The Best of The LOX mixed by DJ Step One

Blogspot for hustlers, I'm back motherf**kers! Got some new things to post and hopefully some tapes coming into my possession in the near future so lets see if I can get back to some regular updates. In the mean time you can enjoy this LOX mix I put together. It's not exactly a Best Of as such, but their catalogue as a group and solo artists is so huge that I managed just over an hour without even reaching for Benjamins, Why, Money Power Respect and a bunch of tracks they performed at the recent Verzuz evisceration of Dipset. That obviously inspired this but I've had pretty much always something LOX related in rotation since I heard You'll See on the Bad Boy Volume 3 tape back in '96. More often than not it's been a Jadakiss freestyle or guest verse but it's impressive that any rap crew can maintain that level of output for so long. There's definitely some notable omissions, and I was a bit pissed off I forgot to include Broken Safety so maybe I'll do a part 2 at some point.

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tracklist

The LOX - Wild Out (blend)
The LOX - BARS
D Block - Take Everything (original version)
Styles P ft Pharoahe Monch - The Life
Sheek Louch - Goin Be Some Shit
Jadakiss - Who Shot Ya freestyle
Jadakiss - Kiss Of Death
The LOX - Fuck You (blend)
D Block - Good Times (remix)
Jadakiss - Live in Philly
Jadakiss - Beanie Sigel Dis
The LOX - None Of Y'all Better
The LOX & Black Rob - Chain Gang
Sheek & Jadakiss - Kiss Your Ass Goodbye (remix)
The LOX - Dirty Ryders
Jadakiss - 40 Bars Of Terror
Jadakiss - Incarcerated Scarfaces freestyle
D Block - 2 Gunz Up
DMX & The LOX - Get At Me Dog freestyle
The LOX - Ryde Or Die Bitch (blend)
Pete Rock ft Styles P & Sheek - 914
Kasino ft The LOX - Men Of Respect
The LOX & Black Rob - Can I Live
The LOX - Recognize
Jadakiss & Styles P - The People freestyle
Styles P, Jadakiss & Eve - We Gonna Make It (remix)


I'm still getting used to a new mixer and feeling a bit rusty DJ wise so this isn't flawless but it's decent enough and the selection more than carries it. I banged it out in 1 take and didn't realy overthink or plan the tracklist so it turned out well all things considered.

The LOX 'Kiss Of Death' (unreleased)

Inadvertantly came up on this the other day after adding it to a Discogs order without really knowing what it was. Turns out its not Kiss Of Death off the first Ruff Ryders album (which is what I was hoping for) or the track of the same name off the second Jadakiss album. What we have here is an apparently unreleased LOX track which I'm guessing is from sometime in the late 90s...


(for some reason the audiomack embed isn't showing up so go here if you can't see it)

I'm guessing its from that era mostly due to the design of the label which is similar to a few other unofficial released from that period. Also, the fact its under the name 'Goodfellaz' makes me think it might be something the group put out while they were still under contract with Bad Boy, during the well documented Let The Lox Go campaign when they trying to move over to Ruff Ryders. It's definitely the sort of grimey mixtape joint they'd have gone for when they were trying to get away from the whole shiny suit image. It sounds as though it might not have been mastered propely thats all part of the deal with these things.
If anyone has got any info on it drop knowledge in the comments. Also, if anyone can confirm that a 12" of Kiss Of Death from Ruff Ryders Vol 1 definitely exists that would be splendid. I've heard the instrumental at the beginning of this Cipha Sounds mix on Westwood so it must be out there in some format. The fact there's 2 songs (and an album, plus the track above) with the same name makes searching for it a bit awkward.

Don't Sleep #7 The Usual Suspects (1997)

A double header for this edition of Don't Sleep. One of my favourite tracks of the late 90s that kind of got lost in the shuffle of great posse cuts from that era - John Blaze, Banned From TV, The Firm joints, Reservoir Dogs, Benjamins etc . The notable thing about this particular cut is that it comes in two different versions. Both were officially released but neither seems to be considered the original or the remix. They both use the same beat but the line up of rappers varies. 

Version 1, taken from the How To Be A Player soundtrack features Mic Geronimo alongside DMX, Cormega, Fatal and Ja Rule. This was back when DMX was on the cusp of becoming the biggest rapper on the planet for 2 years and no one was entirely sure how Ja Rule spelt his name (he's listed as "Ja" on this). I believe Cormega was signed to Def Jam at this time which explains his appearance and Fatal was getting a bit of attention off the back of his 2Pac association. The beat is courtesy of one of the lesser know members of The Hitmen - Daven "Prestige" Vanderpool and is pretty simple and minimal with a nice Mandrill sample and a subtle bit of ESG in the background.

Version 2 featured on Mic's 'Vendetta' album and on the b side of the Nothin Move But The Money 12". Cormega and Fatal have been replaced by the more than capable line up of Tragedy, Jadakiss and Styles P. No idea why. Label politics would usually be the answer but I can't see why Def Jam would let DMX on there and not Cormega. They did drop him though so maybe that had something to do with it. Still dope. Don't sleep.

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Previous Don't Sleeps are here

I'd rather be live at The Tunnel with Flex...

I'm not usually keen on promoting people who have more than enough resources to fend for themselves but I really enjoyed the recent Juan Epstein show with Funkmaster Flex. Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds did a good job of reigning it in and letting Flex talk for nearly 2 hours on how he came up in the game and the early days of NYC radio and clubs.Highly recommended...

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Flex's mixes have been a cornerstone of this blog since it started but I hadn't had access to any tapes of him for a while. Fortunately I've come across a few old Hot 97 shows online in the last week so here you go...

30th January 1993 (courtesy of Jesse Velazquez)

16th April 1993

22nd April 1995

16th December 1995

80s Classics mix from 1994

aswell as...

WBLS January 1990

and courtesy of Craig at Random Rap Radio:

Funkmaster Flex & Cipha Sounds - Big Dawg Volume 1 mixtape

Black Rob ft The LOX 'Can I Live' unreleased version (1999)

What you know about an alternative version of one of Bad Boy's finest moments with a different Black Rob verse? Hopefully the answer to that question is a blank stare and not "its on the Japanese import of 'Life Story'" because as far as I know this has never been put out there before.



BR's verse on the album version is a personal favourite of mine (especially that "my night time prowess in grimey after-hours/Karl Kani, Mau Malone wear, Eddie Bauers bit") so I wouldnt say this is necessarily better but I know The Internet is always down to hear some rare unreleased 90s business, so you can add this to the list of shit you done heard here first. If anyone knows the background on this get at me. I did tweet Rob about it but havent heard back as yet.

The LOX - Hot 97 freestyle (2007)

Rediscovered this recently, tucked away on a DJ Envy CD. Jada, Sheek & SP on Flex's show a few years back...

"Its ridiculous, nobody bust one shot for BIG..."

I try and avoid following the pattern of most other Hip Hop blogs but as the Biggie and Craig Mack freestyle on Westwood was one of the first posts that got this site some attention, along with the fact I actually remembered it was March 9th today, I thought I'd drop a couple of B.I.G related things for you.
Pretty much everything Mr Wallace recorded has already been heard already (although the holy grail seems to his collabo with Onyx and Naughty By Nature - anyone holding that apart from Puffy?) so instead I'm gonna break tradition and come with something a bit more recent.

This is a mammoth posse cut by Busta Rhymes, Maino, Red Cafe, MOP, Uncle Murda, Styles, Sheek & Lil Cease called 'March 9th'. Produced by the UK's Dready, this is probably the most fitting tribute to Biggie. It sounds like it hasn't been mastered/mixed down properly but its still great anyway - nice and rowdy and a million miles away from 'I'll Be Missing You'. Not sure if this ever came out 'officially' but if anyone has a better copy then hook me up.


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As a bonus here's the Green Lantern remix of 'Letter To BIG' by Jadakiss


Artwork by 563 (again!)

If you want an interesting read on the story behind the whole Biggie/2Pac thing, realniggatumblr got something for you.

Shout out to Mike Nice.

"Its All About The Benjamins" original unreleased mix (1996)

A few hours digging for vinyl yesterday yielded some interesting results. One of the records collecting dust in the middle of the endless copies of Ja Rule and D12 promos was this white label which includes the original version of the classic 'Its All About The Benjamins'.

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According to DJ Mike Nice this version "was released on a Bad Boy 'Shot Callers' promo tape given out at one of Puff's parties"

Wikipedia has a bit more info:
The song debuted in 1996 on DJ Clue's Holiday Holdup mixtape. This version of the song only featured Puff Daddy and the rap act The L.O.X. (excluding Styles P). The song was later added to Puffy's debut album, No Way Out, in a remix, "It's All about the Benjamins (Remix)", which added two new verses by Lil Kim and Notorious B.I.G. Lil Kim also provided the song with a chorus which the original version lacked. This version of the song also omitted the word "Hebrews" out of Jadakiss' verse, however, the word was left in on the first pressing, subsequent pressings removed the word. Additionally, when it was released on the Bad Boy's Greatest Hits Vol. I album, it retained the word. This single made it to No. 2 on the Billboard charts and its video won a Viewer's Choice award at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards show. Due to the rarity of the obscure mixtape version, the remix featured on No Way Out is often considered the song's definitive version to avoid confusion