Demo Week, Day 2: Outsidaz

This is a 4-track demo The Outsidaz gave me in '98. It says "Source demo" 'cause I was writing about them for The Source at the time.

The first song is "Rain Or Shine." It's the same as on the single, which had already been released before this tape was made, so we'll move right past it except to say it's a Hell of a song and if you don't have the single, you should go get it. Now onto the goodies.

You may remember "Keep On" from their album, The Bricks. It was a pretty decent track, and was even released as a single (with a "Mozart Remix"). But this song, beat-wise and lyrically-wise, blows that shit out of the water! It's faster, more hardcore, grittier, and features a lot more Outz' members (the release version only features Pace and Zee). Like Zee says (on this version only) "my clique fill up a van; Navigators be too small. To go to Outz' shows, we need a school bus and a U-Haul."

This one starts out with one of Rah Digga's tightest verses... she sounds really young here, and without that slower, more relaxed flow (yawn) she later developed. She comes with those awkward yet incredibly-fresh style The Outz were the kings of, spitting lyrics like, "i-ight, dig; I'm swifter than an airforce Mig forced to land on an off-shore rig," and brags about being "so ready to bust I got a bad case of blue balls... and rugged as I wanna be, too. Ain't no niggas in the world gonna make me wan' shoot. Fuckin' with me, you'll have war scars from four bars and get a worse flash than any Iraqi nerve gas." This one also features D.U., and Zee & Pace's verses are 100% different from the album version as well. Only the hook is similar, and even that works better over this beat and with each MC performing the hook once before passing the mic. "Keep On" on the album was ok, but this is a killer.

The next track, "Nobody" is essentially the same as the "Nobody" that appears on Pace Won's Won album (and, before that, the unreleased Pace Won Effect album), but with one crucial difference. The "mixed" version slows the whole song down. The beats, the lyrics... basically they just slowed down the completed recording of the song. Maybe they were worried people were having trouble following Pace's complex flow? I don't know; but trust me, this demo version is the only way to hear this song. Once you hear it, the album version will forever sound wrong to you. I don't know why they did this, but if you notice, almost all of the Bricks-era Outsidaz stuff is slower than their earlier indie-era material, and I think really to their detriment.

Finally, is the completely 100% unreleased song, "Brick City." Now, I know I just trashed the slowing down of their material, and I believe it to be a general truism; but this is a slower song that works. It's got a deep bassline, rough drums and a slow and low piano riff. Again, this sounds rougher and grimier than most of their later stuff, Pace Won's verse is definitely nastier than usual:

"I hope you're ready for it when we set it off lovely.
I drop a metaphor it's like every whore love me;
Wanna hold me close,
They know we smoke,
It's like we in church, now, they catch the holy ghost.
They spread their legs and I slide a greasy dick in;
My rap style's for greedy chickens,
Like easy pickin's.
Watch me like the C.I.A.
Feel my pain,
While pussies retreat, I stay;
Beef I spray.
Screamin' out my name from the Brooklyn zoo to Jersey,
Think the average rap crew can hurt me?
I do you dirty!
Savage,
Slappin' that ass with no mercy;
I can beat that ass with both hands down like six thirty!"

It features a raw verse from the underrated Yah Lovah ("the best you can do is die, battlin' is suicide; I can take out half the niggas you influenced by! What? I ruin guys. Outz, all we do is ride. Call the ambulence, I'm 'bout to put two inside!"), Young Zee braggin' about crazy drug antics ("we got hoes takin' weed down South in hair dryers. And spare tires filled up with coke in it. We got them bitches out there tryin' to sell weight to No Limit. Drug addict, since fourteen I've been on Morphene; knockin' niggas in the youth house out, high off Thorzine") and a couple other Outz members... I think maybe D.U. and Azizz, but I'm not certain.

Between this and other unreleased tracks that've been floating around the internet ("Hard Act To Follow," "Duck Huntin'," etc) The Outsidaz are sitting on a classic album (at least one!) worth of material. And I mean classic classic, like Illmatic level. If someone could get all this material released - at least the very best stuff, but preferably everything - it'd be incredible.