I Am...NasLib

Man like Jimmy Green comes through with a (depending on your outlook, much needed) reworking of Nas' I Am album using beats by Madlib. Sounds dope. I feel like people used to do things like this quite a lot years ago but then ran out of acapellas to use as they don't seem to be released or leaked like they used to. DJs need some new vocals to work with!

Nas & Akinyele freestyle (1991)

Don't think this has been online before, but its something I've had for a while and never got around to posting. Nas and Akinyele trading rhymes in what I guess would be 1991 as it's similar to the lunchroom freestyles that leaked a few year ago. This session sounds like it's from a radio show but I have no idea which one.

I tried to embed the Audiomack player but it kept bringing up a Guru freestyle. Fuck knows what's going on there. It's on my Audiomack page either way.

Radio 1 Rap Show with LL, Gang Starr, Nas & Noreaga (1997)

Hadn't heard this October '97 edition of the Rap Exchange before I found it on a Google deep dive over the weekend. In terms of guests this is up there with the best of them and whoever ripped it - shouts to you - was good enough to leave the interviews in there (most of us seem to have hit the pause button back in the day in order to fit a 2 hour show on a C90 and get maximum tunes). The playlist is decent too: alongside the big tracks of the time by DMX and Busta, there's EZD's Premo produced GunzIs4, plus Calm Down, Firm Biz remix, and the original version of Desperados. And that Nas and Noreaga freestyle I posted a few years ago. Even the songs off LL's Phenomenon LP are decent enough - is that slept on?

Tracklist is below, and it'll be on the Hip Hop Radio Archive in due course if you want the download

Nas & Mobb Deep freestyle (1995)

Nas and Mobb Deep from the January 1995 Rap Exchange show. I was missing a chunk of this for years as my tape ran out half way through the recording. Someone (I forget who, but thanks) hooked it up on a forum a while back so here's 10 minutes of prime QB raps over the Shook Ones pt 2 instrumental.

The Firm - Phone Tap (remix)

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?

Its Overture presents Nasty Nas & The Extra P - The Lost Album

Another quality set from Its Overture, using Nas acapellas over Large Professor beats.

GO HERE

Radio 1 Rap Show 15.12.01 with Nas, Pete Rock & Inspectah Deck

Big episode of New York Live here, with Tim and Marley hosting Nas just as Stillmatic was about to drop and the beef with Jay Z was in full swing. Pete Rock shows up for a quick interview in part 2, followed by Inspectah Deck and U God repping the Wu ahead of the release of Iron Flag.



Iron Flag seems like the most maligned or even somewhat forgotten Wu album but Rules, In The Hood and Uzi (Pinky Ring) are all solid Wu bangers. Don't sleep.

Posted a couple of other tapes on the Westwood Archives page recently

Radio 1 Rap Show 15th July 2000

24th September 1999 w/ The Madd Rapper

24th September 1999 with Rodney P, Skitz & Riddla

Also, you can now check out my man Rio T holding it down on TooHot radio, Saturday mornings 12-2pm, rocking strictly clean versions for the Rap Dads.

Nas on the Radio 1 Rap Show (2003)

Nas on Westwood doing some promo for God's Son. Lost Tapes 2 definitely coming out apparently. No freestyle unfortunately but I've only got an hour of the show here. Hopefully the other tape will turn up  (I found tape 2 - still no freestyle though) I had the Made You Look remix in regular rotation for a couple of years so it was good to hear that again for the first time in a while.

DJ Rhude - Nas: The Found Tapes Vol 2 (2016)

"It's been five years since I dropped the first Found Tapes and we still haven't gotten another The Lost Tapes album from Nasty Nas. I had no plans to follow up my first drop figuring by now we'd have that next Lost Tapes album but with it still nowhere on the horizon, I decided to put together another mixtape of unreleased Nas songs. 

So here it is Nas: The Found Tapes Vol. 2 a collection of unreleased songs properly labeled and in the CDQ form Nas fans deserve to hear them in"

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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.

Nas & Noreaga - Hot 97 freestyle (1998)

I got hooked up with a rather large stack of tapes today courtesy of the ever generous RB (he came through with the Jay Ski tapes and some mid 90s Westwood a couple of years back). All in all there was 20 tapes of Clue, Juice and Cutmaster C. Some have been online before, some haven't but I'm gonna rip the lot and get em on here because dead links/poor quality/obscure sites no one checks for etc.
Until I get around to doing that, here's a taster from Cutmaster C's 'New York Undercover' tape. Nas & Noreaga with Flex on the tables on Hot 97 back in 1998



If you've got tapes you'd like to donate for the blog (can be returned if needed) then get in touch.

DJ Rhude - NAZ: The Flyest Essence (2015)

The homie DJ Rhude just dropped this blend/remix tape using Nas & AZ vocals...

GO HERE

The venture features remixes from two of The Firm’s cohorts, Nas and AZ, and boasts production credits from legendary beat-makers including Pete Rock, Salaam Remi, Large Professor, The Alchemist and more. On the genesis of the mixtape, DJ Rhude stated, “Nas and AZ’s chemistry in the booth is undeniable as evidenced by their body of work over the years. Despite said chemistry, the two artists have never collaborated on a full length album despite the fans pleas for it,” he said. “While it probably may never happen, Datwon (Vibe EIC) and I brainstormed about putting together a mixtape as a way of imagining how an album between the two could sound. As a result Naz: The Flyest Essence was born.”

Q Tip 'Q Tip For President' (2008)

One more post before I leave the country for a few days. By the time I come back the election will be over and there's a slim chance we might have a new PM. I live in what might be the safest Conservative seat in the country and although my MP is one of the most disliked politicians around, he'll probably stay put given none of his challengers are particularly inspiring. Anyway, thought I'd roll with an election themed joint so here's Q Tip rapping over 'Eric B Is President'

I think this came out in the run up to the release of his 'Renaissance' LP (good album btw) when Obama had the streets on smash and rappers briefly showed an interest in politics for the first time in years.

Also, whilst having a bit of a vinyl purge I came across this remix of 3LW's 'No More' which features Nas and also uses the Eric B Is President beat, so here you go...

DOWNLOAD

May aswell post this up too. Always enjoyable although I'm sure certain purists caught feelings and considered it blasphemous when it dropped...

3 "Classic" Records That Aren't Actually That Good...

This isn't about those songs that we all loved when they came out but we've all heard way too often and don't ever really need to listen to again - Hypnotize, Insane In the Brain, It Aint Hard To Tell, Come Clean etc. You know the ones. I'll put my hands up to not immediately liking Simon Says, Flava In Ya Ear or Protect Ya Neck on first hearing them (with the latter 2 it was probably a case of listening to too much G Funk at the time). Those grew on me pretty quickly though, mainly after Funk Flex pulling it back to the beginning for the 8th time. This post is for tracks that were/are really popular but I never liked. Not then and not now. I think I'm gonna be in the minority but feel free to prove me wrong...


Take a bow Drayz and Skoob. You managed to drop a track in 1995 with mixes by Pete Rock and Primo that I don't like. Pick a mix, any mix, it doesn't matter. The song seems to have been given an eternal shelf life by warm up DJs at Rap shows who will inevitably drop a verse and chorus of this before switching into 'Hip Hop' by Dead Prez. Its not fashionable to admit it but I like most of the 12"s from the two Das EFX LPs. Hard Like A Criminal and the Premier remix of Kaught In Da AK are particular faves. This just isn't doing it all though. At the time it was competing against the likes of Biggie, Raekwon, AZ, Mobb Deep so it was always fighting a losing battle. The beat on it just never did anything for me at all, its one of those one dimensional boom bap things that doesn't really build up or do anything for the rappers. It doesn't even work for me as a nostalgia piece in the "well at least its better than Drake" school of thought. Bin it.


This was the first song I'd heard Biggie on that I didn't like. I wasn't DJing when it dropped but as far as I could tell this was huge in the clubs and it was getting rinsed on the radio. The thing is it's just not that good.
BIG's verse is decent enough I suppose but the beat never really hit the spot for me and in '95 Cease and Lil Kim weren't really up to par (as mentioned in the post above, the calibre of the competition meant standard were set pretty high and we were spoilt for choice). If I had to put a positive spin on it, maybe I'd have been into it more if I was playing in the clubs when it came out or if it had dropped in '99 and was produced by Irv Gotti or Swizz Beatz. As it stands though: Meh. Its a glimpse of the sort of thing Biggie might've ended up churning out on the regular if he hadn't been killed. I'm sure there would've been a few Neptunes and Timbaland bangers along the way aswell though.
Sidenote: I never liked 'Get Money' either, although obviously the remix is greatness.


OK, maybe I'm stretching it a bit with this one but I never liked the beat on this. Obviously it's not completely shit and I know that the (obviously superb) lyrics needed an instrumental that wasn't too overbearing but I find it a bit dull. For such a personal song it could do with a chord change or two just to add a bit of feeling or emotion to the proceedings. If you aren't convinced then consider this:
- If it was that good surely Q Tip would've used it on Midnight Marauders.
- The acapella sounds better over pretty much every other beat I've heard it blended with, the best of which was probably DJ Rectangle mixing it over the Deep Cover instrumental on his 'OG Style' mixtape.

Sidenote: I'm sure that at some point a few years after Illmatic came out, some people got the narrative of the song confused and thought Nas was writing a letter to Cormega.

Ghetto Jams: Urban Series 12" (1999)

Unofficial mash-up blend remix tings here. I posted the Common Sense one on its own ages ago but as I'm currently ripping a load of vinyl (before I get rid of it) I thought I'd share the rest. There's some decent stuff on here. Jay Z over a Beatnuts instrumental works well, as does 'Holla Holla' over the 'California Love' beat. The R&B joints aren't too bad either but even after all this time Fatman Scoop has rendered that Faith Evans vocal unlistenable to me.

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The aforementioned vinyl ripping is partly the reason for the lack of regular updates. I did contemplate stopping the blog completely but I'll try and stay on it for now and see how things pan out. There's always a chance I might come up with some new tapes or unreleased shit for you (although the chances are slim with the way London's 2nd hand record shops are these days).

Nas & AZ blends

Updates have been a bit thin on the ground recently as I've been busy with radio stuff, plus the summer has kicked in here in the UK so I havent really had the opportunity to rip any more tapes. As I dont want this site to just consist of mixcloud links to my shows, I thought I'd post up a couple of blends for you...

Nas 'Thiefs Theme' (DJ Step One blend)
This one matches the Nas acapella with the DJ Premier beat from Termanology's 'Watch How It Go Down'

AZ 'The Come Up (DJ Step One blend)
AZ's 'The Come Up' over the beat from one of my favourite tunes so far this year: DJ Numark & Large Professor's 'When You Sleep'.

The next Infinite Hip Hop Show on Kane FM is this coming Saturday at 6pm. I also filled in last week for 2 hours - you can check that out here.

Nas - Tim Westwood promo (1994)

One for the completists: Nas flips the It Aint Hard To Tell remix for Big Timmy

Nas 'Stillmatic' freestyle (2001)

I've had a few requests for this following this post, so here it is in its full length, untagged glory.

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If you haven't heard it before, its Nasir going off over the 'Paid In Full' instrumental, and it did the rounds on radio and mixtapes prior to the 'Stillmatic' album dropping.
It's probably the least referenced track from the Nas vs Jay Z beef, probably because it didnt get an official release like 'Ether' and 'The Takeover' and as far as I know it wasn't subjected to a rather overblown premier on Hot 97 when it dropped like 'Super Ugly' was. Either way, it serves to remind that Nas sounds great when he's given a good beat to rhyme on.

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.