Cuttin off wack kids...

You know how we do. I'll do the whole album if I have to. I don't need to hear Royce 5'9, Conway & Rapsody or whoever else shoehorned into this.

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AZ & Styles P 'The Hardest' (OB4ZL edit)

This is easily in my Top 10 favourite tracks of the last decade. There was 2 versions over the same Large Professor beat. One was on Styles' 'Phantom Gangster' album, and the other on AZ's 'Undeniable', and also on Large Professor's 'Main Source' album just for good measure. Obviously the only thing left to do - albeit a bit late - was to weld the two together into one continuous track.

Biggie & Jay Z - Young Gs (OB4ZL edit)

Another one of those tracks that I've edited down to my own liking. I don't really have any problem with Puffy's rapping  as he usually has the sense and money to employ a decent ghost writer, but I always thought this track went on a bit too long. Here you have it with just Biggie and Jay's verses.



In hindsight it's kind of strange that these two on a track together was just a relatively low key album track at the time but that's resulted in it having a longer shelf life. You could say that the removal of Puff puts this on an equal footing with DITC's 'Day One' (I think that dropped first but couldn't be sure - it certainly wasn't the first time a DITC creation had been jacked for a Bad Boy release). Either way, Frank White and the dude from the My Kinda Girl remix both bring their A-game here. This also serves as a reminder that there's a lot to be said for subtle choruses and relentless, nagging hooks need not always be the order of the day. Rap Purists might not not have Twitter birthday parties for No Way Out's release date anniversary, but the 3 track sequence of Young Gs, I Love You Baby and Benjamins is up there with the best of them.

Just waiting on The Martorialist to request a Puffy solo version now.

Sad news about Phife Dawg. I re-upped this ATCQ Hot 97 freestyle from 1996  if you missed it first time out.

French Montana ft Jadakiss & Method Man '88 Coupes' (OB4ZL fix up)

Having fully enjoyed French & Jada's '88 Coupes' and been pleasantly surprised by how good Method Man's recent freestyle over the Harry Fraud beat was, I thought I'd edit them together into one track...



Haven't checked Meth's new album yet. Hoping it has 2-3 decent songs worth copping as I like listening to him rap but he doesn't exactly have a great track record with his solo material. If he got someone like Harry Fraud or Alchemist (or even Black Milk) to do a few beats great things might happen.

Just had a thought that I should've obvz called this '89 Coupes' or something but I can't be bothered to re-up it.

MC Eiht 'Nuthin But The Gangsta' - solo version

The edit of Snoop's 'Afro Puffs' freestyle was what the (metaphorical internet) streets needed, so in the words of the OG of late night regional radio Alan Partridge, "people like them, lets make some more of them".
The original version of MC Eiht's 'Nuthin But The Gangster' was on his classic '94 LP 'We Come Strapped' and featured Spice 1 and Redman, with Eiht dropping a verse at either end. The beat is lovely and I've had the song in regular rotation as of late but it only recently dawned on me how damn great that last verse is and sitting through 3+ minutes to get to it ain't right. The lyrics are also pretty personal and as good as the guest spots are, that final verse deserves optimum shine so reconfiguring this song into a solo track seemed necessary. You won't find this anywhere else...



Additional thought: a version of this track featuring Scarface could've been amazing.

Snoop Dogg 'Afro Puffs' freestyle (1994) DJ Step One edit

Whilst discussing the merits of going Osborne & Cameron on certain rap songs and implementing some necessary cuts, The Martorialist suggested that Snoop's freestyle verse on the extended remix of 'Afro Puffs' could do with being liberated and made into a song in it's own right...



While we're on a Death Row tip, I'm tempted to have a crack at creating a shorter version of the Let Me Ride remix. I'm using some basic software for this though and its very much a learning curve. Any other suggestions for Austerity Rap re-works are welcome!