Thursday 3 March 2016

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.

9 comments:

  1. Yooooooooooooooooooo, thanks for sharing this one homie! Always wanted to hear the song without the annoying edits, BiG uP!!!


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  2. Yooooooooooooooooooo, thanks for sharing this one homie! Always wanted to hear the song without the annoying edits, BiG uP!!!

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  3. Since when do you need an account to download from Audiomack?! Shit is cramping my style something proper. Thanks a lot for sharing though.

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  4. Peace!
    I am AZ's manager.
    We are trying to get our hands on that LL freestyle to Keep Rising To the Top at Chuck Chill Out B Day party in 1990.

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. Peace!
    I am AZ's manager.
    We are trying to get our hands on that LL freestyle to Keep Rising To the Top at Chuck Chill Out B Day party in 1990.

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  7. no problem, I'll find it and try to upload it later today

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  8. Peace DJ Step One! I'm a huge fan. Been following you on mixcloud.

    You got any links to this to share? The description has me excited to check it out.

    Much respects,

    G

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  9. for some reason the audiomack player I embedded in the post isnt showing up. You can get it here https://www.audiomack.com/song/djstepone/firm-biz-world-famous-remix-dirty

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