McGruff Rugged & Raw aka If It Ain't McGruff It Ain't Me [a Herb McGruff compilation]

Over the last few years my waning (now pretty much non-existent) interest in new Hip Hop has meant I've gone back and discovered a new found appreciation for artists who I'd previously enjoyed, but perhaps never delved to deep into their catalogues. I've already hit you off with a Sauce Money compilation, and on a similar tip is this Herb McGruff collection. 

Signed by Heavy D to Uptown after the rest of his Children Of The Corn crew had found deals elsewhere, McGruff's debut album Destined To Be suffered from his label's attempts to jump on the Bad Boy bandwagon of the moment and have him dropping jiggy club efforts rather than the more thugged out Harlem-centric content that was his strong suit. Kind of understandable given that Uptown properly dropped the ball with Biggie (worst label decision ever in rap?) but history has shown us that the industry has a track record of signing acts with a big street buzz and then getting them to move away from the style that made them popular to chase radio play. In McGruff's case he got off to a good start with the Harlem Kids Get Biz promo 12", but the album had far too many lukewarm, middle of the road joints like Gruff Express and didn't really make much of an impression. What was interesting was the amount of collabs, features, and mixtape only/bootleg tracks that were circulating around the same time, and that's what makes up the bulk of this compilation.

I'm not sure if it was just bad timing, people stealing his ideas or vice versa but Herbert seems to have a issue in the jackin for beats department which probably hindered his progress somewhat. Creep is dope, but it's based around the same break Biggie used on Warning. Nasty with Foxy Brown uses the World Famous Supreme Team beat that's far too similar to the Firm Biz remix which dropped around the same time. Make It Hot has the same Eugene Wild sample recognisable from Foxy and Blackstreet's monster Get Me Home. I've included them all because 20+ years on it's not much of an issue but you can see how it may have been a problem at the time. 

I haven't really ventured into his re-emergence with Dipset in the 2000s so its mostly mid-late 90s material, and although it's pretty heavy on collaborations and guest appearances it's a decent representation of the man's work. Pick of the bunch for me is Harlem World with Mase on the hook, which samples Strawberry Letter 23. There's also East And Police produced by Godfather Don off 2008's The Demo EP,  a couple of the better tracks off the album in Reppin Uptown with The Lox and the aforementioned Harlem Kids Get Biz and some looseys like Bow Down with Mob Style and the mixtape only Hell Up In Harlem with Black Rob, Cardan & Cam'ron.

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East And Police 

Creep

Villain Guys 

Harlem World ft Mase

Freestyle

Reppin Uptown ft The LOX

Harlem NYC - Beats 2 Blow remix with Bootsie & Big L

Uptown Connection ft Mase & Big L

Harlem Kids Get Biz

Hell Up In Harlem with Black Rob, Cam'ron & Cardan

Pure Uncut Raw with Eightball, Canibus & DMX

Bow Down ft Mob Style & Meeno

Nasty ft Foxy Brown

Kay Slay freestyle

Obviously these were taken from a variety of sources - CD, vinyl, digital, some official, some less so. If you've got anything else that should've been included let me know.

Big L, McGruff, I Born & CL Smooth - NY Freestyle (1999)

Picked this 12" up on the cheap the other day. Bit of a strange line up - CL Smooth had all but disappeared by 1999 and I've no idea who I-Born is. Also unusual for a record of this nature to come with a proper cover. I'm not sure if it was a legit freestyle session or copy and paste effort but its worth a listen anyway.

While we're on a freestyle tip, I zipped up 40+ of  'em for those who slept or suffered a hard drive crash. Most of them are my own rips that have appeared on the blog over the last 8 years but there's also a few others that I've found online over the years. Click HERE

McGruff 'Harlem Kids Get Biz' (DJ Step One blend)

Right, back to some proper no nonsense mid 90s rap music. Here's the acapella of Herb McGruff's dope 'Harlem Kids Get Biz' blended with Jemini's 'Brooklyn Kids' instrumental. You see what I did there?

The Jemini beat is by the perenially underrated Minnesota who has a host of quality tracks to his name but for some reason never quite quite blew up like some might have expected. The original McGruff track was produced by Spunk Bigga, who's career was probably held back by his choice of name more than anything. Judging by the lack of Google image results for him it looks like he knows it too.

Tracey Lee, The Reepz, A+, Canibus & McGruff 'Universal MC' (1996)

With the impending house move ever nearing, the vinyl cull is under way. Whilst going through the shelves, I came across this bootleg that I picked up a few years ago on the strength of Biggie & The LOX's mixtape classic 'You'll See' (the original 12" being pretty scarce on these shores but I found it eventually). I overlooked this posse cut with Tracey Lee, A+, Canibus and McGruff at the time, but it's definitely worth copping if you see it for a decent price...

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I hit up Tracey Lee on twitter and he couldn't remember who did the beat but confirmed it was a promo only joint. As far as I can tell it only exists in official form on this Universal Records CD, so I'd say it qualifies as unreleased heat. Enjoy. 

Diplomats Unreleased Throwbacks & Exclusives (2004)

One of a stack of CDs purchased on a trip to Canal Street back in 2004, this Street Sweepers set collates some of the Dip's finest mixtape moments...

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Highlights include the demo version of the unreleased 'That's Harlem', which I later found with an added chorus on this Rocafella promo 12", an always welcome appearance by Herb McGruff on 'Trendsetters pt 2' and the superbly titled 'Keep The AKs At Kay Slays'.
My personal favourite is 'World Reknown', which appeared on 'Come Home With Me' as 'The Roc (Just Fire)' with Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel replacing Jim and Juelz.  Although everyone turns in a worthy performance on both versions, Jim Jones really stands out for me with his verse. Its obviously debatable as to whether he wrote it but put that to one side and he presents a solid argument against those who lazily tag him a wack rapper based on 'We Fly High' and 'Pop Champagne'.
Admittedly he's helped by the beat. The Just Blaze production is one of the best of the era and is one of those instrumentals I never tire of, where you get the feeling it could make anyone that rapped over it sound amazing. 

Kay Slay freestyles

Sorting through some CDs yesterday I found an old compilation of freestyles from Kay Slay mixtapes that I'd copped on a visit to Canal Street back in 2004. Here's the pick of the bunch...

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Tracklist
1- Big L, Black Rob, Puertorock & Bathgate
2- Cam'ron & McGruff
3- Capone N Noreaga
4- Da Ranjahz
5- Ghostface & Trife
6- Prodigy
7- Sauce Money

Eightball ft Canibus, DMX & McGruff 'Pure Uncut Raw' (1998)

Staying on the white label tip, this is something I'd been after ever since I heard it back in 98 on the Mastermind mixtape I posted recently. Its not an easy find on the net and as far as I can tell it never received an official release. It was only earlier this year that I chanced upon the 12" you see above.



8Ball isn't someone who's catalogue I'm familiar with but this appears to be a remix (its listed as 'Part 2' on the Mastermind tape) of a track from one of his solo albums. A nice dark beat featuring Canibus and DMX when they were at their peak and the always reliable Herb McGruff make this one worth checking out.

Shout out to TheBigSleep - a reliable source for anything with a Harlem connection!