montell Jordan.
I've posted parts of this before but it's always better to have the whole thing uninterrupted. Highlights include Foxy having to back track when the crowd starts booing after her hypeman disses 2Pac and Jeru, a ruck kicking off during Montell's set ("they too busy fightin over there") and the whistle & horn posse greeting each banger with the appropriate response. 4th Chamber goes off. A GZA b-side. Your favourite Soundcloud rapper could never.

The Firm - La Familia (1996)

As you might already be aware, a recent collaborative effort on the Philaflava forum resulted in a reconstruction of The Firm album, re-imagining the track selection as it should've been. It's one of those releases thats generally considered a bit underwhelming, mostly due to it being less than the sum of its parts. The highs are high but the lows aren't really what the people involved should have put their names to in 1996. During the course of the discussion, the subject of 'La Familia' was raised. This was a song I'd kind of forgotten about since having it on a Future Flavas tape back in the day, but it turns out it's only official release was as a clean version on Foxy Brown's 'I'll Be' single, and Cormega's verse had been replaced by one from Nature after the group's line up changed. Save for a couple of mixtapes and poor quality youtube rips, the original was nowhere to be found. You can probably see where this post is going.
A quick check on my shelves turned up this bootleg 12" with the uncensored version featuring Cormega. So here it is. Shout out to DJ Filthy Rich for cleaning up the pops and crackles for me.



The Firm: How It Should've Been

The 12" is well worth picking up if you see it, as it also includes the original version of 'Benjamins' without Biggie and 'You'll See' (another promo only Bad Boy track). The Tracey Lee/Canibus/McGruff joint is also unreleased.

its the uncensored version of the Firm Biz remix!

The Martorialist's recent playlist of AZ deep cuts inspired me to resurrect my search for the full, raw, uncut version of the excellent World Famous remix of The Firm's 'Firm Biz'. It's a track that I've seen mentioned in request threads and most wanted lists over the years but even in an era where pretty much every demo, alernate version and Austrian promo CD single has been uploaded, this has remained elusive. The clean version is a reasonably easy find - in the UK anyway -  as its included on the promo album sampler. In contrast, acquiring the dirty version was the result of finding a Japanese record store with some poor quality streaming audio samples of this bootleg 12", and then a seller in France who wasn't charging the earth for a copy (the extornionate shipping costs from the US to the UK are a whole 'nother topic though). This might only be a humble little Hip Hop blog based in the UK's stockbroker belt but not too many sites fucking with us when it comes to the hella rare unreleased 90s heat game...

If you're unfamiliar with the track, you need this in your life. It's one of those remixes that's essentially a completely different track rather than a remix. The chorus of the original remains intact (although it may have been resung) but the Teena Marie sample is dispensed with in favour of the awesome beats from the Malcolm McLaren classic. Half-A-Mil is drafted in to set things off with the opening verse and basically everything is lovely from there on in. The Firm album isn't actually that bad despite getting a bit of a bad press at the time, but this is better than anything on there, with the obvious exception of Phone Tap.

File this one alongside joints like '24 Hours To Live', 'Off The Books', OC's 'Dangerous' and such like, in terms of late 90s uptempo NYC rap bangers that straddled the thug/jiggy divide. Easier said than done in the era where it was hoodies and timbs vs shiny suits and god forbid anyone get in between the two. I still remember trying to find a copy of Clipse debut 12" 'The Funeral' and Uptown Records not knowing what it was ("bit underground for us mate") and Mr Bongo 2 minutes away not stocking it because "if you heard Funkmaster Flex play it we probably wont have it, mate". That's a whole 'nother topic though.

Foxy Brown, Cam'ron, Mase & Pretty Boy 'Baby Baby Baby' part 2 (1997)

I picked this 12" up at the weekend, mainly on the strength of the other side, which is a Nas & Foxy Brown cut called 'Firm Members' (insert your own porno joke here). Unfortunately when I got it home it turned out to be that freestyle I uploaded a few months ago, albeit without DJ Clue yelling on it. 'Baby Baby Baby' on the other hand, I hadnt come across before. Its a bit of strange one really; the quality isn't exactly A1 and the lack of a chorus, or any real song structure makes it seem more like a cipher recorded for a mixtape. Even stranger given the song's title.

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An initial search didnt reveal too much info about 'Baby Baby Baby' so thinking I had a bit of a rare one on my hands I ripped it, scanned the label and was about to post it when I thought I'd dig a bit deeper. As far as I can tell, 'Part One' may have been a solo joint by Pretty Boy, or possibly a collab with Foxy (his sister) and Mase. This version featuring Cam'ron was actually posted on the Just Dipset blog back in March. But I'm guessing our audiences dont overlap too much and I'd put too much effort in at this point not to post it myself. Either way its a bit of an obscure one.

For more Fox Boogie business, check this recent Martorialist post

Funkmaster Flex 'Big Truck Series Volume 1' freestyles (2001)

This 12" a is collection of some of the highlights of Flex's 'Big Truck Series' mixtape. It kicks off with Nas 'Stillmatic' (the dis track over the 'Paid In Full' beat) and is followed by 2 short freestyles by Fabolous and Kurupt. The flipside features Redman and some weed carriers, Busta and Rah Digga, a Foxy Brown freestyle recorded live on Hot 97 and Benzino wraps things up.

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I've got the 12" of the Nas track if anyone is need of a good quality/no DJ version.