Black Rob & Poo Cabrocke freestyle (1999)

A Black Rob freestyle is always welcome around these parts so cheers to Grime & Lime for extracting this from Silva Sirfa's 'Fuck The World' mixtape and hooking me up. BR and Poo Cabrocke (no, me neither - the only mention I can find of him was an appearance on a 2010 G Dep album that I forgot/didn't know existed). He sounds decent enough and goes b2b with Rob over the instrumental of Pace Won's 'Step Up'.

As I mentioned in the post below, I was putting together a comp of Prodigy freestyles which I ended up posting up on twitter and a couple of forums the other day. I think they've all been posted on this blog before over the last few years but if you want them all in one place then here you go

Mobb Deep - If These Walls Could Talk (2002)

It's hot and sunny outside but let's ignore that completely and go for some moody Queensbridge raps with this unreleased Mobb Deep joint that was on the flipside of the NORE track I posted recently.
Depending on which bootleg or mixtape you have this is also known as 'Snitch' or 'Snitched On' and samples Beethoven's Fur Elise; obviously I didn't know that until it appeared on the Google search but it's one of those classical pieces everyone recognises. Grimey.

Other things worthy of your attention:

Good Kool G Rap interview for Rolling Stone

Digital Underground's demo tape

15 Classic Big L freestyles

Jimmy Green's Roy Ayers mixtape

Prodigy - Radio 1 Rap Show freestyles (2000)

"are you listening to the words or listening to the beat? listen to the words man!"

17 years ago this past weekend the M-O-B-B appeared on Westwood's show. Prodigy proceeded to go in with a 15 minute freestyle which I've kindly seperated into the 3 tracks you see above. Hearing him over The Lox's 'Fuck You' is a highlight.

If you want to listen to the whole show that those freestyle are taken from, you can find the first hour here. Part 2 with Fab 5 Freddy is here and part 3 with Prodigy, Havoc and Alchemist is below

When you see your average generic American rap fan online debtaing their Top 5 rappers, or asking who the GOAT is, it's pretty much always the same fucking names. Having listened to helluva lot of Mobb Deep in the last few months (party because I was making this mix, which I highly recommend if you haven't checked it) I would say that Prodigy at his peak should definitely be in that conversation, but that rarely seems to be the case.

With that in mind, if you missed them...

Prodigy - You Ain't A Killer freestyle (1997)

Prodigy & Ty Nitty - DJ Clue freestyle (1996)

Prodigy - You Ain't A Killer freestyle (1997)

"you're frail fam anything your team wanna do, you and your mans are shook part 1 and 2"

More 90s QB freestyle action. Prodigy was an absolute monster around 96/97. Here he does his thing over Big Pun's 'You Ain't A Killer' instrumental and throws a few shots at Keith Murray along the way.



Taken from DJ Clue's 'ClueManatti' tape. I'll post the full thing soon.

Prodigy & Ty Nitty - DJ Clue freestyle (1996)

Taken from DJ Clue's 'Springtyme Stickup 1996'. Prodigy and Mobb affiliate Ty Nitty over GFK's 'Motherless Child' instrumental. P was a beast back then. Full tape to follow soon...

Bars N Hooks ft Prodigy 'Aint Nobody' (2003)

Earlier this year you might remember me posting this 12" by Mobb Deep affiliates Bars N Hooks. I'd been looking for the Gap Band sampling 'Mind Blowin' for about 10 years at the time. A few weeks ago I stumbled across this 12" by the duo, which I was previously unaware of...


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As with the other release it features Prodigy and it also samples a well known 80s soul classic. This time around production is handled by Just Blaze but the release was confined to indie label Sure Shot (although it comes in an AV8 sleeve with AV371 inscribed in the run out groove). If you like early 00s East Coast thug rap on top of instantly recognisable samples - which I do - you'll enjoy this.



I had planned on dropping a few tape rips this week but my tape player has died. Bit awkward as its not technically mine but I've had it on loan for about 2 years now. Not really sure where that leaves me as far as compensating the owner. Chances are if I gave it back without saying anything he's never gonna use it and might never know. Personally I'm more concerned with where I can get a fucking tape player from in 2011. Hopefully I'll be back on the tapes soon anyway.

Bars & Hooks ft Prodigy 'Mind Blowing' (2001)

I first heard the tracks on this 12" on a DJ Juice mixtape 10 years ago. A few months back I finally got hold of a vinyl copy on discogs (shout out to DJ B.Cause).

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The lead track features the Mobb affiliates and Prodigy rhyming over the Gap Band's classic 'Outstanding' which is probably why I like it so much. 'Independence Day' uses the beat from 'The Message' and 'YBE' is a remix of the track originally found on Bandana P's 'HNIC' album.
Given how long it took me to track this down I was initially a bit reluctant to share it (old digging habits die hard!) but given the plethora of Mobb-related blog posts following Prodigy's release from prison I thought I'd give you something you might not have yet.








Nate Dogg RIP

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